What is e-commerce? you caught me, I just wanna throw some light on this from my view...
Leave the "e-" aside. Lets look at the word "commerce" it means "commerce is the exchange of goods and services from the point of production to the point of consumption to satisfy human wants". Now coming back to the "e-" : it is a generic term user to denote it is related to electronic some times internet.
Hope you found the definition of e-commerce by now.
Lets start with an example, when you want to play a game which deals with car racing, can you guys play the game with the same interest without having seen how the car looks like? or what race means? than playing the game after experiencing the material called "car" and the phenomena called "race"? You guessed right and answer should be no!. and if not then I guess you should be the person beside Einstein for having IQ level nearing to his IQ.
So, lets introspect the commerce - a physical store. If you want to ride the car in exceptional way, then feel the car and you can ride it like the way you control your hands or your body actions. So if by any chance you are a developer who is developing an e-commerce store application, then I would strongly recommend you to go and check some big shopping complex(preferably single huge store setup) and examine each and every step of sale process for at least one item. Then draw a flow chart that represents whole process of sale.
If you think you can imagine the things, then follow the following steps...
1. Find suitable store that suffices your needs or the things you would like to buy
2. Go to the store and once you enter the store usually you would pick a cart/trolley
3. Then keep roaming inside the store and get help from any store keeper about the item you are looking for
4. Once you find the product you want, analyze match with your requirements
5. If in doubt, you can always call some one who has used this product from your contact list
6. Once you are ok with the analysis hope fully you will drop it in your trolley
7. See if any other item and repeat step 4 and 5 if you are not confident on the selection else jump to step 6
8. Move to the billing counter, display all your products that you dropped into the cart/trolley
9. Let the biller generate the bill for you
10. Verify the bill
11. Make the payment through credit card/debit card/gift card/cash
12. Receive the baggage from the delivery section or at the billing counter directly
13. Congratulations!!! you bought what you want
So, having said that... I would like to analyze the 13 steps and see what additional costs involved during that process
1. The cost of travel---> you went to store and bought the item and returned to your home
2. You called your friend for the suggestions/recommendations
3. Oops I forgot one most important stuff... in this fast moving 21st century we almost every one are running out of time right? so the last but not the least one is the TIME you spent in travel, talking to store keeper, roaming inside the store, time took to park your car, time spent to carry your bags from one location to other...
Is there any way to save that time? Yes... we have all the tools at our hands that can save lot of stuff... I dont know who invented all these stuff to ease out the shopping stuff but I really want to thank them by heart.
So, just bringing all the stuffs in single page I would like to consolidate the things as below
1. We know what is commerce
2. We understand what is shopping
3. We know what is payment
4. We know what is analysis
5. We know what is delivery of a product
6. We understand what is money
7. We understand what is time!!!
Now, some one intelligent created e-commerce and converted all the physical activities into electronic activities FYI "1." means physical store activity followed by "1.1" or "x.y" meaning converted electronic activity(it can contain any sub activities)
1. Find suitable store that suffices your needs or the things you would like to buy
1.1 The store can be any store example bestbuy.com, officemax.com, apple.com... any
2. Go to the store and once you enter the store usually you would pick a cart/trolley
2.1 When you goto the site, site owner will provide you an e-cart where you can add/remove/modify quantities of the product you wish to buy
3. Then keep roaming inside the store and get help from any store keeper about the item you are looking for
3.1 Search for the product you would like to purchase, this can happen by searching through the site's internal search engine. Or browse through the product groups
4. Once you find the product you want, analyze match with your requirements
4.1 Read all the attributes/displayed values of the product
5. If in doubt, you can always call some one who has used this product from your contact list
5.1 Some times(now a days almost every e-store provides this) site owner will allow shoppers to read/write reviews about the product. So now you can see real user's experience with the products usage
6. Once you are ok with the analysis hope fully you will drop it in your trolley
6.1 If you are ok after reading reviews... whats next? Go ahead and add item to your cart
7. See if any other item and repeat step 4 and 5 if you are not confident on the selection else jump to step 6
8. Move to the billing counter, display all your products that you dropped into the cart/trolley
8.1 Now its time to checkout right? site owner will take you through some mandatory steps such as collecting your delivery address, billing address any additional notes for shipping... if you are gifting this item then should it be wrapped in a gift wrap? etc...
9. Let the biller generate the bill for you
9.1 Order confirmation section, where you can review your order and finish the shopping
10. Verify the bill
10.1 Verify the order receipt, in case of discrepancy call/mail to the customer care
11. Make the payment through credit card/debit card/gift card/cash
11.1 This will be handled by site owner by themselves
12. Receive the baggage from the delivery section or at the billing counter directly
12.1 Your order will be delivered to your shipping address...
13. Congratulations!!! you bought what you want
13.1 !!! if you didn't receive the product, there will be customer care executives for you to assist
