Business Models of E-commerce

E-commerce has been around for quite some timeglobal sourcing in context of international trade and
now and has been used in various facets ofe-commerce.
international trade including import/export of goodsAdvertising: this model is similar to that used in media
and services as well as global sourcing of productssuch as television and radio wherein all the revenues
and services to find out the best suited option in aare generated by advertising different products and
particular situation. Every successful phenomenonservices. Obviously trade in any form be it
such as e-commerce certainly gains scientificinternational trade, import/export or global sourcing
momentum and business models are developed fordoes play an important role via the technology of
the same. These models tend to lend a rigorous basise-commerce
for further development of the discipline which isSubscription: in these sorts of websites revenue is
necessary for long term sustenance of the same.generated by subscription which is paid either on
Since e-commerce is being used extensively in allweekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly basis as the
aspects of import/export business, international tradecase may be. E-commerce certainly makes use of
and global sourcing, it was imperative that differentthis model in promoting products far and wide which
models come up for the description of the same,is useful for import/export, international trade and
some of which have been discussed as follows.global sourcing.
Vanity: this refers to websites which are not startedStorefront: these are the websites which sell actual
with a particular business or commercial motive butproducts in the form of electronic catalogue. Needless
rather with an aim of just projecting one's thoughtsto say e-commerce tends to play a most active role
to the world. This may not seem relevant toin this model by getting utilized in international trade,
international trade, import/export or global sourcingimport/export and global sourcing.
yet their existence in the arena of e-commerce doesSo we can see that the five business models can be
contribute to the overall scenario of thingsextrapolated to fit most of the websites, although
Billboard: similar to billboards across the high street, amost websites cannot be framed into a single of
billboard website simply tends to generate revenuethese models, rather it is a combination of more than
by providing information to potential customers aboutone model. Whatever the case, these business
their products or services while the actual salemodels do provide an important theoretical
purchase does not occur online but rather it occursbackground to the practical realities of e-commerce in
offline away from the virtual world. This certainly canthe form of international trade, exchange of goods
contribute to the development of import/export,via import/export or global sourcing.