Introduction of E-commerce

Commerce (the trading of goods) has been a study(ip) impetus for homophile survival since the low of recorded history and beyond. The mass betrothal of the net has created a paradigm break in the focus ph champion linees argon conducted today. The medieval decade has seen the emergence of a un employmentd kind of duty e- handicraft, the barter foring and sell of goods through human-computer interaction all(prenominal)(prenominal) everyplace the meshwork. handed-down physical trading of goods and currency is surveilly change magnitudely unpopular and to a greater extent than vexationes atomic number 18 Jumping on the e-commerce bandwagon.Today, the line among e-commerce and traditional commerce is becoming much blurred as more problemes jump off and continue to conflate the internet and e-commerce technologies into their furrow processes. 1. 2 DEFINITION OF E-COMMERCE The e-commerce thunder mug be defined as a sophisticated descent methodology that apportiones the of necessity of organizations, merchants, and consumers to wind bes while improving the select of goods and re interruptments and increasing the speed of return deliin truth, by stickment profits.It differs from the traditional electronic commerce (e-commerce) in he modality that it changes the trading of goods, bullion and teaching electronically from computer to computer. Business is done electronically and at that place is no longer a need for physical currency or goods to conduct business. 1. 3 EVOLUTION OF E-COMMERCE development of e-commerce freighter be attri stil study to a crew of regulatory reform and technological innovation. though internet (which played an outstanding fictional character in growth) appeargond in the late sass, e-commerce of today took off with the arrival of World commodious Web and browsers in early sass.The liberalizing of the electrification field and innovations much(prenominal)(prenominal) as optic fibe r, digital subscriber line and so forth (which has succored to expand the brashness and message of communications) acquire helped in the process of that speedy growth. As a result the barriers to main course and engage in e- commerce start fallen rapidly. A brief durationline of evolution is as follows 2 E-COMMERCE 1. 4 1969 meshing/App arent 1989 WWW HTML invented at CERN 1991 NSF lifts restrictions on commercial white plague of profit 1993 Mosaic browser invented at University of Illinois, Urbana Champagne, is released to human beings 1994 Netscape releases Navigator browser 1995 Dell, Cisco, Amazon etc. Gang aggressively to use Internet for commercial transactions The growth of Internet has a fussy signifi sensce in the growth of e-commerce. It has the potential to involve command spate into the process thereby increasing its reach far beyond liberal companies. CONDUCTING BUSINESS ONLINE (E-COMMERCE) Doing business online is electronic commerce, and there are four main areas in which companies conduct business online today 2. 3. 4. ask merchandise, selling, and go. Online banking and billing. furbish up distribution of data. Value- mountain chain trading and bodied buying. 4. 1 Direct Marketing, Selling, and Services Today, more clearsites focus on direct marketing, selling, and serve than on any different(a) character reference of electronic commerce. Direct selling was the early type of electronic commerce, and has proven to be a stepping-stone to more complex commerce operations for many another(prenominal) companies. Successes such as Amazon. Com, Barnes and Noble, Dell Computer, and the introduction of e-tickets by major airlines, lose catcalled the growth of this segment, proving the reach and guest acceptance of the Internet. 1. 4. 2 Financial and entropy ServicesA broad range of pecuniary and reading gains are performed over the Internet today, and sites that offer them are enjoying rapid growth. These sites are p opular because they help consumers, businesses of all sizes, and financial institutions distribute some of their close to important information over the Internet with greater stratagem and richness that is available using other impart. For example, you have Online banking Online billing Secure information distribution 1. 4. 2. 1 Online Banking Consumers and elf deal businesses foundation save time and money by doing their banking n the Internet.Paying bills, making transfers betwixt accounts, and trading stocks, bonds, and mutual funds brush aside all be performed electronically by using the Internet to connect consumers and wasted businesses with their financial institutions. ELECTRONIC COMMERCE-?TECHNOLOGY AND PROSPECTS 3 1. 4. 2. 2 online Billing Companies whose bill cigarette achieve signifi nominatet cost savings and marketing benefits through the use of Internet-based bill-delivery and receiving systems. Today, consumers come up an comely of 23 bills per month by ma il from sellers, cite card companies, and utilities. 1. 4. 2.Secure schooling Distribution To many businesses, information is their most valuable as tack together. Although the Internet muckle enable businesses to reach huge new markets for that information, businesses essentialiness also safeguard that information to comfort their assets. Digital Rights Management app suppresss protection for apt and information property, and is a key applied science to secure information distribution. 1. 4. 3 Maintenance, Repair, and trading operations (MR.) The Internet also offers tremendous time and cost savings for corporate purchasing of low-cost, high-volume goods for maintenance, repair, and operations (MR.) activities.Typical MR. goods include office supplies (such as pens and paper), office equipment and furniture, computers, and replacement p humanistic discipline. The Internet shtup transform corporate purchasing from a labor and paperwork-intensive process into a self-servi ce application. Company employees can redact equipment on websites, company officials can automatically go for buy approval and policies through change business rules, and suppliers can keep their compose information centralized and up-to-date. Purchase line of battle applications can then use the Internet to transfer the order to suppliers.In response, suppliers can send the requested goods and invoice the company over the Internet. In addition to focusd administrative costs, Internet-based corporate purchasing can purify order- bring in accuracy, break off enforce purchasing policies, provide offend guest and supplier service, reduce inventories, and springtime companies more power in negotiating exclusive or volumetrically contracts. In other words, the Internet and e-business have changed the way enterprises serve customers and compete with each other, and have heightened awareness for competing affix chains. 1. 4. 4 Value-Chain IntegrationNo other business model h ighlights the need for closelipped integration across suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors quite like the rank chain. Delays in inventory trailing and management can ripple from the cash register all the way cover version to raw material harvest-tideion, creating inventory unmindfulages at any stage of the encourage chain. The resulting out-of-stock returns can mean lost business. The Internet promises to increase business efficiency by diminution reporting delays and increasing reporting accuracy. travel is clearly the business imperative for the value chain. 1. 5 ISSUES IN IMPLEMENTING ELECTRONIC COMMERCEAlthough it is straightforward to describe their benefits, it is not nearly as easy to develop and deploy commerce systems. Companies can face significant performance issues Cost Value 4 aegis supplement lively systems Interoper readiness 1. 5. 1 cost electronic commerce requires significant investments in new technologies that can touch many of a companys co re business processes. As with all major business systems, electronic commerce systems require significant investments in hardware, software, staffing, and training. Businesses need comprehensive root words with greater ease-of-use to help foster cost- pitchive deployment. 5. 2 value Businesses want to know that their investments in electronic commerce systems ordain cause a return. Business objectives such as wiz generation, business-process automation, and cost reduction must be met. Systems used to reach these goals need to be flexible enough to change when the business changes. 1. 5. 3 earnest The Internet provides universal joint access, but companies must protect their assets against accidental or malicious misuse. System security, however, must not create prohibitive complexness or reduce flexibility. Customer information also needs to be protected from internal and external misuse.Privacy systems should safeguard the own(prenominal) information critical to building s ites that encounter customer and business needs. 1. 5. 4 Leveraging Existing Systems Most companies already use information technology (IT) to conduct business in unlettered environments, such as marketing, order management, billing, inventory, distribution, and customer service. The Internet represents an utility(a) and complementary way to do business, but it is imperative that electronic commerce systems integrate existing systems in a carriage that avoids duplicating functionality and maintains usability, performance, and reliability. 5. 5 Interoperability When systems from two or more businesses are able to exchange documents without manual intervention, businesses achieve cost reduction, improved performance, and more dynamic value chains. Failing to address any of these issues can spell blow for a systems implementation effort. Therefore, your companys commerce dodge should be designed to address all these issues to help customers achieve the benefits of electronic comme rce. Your companys great deal for electronic commerce should also be to help businesses establish stronger relationships with customers and industry partners.For example, a successful strategy for delivering this vision is draw by three work-flow elements (platform, portal, and industry partners), each backed by comprehensive technology, proceeds, and service offerings. 5 From self-service portals to transaction processing, a successful work-flow strategy can be the underlying engine delivering state-based, processed-focused control serve for e-business applications. Human labor is expensive, and work-flow technology allows e-businesses to supplement, and in some cases eliminate, reliance on human supervision and intervention. . 6 HOW DO YOU belong WITH E-COMMERCE? E-commerce is to the highest degree setting your business on the Internet, allowing visitors to access your website, and go through a working(prenominal) catalog of your products/ work online. When a visitor wants to buy something he/she likes, they hardly add it to their virtual obtain basket. Items in the virtual obtain basket can be added or deleted, and when youre all set to checkout, you head to the virtual checkout counter, which has your peg total, and that will ask you for your name, address etc. ND method of stipend (usually via credit card). Once you have entered all this information (which y the way is being genetic securely) you can then Just dwell for delivery. 1. 7 COMPARISON BETWEEN handed-down COMMERCE AND E-COMMERCE In many cases business processes use traditional commerce activities very effectively, and these processes cannot be improved upon through technology. Products that buyers favour to touch, smell, or get word closely are difficult to sell using electronic commerce.For example, customers might be reluctant to buy high-fashion apparel and perishable food products, such as meat or produce, if they cannot examine the products closely before agreeing to purc hase them. In the case of traditional commerce retail merchants have years of experience in creating store environments that help convince a customer to buy. This combination of store design, layout and product display knowledge is called merchandising. cut-rate sales people in course of time develop skills that allow them to identify customer needs and puzzle products and services that meet those needs.The arts of merchandising and personal selling can be difficult to practice over an electronic link. Through commerce brand products such as binds or CDC can be easily sold. As one copy of a new book is identical to there copies and because a customer would not be concerned about freshness he would willingly order a title without examining the specific copy they would receive. The advantage of electronic commerce, namely the ability of one site to offer a wider infusion of titles than even the largest physical bookstore, can outweigh the advantage of a traditional bookstore, name ly the facility to browse.Some examples of business processes are listed in the following table that conciliate to the e-commerce and traditional commerce respectively. Business processes well-suited to electronic commerce Traditional commerce Sale/purchase of books and CDC Sale/purchase of high-fashion clothing Online delivery of software Sale/purchase of perishable food products Advertising and furtherance of travel services Small-denomination transactions Online tracking of shipments Sale of expensive Jewelry and antiques 6 1. 8 E-COMMERCE TECHNOLOGIES What technologies are necessary for e-commerce?The short answer is that most information technologies and Internet technologies that we discuss throughout the book are involved in e-commerce systems, biz. Customers must be provided with a range of secure information, marketing, transaction, processing, and payment services. Trading and business partners rely on Internet and extranets to exchange information and accomplis h secure transactions including electronic data interchange (DE) and other supply chain and financial systems and databases. Company employees depend on a variety of Internet and intranet resources to pass by and collaborate in take for of their atomic number 16 work activities. . 9 The Internet, intranets, and extranets are the lucre infrastructure or foundation of e-commerce. breeding system professionals and end users can use a variety of software tools to develop and manage the content and operations of the websites and other SEC sources of a company. ECONOMIC electromotive force OF E-COMMERCE Consumers are pushing retailers to the wall, demanding lower process, better quality, a large selection of in-season goods. sellers are scrambling to fill the order. They are slashing back-office costs, trim profit margins, reducing cycle times, buying more wisely, and making huge investments in technology.They are revamping distribution channels to set sure that warehouse costs a re down by reducing their average inventory levels and coordinating the consumer demand and supply patterns. In the push to reduce prices, more and more retailers are turning to overseas suppliers, in part because of cheaper labor costs. The effect of e-commerce can also be seen over the retail industry and marketing. 1. 9. 1 E-commerce and Retail Industry Retailers are in the quick line of fire and are initial to bear the brunt of cost cutting.They are lay that pressure on the manufacturing and supplier end of the pipeline. At the same time, the quest for efficiencies has led to turmoil and consolidation within the retail industry. The pressure experienced by retailers and suppliers can be seen in the disappearance of Jobs, in mergers, and in the increase in business failures in the manufacturing sector. The problems are indeed serious. electronic markets could provide a partial solution by promising customers more convenience and merchants greater efficiency and interactivity with suppliers to revivalist the troubled retail sector. . 9. 2 E-commerce and Marketing Electronic commerce is forcing companies to rethink the existing shipway of doing target marketing (isolating and focusing on a segment of the population), relationship marketing (building and sustaining a long-term relationship with existing and potential 7 customers), and even event marketing (setting up a virtual booth where interested people come and visit). Consider the case of conventional direct marketers, who devote some 25 pct of their revenues to such costs as printing and postages for catalogs.Interactive marketing could help cut such expenses and may even deliver better results. Interactive marketing is accomplished in electronic markets via interactive multimedia catalogs that give the same look and pure tone as a shopping channel. Users find contemptible images more appealing than still images and earshot more appealing than reading text on screen. Those are two effective rea sons why every text-based and still-picture-based interactive experimental-based service has ever generated anywhere near the volume of retail merchandise orders that televised shopping channels have achieved.Maximum public acceptance will require that interactive catalog services have a more entertain visual appearance than traditional text-intensive catalogs have had. Ideally, an interactive shopping program should produce full-motion demonstrations of selected products, but such a practical and economical technology has yet to be developed. 1. 10 INCENTIVES FOR ENGAGING IN E-COMMERCE A basic fact of Internet retailing is that all retail websites are created able as far as he location, location, location imperative of success in retailing is concerned.No site is any close-hauled to its web customers and competitors offering similar goods and services may be only a mouse click away. This makes it vital that businesses find ways to build customer satisfaction, loyalty, and relatio nships, so customers keep coming back to their web stores. Thus, the key to e-commerce success is to optimize several(prenominal) key factors such as selection and value, performance and service efficiency, the look and feel of the site, advertising and incentives to purchase, personal attention, immunity relationships, and security and reliability.The incentives for engaging in e-commerce are listed as follows Selection and Value. Attractive product selections, rivalrous prices, satisfaction guarantees, and customer support afterwards the sale. Performance and Service. Fast, easy navigation, shopping, and purchasing, and prompt raptus and delivery. Look and Feel. Attractive web storefront, website shopping areas, multimedia product catalog pages, and shopping features. Advertising and Incentives. Targeted web-page advertising and e-mail promotions, discounts and special offers, including advertising at affiliate sites. own(prenominal) Attention. Personal web pages, personalized product recommendations, web advertising, and e-mail notices, and interactive support for all customers.