What impacts has society received from E-commerce?

E-commerce It has been one of the greatest inventions in recent years, as I develop a more accessible way to search and sell items within the reach of a single click.

El development and invention This great service has had an impact on society in its different areas, then we will explain how and where these repercussions have occurred.

Impact on the market and retailers

E-commerce created an environment of strong financial competition, towards the markets, given that individuals can sell their own merchandise at their own designated price, affecting the general market and retailers that must sell the merchandise at a fixed and designated price. The flexibility of being able to set your price Personal information about your articles is a great advantage that these websites offer us, but in their counterpart it is a great disadvantage for all other markets.

In addition to all of the above, eCommerce has opened the possibility for many people to have their own online store and sell the products they have, whether they are made by themselves or by working with distributors and suppliers. In other words, now those who have an eCommerce do not have to be people who have studied to start a business, but they also seek to get an extra at the end of the month with online orders.

To that must be added, among other things, the stock flexibility. And it is that, before eCommerce began to work, having a store required a sales space and a warehouse to be able to keep products of different types in order to sell them. However, with eCommerce the stores have been shrinking, sometimes I feel completely eliminated. This is because many work under other systems in which the products are sent directly by the company that manufactures them, acting as intermediaries.

The ease with which an eCommerce can be set up today has also had an impact on the market, especially if we take into account that there is now greater competition in the online market. It has even affected the "physical" market in the sense that stores have closed, sometimes prioritizing online business over physical ones. Why? Due to the costs that can be avoided such as the rent of the premises, the costs of electricity, water, community, etc. as well as having storage, stock to spare, etc. that can end up drowning an entrepreneur, especially if he is small.

Another aspect that must be taken into account regarding the impact is the possibility of reaching much more clientele than with a local business. The Internet offers the opportunity for an eCommerce to be known, not only in the city where it is the owner, but throughout Spain and even outside the country, all over the world, opening the door to other users who may be interested in what it does. Or even wanting to invest in that business. Therefore, it supposes a greater impact in achieving faster internationalization goals, because even when it is not invested in it, if it is a business that impacts, it will only reach other parts of the world.

Impact on the employment rate

The websites that are dedicated to E-commerce they are a great source of so much employment and unemployment. The creation of more and more sites like this, creates the need to employ trained people to be able to manage, regulate and stabilize these sites, but in the same way, this affects jobs that have a traditional type of buying and selling, turning them into a outdated way of acquiring and selling goods.

Imagine that you have a physical store and an online store. In the physical store, you may have hired some employees to help you carry it; While, in eCommerce, you will have had help to set up the website, the store, and at least you will have a web administrator as well as a Community Manager who takes the issue of social networks. As minimum.

All these are jobs that are created, as well as others specialized in online media such as writers, copywriters, customer service, etc. Which means an increase in employment in an eCommerce.

The problem is that, As eCommerce is obtaining greater results, and in some cases exceeds the physical store, it is detrimental. That is, entrepreneurs are reducing the staff of the stores, or even closing stores if they have several open, because it really does not compensate them if they put on the same scale what they do with an online store as with a physical store.

For this reason, it is said that an eCommerce is a source of employment and unemployment. On the one hand, it employs other types of workers, who are specialized in the online world. On the other hand, it removes the work of people in situ, that is, of the physical stores that see their action diminished and that remain as mere «meeting areas». In fact, some end up diversifying their business. For example, in the case of a plant store, they can take courses, seminars, masterclasses ... to encourage people to attend the physical store (or they can even do them online).

Now, one of the big problems in employment with eCommerce is that, although people who have one and need help look for workers, they are not hired by them, which helps a B economy or the fact that It is the worker who has to register as a self-employed person to be able to collect legally (some people oblige in hiring at this point), thus generating an added problem for workers, which is to pay the self-employment fee month by month (which at sometimes drowns more by discounting what is paid with what is received) and is the reason why many Internet workers cannot depend on a single customer.

Social impact

With the popularity that these sites have grown, countless types of transactions have appeared, such as virtual banks, advertising on websites and the creation of a new type of currency (Bitcoin). As soon as an innovation is created, society tries to adapt to these new inventions, creating and developing virtual processes that can help facilitate the original invention or, in this case, E-commerce websites. Society will always find a way to adapt to innovation.

Before, an eCommerce was not the place where many people wanted to buy. In fact, when the first online stores appeared, many people were reluctant to buy online for several reasons:

1. The fact having to put your personal data, because people did not trust what could be done with that data or if hackers or other people could access it.
2. El buy a product without first seeing it, or else try it. Therefore, clothing stores were more difficult to succeed, as well as other products that required having to try something on to know if it was what you were looking for or not.
3. The pay. Many stores started with bank card payments, but soon had to enable cash on delivery because people did not trust to give their card number. However, paying once you had the order at home was more expensive, so many preferred to go to the store "of a lifetime" and buy there.

With the passage of time, and the establishment of eCommerces, as well as the possibility of expanding the forms of payment, this was solved. It also helped the fact that an online store can have a greater variety of products, some even that have never been seen in physical stores. This makes the novelty, and originality, influence when placing an order.

The fact of having products that have not been seen before, of immediacy (because when you order a product that is not in the store you have to wait a few days to have it, in an eCommerce in 24-48 hours you have it at home) , receiving it at home without having to move ... had more influence on that social impact.