E-commerce

Name

Affiliation

Commerce has emerged as an activity with special experience with the introduction of internet virtual space that conquers almost all parts of the world, lifting of world trade barriers and burns as well as globalization of trade. Today almost everything is traded online. Selling and buying of books is one of the most targeted online businesses. The biggest e-commerce site that sells and buys books is known as Amazon.com (Marcial, 2007).

Advantages

Looking at a wider variety of books for individuals such as the sellers and buyers is an outstanding experience which is on itself is an advantage. The buyer is given the opportunity not to move from place to place or from shop to shop in search of books that he/she might need. Everything is available with just a click of the mouse (Stone, 2007). The only thing that a person needs to access books through the site is the name of the book since most of the people are not familiar with the ISBN number. The selling and buying procedure are secure and simple. The other merit of using Amazon is that the buyer has the chance of buying old or new books compared to the bookshop one that one can only buy new books. The condition of the book is always displayed so that the buyer can be able to choose what he/she wants. The accumulation cost is also an advantage of using Amazon online store since it reduces other costs such as transport and safety.

Disadvantages

Selling and buying of books online comes at other small costs that the clients are not aware of. For example, after purchasing the books online the books have to be shipped hence send to postal address where there are risks of being stolen. The intermediary process when selling a book online is also one of the downfalls of book trading online. With the problem of cyber security, there are problems whereby clients are conned online as other companies bearing similar names. This method of buying and selling books online calls for an individual to have access to internet and also has to be computer literate hence a demerit to those have lack the above qualities (Doherty, 2007).

If books where downloaded online for free then Amazon Company will loose its clients thus translating to reduction in profits. In order to curb this problem then Amazon has deduced a membership fee that limits other users from getting the books for free. Membership fee is always very too high so that it can compensate for the number of downloads that a client can make. Hence if books access will be for free then all e-commerce sites collapse; Amazon will also be worst hit.

Traditional stores will have mortar office and people will love the idea of seeing the hard cover of the book before purchasing them. After going online the traditional stores will have a preview stat that their client can be able to view the first few pages before making the decision of buying the books (Doherty, 2007). Thus, clients can be able to have a feeling of the hard copy as well as the soft copy an experience that does not exist in both e-commerce and traditional stores hence a competitive advantage.

References

Marcial, Gene (Oct 29, 2007) The Unplumbed Depths of Amazon.  Business Week. New York: . p. 112 or ( HYPERLINK “http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-10-28/the-unplumbed-depths-of-” http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-10-28/the-unplumbed-depths-of-amazon)

Doherty, Kathy (Oct 2007) The New Kid In Town. Food Logistics. New York: . p. 6

Stone, Brad. (Oct 24, 2007) .Amazon Says Profit Jumped In Quarter, New York Times (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.:  p. C.