Fashion and e-commerce

According to the dictionary definition ( Collins English Dictionary):
Fashion is defined in terms of style in clothes, hairstyle etc., popular at a particular time; a way something happen or is done. Form or make into a particular shape.

Usually, fashion goes along with a particular generation into a periode of time well defined.
But what I descovered is that fashion doesn't get obsolete.
Long time ago when I was young, I used to see young men wearing tight trousers which had large bottom, recently in Rwanda people came up with the same style.
Few years ago young men could not shave their hairs, this was known as A-front. Nowadays, young people have opted to it again.

According to the article written by James Laver and Fernand braudel; the term "fashionable" and " unfashionable" are employed to describe whether someone or something fits in, with the current or even not so current, popular, mode of expression. The term fashion is frequently used in a positive sense, as a synonym for glamour beauty and style.

In most cases, people tend to imitate or import differnt styles. Back home we have this intuition that Americans like Jeans and drink coca cola, and young people are they who do that, and some times they will put on sun glasses even when there is foggy, just to look like Americans. When they do that, people will say: " these guys are living American style".

In addition to what I have talking about fashion is that, it differs from country to another, based on their culture.
In our culture,( in Rwanda) a girl must not wear a skirt that goes up to the knees, a good girl or girl of heart ( umwari), must cover her beauty, especially the part starting from the knees going up. The world has become like a small village because of the high speed of technology. Through internet people can see what is going on to the other part of the world, and do likewise. I'm saying this because some of these girls, say that the wearing of long skirt is an old tradition every where arround the world.

How does the fashion relate to the e-commerce?

People can get style of clothing they want throug e-commerce, at some point movie stars or celebrities attract their audience's attention by their clothing. in result people start buying on-line these fashion, it is a kind of advertisment.

Sometimes those fashions cannot be found at the local market. I remember one day my sister who is a designer, was watching Tyra Banks TV show, and she was wearing a short trouser, well designed. My sister was excited, to the effect that she ended up ordering the same fashion.
Different styles of clothes can be bought on-line, through advertisement of the media.

Weather change and e-commerce

Weather change is the key factor that can allow cergtain products to be sold much easily, in many ways; ordinary trade system( face to face trade) or on-line shopping.
Those products are:
-Bra;
-Undershirts;
-Underwears;
-Sandals.

In the country where on-line system is more developed, these items are consumed more quickly in the summer.
When I came in the States, it was winter and everybody was covering himself from the toe to the head. this means that coats, sweaters, boots were the favorites items in the winter. Last sunday, I went to Ann Morrison Park and there,I saw women wearing only Bra and underwear, I immediately understood that it was due to the moment they are living in ( hot period). Back home in Africa we used to watch such people on TV and we thought that it was the style.
Summer is the period whereby some people feel uncomfortable to put on ordinary clothing. It's obvious that in the States and in other countries where there are various seasons, some people wear according to the weather.

Apart from the climate, special events can generate money by selling some items on-line.
Example: during the Valentine's day people (lovers) buy flowers in huge amounts.

One freind of mine in Rwanda could not give his girlfriend the flowers he brought in Rwanda; he always ordered the flowers on-line, just to surprise his girlfriend, and I know many people who did the same, not just for flowers only but also special gifts during birthday.

Should be there the age limit on the on-line shopping?

I have been talking about the on-line shopping in the earlier bloggs. this time, I found interesting information related to the age limit for on-line shopping especially for some stuff.
In England, they have enforced the law about the consumption of tobacco in restricting the age limit for shopping tobacco on-line. BBC NEWSUKhigher tobacco age limit in force.
The aim of this resolution is to drive down smoking rates in the UK as smoking remains the number one cause of ill health and early death.

However, people have been reluctant to this law, sometimes people think that the government is depriving them from their rights.
" You are considered old enough to have sex at 16, drive the car, and join the army at 17, but the government does'nt want you to smoke until you are 18".

Even though people are unhappy, this resolution is helpeful although it does'nt seem effective; young people can find tobacco elsewhere, without necessarily buy it on-line.
It is known that tobacco has side effects on our life .
When people think of cancers caused by smoking, the first one that comes to mind is always lung cancer. Most cases of lung cancer death close to 90% in men, and 80% in women are caused by cigarette smoking. ( Terry Martin, About.com, August 10, 2005).

Apart from tabacco, they are other items which their acquisition should be restricted depending on the age, in oder to prevent young people get their mind ruined.

Example: Pornography films, sexual materials

Age limit is not applied on e-commerce only, in general every society set up a certain age limit, on which people can start enjoying their rights.

Example: In Rwanda, young people can not get married until they are 21.
The society assume that below this age, people are not mature enough to get married.

The penetration of internet in Africa

In Africa some countries are poorer than others, and they have suffered from the poverty for a long time. generally electronic equipements are expensive, and poor countries find themselves in the dilemma of spending the little money they have on the electronical devices or take care of the daily needs of thier people.
Based on my eperience; in some places in Africa they are people who don't know what the computer looks like.

The internet is a global network of interconnected computer enabling users to share information along multiple channels. However, deplorable conditions of poverty hold back some countries in not getting acces on the internet and in that kind of situation, purchasing on line is not a piece of cake, not because people cannot do it, but because of the lack of necessary equipment

According to Rehmeyer and Julie J.( 2007: 387-388); The penetration of the internet in africa is quite limited compared to the rest of the world. Measurement such as the numbers of
ISP-registered users ( Internet Service Provider) overall number of host IXP-traffic ( Internet Exchange Point), and the overall available Bandwidth ( a measure of available or consumed data communication ressources expressed in bit/s), all indicates that Africa is way behind the digital divide

In conclusion the internet doesn't expand in Africa because of the situation of poverty. But even if some countries are poor as I said, still Africa can be a strategic market for electronic designers who want to sell their products, especially in case they somehow reduce the price of Computers, Servers, Cables, Network Interface Card, Hubs, and Repeaters.

Psychological impact of e-commerce

E-commerce or on-line shopping is the process consumers go through to purchase products or service on the internet. The author mentioned various component of on-line shopping but what gave me food for thought most, about the content of the article is the repercussions of e-commerce on people, psychologically. In one hand e-commerce is a good way of buying and selling stuff, in another hand e-commerce reduces cost by reducing the number of staff needed. In that perspective e-commerce doesn’t think about the future of laid workers whose livelihoods rely on their salaries even though they might have compasassion.The production process is a cycle; companies produce in order to sell, when people are laid off from their work, it surely means that they have no possibility to present themselves on the market. According to the notes in Economics class, the Great Depression in 1929 can serve here as an example:“In this era most families were too poor to buy the goods being produced. Unable to sell all their goods stores owners eventually cut back their orders from factories. Factories in turn reduced production and laid off workers. A downward economic spiral began. As more workers lost their jobs, families bought even fewer goods. In turn factories made further cuts in production and laid off more workers." It was a vicious circle.The main purpose of this passage is to show the consequences of laying off workers on the business especially e-commerce. During the Great Depression loosing job was reasonable, but loosing jobs because of high technology should have a psychological effect which may result in technology resentment. People may be reluctant to the technology because it’s the source their miserable life.Purchased goods are delivered in various ways, namely :
- Downloading;
- Shipping;
- Drop shiping;
- In-store pick up.

The above ways of delivering stuff are made on-line, but the article did'nt mention the cases of lost goods. Defferently from e-commerce trade, face to face trade offer human atmosphere whereby traders exchange ideas, bargain on price there is no fear of loosing items as it's Pay and Pick up.

Reference: Cumming, Maeve, et at al. Management information systems. Third Canadian Edition. Canada: Mc Graw. Hill Ryerson, 2006

e-commerce in under developed countries

The 20th century has been marked with high speed in perfoming various task, due to the implementation of technology, and that basically means, the introduction of Computer system in diferent sectors of life such as:
- Education;
- Health sector;
- Home and daily life;
- Industry- Agriculture;
- Government- Work place;
- Business.
For our case we are going to focus on the use of technology especially in business: '' e- commerce'' in under developed countries and " e- commerce" in developed countries, whichsounds like a comparative study.First of all e-commerce goes along with:
- The quality of education: People with TECHNO-PHOBIA ( afraid of technology) can not manage to use it, the users must have basic knowledges on how to use credit cards, visa cards, and debit cards;
- The Growth Domestic Product (GDP): This is the main key which allows people to purhase.- Culture or tradition:People tend to embrace the obsolete things pretending to protect the pillars of their culture.Be that as it may, e-commerce is a perfect way of trading especially in terms of time, it's not a time consuming despite some inconviniences it may host.

GROWTH DOMESTIC PRODUCT AND E-COMMERCE

Growth Domestic Product is the key factor in generating financial independency.Transaction can only be made if people are pontential buyers.According to AYITTEY G;(2005:5) " The report noted that while most of the World's economies expanded in the 1990s people in 54 developping countries had become poorer; the majority of these countries were in Africa.The number of poor in africa, defined as those making less than a dollar a day, has increased sharply in both relative and absolute terms. The absolute number of poor in africa has grown five times more than the figure for Latin America, and twice that for South Asia. For example in 1995 the population of Africa was estimated to be 580 million. Of these, 291million people had average income of below one dollar a day in 1998"From these passage we can confirme that apart e-commerce trade, half african population can not even trade using the traditional system. How can people with below one dollar a day purchase what they need ?. Purchasing on line in Africa is too far like the distance between the moon and the earth, there is still a long way to go. A part the pauverty illiness, Africa's states face numerous desasters such as:
- HIV/AIDS
- Malaria
- High rate of infants mortality,...
It's clear understood that the money that people set aside for these kind of deseases ought do something else.