Pros and Cons of E-Commerce

Pros and Cons of E-Commerce

Electronic commerce or e-commerce involves the buying and selling of products or services over the internet. Put simply, e-commerce means conducting business online. E-commerce software programs run the main functions of an e-commerce web site, including product display, online ordering, and inventory management. This software resides on a commerce server and works in conjunction with online payment systems to process payments. E-Commerce can help a small business off to a great start or can make it fizzle into bankruptsy. It can have a positive and negitive impact on the success of a small business.

There are many pros to e-commerce. One factor is that e-commerce provides service and performance by offering a user-friendly experience. In a regular business, the retailers may have to go some way before achieving such a responsive goal. E-Commerce also provides an attractive website. The colors, graphics, and animation can help an e-commerce site become successful. The website can also influence the customers to purchase and return. Promotions, coupons, and discounts increase the chances for a customer to use the site more frequently. Websites can provide the customers with personal attention. The customer can personalize the website to better fit their likes and remove their dislikes. Purchase suggestions and personalized special offers can most of the time substitute person to person interaction. Personalized websites allows the customer to help themselves. A self-serve site helps the customer by making the site easy to use without assistance. These are a few of the major factors that can make e-commerce the right thing for a small business.

Though not all parts of e-commerce can make a small business soar to the Fortune 500. There are some cons to using e-commerce as an small business endeavor. One major con is the failure to understand the customers and why and how they buy. Retailers who do not understand customer habits, expectations, and motivations can have trouble selling a sound value product. Failure to co-ordinate is yet another con. If existing reporting and control relationships do not suffice, one can move towards a flat, accountable, and flexible structure, which may or may not aid co-ordination. Failure to obtain senior management commitment can often result in a failure to gain sufficient corporate resources to accomplish a task. It helps to get

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