Ecommerce: Potentials, Problems, And Recommendations
The online selling of goods, known as "etailing" or ecommerce, is now an almost ubiquitous sales channel available for most industries and products. From everyday grocery items to high-end electronics and everything in between, consumers can point their web browsers to Amazon, eBay, and innumerable independent store websites and purchase anything they're after. The convenience and the ease of comparing product specifications and prices in various stores are definite advantages to consumers, and the ability to reach much larger (in most cases, global) markets is a clear advantage to manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers that ecommerce confers. There are also disadvantages, though, such as increased competition for inline and brick-and-mortar businesses alike, decreased personal interaction (which can be a sales driver), and customer service complexities. Target markets for physical stores are limited by geography but supported by such interaction; global markets can be targeted by online retailers, but providing the same level of interactive service can be difficult.
Another issue facing both customers and businesses when it comes to ecommerce is the security of online transactions and information that is transmitted via the Internet. Customers can maintain strict control over their passwords and the like, but ultimately if they are going to use payment methods online they are at the mercy of the businesses they do business with;...
Companies have an obligation to take technological steps to prevent unauthorized retrieval of payment information from a variety of attacks (Mookhey, 2010). Internet security is a highly technical fields that is constantly evolving as new types of programs are used to transmit information, new types of attacks are developed to retrieve information, and new security measures are implemented, in a never-ending cycle that truly requires constant vigilance (Mookhey, 2010).
Websites like Amazon that deal with a wide array of goods from a variety of manufacturers, retailers, and independent sellers are one part of ecommerce, but many traditional stores also now have websites that serve specific company and consumer needs. Hello Books, a new and used bookstore and curio shop in Rockland, Maine, has an extensive ecommerce site that greatly strengthens its relationships with its identified stakeholders -- the owner and employee of the bookstore, the customers of the bookstore, and the community of Rockland, Maine (Hell Hello Books, 2012). Through offering most of their inventory for sale online, providing calendars of events and other information about the bookstore and Rockland, and by providing a variety of social media options that enable customers and fans to share news about the store and its offerings, this website strengthens the direct business operations…
