     In this era, information technology develops rapidly. Not only in the education sector, government sector, industrial sector, cultural sector, but also in economic sector. The example of the development of information technology in economic sector is e-commerce. E-commerce (electronic commerce) describes the process of buying, selling, transferring, or exchanging products, services, or information via computer networks, including the internet (Rainer, Prince, Cegielski, 2014, page 216). To put it simply, e-commerce is a transaction process through the internet. E-commerce has thirteen business models, they are online direct marketing, electronic tendering system, name-your-own-price, find-the-best-price, affiliate marketing, viral marketing, group purchasing(e-coops), online auctions, product customization, electronic marketplaces, bartering online, deep discounters, and membership (Rainer, Prince, Cegielski, 2014, page 218). The examples of e-commerce are Amazon.com (purchasing book), www.ebay.com (eBay that conducting selling and buying on auction), Tokopedia (purchasing many things from apparel to housing utilities). With e-commerce we don’t have to perform face to face transaction between seller and buyer. All transactions are carried out with the help of internet, so it will make people easy to do transaction. There are some advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce itself.
     The advantages of e-commerce are for business, customers, and also for society. The first advantage is for business, such as effective in cost. With e-commerce business can reduce the operating cost, the owner of a business doesn’t have to pay the cost for physical shop or building and employees. Thus, it will increase profit by reducing operational cost of a business. E-commerce also has some advantages for customers, including the flexibility of time, place, and distance to reach the goods that customers want. Customers can open the site any time to get the details of the goods that they want because there is no opening and closing hour, not like physical sales in which the place, distance, and time can be the problem to perform transaction. Beside its flexibility, e-commerce also makes customers have many choices not only from their town and country but also the whole world can be their choices. In some websites, such as Tokopedia, OLX, and so on, there is a location choice, therefore if customers want cheaper shipping cost they can choose the nearest store location. Customers also can easily access foreign websites to shop their needs, thus they don’t have to go to other countries to get the thing that they want. In addition, with e-commerce customers can compare the goods that they want from the price and quality between some stores, therefore they can make better choice. Thus the advantages of e-commerce for society is the ability to easily deliver information, services, and products to people in cities, rural areas, and developing countries where internet is accessible. From those advantages we know that e-commerce makes our activities, especially in transaction,easier.
     Despite its advantages, e-commerce has some disadvantages. The main disadvantage of e-commerce for business is the increasing number of competitor. As we know that e-commerce is not just between cities and countries but also throughout world, therefore the competition is really tight, sometimes e-commerce requires large investment to build a big brand image on the internet which can be invested only by big business, consequently the small business cannot get business through internet. The major disadvantage of e-commerce for customers is that they can’t see and feel the product directly. Sometimes they can buy a wrong product because there is no complete information and details on the website or maybe the detailed information is not the same as the product, thus e-commerce is very risky from fraud. Other case of fraud is that website may take customer’s money but the goods do not reach them. The other disadvantage of e-commerce for society is increasing individualism, because in e-commerce people have to use their gadget, pc, or laptop, and internet to choose, buy, or just check goods, it’s going to decrease socialization or face to face communication. As a smart user of e-commerce, we have to use it wisely and avoid those disadvantages.
     E-commerce is the process of buying, selling, transferring, or exchanging products, services, or information via computer networks, including the internet. E-commerce has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of e-commerce for business is effective in cost. Advantages in customer’s side are the flexibility of time, place, and distance to reach the goods that customers want, makes the customers have many choices not only from their town and country but also the whole world can be their choices. For society the advantage is the ability to easily deliver information, services, and products to people in cities, rural areas, and developing countries where internet is accessible. In contrast, the disadvantage of e-commerce for business is the number of competitor increases, for customers are that they can’t see and feel the product directly and risky from fraud, for society is increasing individualism. As smart people we should use e-commerce wisely, so we can take the advantages and avoid the disadvantages of this technology.
REFERENCE
Jr., Rainer K., Prince, B., & Cegielski, C. (2014). Introduction to Information Systems Supporting and Transforming Business. New Jersey: Wiley.
