In general electronic commerce (EC) or as it is called e-commerce is defined as commercial transactions conducted electronically on the Internet, Intranet, Extranet, World Wide Web, by email and by fax. These transactions aren’t required to have a price and include both sales and items like free downloads. All the transaction can be made on a global scale.
Simply put, e-commerce means buying and selling goods online. It also includes other types of activities related to business transactions. The latest and nearest branches of e-commerce include mobile commerce, when goods are sold using different mobile devices and Facebook commerce which provides an audience to transact business.
E-commerce involves the creation of new value business structures and business relationships between companies, their customers and suppliers.
Examples of e-commerce business
Best examples of e-commerce are: online shopping (e.g. Amazon.com), electronic payments (e.g. PayPal), online auctions (e.g. eBay), online ticketing (e.g. Ecolines) and internet banking (online bank accounts). It can be executed in two ways – business to business transactions (B2B) between traders, retailers and manufacturers on both sides, business to consumer (B2C) between businesses and consumers and between consumers (C2C), where both parties involved in transactions are creating barter-type deals. Third type of e-commerce transactions can be clearly described as auctions.
There are various ways to execute business deals: email exchange, online catalogs and digital coupons, shopping carts operating with the help of operating system software used to allow consumers to purchase goods and services as well as to easily track customers by putting together all trade aspects into one cohesive whole, File Transfer, social media marketing, targeted advertisements and other web services.
E-commerce industry brief overview
E-commerce helps to save time by speeding up the whole selling process, ensuring wider range of goods in one place, stay available around-the-clock, to find target audience, create and accept business offers and lowers transactions’ costs as well. This means that there are no barriers of time or distance while using the Net. However, it is still not possible to do some important things using this way of making business. For example, consumers as well as retailers and traders are not able to touch the goods straightway and have a tangible experience of the interested items.
Businesses started to use electronic data for sharing their deals in early 1690-s,. In 1979 the American National Standards Institute developed a universal standard for businesses to share business data through electronic networks called ASC X12. The whole industry hit the road in the 1990s with the development of amazon.com and eBay. Past 5 years are recorded to be nourishing for Internet business transactions.
According to data from the U.S. Commerce Department in 2015 Web sales made up to 341.7 billion USA dollars. E-commerce helps to keep things simple while having fewer limitations. It helps to boost the business, build up marketing automation systems, and manage sales and communication with clients and business partners remotely.
Top jurisdictions for incorporating an e-commerce company
Certain jurisdictions have some useful advantages for e-commerce businessmen and international online traders. For example, England has a mature investment and banking industry, allowing an online trade and ensuring a bridge between US market and companies looking forward to break into that market. France has a dedicated minister to digital business (Axelle Lemaire) by creating a brand (La French Tech) meant to promote French startups internationally. Germany or Berlin in particular enjoys lots of attention from famous tech multinationals such as Google Campus @ Factory. Top10 e-commerce markets by country also include China (rated 1), United States (rated 2), Japan (rated 4) and South Korea (rated 7). These ratings were made in 2014 and are based on the statistical data reflecting the amount of total online sales.