FREE ESSAY ON ADVENTURES IN E-COMMERCE

ADVENTURES IN E-COMMERCE

Adventures in E-Commerce
Unless you've been living under a rock for the last two years, you have heard about
e-commerce, and I bet you've heard about it from several different angles. I'm sure
you've heard about all the companies that offer e-commerce because you've been bombarded
by their TV and radio ads. You've read all of the news stories about the shift to
e-commerce and the hype that has developed around e-commerce companies. You may have even
purchased something off the web, so you have direct personal experience with e-commerce.

In 1996 while surfing the web, I stumbled on an online auction site. While I found it
interesting and mysterious, I didn't have any light bulbs or bells go off in my head. I
didn't experience any sudden or miraculous visions, I just thought it was kind of neat
site, and in fact I told a few of my friends about what I had seen. One of my friends who
was just getting his own Civil War artifacts' business off the ground asked me if I had
seen any Civil War period items up for auction on that site. I told him that I had and he
inquired if I thought he might be able to auction off certain items that he had for sale.
To make a long story short, we 
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tried it and couldn't believe the results and the success. The site that I had stumbled
onto was called "Ebay" and today along with a multitude of other online companies like
"Amazon.com" it's one of the most talked about, highly successful e-commerce success
stories around. And little did I know that when I started buying and selling items online
through this auction site, I was actually taking part of a new revolution in commerce, I
was actively participating in what millions of internet users are doing everyday, I was
participating in the now popular term; Electronic Commerce.
Electronic commerce involves a wide range of activities. In it's simplest form, the goal
of electronic commerce is to improve the way in which business is conducted, through
technology. This could be as simple as establishing a computer-mediated relationship
between consumer and business, between business and supplier, or between supplier and
manufacturer. It could involve automation of existing business systems, such as
transaction or manufacturing processes. On the web, electronic commerce often means
marketing, and online sales. Typically there are three types of e-commerce transactions:
business to business, business to consumer and consumer to consumer. 
It took radio 34 years to reach 50 million listeners. It took TV 13 years to reach 50
million viewers, but it only took the internet 4 years to reach 50 million users. (qtd.
on E-Marketer.Com)
200 million people use the worldwide web today; 500 million will use it in less than 3
years. (qtd. In Future Magazine)
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Consumers are shifting their buying power in favor of the internet. Online shopping was
up 330% in 1998. (qtd. In USA Today)
As much as the Ice age changed the face of the earth, e-commerce is doing the same for
business today. In today's business world we're seeing new departments and new positions
being created where ten years ago, there was no need for an Internet Technology dept. or
a Chief Information Officer. Today, they're an integral part of every successful
business. 
Even gigantic organizations see the internet as a threat. It took Wal-Mart 12 years and
78 land stores to break $150 million in sales. AMAZON.COM did it in three years with a
web site and a warehouse. (qtd. Business 2.0) 
In 1996 I entered the online banking world, as my nearest bank branch was on the opposite
coast some 3600 miles away from me. It was intriguing and risky; people thought I was
foolish trusting that my bills would be paid via computer. In 1997 I wanted a new car.
After test driving the make and model I wanted but not finding the exact car I wanted, I
turned to the internet rather than to drive around town checking out all the Chevrolet
dealerships in the Hampton Roads area. I found what I was looking for at the Chevy.com
web site. It was so simple, I chose the model, color and options that I wanted, and I put
it into one big package without the hassles of a sales person or bargaining with the
sales manager. I even qualified for the financing online and received a great price as I
eliminated the middleman. Within 30 minutes, I received a shipping and 
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proposed delivery date that my brand new car was going to arrive. I just smile when I'm
asked why I bought my car online. 
It couldn't be any more obvious than if I was hit by a virtual reality sledgehammer. In
my opinion, the future is in electronics, the future is in computers & computer software,
the future is in the internet. My future was foretold in the ability to recognize these
facts and do something about it. 
"Opportunity for all requires something else today - having access to a computer and
knowing how to use it. That means we must close the digital divide between those who've
got the tools and those that don't." (CLINTON 1). 
Technology only includes 8 percent of our employment, but now it counts for a third of
our economic growth, along with jobs that pay about 80 percent above the private sector
average. 
New e-commerce companies are starting up everyday, emulating their business model after
some of the more successful companies that have recently made headlines and rocked Wall
Street. Some are just defining an all-new route to success. 
Electronic commerce is a very new phenomenon - it was fairly insignificant just 2 or 3
years ago. So here we have an industry with a predicted turnover of around 1500 billion
within 3 years (in the US alone) and there are probably only a handful of people with
more than 3 or 4 years hands on 
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experience. This suggests two things to me. Firstly, there is going to be a severe skills
shortage in the e-commerce industry, and secondly, the opportunities for those involved
in the e-commerce industry are almost limitless. 
At this time, there are really only two approaches to setting out on a career in
e-commerce. The first involves studying and perhaps gaining a qualification in electronic
commerce before applying for a position, while the second is getting stuck in as quickly
as possible. The ideal way is to get in at the start of a small company that looks like
it's going places - at whatever level, even if it's making the coffee. Of course if you
could combine working for a cutting-edge e- commerce company while learning or gaining a
Micro-Soft certification or even an MBA then you would have the best of both worlds.
Regardless, hard work is going to be the prime requirement. 
Over the past couple of years, I've noticed that web shopping is only a small part of the
e-commerce picture. The term has also come to refer to online stocks and bonds
transactions, and buying and downloading software without ever going near a store. Today,
you can order a pizza, pay your bills, get legal and medical advice, confess your sins,
attend college and receive a degree, all without ever leaving the comfort of your home. 
com.merce n [MF, fr. L commercium, fr. com- + merc-, merx
merchandise] (1537) 1: social intercourse: interchange of ideas,
opinions, or sentiments 2: the exchange or buying and selling of
commodities on a large scale involving transportation from place to
place. (Webster's Dictionary, 131)
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Many fortune 500 companies have jumped onto the e-commerce bandwagon. Sears is one of the
newest, along with major airlines, and The U.S. Post Office, I'm sure they recognize that
their future depends on being able to stay competitive, but don't take my word for it,
just Ask Jeeves.