WHAT IS E-COMMERCE? unit 2

What is E-Commerce

Electronic Commerce is often referred to as E-Commerce or eCommerce.
E-Commerce entails a person buying or selling products and/or services over an electronic system such as the Internet. It specifically refers to the buying and selling of goods by transferring funds from one account to another. With the rapid growth and spread of the Internet, E-Commerce has become a part of many people’s everyday lives.

There are many advantages to purchasing goods and products online;

· Someone that is housebound can get their food shopping delivered to their house via the Internet.
· Someone that is time-poor can order Christmas presents, birthday presents, food shopping etc. off of the Internet and get it delivered the next day etc.
· Someone that does not have the sufficient money to pay for petrol to pick up a product that is only stored in a certain area of the country can buy it online and get it delivered to their house.

However, there are also some disadvantages of the evolvement of the Internet leading us to be able to purchase products online;

> When a person purchases something via the Internet, they have to give a series of details about themselves and their credit card account. There have now been many unfortunate events where people’s details have been ‘taken’ and used against them. There are different forms of this crime such as phishing and identity theft.

> There have been websites that have been created which look like a website that you can purchase goods off however they have been created to scam people out of their money. They are like normal websites but instead of giving you a product after you have given the money, they take your money and do not give you your purchase. A way to determine between which websites are safe and which are whether there is an ‘S’ within the URL (https) and there should be a padlock that appears on the toolbar which states that it is a safe website.

> When purchasing products online, you may be given dimensions or sizes, but you can’t look at the actual product of try it on to see whether you really like it. This may cause more hassle if you receive it and do not like it and have to return it via post than driving to your nearest store and looking at the product yourself.

In conclusion, E-Commerce has made our lives easier as we are now able to purchase things in a method that we were never able to before. It enables us to pick exactly what we want; get it delivered when we want and it saves us the hassle of going to the shops and buying it ourselves. However, it has brought about new risks and could make your life harder if your credit card details are stolen and you need to replace your card etc.

This website is http://www.tesco.com/. It allows you to purchase anything from groceries to TV’s online. As there are many different products you can buy they have broken in down into sections and then drop down boxes whilst hovering over your preferred topic. This makes it easier for the customer to look for a specific product they need and is useful for someone that does not have a lot of time.
You have to create an account to buy a product but this is easy and not time consuming. Tesco also gives you different options of what day you wish your product/s be delivered and give time zones in which they can be delivered in between (for example 7pm-9pm). This is very useful as you can set a date a time that suits your calendar.

This website is www.jewellerycatalogue.co.uk . They sell different types of jewellery in gold and silver. The website homepage has a lot of information and links which could be confusing and found hard to navigate through. This website enables the user to click on items they wish to purchase and the website stores it in a ‘shopping basket’ for them. When finishing shopping, the customer can then click on their shopping basket and purchase their items by giving their details and credit card details. This website gives different delivery options and they each cost a different price, for example ‘for a guaranteed delivery before 9am the day after shipping is £5.95’ and ‘for shipping outside the UK it is £10’.

However the website that I have chosen to evaluate is http://www.asos.com/. This website is a clothing website for men and women. It also sells accessories and shoes. This website is very well laid out and has an easy navigation. Also purchasing a product is easy and there are step by step guides on how to do so if you are a beginner at E-Commerce.