E-commerce and business growth in Indonesia

Introduction

Trading activities have been carried out by our ancestors since time immemorial. Ancient method of trading is done by barter, the exchange by trading goods with the goods, then the way it started was left switched to the conventional way of trading is a way that brings trade between the seller and buyer in a place that we call the market, both in traditional markets as well as supermarkets. If the traditional market buyers can bid while the price of goods in supermarkets, the price of goods not negotiable.

In accordance with the development, commercial activity has also experienced various changes, One of the ways that are popular these days is how to trade through electronic media, the authors review will only focus on the use of electronic media into the use of computers connected to the internet that we usually call by the term e-commerce. Perhaps the term is for some people in our country still sound familiar, but not so in developed countries. In the United States, e-commerce has become a common practice in commercial activities of their inhabitants.

As we all know that today the Internet is a communications medium that was popular in Indonesia and in the world. Many reasons underlie the selection back on the Internet as their communication medium, these reasons include the ease and convenience of communicating via the Internet, because the Internet is a communications network so extensive that all the people in any part of the world can communicate and exchange information rapidly.

From year to year, Internet users, especially in Indonesia to grow, from recent data collected by APJII (Internet Service Providers Association of Indonesia) more Internet users has increased, from their latest data, during the year 2007 Internet users in Indonesia has reached 25 million people , whereas in previous years Internet users numbered about 18 million people. From these data show that only in a single year increase in Internet users has reached 39%. Actually not too surprising that the increase of Internet users because more and more cafe-cafe, apart from that mobile phones have become lifestyle also has been equipped with GPRS facility to access the Internet. From various kinds of easy access to the internet, APJII estimates that in 2008 Internet users will rise by 40%.

Increasingly familiar with the Internet in Indonesia society is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to further develop e-commerce in our country.


Discussion

As described above, that e-commerce is a way of trading by using electronic equipment in particular is the internet. Ecommerce Technology itself has long been used on the Internet that is derived from services EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) EDI service which has expanded so rapidly in countries that have a computer and telephone networks with unlimited access to obtain the required data very quickly.
According to David Baum opinion states that: "e-commerce is a dynamic set of technologies, applications, and business process that link enterprises, consumers, and communities through an electronic transaction and the electronic exchange of goods, services, and information ". That e-commerce is a dynamic set of technologies, applications and business processes that connect corporate, consumers and communities through electronic transactions and trade in goods, services and information made electronically.
In the modern business world today which focuses on convenience and speed of transactions, e-commerce is one of the alternative ways that trade can benefit all parties, both the consumer, as well as the producers and sellers (retailers). Benefits for consumers include:

In the modern business world today which focuses on convenience and speed of transactions, e-commerce is one of the alternative ways that trade can benefit all parties, both the consumer, as well as the producers and sellers (retailers). Benefits for consumers include:


1. Time efficiency, by using e-commerce, shopping time becomes shorter, because consumers do not need to go to a place to buy an item. Consumers just need to sit in front of the computer connected to the internet, then look for sites that provide goods to be purchased. Different if we shopped the market, we will take a lot of time to travel from home to the market, not to mention the time we wasted a lot of haggling a good price and also need time to choose what goods to buy it.

2. Factor prices, the price of goods sold through e-commerce is cheaper than the price in a store, it is because the distribution channels from producers of goods to the seller is shorter than conventional stores.

3. With e-commerce, consumers can conduct transactions anywhere, anytime without any restriction of time and place, it is an obstacle that we encounter when we are dealing in a particular place (the markets or shops), very rarely shop or market - stores open 24 hours a day.

4. Comfort factor, transactions in e-commerce promises convenience for the consumer, they do not have such overcrowding in the market, do not need to queue in the payment process and they also do not have to worry about the possibility of pickpockets or robbers. As for sellers and producers, the use of e-commerce will bring benefits in the form:

1. Reduce operational costs, especially costs associated with paper, such as: the cost of letters, notes, receipts, receipts and others. That is because all the DTA-data, whether the customer data, item data and sales data has been stored in the database, so do not need to be printed into the paper.

2. The absence of late payments and these payments can be checked immediately, That's because the process of payment is by credit card, so that payments will be on time, because before the payment process declared invalid, then the sale is not considered complete and can be ordered items not delivered.
3. With e-commerce, will reach a broader consumer, because the transactions in e-commerce is not limited by geographical location of a particular region, the transaction can be done between regions or between countries, it is very different from the conventional transactions where the consumer is only limited coverage in a certain areas.
One example of companies that have implemented e-commerce in business activities is the Amazon (www.amazon.com), a company based in Seattle, Washington, United States, but the Amazon as we know it has been transformed into an e-commerce site complete throughout the universe which sells a variety of books, musical instruments, compact disk music, compact disk and other films where the Amazon is more known as the largest online supermarket. Amazon's successful entry into the individual market segments, and managed to have loyal customers the most in the world. Amazon is domiciled in the United States, but the area is almost selling around the world including in Indonesia.


In a simple transaction process in e-commerce can be described as follows:

The process of purchasing an item via the Internet started when buyers visit a particular site that sells goods that are in need, the next step is the selection of goods at will (product selection). Purchasers who want to choose groceries can be purchased using a shopping cart to store data about the goods that have been selected and will be paid. Simple description of this shopping cart is like a shopping cart or basket that we normally use to shop at supermarkets or traditional markets serve as a place to put things our groceries. Cart itself is usually in the form of a web form, and made with a combination of CGI, databases, and HTML with SSL encryption for data security guarantor. As in the shopping cart in the supermarket, the Shopping cart items already entered can be cancel / return.

After the goods to be purchased is selected, the next process is the buyer must make the payment process. Previously buyers must fill out the form transactions. Usually this form to ask the buyer's identity and credit card numbers. Because this information could be misused if it falls into the wrong hands, then the party providers of e-commerce has been arranged for sending the data securely run, with certain security standards. After filling the form, the e-commerce provider will send an email to consumers and to the credit card issuer to check the truth of the consumer data it.
Once the data are correct, then declared a provider of e-commerce retailers will tell about what items are ordered by consumers, retailers will deliver goods ordered by mail directly to home buyers (UPS, FEDEX, etc). Even some cyber shop provide facilities for the buyer to check the status of goods that have been sent through the Internet (egg, FEDEX. Www.fedex.com).