E-Commerce

8 UNIQUE FEATURES OF E-COMMERCE TECHNOLOGY

E-Commerce Technology Dimension	Business Significance
Ubiquity - Internet / Web Technology is available everywhere: at work, at home, and elsewhere via mobile devices.	~ Marketplace is extended beyond traditional         boundaries and is removed from a temporal and   geographic location.      ~ Shopping can take place anywhere.      ~ Shopping costs are reduced.      ~ Customer convenience enhanced.
Global Reach – Technology reaches across national boundaries, around the Earth.	~ Commerce is enabled across cultural and      national  national boundaries seamlessly and    without modification.      ~ Marketspace includes potentially, billions of    consumers and millions of businesses  worldwide.
Universal Standards – There is one set of technology standards, namely Internet Standards.	~ Lower market entry costs.      ~ Reduce product search cost and by creating a    single, one world market place, where price  discovery becomes simpler, faster and more        accurate.      ~ Easily find all the suppliers, prices, and delivery  terms of a specific product anywhere in the    world.
Richness – Video, Audio and Text Messages are possible.	~ E-commerce technologies have changed the    traditional trade off between Richness and the    Reach.      ~ The Internet and web can deliver to an    audience of millions rich marketing messages in a  way not possible with traditional technologies  like radio, TV and magazines.
Interactivity – The technology that allows two ways communication between merchant and consumer.	~ Consumers are engaged in a dialogue that    dynamically adjusts the experience to the  individual, and makes the consumer a co-          participant in the process of delivering goods to    the market (which is not possible in other    mediums like TV, radio).    ~ Similar to face to face experience but on a      massive global scale.
Information Density – The technology reduces information costs and raises quality.	~Information processing, storage and communication costs drop dramatically whereas currency, accuracy and timeliness improve greatly.      ~ Information becomes plentiful, cheap and more   accurate.
Personalization/Customization – Technology allows personalized messages to be delivered to individuals as well as groups.	~ Personalization of marketing messages and  customization of products and services are  based on individual characteristics.
Social Technology – User content generation and social networking.	~ New internet social and business models    enable user content creation and distribution, and support social networks.