Does E-Commerce Hurt the Local Community?

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Does E Commerce Hurt the Local Community? Nothing compares to face-to-face communication. That is what brick and mortar retailers offer when one shops with them. Other conveniences include: salespersons’ aid in the purchasing decision, merchandise can be tried before it is brought, and making returns are easy. Returning merchandise at a store is faster than returning online purchases because purchases that are being returned have to be shipped, possibly to other countries and the process return of credit can be lengthy. I believe e-commerce hurts the local business because people will avoid shopping locally, taxes are unregulated, and increased unemployment will negatively affect families. What is e-commerce? Electronic commerce, also known as, e-commerce refers to a wide range of online business activities for products and services. E-commerce is usually associated with buying and selling over the internet, or conducting any transaction involving the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods or services through a computer-mediated network (Andam, 2003, p.6). For instance, the major types of e-commerce are business-to-business, business-to consumer, business-to-government, and consumer-to-consumer. Namely, business-to-business is defined as e-commerce between companies. This is the type of e-commerce that deals with relationships between and among businesses (Andam, 2003 p. 9). Business-to-consumer is defined as trade between companies and consumers that involves customers gathering information on purchasing physical goods, such as: books, movies, CD’s, etc., or information goods, such as e-books and software, by receiving these products over an electronic network (p.11). Next, business-to-government is defined as business between companies and the public sector. It refers to the use of the Internet for public procurement, licensing procedures, and

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