E-commerce

THUILLIEZ Zoë

28100555

FLLASH Valenciennes

L2 LEA Anglais - Espagnol

Essay : E-commerce

E-commerce brings together all commercial transactions operating remotely via electronic and digital interfaces. E-commerce essentially includes commercial transactions carried out on the Internet from different types of terminals (computers, tablets, smartphones, consoles, connected TV) on E-commerce sites (Amazon, Ebay or Etsy for exemple) or merchant mobile applications (application essentially developed by big sellers like Amazon, Inditex or Rakuten for exemple). This form of commerce, dematerialized in terms of the presentation of the offer, essentially developed from the first half of the 1990s, after the creation and deployment of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee and Roger Cailliau in 1990. Historically, E-commerce did not wait for the creation of the internet to exist. As soon as telematic networks for commercial use could be established, exchanges of information (technical, commercial or financial) took place between traders and their professional stakeholders, from the second half of the 1970s. Nowadays, E-commerce is an integral part of our daily life. This type of commerce is growing in the whole world everyday, thanks to historical events like globalization (the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide). It allows us to shop online, to have a bank online or to book a travel online for exemple. It ease our everyday lives by giving us the possibility to goods and services a way faster with just few « clicks ».

These days, 61% of the world's population uses the Internet. Among the most connected geographic areas in the world, Europe ranks first, with an Internet penetration rate of 85%, followed by North America (84%). The Asia / Oceania region, in turn, comes last with a rate of 53%, but nevertheless dominates the world e-commerce market with a market share of 44%, ahead of North America (26 %) and Europe (22%).

According to the E-commerce Foundation, e-commerce in Europe is expected to grow by 13% in 2019, reaching a turnover of 621 billion euros. This growth is partly driven by Western Europe, which accounts for 66% of sales and includes the main European e-commerce markets, namely: the United Kingdom, Germany and France. If 72% of Europeans shop online, this proportion drops to 81.4% in Western Europe. When it comes to spending by e-shopper, Northern Europe tops the list.

This interest for online commerce is partly explained by the proliferation of marketplaces which are becoming an essential channel for European online buyers like Amazon, eBay or AliExpress. While Amazon is most successful in Western and Southern Europe, eBay has many users in Northern Europe and Greece. Finally, with regard to AliExpress, the Chinese marketplace is more attractive to Internet users in Eastern Europe.

And all this only represents the beginning of E-commerce given that the internet is taking a more important place in our lives every day and is spreading more and more to the rest of the world.

E-commerce is growing and spreading thanks to new technologies and will endure in the future.

In the future precisely, like any type of commerce, e-commerce must evolve to continue.

That’s why experts tell us about new technologies that will improve relationships between the sellers and their customers, the point is to recreate the store experiment by using personal data online, such as search, page visits and purchase history, brands are transforming their online stores to best meet the needs and interests of customers. They also say that robots will invade E-commerce stores. Robots like chatbots and artificial intelligence designed to improve a customer's overall shopping experience.

There are three areas of E-commerce : online retailing (allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet), electronic markets (information systems), and online auctions (an auction which is held over the internet).

After defining the concept of E-commerce, we will see what are the main advantages and disadvantages it generates and what impact does it represent and will it represent ?

Indeed, E-commerce has a large number of advantages. The appearance of this type of trade has made it possible to considerably reduce the time to make a purchase and allows the purchase of goods and services on an international level, the borders are removed to allow trade to expand.

But some advantages are less obvious. One of them is that the start-up costs are minimal while it often takes several thousand euros to rent a traditional shop. For a traditional shop there is also the initial costs such as signs, store layout, inventory purchase, sales equipment, etc. Traditional stores must also pay the staff which cost a lot. They may also need to hire security guards if they sell valuable items. Online stores pay a maximum of 2,800 euros per year on websites like Shopify for a virtual rental that also includes a E-commerce platform, hosting, as well as other attractive benefits. Depending on the type of cyber business you run, you may not need to hire employees before you grow. If you choose dropshipping (form of E-commerce by which the seller site does not have stocks and has the final customer delivered directly by its supplier without, most often, the customer knowing), you will not have to buy bulk stock, which will allow you to realize considerable savings. Your logo will cost you less than a store sign. Your business costs are generally much lower in E-commerce. This is one of the most attractive benefits for new entrepreneurs looking to minimize their costs. One of the others benefits is the fact that online stores are always open. With your ads on different website such as social medias like Facebook or Twitter, you can attract customers at day and night. Most stores are open from 9 a.m to 7 p.m in real life, by being available around the clock, you can attract customers who would have picked up their item in store if it was open. You can also attract people with shift schedules or those who don't have time to shop in stores. For orders placed overnight, you don't need to have a night shift. Like we said before, one of the advantages is the international sale due to globalization. This facilitates the sale of goods and services both for the customer who can buy internationally and compare products from around the world to buy the one that best suits his needs, but also for the seller who therefore propose offers to the whole world. As we also said before, for customers,

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