The E-commerce Effect

Online shopping is now, for many people, something that has taken the place of going out and physically buying goods in stores. It has become so popular that the Monday following "Black Friday", the insane sales day following Thanksgiving, has been named "Cyber Monday". Cyber Monday is basically the equivalent to Black Friday only it is strictly online. This is just one way that proves E-Commerce has changed dramatically. From small businesses to large corporations and franchises, almost everyone has a website and is involved in online sales. For only being around close to 13 years, web shopping has gone on to earn over a $200 billion through online transactions. It is said that many of today's consumer stores earn close to, if not over, 50% of their revenue from their online sales. When online shopping first began, it had an estimating cost of anywhere between $7000 and $12000 to host a website. Now, you can own and operate your own online store for as low as $1000. E-Commerce has taken a huge role in computer use, I know that from my personal experience a majority of elders in my family don't know how to use a computer to do anything except shop. Over the past few years even, e-commerce has blown up, from Ebay to Amazon.com, shoppers are now bidding, buying, and selling things online with no recollection of how it has changed. One big thing that many retailers are doing to help shoppers, and help themselves is making the online shopping experience very interconnected. They are making the buying process in the fewest amount of steps possible, as easy as possible for the consumer. This is great for the consumer because there is less of a chance to get confused and it is great for the retailer because the less confused the consumer the less likely they are to want to call the company and get help or talk with someone. Overall, there are many stats and numbers that you can look at to tell that the growth of e-commerce has been huge, but it doesn't even really take numbers to know this, it would almost take a comparison of people raising hands or a survey. Honestly, even just a few years ago the amount of people who even browsed the internet has probably doubled. I believe that e-commerce is the best way to shop, now that they are becoming free shipping and the same sales as stores there is no reason not to shop online besides patience. Even in the corporate world, it is more green to complete orders over the internet and use e-commerce to do business. I believe that e-commerce has grown tremendously, but I don't believe it is anywhere near finished.