Custom «E-Commerce» Essay Paper Sample

Electronic commerce refers to a business process that is conducted over an online portal such as the internet. In this type of business, the transactions that take place usually occur on a virtual platform. Electronic commerce is commonly referred to as e-commerce in most business settings. There are three main types of e-commerce, which include business-to-consumer, business-to-business, and consumer-to-consumer (Shelly et al, 2009). Each of these types takes place online, but they have some variations in the way business is conducted.

Business-to-consumer entails selling goods and services to members of the general public. This is the most common form of e-commerce. It usually takes place in such platforms such as EBay. Consumer-to-consumer involves one consumer selling an item to another consumer through an online portal such as an online auction website. Additionally, business-to-business entails one business providing certain supporting services to another such as online advertising and recruitment (Shelly et al, 2009). This form of e-commerce is also common, especially in the modern world where internet technology has greatly developed.

In the modern society, e-commerce is used to accomplish many functions and operations. Some of the popular uses of e-commerce include finance, retail, entertainment, travel, and health (Shelly et al, 2009). In the finance sector, e-commerce applications include online banking, online money transfer, and online billing systems. In the retail segment, e-commerce applications presently include online sale of goods on sites such as Google Trader and online provision of services. In the travel segment, e-commerce applications include online ticketing services, online hotel reservations, and cruise ship bookings. In the health segment, e-commerce applications include purchase of pharmaceutical products, online arrangement of health professional appointments, and online special consultation services. In essence, e-commerce has taken over literally every product and service sector including certain nontraditional sectors.