E-

Commerce:
Beyond
Transaction
 (By. Panji Hadinugraha - 1030928)

INTRODUCTION – E-Commerce From Scratch

The e-commerce activities have been around since more than a

decade ago, and have changed the way of fulfilling needs of both
producers and consumers ranging from just a mere transaction, all
the way to corporate deals worldwide. Obviously. Both e-commerce
and traditional commerce has no difference in general, since e-
commerce were built base on the essential factors of traditional
marketing; the involvement of producers and consumers whatever
their level of needs are. Alongside the rapidly advanced worldwide-
web 2.0, which is the core medium of e-commerce, the activity of e-
commerce has improved as well in terms of security, convenience,
and marketing strategy. More marketers take the advantage of the
web 2.0’s flexibility, and since then people have different views
toward e-commerce.

There are some factors of changes in the landscape of e-commerce.

Some that we should noticed is that such big online consumer
shopping sites like Amazon or eBay, and to many other high profile
corporate websites, are not the only places where the e-commerce
activity happens. Furthermore, business and consumer has been
visibly gapless than ever before. Both sides has noticeably switching
roles couple times; consumer being a producer, and so the opposite;
creating the role of prosumer. At lasts but not least, the social
networking dominance. This has been one of the mediums that
some users preferred ever since the social media has become so
mainstream. Almost entirely mainstream, to be honest. Despite of
that, the marketers took the advantage of how social media are
powerfully capable of make contents viral compared to traditional
marketing.

These factors has changed the way marketers composing their

marketing strategies, and leaves some spaces to the list of
“products” that can be spread and even produced other than goods
and services; offering more beyond transaction that involves cashes
and reputations; although, however, there is an issue where most
people are still viewing e-commerce as just a digital marketing. It
also has slowly turns e-commerce as a “threat” toward conventional
industries. The new generation of e-commerce, perhaps, will never
be the same again due to its integration with the Internet. Better or
worse, it depends on the user’s perspectives.

Social Media & Prosumer Dominations

We are all currently live in an information age, whereas we also

getting closer for the era of technology domination. Social
networking has been people’s preferred media of communication
and consuming information, slowly becoming one of the mainstream
media; if not happened. Everybody (and virtually everything) is on
Facebook, Twitter is becoming a place where people literally way
talkative than in real life, YouTube are now became the alternative
source of information library for film, portfolios, and advertising.
Alongside for being user-generated media, the power of the social
media also lies on the ability to gain so many masses of audience. In
other words, the capability of turns things viral. Viral media, as
Wilson (2000) has explained in his article, is literally similar to a
virus. It spreads, and sometimes the users (in this case, marketers)
don’t even have to spread their information repetitively; unless they
are not applying some common or popular cultural knowledge, or
using the marketing medium that aren’t easy to distribute and
integrate. Marketers are taking the advantage within these values of
social networking. In fact, the results of integrating social media and
e-commerce as been proven effective from a report that Nelson
(2006) have made regarding the convergence of both social media
and E-Commerce. He also stressed about how the social media
consumers prefers to spend their time engaged toward Internet
activities such as blogging, online shopping, to as simple as
updating their social media account.

Alongside the social media, we should notice the instable role of the
marketers (Business) and the consumers. Both sides are often
switch places and roles, fulfilling each other needs, in which most
noticeably toward non-high profile marketers to general consumers.
As year comes, satisfaction level of the consumers toward what the
industries have already offered to their audiences are rapidly
increasing; whether it is a piece of music, t-shirt, all the way to
industrial technology. They started to think that they could produce
a better product. Moreover, employees are starting to concern
about their incompatibility of their timeframe toward the timeframe
of their particular office-hours and also their standard toward salary.
These factors can lead to prosumption activities, where consumer is
also the producer or marketers and so the opposite according to the
statement that Kotler (1986, p.510-513) have made. There are lots
of prosumers that taking over their marketing sites on social media,
mostly on Facebook, online forum, and YouTube; whereas online
shopping store like Amazon and eBay has gotten mainstream and
almost entirely dominated by industry’s products. Take a look at
DeviantArt as an example. It is a place where this activity happens;
consuming the facilities in order to promote or commercialize their
artwork. DeviantArt is categorized as a community media. Rennie
(2007) has discovered and compared some similarities and
differences between community and social media, where the
community media is limited to the theme (in this case, art) whereas
social media’s theme can be decide from the creator, totally user-
generated and automated.

The Disadvantage of The Advantage

Web 2.0 is undeniably powerful in information delivery over years.

Social Networking, as one of the Web 2.0’s product, is a versatile
yet scary facility. With all the values of social networking, those are
also become the disadvantages, especially toward the consumers.

Since knowing that social networking is a user-generated media,

people have always got issues with trust. Basically, users can define
what the purpose of their account will be. Users can change all the
contents of their account at all time. They technically can even
pretend to be someone else, another person or character that they
think are better than them. The problem with the social media users
is that sometimes their behavior in the virtual-reality can be the
opposite than in real life, as experienced by Clemons (2007, p.268);
which means, in e-commerce terms, the users can alter their
information delivered on their page that mostly lead to
miscommunication, or worse, scamming. I have been there. Egger
(2000) argued about how complex the marketing strategies of today
compared to the traditional marketing, and how e-commerce
activity cannot replace traditional marketing because of the lack of
direct business-to-consumer interaction in order for the customers
to easily relate with the products and the sellers.

These kinds of trust issues has been around for a very long time and
hardly ever cured, and the integration of the social networking site
has made it even worse due to its viral elements which might lead
the consumers to fall into the same hole. However, we cannot easily
blame the social media for all of these. After all, those are just tools,
so it depends on how the user sees and uses the value of the
medium, as argued by Farhangi and Rahmati (2011) in their journal.
New Categories of Product

Despite of the disadvantages, we should look back to the title of this

topic, which mark out the idea of e-commerce as something beyond
transaction. The definition of the word “commerce” itself has always
been linked and narrowed into marketing world. That is before
people begin to integrate social media for their strategy. Using the
social media as a tool of e-commerce also means that e-commerce
should merge with the social media; and so the opposite. This
means that the values and characters of social media should be
executed. In short, E-commerce should become the social media
itself.

So far, social networking sites have produced their own kinds of

“products”. Thus, it creates new categories of what can we
commercialize or advertised in e-commerce activity. People made or
share information of others or their own on Facebook and Twitter,
discovered talents and cultural sensation on MySpace and YouTube.
The best question to ask for this matter in marketing language is
probably “How much does these costs?” and the answer will be
“user-defined”. Sensations, cultures, and talents, are those new
categories. Everything that are shared in the social networking sites
are literally free of charge, the only thing that could limit that
“price” is the user’s decision whether they want to put the
information open (free-of-charge) for everyone or in private.

Justin Bieber, in this case, is one of a great example of an e-

commerce’s product. His current manager discovered him where at
that time he was looking at one of Bieber’s video performing a song
for a singing competition, until he currently held a recording deal
and some achievement of awards. He uses Twitter and YouTube as
his promotional tools, and has been proven effective; although with
the cost of his name and fame being used for spam-artists to take
advantage for creating false yet viral advertising.

On the other hand, Rebecca Black has become one of the most viral
phenomenon and culture on the Internet. She is known with her
awkward but catchy song titled “Friday”. Unfortunately, unlike Justin
Bieber’s fortune, she has been a victim of cyber-bullying. People
keep making harsh parodies, and nearly abusive YouTube
comments for her (although now being removed). However, her
song was once a 5 stars rated song on the iTunes Store. In addition
to that, Rebecca Black’s phenomenon has currently gained attention
from a big-name musician like Katy Perry, and even a high-profile
company like World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

CONCLUSION – Possible Impact: Industry VS e-Ndustry

E-commerce has been redefined ever since the integration with the
social media.

On the audience side, prosumers and their prosumption activity will

keep growing quantitatively and advancing qualitatively. This will
slowly become either a major issue or challenge toward the
remaining proper high-profile industries, as we notice that more
people relies on the prosumer’s product based on price-
performance or quality wise. On the other hand, prosumers might
keep active in producing products of the new categories defined
from the result of merging e-commerce and social media, due to the
fact that most prosumers are known active in social networking,
because that is what they often use to promote.

In my opinion, it is possible for a prosumer to put in another

categories of product that suppose to be produce from a real
industry inside e-commerce’s list of product in the future, and I
believe there will be more coming. Products like talents used to be
discovered non-digitally via agency, until YouTube stuck around.
Products like sensation, and culture used to be consumed from the
newspapers or magazines, until Facebook and Twitter came. This
conclude that goods and services are not the only products that e-
commerce can commercialize.

The real industries are slowly digitizing themselves as, if I may call,
"e-Ndustry" (pun intended). Those new categories of product are
just the starting evidence. Although it is still not safe to say that the
marriage of e-commerce and social media could mark the death of
the real industry. It is clear now that e-commerce is more than just
transaction; it is also about commercializing an impact within the
society in a viral pace.
REFERENCES

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