E-commerce (alternately "Ecommerce" or "e-Commerce"), is the practice of trading products and services using the Internet and allied electronic tools and services.
e-Commerce has proved itself to be much superior to traditional commerce all over the world. It vastly reduces overheads involved in traditional commerce resulting in genuine savings and consequently lower prices for the buyer.
A powerful feature of e-Commerce is its wide, global reach. Sitting in Bangalore, for example, one can compare products from different parts of the world and based on what suits you best, you can order one product on your shopping list (say) from China and another from Mumbai, with ease. The stores that you buy from are usually open 24x7 and the time it takes to place an accurate order on the China store is just the same as what you would require for the Mumbai store.
Order tracking, cancellation, refund on returns etc. are also efficiently and accurately managed.
Another great feature about e-Commerce is that money is transferred very safely. Except for "Cash on Delivery" option and possible fraudulent use of payment cards, payments/ refunds are always made thru bank (buyer to seller and vice versa). As money is not used in physical form, pick-pocketing/ theft during the period between withdrawal and actual payment at the seller's premises is avoided, 100%. What a relief, therefore, if the amount involved is in ten thousands or lakhs!
The above are some of the key reasons why e-commerce is unbeatable compared to traditional commerce.
And surely, just as it has many pluses, e-commerce has its disadvantages too!
In e-commerce, you have to make your purchase decision after merely viewing one, or just a few photographs of the product. That's not really enough, because pictures can hide details and be misleading about quality, size and colour. In quite some cases, buyers have been disappointed by what they actually received and had to return their purchases. E-commerce is also not suitable when you necessarily have to try out a product on yourself before buying e.g. spectacle frames/ power glasses. Next, e-Commerce is not all "clean" , giving you genuine, good-quality products. There are handfuls of fraudulent sites that try to cheat you just like bad brick-and-mortar shops in your neighbourhood. Then, if you use Credit/ Debit cards to make payments, you are exposed to misuse by fraudsters.
The list of disadvantages (above) can be continued, but comparison of advantages and disadvantages of e-Commerce with traditional commerce reveals that e-Commerce clearly wins, hands-down.
I've inserted two pics below to explain how e-Commerce reduces end-prices of products that we buy. To sum it up in one sentence, savings comes from eliminating price markups (or apportioned costs) that occur in the distribution process between manufacturer/ importer and buyer - warehouse overheads (insurance against theft, fire & damage, warehouse employee salaries, security staff wages etc.), freight and so on.
In the fictitious example above, the customer saves ₹500/= (ie. 1800-1300) when he buys from an online store instead of from a nearby mall.
Hence, we can conclude that savings claimed on goods bought online (i.e. purchased from online stores like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal etc.) are GENUINE. As a result, we can also conclude that it is advantageous to buy from online stores as prices will be significantly lower.
The bottom line? e-Commerce is GOOD FOR INDIA!
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