E-commerce is a transaction of buying or selling online. Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce electronic funds transfer supply chain management Internet marketing online transaction processing electronic data interchange (EDI) inventory management systems and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web for at least one part of the transaction's life cycle although it may also use other technologies such as e-mail.
The internet represents new opportunities for the traditional companies including the diversification of the given services which are personalized and attractive thanks to the information and communication technologies. According to this the Internet has allowed the development of a new form of commerce—electronic commerce to compete with the traditional commerce. The electronic commerce stimulates the competition by developing new products and markets and by developing new types of relationships between the producers and consumers.
Its rapid expansion has drawn attention to the impact it will have on promoting trade economic growth and development. In addition to the many benefits associated with e-commerce it’s stimulating trade by lowering the cost of gathering and processing information from distant markets by creating global access to specific goods and services. Now more and more users around the world are using the Internet to enter into commercial transactions and the electronic commerce is still thriving under the coordination with many potential clients and business partners.
Many customers choose shopping online because comparing with the traditional shopping model it’s more convenient to find a product online and save time on shopping. But NetElixir(2011) found that online shoppers are taking longer to research their purchases. Before purchase the average consumer was repeatedly clicking on its clients’ search ads the advertisements that accompany search results. That behavior signals that the consumers are running repeated searches in the same product category. Such clicks are up about 15 percent from two years ago and consumers are taking about 12 percent longer from first click to final purchase. Udayan Bose NetElixi’s chief executive suggested that online retailers can better track these diligent researchers by lengthening the lifespan of their cookies the software that tracks contact with potential customers. Cookies typically expire after seven days. So if the online retailers really want to get a complete picture they should extend the overall cookie period which will help the etailers to know more about the customers’ buying intention and preference and developing more comprehensive marketing strategies in winning more potential customers and binding the buyers.
Introduction of Electronic Commerce (Efrain Daivid & Judy 2010) millions of storefronts are on the Web advertising and offering a huge variety of items. These stores are owned by companies government agencies or individuals. Every day it is possible to find new offerings of products and services. Most people sports teams and organizations are trying to improve their performance. For some it’s a challenge; for others it is a requirement for survival. Yet for some it is the key to improve life profitability or reputation. Most online sellers measure their performance periodically comparing it to some of their mission objectives and plans. Unfortunately in business performance often depends not only on what you do but also on what others are doing. So such business circumstances can create significant pressures and impact performance in uncontrollable or sometimes even in unpredictable ways to the etailers. With the increasing number of online shoppers in the world etailers appreciate the need to provide excellent choice and service to the potential customers. Hundreds of thousands of items are available on the Web from numerous vendors.
Etailers are operating in an increasingly competitive environment. Therefore they treat customers like royalty as they try to persuade them to buy their goods and services. So that will increase the consumers’ satisfaction level because they can have high service and good products at a low price. The e-commerce is a virtual business circumstances the trust problem is always existed because in the electronic marketplace sellers and buyers do not meet face to face. The buyer can see a picture of the product but not the product itself. Promises of quality and delivery can be easily made—but will they be kept? To deal with these issues etailers need to establish high levels of trust with current and potential customers. In addition to sellers and buyers trusting each other both must have trust in the EC computing environment and in the EC infrastructure. If people do not trust the security of the EC infrastructure they will not feel comfortable about using credit cards to make EC purchases. Thanks to the improving institution and the operational system the trade will be more trustworthy online that the sellers will get some punishments if they have spurious business advertisement and sell the false commodity according to Mcknight and Chervany (What trust means in E-commerce Customer Relationships)
Online evaluation systems are virtual spaces over the Internet where a group of customers interact with others and share information to evaluate the etailers’ whole business process including the quality of the goods the speed of the delivery and the trustworthy degree and so on. What’s more the customers can also use the communication tools to chat with the etailers to evaluate whether the goods are reallywhat they want. Through the inquiry from the etailers the customers can know much more information about the products and improve their trust level which will help them to make a final purchase decision if they feel that the commodity is real and the best among the other relative ones based on their criteria. So if the etailers want to strength their ability to persuade their potential customers to buy their goods to have more communication with them and try to gain more support and positive response in the evaluation or feedback system(Xizheng 2011).
Group purchasing is also a way for customers to buy the products in lower price and now is becoming more and more popular in China according to PJian Chen(2007). Group purchasing is the quantity purchasing that enables groups of purchasers to obtain a discount price on the products purchased. The Group Purchasing facilitates group buying on a large scale by aggregating the demands of several buyers. It negotiates a lower purchase price with the seller by using the collective purchasing power of the buyers and lowers the buyers' procurement cost. As on-line community activities have increased rapidly the need for a group recommendation system has also become more and more imperative. Although the traditional recommendationsystem has achieved great success in supporting individuals' purchasing decisions it is not suitable for supporting group purchasing decisions because its input can neither include items' ratings given by groups nor can it generate recommendations for groups. So now in China the specific group purchasing websites emerge very quickly to meet the need of this trend.