E-commerce

E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services, or the transmitting of funds or commercial data, over an electronic network, primarily the internet. These business transactions occur either as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-consumer or consumer-to-business. The terms e-commerce and e-business are often used interchangeably. E-business is the conduct of business on the Internet, not only buying and selling but also servicing customers and collaborating with business partners.

The key criteria of e-commerce determine the level of advancement are namely technological factors, political factors, social factors, and economic factors. E-commerce and e-business are not solely the Internet, websites or dot com companies. It is about a new business concept that incorporates all previous business management and economic concepts. As such, e-business and e-commerce impact on many areas of business and disciplines of business management studies; these are marketing, finance and accounting, economics, human resource management, management information systems, and operations management. In the last two decades, widespread use of e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba and eBay have contributed to substantial growth in online retail. We have seen boom of e-commerce in the pandemic.

There were more than 35 e-commerce websites in Bangladesh in 2022. Top popular e-commerce sites in Bangladesh are rokomari.com, daraz.com, chaldal.com, foodpanda.com. Bangladesh Bank approved online payment in 2009 and the country approved the use of debit and credit card for online payment in 2013. The e-commerce Association of Bangladesh is the trade body for e-commerce in Bangladesh. According to the association, there are 8,000 e-commerce pages in Facebook alone. [Kazi Md. Jamshed]

References R.E. Walch, Electronic Commerce, in Key Aspects of German Business Law (Fourth Edition): A Practical Manual, 2009; The Daily Star. 2016. E-commerce to drive growth in electronic payments. Retrieved 2022-02-04.