Impact of E-Commerce in Indian Scenario

INTRODUCTION

Electronic commerce, most commonly called as E-commerce, is trading in products or services using internet. Electronic commerce touches upon various areas such as mobile commerce, retail trade, electronic funds transfer, health, education, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, transport, inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Electronic commerce is bringing in revolution in the market structure by transforming the business models of a firm and changing the perception of relationship amongst the market actors. Even though it is a new concept, it has the capability of bringing changes in the traditional form of economic activities. In short, it can be defined as conducting business transactions in an electronic format. These business transactions occurs business-to-customers, customer-to-consumer, consumer-to-business or business-to-business. E-Commerce plays a vital role in the economic growth and contributes to the development of a nation. It is a deliberate activity which involves planning, organising, controlling, marketing and also distribution of goods and services to the widespread population.

This research study is based on both Primary and Secondary data. Primary data is obtained by conducting survey among the users of E-Commerce and the secondary data is obtained from the National and International Research Articles and Journal related to E-Commerce.

1. To understand the concept of E-Commerce. 2. To study the E-Commerce Business Models. 3. To study the impact of E-Commerce. 4. To analyse the pros and cons of E-Commerce to business, Customers and Society.

The first step in understanding the concept of e-commerce is to identify the ecommerce models. Depending on the market actors involved in the business transaction, e-commerce can be classified into below mentioned 4 models:

Business transactions conducted directly between a business organisation and consumers who are the ultimate users of its products or services is known as B2C.

Business-to-business (B2B) refers to the occurrence of business transactions between the business entities such as manufacturer and a wholesaler, manufacturer and a retailer, or between a wholesaler and a retailer etc.

consumers. Under this model, one customer directly carries out transactions with another customer. For example sites like Ebay, OLX etc.

4) C2B (CONSUMER-TO-BUSINESS)

Under this business model, individual customers are the sellers and the business organizations are the buyers. In this transaction, the consumers decide the price of a product instead of the supplier.

a) Borderless Marketplace – With the introduction of E-Commerce, the concept of Market place has become borderless as it has crossed the national and international boundaries. Business can now have access to customers all over the world. b) Cost effective - The cost involved in creating, processing, distributing, warehousing and retrieving paper-based information has reduced. c) Tailor made services and products - E-commerce has changed the way consumers buy products and services. This process allows for customization of products and services as per the requirements and needs of customers. Now customers can configure services and products according to their specifications within less time. d) Lower Set-up Cost – E-commerce allows the business to reduce the costs spent on setting up the stores and maintaining the same. f) No more 24-hour-time Constraints - Businesses can conduct their activities without time and place constraints. g) Price War- Through E-commerce, products are displayed online along with the competitors‘ offers for the similar products. This affects the retailers negatively as the sales will be distributed among the competitors also.

CUSTOMERS

a) 24/7 Access – Through E-Commerce, customers are able to shop 24/7 from any b) Wide range of Choice- Customers can choose from a wide range of products and sellers without visiting the physical stores. c) Price Comparisons - Customers can easily compare the [prices of products and services through multiple websites and can choose wisely. d) Door Step Delivery – E-commerce has enabled doorstep delivery services to its customers because of which the customers need not have to visit the stores and thereby save the time. e) Intervening Privacy – Retailers can collect customers information about the visitors to their websites through cookies for their advertisements. This intervenes the privacy of the customers. f) Security – Online transactions may not be secured if the websites do not comply with the necessary security measures. This might give rise to fraudulent activities

A survey was conducted to know the perception of consumers on E-commerce in which 53 respondents gave their opinion which are as follows: Graph 1 Analysis: Graph 1 depicts that out of 53 respondents 32 of them opted that they are E-Commerce users. This portrays that majority people use E-Commerce.

Analysis: Graph 2 projects that majority of the E-commerce users are aged under 18 years which means young population prefer E-commerce over the others.

Analysis: Graph 3 shows that female population make use of E-commerce more than the male population.

Analysis: Graph 4 depicts that majority of the respondents use E-commerce less than once in a month and not very frequently.

Analysis: Graph 5 says that the 54.72 of the respondents buys products other than apparels, electronic gadgets and households online.

Analysis: Graph 7 focuses that out of 53 respondents 24 of them prefer online shopping due to the ease of accessibility and door step delivery. This can be taken as major advantage of online shopping.

Analysis: Graph 8 depicts that the major drawback of E-Commerce is due to factors other than bad quality of products, delay in delivery of products and difficulties in online payments. However online retailers should concentrate more on delivering quality products to customers to ensure greater customer satisfaction.

a) Flexible Work Environment -This has enabled the employees to work remotely and thereby enhancing the quality of Work life. This is the major step toward a happy and less stressful society. b) Connectivity- It connects the people throughout the world irrespective of their national boundaries and thereby integrating the society. c) Improvement in Public Services – Various public services like health services, consultation services are available online to the society, which provide easy accessibility to the public services.

E-commerce has become an inseparable part of business world. The concept of World Wide Web has a great impact on the society. It can conduct any type of business using internet. Much advancements have been taken place in the field of E-commerce. In India, it has greatly affected the traditional business system and has changed the lifestyle of the society by making business easier. E-commerce has a lot of impacts on business, customers and society. It is cost effective, easily accessible, enables customisation and ease to both customers and business, low setup cost, improvement in public services, etc. At the same time there are various drawbacks with respect to reliability, security and privacy issues, difficulties in reaching the wide range of social divisions, etc. However, every concept will have its own advanrages nad disadvantages.It is important to make use of all the advantages in an optimum manner and reduce the wastages by overcoming all the disadvantages.

http://www.granthaalayah.com www.whatis.com/ecommerce https://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/Qki5O6z65UAXh4TOWRSbKxCOrNOa1usysnM0BCP0kZvbqlJDmEoaJE_2FDAzfDP_2FAI Subramani, Mani, and Eric Walden. "The impact of e-commerce announcements on the market value of firms." Laudon, K. C., and Traver, C.G. Introduction to Ecommerce: business. technology society. Fifth Edition Nanehkaran, Y. A. (2013). ―An Introduction to Electronic Commerce‖. International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research World Trade Organization. ―E-commerce in developing countries: Opportunities and challenges for small and medium-sized enterprise https://www.eyerys.com/articles/types-e-commerce-modelss

M.Com, PGDBA, NET, KSET, Lecturer in Commerce, Seshadripuram Composite PU College, Bangalore