E-COMMERCE

CHANGING PHASE OF RETAIL INDIA

SALONI GOYAL

K L P, Rewari

[email protected]

ABSTRACT
Electronic commerce is a process of doing business through computer networks. A person sitting
on his chair in front of a computer can access all the facilities of the internet to buy or sell the
product. Unlike traditional commerce that is carried out physically with effort of a person to go
and get products, E-commerce has made it easier for human to reduce physical work and to save
time. It was started in early 1990’s has taken a great leap in the world of computers and added
value to customer’s satisfaction in terms of customer convenience in any place and enables the
company to gain more competitive advantage over the other competitors. Increase in use of smart
mobile services and internet as a new distribution channel for business transactions and
international trading requires more attention towards e-commerce security for reducing the
fraudulent activities., but the fact that it has hindered the growth of e-commerce. Security is the
challenge for e-commerce and there is still a lot of advancement made in retail sector.

Keywords: E-commerce, Information-technology, Retail, Customer satisfaction, Business

INTRODUCTION
Shopping, that was only meant to be through physical stores just some years ago, has an
altogether new face with the advent of ecommerce- the world of online shopping. Electronic
Commerce provides the capability of buying and selling products and information on the internet
and other on-line service.(Shahjee,R. 2016). The trends in the ecommerce industry play a vital
role in changing the fate of the entire retail business. It has a great impact on the retail industry
influencing the latter to offer an equally engaging shopping experience. E-commerce has the
ability to play an instrumental role in helping developing economics benefit more from trade
(WTO-2013). The growing use of the Internet, tablet devices, and smart phones coupled with
larger consumer confidence will see that ecommerce will continue to evolve and expand. With
social media growing exponentially in recent years, the conversation between businesses and
consumers has become more engaging, making it easier for transactional exchanges to happen
online. Internet retailers continue to strive to create better content and a realistic shopping
experience with technologies like augmented reality. Best ecommerce trends have slipped into
the retail world and most of the retail shops either have or will have an online presence soon.
Retailers are adopting new technologies that enable potential customers to access the listed
products anytime, anywhere. This helps to bring in more customers to the website and generate
sales.

RETAIL
Retail is the sale of goods and services from individuals or businesses to the end-user. Retailers
are part of an integrated system called the supply chain. A retailer purchases goods or products in
large quantities from manufacturers directly or through a wholesale, and then sells smaller
quantities to the consumer for a profit Thus, retailing can be said to be the interface between the
producer and the individual consumer buying for personal consumption.

E-COMMERCE
Ecommerce, also known as electronic commerce or internet commerce, refers to the buying and
selling of goods or services using the internet, and the transfer of money and data to execute
these transactions. Ecommerce is often used to refer to the sale of physical products online, but it
can also describe any kind of commercial transaction that is facilitated through the internet.
Whereas e-business refers to all aspects of operating an online business, ecommerce refers
specifically to the transaction of goods and services.

Types of E-commerce Models

There are four main types of ecommerce models that can describe almost every transaction that
takes place between consumers and businesses.

1. Business to Consumer (B2C):

When a business sells a good or service to an individual consumer (e.g. You buy a pair of shoes
from an online retailer).
2. Business to Business (B2B):
When a business sells a good or service to another business (e.g. A business sells software-as-a-
service for other businesses to use)

3. Consumer to Consumer (C2C):

When a consumer sells a good or service to another consumer (e.g. You sell your old furniture on
eBay to another consumer).

4. Consumer to Business (C2B):

When a consumer sells their own products or services to a business or organization (e.g. An
influencer offers exposure to their online audience in exchange for a fee, or a photographer
licenses their photo for a business to us.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Kumar (1998) in their study revealed that, with the raise of consumer goods in different sectors,
many companies have invested in retail in the past year. The organized retail sector in India is
expected to observe some notable changes in the times to come. With the trend of ecommerce,
many online retailers have launched their business in the country. These online retailers are using
the medium of online mobile apps to increase their reach to the customers. Due to the changing
market dynamics, many traditional retailers have been working on their internet strategy and they
are trying to increase its physical network by giving customers the option of store pick up, return,
cash on delivery etc.

Ghayal,et.al (2012) studied on E-commerce and found that e-business has strong benefits like
reduce cost of production by reducing overheads, increase sales, access markets across the globe,
provide more perfect information and improve customer service familiarity, improve employee
motivation through more flexible working methods, provides convenience and comfort for
customers and many more.

Saha (2015) indicated that E-commerce has attained immense popularity in recent years, mainly
because people find it convenient and easy to shop from the comfort of their home or office and
also eased from the trouble of moving from shop to shop in search of the good of choice. .Some
of the leading online stores currently in India are Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Homeshop18,
Myntra etc. In all these, small retailers miss out somewhere. But the nearby store is always the
most important concern for all reason and seasons. It needs to revive not just survive. The retail
stores needs to simply uplift its pattern of business and face the competitive world with a more
positive outlook.

Shahjee (2016) examined that Indian e-commerce has to face many difficulties in web marketing
because of infrastructural difficulties and computer illiteracy. Majority of the customers live in
rural areas do not sufficient knowledge about computer and internet. Some of customers in urban
areas do not have credit facilities and therefore online buying and selling of goods is limited to
urban class having knowledge of computer internet, if Indian marketers take into account
essentials of good website they can definitely make success in marketing.
Dahiya (2017) studied that E-commerce have good impact on markets like reduce the cost of
advertisements as many customers can attract through internet, new brand can be developed, can
maintain a good relationship with customers and can make customized products according to
customer’s needs. But e-commerce has bad impact on offline retailers because customers buys
on low price from online shops due to which they also have to lower their price and does not get
any profit, retailers cannot maintain a large stock like online shops have stores because it will
cost a huge loss to them. They have to spend more money in offline advertisements to attract
customers.

Kumar (2018) analyzed and concluded that E-commerce industry is one of the largest growing
industries in India at present. The sale of ecommerce industry is expected to grow by almost 4
times by 2021 than the sales of 2015. This unprecedented growth in E-Commerce is due to
increase in smart phones and internet users, 3G/4G internet services, awareness in public,
government initiative of digitalisation, advanced shipping and payment options, entry of foreign
e-business players etc. Government should take steps to provide a proper legal framework so that
hurdles in the growth of e-commerce are reduced to minimum.

Hasan (2019) concluded that Ecommerce represents not only online shopping, but also several
other processes such as appropriate promotions, buying and selling of goods, but also public
relations. E-commerce brings benefits not only to vendors but also to customers by making
contact between the seller and the buyer through electronic systems and no need for personal
communication.

Hashim (2019) found that, In our routine life internet plays an important role. We use web day
by day nearly for each and every work. Purchasing and selling of merchandise by means of the
web on any gadget. The points of interest offered by e-commerce are online shopping of
anything whenever and at wherever, clients can discover the items on web based business sites
which is no accessible in physical markets, it decreases cost and time, without venturing out
from home it can get our item at home.

Wardhawan (2020) studied on ecommerce and concluded that the popularity of e-commerce is
directly based on the scaling up of the manufacturing sector which once achieved the
standardization, branding follows it automatically. E-commerce promotes not only digital
payment but also promotes the business to go online and spread worldwide.

CONCLUSION

The e-commerce industry will be a leader with popularity in electronic business world in the
upcoming years.. It has strongly impacted the traditional business system and changing the life of
people by making it easier. While it gives benefits to customer and seller, e-commerce gives
challenges to traditional business for competitive position. Developing countries face many
obstacles that affect the successful implementation of e-commerce with the help of comparing
with developed country. When the internet cost will be low then the e-commerce will flourish
easily and will make many of traditional business to run out of their business. Convenience is
one of the benefits that customer gets from the e-commerce and thus increasing customer
satisfaction. This is due to customer can place a purchase an order from anywhere with internet
connection. E-commerce business provider should give importance on every customer by giving
smooth service and many options for payment and have more functions available online. Other
benefits are expanded product offerings and expanded geographic reach. But e-commerce
business faces a lot of challenges in flourishing their business that is website cost, to create and
maintain a website a lot of money is required; infrastructure cost, to fulfill the orders online
retailers have to maintain a large stock in a big warehouse which costs a lot; security and fraud,
due to popularity of online shops criminal elements are also attracted to them who can hack the
personal information and can misuse them; customer trust, it is difficult for customers to trust a
new brand without looking, touching and face-to face interaction. The trust on E-Commerce
should be to offer a legal framework such as consumer protection, privacy, intellectual property,
prevention of fraud, etc.The banks also need to select suitable security tools and policy to protect
itself and its customers.
E-Commerce is a boon for any country- if given right impetus and good environmental
framework to prosper can significantly lead to country’s progress and development.

BIBILOGRAPHY
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