Electronic commerce is rightfully considered to be a new way of conditioning business. When it all started commerce specialists supposed e-commerce had a potential to radically reshape economic activities and social culture complex. Today we see it has affected such larger business sectors as communications, finance, retail trade, and others.
To learn the impact of e-commerce on the market system we should take a step back for perspective. Let’s see the main commerce-related transformations it has already caused:
Marketplace transformation
B2C e-commerce has changed the way business is conducted. It has influenced the creation of absolutely new relationships between business and consumers. Traditional intermediary functions commerce used to have once have been replaced with up-to-date realias. Hundreds of thousands of new products and markets have been developed under the pressure of tendencies.
The organization of work has been changed: we acquired new channels of knowledge diffusion, we started to interact openly in the workplaces. We follow new workflow approaches: agile, scrum, etc. taking into account the necessity to make the processes even more flexible and adaptable to the market needs. We redefined employees’ skills and functions. We tried to make manual work easier ( with the help of IoT solutions implemented in warehouses, for instance) but we are constantly at the frenetic pace of the chase for the latest business news.
Catalytic effect
Now we have simpler access to statistical information and can analyze the impact e-commerce has already had on business. We have already come across such changes as the reform of regulations, the creation of electronic links between businesses, the economic activity of globalization, the request for higher-skilled employees, etc. Electronic commerce has already driven up electronic banking development, direct booking of travel and other services online, one-to-one marketing, others.
Interactivity increase
Small businesses and households reach out to the world faster today. The business can be transacted anywhere, anytime now. This has become a real erosion of economic and geographic boundaries. Smaller e-commerce companies are unencumbered by existing connections with traditional retail outlets and larger sales force. The nature of traditional business used to express in the high costs of collaboration and communication between partners. Now the classical restrictions can be easily eliminated virtually at an extremely low cost. Though the statement is the point at issue, anyone who wants to open a small shop of self-made products can pay taxes and open it in a state he/she lives. Besides, smaller companies can adopt different business models that force established competitors to restructure accepted models and avoid being noncompetitive. The competitive field has been leveled, which allows small companies extend their borders geographically and reach new customers in ways that were restricted before.
Social changes
While start-ups have the potential to grow quickly we understand e-commerce has provoked the interest in new skills demand, new organizational structures, new business models. With the increase of speed and geographical reach of economic and social activity consumers have become ‘cosmopolitans’ who know no borders in their desires and possibilities. The pace of changes can awaken a sense of insecurity and unwillingness to reckon with the transformations, which has led many newcomers to nowhere.
Marketing impact
In the e-commerce environment, both customers and sellers can interact with each other at any moment they like. There are no strict work time or geographical limitations. The reactivity and all the previously mentioned transformations have given rise to new marketing approaches.
Today companies offer more and more transparency in terms of their services to reduce the customers’ insecurity feeling and compete on the market. To maintain a new competitive advantage smaller companies have to apply up-to-date marketing solutions to not only survive but fiercer the marketplace. Companies cut corners and offer customers reliable money-back guarantees. They allow clients to download and try their products before the latest release and derive benefit.
Now marketing is largely based on the work with the latest data and analytics. A marketing specialist should work with databases that include access transaction data that link consumers to products they are looking for. They should have a clear vision of the importance of the information and work with a large bulk of data.
So, e-commerce might has brought potentially negative consequences to the traditional commerce. The volatile business environment forces marketing managers consider new and new developing strategies. Besides, in the context of finances, e-commerce investing invokes risks, as most of the investments made today are long-termed and they just improve the competitiveness.
BIO: Alina is a technical writer at Amasty who is keen to e-commerce and implementation of new solutions into the sphere. She believes self-enhancement and spot-on goal setting contribute to any project’s success. Being a regular buyer of numerous online stores she wants to work a fine line between customer’s needs and merchant’s interest.
