Electronic Commerce

   Electronic Commerce is fast approaching
   In the late 1970's business houses began sending & receiving Purchase orders, invoices, & shipping notifications electronically via EDI. The EDI then was    expensive & affordable only by big sized businesses. Today the Internet has made electronic commerce affordable to even smallest home office. Companies of all    sizes can now communicate over the Internet with each other.

   ERP and EDI have gained tremendous importance as the world is gearing itself towards strong business process integration. And time is near for the paper-based    business to give Way to electronic business when suppliers and customers will transact electronically. Once isolated economies are now slowly integrating into a    global village. This is also so because suppliers are working hard to offer products / services at lower and lower prices.

   To offer at lower and lower prices, cost saving, cost cutting is essential. By reducing and even eliminating Inventory & distribution costs dramatically the total cost    of products/services are lowered by electronic commerce. In many cases online prices will be lower than what consumers find elsewhere. Consumers already    find huge bargains on air travel on the net. In some cases prices are down to half. How all of this is possible is because the customer and the supplier are now    becoming easily accessible through the net. Take the case of Amazon.com. It has no warehouses. It only routes book orders directly to distributors and delivers a    book at a price that is much less that what a regular books stores can offer. Law firms can access specific sections on the Net instead of buying endless volumes    of legal references. Similarly music lovers can download music software online and also make payments electronically. What we are seeing is that customers and    suppliers have moved much closer in this new sales channel.

   Seattle, America's emerald city is found to be quick becoming the electronic commerce capital of the Web. It has the greatest concentration of Internet commerce    powerhouses. As early as 1994, Andrew Fry, founded Free Range Media, which is one of the first websites development firms in the US. During this time Jeff    Bezoz, who practically invented online commerce, founded the Internet shop Amazon.com from a garage of a rented home. Amazon.com is today selling over    57000 books each day. Before starting Amazon.com, Jeff was working on Wall Street and saw Internet growth statistics @ 2300% per year. He worked on a list    of best products to sell on the Internet. Today with about 45% stake in the company he is worth atleast an easy $ 2 billion. It is reported that Amazon .com is the    3rd largest bookseller in the World and may see revenues top $ 600 million in 1999 without opening a single brick and mortar store. The major competitor for    Amazon.com is Barnes & Noble's online venture. It is felt that Amazon.com is poised to translate it success in books & music into other lucrative products. Many    analysts now call Jeff as one of the Bill Gateses of tomorrow.

   A number of software companies are into electronic commerce business developing electronic commerce applications. Microsoft Corporation, founded by Bill    Gates in 1975 employs more than 27000 people worldwide, is stated to earn over $ 14.5 billion per year. However it was surprisingly caught late in the growth of    e-commerce. In recent times it has taken dramatic steps to become a dominant player in electronic commerce. The company was in a business war with    Netscape on its Internet explorer browser software for quite some time. Microsoft two year old travel site Edpedia has sold over 1 million air tickets on it store    front & through Partner sites fetching in $ 8.5 million per week. CarPoint is one of the leading Car buying ervices on the Net delivering $200 million per month in    new car sales to partner auto dealers. Real estate services site Home Advisor has produced $ 30 million in loan referrals to mortgage lenders since Aug 98.

   Many ex-Microsoft, Ex-Amazonian executives have started companies to capture electronic commerce business on the Internet. Other companies engaged in    electronic commerce are also building profitable & manageable businesses. Electronic commerce companies are one of the biggest and flourishing business in the    software industry today. Many companies are launching their websites in order to boost sales and get closer access to the consumers. Icat Corporation founded in    1993 provides Corporations and merchants with information, software and services they need to set up electronic catalogs. It is one of the Hot 100 Technology    Companies in the US. Hewlett Packard's Openpix Image Igniter, imaging software is part of its e-commerce suite which enables store fronts to feature interactive    product photos what customers can zoom in and pan through for a more powerful online shopping experience. There are photoshops such as Corbis (which is    owned by Microsoft) and Photodisc which together offer over 2 million images online to marketers and publishers around the globe. One can order music software    over the net and enjoy it one a streamlined media technology software like those provided by Real Networks's Real Audio. A number of Websites are created    with compelling content that gets people online. While the current work has contributed much to the growth of electronic commerce several entrepreneurs are    developing award winning websites to attract visitors from young and old.

   Going by the trend of electronic commerce, Chuck Martin, the best selling author of 'Net Future :The Seven Cybertrends That Will Drive Your Business, Create    Wealth, and Define Your Future.' and the 'Digital Estate' remarks that "the world stands on the cusp of a new era where most traditional business models will    disappear and the wired consumer and the wired organization will function in harmony". He also writes "A company's grasp of these Cyber trends and it    consequent willingness to transform its business will determine how well it survives".

   As the wired situation is increasing, it can create higher levels of operational efficiency, which basically reduces cost and saves money for the end consumer. As    the supply and demand ositions move online, demand can be aggregated in real time. Onsale.com a website for online auctions aggregates supply by grouping all    kinds of things for auctioning & then offers people for bidding. On the other hand Priceline.com aggregates price bids of people for products/ services. What    happens actually is much more real supply and real demand match, which takes a lot of waste out of the value chain. The Internet has vastly expanded the value    of goods and services business trade electronically. The Internet era has revolutionized commerce, making electronic commerce a reality. The major force of    electronic commerce is driven by the fact that it results in lowering purchasing cost, a reduction of inventories, lowering cycle time, more efficient & effective    customer services, lowering sales & marketing cost and new sales opportunities. While Information Technology grows faster and faster, the consumer is soon to    find the shopping centre, rights into his living room on the monitors of his PC. The list of products / services traded through the electronic media is fast growing.    And many more products and services are bought or sold over the net. There are a number of software which re either developed or being developed, enabling    the growth of electronic commerce .