E-commerce and Why it Succeeded

E-commerce is the use of the internet to do transaction of buying or selling. It started in 1995 and grew exponentially since. Uses of e-commerce revolutionize the process in business, because of its efficiency and simplicity. Internet as a commercial medium provides global reach, personalization, interactivity, etc. E-commerce usually consist of three major types, business to consumer, business to business, consumer to consumer.

The success of E-commerce is no coincidence either, there are many reason for its success. One of the reason for the success is that internet has become a technological standard in the world, so it is readily available almost everywhere and accessible by anyone. Its user base is in the billions, which can be translated to become a potential client for businesses. There’s also the information availability to all participant, which help user to get a greater price transparency.

Something that e-commerce excel at that normal commerce don’t  is that e –commerce have something called digital goods. Those digital goods are goods that doesn’t come in a “physical form” so these goods is delivered over network, for example games, music tracks, software, books, etc. These products has low to none delivery cost, and can reach global customer. The cost of producing the product is almost entirely cost of product. That is why e-commerce is so successful and why it become a revolutionary in the business model.

By: Steven Edra Wainas & Gunawan Wang