E-Commerce

Electronic commerce, also known as e-commerce, refers to the buying and selling of products and services over the Internet.  Examples of this are Amazon.co.uk, Ebay and play.com.  There are also other websites that started their business in a building and then expanded their business onto the Internet. This is known as ‘Brick and Click’.  The brick is their building and the click is their website.

Advantages of E-Commerce

• You can do it in the comfort of your own home
• No Need to travel
• Saves Time
• No Queues
• You can do it 24/7
• Price comparison
• No carrying of shopping
• Convenience of delivery to your door
• Online Offers
• Cheaper Online
• Customer product reviews
• Save your buying history
• Wide variety of stock

Disadvantages of E-Commerce

• Hacking
• Security risks
• No guarantee of product quality
• You pay for postage and packing
• Cant pay with cash
• You have to wait for the delivery
• Some people don’t trust using their personal details on the Internet or spending money on the Internet

In my opinion, I think E-commerce is a very good idea.  I use websites like Amazon all the time to buy what I need, whether it’s the latest Xbox game or text books for school.  It makes peoples lives easier because they do not have to go around a shop looking for a product, which could be out of stock anyway.  Using E-commerce you can do lots more things that will save you time compared to going to shops and banks.  I can see why some people do not like E-commerce because if something did go wrong due to hacking, then the consequences could be severe, but most people see this as a tiny risk to take when you have access to a vast array of products on retail websites and easy to use bank websites that make money tasks easy.  Overall, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages and it is becoming more and more popular as more companies are expanding onto the Internet.