Introduction to E-Commerce

E-Commerce

Introduction to E-Commerce

“The wise possess all”. Anyone who is quick to identify and adopt innovation will be successful. Commerce always profits from innovations. Successful businesses quickly identify developing opportunities in emerging new technology, and expand their commercial capabilities.

The customer goes to the market, checking out a variety of products, choosing required stuff, purchasing them and then paying the specific amount is traditional commerce. However, recent ways of buying or selling goods and services have come up with technology innovations.

In near future commercial activities such as buying or selling of goods between merchant and consumer will be forgotten.

As growth in technology and vast usage of internet, our style of living has changed and this has also modified the working of commercial trade. Refer Figure 15.1.

In 1996, IBM coined the term E-Business. Just, as business is broader than commerce, E-Commerce is a subset of E-Business. E-Commerce is commercial transaction through Internet, but E-Business entirely depends on the Internet for its every intra-company and inter-company activities such as procurement of raw materials, marketing, finance, manufacturing, selling and negotiation.

While, E- Commerce is limited with monetary transactions using Internet E-Business is grounded on technologies such as Network Infrastructures (like Internet, Intranet, Extranet), Multimedia content & network publishing infrastructures (like HTML, Online Marketing), Messaging & information distribution infrastructures (like EDI, e-mail, http, Computerized Inventory Management Systems) and other Common business service infrastructures (like electronic payments gateways, globalized Supply Chain Management (SCM), Online Transaction Processing). See Figure 15.2

A company is set to have E-Business if and only if

● It has the ability to conduct business electronically over Internet.

● It manages payment transaction through Internet.

● It has a platform for selling products & services via Internet.

E-Commerce

E-Commerce is currently one of the most important aspects of the Internet era. Just like the words e-mail, e-book with the prefix ‘e’ (‘e’ stands for electronic) Commerce and Internet makes E -Commerce. It also allows the consumers to exchange goods and services with no barrier of time or distance. Electronic commerce has expanded rapidly over the past few years and is predicted to accelerate.

E-Commerce can be described as the process of buying or selling products, services or information via computer networks.

It could be a consumer based retail site or auction site or trade between large business organizations. The commodity could be a laptop or a wrist watch or it could be an operating system or a simple browser plugin.

The Physical products which can be seen are touched. They are distinct from intangible goods which have value but are not physical entities.

Tangibles products may be like printed books, CD’s and DVD’s, lamp etc., Intangible products may be like digital files, downloaded video games, music files are movies which can not be physically touch. Refer Figure 15.3

● Goods - e.g. mobile phones, digital cameras, clothes, accessories, antivirus.

● Information - e.g. subscription to some newspapers, scientific journals, television channels.

● Services - e.g. matrimonial services, placement services.

● Tangible form – e.g. a digital camera purchased by a consumer from an online shopping website which might be delivered at the requested address.

● Electronic form – e.g. a music album or a software downloaded from a site which might be delivered in electronic form.