Understanding E-Commerce Concepts
E-commerce means online process of developing, marketing, selling, delivering, servicing, and paying for products and services transacted on internet worked with the help of a worldwide network of business partners.
E-commerce uses a wide range of technologies like Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Electronic Mail, and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).
The E-commerce process includes the following business activities.
Pre
sales and post sales support.
Internal e-mail and messaging.
Online
publishing of corporate documents and forms.
Advertising and promotion of products and services.
Categories of E-commerce:
The E-commerce has three broad categories.
Ø Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
Ø Business-to-Business (B2B)
Ø Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
Business-to-Consumer:
The B2C is a popular form of e-commerce. In it there is a virtual storefront for a customer through which he can browse and order goods. In such an environment the consumer thinks himself in a real world shopping experience since there are carts to drop goods into and checkout the bill. One of the B2C examples include http://www.amazon.com, http://www.sentimentexpress.com and http://www.kalpoint.com
Business-to-Business:
If someone asks the catalyst of the extranet then B2B come first because B2B involves electronic business places and direct market links among businesses. An example of B2B is a company that uses a network for ordering from its suppliers, receiving invoices and payments.
Consumer-to-Consumer:
This category is infact a strategy used by huge companies to sell goods through auctioning. The familiar example is e-bay.
Problems in E-commerce Business:
There are so many confusions and problems in e-commerce but the most important is security or privacy issue. Fears of corporate sabotage, theft of personal identities have lead to a cautious approach in E-commerce business.
The emerging services and security technologies such as advance Encryption techniques certification and digital signatures are producing a significant impact on e-commerce and user confident.
Requirements for Creating E-commerce Site:
Creating a complete on-line selling environment require money and technical expertise.
The following basic components involve in becoming commerce enabled
Storefront:
The storefront or content for a business should be simple and attracting. It may consist of few pages with description of corporate profile. It can be designed using Microsoft Front Page.
Reporting Systems:
There is the issue of consistency of information across systems. In order to get an overall picture of organization’s performance business executive will need to access data from different applications. New systems promise the latest technology for reporting and enquiries.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) packages promise to integrate different applications
smoothly and give a single point of access to data. Customer Relationship Software (CRM) has been added to this recipe to give this approach a better chance of happening.
Internet Merchant Bank Account:
Internet Merchant Bank Account is a commerce term meaning a banking relationship that permits to accept credit cards.
Digital Certificates:
If a merchant intends to accept payments through its storefront then he must have a Digital Certificate. A digital certificate such as SECURE SERVER LAYER (SSL) allows a user to use a secure and credible server for transactions. SSL authenticity is due to its encryption technique.
Besides the aforementioned Online Transaction Providers, Back-End Processing Orders and Shopping Cart Software’s are required to do e-commerce business.
Today’s Topic of E-commerce
The most important of today’s topic of E-commerce include Globalization and Quality Assurance.
Globalization:
The important question that arises in mind of business community today is How do companies in different continents become aware of their existence and the products that are offered ?
How can a company gain business traditions and conventions of some country on the
opposite side of the globe?
Quality Assurance:
In any business uncertainty regarding the quality of goods can lead to the collapse of the market. Consumers usually prefer to inspect goods before buying rather seeing pictures or reading the description
Some E-commerce Sites
http://www.sentimentexpress.com
Conclusion
The E-commerce revolution is in full swing. Startup ‘dot.com’ companies are springing up on a daily basis and large corporation are developing new departments and employing new personnel to cope with the predicted demand.
E-commerce is global in both concept and realization. The impact of e-commerce will be pervasive on society. E-commerce offers the possibilities of breakpoint changes. It is only a matter of time before e-commerce become obvious part of our lives.
References
http://www.transaction.net/payment