E-Commerce, to me, is the art of conducting business on the World Wide Web. Yes, I said “art.” The ability to draw and entice customers to do business with you, and to do it well, is indeed a work of art. More and more businesses are turning to the web to connect with their customers; likewise, more and more customers are turning to the web to do business. As a business owner, I know there are plenty of other businesses who are competing for consumers’ dollars and loyalty. I know that at any given moment, a customer need only click right on out of my store.
I am not only a business owner but a consumer as well. For the purpose of this paper, I will play the role of the consumer. As I sit at my desk on a snowy day, I can surf the web and conduct a multitude of tasks. I can visit my bank’s web site and check on my balances. If my funds are low in my checking, I can transfer funds from my savings to my checking. I can check on my credit card balance, look at my statement, and schedule a payment date. I can pay my trash bill, electric bill, mortgage, and phone bill, all from the comfort of my big office chair.
Now that my finances are in order, I can surf the web for a new pair of snow boots, purchase them, and have them delivered to my front door. While I was surfing for those boots, this on-line merchant advertised a matching scarf, so I added that to my order as well. Perhaps after I made this purchase, I realized that I may have gone a little over my budget and must now look for a way to raise a few more dollars to cover this. I remember I have some great DVD’s that are still considered “new releases.” So, I take some pictures of these and I put them up for auction on e-Bay. The winning bidder pays me via PayPal and those funds go directly into my checking account.
These are a very few examples of what I can do on the web in just a few moments on a snowy day from my comfy office chair – all thanks to e-commerce. Do I worry about my financial privacy? Sure. However, thousands of transactions take place each and every day without incident. I figure the odds are on my side.
I do, however, worry more about SPAM. I hate spam. This is the junk-mail of e-commerce. My e-mail inbox has gotten more clutter than the US Postal Service has ever left in my mailbox at the end of my driveway. I spend more time checking the “no, I do not wish to be on your e-mailing list” boxes than I do worrying about someone stealing my credit information. I have paid so much attention to this matter, and have been pretty successful, that I haven’t had to change my personal email address in years. Just in case, I have a few back-up e-mail addresses I use, depending on the type of business I am conducting on-line, but this can wait for a different story!
I love shopping and banking on line. It saves me time from going store to store, gas (which these days is very costly), and I have the ability to purchase factory direct, which saves me even more money. It is not without its flaws, though. Some of the drawbacks of e-commerce, in my opinion, are the diminishing face to face human contact, and the tangibility of the products I am purchasing. Sometimes I need to try on those boots I am shopping for, or feel if that scarf is going to be too itchy. Perhaps I ordered the incorrect size, and now I must repackage, send them back, and pay extra shipping and handling for the exchange. Pros and cons to everything, I guess.
Something I wonder about in this dawn of e-commerce—what is going to happen to the old “brick and mortar” store fronts? Is e-commerce going to so radically change the way we do business that big box stores will cease to exist? Will these buildings be turned into distribution posts from which my boots and scarf will be pulled from a shelf and shipped from? And what’s to happen to that pesky sales person that would want to show me a matching purse to go with my boots and scarf had I purchased them in person? And how about the nice kid that would take my money at the check-out counter? Will they have a job? Do they now seek employment as an order puller at the distribution plant? One thing for certain, e-commerce has changed forever how we conduct our everyday tasks. Where it will lead to, I guess we need to buckle our seatbelts and see where this ride takes us.
