E-Commerce websites are online portals that facilitate online transactions of goods and services through means of the transfer of information and funds over the Internet. In the early days, e-commerce was done partially through emails and phone calls.Now, with a single website, anything and everything that a transaction needs, can be executed online.
Ecommerce is nothing but a type of commerce. Its functioning style is quite similar to that of the physical retail industry. The only difference it has with a brick – and – mortar store is that here, the entire process takes place online. The journey of an ecommerce firm begins with setting up an ecommerce website. It is usually done with plugins like woo Commerce.
Security is a central concern in e-commerce. It includes authentication of the parties, authorization to access the given resources, confidentiality of the communication, and the assurance of message integrity. Many of those goals are accomplished with public key infrastructure, a system of specialized organizations and computerized means for providing electronic certificates that authenticate firms and, if desired, individuals; provide the encryption and decryption keys for communication; and furnish the protocols (algorithms) for secure communication. However, absolute security is not an attainable goal. Many spectacular data breaches are testimony to this, as well as to the neglect of this vital aspect of e-commerce.
Several important phenomena are associated with e-commerce. The role of geographic distance in forming business relationships is reduced. Barriers to entry into many types of businesses are lower, as it is relatively inexpensive to start a retail Web site or a community of producers. Some traditional business intermediaries are being replaced by their electronic equivalents or are being made entirely dispensable. (For instance, as airlines have published fare information and enabled ticketing directly over the Internet, storefront travel agencies have declined.) Prices of goods are generally lower on the Web—a reflection not merely of the lower costs of doing electronic business but also of the ease of comparison-shopping in cyberspace. Consumer’s benefit greatly from the availability of products that are bought only rarely and would not be stocked by physical stores (the so-called long tail effect). Ever-new business models emerge and are pivoted (modified) as the marketplace reaction can be gauged rapidly. Since the incremental cost of producing a unit of content (such as a software product) is close to zero, fermium business models are often employed in the content domain: the basic product is free, the premium versions are charged for.
