TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement Preface Scope of the study Objectives Executive summary 1.

ry 1. Introduction of the topic Research methodology 2. Conceptual Framework Global trends in E-Commerce E-commerce in India E-Commerce in Global Sourcing Scenario. Security concern in e-commerce E-commerce: A Boon for the Current Economic Downturn Key Reasons for success of e-Commerce Factors affecting Distribution and form of Global e-commerce o Internet Adoption o Buying and selling online o Advertisement and searching phase o Payment phase o Delivery phase.

INTRODUCTION E-commerce (electronic commerce or EC) is the buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet, especially the World Wide Web. In practice, this term and a newer term, e-business, are often used inter changebly. For online retail selling, the term e-tailing is sometimes used Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of business transactions. E-commerce can be divided into -tailing or "virtual storefronts" on Web sites with online catalogs, sometimes gathered into a "virtual mall" emographic data through Web contacts -to-business exchange of data -mail and fax and their use as media for reaching prospects and established customers (for example, with newsletters) -to-business buying and selling

Today Ecommerce is an integral part of business because of various reasons like:

easy compassion of products from different vendors

less time consuming. It is therefore very important for any new entrepreneur to

understand the significance of E-Commerce and should know how to utilize this tool for the growth and development of business.

So, whether you have an existing business or launching a brand new business, whether the volume of your business is large or small, you can always generate profit by demonstrating your products or services online, thereby acquiring a large amount of viewer exposure. In concise, buying and selling will result in profits and returns. There are so many factors which makes e-commerce to come to the fore front in today's world. Saving precious time involved in business transactions is really a prominent factor. Like for instance, net banking makes it easy to carry out money and baking transactions in a break neck speed as compared to the real banking scenario. This asserts the fact that Ecommerce is beneficial to both business and consumer wise as payment and documentations can be completed with greater efficiency and reliability. Another important factor determining the flow of whole business is connectivity. Connectivity is very important for both consumers and business. Ecommerce provides better connectivity for all the potential candidates all over the globe, thus helping in enhancing the business without any geographical barriers. From the view point of the customer, Ecommerce is a good platform for hassle free shopping by sitting in your home. The customer can browse through all the products and services available and can review and compare the prices of the similar products available in the online space. In global market scenario, the emergence of Ecommerce as a forerunner has opened up various windows of opportunities for a variety of online companies and investors. More and more resources are being directed into electronic securities, internet facilities, business plans and new technologies due to the boom in the

space of E-commerce. As a result various new markets have emerged from Ecommerce itself giving a boost to the global market.

CHARACTERISTICS Exchange and Share Data Across the World Text messages, documents, graphics, photographs, music, video, and much more, can be converted into data and sent as email attachments or presented on a web site. There are no postage, printing and packaging costs with eCommerce communications. So, use this new communications method to work quicker, and in new ways, with customers and suppliers outside of your locality or country. Send Messages Faster and Cheaper When you send a message, you only pay for the Internet access. As soon as the message arrives at your ISP, it is sent for zero cost to all the people to whom it has been addressed. Moreover, the message is likely to arrive at its destination, in a matter of seconds or minutes, depending on the size of the email and its attachments. Think of the possibilities for saving time and money with email. Approve and Proof Work Quickly A quotation, purchase order, letter, design drawings, brochure, or advert colour proof, etc. can be emailed to you as an attachment for your approval. Using email in this way can dramatically speed-up the turn-around of work between you and your business contacts. Introduce Collaborative Working With fast, reliable and cheap eCommerce communications, it is possible for colleagues, customers, suppliers and partners, to use collaborative working practices to manage, share, and enhance the project work, regardless of location where they are at a particular instance. Update Employees Instantly With New Policies or Procedures Email and messengers etc. works well when communicating with colleagues/pals who are off-site, out of the country,or teleworking. Hold Web Meetings (Data Conferencing)

A great way to have a virtual meeting is to upload a document (spreadsheets, project plans, etc) on to a web site and enable it to be viewed and edited in realtime through the Internet. Holding virtual meetings can save significantly on travel expenses and time. Take Advantage of Time Differences As eCommerce communications are so fast and low cost, new business relationship have been established where work is exchanged between time zones at the end of one day, which, on the other side of the world, is the beginning of either the same or next day. Send Out email Automatically Event-triggered emails can be used to acknowledge orders made on web sites, and to update customers on order progress. Alert-emails or SMS messages can also be used to notify technical support of critical issues or maintenance problems. There, and many other similar applications, are effortless, cheap, and efficient ways of enhancing customer service and the brand experience. Use the Internet to Improve Business Administration With a mobile phone connected to a portable computer, employees working offsite can access and update internal information, such as customer records, price lists, time sheets, schedules, and job reports. Providing remote Internet access for staff makes it possible for the latest information to be at hand, for administrative tasks such as invoicing, employee whereabouts, and expense claims etc.

Train on the Web The multi-media capabilities of web sites make them ideal for creating a virtual learning environment for employees and customers. When training material is updated, the latest version is immediately available. On-line learning facilities enable trainees living all over the world to access courseware when it is convenient to them, and without having to travel to a training centre, which in turn, saves time and expenses. Replace the Fax Machine and Save Money If a multi-page document has to be faxed to many people, it can work out expensive on telephone bills, especially if a national or international call has to be made. The cost savings can be huge if email is used instead, and the message can also be sent to multiple people for no extra cost.

History of E-commerce Concerning Technology E-commerce began before personal computers were prevalent and has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. The meaning of the term "electronic commerce" has changed over the last 30 years. Originally, "electronic commerce" meant the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, usually using technology like Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), where both were introduced in the late 1970s, for example, to send commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically. The 'electronic' or 'e' in e-commerce refers to the technology/systems; the 'commerce' refers to be traditional business models. E-commerce is the complete set of processes that support commercial business activities on a network. In the 1970s and 1980s, this would also have involved information analysis. The growth and acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s were also forms of e-commerce. However, from the 1990s onwards, this would include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing. In the dot com era, it came to include activities more precisely termed "Web commerce" - the purchase of goods and services over the World Wide Web, usually with secure connections (HTTPS, a special server protocol that encrypts confidential ordering data for customer protection) with eshopping carts and with electronic payment services, like credit card payment authorizations. Today, it encompasses a very wide range of business activities and processes, from e-banking to offshore manufacturing to e-logistics. The ever growing dependence of modern industries on electronically enabled business processes gave impetus to the growth and development of supporting systems, including backend systems, applications and middleware. Examples are broadband and fibre-optic networks,

supply-chain management software, customer relationship management software, inventory control systems and financial accounting software. Concerning Decisions/Foot steps When the Web first became well-known among the general public in 1994, many journalists and pundits forecast that e-commerce would soon become a major economic sector. However, it took about four years for security protocols (like HTTPS) to become sufficiently developed and widely deployed. Subsequently, between 1998 and 2000, a substantial number of businesses in the United States and Western Europe developed rudimentary web sites. Although a large number of "pure e-commerce" companies disappeared during the dot-com collapse in 2000 and 2001, many "brick-and-mortar" retailers recognized that such companies had identified valuable niche markets and began to add ecommerce capabilities to their Web sites. For example, after the collapse of online grocer Webvan, two traditional supermarket chains, Albertsons and Safeway, both started e-commerce subsidiaries through which consumers could order groceries online. The emergence of e-commerce also significantly lowered barriers to entry in the selling of many types of goods; accordingly many small home-based proprietors are able to use the internet to sell goods. Often, small sellers use online auction sites such as EBay, or sell via large corporate websites like Amazon.com, in order to take advantage of the exposure and setup convenience of such sites. Concerning Transformation of IT EDI Some authors will track back the history of ecommerce to the invention of the telephone at the end of last century. EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is widely viewed as the beginning of ecommerce if we consider ecommerce as the networking of business communities and digitalization of business information.

Large organizations have been investing in development of EDI since sixties. It has not gained reasonable acceptance until eighties. EDI has never reached the level of popularity of the web-based ecommerce for several reasons: 1. High cost of EDI prohibited small businesses and medium-sized companies from participating in the electronic commerce. 2. Slow development of standards hindered the growth of EDI. 3. The complexity of developing EDI applications limited its adaptation to a narrow user base. The Internet and the Web The Internet was conceived in 1969, when the Advanced Research Projects Agency (a Department of Defense organization) funded research of computer networking. The Internet could end up like EDI without the emergence of the World Wide Web in 1990s. The Web became a popular mainstream medium (perceived as the fourth mainstream medium in addition to print, radio and TV) in a speed which had never been seen before. The Web users and content were almost doubled every a couple of months in 1995 and 1996. The web and telecommunication technology had fueled the stock bubble in the roaring 90s and eventually pushed NASDAQ over 5,000 in 2000 before it crashed down to 1,200 in 2002. XML and Web Services Besides the availability of technical infrastructures, the popularity of the Web is largely attributed to the low cost of access and simplicity of HTML authoring, which are the obstacles of EDI development. The Internet and the Web have overcome the technical difficulty of EDI, but it has not solved the problem of slow development of ecommerce standards. XML, as a meta markup language, provides a development tool for defining format of data interchange in a wide variety of business communities. Web Services offers

a flexible and effective architecture for the implementation. There is no doubt that XML and the Web Services will shape the course of ecommerce in years to come.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Sources of Data For having the detailed study about this topic, it is necessary to have some of the secondary information, which is collected from the following:-Books, Websites and Newspapers. So in this basically secondary data is used in collecting the information. The sources of data are: Websites: Wikipedia

-commerce

Newspapers:

Type of Study The research design or type of study specifies the methods and procedures for conducting a particular study. The type of research design applied here are Descriptive and Desk Analysis as the objective is to have knowledge about the ecommerce in global Scenario. Descriptive study means situation, but not the causal linkages among its different elements. Descriptive studies (such as a crosssectional study) help in generating hypothesis on which further research may be based. Desk analysis is to Gather and analyze information, already available in print or published on the internet.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Global trends in E-commerce cant vehicle for c-commerce implementations

trading partners to implement EDI

us on core competencies and outsource technology to consulting groups

manage s to be capable of handing different business processes and must integrate with existing IT investments

As social media, app stores and global availability become standard, many companies are looking to enhance the online customer experience. And while retail and other transactions via Internet are customary, more than ever companies are simplifying the ways in which customers interact with their website and ultimately make online purchases. Here are eight trends happening right now in global ecommerce that seek to enhance the user experience: Micro-payments Among the most revolutionary changes in the coming monthsnot yearsis the use of micro-payment systems from a variety of

financial firms, e.g., Paypal, Visa, WesternUnion, among others, including banks. This trend is facilitated by the W3C working group that approved these protocols and technical standards for the interworking. These systems will change not only how we carry money but how we value money and think about purchases. (Consider how a purchase of $4.99 feels in a mobile app store vs. at Dunkin' Donuts.) Payment systems that make it easier to buy online, coupled with mobile technologies will accelerate the usage of global e-commerce applications.

Mobile technologies More people access the Internet on their mobile devices than on any other device. We are rapidly approaching the time (if we are not already there) where designs must be created for the mobile Web first, and for the desktop second. Mobile technologies facilitate comparison shopping; with the advent of barcode reader apps and price-comparison databases, a consumer could snap a bar code in Walmart and quickly reference product reviews and prices on walmart.com (or compare prices with Walmart competitors). Mobile technologies also facilitate impulse buys especially with the advent of micro-payments tied to the mobile device. Just recently, Starbucks customers can not only place an order with their Smartphone, but also make a purchase.

Social media As Facebook has become the most visited site on the Web, the role of social media, including Facebook and its local clones such as Twitter, is increasingly important. Social media sites increasingly act as points of entry to ecommerce sites, and vice versa, as e-commerce sites build rating, loyalty and referral systems tied to social media. Group buying (e.g., Groupon) is also gaining mainstream ground, with many "deal of the day" sites competing for an

increasingly savvy consumer base, but improvements lie ahead as the social aspects and user experience are refined.

Fulfillment options I believe that users will want to have multiple fulfillments and return options when interacting with a vendor: ship to address, courier, pick-up in store, return to store, etc. Having many fulfillment options is how customers view their overall customer experience. Some companies have made a business proposition online by being exceptional in service to the online channel (e.g., Zappos). Global availability Increasingly, consumers want the availability to buy products from foreign sites and have them delivered locally. Thus, currency and customs will be of growing concern to many online retailers. Along with this, there will be concerns with local privacy laws and restrictions on related data collection and storage. Localization While the trend is to globalize, whats often more important is to localize. User Centrics research clearly shows that sites that feel local with proper imagery, language, time/date, weights/measures, currency, etc. resonate far more than sites that seem culturally distant or sterile. Customizability Consumers want control, and want to be able to design the details of the items they purchase. Time-based availability Some of the hottest and most successful sites are those that have a time-critical response component. Sites like Groupon, Gilt and others capitalize on the perception of limited-time availability. Creating a sense of urgency drives traffic and purchase behavior.

E-COMMERCE IN INDIA New Gold Rush in E-commerce in India Kunal Bahl, founder- CEO of e-commerce site Snapdeal.com bought out eSportsbuy.com for an estimated of Rs.50 crores. Bahl has 20million (Rs. 100 crore) stash for acquisition-significant because Snapdeal is itself a startup-but a rich on. It has raised Rs.52 million from ventures funds. Bahl is not alone who is scouting for potential suitor. In February this year aggressively online shopping site Flipkart.com acquired rival Letsbuy.com. Early last year, US-based social buying site Groupon acquired Indias SoSasta.com and renamed it as Crazeal.com. And so it seems that e-commerce is not about customers buying goods. It is about firms shopping for others. Industry trackers say leading sites are gobbling up rivals to build size, or acquiring customer niches either to add product segments or to get technologies that help efficient operations. In the game in which future share issues are on the radar for bigger players, the smaller ones often prefer to cash out than be crushed in lonely pursuits in an aggressively competitive game. At stake is a huge market will growing potential because India has 900 million mobile phones, with a big chunk of that growing up from voice talk to Internet, wile the current Web user base at more than 100 million is in itself a significant number. Industry estimates say Indias e-commerce market will zoom from the current Rs.51000 crore to Rs.10,20,000 crore in revenues by 2020. The race lead to buyouts-often at the cost of profitability. At present sites are falling over each other to offer deep discou nts, but you do not survive only through discounts. This only creates a disloyal discount shopper who moves from one site to another in search of the cheaper deal, said Mahesh

Murthy , managing partner of investment firm Seefund Advisors. Murthy added that sites without a credible differentiation strategy and loyal customers base would bleed-and will be up for grabs. Experts say acquisition of other sites is also a good strategy to built brand and broaden a loyal customer base. Snapdeal.com snapped up eSportsbuy.com to get access to its large catalogue of sports and fitness products. Flipkart.com started out with books, added cameras and mobile handsets and then got Letsbuy.com to acquire muscle in electronic goods, while Groupons buyout was to enter Indi a. There in no room for newer players in the general category but there is space for niche category players, he said. This has been observed by Prashanth Prakash, partner at Accel partners, which has invested in Flipkart.com. Private enquiry is doing a huge amount of work backstage. Venture capitalists say they more than doubled the funding level in e-commerce over the past year, and the average size of investment has ranged from Rs.20 to 40 million. However, having a deep pocket is no guarantee to success. Money can only delay your death. The only key to survive is to have a credible differentiation strategy, Murthy said. Size is not everything, but could help if investors have a sense of timing. As the e-commerce companies grow and get brand loyalty the valuations are expected to increase even further. It will be the time when we can offload our stake, for hefty profits, a venture capitalist with significant stake in leading e-commerce site. Hundreds of Internet startups went bust in 2000 and 2001 in the dotcom bubble and comparing the current e-commerce rush to that may not be farfetched said Shailen Amin, co-founder and CEO of footwear sites Bestylish.com. There are a lot of guys in this business who dont have a retail background. They are form either consulting or technology. So one should ask if they are really qualified to run e-retail businesses.

In the world where old-fashioned retail meets high-technology and innovative management, the winners could well be those who understand dimensions. What the consolidation?

-commerce sites compete on deep discounts, which hit their margins.

commerce ventures are still profitable.

What makes a Long-Term Player?

product/service differentiation.

Challenges for E-Commerce Sites

h-on-delivery

State of Play

add categories.

customers, and are not based on eyeballs.

E-commerce companies in India offers the most tangible and finest e-commerce solutions, provide high end e-commerce solution taking utmost care of the privacy and security of the e-commerce website. E-Commerce service includes shopping

carts, database programmers, graphic design services, graphics, e-business, Flash designs etc.

TOP TEN E-COMMERCE COMPANIES IN INDIA 20North.com: This website offers variety of products like electronics ,books ,music ,movies ,car accessories. The site also offers lucrative deals. Log onto the site to shop. Happy Shopping!!! 99labels.com: This site offers many fashion and luxury brands at good prices. Check this site for more brands . Dealsandyou.com: This site offers various kinds of deals be it holidays, shirts etc. Also this site gives heavy discounts on regular basis that cab be profitable for the shoppers. Browse this site for more. Fashionandyou.com: This site also is a great place to shop and that too sitting at home. Also this site declares sale and heavy discounts almost every day. Sign Up today to get more deals. Flipkart : This site offers various kinds of products and that too at one place. Mobile, its accessories , books, camera and laptop accessories. and many more things are available on this site. One can find deals for home appliances also that are available at affordable prices. Check this site Indiangiftsportal: This is known for providing gifts for various occasions like birthdays ,anniversary, wedding, bhai dooj, diwali and many more .Also flowers, cakes ,chocolates and many more things are offered by this site. Browse it today to send gifts to your loved ones.

MagazineMall: This company specifically deals in magazines and one can get magazines of different and unique categories like Gardening/Housekeeping, lifestyle, fashion, luxury, current affairs and many more. Bindaasbargain: Here new deal comes everyday at 10 am and it is India's first One Deal A Day online shopping site.Check out the site for new deal. Happy Shopping Buytheprice.com: The site offers Mobiles, Computers, Cameras, Home Appliances ,Life style, Audio and Video and much more. Variety of products are available under each category. Perfume2order: It has categories like Perfumes for Men, Perfumes for Women, Deodorants & Deo Stick, Perfume Gift Set, Designer Wallet & Belts, Flowers, Handbags & Clutches, Sunglasses and many more things.

E-COMMERCE IN GLOBAL SOURCING SCENARIO What Is E-commerce And How Does It Augments Global Sourcing? E-commerce or electronic commerce, as it is popular, allows domestic as well as international trade over the Internet. The advent of E-commerce is boon for global sourcing and import and export. The boost to global sourcing and import/export through E-commerce is because of its to conduct online marketing, monitoring supply chain and monetary & data transaction in a dependable manner. Evolution of E-commerce with Global Sourcing? It is hard to tell whether import/export volume has swelled because of E-commerce but sure it made global sourcing easier to monitor with its evolutionary phases. Three decades ago, it facilitated fund transfers- albeit electronically besides facilitating exchange of POs and invoices in international trade. Electronic teller machines are the recent manifestations now overtaken by internet creditcard processing and endorsement of unsigned invoices even in international trade.

Why is E-commerce Popular in International Trade and Import/Export? Looked at from both import and export traders' perspective, international trade is easier conducted electronically. Here are the points why present international trade depends much on E-commerce. -commerce storefronts for both global sourcing as well as import/export.

many staff. e/list import/export vendor Online.

transaction

to international trade, simultaneously

In international trade, global sourcing happens to be one of the chief aspects of import and export business. Global sourcing is an integral part of B2b scenario and has essentially transformed world economies as well as boosted business in a great way. Nonetheless, it is also giving great transformation to the work culture around the globe with China playing a lead role in global sourcing. Nevertheless, it is also transforming work cultures around the world silently with China business playing a major role. Being an extension of open market dynamics, global sourcing facilitates the export and import of goods to be in the reach of several small and medium enterprises in different countries. In this b2b scenario, E-commerce plays an active role in the global sourcing where the business houses are putting in deep efforts and reaping the benefits. In this rally of export and import, traders happen to claim the share of the pie in global sourcing. E Commerce & Global Sourcing nown strategies of ensuring smooth business and access to markets in a cost effective manner. In such a scenario, Ecommerce has brought in a new transformation. It has added to advantages like removing the barriers of time zones, differences in costs, geographical locations etc. This has resulted in a major push in development in infrastructure, technology and several other sectors across the globe. As we see, E commerce is driving the export and import and propelling the economic growth of numerous developing as well as developed nations.

Business strategies are becoming easy to execute and business houses are having a wide range of options from where they can make their choices. -commerce has made the path of business smoother and has facilitated not only in lower cost, but also resulted in procuring material from places where there is specialization. Moreover, business negotiations are easier and decisions are quicker due to this boon. Driving the import and export business in this global sourcing scenario has opened new frontiers for higher growth. The ease in supply chain is one of the best advantages that has come from e-commerce in the global sourcing scenario.

in the e-commerce enabled era. The use of internet has facilitated trade and boosted it at an immense rate. Business from all over the world has been bagged by this country in spite of the competitive market. Chinese traders have minted fast money and are still running in that race.

Security concerns in Global Sourcing E-commerce is not without security concerns, loss/misuse of encrypted data which are still being seriously being viewed by import/export operators before engaging in international trade electronically. The truth is E-commerce providers employ SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to encrypt data/money (remember banks) transfer from your desktop to your clients'. You can say, E-commerce is secure for both import/export operators as well as global sourcing agents alike. E-commerce has arrived on the global sourcing scene as both import and export and international trade partners are accepting it. Despite its growing stature and popularity E-

commerce is still thriving in retail sector domestically and the international trade needs to cover a long distance before it catches up. Another reason for import/export operators' leaning towards E-commerce is the growing costs of delays in processing POs and invoices through traditional methods which render global sourcing useless.

E-commerce: A Boon for the Current Economic Downturn E-commerce: A Boon for India By the end of 2011, the e-commerce market in India had clocked close to Rs 50,000 cores. It is interesting to consider whether the global economic downturn may have negatively impacted the growth of e-commerce or possibly accelerated it as consumers look to new online channels which can often deliver greater value than traditional stores. Today, even though there are less than 10 million internet users who are actually engaging in e-commerce activities, there are about 150 million internet users in India or around 75 million households that are ready for ecommerce. The growing reach in terms of internet connectivity to the interiors of India coupled with the positive experiences of end consumers when buying online beyond the metros and big cities are key drivers of the e-commerce boon in India. Businesses in even the smallest towns and villages are becoming increasingly aware of e-commerce and are excited by the growth potential. The growing penetration of e-commerce along with positive consumer experiences is reflected in a trend towards higher value online purchases. Today, consumers across urban India are confident enough to make purchases that exceed Rs 20,00025,000. Earlier, the same shoppers stayed in the Rs 2,000-5,000 ranges. According to one study almost 57% of business for e-commerce product sites came from tier I, tier II and tier III cities while the eight metros accounted for the remainder 43%. The same pattern was visible in the service sites too, with tier I, tier II and tier III cities contributing 54% of revenue versus 46 % by the eight metros. According to a report by the IAMAI, the current e-commerce market in India is around US$ 10 billion. But with different levels of adoption, the market has the potential to grow anywhere between US$ 70 billion US$ 150 billion under one scenario and at another level it can grow between US$ 125 billion US$ 260 billion by 2024-25.

E-commerce: The world over Globally, the scenario is much the same. Brazil, one of fastest growing economies in Latin America, is seeing considerable growth. According to a recent report, it estimates business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce, including both retail ecommerce and online travel sales, will total to $18.7 billion in 2012, a growth of 21.9% over the previous year. Brazil will account for more than half of the total B2C e-commerce sales in Latin America through 2013, thanks in large to its huge populace and growing number of online buyers. Retail e-commerce itself in the U.S.is predicted to grow at 17% and it will likely account for $200 billion in sales in 2012 , according to a presentation at a popular forum. Retail e-commerce totalled $48.2 billion during the third quarter of 2011; an increase of 13.7% compared with the third quarter of 2010, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. 2011 also saw the European online market boom despite the floundering euro. Germanys online trade increased 17% in 2011 to 21.48billion compared to 2010, crossing the 20 billion mark for the first time, outstripping traditional mail order sales by 10%. A similar growth rate of 10% to 15% is expected in 2012. In the global scenario, China is fast emerging as the biggest player in e-commerce. According to an e-commerce report, by 2015, it may well surpass the U.S. In an astonishing illustration of its online growth rate, China has added the equivalent of the entire population of France in internet users in each of the last four years. It will add the equivalent of the entire population of Canada as e-shoppers in each of the next four years. China is projected to rise from 145 million e-shoppers today to 329 million by 2015.

KEY REASONS FOR THE SUCCESS OF E-COMMERCE Shopping 24x7: E-commerce facilitates shopping anytime, anywhere and for almost anything desired. Busy consumers prefer this to the restrictions of when a mall/shop is open and the need to physically travel to a shop. Online business takes shopping a step further by taking itself to the customer creating conveniences of shopping anywhere and at anytime.

Reduced operational cost: Since the entire business can be moved online, the need for physical stores has become obsolete. Less infrastructural investment and associated labour costs drives up the profit margin. The seller can then transfer this benefit to the customer in the form of discounted pricing which boosts the appeal of online shopping.

Easy to compare: It is far easier and quicker to compare prices of goods online, equipping the customer with the information to decide the right price or terms for themselves. The comparison is not restricted to items from a single seller, or a single region. One can explore products across global markets via e commerce.

Safe & secure:Customers can trust the process of going online and purchasing only when transactions are fast, convenient and secure. A high degree of integrity is possible only when the online electronic payment provider is reputable and trustworthy. In India, all payment transaction providers are required to comply with the security requirements laid out by the Reserve Bank of India making the system more robust and reliable.

Increased reach for the merchant: Just as the customer finds them able to venture across geographic markets, the merchant too is able to display his product

to customers in new territories. Market penetration also becomes far more achievable with e-commerce; it is possible for a merchant in Mumbai to extend his reach to north-eastern cities or even rural villages that are now connected by the online network. Social media trend: In India, with the increasing propensity of social media, businesses have now begun to engage their customers on social networking portals such as Facebook. Promotions, sales and new products are increasingly showcased through such channels and mobile apps are now available that suggest products to users based on their profiles. These are likely to be rapidly developing marketing channels for the future.

The e-commerce world is changing rapidly in the digitized world. These ecommerce developments may have been accelerated by the global economic downturn which may be driving consumers to find new ways of reducing their costs of living. The online channel offers a clear value proposition for both merchants and consumers making it the most sought after and exciting business model today