Ecommerce – An Online Auction Business

Ecommerce is the act of electronically selling or buying of goods over the Internet or through electronic services. It is the fastest growing sector in the global economy and employs a large number of people in various countries around the world. According to estimates, ecommerce contributes to approximately 5% of the gross domestic product in some developing countries like India, China and Indonesia. The increasing popularity of online shopping, coupled with the advancement in technology, has led to the rapid growth of ecommerce in some parts of the world such as: United Kingdom, Latin America, Australia and Philippines.

As an emerging economy, the UK has shown an increased interest in the field of e-commerce. To complement the growth of its online shopping market, the UK must also develop a sound e-commerce platform that would facilitate easy supply chain management. This would allow both suppliers and buyers to efficiently manage their interactions, resulting in improved productivity. A comprehensive supply chain framework is required to enable businesses to:

In order to enable electronic commerce, all parties in the supply chain need to be able to access the same secure internet connections. As such online shopping carts are integrated with payment gateways to facilitate seamless transactions between the buyers and sellers. Electronic commerce involves three main elements namely: a buyer’s browser or computer; a seller’s browser or computer and a payment gateway. The browser contains features such as HTML, JavaScript and XML (Extensible Markup Language) which enables online shopping. The JavaScript is responsible for carrying out online transaction processing such as adding products to a shopping cart; retrieving information from an item purchased; displaying selected products online and handling payments.

In order to start an e-commerce business, a business-to-business merchant must have an internet connection. This is where he/she connects to the payment gateway, a part of the e-commerce system that facilitates transactions between the buyer and the seller. The payment gateway processes credit cards and debit cards to remit funds to the seller’s bank account and the buyer’s bank account. Payment gateways normally provide a secured gateway service that is used exclusively by a certain number of financial institutions to enable secure online transaction processing.

There are many benefits of conducting business through e-commerce websites. One major benefit is that you can conduct business virtually without having to set up any physical store and the costs involved are minimal as compared to traditional offline business-to-business retailing. Another major benefit is that you can target a larger customer base and you can also sell your products/services to them at a higher price as there is no need for a physical store. Online purchasing can also increase your sales since you can target people from different areas of the world; you can also target buyers who have a tight budget.

The most important benefit of e-commerce or online auction business is that you don’t have to worry about inventory, fulfillment and delivery. With e-commerce, your customer interacts with you online and pays using credit cards/debits and you don’t have to worry about storing inventories, maintaining your inventory, warehousing and delivery. With online auction sites, you need not worry about payments, inventory and delivery either. You are totally relieved of these responsibilities and you can focus your attention on other aspects such as marketing and selling your product. Ecommerce websites provide you with complete control over your supply chain, which ultimately increases your returns and profits.