1. Electronic Business, Electronic Commerce, and the Emerging Digital Firm
Internet technology & the Digital Firm
Medium for electronic commerce – link to other businesses &
Individuals at a low cost
Provides universal & easy-to-use set of technologies that is
conformable to all organisations
Trading partners can directly communicate to each other bypassing
intermediaries & inefficient multilayered procedures
Handling transactions electronically can reduce transaction costs &
delivery time for some goods specially those that are purely digital –
distributed over Internet as electronic versions
Internet is providing the entire infrastructure to run the business – it’s tech & tech stds can be used to make info flow seamlessly from one part of the org to the other

2. Electronic Business, Electronic Commerce, and the Emerging Digital Firm
INTERNET BENEFITS
GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY
REDUCED COMMUNICATIONS COST
LOWER TRANSACTION COSTS
REDUCED AGENCY COSTS
INTERACTIVITY, FLEXIBILITY, CUSTOMIZATION
ACCELERATED KNOWLEDGE

3. Electronic Business, Electronic Commerce, and the Emerging Digital Firm
Emergence of the Digital Firm
Digitally-enabled relationships with customers, suppliers, and employees
Core business processes accomplished via digital networks
Digital management of key corporate assets
Rapid sensing and responding to environmental changes

4. Electronic Business, Electronic Commerce, and the Emerging Digital Firm
TOWARD THE DIGITAL FIRM
Electronic commerce
Electronic business
Electronic market: Information systems links, buyers and sellers to exchange information, products, services, payments

5. TOWARD THE DIGITAL FIRM
Electronic Business, Electronic Commerce, and the Emerging Digital Firm
TOWARD THE DIGITAL FIRM

6. INTERNET & ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Internet links buyers, sellers
Lower transaction costs
Goods and services advertised, bought, exchanged worldwide
Business-to-business transactions increasing

7. INTERNET & ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Easy to link with other businesses, customers
Can update product information, ordering, customer support
On-line storefronts
Enhanced business forms
Dynamic pricing

8. INTERNET & ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Categories of Electronic Commerce
B2C electronic commerce: retailing product/service to individual shoppers
B2B electronic commerce: sales of goods/services among businesses
C2C electronic commerce: consumers selling directly to consumers

9. INTERNET & ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Customer-Centered Retailing
removal of intermediate layers streamlines process
Customer self-service
REDUCED COST TO BUYER, SELLER
1. Direct Sales over the Web:
Bypassing intermediaries in the distribution channel can significantly
reduce costs. Operators of virtual storefronts(Amazon.com) don’t have
large expenditure for rent, sales staff etc
Other e.g – Airlines bypassing travel agents
Disintermediation – Bypassing intermediary steps in a value chain
Reintermediation – shifting the intermediary function in a value chain to
a new source

10. INTERNET & ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Customer-Centered Retailing
2. Interactive Marketing & Personalisation:
Web sites hold a huge amount of info about customer behaviour, needs, preferences & buying patterns. Companies can use this info for
promotions, products, services & pricing.
Many companies are collecting customer info by using software tools
that track the activities of the Web visiotrs
They can analyse this info abt customer interests & behaviour to
develop more precise profiles of existing and potential customers
Web personalisation - Firms can create unique personalised Web pgs
that display content or ads for products or services of special interest to
each user, improving the customers experience & creating additional
value.
E.g Amazon.com retains personal info abt all its customers & proposes list
of new books depending on the person’s tastes when he/she vists the web
site.

11. INTERNET & ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Customer-Centered Retailing
Interactive Marketing & Personalisation:
BUT this still implies a threat to a person’s privacy specially if info is gathered without the person’s knwoledge
3. M-Commerce & Next Generation Marketing
Web will be accessible from almost anywhere as consumers turn more towards the use of wireless devices like wireless tels, handheld digital appliances etc
M-commerce will provide businesses with additional channels of reaching customers
Location tracking software in some of these devices will enable businesses to track user’s movements & supply info, adverts & other services

12. INTERNET & ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Customer-Centered Retailing
4. Customer Self Service
The Web – medium through which customers can interact with the company at their own convenience & find info that previously required a human computer-support expert.
These services cost only a fraction of using a live customer service representative on the phone
E.g Airline systems which allows users to view arrival/departure times, seating charts etc

13. INTERNET & ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Electronic Commerce Payment Systems
Ways of paying goods electronically on the Internet
Examples of Electronic payment systems for E-commerce
Digital Credit card payment
Digital Wallet
Accumulated balance payment system(For micropayment systems)
Stored value payment system
Digital cash
Peer-to-peer payment systems
Digital Checking
Electronic billing presentation & Payment

14. INTERNET & ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Examples of Electronic payment systems for E-commerce
Digital Credit card payment:
Safer & more convenient as it provides authentication facilities for the purchaser’s credit card.
Protect info transmitted among users, merchant sites & processing banks
Digital Wallet :
S/w that stores credit card info to facilitate payment of goods on the
Web
Accumulated balance payment system:
Accumulates micropayment purchases as a debit balance balance that must be paid periodically on credit card or telephone bills
Stored Value Payment systems:
Enables consumers to make instant payments to merchants based on value stored in a digital account

15. INTERNET & ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Examples of Electronic payment systems for E-commerce
Digital cash:
Digital currency that can be used for micropayments or larger services
Peer-to-peer payment systems:
Sends money using the Web to individuals or vendors who are not setup to accept credit card payments
Digital Checking:
Electronic check with a secure digital signature
Electronic billing presentation & Payment:
Supports Electronic payment for online ans physical store purchases of goods or services after the purchase has taken place