Impact of E-commerce on Today's Business

This analysis evaluates the influence of E-commerce on today’s business activities, presenting a case study on Amazon Inc. The global trends of applying E-commerce facilities in business procedures and the various methods of application of E-commerce facilities in Amazon has had a positive as well as negative impact. The positive outcomes of such facilities outweigh the negatives thereby leading to a steady growth of E-commerce facilities, with necessary innovations to curb its problems.

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IMPACT OF E-COMMERCE ON TODAY’S BUSINESS
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Introduction
The concept of E-commerce entails the buying and selling of services and goods
through electronically operated means such as the Internet (Laudon and Traver 2016). The
scope of E-commerce involves the utilization of technologies like mobile commerce,
management of supply chains, internet marketing, electronically induced funds transfer and
data collection and interchange. Due to the easy accessibility of E-commerce facilities,
business organizations over the world have resorted to its use to enhance their ability to reach
out to the consumers. The significant objective of this analysis is to evaluate the influence of
E-commerce on today’s business activities, presenting a case study on Amazon Inc.
Discussion
Global trends of E-commerce in business
Until recent times, business organizations and their customers over the world relied
on the accessibility of physical markets for selling and buying products and services.
However, with the introduction of E-commerce facilities, the business entities are able to
globalize and expand to various customers and local operatives situated across the world
(Aydın and Savrul 2014). This has not only enhanced their productivity but also their
profitability.
With the emergence of technological advancements, sales through E-commerce
facilities has shown an overwhelming amplification. For example, Amazon Inc. has emerged
as one the largest E-commerce business organizations in the world. The global trends of
applying E-commerce facilities in business procedures has offered various advantages to the
organization and its target groups (Meeker 2018). These advantages include the following
aspects:

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 Personalized experiences – Deliverance of navigation facilities, personalized search-
results for individuals, location targeting and recollection of previous marketing
experiences are some of the advances that can be seen in Amazon Inc.
 Automation services – Recent global trends of E-commerce automation involves the
use of software for automatic execution of complicated processes through creativity
and experimentation on provided data (Chao 2016).
 Improved shipping options – To ensure an optimization of customer satisfaction,
business organizations have resorted to e-commerce facilities for improved shipping
options. E-commerce facilities provided by Amazon prevent manual errors and ensure
fast delivery of products and services.
 Augmented reality to visualize products – The trends of using augmented reality has
given the scope of product visualization, thereby ensuring customer satisfaction for
the business organizations (Pantano, Rese and Baier 2017). For example, the
specifications of cosmetic products like lipsticks sold by Amazon can be visualized
using a color testing option.
Application of E-commerce in business
The use of E-commerce in business can be segmented into business-to-customer and
business-to-business trading. Amazon Inc. engages in business-to-customer trading. There are
several other applications of E-commerce like:
 Wholesale and retail – This includes the buying and selling of services and products
over electronically induced mediums available through internet, for example, the
online shopping facilities provided by Amazon.
 Marketing – Collection of data about preferences and consumer behaviors can be
performed through E-commerce facilities, thereby enhancing the business
organization to strategize the price and features of products (Chaffey and Allen 2015).

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 Finance – E-commerce facilities are used in finance organizations to aid the
customers to perform several functions like checking balance or transferring money.
 Manufacturing – Supply chains in organizations have made use of E-commerce
facilities to facilitate the selling and buying of products and services within stipulated
time-periods with accuracy and efficiency.
 Entertainment – Application of E-commerce facilities in organizations has induced
interactivity with customers and aided in providing entertainment solutions like video
cataloguing and online discussions.
Positive Impact
With an increased demand for E-commerce facilities, business organizations like
Amazon have resorted to the use of electronic means to improve their profitability and
productivity. In this aspect, E-commerce has a positive influence on business in the following
ways:
 Convenience and accessibility – E-commerce has enhanced the convenience of the
customers through online facilities provided by organizations like Amazon.
 Expansion of customer-base – The easy accessibility of E-commerce facilities have
led to the expansion of customer-base for the business organizations like Amazon
throughout the world.
 Cost effectiveness – E-commerce facilities have decreased the cost incurred by
business organizations in managing inventories for products, through automation and
efficient delivery chains.
 Competence – E-commerce has also enhanced the formulation of marketing strategies
through provisions of online mediums to reach out to the customers. This has also
facilitated success in international competition.

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 Customer satisfaction – Efficiency in delivery systems, automation and augmented
reality provided by E-commerce organizations like Amazon has induced customer
satisfaction. The customers in turn can provide reviews and ratings, building the brand
image for business organizations (Jiang, Jun and Yang 2016).
Negative Impact
Apart from the positive impacts of E-commerce on business, there are certain
negative impacts that have emerged from its application. These challenges can be listed as
below:
 Privacy and security – E-commerce requires the customers to provide personal
information like their residential address and bank account details, which can become
accessible to third-party interventions thereby risking the security of the customers.
Moreover, E-commerce facilities used by Amazon also infringe upon their privacy as
these online sites create databases on customers to track their preferences and
consumption patterns.
 Price wars – E-commerce marketing can become extremely competitive for business
organizations that are not well established or have a brand image inferior to those of
the industry giants (Cui and Pan 2015). Such cases can lead to price wars among
retailers thereby reducing their profitability.
 Complaints and returns – Customer satisfaction is a primary scope of E-commerce
facilities utilized by business organizations. However, to ensure this, companies like
Amazon often have to cater to complaints raised by customers regarding delivery
systems or product quality. Amazon also facilitates the customers to apply for returns,
which in turn hampers the productivity and profitability of business firms. Return
policies provided by such E-commerce agents disrupt the business procedures in
small-scale industries and causes problems in management.

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Conclusion
In the age of globalization, E-commerce has emerged to be an essential in business
operations throughout the world. The presence of online marketing systems like Amazon Inc.
provide automation of services that has become a global trend. The various methods of
application of E-commerce facilities in Amazon has had a positive as well as negative
impact. The positive outcomes of such facilities outweigh the negatives thereby leading to a
steady growth of E-commerce facilities, with necessary innovations to curb its problems.

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References
Aydın, E. and Savrul, B.K., 2014. The relationship between globalization and e-commerce:
Turkish case. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 150, pp.1267-1276.
Chaffey, D. and Allen, R., 2015. Managing Digital Marketing in 2015. Smart Insights.
Chao, K.M., 2016. E-services in e-business engineering. Electronic Commerce Research and
Applications, 16, pp.77-81.
Cui, M. and Pan, S.L., 2015. Developing focal capabilities for e-commerce adoption: A
resource orchestration perspective. Information & Management, 52(2), pp.200-209.Jiang, L.,
Jun, M. and Yang, Z., 2016. Customer-perceived value and loyalty: how do key service
quality dimensions matter in the context of B2C e-commerce?. Service Business, 10(2),
pp.301-317.
Laudon, K.C. and Traver, C.G., 2016. E-commerce: business, technology, society.
Meeker, M., 2018. Internet trends 2018.
Pantano, E., Rese, A. and Baier, D., 2017. Enhancing the online decision-making process by
using augmented reality: A two country comparison of youth markets. Journal of Retailing
and Consumer Services, 38, pp.81-95.

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