I. Introduction
The Internet has become necessary technology for people's lives, and it affects people in many ways. Have you ever thought about how your lives have changed since you started using the Internet? Before the Internet, you had to go to the post office to send your letters and postcards. You had to spend a half day to look for some books or research that you wanted from the library. Also, you had to go shopping at the malls if you wanted to buy something. Nevertheless, you had to spend money for the telephone bill for talking two hours with your old friends. At present, you have no need to wait in line at the post office or bank because you can do almost everything via the Internet. You can chat the whole night with your old friends via the Internet. Moreover, you can buy many things via the Internet which you call E-Commerce or Electronic Commerce.
For many thousand of years, commerce means the exchange of goods from one place to another. Likewise, E-Commerce means the exchange of goods over the World Wide Web. At present, a lot of people around the world are using E-Commerce for buying things. This research will focus on E-Commerce and how to start using E-Commerce for business.
II. What is E-Commerce?
Electronic Commerce which is called E-commerce is the exchange of goods and products over the World Wide Web. The Website, MSN Encarta (2004, Para. 1), states the following about commerce:
“Commerce, exchange of goods that must be transported from one place to another. In ancient times, transporting commodities over any significant distance was an expensive and risky enterprise. This restricted commerce mainly to local markets. As transportation networks improved, commerce expanded considerably. Today commerce takes place between neighboring households, between neighboring cities, and between neighboring continents. Reliable international shipping, mail services, and the Internet enable commerce between people in any location in the world.”
E-Commerce can be traded between customer to business or business to business. Shoppers are able to search and make an order of variety for products and services from the Websites and do the transaction over the internet. Moreover, they can check their package status.
The eCommerce Guidebook (2004, para. 1) says about how does E-Commcerce work as follows:
"The consumer moves through the internet to the merchant's web site. From there, he decides that he wants to purchase something, so he is moved to the online transaction server, where all of the information he gives is encrypted. Once he has placed his order, the information moves through a private gateway to a Processing Network, where the issuing and acquiring banks complete or deny the transaction. This generally takes place in no more than 5-7 seconds.There are many different payment systems available to accommodate the varied processing needs of merchants, from those who have a few orders a day to those who process thousands of transactions daily. With the addition of Secure Socket Layer technology, eCommerce is also a very safe way to complete transactions."
Therefore, E-Commerce is the trade between customers to business or business to business by doing all activities via the Internet. So, the Internet is the important tool for E-Commerce.
III. Why E-Commerce is Playing an Important Role in Business?
At present, the Internet is very important for people's lives. Not only it is the easy way to do many things, but it can help you buy the things you want online. You can get benefit from shopping online. For example, it helps you save your time for going outside, and sometimes you can save more than shopping from the department stores. Moreover, you can go shopping all over the world without going anywhere but your home. You can buy almost anything such as books, music online, CD, DVD, clothing, and electronic devices. The Internet is important, so businesses tend to build e-commerce for their customers. There is no reason not to use the Internet to help your business develop. The Website, Federal Trade Commission (2000, para. 1) states that:
"Consumers around the world are increasingly turning to their computers to buy a wide array of goods and services. And because the World Wide Web is, as its name implies, worldwide, businesses that sell online can potentially reach billions of customers in every country of the world. Even small "mom-`n-pop" companies with websites are attracting a client base never before possible. Many are discovering just how international the Internet really is, processing orders not only from the next town or state, but from the next continent, too. That presents new challenges to sellers who have never shipped overseas and may have little experience with the taxes, duties and customs laws involved."
From the survey result (Chaichao, 2004), 67.75% of respondents do shopping online. Moreover, fifteen respondents from twenty four respondents say that shopping online is cheap and convenience. This shows that the most important reasons for shopping online are price and convenience. Some respondents of the survey (Chaichao, 2004) say the following:
"Cheap, fast, can order items from home and compare the prices on the websites."
"It is very easy and there are many things to choose."
To conclude, E-Commerce is playing an important role in business because shoppers tend to buy products online more and more. The important reasons that shoppers buy products online are price and convenience. This makes businesses have to conduct E-Commerce in their businesses. In addition, in a recent interview (Hong, 2004), a University student explains why he does shopping online. Click HERE to listen to the interview. From this interview we can conclude price and convenience are important reasons of shoppers for shopping online.
IV. How to Set Up E-Commerce for Your Business?
First of all, you have to think about why do you want to sell your products online. All companies think the same thing: they want to have more growth sale and more profit. In addition, the Internet is the thing that everyone from all over the world can reach. E-Commerce is another place that you can sell your products easily.
Second, you have to think what you want to sell through the Internet. You have to conduct a survey which can tell you that what kind of products customers are interested in the most. According to Holden (2001, p. 8), it takes sometime to consider the two important things for selling products online: which are products have to be easy to ship and also easy to describe the information of that product. The product that you want to sell online should be easily ship; otherwise you will have a lot of cost that you have to pay for shipping expenses. That would make you receive less profit or maybe suffer a loss instead. Moreover, if you ask your customer to pay for the high shipping cost, your customer has no reason to buy online from your company.
In regards to a recent survey Chaichao, 2004), 37.73% of the respondents bought books and music online. This can show that shoppers like to buy products which are easy to ship. Kalakota and Robinson (2001, p. 95) also remark that "new companies are emerging to meet the needs of the digital-music download business," and "MP3, a San Diego-based company, offers about 250,000 songs from 40,000 artists---mostly regional and lesser-known acts---for free downloading at its Web site."
They also state about Digital-Music Industry as follows:
Old Music Industry
Few Artists
Album $1 > CD $.50 > Record Company $9 > Distribution $1 > Retail $5 > Customer pays $16-17
New Music Industry
Many Artists
Album $3.00 & Song $.30 > E-commerce Website $7 $ Song $.70 > Internet > Customer pays $10 for album & for song $1
So, you have to think what you want to sell online. You have to think that your products are easy to ship and you can explain your products information through the Internet or not. The above example is the example of the products which are easy to ship and easy to explain their information like music online.
Finally, you have to know your customer. As a general rule for doing business, you have to get to know where your customers are. Then, you have to focus on them and look for the way to reach them. You can conduct market research help you. In his book, E-Commerce Essentials, Holden (2001, p. 23) explains to the followings:
"But if you don't know who your customers are, you may never entice them to open their pocketbooks. Do your own market research by scouring the Internet to find your customers online and get acquainted with their needs and shopping habits. Use their information to determine who is most likely to purchase your goods and services by doing some market research."
In conclusion, if you want to conduct E-Commerce in your business, you have to know why you want to sell your products online, what you want to sell online, and where your customers are.
V. Conclusion
Nowadays, the Internet and E-Commerce are become more and more important to people’s lives. Businesses tend to conduct E-Commerce in their businesses. Trading over the World Wide Web is a sensitive matter for both customers and businesses because of the customers’ personal information. If you are the one who want to have E-Commerce in your business, please consider not only your benefit but your customers’ advantage as well. There are many things that you have to consider about if you want to do business through the Internet. So, both customers and businesses have to be careful with all information you have or all information you give.
References
Websites
MSN Encarta. (2004). Encyclopedia Article. Retrieved November 25, 2004, from World Wide Web: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761574328/Commerce.html#p14.
The eCommerce Guidebook. (2004). Ecommerce Tutorial Introduction. Retrieved December 1, 2004, from World Wide Web: http://www.online-commerce.com/tutorial.html.
Books
Holden, G. (2001). E-commerce Essentials. Washigton: Microsoft Press
Kalakota, R. & Robinson M. (2001). e-Business 2.0 Roadmap for Success. New Jersey: Pearson Education Corporate Sales Division
Online Survey and Interview
Chaichao, C. (2004). E-Commerce Retrieved October 3, 2004, from the World Wide Web: http://www.createsurvey.com/cgi-bin/graph?s=21703&m=txPG6G.
Hong, S. K. (2004). Personal interview, Salt Lake City, Utah.
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