Major Industry Trends
Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, involves the sale of goods and services via electronic means—principally over the internet, although sales via television (terrestrial, cable, and satellite) are also included. E-commerce can be further divided into the following sectors: business-to-business (B2B), business-to-government (B2G), consumer-to-consumer (C2C), government-to-business (G2B), government-to-citizen (G2C), and business-to-consumer (B2C). Retailers that rely primarily on e-commerce to sell goods or services are often referred to as e-tailers.
Retailing over the internet generally takes one of two forms:
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Cybermalls—the most famous cybermall is eBay, which offers access to products from a variety of independent retailers.
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Individual websites—most major retailers now have their own websites,
which complement their traditional “bricks-and-mortar” outlets. Some
retailers operate solely over the internet.
E-commerce
is most closely associated with the internet, and has developed in
tandem with the growth of the medium. Indeed, e-commerce initially
became possible with the opening up of the internet to commercial users
in the early 1990s. However, it wasn’t until the latter half of the
decade that companies really began to exploit the internet’s commercial
potential.
A number of start-up
companies, such as Amazon and eBay, have exploited the power of the
internet to emerge as retailing behemoths in their own right. However,
e-commerce has largely been developed by established large retailers,
which regard it as simply another sales channel. The gigantic grocery
retailers that have expanded away from food and into a wide variety of
other areas, such as clothing and electronic goods, have been
particularly quick to appreciate its potential. The medium has also
created opportunities for very small businesses.
It is now possible to buy over the internet a wide range of specialized
products that are not available in shopping malls. Thus, the internet
has provided a lifeline for many small producers, and has allowed
entrepreneurs to enter the retailing sector without the need to invest
heavily in physical retail outlets.
E-commerce
has proven so successful because it offers significant advantages to
both consumers and retailers. Consumers can compare a vast array of
retailers in a few minutes—something that it would be impossible to do
physically. Online retailers often sell products and services at a
significant discount to those offered by traditional outlets, and buying
online is convenient: consumers can make their purchases from the
comfort of their own home, and have them delivered to their door.
Furthermore, online shopping
appeals to the environmentally conscious. In March 2009, researchers at
Heriot-Watt University in the United Kingdom revealed that online shopping
is 24 times “greener” than taking the car to the shops, and seven times
“greener” than taking the bus. The researchers compared the carbon
footprint of a typical delivery from a local depot with average carbon
footprints for shopping trips by car and bus, and found that home
deliveries involved much lower levels of carbon emissions. In June 2009,
a study by the Carnegie Mellon Green Design Institute in the United
States found that shopping online can reduce “our environmental impact
by as much as 66%.”
For businesses, the
advantages of e-commerce lie mainly in the low cost of setting up and
maintaining a business. Firms do not need to invest heavily in a
physical presence, or in sales staff. However, they do have to organize
payment systems, distribution, and returns.
Industry Suitability
Undoubtedly, some industries are more suited to e-commerce than others. This type of retailing is most applicable to goods that are fairly simple, commoditized, and do not require on-the-spot input from knowledgeable sales staff. Thus, grocery retailing is ideally suited to e-commerce, whereas consumers generally need to try on clothing before they make a purchase. Equally, the penetration of e-commerce may be high in some sectors of a given market, but low in others. In financial services, for example, purchasing of insurance or a loan, both highly commoditized products, is ideally suited to the internet. However, many people prefer to buy a sophisticated financial product, such as a pension, on a face-to-face basis, as they will almost certainly require advice before making their choice. Generally, it is difficult to make online sales of sophisticated goods and services that require a large amount of advice or input from the retailer.Technological Advances
The growth of broadband internet connections around the globe has undoubtedly boosted online shopping, simply by dramatically speeding up the process of accessing websites, and buying goods. Broadband is at least ten times as fast as dial-up. Having access to broadband means that consumers are more likely to use the internet to purchase everyday items such as groceries. However, faster connection speeds also allow users to download music files, video clips, and movies, or to compete in online gaming, further boosting the potential revenues generated by e-commerce.
Traditionally,
individuals and businesses have ordered goods or services online via
computers, but the increasing availability of broadband on mobile phones
has opened up another avenue for e-tailers. Certainly, e-tailers are
now targeting the mobile phone. In April 2010, for example, the UK
online grocery retailer Ocado launched an Android app, which allows the
weekly shopping to be done on a mobile phone with voice command. Ocado
is the United Kingdom’s first supermarket to develop an app for Google’s
operating system, and allows users to search the virtual aisles by
speaking into their handset.
Surprisingly,
given that the United States is generally regarded as the most advanced
economy in the world, its broadband penetration rates are relatively
low, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD), which publishes data on the subject (see More Info).
In June 2009, the Netherlands had the highest penetration rate for
broadband, at 38.1 per 100 inhabitants, followed by Denmark with 37.0.
It was followed by Norway (34.5), Switzerland (33.8), and South Korea
(32.8). The United States was in 15th place, with a penetration rate of
26.7 per 100 inhabitants.
E-commerce is
also making increasing inroads into areas where it was thought difficult
to sell goods online. Historically, for example, it was thought
difficult to sell clothes online because shoppers could not try on the
goods. However, sites such as Asos, which targets 16 to 34-year-olds
with outfits and accessories styled on those worn by celebrities, have
shown that it is possible to successfully sell clothes online.
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