Online business – the future of trade & commerce

Credits: Shirsendu Das

Online Business or E-commerce has been regarded as the future of all business activities, trades and commerce in future. This is a process of trading in or dealing with the products or services using Internet through computing devices. Online business procedures depends on technologies such as mobile commerce, Internet marketing, electronic funds transfer, electronic supply chain management, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), online inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems using CRM. Modern Online Business or E-commerce activities are performed through various e-commerce sites or portals on the World Wide Web (www), although it may also use other technologies such as e-mail and different message sending services like SMS, MMS, and Flash Messages etc.

Online businesses usually go through some or all of the following practices:

• Provide Etail/E-Commerce Store or virtual storefront or virtual mall on websites with online catalogs
• Making deals on websites or online marketplaces like ordering, buying or selling products or services.
• Collect and utilize data through web contacts and social media.
• Using business-to-business data exchange by electronic data interchange system.
• Use business-to-business buying and selling (B2B deals).
• Provide secure business transactions.

Online business is spreading over entertaining both the vendors and customers and associated in between for the following reasons as:

• Avoid establishment cost for show-room, out-let or retail plazas.
• Reducing labor cost as wages and other facilities
• Saving transportation and dealing time for both the vendor and customer
• Avoid rush for the customers and traffic in marketplace
• Persuading instant payment in digitally recorded system to avoid cash deals in cases

In case of service industry, online business is becoming a real boom. Always this is typical trade-oriented demand that this faculty deserves a detailed communication but for their expansion it is necessary for them to be connected with different people from far away in a very short period time. Online business provides you the opportunity to connect with several clients asking an expertise like yours and several service providers asking for a job from similar domain. This communication successfully takes place only through the commercial user friendly utilities of online business or ecommerce. This facility has opened an era of earning good handful money for the freelancers, retired, people with other kind of challenges by working from home utilizing their professional skills.

Still, it is not possible for the manufacturing units to be present in online arena like the retailers. So it would be wise to say this new trend set in trade and commerce industry is more or less effective and applicable for retail and sale. More and more, the growth of trading and retail business is concerned, online is taking up the leading role with time rather than conventional business forms. Even now every renowned retailer has an online business extension through e-commerce apart from their showrooms.

As if I presume, with the relevancy of time, this online retail and online product merchandising business will move forward to online platform from conventional outlets for further improvement and business growth.