eCommerce

Examples of e-markets include:

• Hair dressing

• Retailing

• Dental services

• Banking

Common features of e-commerce include:

• Global reach

• Product development

• 24/7 accessibility

• Economies of scale

Advantages of e-commerce include:

• There is no guarantee of product quality

• More reach to customers, there is no theoretical geographic limitations

• Mechanical failures can cause unpredictable effects on the total processes.

• Easy to start and manage a business

Disadvantages of e-commerce include:

• No need of physical company set-ups

• Customers can easily select products from different providers without moving around physically

• Any one, good or bad, can easily start a business. And there are many bad sites which eat up customers’ money

• There are many hackers who look for opportunities, and thus an ecommerce site, service, payment gateways, all are always prone to attack

Which products may not be suitable for e-commerce?

• Automobiles

• Diamonds

• Toys

• Clothes

e-commerce business conducted directly for the end-user

• B2B

• B2C

• C2C

e-commerce conducted directly for business customers

• B2B

• B2C

• C2C

e-commerce that enables customers to trade with each other

• B2B

• B2C

• C2C

Businesses that predominantly operate online without physical stores

• E-tailers

• Retailers

• Distributors

• Agents

The idea that marketers only have a short time span to gain and hold the interest of the customers

• Viral marketing

• Elevator pitch

• Word-of-mouth

• Spam time