E-COMMERCE AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

E-COMMERCE?
Electronic commerce is any form of transaction or exchange of information for commercial purposes in which the parts interact using information technology and communication rather than doing it by direct physical contact or exchange.

Applications related to E-commerce

E-mail and messaging Documents, spreadsheets, database Accounting and finance systems Orders and shipment information Enterprise and client information reporting Domestic and international payment systems Newsgroup On-line Shopping : EBAY Messaging :BLACKBERRY Conferencing

Benefits of E-commerce
Expand Geographical Reach Expand Customer Base Increase Visibility Provide Customers valuable information about your business Never Close Build Customer Loyalty Reduction of Marketing and Advertising Costs Collection of Customer Data Increase sales, decreasing costs Provide price quotes Reduces costs with telecommunications and physical maintenance Encourages competition between small and large online retailers

Limitations of E-commerce
Credit Card security is a serious issue if vulnerable Costs involved with bandwidth and other computer and server costs Extensive database and technical knowledge and experience required Customer apprehension about online Credit Card orders Constantly changing technology may leave slow businesses behind Some customers need instant gratification, and shipment times interrupt that Search utilities far surpasses the speed used to find products through catalogs

E-commerce safety
The lack of privacy on the Internet is a major concern to many consumers. In online transactions, the merchants will have the ability to keep a record of all the purchases made by a consumer as well as knowing which items were examined, for how long and at what point in time. New technology is being developed to which has the capability of filtering out Web sites which are not privacy rated. It is envisaged that third party rating services will be established to monitor privacy.

EXAMPLES OF E-COMMERCE
http://www.123live.co.uk/ecommerce -website-design.htm

THREE TYPES OF E-COMMERCE

B2B :Commerce Business to Business (commonly used to exchange inputs or supplies ) C2B :Electronic Commerce Business to Consumer C2C :Electronic Commerce from consumer to consumer

B2B
The ultimate goal of e-Marketplaces is the buying and selling of goods or services by means telematics, and the most frequent channel is the Internet. Some examples of B2B are:
BizBuyer.com offers a unique online marketplace for small business owners. Their service allows small businesses to receive price quote on a wide variety of products and services, from thousands of vendors. Paperexchange.com interact with a global network of suppliers and buyers through our English, French and German speaking professionals. Newview Technologies Inc. is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, and delivers value for customers that include DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Company, Honda, Delphi, BHP Billiton.

C2B
C2B is an electronic commerce business model in which consumers (individuals) offer products and services to companies and the companies pay them. Examples: Online Advertising sites : Google Adsense Affiliation platforms : Commission Junction Affiliation programs : Amazon Online surveys : Survey Monkey

The revolution is the C2B model

C2C
C2C involves the electronically-facilitated transactions between consumers through some third part. An example is the online auction, in which a consumer posts an item for sale and other consumers bid to purchase it; the third party generally charges a flat fee or commission. The sites are only intermediaries, just there to match consumers. The most important and popular example for C2C is :

EBAY

EDI
In terms of wikipedia definition:set of standards for structuring information that is to be electronically exchanged between and within businesses, organizations, government entities and other groups. 'The transfer of structured data,by agreed message standards,from one computer system to another without human intervention Advantages of using EDI : benefits of storing and manipulating data electronically without the cost of manual entry reduces the handling costs of sorting, distributing, organizing, and searching paper documents

ebXML
ebXML is a modular suite of specifications that enables enterprises of any size and in any geographical location to conduct business over the Internet. Using ebXML, companies now have a standard method to exchange business messages, conduct trading relationships, communicate data in common terms and define and register business processes. There is a lot of websites, documents and articles on internet which talks about ebXML:
http://www.ebxml.org/ http://www.gca.org/papers/xmleurope2001/papers/html/s182a.html http://www.oasisopen.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=ebxml-bp http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-ebxml/

E-business
Electronic business is the conduct of business on the Internet, not only buying and selling but also servicing customers and collaborating with business partners. The term "e-Business" was coined by Lou Gerstner,CEO of IBM. Today, major corporations are rethinking their businesses in terms of the Internet and its new culture and capabilities. Companies are using the Web to buy parts and supplies from other companies, to collaborate on sales promotions, and to do joint research. Exploiting the convenience, availability, and world-wide reach of the Internet, many companies, such as Amazon.com, the book sellers, have already discovered how to use the Internet successfully.

E-Procurement
E Procurement is also known as supplier exchange. electronic procurement is the business-to-business or business-to-consumer purchase and sale of supplies and services through the Internet as well as other information and networking systems. E-procurement Web sites allow qualified and registered users to look for buyers or sellers of goods and services. Buyers or sellers may specify costs or invite bids. Transactions can be initiated and completed. Ongoing purchases may qualify customers for volume discounts or special offers. E-procurement software may make it possible to automate some buying and selling.

E-Procurement
Six main types of e-procurement:Web-based ERP (Electronic Resource Planning), e-MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operating), e-sourcing, e-tendering, e-reverse auctioning, e-informing. The e-procurement value chain consists of Indent Management, eTendering, eAuctioning, Vendor Management, Catalogue Management, and Contract Management. Here you can find more interesting information about eprocurement: http://www.cyberindigo.net/articles/eprocurement.htm

Online auction
The online auction business model is one in which participants bid for products and services over the Internet. The functionality of buying and selling in an auction format is made possible through auction software which regulates the various processes involved. eBay is the world's largest online auction site.

Online catalogue
An online catalog might refer to:
The retail product offerings of an online shop. An electronic library catalog.