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The emergence of electronic commerce led to many changes in the ways businesses
market their products and effect sales. While it brought improved approaches for businesses
to reach out to potential consumers, it also made it easier for consumers to find needed
products in the most diversified way ever. These were achieved through improved efficiency,
enhanced speed and the elimination of irrelevant business processes. Today, both traders and
consumers find E-Commerce the most favourable option of performing business transactions
because efficiency and reduced costs of operations lead to increased benefits for all the
parties involved.
E-Commerce reduces transaction costs by eliminating irrelevant business
processes, cutting down consumers’ expenses, and integrating numerous services that were
previously performed separately.
Before the rise of the innovations that brought E-Commerce into existence, business
processes were comparatively traditional with many entrepreneurs depending on non-digital
approaches. Reconnoitring business prospects and market research compelled traders to
travel to their target markets. For goods and services to reach consumers, many brokers and
distributors had to play different roles in ensuring the success of transactions. With the
emergence of E-Commerce, physical reconnaissance has become an element of the past.
Many distributors have been eliminated from distribution chains because producers can easily
meet consumers directly. The elimination of these irrelevant processes reduces the costs of
goods and services.
These benefits are ultimately transferred to traders and consumers.
The share of benefits accrued to consumers in relation to transactions draws from a
wide spectrum of elements. A typical scenario of traditional brick-and-mortar shops would
have a consumer spending money on travelling to undertake window-shopping. In the
process, they would have to spend a lot of time in between their activities. Markedly, most
.Warkentin, Merrill. Business to Business Electronic Commerce: Challenges and Solutions (Hershey:
IRM Press, 2013), 31.
.Mohapatra, Sanjay. E-commerce Strategy: Text and Cases (New York: Springer Publishing Limited,
2012), 236.
