1) Describe e-commerce in your own words? Explain how does it differ from e-business?

Where does it intersect with e-business?

E-commerce is the activity of buying and selling or exchanging of product or services
and information using internet which is paperless and helps in cost reduction by
improving quality of goods and services and enhancing the speed of service. It is the
emerging concept in this world of globalization.
E-commerce is not only limited to buying and selling of goods/products and
information online but it also includes pre -sales and post-sales activities across the
supply chain. It has helped in extending the market by providing cheaper and most
efficient distribution channel for their product and services. E-commerce focuses on
the technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic fund transfer, supply chain
management, internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data
interchange etc.
E-commerce is the online commercial transaction where buyer and seller can
communicate with each other without having face to face interaction.
At present most of the companies are using e-commerce to grab the maximum share
in market.
Some of the renowned companies using e-commerce in their business are Amazon,
Alibaba, Ebay, Flipkart, Rakuten, Otto etc.
E-commerce is divided to two types which are sell side e-commerce perspective and
buyer side e-commerce perspective.
Sell- side: Transactions involving selling of products to customers.
Buy-side: Transactions involving purchasing resources needed by organization.
E-business is conducting the business online. It is any kind of business or commercial
transaction that includes sharing information, product or services using internet, intranet and
extranet.
E-business is the transformation of key processes through the use of internet technology.
Key difference between E-Commerce and E-business are as follows.
a) Buying and Selling of goods /product or services through internet is e-commerce
whereas e-business is conducting the business online.
b) E-commerce includes the transaction which is related to money but E-business
includes monetary as well as non monetary transactions.
c) E-Business which is called as digital business includes broader scope than e-
commerce.
d) E-commerce is extroverted approach which covers customers, suppliers, distributors
etc. But the e-business is an ambivert approach which covers internal as well as
external processes.
e) The e-commerce needs only the website that indicates the business. On the other hand
E-business needs some more requirements to start the business via internet such as
website, Customer Relationship Management and Enterprise Resource Planning.
f) Internet is used to connect rest of the world with E-commerce business where as E-
business uses internet, intranet and extranet for connecting with parties.
 E-business covers the online transaction that would constitute e-commerce. It covers
the broad range of activities beyond buying and selling of goods, product and
services. Therefore, E-commerce can be said as subset of E-business. E-commerce
and E-business intersect at the business firm boundary at the point where internal
business systems link up with the suppliers.
For example, E-business turns into E-commerce when an exchange of value occurs
across the firm boundaries.

The above diagram shows E-commerce is the subset of E-business.

2) What are some of the unique features of e-commerce technology?

Some unique features of E-commerce Technology are as follows
a) Ubiquity
b) Global Reach
c) Universal Standards
d) Richness
e) Interactivity
f) Information Density
g) Personalization/Customization
h) Social Technology

a) Ubiquity: In simpler words, ubiquity means ability of being present in several places
simultaneously. In E-commerce Ubiquity refers to the fact that people can access
service/ buy or sells products, goods and services from any place from any device at
any time via internet. E-commerce is ubiquitous meaning that it can be everywhere.
This feature reduces the mental and physical effort to complete the task
b) Global reach: E-commerce makes the business transaction more convenient and
more effective as compared to traditional business. E-commerce allows people of
different nation to transact the business at the same time. E-commerce business
potential market scale is roughly equivalent to the network size of the world’s
population.
c) Universal Standards: Generally universal standard means the standard that is
followed by all the nations around the world. Another feature of E-commerce is there
is one set of technical standard of the internet that is universal standards. Internets
are shared by all the nations around the world regardless of their technology and
platform used by them. For Example Files and documents can be exchanged easily
with someone in another country.
 d) Richness: E-commerce supports audio, video and text message. It is possible to
deliver rich message with text, audio and video to large number of people
simultaneously. Audio, video and text message can be integrated into single
marketing message as per requirement of consumer.
e) Interactivity: E-commerce technology works through interaction with user by
allowing two way communications between business and consumers.
f) Information Density: Information density means the total amount and quality of
information available to market participants. Information Density allows greater
price transparency, greater cost transparency and enables merchant to engage in price
discrimination.
g) Personalization: E-commerce technology allows for personalization by adjusting
business in own name or as per person’s interest. Merchants can change the product
or service based on user’s preference or behaviors. Thus this feature permits
modification of messages or goods.
h) Social Technology: E-commerce technology has evolved to be much more social by
allowing user to create and share their informations worldwide in the form of text,
video, music or photos. Using this form of communication, users are able to create
new social network and strengthen existing one.

3) Describe the three different stages in the evolution of e-commerce.

The three different stages in the evolution of e-commerce are as follows
a) Innovation
b) Consolidation
c) Reinvention

a) Innovation: Innovation took place from 1995 and was characterized by

excitement and idealistic visions of markets in which quality information was
equally available to both buyers and merchants. However, E-commerce did not
fulfill these visions during its early years.
b) After 2000, Consolidation: In this stage, more traditional firm began to use the
web to enhance their existing business. Less emphasis was placed for creating
new brands.
c) In 2006, though e-commerce entered into current stage, reinventions, as social
networking and Web 2.0 applications reinvigorated e-commerce and
encouraged the development of new business model.

4) How do we evaluate our current e-business capabilities? What are drivers of business
Internet adoption?
We can evaluate our current e-business capabilities in the following ways.
a) With the use of online, e-business services to both customers and suppliers has
significantly reduce costs while providing new convenient ways and channel for purchase
of goods and services. By providing high-quality online services to customers, business
can build and create a long lasting relationship with all stakeholders involved .
b) Revenue can be increased if e-business technology is adopted by large number of
customers. Since services of e-business are prompt and reliable, loyalty of customer
towards the product increases. Existing customers will repeatedly purchase products.

c) Cost reduction can be achieved through delivering services electronically. Reduction

includes reduction in staff cost, transport cost and cost of material such as paper. E-
business is focused on paperless transaction so it helps us in theme of “go-green” as
well.

E-business has two main categories of drivers which is prevalent and relevant today
Cost/ Efficiency Drivers include
- Increasing speed with which supplies can be obtained
- Increasing speed with which goods can be dispatched
- Reduced sales and purchasing cost
- Competitiveness drivers
- Customer demand
- Improving the range and quality of services offered
- Avoiding losing market share to business already using e-commerce.

5) Define disintermediation and explain the benefits to Internet users of such a

phenomenon. How does disintermediation impact friction-free commerce?
Disintermediation means removal of the market middlemen (such as distributors,
whole sellers or other intermediaries) between the producers and consumers. It
replaces the concept of step by step movement of goods and services from supply chain
of an organization. The benefit of Internet user includes reduction in the price of goods
and services as the manufacturer and consumers have direct relationship .There will be
elimination of payment to the middlemen. Disintermediation of market would create
intense competition and lowered transaction cost which would eliminate unfair
competitive advantage and extraordinary return on capital resulting friction free
commerce. Disintermediation helps in direct marketing which leads to add more
number of consumers in the network of the product and services.

6) What are the major limitations on the growth of e-commerce? Which is potentially the
toughest to overcome?
The major limitations on the growth of e-commerce are as follows
a) High start up cost: The various cost associated with startup are connection cost to the
internet, hardware software cost which includes cost of latest computer, routers and
maintenance cost ( which includes cost of training employees and maintenance of
websites ) and these cost are obviously costly.
b) Lack of Skilled manpower: There is very difficulty in finding skilled person who has the
sound knowledge of e-commerce technology which becomes difficult to manage and
maintain customers. It is difficult to find the person who can learn sophisticated skills to
make effective use of internet and e-commerce capabilities
c) The unlikelihood that the digital shopping experience will ever replace the social and
cultural experience that many seek from the traditional shopping environment.
d) Security and Privacy: One of the major limitations of e-commerce is security. Privacy
has become a major concern for consumers with the rise of identity theft and
impersonation. Information exchanged must be kept away from unauthorized access and
unauthorized person. Security issues in e-commerce are data integrity, authentication and
non repudiation which must be dealt effectively to make online transaction successfully.
Even if tight online security are provided there could be chances of online attack such as
phishing or middle men attack. Phishing is the activity of defrauding an online account
holder of financial information by posing as a legitimate company. A man-in-the-middle
attack is where the attacker secretly and invisibly relays or possibly alters the
communication between two parties.
e) Product Suitability: It is not possible for customer to physically examine the product in E-
commerce business. There could be the cases when original product does not match with
the picture as displayed in e-commerce websites. This will definitely discourage
customers.
f) Cultural Obstacles: Customers across the globe have different taste and preferences due to
different cultures in which they were raised. There may be linguistic problems and all
these may lead to dispute between buyer and seller.
Among these, social and cultural limitations are likely to be tougher to overcome than
technological limitations.

7) State five advantage of electronic commerce over traditional commerce.

The five Advantage of electronic commerce over traditional commerce are as follows
A) No geographical limitation: With the help of E-commerce people from one
geographic region can purchase goods or service within few seconds from another
corner of the world. In case of traditional commerce, people can do business where
they have physically set up their office/store.
b) Lower cost/ Investment: It is easy to open E-commerce website because it requires
low investment as compared to physical store. We can make use of best marketing
strategy involving organic search, pay per click or social media traffic to reduce the
price of the product/goods. Moreover manpower and property is also less required to
run the business in electronic commerce as compare to traditional commerce.
c) Save travel time and cost:
The main reason of people shifting from traditional commerce to electronic commerce
is it saves travel time and cost. People can easily buy or sell the products in few clicks
sitting at home in electronic commerce websites. In case of traditional commerce
people had to visit to outlet to purchase the products which was more time consuming
and costly.
d) Remains open all the time: Another reason of shifting from traditional
commerce to e-commerce is people can transact the business at odd time as
well. E-commerce store are open all the time. The seller is benefitted as they
 get more orders in odd time as well and for customers, they can shop
conveniently (whenever they can get free time.)
e) Locate the product quickly and provide abundant information. E-commerce
platform provides the customer to find their desired products in search box so
that they can get the information of desired products immediately. It’s very
difficult to locate the specific products in huge store. But we can easily search
our desired products in e-commerce websites.

8) Describe buy side and sell side ecommerce along with the disadvantage of each of
them.
Buy side E-commerce refers to the transaction between purchasing organization and its
suppliers.
Simply buy side is where the organization purchases from the suppliers. They basically
indicate using communications technology to support the upstream supply chain from
procurement to inbound logistics.
Example of buy side e-commerce is
-People in businesses who request of approve expenditures
            -People in businesses that negotiate the purchase with suppliers
            -People in businesses who record receipt of goods
            -People in businesses that approve the invoice
 
.Sell side e-commerce refers to transaction involved with selling products to an organization
customer.
Simply, sell side is where that organization sells it on to its customers. They do not only
involve selling products but also involves using internet technologies to market services using
a range of techniques.
Example: Example of sell side e-commerce include Retail sites (like Amazon), online
banking services(like HSBC), Portals (like Yahoo) etc
Disadvantage of Buy Side are as follows
-)lack of privacy and securitie
-) No possibility of tried and tested products
-) Tax and legal issues
Disadvantage of Sell side are follows
-) Low profit on online sell because of competition
-) Return of product is high
Figure shows the difference between buy side e-commerce and sell side e-commerce.

9) Take an organization you are familiar with and consider organizational changes that
may be required for each of the 7 Ss.
7Ss model is used to examine how the various parts of organization work together. The
main motive of 7 Ss is to improve the performance of organization by determining the
best way to implement the proposed strategy and it helps in facilitating organizational
change. I am working in Annex worldwide express which deals with importing
documents, parcels and goods to different countries. Let us see how 7 Ss model can help
to facilitate organizational change and to identify how each area may change in future.
The 7s factors are
a) Strategy: Strategy is the organizational plan developed by the firm to gain competitive
advantage over its competitors. What does well aligned strategy means in 7Ssmodel?
In general, sound strategy is well organized plan to achieve its goal which is guided
by its mission and vision. But it is very difficult to analyze if such strategy is well-
aligned with other elements or not. So the key in 7Ss model is not only to find great
strategy, structure or system but to see how if it is aligned with other.
Key issues involved are
- Gaining appropriate budgets and demonstrating/ delivering values and ROI from
budgets.
 - How e-commerce techniques can help to fulfill the organizational strategy
- Techniques for aligning e-commerce strategy with organizational and marketing
strategy.
b) Structure: Structure represents the way business division and units are organized and
include the information of who is accountable to whom. For structure to remain strong
there should be excellent communication within the company. The major issues
involved are
- How to integrate e-commerce team with other management, marketing and other
staffs.
- Use of cross- functional teams and steering group.

c) System: The system is the procedure which practiced followed daily in an

organization. With the help of e-commerce technologies, Annex worldwide has able
to maintain the system which includes the procedures which helps in managing,
marketing, shipping, and logistic and helps in customer support.
However this factor alone cannot function without coordinating with other six
elements. The staffs should try to maintain good system with practical skills under
best leadership style developed from a strategy and built along with structure, while
till the end, keeping the shared values in the mind.
The key issues are
- Managing/ sharing customer and supply chain management.
- Integration of web into marketing campaign planning.

d) Staffs:
Staff element includes number of employee and the type under which it falls. Staff
plays fundamental role in the working system of an organization. Annex worldwide
has divided staffs mainly into Account/finance division, Sales and Marketing
Division, Logistic division and Customer care and support division. Due to this, staff
fined the task automation very convenient as it allows them to manage time with tasks
efficiently.

e) Style: The style factor symbolizes the techniques and way in which company is
handled. It depends around the leadership qualities possessed by the individual or
management group, who are in charge. The leadership qualities can determine the
style in which organization will run. Annex worldwide is guided under leader who is
accountable, optimism, inspirational and who can tackle the unforeseen problems. So,
this organization is running smoothly under the guidance of inspirational leader who
help us to tackle with problems.
f) Skills: The skills factor here is the ability and attributes of the employee. It determines
the work quality and the speed for the completion of the task, hence playing a crucial
role. Staff skills in specific areas such as supplier selection, project management,
content marketing and supply chain management plays vital role in the performance
of organization.
 g) Super ordinate goals: These are the guiding concepts of organization which are also
part of shared values and culture. Every organization creates certain values and norms
which every member follows. These shared values act as foundation from which all
other six elements grow. The values must be present in the strategy designed, in the
company’s structure, in the working system, in the style of leadership, in the skills
possessed by the employees, and in the functioning methods applied by the staff.
10) People always find an opportunity during the crisis time, as a manager at this pandemic
situation how do you think Information Technology is supporting COVID-19. Justify
your answer with Five (5) different areas with an example.
It is always true that people always find an opportunity during the crisis time.
Information Technology has played a vital role in supporting COVID-19 in many
areas.

a) Software Company: Software Company developed rapidly during COVID-19.

Covid-19 made tough time for every company and they understood the importance
of digitizing the system. Working from Home, being able to do the entire manual
works with social distancing, being technically sound are more important than ever.
Now it’s time for every company to digitize so that they can survive at this time of
crisis. These companies develop software which helps how hurdles and manual
works can be replaced by single click. They develop various software such as HR
Management software, Process flow and Document Management Software,
Banking Loan Automation software etc. HR Management software helps in
Recruitment Process, Employee information and HR Process, Payroll, tax and
compliances, performance appraisal, training automation etc... Process Flow and
Document Management software helps in providing information timely.
These software companies took the advantage of pandemic by providing automated
software to many companies. Example of Such Software Companies are Nimbus
Infosys, Next Nepal etc.
b) Banking Sector: During this pandemic, almost every bank has provided online
services by adopting e-commerce technology. They have updated their online services
such as online account opening, bank transfer from one account to another account
through connect IPS, online payment of electricity bills, internet bills, etc. Every bank
has requested their customers to go cash less by updating their online transactions...
Every Bank has installed Banking Loan automation system that helps in customer
inquiry, follow up, documentation, approval, disbursement etc. For every online
transaction, bank deducts certain amount. If number of customer operating online
transaction increases, revenue of bank increases. Thus banking sector is benefitted at this
pandemic situation by operating its online services
C) Online- business: Online-business is the emerging business these days .They have
created their websites displaying their products with price range so that customer can
chose their desired product and payment can be made online. Products are delivered to
customer’s address taking full precautions. These days, groceries, vegetables, clothes
and other essentials are delivered to people’s address. Online shopping is already very
common as it is a safe, convenient and time-saving option for customers at this time of
pandemic.
d) School and Colleges providing Online Education. School and Colleges have installed
proper data base and ERP to carry their daily work. They have installed the software
that can automate the entire task which we find hard. Complete school and College
automation software helps in handling student data base, billing and accounting,
Examination, attendance etc. Teacher can provide online education from their home
due to e-commerce technology.
e) Healthcare Sector: E-commerce has been tremendous these days. E-commerce is
changing the way people shop for healthcare products and these are delivered to
consumer’s address. Instead of personally visiting, many consumers are using internet
facilities to perform the function of a regular pharmacy. These e-commerce facilities
have helped to prevent spreading COVID-19. These days many hospital have
operated model that features fast delivery to patient’s doors, online chat to handle
patients query instead of visiting doctor at this time of pandemic. Telemedicine can be
paired with pharmaceutical e-commerce to allow a remarkably smooth patient
experience. Patients can chat with a doctor about their symptoms, get a diagnosis, and
receive medication delivered to their door, all within a few hours.