MY E COMMERCE CENTER

The early days of the internet were mostly based on providing information. Obviously, this was a good thing as it allowed for the tremendous expansion of this engaging communications medium. And, as with other communication mediums such as radio and television, the internet has become a very successful forum for revenue generation. This is where the term ecommerce derives.

The “e” in ecommerce stands for electronic. As such, ecommerce can be adequately described as any type of commercial transaction (buying and selling) that can be facilitated through the data systems of computers and other online networks. Ecommerce is a subset of internet marketing which includes other older models of commerce. Probably the most common example of ecommerce would be the use of online shopping cart software.

How shopping cart software works is relatively simple. An example can be found in a website that sells used books. When a consumer visits the site, he or she may come across a book that would make an interesting purchase. Underneath an image of the book would be the words “add to shopping cart”. Once clicked on, the book would go into an electronic storage area that would log the book title, its price, and its shipping and handling costs. When the consumer wishes to make a purchase, he/she would click on the “checkout” function. This would take them to the shopping cart page where they would enter their name, address, and credit card information.

Upon completion of entering this information, they would hit a button that would process the order. This would automate the charging of the credit card and provide the merchant with the ordering and shipping information. For convenience sakes, virtually all shopping cart programs allow a function to save any entered consumer information. This would allow the consumer to engage in one click shopping for future purchases as opposed to entering in the same information over again.

Now, some may worry about any of this information being compromised. With shopping cart software or any other ecommerce solution, information is sent in an encrypted mode. That means it cannot be intercepted or deciphered. The info is also highly protected against hackers ensuring the financial safety of such a purchase.

In the early days of internet marketing, ecommerce solutions did not exist. Instead, one simply perused a website and made an order in the same way a traditional mail order purchase was made: they sent a check, money order, or credit card information via mail. (Actually, credit card information could be sent via email and this was probably the earliest and crudest form of ecommerce) While there was nothing inherently wrong with this strategy, it was a slow process. The development of ecommerce systems has made online purchasing much more expedient. PayPal, for example, now offers a button function where log in information is integrated into the design of a website. Additional, once one signs in all purchasing information (pricing, product, and shipping info) is automatically entered into the PayPal system. Again, this great contributes to the ease of purchase which both consumers and sellers greatly appreciate.

With billions of dollars in annual revenues, ecommerce has most definitely proven to be effective. Look for it to become even more streamlined – and popular – in the future.