MARKETING FUNCTIONS OF E-COMMERCE SYSTEMS

In its simplest form, e-commerce can be viewed as a set of measures for the sale of goods and services using modern electronic means of communication, but this characteristic of the phenomenon will be clearly insufficient. 

 Numerous electronic means of communication, such as the telegraph, telephone, radio, television and computer networks, have long been used in commercial relations, but did not cause the emergence of a fundamentally new concept.

 Telegraph communication has found a place in commerce as a means of warning when coordinating joint activities. 

Shortly after their appearance, telephone networks began to be used as a means of placing orders and coordinating their parameters. 

Radio and television have been used for many years for advertising and propaganda purposes. 

Banking computer systems were introduced to accelerate payments relatively recently, but their age is already four decades. 

All these and many other technical solutions did not lead to the concept of e-commerce marketing services they still remained only commercial applications of scientific and technological progress.

The world is moving so fast that the seventh wave of marketing is already in its infancy, the specificity of which is that this form of business has managed to absorb the effective developments of all previous eras of economic development. The power of the seventh wave lies in the opportunities provided by this type of business. 

Modern commerce is distinguished from traditional trade by the fact that it is not a simple exchange of resources, made to meet the current needs of production or consumption. This is an integral and inseparable set of activities carried out at different stages of the commercial process.

Different stages of the commercial process:

• Market research of goods and services (marketing);
• Management of the properties of goods and services (production management);
• Alert the market about the properties of goods and services (advertising);
• Preparing the market for the use of specified properties of goods and services (propaganda);
• Receiving, processing and execution of orders for goods and services (trade management);
• Optimization of commodity flows and inventory (logistics);
• Mutual settlements with customers and suppliers (financial management);
• After-sales service (maintenance).