E-commerce became known with the flourishment of information technology.

It changed the usual traditional trade concepts and expanded the commercial market space to include the entire world.

Although many people turn to e-commerce for reasons, like:

• Enhancing competitiveness.
• Encouraging innovation.
• Creating various job opportunities.

However, some still attached to traditional commerce, perhaps for the fear of lack of credibility or out of habit.

But we wonder:

What are the reasons that the vast majority turn towards e-commerce?

What are the differences between traditional commerce and e-commerce?

Traditional trade :

It is a process of buying and selling products and services, which are traded by individuals, merchants, bodies, companies, and commercial institutions, and their existence is based on four elements:

• The product.
• The Market.
• The Customers.
• The payment.

There are things that must be taken into account in traditional trade, including:

• Studying the market, knowing its needs, and defining the target group of customers.
• Purchase of goods from their sources, customs clearance, transportation, and payment of shipping costs.
• Securing the right place to store the goods and the right place to display them in the market.
• Promote and market goods through various advertising means to ensure that they reach customers.
• Selecting a team of sales staff and training them to deal with customers and attract them to the products.
• Carrying out the necessary accounting operations.

E-Commerce :

E-commerce is similar to traditional commerce in that both of them are based on the process of trade exchange and selling goods, except that the means differ between them!

Whereas traditional commerce depends on selling face to face, e-commerce depends on the Internet and electronic and smart devices, and the selling process is through either websites, e-mail, or mobile applications.

The three most popular types of e-commerce:

E-commerce is divided into nine sub-categories, and we will discuss the most popular three, which are:

• E-commerce between business enterprises (B2B):

Such as when a company uses the Internet to obtain its requests for information, services, or products from another company.

Statistics prove that about 85% of e-commerce transactions are of this type.

• Business-to-consumer e-commerce (B2C):

Here, business owners offer their products and services to customers through online stores instead of presenting them in traditional markets or shops.

The facility might have a physical presence on the ground, such as Amazon.

• E-commerce between businesses and government organizations (B2A) or (B2G):

Employers interested in this type of e-commerce allocate their services for the benefit of government institutions and agencies and not individuals.

On the other hand, government agencies use central websites to trade and exchange information with various business organizations.

This may include (financial measures – social security – legal and other documents).

An example is the agreement of governments with those involved in establishing electronic platforms to create websites for ministries or state institutions.

Also there is Accela, a software company that provides government software solutions, and general access to government services for permits, planning, licensing, public health, and more.

Advantages of e-commerce over traditional commerce:

Despite the precedence of traditional commerce, e-commerce is sweeping the markets and the business world due to many features, including:

• E-commerce provides a wide market that reaches a global scale and ensures rapid and secure spread at much lower costs than traditional commerce.
• Ease of buying and selling 24 hours.
• E-commerce gives the merchant the freedom to communicate with customers and clients at any time through its multiple means.
• E-commerce provides easy access to customer feedback on the services and products provided through information and opinion exchange platforms, which facilitates the process of developing work and improving the quality of services and products provided by knowing the weaknesses directly from the customer.
• Traditional commerce relies on inclusive marketing, while e-commerce allows personalization.
• E-commerce is characterized by the ability to reduce inventories by using the withdrawal process.

(In the withdrawal system, the process begins with obtaining a commercial order from the consumer, and providing him with his request through the appropriate timing manufacturing.

The withdrawal process also allows the product or service to be manufactured according to the buyer’s requirements, which gives the company a commercial advantage over its competitors).

Conclusion :

E-commerce is one of the new and complementary forms of traditional commerce.

It has become one of the arms that contribute to growth and development, especially after it worked on the following:

• Keeping pace with the global economic and trade sector.
• Making a complete change in the provision of services, products, and comprehensive offers for all marketing and shopping options.
• It worked with international efforts to lift restrictions and remove borders for this type of trade.

Although the term e-commerce is a recent term, the industrial revolution and the tremendous technological development that we have reached today contributed to its emergence.

However, it was the latest major quantum leap in the field of trade and made it more smooth and easy at all levels.