Ecommerce

Electronic commerce, or more commonly known as ecommerce, refers to the practise of buying, selling, marketing and servicing of products or services over computer networks, and in recent times, even via mobile phones. This includes businesses selling and communicating with other businesses through electronic networks, in addition to the main and popular practice of direct trade between an individual and a business.

Ecommerce allows trade to cut through the boundaries of time and geography by bringing the seller and customer in virtual contact with each other in real time, irrespective of their location in the world. From a seller’s point of view, ecommerce provides him with a worldwide audience at a relatively insignificant cost. For a buyer, it provides the convenience of buying almost anything he wants with just a few clicks of the mouse, and hence saving him precious time and energy that he would require if had to do the same by traditional “over the counter” methods. Due to these factors, ecommerce has seen a tremendous growth over the last ten years or so, and in some cases has even overtaken earning from more traditional sales methods.

The aim of this report is to highlight the impact that new technologies like the internet have had, and continue to have in the exponential growth of ecommerce. It will discuss the impact that ecommerce has on the global retail economy, and will elaborate on the main factors that