The Indian E-commerce industry: Changing dynamics

Abstract

Development in information technology and communications has led to a new revolution in the society and economy. There has been a paradigm shift in the number of internet and computer users in the world since the past couple of decades. This has given the scientists a new area to research on and integrate all the electronic systems on a common platform of internet where everything can be linked and accessed at ease. Consumers and businesses have realized the potential of this new development. Consumers now frequently use computers and internet to search for their favorite products online, get information about and it and even purchase it online. Businesses also use networks even more extensively to reach new customers, increase their sales and their own visibility and diversifying their risks by adding one more channel of distribution. The latest addition in this field is the use of social media which has been used aggressively by companies for promoting their brand. Ultimately, it may bring a revolution in the performance of the economy as was brought with the introduction of computers a generation ago. This revolution is termed as Ecommerce. Electronic commerce or Ecommerce is the latest trend in the present business world which has seen a boom since a decade and has lured many people to start experimenting with it with their startups. Ecommerce refers to an exchange of goods and services through an online platform. Any kind of business transaction that happens electronically without any kind of direct physical contact between the parties comes under the ken of Ecommerce. According to Thomas L. Mesenbourg, E-commerce is concerned with the buying and selling over the Internet and the transfer of ownership of rights to use goods and services through a computer mediated network. Though a popular definition, the recent developments in this revolutionary business phenomenon has rendered the definition insufficient to capture all the feature of Ecommerce. A more complete definition came from Emmanuel Lallana, Rudy Quimbo and Zorayda Ruth Andam: “E-commerce is the use of electronic communications and digital information processing technology in business transactions to create, transform, and redefine relationships for value creation between or among organizations, and between organizations and individuals”. Ecommerce is a different concept than Ebusiness, but many people consider then synonymously. In ecommerce, information and communications technology (ICT) is used in B2B and B2C transactions. On the other hand, in ebusiness, ICT is used to transform the organization?s processes like production processes, customer focused processes and internal management processes to deliver additional value to the customers.