E-commerce and Accounting: Issues, Integration, and Future Trends

This report delves into the multifaceted relationship between e-commerce and accounting, providing a comprehensive overview of critical issues and emerging trends. It begins by outlining the key considerations for accountants developing e-commerce sites, emphasizing the importance of selecting the right platform, supporting guest checkouts, ensuring robust security, optimizing site performance, and implementing responsive design. The report then explores approaches to integrating various components within an e-commerce system, such as data synchronization and the use of share plug-ins for social media engagement. Furthermore, the report analyzes the transformative potential of blockchain technology in the accounting field, highlighting its ability to enhance asset ownership clarity, reduce ledger reconciliation costs, and potentially disrupt the financial sector. The report concludes by summarizing the discussed concepts, emphasizing the importance of staying informed about the evolving landscape of e-commerce and accounting.

Running head: E-COMMERCE 1
Issues for accounting and e-commerce
Name:
Institution Affiliation:

E-COMMERCE 2
Introduction
In this essay, it will discuss issues related to accounting and e-commerce. The essay will identify
and describe general consideration for the accountant in developing e-commerce sites,
approaches to integrating e-commerce, XBRL reporting, web site development and social media.
Additionally, it would identify and describe distinct ways which blockchain technology could
change accounting in future.
General consideration for accountants in developing an e-commerce site
The various considerations by accountants in developing an e-commerce site are as follows;
The accountants’ needs to consider the right platform, various organizations require different
platforms (Guragai, Hunt, Neri & Taylor, 2015). The accountants need to be careful when
choosing the right platform because the wrong choice of the platform could lead to loses in the
organization. Another consideration is the support to the guest checkouts (Guragai, Hunt, Neri
& Taylor, 2015). They need to ensure that the site can enable the customer to create an account
that enables them to make a purchase. Another issue to consider is security. The site needs to be
encrypted to secure their data. According to International Accounting standards requirements,
customer information should be kept secure all the time. The accountants should also ensure that
the site can optimize its performance. In case the site is slow business will lose the customers
(Guragai, Hunt, Neri & Taylor, 2015). The last consideration is in responsive design. The site
should be accessible and usable to every device and this will ensure the success of the business.
Approaches to integrating various components to the system

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Integrating various components such as e-commerce, XBRL reporting, web site development,
and the social media will entail different approaches these are: data synchronization- this
approach ensures the data has been integrated to the system (Laudon & Traver, 2013). Another
approach is the use of share plug-in to the product pages. This approach ensures there is
increased visibility and engagement in the social media and this will help generate income
around a particular product page (Laudon & Traver, 2013). Another approach is through back-
end synchronization aimed at ensuring the information is secure when uploaded to the server.
How blockchain technology will change accounting in the future
The blockchain is fundamentally an accounting technology (Anderson, 2016). The technology is
more concerned on the transfer of ownership of the assets and maintaining accurate ledgers to
the financial data (Anderson, 2016). This technology has the potential to upend the financial
sector since it may undergo disruptive changes. For the accountants who are using blockchain, it
will offer clarity when it comes to ownership of assets and existence of obligations (Anderson,
2016). Blockchain has the potential to reduce the cost of maintaining and reconciling the ledgers.
Conclusion
In this essay, it has addressed various issues in relation to e-commerce and accounting. The
concepts highlighted are considerations to e-commerce site development, approaches to integrate
components to an e-commerce system, and the blockchain technology its future in accounting.

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References
Anderson, N. (2016). Blockchain Technology: A game-changer in accounting? Deloitte, March.
Guragai, B., Hunt, N. C., Neri, M. P., & Taylor, E. Z. (2015). Accounting information systems
and ethics research: Review, synthesis, and the future. Journal of Information Systems,
31(2), 65-81.
Laudon, K. C., & Traver, C. G. (2013). E-commerce. Pearson.