1. CSI315 Web Technology and Applications
E-COMMERCE

2. Traditional Commerce Traditional commerce: all dimensions are physical
Brick-and-mortar organizations
Old-economy organizations (corporations)
Perform all business off-line
Sell physical products by means of physical agents

3. E-Commerce
Electronic Commerce (EC) is the process of buying, selling, or exchanging products, services, and information via computer networks
EC defined from these perspectives
Communications
Business process
Service
Online
Collaborations
Community

4. E-Business
E-business refers to all uses of advances in information technology (IT), particularly networking and communications technology, to improve the ways in which an organization performs all of its business processes.
E-business encompasses an organization’s external interactions with its:
Suppliers
Customers
Investors
Creditors
The government
Media

5. E Business vs Ecommerce
E-Commerce direct financial transaction involving electronic processes using Internet technologies. E.g Ordering a book on Amazon.com is e-commerce and e-business.
E-business is a broader definition of EC that includes not just the buying and selling of goods and services, but also
Servicing customers
Collaborating with business partners
Conducting electronic transactions within an organization
E .g Creating a map with directions from your home to the post office on Yahoo.com
All e-commerce is e-business but not all e-business is e-commerce

6. Myths and risks Myths The Internet changes everything
If you build it, they will come
All brands are equal online
Risks
Overinvestment on systems that customers and prospects will not use
Investing in propriety systems that cannot be maintained (Vendor lock)
Poor consideration of who will manage the system
Broken promises: no plan for content management
Your competitors will see everything that you publish
Security – hacks
Lack of trust of the online environment (viruses, spoofing)

7. EC Concepts Pure EC: all dimensions are digital
Pure online (virtual) organizations
New-economy organization
Sell products or services only online
Partial EC: a mix of digital and physical dimensions
Click-and-mortar organizations
Conduct EC activities
Do their primary business in the physical world

8. EC Concepts (cont.) Internet vs. Non-Internet EC
VANs—value-added networks
LANs—local area networks
Single computerized machines
Using a smart card in a vending machine
Using a cell phone to make an online purchase

9. The EC Framework and Field
An EC Framework
EC applications supported by infrastructure and 5 support areas
People
Public policy
Technical standards and protocols
Business partners
Support services

10. Exhibit 1.2 A Framework for EC

11. Categories of EC
Business-to-business (B2B) : EC model in which all of the participants are businesses or other organizations
Business-to-consumer (B2C): EC model in which businesses sell to individual shoppers
Business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C): EC model in which a business provides some product or service to a client business; the client business maintains its own customers, to whom the product or service is provided

12. Categories of EC
Consumer-to-business(C2B): individuals who use the Internet to sell products or services to organizations and /or seek sellers to bid on products or services they need
Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) : consumers sell directly to other consumers

13. Categories of EC
Mobile commerce (m-commerce)—EC transactions and activities conducted in a wireless environment
Location-commerce—(l-commerce)
m-commerce transactions targeted to individuals in specific locations, at specific times

14. Categories of EC
Business-to-employee (B2E): EC model in which an organization delivers services, information, or products to its individual employees
Collaborative commerce (c-commerce): EC model in which individual or groups communicate or collaborate online
E-government: Government-to-citizens (G2C): EC model in which a government entity buys or provides good, services, or information to businesses or individual citizens

15. Categories of EC
Intrabusiness (organizational) EC: EC category that includes all internal organizational activities that involve the exchange of goods, services, or information among various units and individuals in an organization

16. Interdisciplinary Nature of EC
Management information systems
Accounting and auditing
Management
Business law and ethics
Others
Marketing
Computer sciences
Consumer behavior and psychology
Finance
Economics

17. The Benefits of EC Benefits to Organizations
Expands the marketplace to national and international markets
Decreases the cost of creating, processing, distributing, storing and retrieving paper-based information
Allows reduced inventories and overhead by facilitating pull-type supply chain management
The pull-type processing allows for customization of products and services which provides competitive advantage to its implementers
Reduces the time between the outlay of capital and the receipt of products and services
Lowers telecommunications cost - the Internet is much cheaper than value added networks (VANs)

18. Benefits of EC (cont.) Benefits to consumers
Enables consumers to shop or do other transactions 24 hours a day, all year round from almost any location
Provides consumers with more choices
Provides consumers with less expensive products and services by allowing them to shop in many places and conduct quick comparisons

19. Benefits of EC (cont.)
Allows quick delivery of products and services (in some cases) especially with digitized products
Consumers can receive relevant and detailed information in seconds, rather than in days or weeks
Makes it possible to participate in virtual auctions
Allows consumers to interact with other consumers in electronic communities and exchange ideas as well as compare experiences
Facilitates competition, which results in substantial discounts

20. Benefits of EC (cont.) Benefits to society
Enables more individuals to work at home, and to do less traveling for shopping, resulting in less traffic on the roads, and lower air pollution
Allows some merchandise to be sold at lower prices, benefiting less affluent people
Enables people in Third World countries and rural areas to enjoy products and services which otherwise are not available to them
Facilitates delivery of public services at a reduced cost, increases effectiveness, and/or improves quality

21. The Limitations of EC Technical limitations
There is a lack of universally accepted standards for quality, security, and reliability
The telecommunications bandwidth is insufficient
Software development tools are still evolving
There are difficulties in integrating the Internet and EC software with some existing (especially legacy) applications and databases.
Special Web servers in addition to the network servers are needed (added cost).
Internet accessibility is still expensive and/or inconvenient