E-COMMEERCE             MCA-IV                    2020 
          SCOPE, NEEDS AND IMPORTANCE OF E-COMMERCE 
      
     Essay on E-Commerce: 
     Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, is the buying and selling of product or service over electronic 
     systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. Electronic commerce draws on such technologies as 
     electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, Electronic Data 
     Interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. 
      
     Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at one point in the transaction‟s life-cycle, 
     although it may encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail, mobile devices and telephones as well. 
     Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchanging of 
     data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of business transactions. 
      
     Even today, some considerable time after the so called „dot com/Internet revolution‟, electronic commerce (e-commerce) 
     remains a relatively new, emerging and constantly changing area of business management and information technology. 
     There has been and continues to be much publicity and discussion about e-commerce. Library catalogues and shelves 
     are filled with books and articles on the subject. 
      
     However, there remains a sense of confusion, suspicion and misunderstanding surrounding the area, which has been 
     exacerbated by the different contexts in which electronic commerce is used, coupled with the myriad related buzzwords 
     and acronyms. 
      
     In the emerging global economy, e-commerce and e-business have increasingly become a necessary component of 
     business strategy and a strong catalyst for economic development. The integration of Information and Communications 
     Technology (ICT) in business has revolutionized relationships  within  organizations and  those  between  and among 
     organizations and individuals. 
      
     Specifically, the use of ICT in business has enhanced productivity, encouraged greater customer participation, and 
     enabled mass customization, besides reducing costs. With developments in the Internet and Web-based technologies, 
     distinctions between traditional markets and the global electronic marketplace-such as business capital size, among 
     others-are gradually being narrowed down. 
      
     The name of the game is strategic positioning, the ability of a company to determine emerging opportunities and utilize 
     the necessary human capital skills to make the most of these opportunities through an e-business strategy that is 
     simple, workable and practicable within the context of a global information milieu and new economic environment. 
      
     With its effect of leveling the playing field, e-commerce coupled with the appropriate strategy and policy approach 
     enables small and medium scale enterprises to compete with large and capital-rich businesses. On another plane, 
     developing countries are given increased access to the global marketplace, where they compete with and complement 
     the more developed economies. 
      
         Department of MCA & M.Sc.-IT, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University, Ranchi 
    E-COMMEERCE         MCA-IV                2020 
    Most, if not all, developing countries are already participating in e-commerce, either as sellers or buyers. However, to 
    facilitate  e-commerce  growth  in  these  countries,  the  relatively  underdeveloped  information  infrastructure  must  be 
    improved. 
     
     ESSAY ON THE SCOPE OF E-COMMERCE: 
    There is high scope of e-commerce in each aspect of business, at present it is in the embryonic stage but in future e-
    commerce would be the part of day to day activity of business firms. 
    Following are the marketing areas where we seek scope of e-commerce: 
     
       (i) Marketing, sales and sales promotion. 
       (ii) Pre-sales, subcontracts, supply. 
       (iii) Financing and insurance. 
       (iv) Commercial transactions – ordering, delivery, payment. 
       (v) Product service and maintenance. 
       (vi) Co-operative product development. 
       (vii) Distributed co-operative working. 
       (viii) Use of public and private services. 
       (ix) Business-to-administrations 
       (x) Transport and logistics. 
       (xi) Public procurement. 
       (xii) Automatic trading of digital goods like games, learning material, songs and music etc. 
       (xiii) Accounting and financial management. 
       (xiv) Legal advice 
        
     ESSAY ON THE NEED FOR E-COMMERCE: 
    E-commerce and e-business are not solely the Internet, websites or dot com companies. It is about a new business 
    concept that incorporates all previous business management and economic concepts. 
    As  such,  e-business  and  e-commerce  impact  on  many  areas  of  business  and  disciplines  of  business 
    management studies: 
    1. Marketing: 
    Issues of online advertising,  marketing  strategies,  consumer‟s  behavior  and  cultures.  One  of  the  areas  in  which  it 
    impacts particularly is direct marketing. In the past this was mainly door-to-door, home parties and mail order using 
    catalogues or leaflets. 
    This  moved to telemarketing  and  TV  selling  with  the  advances  in  telephone  and  television  technology  and  finally 
    developed into e-marketing spawning „e-CRM‟ data mining and the like by creating new channels for direct sales and 
    promotion. 
    2. Computer Sciences: 
    Development of different network and computing technologies and languages to support e-commerce and e-business, 
    for example linking front and back office legacy systems with the „web based‟ technology. 
     
     
        Department of MCA & M.Sc.-IT, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University, Ranchi 
    E-COMMEERCE         MCA-IV                2020 
    3. Finance and Accounting: 
    On-line banking; issues of transaction costs; accounting and auditing implications where „intangible‟ assets and human 
    capital must be tangibly valued in an increasingly knowledge based economy. 
    4. Economics: 
    The impact of e-commerce on local and global economies, understanding the concept of a digital and knowledge-based 
    economy and how this fits into economic theory. 
    5. Production and Operations Management: 
    The impact of on-line processing has led to reduced cycle times. It takes seconds to deliver digitized products and 
    services electronically; similarly the time for processing orders can be reduced by more than 90 per cent from days to 
    minutes. 
    Production  systems  are  integrated  with  finance  marketing  and  other  functional  systems  as  well  as  with  business 
    partners and customers. 
    6. Production and Operations Management: 
    Moving from mass production to demand driven, mass customization customer pull rather than the manufacturer push of 
    the past. Web based Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP) can also be used to forward orders directly to 
    designers and/or production floor within seconds, thus cutting production cycle times by up to 50 per cent, especially 
    when manufacturing plants, engineers and designers are located in different countries. 
    In sub-assembler companies, where a product is assembled from a number of different components sourced from a 
    number of manufacturers, communication, collaboration and coordination are critical so electronic bidding can yield 
    cheaper components and having flexible and adaptable procurement systems allows fast changes at a minimum cost so 
    inventories can be minimized and money saved. 
    7. Management Information Systems: 
    Analysis, design and implementation of E-business systems within an organization; issues of integration of front-end and 
    back-end systems. 
    8. Human Resource Management: 
    Issues of on-line recruiting, home working and „intra- pruners‟ working on a project by project basis replacing permanent 
    employees. 
    9. Business Law and Ethics: 
    The different legal and ethical issues that have arisen as a result of a global „virtual‟ market. Issues are copyright laws, 
    privacy of customer information, and legality of electronic contracts. 
     
     IMPORTANCE OF E-COMMERCE: 
    Today, we can see e-commerce is becoming a part of study of almost all the courses in management and commerce. It 
    is an integral part of any book or manuscript that is written on retailing, and it claims a significant share in this text also. 
    The reason behind this lies in the fact that e-commerce technology is different and more powerful than any of the other 
    technologies we have seen in the past century. 
    While these other technologies transformed economic life in the 20th century, the evolving Internet and other ITs will 
    shape the 21st century in many ways. The foremost of these is the rise of a sizeable class of Internet-habituated 
    consumers, and then is the creation of an ecosystem essential for e-tailing‟s growth. In India‟s case, both these factors 
    are poised to fall into place rapidly. 
     
        Department of MCA & M.Sc.-IT, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University, Ranchi 
    E-COMMEERCE         MCA-IV                2020 
    Prior to the development of e-tailing, the process of marketing and selling goods was a mass- marketing and/or sales 
    force-driven process. Consumers were considered as passive targets of advertising (promotional) “campaigns,” and 
    branding  blitzes  were  intended  to  influence  their  long-term  product  perceptions  (brand  positioning)  and  immediate 
    purchasing behavior. 
    Selling was conducted in typical well-insulated “channels.” Consumers were viewed to be trapped by geographical and 
    social boundaries, unable to search widely for the alternatives with best price and quality. Information about prices, 
    costs, and tariffs could be hidden from the customers to get the resultant profitable “information asymmetries” for the 
    selling firm. 
    Here, information asymmetry means any disparity in relevant market information among parties in a transaction. E-
    commerce has challenged much of these traditional retail business norms, assumptions, and behavior. 
     
     
        Department of MCA & M.Sc.-IT, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University, Ranchi