The Use of E-Commerce by Book Retailers - Term Paper Example

E-Commerce E-Commerce Introduction The use of electronic means and technologies in conducting purchase, transfer of sales and information entails E-commerce (Manzoor 2010, p.2). It involves business to business (B2B), business alone and business to consumer (B2C) interactions. However, the delivery of services and goods may take place outside the use of internet. On the other hand, commerce involves exchange of services and products, sales and purchases within the set of a business. Therefore, E-commerce incorporates electronic means and different technologies to conduct business itself. This paper analyzes operations of E-commerce are directly affecting business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C) activities, challenges and opportunities that book retailers encounter with the use of E-commerce in their enterprises. The use of E-commerce by book retailers assists them in promoting sales of books and increases consumer base. E-commerce assists book retailers in marketing books on the Internet, purchasing online and receiving comments based on the information posted on the internet. E-Commerce and General Business Transactions According to Manzoor (2010), E-commerce and E-business have inherent links and sometimes used interchangeably. However, the two are distinct concepts that have different perceptions of business people and consumers. E-commerce describes processes of transactions involved in business over the internet. On the other hand, e- business entails fundamental re-engineering of business models into the use of the internet and networked enterprises. It gives both E-commerce and E-business to have interconnected operations in their use as they both promote business transactions over the internet (Manzoor, 2010). E-business tends to boost the activities of E-commerce over the Internet by promoting aspects of operations and sales over the internet (Gary, 2010). Therefore, for the success of business transactions over the internet, both E-commerce and E-business play a crucial role in developing a successful business operation and sales over the internet. It is important for both retailers and other business people, to engage both the aspects of E-commerce and E-business in promoting successful transactions over the internet. Business-to-Business (B2B) and E-Commerce E-commerce and business to business (B2B), involve companies operations and transactions within themselves. Sales in B2B activities, requires negotiations in prices since it depends on the quantity of ordered business transactions. Negotiations become easy and possible since the stakeholders involved tend to understand each other positively (Manzoor 2010, p.5). Moreover, relations among themselves speed up and develop negotiations, because of business activities that tend to circle among themselves without the involvement of many other parties. Gary (2002) suggests that it makes it possible for B2B business operations in E-commerce to bargain prices depending on the quantity ordered. Therefore, for the development of book retailer transactions in E-commerce, stakeholders involved in the company of books needs to merge and make a pool for the possible sales made. It assists them in lowering supply cost prices of the books and any other transaction involved in the production of books. Besides, It enables them have large quantity order amount of materials necessary for the production of the books. B2B E-commerce assists in promoting and developing business ventures that need electronic means in transactions. It makes it possible for consumers of the products to have enough supply of the products they need. Furthermore, transactions made within companies in B2B E-commerce operations, tend to save on production costs and increase sales. Therefore, the engagement of book retailers in B2B E-commerce promotes the growth of book sales and develops steady flow of paper transactions business over the internet. The Development of Business-to-Business E-Commerce (B2B) The development of B2B E-commerce is the largest grown business category and, expected to rise faster than business to consumer (B2C) transactions in the near future. As an example in the United States, the size of B2B E-commerce market in 2009 was US$3.1 trillion (Manzoor 2010, p. 5). The development makes it possible and advantageous for book retailers to dwell more in B2B E-commerce transactions. In addition, more business people and communities encourage the use of B2B E-commerce trades since it has high market values in super power worlds as the United States of America. However, there are challenges still to B2B E-commerce transactions because business to consumer (B2C) and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) develop promptly over the recent years. This challenges and growth of other E-commerce transactions affect B2B, because of diffusion and rapid expansion of the internet with increased broadband access (Qizhi & Kauffman 2002, p.41). In book retailer business, a B2B E-commerce transaction has more advantage because it pulls other companies to work together in the production of books. Book production Suppliers and any other stakeholders involved in the manufacture of books move together, through the pulling of resources and, make it possible for the manufacture of books.B2B E-commerce enables for the sale of books and maximization of profits in the bookselling industry. Primary Components of B2B Markets E-markets and E-infrastructure make up B2B components. E-markets involve online electronic bazaars, entailing sellers and buyers, who meet and exchange services, goods, information, and money. On the other hand, E-infrastructure requires the architecture of B2B operations that primarily consist of service providers, logistics, and outsourced functions in the process of e-commerce (Mahadevan, 2000). Both E-markets and infrastructure, assists business-to-business electronic commerce in operations of various transactions, as it involves transactions in at the marketplace. Based on the book retailing business, B2B component of E-markets, enables different buyers and sellers of writing products to meet online and discuss commercial transactions based on trades involving paper products. In addition, E-markets bring together both buyers and sellers from different regions in one pool as they communicate online and determine business successful transactions. Manzoor (2010) argues that, this contributes to productive, successful developments in business developments as it enables all prospective buyers and sellers to have a familiar place of to participate in the transactions. E-market, as a component of B2B E-commerce, contributes to effective business developments in that enable transactions and exchange of money, while doing business online. Book retailers might benefit excessively in e-markets business-to-business developments as it generates transactions online. Consequently, E-infrastructure in B2B E-commerce promotes quality service provision, dissemination of information and logistics of business-to-business transactions. In book retailing business, E-infrastructure becomes effective as it source information from the other stakeholders in the operations of book delivery, production, and sale across the globe. The logistics and sourced information used in B2B E-commerce development and business transactions among the book retailers accelerates business transactions among different retailers.B2B E-commerce promotes the spread and expansion of book business, which in turn has high returns. It is important for business people to engage and develop B2B E-commerce components of E-markets and infrastructure. It contributes significantly to the development and spread of business transactions online and increases business activities among entrepreneurs. Business to Consumer (B2C) E-Commerce Business to consumer (B2C) E-commerce involves sales to the public. The sales are done through the utilization of shopping cart software such as amazon.com.B2C positions itself as the second largest and original development of e-commerce. Growth of B2C continues steadily in developed and developing world, which results in massive global online shoppers across the globe. B2C E-commerce connects all the consumers of a product in one pool, who have different tastes and preferences over a product. Commonly, it creates global shopping cart online, who have different interests over the same product. According to Jap (2007), it generates consumer transactions based on tastes and preferences, which benefit both buyers and sellers. B2C E-commerce in book retailing business promotes and allows different online consumers, to have an opportunity for online shopping within the same global shopping cart.B2C E-commerce increases the sales of products and motivates consumers in buying the same products from different companies. It enables consumers to enjoy affordable prices for the consumption of products since companies have a common pool for online shopping of different products. Based on book retailers, consumers of books have an opportunity to do online shopping through B2C E-commerce. Besides, consumers buy books at affordable prices, enabling them to save or buy as many as they can afford. In addition, B2C E-commerce moderates operation costs and market obstacles to entry in business ventures and transactions. Besides, Reduction costs experiences occur, since customers’ access information and find competitive prices for services or products online. Moreover, market entry barriers reduce since the cost of putting and maintaining a website is cheaper than establishing traditional commerce structures for a firm. Furthermore, B2C E-commerce saves firms additional costs in establishing physical distribution network. All the benefits are practical for book retailers during transactions in their business. Therefore, the need to have B2C E-commerce, for book retailers is vital since it promotes and allows for the making of profits in the business. It is important for book retailers’ entrepreneurs to consider the incorporation of B2C E-commerce during their transactions since it has many beneficial aspects during the operation of the business. Opportunities in E-Commerce E-commerce creates opportunities in management implementation issues since it sustains dramatic decreases in cost (Rahman, 2009). Additionally, it changes diverse technologies of telecommunications and computing. One-to-one marketing has become easy and manageable because of developments in the web, promoting E-commerce. E-commerce changes the business environment and creates various opportunities for the development of many business ventures across the globe. The development of the internet expands explosively as enterprises that are more global realize opportunities presented by the web. These opportunities develop and promote E-commerce across the globe as it involves engagements over the internet. According to Rahman (2009), Electronic payment methods offer several advantages and opportunities in E-commerce, compared to the traditional payment methods. First, no clearing period for transactions allows large cost bargains and creates more opportunities for large sum negotiations. Therefore, E-commerce creates objective opportunities for business transactions across the globe. Challenges in E-commerce Collection of the maximum amount of information from clients in E-commerce poses a challenge because of privacy issues. Most clients become reluctant in giving out information for global enterprises. Furthermore, competition from re-engineering and electronic markets disrupts transactions in E-commerce. Rahman (2009) suggests that Global supply chains affect the distribution and sale of products in E-commerce. It poses challenges in E-commerce and affects their operations, globally. Conclusion E-commerce has several advantages in business transactions across the globe. B2B and B2C E-commerce aspects promote and enable the development of business across the globe successfully. The opportunities created in E-commerce, promote development and spread of business activities. It is important to participate in E-commerce since it enables for the development and sale of business products across the globe online. Bibliography Jap, S. D 2007, The Impact Of Online Reverse Auction Design On Buyer-Supplier Relationships, Journal of Marketing, 71, 1, p.146-159. Mahadevan, B 2000, ‘Business Models For Internet-Based E-Commerce: An Anatomy’, California Management Review, 42, 4, p. 55-69. Mahbubhur, R 2009, Electronic Commerce: Opportunity And Challenges: Opportunity And Challenges, Idea Group Inc., London. Manzoor, A 2010, E-Commerce: An Introduction. Saarbrücken, LAP Lambert Acad. Publ. Qizhi, D, & Kauffman, R 2002, Business Models for Internet-Based B2B Electronic Markets, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 6, 4, p. 41. Schneider, G 2002, New Perspectives on E-Commerce, Course Technology, Boston, MA. Read More