As the name depicts, commerce stands for commercial activities that includes selling of goods in physical or digital form as well as providing services in the digital or physical form. Commerce is a broad term that covers almost everything we know in this world. The commercial activities have been in picture since the inception of human civilization. In early centuries, the commerce was made directly between two parties and since there was no currency, the parties just exchanged the goods in of almost equal worth to settle down the deal. For example, a farmer gives rice to a mason and gets his construction services in return. As the human civilization evolved, the goods variety also increased and there started a demand of some system that can set the worth of various items and can help in equalizing the deals. Thereafter, currency came into picture in various forms including gold sticks, silver sticks and gems followed by gold and silver coins. In the current era, we use metal ad paper currencies with some amount printed on them that act as the worth of that piece on which seller and buyer parties agree mutually.

The latest evolution in terms of currency is digital money which is being managed through E-wallet and Bitcoins that help in settling big amount without having a single physical currency in hands. With the clicks of few buttons, we can transfer huge amounts to remote locations and other geographies of the world in just nanoseconds.

This is where E-commerce comes into picture. In the term E-Commerce, E stands for Electronic which means digital flow of currency through computing devices rather than paying money by hands. In E-commerce, sellers either set up their online stores through their own websites or through commercial platforms like amazon and flipkart and thus are able to showcase their productline world wide in real time.

 

There are two types of goods sellers in E-commerce:

1. Direct sellers: Sellers who have their own products and showcasing them through their website or mobile phones and getting money in their accounts directly through payment gateways.

2. Indirect sellers: Sellers like Flipkart showcase a tremendous amount of deals on their website and app however, they don’t stock the items with them. They just give space and dashboard to Direct sellers so that direct sellers can put up their deals and offers and reach their customers through flipkart. Indirect sellers mostly work on advertising, deals and payments management. Stocking and delivery related activities are done by the direct sellers only.

3. Affiliate marketing: These sellers donot have any direct or indirect stock with them. They just act as indirect marketing agencies for the sellers wherein they post some advertisement in the form of videos, banners and text links on their websites. One such trusted provider is showdeal.in which provides a large number of trusted deals filtered with heavy discounts from flipkart, amazon and some other e-commerce giants.

4. Service providers: These merchants offer some services rather than delivering physical goods to the customers. Example of such services include Web Hosting, Website Development, Ticket Booking and many others.

In either type, things are showcased and reach the eyes of customers through online medium, thus this becomes a part of E-commerce regardless of the facts that some payment are made in Cash-on-delivery mode.

 

In the E-commerce system, things flow in a highly collaborative manner between various parties including direct seller and/or indirect seller commonly known as merchant, payment gateway company or bank, customer, Website developers, Domain providers, Web server and hosting administrator companies, advertising agencies and many times a SSL certificate authority. The current e-commerce system flows through all these channels to reach the customers, build up a trust level, sell goods and services and finally accept payments through bank in lieu of successful delivery.

 

Do you want to jump into the e-commerce market and earn huge bucks in no time? If yes, just wait and watch for our next article which will help you dig into the E-commerce system in regards to different types of merchant.

Hope you enjoyed the post. Stay tuned for more ……