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Web Development Articles How can my business benefits from using e-commerce? Afif: In today's world, e-commerce and commerce are almost the same thing. They are both done electronically or over the Internet. Both emphasized on the usage of technology and information system to deliver faster, cheaper and efficient method of conducting commerce. Commerce according to Merriam-Webster dictionary is defined as "...the exchange or buying and selling of commodities on a large scale involving transportation from place to place" (commerce. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved April 7, 2009, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/commerce). E-commerce is commerce that is done electronically. E-commerce applies the same principle of commerce but with limitations and benefits. When a business conducts commerce in an area with a physical presence of a building or a shop for example, that business is servicing the local area that surrounds the business geographically and demographically. E-commerce breaks that boundary by offering businesses the chance to operate outside the existing boundary and targeting wider customer demographics. E-commerce offers the business a lower overhead, higher market penetration and lower risks that no business could imagine 15 years ago. Compare to a normal business equipped only with a physcial presence, which involves high overheads (rent, on-goings, etc.), only to service a geographically limited area of a market. E-commerce business only needs a ready stock or service(s) and an online presence in the World Wide Web also known as the Internet. Setting up an e-commerce website is usually a one-off cost and maintenance of it usually involves updating the products information and prices. Then what you need to do is to market it to the search engines. After that, it all falls back to the normal commerce and business practices with management, costing and marketing. Analyzing the above information, I would take that opportunity of getting my business known to a market with a population of over 6 billion people with almost 1.5 billion people are connected to the Internet. Australia alone, more than 79% of the population access the Internet, thus giving the power of commerce, metaphorically, to e-commerce. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Links Australian Web Industry Association St Francis College of Animal Homeopathy |