E-Commerce Revolution: Navigating Industry 4.0 for Competitive Advantage

Introduction

The world economy is transforming physicalisation to information digitisation (den Hond & Moser, 2023). All business organisations are being turned into information-based operations by adopting web technologies. The speed of technological transformation is increasing exponentially, and modern e-commerce is causing significant changes in the economic environment, affecting all areas of industry. E-commerce refers to electronic commerce or business conducted using electronic technology. According to Rahman (2014), e-commerce is seeing a daily increase in the use of technology. Networks expand the scope of corporate organisation and operations. The internet's platform independence and widespread reach enable businesses to create new buyer-seller communities, expand their revenue streams, and improve their bottom line. The earliest stages of e-commerce occurred in the 1970s when it was limited to activities conducted by large corporations that set up private communication networks and used electronic fund transfer systems to conduct financial transactions and document exchanges electronically (Galinari et al., 2015). Since the 1990s, e-commerce has grown, and the development of this industry is closely related to the progress of information technology. The earliest forms of e-commerce involved the straightforward distribution of goods and services through digital channels. This progressed from order issuance and product delivery to facilitating online transactions between vendors and buyers. With specific e-commerce solutions, consumers may purchase and pay their bills without leaving their house's comforts. This can be done on the weekends and holidays as well, round the clock. The primary drivers of customers' growing use of electronic commerce are their need for convenience and even privacy. Chinese business and commerce have been impacted by the Internet, which arrived in the nation in 1994 and has grown over the last 20 years.

Traditional industry markets now operate differently, owing to fundamental changes from the Internet. The E-commerce industry in China has shown tremendous growth velocity in the last few years. Enterprises have benefited from the increased entrepreneurship resulting from the use of E-commerce technologies. Simultaneously, China's international e-commerce is expanding under the open strategy of “Going global strategy and bringing in,” which has emerged as a new catalyst for economic growth. E-commerce in Brazil reportedly started about eight years ago, and it is now home to a growing number of new businesses and a clientele that is expanding daily. The main factor pushing more people to adopt this new mode of commerce was the ease with which they could now access the Internet. E-commerce is spreading throughout developing nations and is thought to contribute to achieving the global development agenda. Together with many others, the BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—view e-commerce as a tool for promoting inclusive, fast, and sustainable economic growth that will raise living standards and reduce poverty (Karine, 2021).