Zain+Ali


 * E-Commerce- Aspects, Issues and Opportunities**

The world has seen many changes over the years after and before the new millennium. The internet and the use of the World Wide Web in my opinion can be compared to being revolutionary. The concept of effectively using e-commerce could not have taken place without the World Wide Web. Most of the services provided today that involves the use of the internet are an integration of the World Wide Web. To understand the history of e-commerce, we need to first understand how and why the internet gained importance. Use of the internet gained substantial ground in North America around 1994. It took another half a decade since 1994 to have fast access to the internet through the use of cables which are also known as DSL. After extensive research, I can say with assurance that the internet through the World Wide Web made it possible for business companies large and small to communicate at a global level and provide detailed information about their services and business opportunities. Such an extensive method of communication that had a global outlook is no doubt a revolutionary change. Before the birth of the internet and the World Wide Web, the thought of being able to communicate with the whole globe so extensively was not even comprehended. New ideas and the innovation of the internet and the World Wide Web gave birth to e-commerce. E-commerce is said to be “Any on-line transaction of buying and selling where business is done via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).” (//World Net Daily, Nov 2008)//. E-commerce has become a major field with its grasp in every aspect involving retail, movement of goods, advertising etc. E-commerce in layman’s terms can defined as buying a particular product via the use of the internet. It is not as simple of a concept of simply buying a product. E-commerce contains many steps which are triggered by the first demand of a product via the internet. It contains within it an intangible infrastructure that it creates to make such a product available to be consumed by a consumer. The technical processes that take place by simply ordering a product online are a vast field of study in itself. It should be noted that though it is a useful tool in trade there are many hindrances and issues involved. One key issue which poses great challenge is the lack of trust by consumers when it comes to purchasing on-line. The concept of trust defers depending on an individual and in general is hard to define indefinitely. When we apply the concept of trust to e-commerce it has been found in many researches that consumers are hesitant to buy products which are considered expensive over the internet. Also, leading brands for example Armani, with immaculate reputations cannot portray similar aspects to the on-line world. Trust cannot be highlighted as the only factor to why such hindrances are taking place, other issues such as the shopping experience itself offered by high quality Armani stores cannot be compared to buying the same product on-line. The lack of ability to physically examine a product is also an issue that poses a disadvantage to on-line commodities. The issues mentioned in the above paragraph are serious issues and technology has not advanced to a level to curb most of them. The issue of trust however, has seen some technological innovations such as the trust engineering. “Eventually, online-trust research will lead to //trust engineering:// a reliable and repeatable means of building trust in a Web site.” ( Ofuonye, Beatty, Reay, Dick, Miller. 2008). The Canadian Instutute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) have managed to develop a program known as the Web Assurance Program that has helped furhter the security of on-line retailing. (Larson & Hall, 2000). The dynamics of e-commerce has helped in the integration of other technological innovations such as e-learning. Conventional forms for learning which involved finding articles by scholars in large books or journals is considered time consuming in today’s fast paced world where time is essential along with efficiency. E-learning has provided better accessibility and efficient solutions to such conventional forms and has made the idea of learning fast and coherent i.e. to the point. “With the advent of e-learning technologies in the past decade, the accessibility of training, teaching, and learning has drastically increased.” (Liao & Lu, 2007). Attending a brick-and-mortar facility such as a building for educational purposes is becoming more and more obsolete. E-learning has undergone technological innovations such as the e-teacher, an artificial intelligence that automatically creates a students profile by studying their behavior while taking on-line courses with the help of intelligent agents. “eTeacher observes a student’s behavior while he/she is taking online courses and automatically builds the student’s profile. This profile comprises the student’s learning style and information about the student’s performance, such as exercises done, topics studied, exam results.” (Schiaffino, Garcia, Amandi 2007.) An interesting aspect I have researched upon dealt with cultural differences that affected e-commerce in a global perspective. In other words, cultural differences can cause a barrier to e-commerce with respect to globalization. Language differences and different attitudes towards payments and merchandise can actually cause great hindrance to international trade via the internet. Many companies today looking to internationalize set these hindrances as their top priority to curb. E-commerce is an important factor of the economy for many countries. “E-commerce is one of the most visible examples of the way in which information and communication technologies (ICT) can contribute to economic growth. It helps countries improve trade efficiency and facilitates the integration of developing countries into the global economy. It allows businesses and entrepreneurs to become more competitive. And it provides jobs, thereby creating wealth.” (Kofi A. Annan 2002, Secretary-General of the United Nations). It is a precise illustration of an economic developer when used efficiently. It provides ample opportunity to a country on a global scale. Processes such as outsourcing of goods and import and export to increase the GDP level of a nation can be done through e-commerce to some extent. A certain concept that brings into light how e-commerce is providing ample opportunities to a country’s economy are trade flows. If we try to graph the trade flow statistics of different countries combined together for a global effect in the last decade, it is noticed that the graph is growing at a much faster rate compared to the previous decade (Note: the current recession is not being taken into consideration). Researchers who study this field have shown proof of connection to such a phenomenon with e-commerce. E-commerce has the capability to eliminate time and geographical distances for trade flows. Therefore, trade has become a global criteria whose borderless and can take place between any places around the world. Hence, e-commerce has given rise to a new economy which is at a global level especially in the last five years. As Clarke puts it, “Many commentators have suggested that the internet is one of the forces driving globalization.” (Clarke, 2005). Hence, in conclusion, anyone who has access to the internet and is capable of creating a demand function by purchasing something via the internet can be termed a stakeholder. This can potentially be the whole world in the near future. No single entity can claim to own e-commerce as a whole. Many multinational companies have large market shares in e-commerce, but cannot constitute a majority of the market simply because it is a global concept. There cannot be a position of a monopoly driven market. E-commerce has had a great impact on the society. It has revolutionized consumer consumption.

** Reference: **

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