STARZ COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Sinkor Airfield
Monrovia, Liberia

RESEARCH PROJECT

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

COURSE eINFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (INFO 355)

SUBMITTED TO: Mr. Alexander E. Bassey

INSTRUCTOR

SUBMITTED BY: Fredrina T.Cooper

Student (ID #: 02168)
INFO 355 – Section 01

DATE: Saturday, June 15, 2019

 Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................................3
CHRONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT FROM 1971 TO 2017 (TIMELINE) .................................................4
The Timeline of the History of Ecommerce and Its Evolution: .............................................................................4
SOME COMMON BUSINESS APPLICATIONS RELATED TO ECOMMERCE .........................................5
INTERNATIONAL GOVERNMENTAL REGULATIONS RELATED TO ECOMMERCE ........................6
Regulating a Cyberspace without Borders............................................................................................................6
Jurisdiction ............................................................................................................................................................6
Self-Regulation ......................................................................................................................................................6
Taxation .................................................................................................................................................................6
Privacy....................................................................................................................................................................7
IMPACT ON MARKETS AND RETAILERS ......................................................................................................7
IMPACT ON SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT ...............................................................................................7
IMPACT ON EMPLOYMENT ..............................................................................................................................8
IMPACT ON CUSTOMERS...................................................................................................................................8
Greater Choice .......................................................................................................................................................8
Convenience ...........................................................................................................................................................8
E-commerce Saves Time .......................................................................................................................................8
Lower Prices ..........................................................................................................................................................8
DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS 9

TYPES OF DIGITAL CHANNELS .......................................................................................................................9

REFERENCE ........................................................................................................................................................ 10
INTRODUCTION
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, or ecommerce, is the buying and selling of
products or services over the electronic systems such as the internet and other computer networks, and
the transfer of funds, through digital communications. E-commerce can include all inter-company and
intracompany functions (such as marketing, finance, manufacturing, selling and negotiation) that enable
commerce. E-commerce uses communications such as electronic mail, EDI, file transfer; facsimile,
video conferencing, workflow, or interaction with a remote computer e-commerce has also become
associated with solutions and tools such as portals, e-marketplaces, e-auctions or virtual inventory. The
last few years have seen a dramatic increase in the capabilities of ecommerce as hundreds of millions of
dollars were invested in building new solutions and in fighting a marketing war for apparent first mover
advantages.
E-commerce is the fastest growth area in the global economy and almost carries potentials beyond
measure. It provides consumers with the benefits of anytime, anywhere transactions, with lower costs.
Moreover it shortens the distance between the buyer and the seller and shrinks the world into a small
village. (Porter, 2001; Alberta E-Future Center, 2007) The uptake of e-commerce is influenced by its
potential to create business value and by awareness of its participants of the potential benefits (Salnoske,
1997). A major reason for most companies, irrespective of size, to participate in business is to extract
some benefit from it. Ecommerce is no different (Kuzic, Fisher and Scollary, 2002). In his research,
standing [2001] stated more than ten e-commerce benefits for both buyer and seller. Such as cost
savings and speed in selling and buying, exposure to new customers (global reach), convenience and
transparency to users, better quality of product/service (global reach), reduce need for office space and
fewer resources required (ecological).

Internet technologies have already had a dramatic impact on the way that people around the world think
and act. Since the World Wide Web’s inception, its speed of acceptance has been unprecedented. The
first two years of the 21st century have seen a boom and a bust in predictions of the impact of
technology/ecommerce on business, supply chain management and other businesses. Organizations have
experienced a period when many people involved with supply chain technology and software lost the
plot when it came to the potential delivery of business benefits. People commonly confused the potential
for very significant supply chain benefits, with the capacity of a technology solution to deliver those
benefits. For a period, it seemed that causality between benefits and solutions had become unnecessary.
CHRONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT FROM 1971 TO 2017 (TIMELINE)
Although e-commerce is a way of business now, it is actually a relatively recent development. Today,
we buy everything from clothing to automobiles on the Internet. The technology and processes that were
put in place to facilitate this evolved over a period of several decades. The invention and growing
popularity of the Internet made the idea of e-commerce possible, but it took years of advancements and
the inventions of many people to make it a reality. The original concept behind e-commerce did not
involve everyday people buying and selling things over the Internet. It was originally developed as a
way to facilitate business transactions. Electronic Data Interchange, or EDI, was one of the forerunners
of e-commerce today and was developed in the early 1970’s - 1971. Developed to allow business to
electronically exchange things like purchase orders and invoices, EDI allowed the practice of ‘just in
time’ delivery to flourish. Successfully practiced by industries like the auto industry in Detroit, EDI
streamlined the ordering, shipping and payment process by removing the need for faxed transmissions or
telephone calls.
Also in the early 1970’s electronic Fund Transfers or EFT was developed. These allowed payments to
be processed online. This was a necessary step in the evolution of e-commerce, as we know it today.
Again, originally intended to be used on a business-to-business playing field, EFT allowed e-commerce
to develop into the gigantic economic player it has become. Actual online shopping didn’t come into
being until 1979. It was invented in Great Britain by Michael Aldrich. Jane Snowball, a resident of
Gates head, England has the honor of being the first person to make an online purchase ever. These
early transactions in the 80’s relied heavily on the Aldrich model and dial-up capabilities of the current
Internet service. Large automotive companies like Peugeot, Ford, Nissan and General Motors used this
system extensively, but it was slow and cumbersome.
Over the next few years, several more key inventions made the real boom of e-commerce possible. Data
warehousing and mining were important to the process, but even more important was a little invention
called the Worldwide Web – an Internet browser. Invented in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee, this system
made the Internet accessible to the common man, not just the academician. In 1991, e-commerce
became possible over the web, but didn’t truly gain popularity until many of the security issues and
modem speeds significantly improved. Other features that followed include instant package tracking,
access to product reviews and integrated customer service

The Timeline of the History of Ecommerce and Its Evolution:

1969: CompuServe, was the first major e-commerce company that was established by Dr. John R. Goltz
and Jeffrey Wilkins by utilizing a dial-up connection. This is the first time e-commerce was introduced.
1979: Michael Aldrich invented the online shopping (he is also considered as founder or inventor of e-
commerce). This was done by connecting a transaction-processing computer with a modified TV
through a telephone connection. This was done for the purpose of transmission of secure data.
1981: Thomas Holidays, UK was the first B2B online shopping.
1982: The continued growth of technology, particularly in electronics led to the launch of the first e-
commerce platforms by Boston Computer Exchange.
1990: Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first web browser, World Wide Web, using a NeXT computer.
1992: Terry Brownell launches the first fully graphical, iconic navigated Bulletin board system online
shopping using RoboBOARD/FX.
1994: Web browser tool was introduced by Netscape Navigator by Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark. It
was used on the Windows platform.
1995: The year marked was the iconic development in the history of e-commerce as Amazon and eBay
were launched. Amazon was launched by Jeff Bezos, while Pierre Omidyar launched eBay.
1998: The first e-commerce payment system was launched by PayPal as a tool to make money transfers.
1999: Alibaba launched its online shopping platform in 1999 with more than $25 million as capital.
Gradually it turned out to be an e-commerce giant.
2000: The first online advertising tool named Google AdWords was launched by Google as a way to
help retailers to utilize the pay-per-click (PPC) context.
2004: DHgate.com, China’s first online b2b transaction platform, is established, forcing other b2b sites
to move away from the “yellow page” model.
2005: Etsy was launched to enable small and medium scale retailers to sell goods online.
2009: Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey launched Square as an app-based service. Big Commerce was
launched by Eddie Machaalani and Mitchell Harper as an online storefront platform.
2011: US ecommerce and Online Retail sales projected to reach $197 billion, as increase of 12 percent
over 2010. Google Wallet was also launched in 2011 as the first digital payment option that allowed
transactions to take place online.
 Facebook came up with retailer sponsored stories, which can be considered to be the earliest
forms of online advertising.
 Stripe was launched as a payment processing company by Patrick and John Collision.
2014: Apple Pay introduced as a form of mobile payment for online transactions. Jet.com was also
launched in as an online shopping portal.
2017- Present: Ecommerce business offers a potential competitive advantage to retailers and customers.
Instagram Shopping was launched in as a global e-commerce platform. The growth of e-commerce
also scaled a new high with record sales of $6.5 billion on Cyber Monday. The present condition of
e-commerce looks extremely positive as more and more people going online with their e-commerce
stores and it is expected to be at its zenith in the coming years.

SOME COMMON BUSINESS APPLICATIONS RELATED TO ECOMMERCE

 icCube -offers a suite of products to increase both your Business Intelligence accuracy and
productivity; generating accurate information is made possible in minutes/hours rather than
days/weeks. The Web Reporting available from PC & Tablet allows sharing efficiently the
information required to enhance business.

 DataSelf Analytics- is a simple and intuitive enterprise-level business intelligence platform

designed for CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CIOs, managers, salespeople – infact, just about anyone who
wants to slice, dice, and discover their data with dashboards, visualizations, or report. Business
users will be able to take care of more than 70% of their reporting needs with no assistance from
experts.

 Satori Software delivery industry- Satori Software, Inc. develops contact data quality and
mailing preparation solutions for small businesses, large enterprises, and fortune 500 enterprises
in healthcare, financial services, education, direct marketing, fundraising, and other industries.
The company offers Toolkit products that deliver integrated address quality and postal presorting
tools for clients’ databases, websites, or applications.
INTERNATIONAL GOVERNMENTAL REGULATIONS RELATED TO ECOMMERCE
Back in the days, when the Internet was mainly a tool for government, military, and academic personnel,
regulation was barely an issue, outside of the basic requirements for and restrictions on access. Once the
World Wide Web came along and the Internet was opened to commercial activity, however, cyberspace
became tied to the conflict-ridden world of national and international economic policies and regulations,
to the chagrin of many interested parties, among them businesses, industry groups, legislators,
governments, and issue advocates.

Regulating a Cyberspace without Borders

The regulatory problem of mounting concern was how to implement national regulations in a borderless
Internet world. Most regulations of the Internet largely applied existing, physical-world rules to
cyberspace, and didn't address the possibility that essential parts of an electronic transaction might lie
outside national borders. The Internet increasingly made borders superfluous, and the full potential of
the Internet, particularly for commerce, was based on this characteristic. This fueled the growing calls
for international regulatory bodies to oversee developments in cyberspace.

Jurisdiction
Many Internet pioneers hoped to keep the medium more or less free from government controls. Tim
Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) that he
heads, were committed to keeping the Web as open as possible, allowing for the widest range of input
and choices. The standards and protocols they sponsored had a tremendous impact toward this end, but
the group was a private nonprofit organization, not a government regulatory body. The W3C worked
with business leaders, citizen groups, and others to reach a wide consensus, and drew praise for this laid-
back and cooperative approach.

Self-Regulation
Calls were growing for the creation of an international e-commerce regulating body at the time, not to
impose new regulations from above, but to see to it that the increasing number of national regulations
didn't wind up impeding global e-commerce. These sentiments were shared by industry groups and
others who felt that the best way to foster e-commerce was to impose as little regulation from above as
possible, and to allow industries to meet their own specific challenges and coordinate with other
industries to achieve a common end.
The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) was one industry group to strongly promote
and implement self-regulatory measures rather than rely on governmental bodies to impose regulations
from the outside. The group created comprehensive membership guidelines requiring member
companies to abide by clear standards of behavior to protect consumer privacy, and conducted industry-
wide educational and policy forums to address issues important to members.

Taxation
Taxation is a crucial issue for e-commerce regulators both within the United States and across the globe.
In particular, customers and companies engaging in international e-commerce transactions have to
negotiate a web of tax laws in countries where they do business including national tax laws with special
provisions for foreign transactions or for ecommerce as well as their domestic tax regulations. Beyond
that, most countries have been sorting out specific tax measures for Internet purchases, creating separate
categories of regulations. These issues highlight again the tension between nation-based legal structures
and the borderless Internet.
Privacy
Elsewhere, the United States and the European Union clashed over the EU Commission's stringent Data
Privacy Directive, which the EU initially wanted to impose on U.S. businesses as well. In the end,
however, a compromise was reached when U.S. businesses agreed to regulate themselves and stand
accountable to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which pledged to punish any lapses in
protecting and securing the personal and financial information of EU consumers.

IMPACT ON MARKETS AND RETAILERS

Promotion of Products-Through Ecommerce product can be promote in an interesting way and with lots
of information directly to the customers which reduces the cost of offline promotion because internet
can interact a lot of customers and save amount of cost of advertisements can be used in different areas
of business. Customer service can be enhanced because customers can search detailed information about
product or marketplace which offers the product and can compare the prices of different market places.
Brand Image- New business men can establish their brands on internet by using attractive images at an
affordable price. Advertisement- Traditionally the advertisements were one- way to attract customers
and let them know about the new product or market place but now through e-commerce advertisements
are two-way in which customer can browse the market place and product, can compare the prices and
also can ask questions to the online retailers Customization-Customized products can be made available
according to the needs of customers. It will make a good place of business in market and new customers
will be attracted. Order Making Process-Traditionally to take orders from customers, intermediaries are
used which takes a lot of time and expenses but with ecommerce the order taking is so easy which
reduces a lot of time and expenses and they can make more sales
Electronic Commerce better known as e-commerce is widely used as an emerging distribution channel.
It is expanding for Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Customer (B2C) activities where it
started to substitute the conventional way of purchasing and interaction for businesses and customers.
This has rapidly changed the marketing mix landscape for businesses where goods can be sold to their
customers without a need for a physical store or face-to face personal interaction with customers.
Furthermore, businesses can reach additional potential customers by setting an online store on platforms
such as Amazon, EBay and Alibaba where it can be accessed globally.

IMPACT ON SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Internet technologies have already had a dramatic impact on the way that people around the world think
and act. In the six or so years since the World Wide Web’s inception, its speed of acceptance has been
unprecedented. The first two years of the 21st century have seen a boom and a bust in predictions of the
impact of technology on supply chain management. Supply chains have been affected by this new
economy of e-commerce solutions, but I believe the major changes that are possible will take a lot
longer to happen. However, we are now seeing more practical and effective approaches to delivering
supply chain improvements through e-commerce. With time, these new approaches have a big potential
to address the clear performance gap that exists between what companies are achieving in their supply
chains and what they could achieve.
E-commerce will not change what needs to happen in the supply chain, but how it is done. Business
processes rarely disappear, they just get done differently. The impact of ecommerce on the supply chain
will be felt in how work is done, including how areas of the supply chain interact, and in how supply
chains operate between company and geographic boundaries. E-commerce will have an impact on all
major areas of supply chain work in companies from design, through buying to fulfillment and service
support. The major areas of work inside companies can be illustrated using a simple process map of a
supply chain.
E-commerce solutions for the supply chain have been available for some years, so it is reasonable to
assume that there are already good examples of its potential to deliver significant business benefits.
More traditional companies have also embraced e-commerce rapidly and effectively in their supply
chains. GE is a much quoted example. Its combination of ‘destroy your business’ thinking, Six Sigma
and e-business execution have seen the successful introduction of new capabilities, including e-ordering,
e-procurement, e-marketplaces, such as GE Polymer land, and new retail business models using virtual
inventory, such as GE Appliances.

IMPACT ON EMPLOYMENT
As e-commerce continues its expanding, its impact on employment and wages will be the result of a
complex set of interactive forces. Electronic commerce is expected to directly and indirectly create new
jobs as well as cause job losses. New jobs will be gained in information-related goods and services,
entertainment, software and digital products, for instance. Indirect creation of jobs will occur via
increased demand and productivity. Jobs will be lost when e-commerce substitutes for the traditional
way of doing business. The jobs most likely affected, as preliminary evidence suggests, are those in the
retail sector, postal offices and travel agencies. However, the effects will not be uniform across
countries, geographic areas, industries or skill groups. Evidence for the United States and the European
Union reveals that employment in ICT-related industries and in the finance, business and commerce-
related sectors account for almost one- third and one-fourth of total employment, respectively. More
importantly, they accounted for 28% and 35% of job creation in 1993-96. In addition to the net
employment gains and losses, e-commerce will have an impact on the demand for certain skills. The
evidence suggests that ICTs and e-commerce demand a whole set of new skills where responsibilities
and decision-making becomes more information based.

IMPACT ON CUSTOMERS
E-commerce have had a considerable impact on consumers, the value chain, markets as well as business
models. This article will look at some of the impacts that have resulted from the advent and
development of e-commerce.

Greater Choice
With e-commerce, consumers are able to access a wide range of products and services. You can choose
your product from anywhere in the world, make an order and have it shipped to you. This has given
greater freedom to consumers by ensuring that they can get what they want despite their geographical
location. Online stores, unlike the physical ones, have no limitation as to space. As such, the seller can
stock as many products as they wish, giving the consumers more options.

Convenience
E-commerce is very convenient. You can make an order for goods while in your house, office or even
while travelling. You do not need to go to the store itself, you only need to have internet access.

E-commerce Saves Time

The process of selection and payment in online shopping is quite short. It is possible to complete
everything in 15 minutes and wait for the product to be delivered as you do other things. There is no
requirement of travelling to the physical store.
Lower Prices
With e-commerce, middlemen are eliminated. The consumer can buy products from the producers
themselves. Additionally, e-commerce is not limited by geographical space. Firms can compete globally
without the need to establish physical offices in every location. This increases competition and leads to
lower prices of goods and services.

DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL
E-commerce distribution channel has been growing due to
advancement in technology equipment and internet access
availability. Through e-commerce channel, it has provided mutual
benefits for both businesses and retailer. Businesses can lower the
selling cost by reducing operating expenses as there is no need for
a physical store. In addition, additional savings can be obtained
by the elimination of distribution channels such as wholesaler and
retailer which lead to “disintermediation”. Furthermore,
customers find it convenient as it saves money and time travelling
to the store.
However, for a business to be successful in e-commerce distribution channel, the business needs to be
mindful of their online and offline features of their online store. This will determine the success or
failure of e-commerce distribution channel.
What are the features that an online store must have?
Online features that a business must have for e-commerce are system quality, information quality and
service quality. Businesses must provide a system that has high integrity where all customers’ privacy
and confidential information are maintained. User friendliness of a system is also important for a
customer’s shopping experience such as flawless website functionality and easiness of accessing the
online store by a non-technology savvy customer.
As customers are not physically in store to evaluate product information, the online store is required to
provide the same quality of information to a customer. This includes detailed product information such
as accuracy, timeliness, completeness and understandably description to the customer. Although there is
no physical interpersonal relationship between a customer and the business, excellent customer service
must be maintained. Feedback from online customers should be addressed on a timely basis to provide
good service quality to customers. This is to ensure that the online shopping customer have an excellent
online purchasing experienced where they would return to the online store for their next purchases. The
figure below show the distribution channel between e-commerce and the customer.

TYPES OF DIGITAL CHANNELS

 Social media marketing: The social MS has a strong focus on social marketing.
 Content Marketing: It is the art of using storytelling and valuable information to increase brand
awareness with the goal of getting your target audience to take a profitable action.
 Search Engine Optimization (SEO): It is the process of optimizing content or websites so that
they show up in search result in search engines such as Google.
 Search Engine Marketing (SEM): While SEO describes the process of getting unpaid traffic
from search engine marketing is probably Google AdWords for the simple reason that Google is
by far the most used search engine.
 Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC): Similar to SEM other form of PPC advertising also
describes marketing methods where the marketer pays for each click on a link to a website.
 Affiliate Marketing: is a performance-based type with affiliate marketing, the advertiser does
not pay for traffic but rather force conversations.
 Email Marketing: is one of the best converting marketing channels. By sending regular updates
to your e-mail subscribers, you can build and nurture a relationship.
CONCLUSION
This paper concludes that e-commerce is very good for us who provides us wide variety of products and
services with lots of information and attractive pictures at an affordable price at our doorstep. It provides
convenience to customers and allows the enterprise to expand their business over internet. Ecommerce
have good impact on markets like reduce the cost of advertisements as many customers can attract
through internet, new brand can be developed, can maintain a good relationship with customers and can
make customized products according to customer’s needs. But e-commerce has bad impact on offline
retailers because customers buys on low price from online shops due to which they also have to lower
their price and does not get any profit, retailers cannot maintain a large stock like online shops have
stores because it will cost a huge loss to them.
They have to spend more money in offline advertisements to attract customers. Along with the impacts
e-commerce also offers some limitation in terms of markets and retailers that is website cost, to create
and maintain a website a lot of money is required; infrastructure cost, to fulfill the orders online retailers
have to maintain a large stock in a big warehouse which costs a lot; security and fraud, due to popularity
of online shops criminal elements are also attracted to them who can hack the personal information and
can misuse them; customer trust, it is difficult for customers to trust a new brand without looking,
touching and face-to face interaction.

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