Since the world turn to the new century, electronic commerce has had a significant influence on business operations. Trading on the internet is used as a method to extend the markets. The DTI (2005) claims that it is not only the customers but also suppliers can gain the advantage from the internet shopping because it often promises “greater market penetration, increased customer response, more flexibility and lower costs.” This essay will examine the possible problems that take place from the rapid growth of online shopping, propose reasonable solutions as well as evaluate these solutions.
The rise of online stores appears to be one of the key factors that generate revenue of businesses. With the arrival of online shopping, it is claimed that offline sales in Europe are set to decrease by 1.4 percent in 2015, on the contrary, online sales increase by 18.4 percent. It indicates that overall retail sales in 2015 may rise by around two percent across the continent. Observing the UK alone, offline sales are set to decrease by 1.9 percent but overall retail will increase by 3.5 percent, according to Terrelonge, Z (2015).
Even though, the use of online transactions for shopping become increasingly popular in this era; the electronic commerce also has two types of risks. First is product risk, the consumers need to examine a product before purchasing. Another type of risk is security risk, there appears to be a significant risk because all of the payment transactions are conducted over the internet and the consumers have to provide the personal information, such as payment details, phone number, email address and shipping address, which it may have a chance to become prey of cyber criminals. Therefore, this is a critical issue to consider for consumers when accessing a transaction online (Bhatnagar & Ghose, 2004).
Though almost all recognize that a problem exists,