Essentials of E-Retailing

John Kling^*
*Correspondence: John Kling, Department of Economic Studies, Walden University, USA, Tel: + 17468958124, Email:

The e-retailing (less frequently; e-Retailing, e-Tailing, etc.) is that the concept of selling of retail goods using electronic media, especially, the web. The vocabulary electronic retailing, that utilized in internet discussions as early as 1995, the term seems an almost in evitable addition to e-mail, e-business and e-commerce, etc. e-retailing is synonymous with business- to- consumer (B2C) transaction model of e-commerce. Although e-retailing is an independent business model with certain specific constituents like; trust model, electronic transaction process, etc, but actually it's a subset of e- commerce naturally.

E-Retailing stores sell online promotion just for goods which will be sold easily online, e.g., Amazon did for Books & CDs, etc. The web retailing require many displays and specification of products to form the viewers have a private feel of the merchandise and its quality as he gets while physically present during a shop.

E-Retailing refers to retailing over the web. Thus an e-Retailing may be a B2C (Business to customer) business model that executes a transaction between businessman and therefore the final consumer. E-Retailers are often pure play businesses like amazon.com or businesses that have evolved from a legacy business like tesco.com. The e-retailing may be a subset of e-commerce. Thus, e-commerce is that the master domain defining the e-retailing operation.

Essentials of E-Retailing

Electronic retailing or e-tailing, because it is usually being called now, is that the direct sale of products, information and repair through virtual stores on the online , usually designed around an electronic catalogue format and auction sites. There are thousands of storefronts or e-commerce sites on the web that are extensions of existing retailers or start-ups. Penetration of computers and proliferation of the web has given rise to several new sorts of businesses, like business process outsourcing, call centre based customer relationship management, medical transcription, remotely managed educational and medical services and in fact , electronic retailing.

There are certain essential ingredients for an electronic retailing business to achieve success. One must consider these components well before hand before fixing an electronic storefront. These essential components are:

Attractive business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce portal

Right revenue model

Penetration of the web

E-Catalog it's a database of products with prices and available stock. Shopping Cart the purchasers select their goodies and fill handcart. Finally, as during a real store, at the time of checkout, the system calculates the worth to be purchased the products. A payment gateway Customer makes payments through his/her MasterCard or e-cash. The payment mechanism must be fully secure.

Support Services in E-Retailing

The electronic retail business requires support services, as a prerequisite for successful operations. These services are required to support the business, online or offline, throughout the entire transaction-processing phases. the subsequent are the essential support services:

Communication backbone

Payment mechanism

Order fulfilment

Logistics

Advantages of E-Retailing

E-Retailing, either as an extension of the prevailing retail/distribution business or an altogether new start-up, has many advantages. Traditional brick-store retailers are placing more emphasis on their electronic channels and evolving into multi-channel retailers to extend their reach and support their retail channels. The new start-ups in e-retailing are often launched from a little room with one PC attached with the surface world through the web.

The electronic channel gives the prevailing brick-store retailers a chance to succeed in new markets. For the prevailing retailers, it's an extension to leverage their skills and grow revenues and profits without creating an altogether new business.

E-Retailing overcomes some limitations of the normal formats, as an example the purchasers can shop from the comfort of their homes. The e-commerce software that also traces the purchaser’s activities on internet enables e-retailers to realize valuable insights into their customers shopping behaviour. The e-retail channels transcend all barriers of your time and space. The retailers server must get on 24*7. An order can come from any customer living anywhere at any time of the day.

E-Commerce channels are definitely efficient and retailers don't need to pay an important price for brick-n-mortar shops in costly shopping malls.

Shortcomings of e-retailing

The online retailing {e-retailing} process isn't an ultimate within the field of retailing methods; it also suffers various drawbacks that are the qualifications of traditional marketing. a number of the drawbacks need mention. It has no theatrical ambience which may be the customer.

It lacks an emotional shopping experience that the customer can get during a personal shopping store. It being container of intangible merchandise (i.e., virtual display of merchandise) doesn't provide sensory support to the customer, these the customer cannot hold, small, feel, or try the merchandise. On line customers are reluctant to spare their MasterCard details on net, fearing they'll be misused. It arises security issues. The purchasers aren't yet convinced about the foolproof status of this method, especially in Indian environment.

It provides, to an outsized extent, impersonal services which the Indian customers aren't exposed to; they're rather wont to the tangible personalized services which they miss in online retailing services. It is lacking in family shopping experience which the Indian customers enjoy at the weekends, and particularly during festive seasons and marriage marketing.

The advantages of e Retailing outweighs its draws, thus it's showing a positive rate of growth across the boundary.

Success factors for e-retailing

The success of e-retailing depends on multiple factors that are required to be taken into consideration as prima-facie, missing even one small consideration is sort of susceptible to create a greater negative impact on entire business, since the purchasers and business both are far away from each-other. The customer is far away from reality of the business regarding with whom he's getting to enter into a business relation; whether the relation will choose a short-term or for over a long-term, no matter.