E-commerce is an exemplary concept in the future of textile
and apparel industry. It is playing a major role in the present scenario of
textile and apparel industry. It is also very significant that the future of
textile and apparel industry is complete only with E-commerce. Diverse e-commerce applications are being implemented in
the textile and apparel supply chain. Information and
communication technologies (ICTs) have the capacity to make extravagant amounts
of information available to users located in various parts of the world. ICTs
also facilitate rapid communication between them. One application of these
technologies is in the development of e-commerce to support electronic trading.
E-Commerce A New Concept and Scope
E-commerce can be specified as any form of economic activity
conducted through computer-mediated networks. The potential of e-commerce
caught public's attention as a result of ventures such as the electronic
bookshop. As a result there are a growing number of other Internet-based retailers
in the business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce area. However,
business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce is growing much more quickly than B2C
forms of electronic trading. E-commerce is a new and
exciting technology, attracting much interest. It has the power of
fundamentally changing the ways in which companies do business. It is having a
profound effect on the management of the supply chain. Aspects of e-commerce
are much diversified.
E-commerce has a large impact on industry as a
whole, including aspects associated with Business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce,
business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce. In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in
companies practicing electronic commerce. Two basic modes of organizing such
companies have emerged. The first is creating a "brick-and-mortar"
company, by installing an e-commerce division. The second is initiation of an
enterprise as an electronic commerce company (dot.com), without previous
organizational links to a traditional "brick-and-mortar"
organization. Both modes of corporate practice of electronic commerce require
redesign, recalibration, and even restructuring of key organizational
dimensions. In such companies, there is also a question of applicability of
traditional organizational dimensions to this new format of conducting
commerce. As electronic markets and electronic commerce proliferate, there has
been a marked increase in scientific studies of this phenomenon.
The emerging conventional wisdom suggests that electronic
commerce is different enough to warrant an in-depth examination of traditional
organization design in the present global scenario;
e-commerce and e-business have increasingly become a necessary component of
business strategy. E-commerce also acts as a strong catalyst for economic development.
The integration of information and communications technology (ICT) in business
has heavily improved inter organization relationships and intra organizational
relationships. Specifically, the use of ICT in business has improved
productivity, encouraged greater customer participation, and enabled mass
customization and has also reduced costs. With the help of developments in the
Internet and Web-based technologies, distinctions between traditional markets
and the global electronic marketplace are gradually being narrowed down. The
strategic positioning, the ability of a company to determine emerging
opportunities and utilize the necessary human capital skill is the main aim of
each and every firm. To make the most of these opportunities through an e-business
strategy that is simple, workable and practicable within the context of a
global information milieu and new economic environment is the focus of
e-commerce. E-commerce coupled with the appropriate strategy and policy
approach enables small and medium scale enterprises to compete with large and
capital-rich businesses.
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About the Author
The author is associated with the Department of Fashion Technology, PSG
College of Technology, Coimbatore
