E-commerce
[1] E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems.
The term was coined and first employed by Robert Jacobson, Principal Consultant to the California State Assembly's Utilities & Commerce Committee, in the title and text of California's Electronic Commerce Act, carried by the late Committee Chairwoman Gwen Moore (D-L.A.) and enacted in 1984.
Typical e-commerce transactions include the purchase of products (such as books from Amazon) or services (such as music downloads in the form of digital distribution such as the iTunes Store).
The purpose was stated as being to find ways of co-operating on tackling consumer problems connected with cross-border transactions in both goods and services, and to help ensure exchanges of information among the participants for mutual benefit and understanding.
APEC was established in 1989 with the vision of achieving stability, security and prosperity for the region through free and open trade and investment.
[16] The European Union undertook an extensive enquiry into e-commerce in 2015–16 which observed significant growth in the development of e-commerce, along with some developments which raised concerns, such as increased use of selective distribution systems, which allow manufacturers to control routes to market, and "increased use of contractual restrictions to better control product distribution".
The European Commission felt that some emerging practices might be justified if they could improve the quality of product distribution, but "others may unduly prevent consumers from benefiting from greater product choice and lower prices in e-commerce and therefore warrant Commission action" in order to promote compliance with EU competition rules.
The PSRs created a new class of regulated firms known as payment institutions (PIs), who are subject to prudential requirements.
It shows that numerous firms have opened up new businesses, expanded new markets, and overcome trade barriers; more and more enterprises have started exploring the cross-border cooperation field.
However, the success of cross-border e-commerce promotes the development of small and medium-sized firms, and it has finally become a new transaction mode.
SMEs ( small and medium enterprises) can also precisely match the demand and supply in the market, having the industrial chain majorization and creating more revenues for companies.
[28] For traditional businesses, one research stated that information technology and cross-border e-commerce is a good opportunity for the rapid development and growth of enterprises.
[41]: 44 In 2019, the city of Hangzhou established a pilot program artificial intelligence-based Internet Court to adjudicate disputes related to e-commerce and internet-related intellectual property claims.
[43] As of 2013, the Czech Republic was the European country where e-commerce delivers the biggest contribution to the enterprises' total revenue.
The growth and development of the two aspects make the GCC countries become larger players in the electronic commerce market with time progress.
Specifically, research shows that the e-commerce market is expected to grow to over $20 billion by 2020 among these GCC countries (Yuldashev).
Activist investors are trying hard to consolidate and slash their overall cost and the governments in western countries continue to impose more regulation on CPG manufacturers (Geisler, 36).
Despite the forces that push business to adapt e-commerce as a means to sell goods and products, the manner in which customers make purchases is similar in countries from these two regions.
Government bodies at the country level will enhance their measures and strategies to ensure sustainability and consumer protection (Krings, et al.).
The type of threats include: malicious codes, unwanted programs (ad ware, spyware), phishing, hacking, and cyber vandalism.
However, the emergence of e-commerce has provided a more practical and effective way of delivering the benefits of the new supply chain technologies.
[55] In addition, e-commerce has a more sophisticated level of impact on supply chains: Firstly, the performance gap will be eliminated since companies can identify gaps between different levels of supply chains by electronic means of solutions; Secondly, as a result of e-commerce emergence, new capabilities such implementing ERP systems, like SAP ERP, Xero, or Megaventory, have helped companies to manage operations with customers and suppliers.
Fourthly, e-commerce would help to solve many aspects of issues that companies may feel difficult to cope with, such as political barriers or cross-country changes.
[55] E-commerce helps create new job opportunities due to information related services, software app and digital products.
The development of e-commerce will create jobs that require highly skilled workers to manage large amounts of information, customer demands, and production processes.
[56] E-commerce brings convenience for customers as they do not have to leave home and only need to browse websites online, especially for buying products which are not sold in nearby shops.
Thanks to the practice of user-generated ratings and reviews from companies like Bazaarvoice, Trustpilot, and Yelp, customers can also see what other people think of a product, and decide before buying if they want to spend money on it.
"[63] The rise of e-commerce outlets like Amazon has made it harder for traditional retailers to attract customers to their stores and forced companies to change their sales strategies.
Many companies have turned to sales promotions and increased digital efforts to lure shoppers while shutting down brick-and-mortar locations.
[65] In March 2020, global retail website traffic hit 14.3 billion visits[66] signifying an unprecedented growth of e-commerce during the lockdown of 2020.
