Rajiv Sharma, International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences, ISSN 2250-0588,

Impact Factor: 6.452, Volume 07 Issue 05, May 2017, Page 47-50

E-Commerce in India
Rajiv Sharma
(Asst Professor, A.S. College, Khanna, Punjab, India)
Abstract: E-commerce is definitely one of the Definition: The buying & selling of products &
business options that one will have to explore in the services by businesses & customers through on
future. Ecommerce is said to bring about paradigm electronic medium, without using any paper
shift in the world for trading. Prediction e- documents. E-commerce is widely considered the
commerce is showing tremendous business growth buying & selling of products over the internet, but
in our country. Backed by increased online user any transaction that is completed solely through
base & mobile phone presentation, Indian e- electronic measures can be considered e-
commerce has seen impressive growth in the last commerce. E-commerce is subdivided into three-
few years. Considering India’s demographic categories: business to business or B 2 B (Cisco),
dividend & rising internet accessibility, the sector business to consumer or B 2 C (Amazon) &
is slated to scale greater heights. Although, India’s Consumer to consumer C 2 C (eBay).
overall retail opportunity is substantial, the sector is
beset with some serious challenges. The present ECOMMERCE in India:
study has been undertaken to describe the present
There are some essential factors which will
status & future growth of e-commerce in India.
significantly contribute to the boom of e-commerce
Analyze the present trends of e-commerce in India
industry in India i.e. Legal requirement of
& examine the challenges & opportunities of e-
generating invoices for online transactions,
commerce in India.
multiple payment option, replacement guarantee,
Keywords: E-commerce, Online retail, Increasing quick service, the product quality and dedicated
internet users, Electronic fund transfer. 24/7 customer care centre should be there. E-
commerce also provides various types of
Introduction opportunities for retailers, wholesalers/distributors,
producers and also people.
E-commerce stands for electronic commerce. It
means dealing in goods & services through the A. Services for Producers
electronic media & internet. The rapid growth of e-
commerce in India is being driven by greater Producers can take advantage of ecommerce
customer choice & improved convenience with the by linking themselves with online, by giving better
help of internet the vendor or merchant who sells information about their product to the other links in
products or services directly to the customer from the business chain and by having brand identity.
the portal using a shopping basket system or digital Producers can sell their goods directly to the
cart & allows payment trough debit card, credit consumers and retailers. Providers has easy
card or electronic fund transfer payments. In the potential for communication and they can no longer
present scenario e-commerce market & its space is rely on the customer to be forced to communicate
increasing in demand as well as an impressive with them by sending leaflets or through
display or range of a particular type of services. E- advertisements.
commerce is already appearing in all areas of
B. Services for whole Distributor
business, customer services, new product
development & design. E-commerce business is Wholesalers can take advantage of ecommerce
growing in India because of wide range of product who is capable of establishing contractors with
with minimum price wide range of suppliers & reputed producers and linking their business with
customers internet. In this modern era every the on-line. Ecommerce decreases the cost of
business units want to join online business because creating, processing, distributing, storing and
increasing ratio of internet users in India. E- retrieving information by digitizing the process.
commerce in India is still in growing stage but it
offers considerable opportunity. C. Services for People

http://indusedu.org Page 47

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Rajiv Sharma, International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences, ISSN 2250-0588,
Impact Factor: 6.452, Volume 07 Issue 05, May 2017, Page 47-50

People can buy with a click of mouse button B. To Suppliers: The major advantages that e-
without moving out of their house or office, online commerce can bring to the companies/suppliers
services such as banking , ticketing including are:
airlines ,bus, railways, hotel booking etc have been
tremendous benefit for the customers. E-commerce 1. It minimizes inventory cost E-commerce
allows consumers to interact in electronic venture need not maintain huge inventories or
communities and to exchange ideas and compare expensive retail showrooms. Their marketing and
experiences. sales force is a fraction of that of traditional mortar-
based businesses. Ecommerce can minimize
D. Services for Retailers inventory costs by adopting just-intime (JIT)
system enhancing the firm’s ability to forecast
A Retailer can save his existence by linking demand more accurately.
his business with the on-line distribution.They can
make available much additional information about 2. It can improve customer services It has been
various things to the consumers, meet electronic found that providing both customer and after-sale
orders and be in touch with the consumers all the services account for up to 10 per cent of the
time. Retailer put the information of their product operating costs.
on such web site which is heavily visited by user
like yahoo.com etc. When their product By putting these services on-line under e-
advertisement is seen by many people, more commerce, these costs get reduced, on the one
customers will get attracted and thus merchant can hand, and simultaneously the quality of services
get more orders. also gets improved, on the other. High quality
customer relationship called” “customization” is
Advantages of e-commerce crucial for retaining custom-ers in the e-commerce
environment. That is the reason why Customer
A. To Consumers: Relationship Management (CRM) has become the
buzzword which everybody is talking of now. E-
The distinct advantages e-commerce can offer to
commerce provides ample opportunity for
the consumers include but are not confined to the
Customer Relationship Management solution and,
following only:
in turn, in establishing better relationship with the
(i) Consumers have a much wider choice customers. It becomes absolutely necessary for the
available on the cyber market. company to enhance customer loyalty. Otherwise
(ii) They bear lower costs for products due to the customer, who is full of choices, can jump from
increased online competition among one website to another. If company is to stay in
sellers. business then it will have to deliver the products or
(iii) Because of wide-scale information services to customers as they want, when they
dissemination, consumers can want, and how they want.
compare products, features, prices
3. It reduces distribution costs as well The
and even look up reviews before they
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) based on
select what they want.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and
(iv) They enjoy wider access to assistance and
Development (OECD) study has revealed that the
to advice from experts and peers.
time needed to process an order declined abruptly
(v) They enjoy saving in shopping time and
by a minimum of 50 per cent to a maximum of 96
money.
per cent. It is really amazing.
(vi) Consumers also avail of fast services and
delivery of products and services. 4. It helps business globalize E-commerce by
(vii) They also have the convenience of having minimizing costs enables companies’ especially
their orders delivered right to the door small ones to make information on its products and
step. services available to all the potential customers
(viii) Finally, consumers are driven to e- spread over worldwide. This is well confirmed by
shopping in hordes as even branded Amazon. Com. founded by Jeff Bezos, the largest
goods cost less on the Net. bookstore in the net by taking away a large amount

http://indusedu.org Page 48

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Rajiv Sharma, International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences, ISSN 2250-0588,
Impact Factor: 6.452, Volume 07 Issue 05, May 2017, Page 47-50

of sales from the traditional booksellers. In India, problem that early stage of ecommerce startup will
the experience of reinfusion-on-the- net presents face.
the similar case.
C. Product Target
5. It helps market products more quickly By taking
the entire product design process online, drawing More companies flood the marketplace with
partners and customers into the process and new products; target marketing is becoming an
removing the traditional communication barriers, increasingly important tool of differentiation.
companies can bring products and services to Product which is not satisfactory for the customers
market far more quickly. Internet commerce tend to got replaced or returned. Some products
solutions allow customer to reduce the costs of take long delivery time to reach customers home.
sales and open new markets, speed and simplify Delivery time of products may range from days to
order accuracy, approval, and processing, tracking month .This is major issue which leads into overall
and delivery and improve decision making, loss in revenue, loss of shipment costs and
leverage existing investments in infrastructure, reputation. The average Indian customer poses
business systems and repositions and link great trust issues for e-commerce transactions.
manufacturers with suppliers on the same network.
D. Less Awareness
CHALLENGES IN E-COMMERCE
Indian customers are more comfortable in
There are some barriers responsible for slow buying products comfortable. They tend to choose
growth of e-commerce in India. Hamilton (2002)2 the product by touching the product directly.
indicate some barrier in using e-commerce Majority of Indian rural population are unaware of
including security problems, lack of skills, cost etc. internet and it uses. When it comes to ratio of
Customer resistance to changing from a real to internet consumers, scenario is not so admirable
virtual store. People do not yet sufficiently trust one. Very few are aware of the online corruption
paperless, faceless transactions. For the growth of and fraud and thus darkness still exists. A reliable
E-business in India it needs a focus and should to survey reveals that 50% of Indian online users are
make country in the lines of E-business. unaware of solution of online security.

A. Security Issues E. Cash on Delivery

Fear of making online payment is a universal E-commerce companies are offering COD as
psychological factor of Indian customers. 60% of one of mode of payment for the buyers. It is seen
the users do not trust the web as payment channel. that majority of the customers denied to make the
Web transaction takes place with credit card, but payment at the time of delivery of the product.
credit card itself is not safe. Anyone who can 30%50% of buyers are also taking advantage of
transfer the data of credit card on the web is not this while purchase of any product and service over
sure about the salesman identity. Buyer is also not internet. COD has been introduced to counter the
sure that card is not used for malicious purpose payment security issues of online transaction but
which also causes big challenge for e-commerce in this mode has been proving expensive to
banking also. companies.

B. Customer Acquisition Forces Conclusion

Successful e-commerce interaction between E-commerce provides various services to

markets should be strong. Issues related to lack of wholesalers who can take advantage of E-
supply chain integration, high charges for products, commerce and capable of establishing contractors
delay in delivery and lack of proper courier with reputed producers and linking their business
services in some areas also make customers with the on-line. Also Retailers meet electronic
frustrated and one of challenge faced by e- orders and should be in touch with consumers all
commerce. To get people to come on e-commerce the time with Ecommerce. Nowadays, E-commerce
site and make purchase involves heavy cost due to is the extensive use of computer network with
advertisement and marketing which is biggest internet.

http://indusedu.org Page 49

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Rajiv Sharma, International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences, ISSN 2250-0588,
Impact Factor: 6.452, Volume 07 Issue 05, May 2017, Page 47-50

REFERENCES

[1] Kaur,P.and Joshi, M.M., “E-Commerce in India: A

Review”, IJCST,Vol.3, Issue 1,Jan-March 2012,pp-
802-804
[2] Kaur,Ranmeet, E-Commerce in India, Asian journal
of research in business economics and management,
vol.2, issue 6,2012
[3] Awais and Samin(2012),Advanced SWOT Analysis of
E-Commerce, International journal of Computer
Sciences Issues, Vol.9, Issue 2.
[4] Abhijit Mitra,E-Commerce in India-A Review,
International Journal of marketing, Financial
Services & Management Research, Vol.2, No.2,
February (2013).
[5] Bhavya Malhotra, E-Business: Issues & Challenges
in Indian Perspective, Global Journal of Business
Management and Information Technology, Volume
4, Number 1(2014).
[6] Jain S, Kapoor B. Ecommerce in India- Boom and
the Real Challenges, VSRD International Journal of
Business & Management. 2012; 2(2):47-53.

http://indusedu.org Page 50

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License