Advantages and Disadvantages of eCommerce.

Advantages
 Global marketplace - With a global marketplace, this means that the organisation offering ecommerce to customers can make the online store available to people from around the whole world, and offer shipping to them, maybe for a extra fee. This is an advantage as anybody, providing they have a internet connection, can purchase from the ecommerce store, and including the shipping fee, this will bring in more profit for an organisation.

24/7 Trading - Having an online store means that it is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, this means at any point a customer can purchase from the store, so if they went to a physical store, it could be closed. This means more customers will purchase online whenever they can, making more money for an organisation.

Low start up and running costs - If an ecommerce online shopping system is created, it does not take much money to begin for the customers, and to keep it up and running does also not cost much money. Where as in a physical store an organisation would have to pay workers money for operating tills and whatever other tasks they are assigned to do.

Gathering customer info - When customers use an online shopping system, they will be required to enter in personal details, including location details, this then means the organisation will have this information to use in the future. Whether it be to post letters and leaflets through the letterbox, or to just remember in general for the next time a customer uses the service. Also, the card and payment details will be stored for future use.

Money - ecommerce generates lots of money for the company that uses the service, as many people would prefer to shop online, and most companies will offer products at a more expensive price online, they also add a delivery fee a lot of the time, making more money than somebody shopping in store.Disadvantages
Money - Money is some cases could be used as a disadvantage, as having a website for ecommerce professionally designed could cost quite a bit of money. The charity relies on donations, so it will not be able to afford a professional website. You could use a template website, this will be cheaper, although it would not be original and would not look professional.

Staff - A company will need plenty of staff to keep up with the website and to make sure its maintained, these members of staff will need to be expertise and be familiar with everything. This will take time and will require suitable training.

Website - If the website was to crash/go down, then no one would be able to access it and purchase things, leading to a loss in money. The charity would then have no income from the website, forcing them to rely on the shops.

Online security - The web is a dangerous place, many fraudsters and hackers are about and they could target a ecommerce website, leading to serious consequences. Data could be stolen from the charity, money could be taken and the reputation could be damaged.

Server - A ecommerce website will need to be fairly big so it can host many people on there at one time, this server will also cost money to set up and run. Servers can get DDOS attacks, forcing the server to shut down and get hacked.