E-commerce

E-commerce is where people can buy and sell services and products online.

The main advantage of E-commerce is that people do not have to travel to the shops in order to purchase something. This is useful if a person finfs it difficult to travel, possibly due to age or disabilities. Also most online shops provide delivery, either free or at a small charge. Again this is useful for people who find it difficult to leave their house.
If someone buys a lot of products in a shop normally, they could struggle to get it all safely in their car. E-commerce solves this problem either by using company lorries and trucks to make deliveries,  using a courrier company or using the royal mail.
The main problem with E-commerce is that you can not physically see the product to see if it is in good condition and is what you actually want. Another problem with E-commerce is that if a hi-tech product such as a computer or camera is being brought it can be difficult to find and understand all the specifications and features. This is not helped by the fact that there is no-one to talk to who can explain the product while online as opposed to being in the shop. This can result in people purchasing the wrong item or equipment. It often takes a lot of time, money and effort to either purchase the right piece of equipment or get the wrong piece of equipment working.
Another type of E-commerce is being able to hire a professional, i.e. a plumber, over the interenet. This can be better than phoning the service because you will not be put on hold. Online it is possible to fill in a form which states your address, roughly what time you want the person to arrive and a simple description of the problem. This then gets seen by the company and they set aside  an appointment  at in the time block you specified. If they are unable to provide an appointment when you requested they contact you saying so and ask for you to specify another timeslot. Most people get the second time slot they selected if not the first. However,occasionally someone does not get their specificed time slot until after many tries. This can happen if the cmompany is very busy. This can be very frustrating and could result in the job not being done for months, or not at all/