In the modern era, as now, the role of technology is very influential for life. Almost in all sectors of life are now influenced by technology. Increasingly advanced technology can ease every human activity. One of the effects of technological progress in the economic sector is the rise of e-commerce. E-commerce is a way to business and process transactions via computer networks.(Khosrowpour, 2009. page 27).
Today there are a lot of online business as the number of internet users is aging. According to Kompas newspaper, internet users in Indonesia in 2016 reached 132,7 million out of a total Indonesian population which is 256,2 million people. This data was produced through surveys by APJII (Widiartanto, October 2016). Of course, the number is a great opportunity for online sellers. No wonder that the rate of online business is increasing each year. BPS reveals that during 2006 to 2016 the amount of online trading in Indonesia increased by 17% (Deni, September 2016). I think the rate can get higher in the next future since it is a good indicator for better economic growth.
From the data, it can be said that Indonesian people especially can access the internet much enough to sales and purchases through online stores. They certainly have a reason why selling goods through online and purchase goods on online shops. The online shop can give you benefits, because of its strengths and shoppers have strong reasons to buy goods in the online store.
Viewed from the side sellers, traders who use online sales will get a lot of buyers because a lot of people spend their time to connect with the internet. The sellers are also getting easier to show off their products, they do not need to have the store building. They just simply photograph the products they sell and give a description of the photo then upload them to social media, websites or other applications. This also can save the cost of sales because it does not need to pay for the store building and other costs that are used to show off the goods in the store. The seller also can use the time to sell goods for other activities, because after the goods are uploaded on social media websites or other applications, the seller just waits for orders to come.
From the side of the buyer, the online store is very helpful. Especially for those who are too busy with their business or for people who want to get goods to far from their life. Buyers do not need to spend a lot of time to shop on online shops as the transactions are so easy when buying goods from the online store. They just need to choose the goods then make payments via bank or transfer and the goods will be delivered to their homes. In the online store, buyers can choose the specification of goods that they need easily and not spend a lot of time. Now, most of the sellers at online stores accept the return of goods if the goods ordered are not accordance with the photo descriptions of goods and customer desires. The buyers desire in online shop tend to increase if the goods are used by their idols. People can have same goods with their idols and that is showing that demand for goods will increase either because of tastes of the people (Daniel, page 47. 2004).
The increase of online purchase transactions has made banks also get the benefit because most of the payment process is made by transfer or atm that will involve the bank. Increasing money transfer through the bank will increase profits for the bank.
Each of item is sold in the online store will be up to the buyer via freight. More purchase transactions through the online store will increase the shipping goods as JNE, TIKI TAKA and post office. Now post office seems to deliver goods money than sending letters. The online shop sellers sometimes prefer sending goods to use post office because the shipping cost is cheaper and the existence of the post office can reach throughout of Indonesia. The development shipping goods would create jobs and reduce unemployment in Indonesia. The service delivery of goods is also easier for the sellers to deliver their goods to the buyers and for buyers of their highly profitable service delivery of goods especially the goods are sent timely. Challenge for service delivery of goods are goods on time to the buyer and guarantee conditions are not damaged or defective goods.
The online store certainly offers many benefits to everyone, either as sellers, buyers or people who get indirectly benefits from online stores such as bank workers and people who work in service delivery. But the online store also has a weakness. For example, because buyers can not see and touch the goods directly, and the goods received from the online store not as expected. Sometimes goods do not arrive at the destination address, so buyers should ask the delivery service. Another weakness is deception. In the case of this deception, fraudsters usually sell luxury goods at relatively low prices for attracting buyers. After the buyer had made the payment the goods sent are not the goods chosen by the buyer but the items such as stone, wood or other cheap goods. Then fraudster removes any trace of the victim. The weakness of online stores is not only experienced by buyers but also by sellers on the online store. Sellers must spend money to pay models using their goods then captured a photo for advertisement in the website, social media or other applications. The seller can also be deceived by the buyer, a person fraudulently pretends to buy goods and then say he just finishes transferring and have the seller ship the goods immediately. So either the seller or buyers should be careful in transactions online.
Advances in technology today can affect all sectors of life, not least in the economic sector. The existence of an online store is one of technological system advances in economics. The online store certainly offers many benefits to everyone, either as sellers, buyers or people who get indirectly benefits from online stores such as bank workers and people who work in service delivery. But we must be careful in online transaction. Do not easily get tempted by cheap prices and always see the truth of the data that we acquire.
References
Widiartanto, Yoga Hastyadi. Â (Senin, 24 Oktober 2016). Pengguna Internet di Indonesia Capai 132 Juta.Retrieved from http://tekno.kompas.com/ Â read/2016/10/24/15064727/2016.pengguna.internet.di.indonesia.capai.132.juta.
