Adventures In E-Commerce Essays - E-commerce, Business, Economy

Adventures In E-Commerce Adventures in E-Commerce Unless youve been living under a rock for the last two years, you have heard about e-commerce, and I bet youve heard about it from several different angles. Im sure youve heard about all the companies that offer e-commerce because youve been bombarded by their TV and radio ads. Youve read all of the news stories about the shift to e-commerce and the hype that has developed around e-commerce companies. You may have even purchased something off the web, so you have direct personal experience with e-commerce. In 1996 while surfing the web, I stumbled on an online auction site. While I found it interesting and mysterious, I didnt have any light bulbs or bells go off in my head. I didnt experience any sudden or miraculous visions, I just thought it was kind of neat site, and in fact I told a few of my friends about what I had seen. One of my friends who was just getting his own Civil War artifacts business off the ground asked me if I had seen any Civil War period items up for auction on that site. I told him that I had and he inquired if I thought he might be able to auction off certain items that he had for sale. To make a long story short, we Valdivia 2 tried it and couldnt believe the results and the success. The site that I had stumbled onto was called Ebay and today along with a multitude of other online companies like Amazon.com its one of the most talked about, highly successful e-commerce success stories around. And little did I know that when I started buying and selling items online through this auction site, I was actually taking part of a new revolution in commerce, I was actively participating in what millions of internet users are doing everyday, I was participating in the now popular term; Electronic Commerce. Electronic commerce involves a wide range of activities. In its simplest form, the goal of electronic commerce is to improve the way in which business is conducted, through technology. This could be as simple as establishing a computer-mediated relationship between consumer and business, between business and supplier, or between supplier and manufacturer. It could involve automation of existing business systems, such as transaction or manufacturing processes. On the web, electronic commerce often means marketing, and online sales. Typically there are three types of e-commerce transactions: business to business, business to consumer and consumer to consumer. It took radio 34 years to reach 50 million listeners. It took TV 13 years to reach 50 million viewers, but it only took the internet 4 years to reach 50 million users. (qtd. on E-Marketer.Com) 200 million people use the worldwide web today; 500 million will use it in less than 3 years. (qtd. In Future Magazine) Valdivia 3 Consumers are shifting their buying power in favor of the internet. Online shopping was up 330% in 1998. (qtd. In USA Today) As much as the Ice age changed the face of the earth, e-commerce is doing the same for business today. In todays business world were seeing new departments and new positions being created where ten years ago, there was no need for an Internet Technology dept. or a Chief Information Officer. Today, theyre an integral part of every successful business. Even gigantic organizations see the internet as a threat. It took Wal-Mart 12 years and 78 land stores to break $150 million in sales. AMAZON.COM did it in three years with a web site and a warehouse. (qtd. Business 2.0) In 1996 I entered the online banking world, as my nearest bank branch was on the opposite coast some 3600 miles away from me. It was intriguing and risky; people thought I was foolish trusting that my bills would be paid via computer. In 1997 I wanted a new car. After test driving the make and model I wanted but not finding the exact car I wanted, I turned to the internet rather than to drive around town checking out all the Chevrolet dealerships in the Hampton Roads area. I found what I was looking for at the Chevy.com web site. It was so simple, I chose the