E-commerce or Electronic Commerce is the buying and selling of products and services by businesses and consumers over the

Internet and through other electronic media. E-business is when a company e-enables its processes to do business in a more
efficient way using Web technologies.

India is in a completely growing stage of development and we need to update our business to the growing needs of the new
generation. ‘Incredible India’ has now got a new name – ‘DIGITAL India’. There is a huge scope of eCommerce.

Double-digit growth for B2C

E-commerce retail has become the fastest growing trade sector and has outpaced every other trade and manufacturing sector since

1999, when the U.S. Census Bureau started collecting and publishing data on e-commerce. That year, e-commerce retail sales

represented less than 1 percent of total U.S. retail sales. In 2003 that number climbed to a little less than 2 percent; by 2008 it had

grown to 3.6 percent, and by the fourth quarter of 2010 B2C e-commerce reached 4.4 percent of total U.S. retail sales. In dollar

terms, e-commerce retail revenue currently stands at approximately US $165 billion, considerably less than the US $3.9 trillion that

represents the total U.S. retail market.

During the "Great Recession," which lasted from December 2007 through June 2009, manufacturing, wholesale, and bricks-and-

mortar retail sales took a heavy beating. By the fourth quarter of 2010 they still had not fully recovered, even though U.S. gross

domestic product (GDP) and personal spending (adjusted for inflation) had surpassed their previous peaks seen in late 2007.

Retail e-commerce, by contrast, weathered the recession relatively well, albeit with considerably slower growth than had been seen

prior to the financial crisis. In the first quarter of 2002, retail ecommerce experienced quarterly, year-over-year growth of about 42

percent. On the eve of the recession, that rate dropped to a still-respectable 18 percent. Quarterly sales continued to grow until the

latter part of 2008, and in the fourth quarter of 2009 sales surpassed the previous peak (see Figure 2).

It's important to note here that a large portion of B2C sales come through mail-order houses, many of which have an online presence

as well as traditional storefront outlets. Contrary to popular opinion, mail-order houses still have a very strong online presence, and

until just recently their sales outperformed online-only retailers.

Economic, behavioral changes

The changes that B2C e-commerce has sparked arguably have had a more significant impact on the economy and on buyers'

behavior than has B2B ecommerce. In the past, when consumers wanted to make purchases they had to set aside time to shop

during certain hours of the day, or they had to read through catalogs sent to them by mail-order houses. Today, many consumers can

simply use their computers— and now smart phones or other portable electronic devices—to shop online. Buyers and sellers that

engage in e-commerce retail trade are no longer restricted by store hours, geographic marketing areas, or catalog mailing lists. With

a few simple clicks they can gain access to a variety of goods 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The characteristics of retail e-commerce merchandise also have changed significantly over the past decade. Back in 2000, computer

hardware was the most common type of merchandise sold over the Internet. Today, the variety of merchandise is extremely diverse,

and shoppers can buy almost anything online.

Online shoppers have benefited in other ways. The growth of e-commerce retail sales has reduced consumers' search cost, placed

downward pressure on many consumer prices, and reduced price dispersion for many consumer goods. But this has led to a

substantial decrease in the number of small companies operating in certain industries, as they tend to be less involved with e-

commerce. Larger businesses, most notably retail book outlets, new automobile dealerships, and travel agents, are better able to

compete in this new market environment.

The extremely rapid growth of e-commerce retail sales has provided a major boost to residential parceldelivery services. That's

because online merchandise purchases involve some form of residential delivery by a third-party vendor such as FedEx, UPS, or the

U.S. Postal Service. In addition, there appear to be considerable synergies related to B2C parcel and heavier freight volumes—parcel

industry insiders have observed that businesses with strong e-commercerelated B2C parcel shipment volumes often have stronger

B2B shipment volumes than those that do not engage in B2C e-commerce.

E-commerce influences demand patterns

As technology, e-commerce, and globalization become more intertwined, buyers and sellers are increasing their connectivity and the

speed with which they conduct sales transactions. As we saw during the recent turmoil in the financial markets and some supply

chain networks, speeding up sales transactions can be a very positive attribute when small market corrections are taking place.

However, during a major economic correction like the one we witnessed during the Great Recession, a quicker response to sales

transactions can have cascading impacts on supply chains, resulting in large contractions or expansions in orders, production,

shipments, and inventory.

That's because years ago, it might have taken two years for events in one country to affect another's economy. Now, thanks to

technology and instant communication, the impact can be almost immediate.

Thus, there are some potentially negative consequences to the rapid growth of e-commerce. In this volatile business environment,

supply chain managers should consider developing strategies for dealing with the rapid swings that can result from increasing use of

e-commerce in a globalized market.

known as Amazon, is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company that was
founded on July 5, 1994, by Jeff Bezos and is based in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest Internet-
based retailer in the world by total sales and market capitalization.[12]Amazon.com started as an
online bookstore, later diversifying to sell DVDs, Blu-
rays, CDs, video downloads/streaming, MP3 downloads/streaming, audiobook downloads/streaming
, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. The company also
produces consumer electronics—notably, Kindle e-readers, Firetablets, Fire TV, and Echo—and is
the world's largest provider of cloud infrastructure services (IaaS and PaaS).[13]Amazon also sells
certain low-end products like USB cables under its in-house brand AmazonBasics.
Amazon has separate retail websites for the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland, France,
Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, Japan, China, India, and Mexico.
Amazon also offers international shipping to certain other countries for some of its products.[14] In
2016, Dutch, Polish, and Turkish language versions of the German Amazon website were
launched.[15][16][17]
In 2015, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the United States by market
capitalization.[18] Amazon is the fourth most valuable public company in the world, the largest Internet
company by revenue in the world and the eighth largest employer in the United States.[19] In 2017,
Amazon announced their plans to acquire Whole Foods Market for $13.4 billion by the end of the
year, vastly increasing Amazon's presence as a physical retailer.[20] The acquisition was interpreted
as a direct attempt to challenge Walmart as a physical store.[21]

eBay Inc. (/ˈiːˌbeɪ/ EE-bay, stylized as ebay) is a multinational e-commerce corporation, facilitating
online consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales. It is headquartered in San
Jose, California. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995, and became a notable success story
of the dot-com bubble. Today it is a multibillion-dollar business with operations in about 30
countries.[5]
The company manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and
businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. In addition to its auction-
style sales, the website has since expanded to include "Buy It Now" shopping; shopping
by UPC, ISBN, or other kind of SKU number (via Half.com); online classified advertisements
(via Kijiji or eBay Classifieds); online event ticket trading (via StubHub); and other services. It
previously offered online money transfers (via PayPal,[6] which was a wholly owned subsidiary of
eBay from 2002 until 2015). The website is free to use for buyers, but sellers are charged fees for
listing items and again when those items are sold.[7]