E-Commerce Revolutionary Era

What is E-Commerce? E-Commerce or Electronic Commerce refers to buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet. In other words, nowadays we can do various online transaction by using the internet. We can’t separate it from online shopping activities. Online shopping was invented and pioneered in 1979 by Michael Aldrich in United Kingdom. He connected a modified domestic television via a telephone line to a real-time multi-user transaction processing computer. The system was marketed beginning in 1980 and offered mainly business-to-business systems that were sold in the UK, Ireland, and Spain. In 1982, France launched the precursor to the Internet called, Minitel. The famous E-Commerce platform, Amazon established in 1994. After that, eBay founded in 1995. E-commerce systems typically include shopping cart software that tracks purchases as customers navigate the site and click “add to cart” as they go. In Indonesia, there are a lot of E-Commerce Platform too like Bukalapak, Tokopedia, Shopee, etc. In this country, e-commerce started in the 2000s.

In this era, you can be a seller or buyer at any time. The opportunity is almost limitless. You can start by registering your name, address, bank account, phone number, and you will be a seller or buyer at no time. If you want to develop your own marketplace, you can make it by yourself with WordPress using WooCommerce, or other things. The supply chain is simple. The buyer takes the order, the seller approves it, the seller sends the item, the money goes into the seller. It is easy when you’re very lazy and don’t want to leave your couch or bed. With the presence of the M-commerce, which is a mobile version of an E-commerce,  you can control any transaction with your fingertips.

There are a lot of pros by using E-commerce like it is easy when you’re lazy, or when you sick or having a bed rest, faster, cheaper, more effective and efficient and easy to do transaction anywhere at any time. But we also must consider the shortcomings too. When you register to a marketplace or E-commerce platform, the web will collect your personal data like I’ve mentioned before: Your name, address, even your phone number and your bank account. When you think you have access to their web, they already have your personal data. Therefore, they can give customer lots of promotion and advertisement that attracts you to buy items that you sometimes don’t need. It’s easy for them to buy everything they want because of the simplicity of e-commerce technology. E-commerce platform also killing the conventional store like in Indonesia, Matahari Department Store. But sometimes, conventional stores provide more comfort for us because we can see physical things, like the quality, size, and others. Also don’t forget, we don’t need any shipping cost to bring things home. Every type of shops has their advantages and disadvantages.

In my opinion, E-commerce is a good platform because it can help you up to maintain or starting a new business. It will make doing transaction easier and faster. If you want to become an entrepreneur and go into the era of e-commerce, make sure you’re not responsible for yourself profit but make a new job for people so they can also live a good life. We must use e-commerce wisely because it has a lot of shortcomings too. Be a good e-commerce user and be responsible for what are you click on with your fingertips.

By: Mikha Christevan Tanihatu & Gunawan Wang