Features of e-commerce

Module -1

Amita Chourasiya
 7 features of e-commerce
1. Ubiquity
2. Global Reach
3. Universal Standards
4. Richness
5. Interactivity
6. Information Density
7. Personalization/Customization
 Ubiquity
 Available everywhere -make it
possible to shop from the desktop.
 Hidden, but still there

 Reduces the transaction cost. (cost

of participating in market.)
 It lowers the cognitive energy
required to complete a task.
 Related Concept
 Cognitive Energy – mental effort
needed to complete a task.

 Ubiquity reduces cognitive energy.

• Humans tend to seek options that
require the minimum cognitive energy.
• Consider the mental effort needed to
buy your book online vs. hunting for it
at various book stores.
 Global Reach
 e-commerce technologies enable a
business to easily reach across
geographic boundaries.

 Its really easy to understand how

this feature can benefit business and
consumers.
 Global Reach
 While e-commerce can reach across
geographic boundaries, can it reach across
demographic boundaries.

 Demographics
• age
• income
• race
• gender
• religion
 Universal Standards
 e-commerce is made possible
through hardware (Internet) and
software/content (World Wide Web)

 The Internet – In its infancy, the

architects developed standards that
are now globally recognized (TCP/IP)

 The World Wide Web – Standards are

becoming #1 priority (XML, HTML,
etc.)
 Universal Standards
 Standards make it much easier to
build business from existing
technologies.
 This reduces entry costs

 You can setup an e-commerce

website for about $10/month in

technology overhead costs.
 By reducing entry costs, there is a
lot more competition.
 Related Concept
 Price discovery - can the
consumer/buyer find prices easily, with
minimal cognitive energy.
 Since e-commerce is built on standard
technology (XML, HTML), its really to
integrate, aggregate, and summarize
information.
Standardization  Low Entry Cost  More completion.

Standardization  Info. integration More price discovery

opportunities.

More competition + price discovery opportunity = lower consumer

prices
 Richness
 Advertising and branding are an important
part of commerce.
 Information richness refers to the
complexity and content of a message
 e-commerce can deliver video, audio,
animation, etc. much better than other
technologies (billboards, signs, etc.)
• However, its about as rich as television
technology
 Interactivity
 Consumer/user can interact with the
content.
 It allow for two-way communication

between merchants and consumer.

 Information Density
 The e-commerce technology
• reduces information costs
• raises the quality of information

 It is the total amount and quality of information

available to all market participants, consumers
and merchants.
 E-commerce technologies reduce information
collection, storage, communication and
processing costs.
 At the same time, these technologies increase
greatly the accuracy and timeliness of
information, making information more useful and
important than ever.
 Personalization/Customization
 It seems like a contradiction that e-
commerce has more opportunities
for personalization then, umm, going
to a store and buying an item face-
to-face with a check.
 The technology also permits
customization. Merchants can change
the product or service based on
user's preferences or prior behavior.