E-commerce Online Shopping and Amazon

About E-commerce E-commerce means Electronic Commerce, it is an emerging type of recent trading and promoting tools where buyers have the ability to take part in all stages of a buying decision while stepping through those processes electronically as opposed to in conventionally a normal store (with a real catalogue). The method by which e-commerce helps the customers in the free use of product data, buying the selected items securely, and final settled payments. It is really a rising topic that describes the strategy towards trade of product and services or information through the internet and the computer networks.

E-commerce is a usual business throughout the internet globally. Here the firm can advertise their product and services on their website same as other media like newspaper and journals. Advertising can be done in 2 ways.

• First thing: it is all about the use of a relatively simple Website consisting of a few pages whereby you tell to probable customers who you are, what you do, where you are and how they can contact you (e.g. e-mail or contact number).
• Secondly: it helps in attracting the world customers to buy from you and help in providing them an online catalogue of your products which they can browse in their free time without travelling to your business house.

On-Line Catalogue: It is an integral part of the website, enabling customers to...

• Browse the specifications and features of product and services.
• With the help pictures of the item.
• Select the item to be purchased.
• Adding the items to cart and buy them whenever it is needed.
• After the completion of shopping, customers can check-out.
• Next is the method of payment on a form which is waiting for them at the Check-Out.

The functions and different perspective of e-commerce:

1. Communication perspective: It is all about exchanging facts of product or services and payments through computer networks or the internet.

2. Business process perspective: Here it is all about the application and its automated action to complete the transactions.

3. Service perspective: It is a tool which helps the firm's consumers, and management to improve the features of the business.

4. Online perspective: It is all about buying and selling of products and its information form the internet.

There are 6 different types of business models in e-commerce:

1. B2B

2. B2C

3. C2C

4. C2B

5. B2A

6. C2A

1. B2B (Business to Business):

- It is a type of e-commerce business model which includes all the online transactions and dealing related to the goods and services. But this kind of model is basically conducted between business firms only. E.g. producers to wholesalers, wholesalers to retailers...

2. B2C (Business to Consumer):

- In this e-commerce business model, the transaction is started with a business firm and ends with customers. It is basically suitable for online retailers. E.g. Amazon, Flipkart etc... In this model, the consumer can get more information about the product and services and even more verities to their purchase option, so these are 2 reasons which leading the business to get more popularity than other.

3. C2C (Consumer to Consumer):

- In this type of e-business model, all the electronic transactions are only between the parties or the customer with the help of the third party who provides the online platform to complete the transaction. E.g. OLX.in, Quikr.com

4. C2B (Consumer to Business):

- In this e-business model is quite opposite to B2C because the transaction starts from the customer and ends with business. Here the individual consumer produces the product and sells them to companies. E.g. proposal for company logo and design ...

5. B2A (Business to Administration):

- In this type of business is for the purpose of social security, government services and, public works... and the dealing is between the business firms and public administration.

6. C2A (Consumer to Administration):

- In this online business model is carried between individual consumers and the public administration. E.g. e-democracy, public health... It is used for the purpose of request feedback and post concern...

Advantages of e-commerce:

• The worldwide industry for dealers with low cost.
• E-commerce assists in making a primary relationship with the last client and eliminates the middleman.
• A strong relationship with the client will help in reducing the transaction cost
• E-commerce provides 24/7 facility to the customers.
• Produces an international audience for the item of the company. Disadvantages of e-commerce:
• E-commerce is fully internet dependent.
• Sometimes information might incorrect facts of the merchandise and services.
• The main disadvantage of e-commerce is that customer can't enjoy the trails and samples of the merchandise and services.
• more Chances of frauds in financial transactions.

Future of e-commerce:

• E-commerce is growing but it describes the lower percentage of retail.
• Increasing demand for smartphones.
• Creating more opportunities and demand for Business to Business model than Business to Consumer.
• Artificial intelligence helps in customized shopping for e-commerce buyers.
• The video advertisement is creating the brand value to the company.
• Creation of employment opportunities.

Online shopping:

Online shopping is a portion of e-commerce which means buying goods and services from the retailer through computer networks by using retailer's website. Online shopping provides a substantial example of buying the product from an online retailer is called the Business to Consumer online shopping. When the retail website allows other firms to deal with them is called Business to Business online shopping. Every online store enables the customers to use their web for product features, specification, to see the picture of the product and to know the price of the product and services.

Background of online shopping:

The first online shopping is conduct in e-commerce is IBM's Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) in the year 1960s with the intention of providing the financial transaction in real time and progress of online ticket reservation process for American Airlines. The rise of the online shopping is established with the help of internet but in earlier days the software is used as promoting tool for the company, for giving details about their products and later the online shopping rapidly developed with the help of interactive web pages and protected transmission. Especially in the year 1994 onwards, the growth of the internet as a protected shopping platform reached its peak stage in retail marketing.

Growth in online shoppers:

According to Rohm and Swaminathan identified the four key categories which will help in understanding reasons for an increased profit rate of online transactions and to know the reason for its significant growth.

• Convenience shoppers
• Variety seekers
• Balanced buyers
• Store oriented shoppers

The interest of on shopping motivations, the variety of products and ease of buying are the significant motivators of the online business. It is opposite in case of traditional business who are more conscious of time and quality (with the help of sample) are the competitive motives. The Michael Aldrich was the developer of online shopping in the year 1980s and he is the first to invent videotex. Videotex is the human-computer interface and which engages in the communication medium. It is not only useful in information system but also in e-messaging and information retrieval and dissemination. Later this process is called e-business. In the year 1980 March, he came up with a new innovative idea called Redifon's office revolution which enables all dealers to stay connected online to the companies which allow the online business to complete the transaction in real time. In the year 1990, Tim Berners Lee is the first to create world wide web server and browser. In the year 1994 is the beginning of the online banking, pizza hut and intershop is the first online shopping procedure. Right away after that Amazon.com and eBay set up their business in the year 1995. And later in the year 2003 & 2008 Alibaba and Taobao and Tmall entered the online market respectively. Advantages of online shopping: - 01.convenience of shopping: - Online retailers provide 24/7 facility to which it helps the customers in buying the product and services from anywhere at any time. Online shopping helps the customers in getting a wide variety of products with the help of detailed information which helps in comparison of the product. even some of the online retailers provide the service of no cost on product return. 02.Product details, instructions and, reviews: - Every online store must have to provide product details and guidelines towards its usage and safety measures to the customers, and they have to give some space for customer review system because to help the future customer of the product. The company must have to provide helpline services to its customers to give the guidelines and solutions towards their queries, it may be through e-mail or phone. 03. Price and choice: - The main advantage of online shopping is that the customers can get a wide variety of product options it may be because every vendor is unique in nature and price comparison is the key advantage of the online shopping. Disadvantages disadvantage of online shopping:

- 01.Fraud:

- In case of online shopping online fraud means it may be a wrong delivery of product and chances of delivering a low-quality product or defected products to the customers as displayed in the website. Even while making payments there are more chances of frauds towards both customers and online retailers it may like making payments through stolen credit cards or physical theft in the warehouses, and for customers leakage of personal details. 02.Lack of full cost disclosure: - No online retailers are providing the clear picture of full cost while searching for the product, they display the only cost of the product and hiding the delivery charges, rate of duties and brokerage charges of the product. 03.Privacy: - There are many customers who wish not leak their personal information but some of the website or hackers keep tracking the customer buying habit to suggest the required item or another website to increase profit of the competitors. Here the personal details like mail id, address and credit card details are the target of hackers.

INTRODUCTION: Amazon.com, Inc., is one of the global leaders in the list of online retailing companies. In the year 1994, it was opened as World Wide Web through internet by Jeff Bezos and this web-only sold the books. It is an American based public company deals with e-commerce, cloud computing, and consumer electronics and the headquarter is in Seattle, Washington, U.S. He had a vision for the company to dominate the whole e-commerce industry and also, he wanted the Amazon to be everything store with the aim of this he came up the idea of making a business from A – Z product which is basically required by all the customer in the world. The main purpose of any business is to earn maximum profit in the same way the Amazon wants to gain more profit so their commercial activities like marketing and the after service become their aim, with this they gained maximum profit as well as good brand image in the world and even it leads to attracting more customer towards their company. The success of Amazon is fully depending on their innovation and, making things easier so these 2 actions made the customers to buy more from Amazon. There are many Amazon products in the market like Amazon app store, Amazon eco, Amazon kindle, Amazon prime, Amazon video and Comixology etc... But the Amazon kindle and prime played the major role in the profit of the organisation and helped in creating a good brand image for the company. History of the company:

- The Amazon company existed with the sudden effect of Jeff Bezos called his "regret minimisation framework" which led him to participate in internet business so, he quit the job of vice president in D.E. Shaw & Co and moved to Seattle, Washington to work on his own business plan. On July 4, 1994, Bezos initially built company as "Cadabra" but after sometime he got to know that it sounds similarly like "Cadaver". So, he wanted change name of the company and in that time, he also favoured with "Relentless" but finally he liked the name of Amazon because he wanted the company to grow same as the Amazon river which is largest river in the world. Finally, Bezos decided to sell the books in online with which he had the options of selling almost 20 promising products and within 30 days of its launch the company already sold books to all 50 states and 45 countries across the world. Later soon Amazon started to sell everything from audio CD's, software, tools, toys, sports items, books and even groceries. In the year 2005 Amazon launched Prime membership service which is biggest hit for the companies all multiple brands and even Amazon Prime has over 100 million subscribers in the internet. Amazon Prime membership is an additional service provided to customers it may be like giving some free access to free two-day shipping, speed delivery and other perks. The companies next highlight is their Kindle which is launched in November 2007. Amazon Kindle is an e-reader which provides best method of reading book without getting eye-strains. In the same year Amazon launched its online payment system called Amazon Pay. The main purpose of the Amazon pay is to provide secured payment option to the customers and to reduce the external distraction while paying through other websites. Need of the study:

1. The theme of the study is to know about the customers buying behaviour in Amazon. It has been recognized in academic research and its literature. However, in this area remain broader and to some extend fragmented. Therefore, the main purpose of the study is to test the customer 's awareness level.

2. To understand the customer experience.

3. To analyse the strength and weakness of the company

Literature Review:

- To study the awareness level of consumers about Amazon innovative services. Rosa E Rios had their analysis on "Brand equity for online companies". The main intention of this paper is to find whether the traditional method to measure brand equity is applied to online companies or not. And the author used Structural equation modelling as research methodology tool. Brand equity fully depends on brand loyalty and brand value associations. Therefore, this paper is a little supportive of offline brand equity based on brand awareness and study is based on a few online business retailers. Totally brand value is determined by consumer perception and experience with the brand. To understand the consumer perception and factors affecting their behaviour for choosing Amazon platform. Geuo - Guang Lee had done his project on "Customer perception of e-service quality in online shopping". Here the author develops a research model to check the relationship between e-service quality dimensions and overall service quality through this he wants to understand the consumer level of satisfaction and their buying behaviour towards online shopping. So, he collected the data from 297 online consumers to test the research model. The confirmatory factor analysis and structured equation modelling technique were used as a research methodology. As a result, the dimensions of website design, reliability, responsiveness, and trust will completely influence the owners' service quality and customer satisfaction. In this work, the author explored that the research methodology can be extended to longitudinal studies, focus groups, and interviews. And the study suggested enhancing the purchase intention of customers and online retailers have to concentrate more on marketing strategies to improve trustworthiness, reliability, and responsiveness. Finally, this study will provide a valuable reference to the managers of online retail companies and to the researchers of internet marketing. To know the various strategies used by companies to attract customers. Larry J Rosenberg and John A Czepiel have completed their research on "marketing approach for customers retention" in 1980. Attracting new customers and satisfying old customers is a hard task. Therefore, to balance these two criteria the marketing companies should have more resources and that will help these companies to get more profit. To develop a good relationship with existing customers, the marketers should follow the ideas of the research:

1. Forming a special marketing mix.

2. Plan out most favourable or existing customer files.

3. Adopt the marketing company. Finally, marketers have to maintain customer loyalty as well as brand loyalty. To know the satisfaction level of the customers towards Amazon prime, Kindle and Pay. ILIAS O. PAPPAS had presented his project report on "MODERATING EFFECTS OF ONLINE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND REPURCHASE INTENTIONS". The main purpose of the research is based on customer satisfaction and their loyalty towards the online shopping carts. Here the author used Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and multi-group analysis as his primary source of research methodology and this research demonstrates that prior customer experience strengthens the relationship between performance expectancy and satisfaction. The impact of trust and satisfaction is important on online shopping behaviour of both high and low experienced customers. Finally, this research results in understanding the level of satisfaction of customers and buying behaviour.

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