E-COMMERCE

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, refers to the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. However, the term may refer to more than just buying and selling products online. It also includes the entire online process of developing, marketing, selling, delivering, servicing and paying for products and services. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily with widespread Internet usage. The use of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at one point in the transaction's life-cycle, although it may encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail, mobile devices and telephones as well. A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely in electronic form for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, but mostly electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Online retailers are sometimes known as e-tailers and online retail is sometimes known as e-tail. Almost all big retailers are now electronically present on the World Wide Web.

Early development
Originally, electronic commerce was identified as the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, using technology such asElectronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). These were both introduced in the late 1970s, allowing businesses to send commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically. The growth and acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s were also forms of electronic commerce. Another form of e-commerce was the airline reservation system typified by Sabre in the USA and Travicom in the UK. From the 1990s onwards, electronic commerce would additionally include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing.

In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee invented the WorldWideWeb web browser and transformed an academic telecommunication network into a worldwide everyman everyday communication system called internet/www. Commercial enterprise on the Internet was strictly prohibited by NSF until 1995. Although the Internet became popular worldwide around 1994 with the adoption of Mosaic web browser, it took about five years to introduce security protocols and DSL allowing continual connection to the Internet. By the end of 2000, many European and American business companies offered their services through the World Wide Web. Since then people began to associate a word "ecommerce" with the ability of purchasing various goods through the Internet using secure protocols and electronic payment services.

Types of E-commerce

B2B - Business to Business

B2B is the selling between companies, wholesale rather than retail. But it means more than that. Efficient use of capital demands small inventories, which entails anticipating demand, and so maintaining detailed information flows between all parties involved in today's complex manufacturing processes. B2B involves widening the circle of suppliers (for safety and competition), and of centralizing control (for records and discounts).B2B ecommerce is an important part of any online business. Leaving aside the simple transfer of funds covered here many businesses need some combination of:

Credit worthiness assessment. Guarantee of quality and delivery of goods (escrow services). Safeguards against fraud. Fast collection of funds, with ability to vary the collection period. Reporting: approval of sale, invoicing, delivery, payment. Procedures to handle disputes. Information of all types corporate, technical, identity-building has to be interchanged across the scattered divisions of large companies, and new ideas fostered, assessed and disseminated. Speed is vital, as are improved communication, collaboration, and customer understanding. All these requirements can be handled by IT, and software has been developed to meet the challenge customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, online auction, supply chain management, etc. Little of it is off-the-shelf, but is devised as systems to be extended and built round

Hence many problems with surveys. B2B has reportedly done better than B2C steadier growth, higher profits but is it software sales or savings in companies with B2B-enhanced management that have been measured? Even within the B2B market, there are marked differences between types of software and their successes. Records of some are distinctly spotty, and sales of the more advanced systems have been badly hit by the dotcom bust and US recession. Improved management is not simply a matter of installing new software: extensive company reorganization and retraining are required to obtain even a modest payoff.

B2C - Business to Consumer

B2C (Business to Consumer): Refers to a business communicating with or selling to an individual rather than a company. B2C e-commerce jumped from $11.2 billion in 1998 to $31.2 billion in 1999, Doing business online no longer requires a huge investment by retailers, thanks to developments in template-based online stores which are based on packaged applications that are delivered over the internet. As nearly all online stores will require the same functions: catalogues, order baskets, payment processing, content management and member management, it makes sense for those components to be created once and shared by all stores, with each store effectively renting its own copy of the applications. The one area where it's important for online stores to differentiate is their look and feel, and naturally retailers feel very strongly about their business branding. So the ability to create a unique skin for each site is an important part of a template-based e-store offering. Using the latest internet application technology, individual sites can be created within minutes of the retailer selecting a template and supplying graphics such as logos. Typically, retailers will pay only a modest monthly rental charge and retailers require no specialist hardware or software, other than internet access. Anyone who wants to sell products and services over the internet, or who wants customers to be able to research their purchases on the internet, should consider an online store. These days, a web site should be a standard part of the promotional and advertising mix for every business, along with other tools such as Yellow Pages, newspaper advertising and signage.

Advantages of B2C e-commerce

B2C e-commerce has the following advantages:

Shopping can be faster and more convenient. Offerings and prices can change instantaneously. Call centers can be integrated with the website. Broadband telecommunications will enhance the buying experience.

Challenges faced by B2C e-commerce

The two main challenges faced by B2C e-commerce are building traffic and sustaining customer loyalty. Due to the winner-take-all nature of the B2C structure, many smaller firms find it difficult to enter a market and remain competitive. In addition, online shoppers are very price-sensitive and are easily lured away, so acquiring and keeping new customers is difficult.

B2E - Business to Employee

B2E (Business to Employee) E-Commerce generally refers to the requisitioning of supplies by employees for use in their jobs, but this really has grown to encompass much more. For example, B2E makes it very easy for an employee to requisition a new toner cartridge and printer paper - the order is entirely electronic, and supervisors are asked to approved the requisition in the event that the total order exceeds preset limits for that particular employee. However, B2E has grown into technologies that allow the employee to access their employee records to update address information, shift investments in the 401K plan, or maintain their internal resume. Many companies have found that B2E technologies have dramatically reduced the administrative burdens with the human resources department. Admittedly, maintaining employee information has little to do with commerce, but this term has grown to encapsulate this activity into the B2E definition.

C2B - Consumer to Business

A consumer posts his project with a set budget online and within hours companies review the consumer's requirements and bid on the project. The consumer reviews the bids and selects the company that will complete the project. Elance empowers consumers around the world by providing the meeting ground and platform for such transactions C2B is a rather peculiar Internet phenomenon. An example of C2B e-commerce could be the following. A student wants to fly from London to New York, but has only 200 ($320) in the bank to pay for this round trip. They put up an ad in an Internet C2B site, seeking airlines that are willing to offer the transatlantic round trip for 200 or less. The beauty of the Internet is that it brings together a large number of customers to create a marketplace that a number of airlines (that will have to otherwise fly with empty seats) will be interested in. Many analysts state that C2B and C2C e-commerce will thrive in the near future. It is a challenging task, however, to construct these e-commerce systems because of their diverse nature. The existing EC construction tools, which usually focus on B2B and B2C e-commerce schemes, were designed for constructing specific ecommerce systems, making them unsuitable for developing consumer-initiated e-commerce systems. In this paper, we propose a trading model that supports C2B and C2C ecommerce through the use of digital media called vouchers and the trading system VTS. We show how the introduction of vouchers simplifies the procedures of C2B and C2C e-commerce, and show that vouchers, together with VTS, can be utilized to form a trading framework that uniformly realizes the delivery/payment phase. We demonstrate that a wide range of matching phase implementations, in which the characteristics of specific e-commerce systems such as market coordination are implemented, can be integrated into this framework.

C2C - Consumer to Consumer

The introduction of the new economy has helped to create a very individualistic and independent society. Consumers are no longer totally reliant on corporations and are increasingly looking to conduct their own business transactions. This is evident in Western Australia where the number of small businesses has doubled from 1983 to 1999 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2001). At the forefront of this movement are Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) applications within e-Business. C2C applications are any transactions between and amongst consumers (QUT School of International Business, 2003). They are often described as Peer-to-Peer (P2P)

(QUT School of International Business, 2003). When e-Commerce was first introduced, it redefined the traditional structure of business by giving small firms and individuals the same opportunity as multi-national corporations. As a result, many individuals established online organizations that encouraged and assisted commerce between consumers. There are many sites offering free classifieds, auctions, and forums where individuals can buy and sell thanks to online payment systems like PayPal where people can send and receive money online with ease. E-Bay's auction service is a great example of where person-to-person transactions take place every day since 1995. Companies using internal networks to offer their employees products and services online--not necessarily online on the Web--are engaging in B2E (Business-toEmployee) ecommerce. G2G (Government-to-Government), G2E (Government-to-Employee), G2B (Government-to-Business), B2G (Business-to-Government), G2C (Government-toCitizen), C2G (Citizen-to-Government) are other forms of ecommerce that involve transactions with the government--from procurement to filing taxes to business registrations to renewing licenses. There are other categories of ecommerce out there, but they tend to be superfluous. The most famous and successful example of a Consumer-to-Consumer application is e-bay. Ebay.com is an online auctioning site that facilitates the trade of privately owned items between individuals The website claims that through e-bay, practically anyone can trade anything .The company began in September 1995 when Pierre Omidyar decided to establish the first online marketplace .Since that time, the company has continued to grow both in size and popularity. E-bay is now considered one of the most successful C2C E-Businesses ever. Other examples of Consumer-to-Consumer applications are service and employment websites such as Monster.com, Seek.com.au and CareerOne.com.au. These websites provide a valuable service to consumers looking for jobs. Employers can advertise on these websites and potential employees can contact their organization for an interview. Web-based communication organizations are one final example of a C2C operation. Sites such as Sastashopping.com ICQ.com and MSN.com act as a communications medium for peer-to-peer deliberations. Although there is no commercial benefit to the website, they do provide the facilities for Consumer-to-Consumer exchange. Consumer-to-Consumer applications are a growing area of eCommerce. As online business expands, peer-to-peer transactions will continue to grow in popularity and the industry will become highly profitable.

NAME-AKASH MALANI STD-F.Y.B.F.M SUB-COMPUTER TOPIC-E-COMMERCE