REASONS FOR TRANSACTING ONLINE:-

1. NEW ECONOMY
Internet has created a new economy, which by its explosive growth and sheer size already
changed our perception of traditional way of doing business. Companies like Amazon and
Ebay have successfully created domination on areas, where just few years ago traditional
brick-and-mortar companies were kings. However, in order to be successful on the net, you
don’t have to be a giant like them. Many small and mid-size companies managed to build
online businesses quite profitably. In fact, studies show small and mid-size companies will be
the main growth force of e-commerce in coming years.
2. INTERNET IS A PERFECT VENUE FOR BUSINESS.
In order to make a sale you need visitors to come to your shop. On the Internet, your shop
could be only a click away from your prospective customers. With proper marketing your
Internet storefront can have more buyers than you ever can get in a brick and mortar shop.
3. COMPANY’S IMAGE.
Whether you sell products or services online or not, in today’s world you have to have a
corporate presence on the Internet. Otherwise, as you must have noticed that people simply
don’t take your business seriously if you tell them that your company does not have a
website. A nice corporate site definitely increases the image of a company especially if it has
great product or service related content to go with.
4. PROVIDE BETTER CUSTOMER SUPPORT.
Customer accusation and retention is one of the key factors of business value chain. Thanks
to Internet technology, business can provide customer support more effectively. This means
better customer satisfaction and increase of profitability.
5. MAKE INFORMATION MORE EASILY AVAILABLE TO CUSTOMERS.
Just a couple of years ago, companies used to require days to deliver products or services
update information to their customers. Things have changed since then. Today you can add or
make any changes to your company and product related content virtually in a matter of
couple of hours, publish on your site and share with the whole world.
6. CUT COSTS.
New technologies allow you to take virtually any part of your business online, that include
supply chain management, billing, shipping, procurement etc. Streamlining these business
processes through online systems will allow companies to cut costs significantly in almost
every sphere of any business. For example: companies can reduce more than five percents of
their maintenance, repair and operation costs by adopting e-business solutions. This five
percent savings can turn into 50% of a company’s net profit!
7. ABILITY TO DO BUSINESS 24 HOURS.
How else you can continue making sales, while your stuffs are sleeping! The biggest
advantages of online shops are that they are open 24 hours a day year round. Thanks to
Internet off time, when your shop is generally closed, sales in some cases can be more than
your regular business hours!
8. LOW START UP COSTS.
Building a web site does not require big investments. There are many low cost tools available
today, which can help you create sites from very scratch. Many business portals allow you to
build web sites from templates. For less than 100$/month you can have a full-fledged
corporate e-business site with all e-commerce features!
9. YOU PHYSICAL PRESENCE COULD BE IN ANY LOCATION.
The World Wide Web allows you to do business from any part of the world. Your physical
location, except for few cases is not that important since you conduct your business online.
10. GO GLOBAL
Thanks to Internet you can instantly become a global player. In fact, you don’t have to invest
large sums of money to do this. There are literally hundreds of vertical and horizontal e-
marketplaces available on the net. These marketplaces allow you for a nominal fee to get
access to a large audience of prospective customers from all over the world. According to
AMR Research more than 1,3$ trillion of good and services will flow through the B2B
marketplaces. Who does not want a piece of this pie!

The right determinant of e-business success is the same like any off line business. You have
to have a great idea, you have to have a business plan, there should be a value proposition for
prospective clients and you should have belief in it and your ability!

Getting online is becoming cheaper and easier thanks to emergence of new technologies but
marketing on the Internet is becoming more expensive.
Types of E-commerce/ E-Commerce Models:-
E-commerce business models can generally be categorized into the following categories.
• Business - to - Business (B2B)
• Business - to - Consumer (B2C)
• Consumer - to - Consumer (C2C)
• Consumer - to - Business (C2B)
• Business - to - Government (B2G)
• Government - to - Business (G2B)
• Government - to - Citizen (G2C)

Business - to - Business
A website following the B2B business model sells its products to an intermediate buyer who
then sells the product to the final customer. As an example, a wholesaler places an order
from a company's website and after receiving the consignment, sells the end product to the
final customer who comes to buy the product at one of its retail outlets.
Business - to - Consumer
A website following the B2C business model sells its products directly to a customer. A
customer can view the products shown on the website. The customer can choose a product
and order the same. The website will then send a notification to the business organization
via email and the organization will dispatch the product/goods to the customer.

Consumer - to - Consumer
A website following the C2C business model helps consumers to sell their assets like
residential property, cars, motorcycles, etc., or rent a room by publishing their information
on the website. Website may or may not charge the consumer for its services. Another
consumer may opt to buy the product of the first customer by viewing the
post/advertisement on the website.

Consumer - to - Business
In this model, a consumer approaches a website showing multiple business organizations for
a particular service. The consumer places an estimate of amount he/she wants to spend for a
particular service. For example, the comparison of interest rates of personal loan/car loan
provided by various banks via websites. A business organization who fulfills the consumer's
requirement within the specified budget, approaches the customer and provides its services.
Business - to - Government
B2G model is a variant of B2B model. Such websites are used by governments to trade and
exchange information with various business organizations. Such websites are accredited by
the government and provide a medium to businesses to submit application forms to the
government.

Government - to - Business
Governments use B2G model websites to approach business organizations. Such websites
support auctions, tenders, and application submission functionalities.

Government - to - Citizen
Governments use G2C model websites to approach citizen in general. Such websites support
auctions of vehicles, machinery, or any other material. Such website also provides services
like registration for birth, marriage or death certificates. The main objective of G2C websites
is to reduce the average time for fulfilling citizen’s requests for various government
services.

Challenges and Barriers in E-Commerce Environment

Challenge #1: Lack of Verification Measures

Once a customer signs up in an e-commerce portal, the portal is unaware about the customer
except for the information he/she entered. the credibility of the customer is questionable. This
heightens when the customer issues a Cash-on-Delivery (COD) purchase because the
business is unsure whether the customer is genuine or not. These have resulted in huge
revenue losses for many e-commerce players.

Solution: This challenge can be brought under control by sending out a textual or/and email
message to the customer to validate his/her identity. And when a COD purchase is issued, an
automated call or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) can be dialed out to the customer and ask
him/her to validate the delivery address. This would not send out the wrong message to the
customers that they are being doubted, and it would fulfil your purpose as well.

Challenge #2: Product Returns and Refunds

When products are returned because customers are unsatisfied with the product, it scars the
business with the heavy loss of shipment and reputation. Cost of logistics has always been an
issue for e-commerce players especially for those who deliver for free.

Solution: This cost of operation can be minimized with proper returns management with
seamless interaction platform with logistic partners and vendors.

Challenge #3: Lack of Integration

Order management system, customer support system, dispatch system, order tracking system,
etc are applications that can streamline the experience of the customer across the buying
journey. But if these systems are disparate it could ruin customer experience.

Solution: Customer service solutions could integrate with multiple systems seamlessly,
synchronizing available information across all systems and displaying it in a single interface.

Challenge #4: Customer Issues Going Unnoticed

Being in an industry where customers can take their business elsewhere in a blink of an eye,
customer service goes a long way. E-commerce business receives a lot of inbound interaction
with more than 75% being complaints or concerns. When these concerns go unnoticed, it
compromises the standard of quality of your business and tarnishes your image.

Solution: With proper ticketing solutions and easy to use interfaces, employees are able to cater to
every customer ticket generated at any channel. The efficiency raises with prioritization
measures assigning the level of importance to each ticket, making sure high priority tickets
are handled before anything else.

Challenge #5: Customer Loyalty

The e-commerce industry is an industry where the cost of switching is pretty insignificant. A
lot of players have lost customers because their rivals have a better quality of customer
service or better discounts. Knowing that 86% of clients stop doing business with a company
because of poor customer service, you need to ensure customer service is always a priority
for your online business and part of your retention strategy. Customers demand consistent
and seamless experiences across all channels, and players that refuse to deliver fail to retain
customers.

Solution: Customer service experience solutions make sure every customer interaction is
under the radar. With effective customer nurturing technology tools and multimedia
integration improves customer retention scores and are more likely to transform one-time
purchasers to brand advocates.
Challenges and Barriers in E-Commerce

1. Finding the right products to sell

2. Attracting the perfect customer

3. Generating targeted traffic

4. Capturing quality leads

5. Nurturing the ideal prospects

6. Converting shoppers into paying customers

7. Retaining customers

8. Achieving profitable long-term growth

9. Choosing the right technology & partners

10. Attracting and hiring the right people to make it all happen
E-Commerce in India:- Transition to E-Commerce in India:-
Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, which literally means business trading through the
Internet, has been around the globe since mid 90s. However, until the recent few years,
ecommerce is getting more and more attention from entrepreneur and consumers, both local
and international. One of the main reasons is due to the highly successful operations of some
well known names on the Internet, such as eBay, Yahoo and Dell. The sales revenue these
companies show in their annual reports are without doubt, one of the biggest factors why e-
commerce is important in the commercial market nowadays. E-commerce proved its
importance based on the fact where time is essence. In the commercial markets, time plays
an important role to both the business and consumers. From the business perspective, with
less time spent during each transaction, more transaction can be achieved on the same day.
As for the consumer, they will save up more time during their transaction. Because of this,
e-commerce steps in and replaced the traditional commerce method where a single
transaction can cost both parties a lot of valuable time. With just a few clicks in minutes, a
transaction or an order can be placed and completed via the internet with ease. From the
business viewpoint, e-commerce is much more cost effective compared to traditional
commerce method. This is due to the fact where through ecommerce, the cost for the
middleperson to sell their products can be saved and diverted to another aspect of their
business. Aside from that, marketing for e-commerce can achieve a better customer to cost
ratio as putting an advertisement on the internet is comparably much cheaper than putting up
a roadside banner or filming a television commercial. For e-commerce, the total overheads
needed to run the business is significantly much less compared to the traditional commerce
method. The reason due to that is where most of the cost can be reduced in ecommerce. In
running an e-commerce business, only a head office is needed rather than a head office with
a few branches to run the business. In addition to that, most of the cost for staff,
maintenance, communications and office rental can be substitute by a single cost, web
hosting for the e-commerce business. To both the consumers and business, connectivity
plays an important part as it is the key factor determining the whole business. From the
business point of view, e-commerce provides better connectivity for its potential customer as
their respective website can be accessed virtually from anywhere through Internet. This way,
more potential customers can get in touch with the company's business and thus, eliminating
the limits of geographical location. From the customer standpoint, e-commerce is much
more convenient as they can browse through a whole directories of catalogues without any
hassle, compare prices between products, buying from another country and on top of that,
they can do it while at home or at work, without any necessity to move a single inch from
their chair. Besides that, for both consumers and business, e-commerce proves to be more
convenient as online trading has less red tape compared to traditional commerce method. In
global market sense, the appearance of ecommerce as a pioneer has opened up various
windows of opportunities for a variety of other companies and investors. Due to the
booming of e-commerce, more and more resources are being directed into electronic
securities, internet facilities, business plans and new technologies. In result of this
phenomenon, a variety of new markets have emerged from e-commerce itself giving a boost
to the global market21 .
Introduction
The e-commerce has transformed the way business is done in India. The Indian e-commerce
market is expected to grow to US$ 200 billion by 2026 from US$ 38.5 billion as of 2017.
Much growth of the industry has been triggered by increasing internet and smart phone
penetration. The ongoing digital transformation in the country is expected to increase India’s
total internet user base to 829 million by 2021 from 604.21 million as of December
2018. India’s internet economy is expected to double from US$125 billion as of April 2017
to US$ 250 billion by 2020, majorly backed by ecommerce. India’s E-commerce revenue is
expected to jump from US$ 39 billion in 2017 to US$ 120 billion in 2020, growing at an
annual rate of 51 per cent, the highest in the world.

Market Size
Propelled by rising smart phone penetration, the launch of 4G networks and increasing
consumer wealth, the Indian e-commerce market is expected to grow to US$ 200 billion by
2026 from US$ 38.5 billion in 2017 Online retail sales in India are expected to grow by 31
per cent to touch US$ 32.70 billion in 2018, led by Flipkart, Amazon India and Paytm Mall.
During 2018, electronics is currently the biggest contributor to online retail sales in India
with a share of 48 per cent, followed closely by apparel at 29 per cent.

Investments/ Developments
Some of the major developments in the Indian e-commerce sector are as follows:

 Flipkart, after getting acquired by Walmart for US$ 16 billion, is expected to launch
more offline retail stores in India to promote private labels in segments such as
fashion and electronics. In September 2018, Flipkart acquired Israel based analytics
start-up Upstream Commerce that will help the firm to price and position its products
in an efficient way.
 Paytm has launched its bank - Paytm Payment Bank. Paytm bank is India's first bank
with zero charges on online transactions, no minimum balance requirement and free
virtual debit card
 As of June 2018, Google is also planning to enter into the E-commerce space by
November 2018. India is expected to be its first market.
 Reliance retail is going to launch online retail this year. It has already launched its
food and grocery app for beta testing among its employees.
 E-commerce industry in India witnessed 21 private equity and venture capital deals
worth US$ 2.1 billion in 2017 and 40 deals worth US$ 1,129 million in the first half
of 2018.
 Google and Tata Trust have collaborated for the project ‘Internet Saathi’ to improve
internet penetration among rural women in India.

Government initiatives
Since 2014, the Government of India has announced various initiatives namely, Digital India,
Make in India, Start-up India, Skill India and Innovation Fund. The timely and effective
implementation of such programs will likely support the e-commerce growth in the country.

Some of the major initiatives taken by the government to promote the e-commerce sector in
India are as follows:

 In order to increase the participation of foreign players in the e-commerce field, the
Indian Government hiked the limit of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the E-
commerce marketplace model for up to 100 per cent (in B2B models).
 The heavy investment of Government of India in rolling out the fiber network for 5G
will help boost ecommerce in India
  In the Union Budget of 2018-19, government has allocated Rs 8,000 crore (US$ 1.24
billion) to BharatNet Project, to provide broadband services to 150,000 gram
panchayats
 As of August 2018, the government is working on the second draft of e-commerce
policy, incorporating inputs from various industry stakeholders.

Achievements
Following are the achievements of the government in the past four years:

 Under the Digital India movement, government launched various initiatives like
Udaan, Umang, Start-up India Portal etc.
 Under the project ‘Internet Saathi’, the government has influenced over 16 million
women in India and reached 166,000 villages
 Udaan, a B2B online trade platform that connect small and medium size
manufacturers and wholesalers with online retailers and also provide them logistics,
payments and technology support, has sellers in over 80 cities of India and delivers to
over 500 cities.
 According to the UN’s eGovernance index, India has jumped 11 positions to 107 in
2016 from 2018 in 2014.
 The government introduced Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), a simple mobile
based platform for digital payments.

PROFILE OF E-COMMERCE COMPANIES IN INDIA

1. Flipkart.com
Flipkart.com is the most popular of all Indian online shopping companies, offering
genuine products to people. They have huge stock of innumerable products like
clothes, music, electronics, books, health products, kid’s toys and accessories,
perfumes, games, movies, home appliances, shoes, stationeries and many more things.
The shopping website offers great advantage of faster product delivery and free
shipping on ordered products for more than Rs.500. Customers also enjoy the
privilege of exceptional services like payment on delivery or ‘cash on delivery’. They
can also pay on a monthly basis, as EMIs. In case any customer is not satisfied with
the products, he or she can even return them and get entire payment back. As one of
the notable online shopping companies in India, Flip kart also offers 30-day
replacement policy. All types of Visa and Master Debit or Credit cards are accepted to
initiate the online transaction system. Dedicated delivery partners of Flip kart take the
responsibility for timely product delivery at mentioned addresses .
2. Jabong.com
Jabong.com is certainly in the acclaimed list of online shopping websites in India.
One of the best customer support services I found in India. The online shopping
website is highly popular in offering best quality products of reputed brands.
Customers can cater to a wide variety of fashion apparel, footwear, accessories and
even jewelleries. They have huge collection of all mentioned items for women, kids
and men. The online shopping website strives best to offer highest shopping
satisfaction over the internet to all customers from a wide region. They even use
 cutting-edge technology on their online shopping platform to make it swift for surfing
through various product pages. In addition, highly experienced support team provides
exclusive service for consumers and tries to solve almost all problems, if any situation
demands. Jabong.com is one of the fastest growing online shopping portals offering
reliable, trendy and stylish products according to taste of reigning period and fashion
concerns of people. They are highly popular as an online shopping portal offering best
prices with exclusive discount offers.
3. Myntra.com
A one-stop online shopping portal, myntra.com caters to fulfill all requirements
pertaining to lifestyle and fashion products. The company is counted in the list of
online shopping sites raging the country recently. They even offer variety of branded
products through the online shopping portal. They are primarily reasonable to make
online consumers conscious about brand value of different products of daily utility.
From its introduction into the online business world, myntra is dealing in exclusive
choices of accessories, footwear, cosmetics and apparel from more than 500 reputed
international and Indian brands. Notable among them are Biba, Adidas, Inc5, Puma,
Nike, United Colors of Benetton etc. The online shopping portal is reputed to offer
more than 3000 styles of products, fitting requirements of all valued consumers. The
customer support service and process of home delivery are one of the swiftest in the
business world. They are also one of the leading Indian online shopping companies
offering guaranteed 30-day free return of goods from doorsteps of consumers in case
of unsatisfactory service.
4. Snapdeal.com
Snapdeal.com started their online business platform in 2010 under the leadership of
Rohit Bansal and Kunal Bahl. Presently, they are placed at favorable positions on the
list of online shopping sites in India. They offer widest range of products – lifestyle,
fashion apparel, accessories, electronics, games, eateries, chocolates, grooming, books
etc., for both men and women. The online shopping platform has their service in more
than 50 cities across India and also has a record 15 million registered users in the
country. The website features more than 3000 brands – national, international and
even less famous yet offering quality products. The online store has more than 200
categories featuring more than 250000 products listed with them. More than 25000
products are sold every day. Snap deal has close ties with reputed courier services that
help in faster home delivery process. They even offer free return policy of products, if
they fail to meet the expectations of customers. Unlike other Indianonline shopping
companies, they initiate complete refund and even additional courier charges that the
consumer bears, if any, while returning the products in an undamaged and unused
condition .
5. Amazon.in
Amazon is one of the most reputed names in the world of online shopping for
products like eBooks, electronics and others items. The Amazon India website and it
services are being tweaked for India and its hugely growing online shoppers. Amazon.
in is operated by Amazon Seller Services Private Ltd, an affiliate of Amazon.com,
Inc. is a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, which opened on the World Wide
Web in July 1995; and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. They are committed to
ensure 100% Purchase Protection for your shopping done on Amazon.in so that you
 can benefit from a safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient electronic
payments and cash on delivery, easy returns, Amazon’s customer service with 24×7
support, and a globally recognized and comprehensive purchase protection provided
by Amazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee. You can find this Fulfilled by Amazon badge on
many product pages. This specifies that the Orders are eligible for FREE Delivery and
can be placed using Cash on Delivery. It is being mentioned by Amazon India that the
orders which contains products worth Rs 499 or more are only eligible for FREE
delivery. Amazon has introduced almost all the practical, useful and cool facilities and
features on its Indian counterpart. If you have purchased from Amazon India, please
share your experiences. You can also share your feedback on the website.
6. eBay
In The world’s largest shopping mall on the Internet, eBay is an online marketplace,
where individuals and businesses come together to buy and sell almost anything. You
can find everything on eBay. Mobile phones, digital cameras iPods, t-shirts, shoes,
candles, furniture, jewelers, watches, handicrafts, kurtas, laptops, perfumes,
computers, microwave ovens, toys, baby products, weighing scales, and much more.
There are many ways to buy, so you can choose the format that is best for you. Make
an instant purchase for products at a fixed price with Buy It Now button. Bid using
the exciting auction-style format at the price you are willing to pay. If you are the
highest bidder you get the item at your price. If you can’t find what you want, let
sellers know – Post a Want It Now! You can Buy and Sell with Confidence. EBay’s
Feedback system is very popular. Members rate each other based on their experience
during a transaction. This is the easiest way to check a member’s reputation before
you trade with them. Using eBay’s Buyer Protection Program, eBay covers your
purchases up to Rs. 50000* (for Paisa Pay transactions and up to Rs. 10,000 for
nonPaisa Pay transactions. eBay’s Dispute Resolution Center is also very well known.
They can help you resolve any issues with your trading partners.

FUTURE AND PROSPECTS OF E-COMMERCE IN INDIA

1. Opportunity for retailers: A retailer can save his existence by linking his
business with the on-line distribution. By doing so, they can make available
much additional information about various things to the consumers, meet
electronic orders and be in touch with the consumers all the time. Therefore,
E-Commerce is a good opportunity
2. Opportunity for whole sales/distributer: In the world of Ecommerce the
existence of the wholesalers is at the greatest risk because the producer can
easily ignore them and sell their goods to the retailers and the consumers. In
such a situation those wholesalers can take advantage of E-Commerce who are
capable of establishing contractors with reputed producers and linking their
business with the on- line.
3. Opportunity for producers: Producers can take advantages of e-commerce by
linking themselves with on-line, by giving better information about their
products to the other links in the business chain and by a having a brand
identity.
4. Opportunity for people: As more people are getting linked with E-commerce,
the demand for centre providing internet facility or cyber cafe is also
increasing. Hence, the people who wish to take advantage of it can establish
cyber and have their benefits.