Introduction
E-commerce is an emergent internet-based system of doing business. The term refers to the general buying and selling of commodities online. The invention forms a fundamental trading force necessary for anyone intending to succeed business-wise. E-commerce is responsible for the gradual death of the brick-and-mortar corporations dominating the past centuries’ commercial world. Going online significantly guarantees organizations’ success, while investors objecting to e-commerce frequently become obsolete. As a tech-based subject, the real impact of e-commerce on various parties is not fully known. The invention affects all entities differently, with those celebrating its existence often focusing on the short-term benefits. E-commerce exhibits relative sustainability based on whether humans focus on promoting the facet’s positive effects or pursuing every opportunity, including the harmful ones.
Benefits
Short-Term
E-commerce’s ability to support a direct link between consumers and sellers proves the invention’s value. The effect comes both short-term and long-term to the parties involved in the trade. Unlike before, sellers now get a direct-to-consumer connection that helps them design or stock in-demand items or correct an issue affecting the investment’s profitability (Bansal et al., 2022). The aspect implies improvement in profitability and satisfaction levels as the investors make more money by meeting customers’ specific needs. Therefore, e-commerce delivers incomparable benefits to the business world by linking the two primary players and improving lives. Businesses no longer stock outdated items that keep increasing inventory costs due to variations in demand. Customers equally complain directly to the sellers in case a supply develops issues. Bringing the players to a level ground promotes honesty and truthfulness, thus transforming the sector. Some organizations even have consumers influence their products’ designs to make the produced items more customer-centered. Consequently, e-commerce delivers essential aids to businesses that traditional dealings could not convey.
E-commerce operations lead to a decline in operating costs among business investments. Websites now play several roles, including shelves, sales workforce, and currency registers for online sellers (Lafkihi et al., 2019). Other than seeking physical stores in the market, Amazon simply identifies a market gap, gathers the necessary items, and buys or develops a website for business. The process is substantially thwarted to the point that almost everyone can sell. Individuals, customers, and businesses offer buyers items online without locating a costly, strategically located store in the marketplace. Equally, online trade often involves no sales persons businesses must pay, making the scheme affordable (Lafkihi et al., 2019). Physical repairs and house maintenance are unusual elements under the e-commerce setting, thus allowing investments to cut expenditures while growing returns. Therefore, many investors simply register their businesses and start operations without caring about budgets, which increases accessible consumer products for increased satisfaction.
E-commerce-backed ease of ordering merchandise promotes satisfaction among consumers. Consumers do not have to travel nowadays to acquire necessary items as before (Santoso, 2022). Santoso (2022) describes the current experience where individuals even use mobile phones to check and order substances. The aspect is quite different from the past experiences that required consumers to travel to the market, mostly established in big distant cities, to purchase necessities. Furthermore, e-commerce enables customers to make informed decisions before purchasing items. Individuals today investigate product features and prices online to decide which one to buy based on the fitting aspects. Organizational and individual-operated websites available through multiple internet-enabled devices make this matter possible. Consumers then select the suitable products, in the case of goods’ purchase, after which they acquire them either as a parcel or through personal collection. Equally, Santoso (2022) combines the ease of returning products acquired through online dealings with the laidback ordering capability to support e-commerce creation. Accordingly, businesses utilizing e-commerce strategies currently realize all these positive benefits, among other long-term advantages.
Long-Term
E-commerce provides humans with a rare opportunity to solve almost all social issues affecting humanity, particularly concerning hunger and medical conditions. Together with the internet and globalization, e-commerce exhibits the power to transform the world into a small village, where societies struggling to develop adequate food will readily access such from those with the surplus. Alabi and Ngwenyama (2022) note that some nations facing specific challenges, such as continuous hunger and poor health, do not do that due to the lack of finances. Instead, difficult climatic conditions and other nature-related aspects challenge life in those settings, so establishing reliable supply channels for the basic items can solve the issue. Therefore, the limitless nature of e-commerce is crucial for the realization of a stable world in the future. Importantly, e-commerce forms a crucial element in humans’ desire to conquer other planets. Due to online transactions, Elon Musk’s dream of conquering Mars now seems more possible than before. Accordingly, making it possible for communication waves to travel among planets will see individuals living far apart connect and share essential material for survival, thus proving e-commerce’s indispensability.
Disadvantages
Short-Term
E-commerce leads to cut-throat competition by supporting the formation of numerous related businesses. Reduction in business costs after investors’ migration to online operations leads many people to start businesses. The investors often provide similar items and use differentiation tactics to realize competitive advantages. The uncontrolled number of businesses compete for an almost constant population of consumers, forcing some businesses to adopt unethical techniques to make sales (Jayashree & Abirami, 2022). Congestion on online platforms unfavorably affects some legitimate organizations committed to offering genuine services, forcing them to close while leaving untrustworthy cartels to exist. To manage this issue, Jayashree and Abirami, N. (2022) provide competitor analysis among online traders as an effective way of knowing what rivals offer and the best ways to counter their effects. Consequently, e-commerce regularly supports unfair competition among players, but creative investors can pave the way out of the mess by analyzing the market and developing the appropriate strategies.
Long-Run
E-commerce exhibits a significant connection to environmental degradation, job insecurity, health problems, and deaths among humans in the long run. Gudis (2022) provides the case of Riverside, California, as a critical cause of concerns regarding e-commerce expansion. All the area covered by the e-commerce-related warehouses previously featured green vegetative cover (Gudis, 2022). However, the site now produces tons of greenhouse gases with the potential to cause dangerous effects on organisms’ lives in the future. Similarly, Gudis (2022) notes that replacing traditional businesses with warehouses and online stores causes job insecurity. Additionally, e-commerce triggers consumer demand to unsustainable levels as people are always buying things presented to them by marketers (Lele & Goswami, 2020). The facet forces producers to employ unethical production means that lead to harmful items related to conditions such as cancers, birth defects, and deaths, according to Price (2021). Accordingly, establishing appropriate environmental conservation, employment security, and safety strategies for e-commerce operations provides adequate solutions to these concerns.
Conclusion
E-commerce has beneficial and detrimental effects on humans, nature, and the general world. Like any other innovation, e-commerce proves the danger of acquiring new wisdom without understanding among humans. Many people presently support the facet blindly without caring about the future. Getting meager returns presently makes the persons in charge blind and inconsiderate. Consequently, the world cherishes e-commerce due to its limited short-term benefits while ignoring the potential risks involved. Accordingly, the world must proceed with moderation concerning e-commerce lest the facet becomes too costly in the long run.
References
Alabi, M. O., & Ngwenyama, O. (2022). Food security and disruptions of the global food supply chains during COVID-19: Building smarter food supply chains for post COVID-19 era. British Food Journal. Web.
Bansal, S., Nangia, P., Singh, S., & Garg, I. (2022). Electronic retailing: Mapping the past for informing the future. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 1(1), 5-18. Web.
Gudis, C. (2022). Slow violence of the supply chain: A history of logistics in Mira Loma. Kcet. Web.
Jayashree, N., & Abirami, N. (2022). E-commerce–An overview with special reference to Indian economy. Journal of Statistics and Management Systems, 25(5), 1263-1268. Web.
Lafkihi, M., Pan, S., & Ballot, E. (2019). Freight transportation service procurement: A literature review and future research opportunities in omnichannel E-commerce. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 125, 348-365. Web.
Lele, U., & Goswami, S. (2020). Agricultural policy reforms: Roles of markets and states in China and India. Global Food Security, 26(3), 1003-71. Web.
Price, J. (2021). Stop saving the planet! An environmentalist manifesto. W. W. Norton & Company.
Santoso, E. (2022). Opportunities and challenges: E-commerce in Indonesia from a legal perspective. Jurnal Penelitian Hukum De Jure Volume, 22(3), 395-410. Web.