ASSIGNMENT

ON
E-Commerce

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Department of Management Studies MBA Integrated

6th Semester

Introduction to E- Commerce

1
 (Unit - 1)

E-Commerce:

Electronic commerce, commonly written as e-commerce or eCommerce, is the trading or

facilitation of trading in products or services using computer networks, such as the Internet.
Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds
transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing,
electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data
collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web for at
least one part of the transaction's life cycle, although it may also use other technologies such
as e-mail.

E-commerce businesses may employ some or all of the following:

1. Online shopping web sites for retail sales direct to consumers

2. Providing or participating in online marketplaces, which process third-party business-to-

consumer or consumer-to-consumer sales

3. Business-to-business buying and selling

4. Gathering and using demographic data through web contacts and social media

5. Business-to-business electronic data interchange

6. Marketing to prospective and established customers by e-mail or fax, newsletters)

7. Engaging in pretail for launching new products and services

8. Online financial exchanges for currency exchanges or trading purposes

OR

The term "Electronic commerce" (or e-Commerce) refers to the use of an electronic medium
to carry out commercial transactions. Most of the time, it refers to the sale of products via
Internet, but the term ecommerce also covers purchasing mechanisms via Internet (for B-To-
B). A client who purchases on the Internet is called a cyber-consumer. E-Commerce is not
only limited to online sales, but also covers:

•Preparation of estimates online

2
•Consulting of users

•Provision of an electronic catalog

• Access plan to point of sales

•Real-time management of product availability (stock)

•Online payment

•Delivery tracking

• After-sales service

In certain cases, electronic commerce makes it possible to highly customize products, in

particular when the electronic commerce site is linked with the production system of the
enterprise (e.g. business cards, customized items such as T-shirts, cups, caps, etc.)

Finally, insofar as electronic services and products are concerned (MP3 files, software
programs, e-books, etc.), electronic commerce makes it possible to receive the purchase in a
very short time, if not immediately.

Online stores

Most electronic commerce sites are online stores which have at least the following elements
at the front-
office level:

• An online electronic catalog listing all products for sale, their price and sometimes their
availability (product in stock or number of days before delivery);

• Search engine which makes it possible to easily locate a product via search criteria (brand,
price range, key word, etc.)

• A virtual caddy system (sometimes called virtual cart): This is the heart of the e-commerce
system. The virtual caddy makes it possible to trace the purchases of the client along the way
and modify the quantities for each reference;

•Secure online payment (accounting) is often ensured by a trusted third party (a bank) via a
secure transaction;

3
• An order tracking system, which allows tracking of order processing and sometimes
provides information on pickup of the package by the shipper.

A back office system allows the online dealer to organize its offerings online, modify prices,
add or remove product references as well as manage and handle client orders.

Framework for E-Commerce

A framework can be defined as a structure for supporting or attaching something else,

particularly a support that is used as the foundation for something being created. Hence, an e-
commerce framework comprises the set of infrastructure required for carrying out the e-
commerce business. This set of infrastructure typically includes the network requirements
and the different software applications that are for e-commerce.

1. Interoperability: Electronic commerce is based on a common set of required services and

standards that allow interoperability. Service providers and application designers use these
services and standards as building blocks. They achieve the goals and objectives of e-
commerce by combining, enhancing and customising these building blocks as per the
requirements.

2. Maximum flexibility for innovation: The innovation in e-commerce will grow and be
established in ways that are impossible to visualise. This will result in evolution of new services and
businesses. We can already see that many electronic marketplaces are giving rise to new openings for new
services and businesses. Existing services and products will be specified and adapted. Hence, the electronic
commerce framework plays a vital part in adapting the changes and then later dealing with the new
applications.

3. Information-intensive products: It is observed that the most important set of products

that are sold through e-commerce are the pure information products. For example: electronic
journals, catalogues, videos, interactive video games, software programs, electronic coupons,
and so on. They also include electronic keys to cars, hotel rooms, storage sections, and airport
boarding gates. Some of these products can be designed or modified by a customer. For
example, customers want their own selection of articles to be attached in an electronic book,
or modify their own clothing designs. This capability calls for a customer-driven activity — a

4
design phase, to the purchase cycle. Hence, it is necessary to have all the activities in the
process of the transaction — designing, customizing, ordering, billing, payment and
distribution tightly integrated and happening simultaneously.

4. New revenue collecting techniques: We already know about the traditional techniques of
revenue collection, for example, payment upon receipt, advance payment, and so on. At
present, electronic commerce supports more improved methods of revenue collection. For
example, an information product service provider will allocate the product broadly and then
charge on a usage basis - which means charging the customer only when the information is
used. This information can be a software program, a digital record, or an electronic key used
to open and start a rental car.

5. Meterware: It is a new strategy implemented in recording and billing customers

constantly depending on their product usage. Along with Meterware, electronic cash and
cheques also help in gaining new customers and sharing products.

6. Legacy systems: The legacy systems that are prevailing in electronic commerce field
include mainframe-based agreement, paper cheques, and payment systems, and so on. An
electronic commerce infrastructure gains success only when it allows the user to easily shift
from traditional systems to innovative, electronic systems, and applications and processes.

7. Transaction devices: E-Commerce dealings include different kinds of legacy and recently
formed devices, media, and systems over which transactions take place. Hence, it is
necessary that e-commerce adapts the technologies and devices required for reaching and
maintaining the mass market.

We can conclude that an electronic commerce framework developed with all of these needs
and considerations in mind will form a strong basis for an extremely useful and effective
electronic commerce infrastructure.

Selecting the best e-commerce framework:

5
Deciding on the best e-commerce framework is one of the major challenges for any
organisation. The framework should be selected based on the three evaluation points:

1. Features are those elements of the framework that make it more prominent and clear from
other offerings.

2. Requirements are the basic requirements of the framework that allow it to do its work. If
one among these is lost, then it becomes difficult to use a particular framework, even with the
presence of any other features.

3. Luxuries are the components whose presence is not so important, but they are required to
make the case for a framework that comes at a bonus price. The luxury components add
something extra to the system to make it worthy of the premium price. The three important
factors to look for in any e-commerce framework are:

a) Template management.

b) Core framework functionality.

c) Search engine features.

E-commerce & E-business

E-commerce is an abbreviation used for electronic commerce. It is the process through which
the buying, selling, dealing, ordering and paying for the goods and services are done over the
internet is known as e-commerce. In this type of online commercial transaction, the seller can
communicate with the buyer without having face to face interaction. Some examples of real
world application of e-commerce are online banking, online shopping, online ticket booking,
social networking etc.

The basic requirement of e-commerce is a website. The marketing, advertising, selling and
conducting transaction are done with the help of internet. Any monetary transaction, which is
done with the help of electronic media is e-commerce. The following are the types of e-
commerce:

6
•B2B - The process where buying and selling of goods and services between businesses is
known as Business to Business. Example: Oracle, Alibaba, Qualcomm etc.

•B2C - The process whereby the goods are sold by business to customer. Example: Intel, Dell
etc.

•C2C - The commercial transaction between customer to customer. Example: OLX, Quickr
etc.

•C2B - The commercial transaction between customer to business.

E - Business, is the online presence of a business. It can also be defined as the business which
is done with the help of internet or electronic data interchange i.e. is known as E-business. E-
commerce is one of the important component of e-business, but it is not an essential part. E-
business is not confined to buying and selling of goods only, but it includes other activities
that are also forms part of business like providing services to the customers, communicating
with employees, client or business partners can contact the company in case if they want to
have a word with the company or they have any issue regarding the services, etc. All the
basic business operations are done using electronic media. There are two types of e-business,
which are:

•Pure-Play : The business which is having an electronic existence only.

•Brick and Click: The business model, in which the business exists both in online i.e.
electronic and offline i.e. physical mode.

Brief differential statements between e-commerce and e-business:

E-commerce E-business

E-commerce involves commercial E-business is conduct of business

7
 transactions done over internet. processes on the internet.

E-commerce is a subset of e-business. E-business is super-set of e-commerce.

It is the use of electronic transmission It includes the exchange of a medium that

medium that caters for buying and is directly related to buying and selling
selling of information. products and services.

It usually requires the use of just a It involves the use of CRM’s, ERP’s that
.websites connect different business processes.

It covers outward facing processes that It covers internal processes such as

touch customers, suppliers, and external inventory management, product
partners. management, risk management, finance
etc.

It just involves buying and selling of It includes all products and services.
kinds of pre-sale and post-sale efforts.

Unique features of e- commerce

8
1. Ubiquity- The traditional business market is a physical place, access to treatment by
means of document circulation. For example, clothes and shoes are usually directed to
encourage customers to go somewhere to buy. E-commerce is ubiquitous meaning that it can
be everywhere. E-commerce is the world’s reduce cognitive energy required to complete the
task.

2. Global Reach- E-commerce allows business transactions on the cross country bound can
be more convenient and more effective as compared with the traditional commerce. On the e-
commerce businesses potential market scale is roughly equivalent to the network the size of
the world's population.

3. Universal Standards- E-commerce technologies is an unusual feature, is the technical

standard of the Internet, so to carry out the technical standard of e-commerce is shared by all
countries around the world standard. Standard can greatly affect the market entry cost and
considering the cost of the goods on the market. The standard can make technology business
existing become more easily, which can reduce the cost, technique of indirect costs in addition can set
the electronic commerce
website 10$ / month.

4. Richness- Advertising and branding are an important part of commerce. E-commerce can
deliver video, audio, animation, billboards, signs and etc. However, it’s about as rich as
television technology.

5. Interactivity- Twentieth Century electronic commerce business technology is called

interactive, so they allow for two-way communication between businesses and consumers.

6. Information Density- The density of information the Internet has greatly improved, as
long as the total amount and all markets, consumers and businesses quality information. The
electronic commerce technology, reduce the information collection, storage, communication
and processing cost. At the same time, accuracy and timeliness of the information technology
increases greatly, information is more useful, more important than ever.

9
7. Personalization- E-commerce technology allows for personalization. Business can be
adjusted for a name, a person's interests and past purchase message objects and marketing
message to a specific individual. The technology also allows for custom. Merchants can
change the product or service based on user preferences, or previous behavior.

8. Social Technology - User content generation and social networks, enable user content
creation and distribution.

Types of e-commerce:

1. Business-to-Business (B2B):

Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce encompasses all electronic transactions of goods or

services conducted between companies. Producers and traditional commerce wholesalers
typically operate with this type of electronic commerce.

2. Business-to-Consumer (B2C):

The Business-to-Consumer type of e-commerce is distinguished by the establishment of

electronic business relationships between businesses and final consumers. It corresponds to
the retail section of e-commerce, where traditional retail trade normally operates.

These types of relationships can be easier and more dynamic, but also more sporadic or
discontinued. This type of commerce has developed greatly, due to the advent of the web, and
there are already many virtual stores and malls on the Internet, which sell all kinds of
consumer goods, such as computers, software, books, shoes, cars, food, financial products,
digital publications, etc.

When compared to buying retail in traditional commerce, the consumer usually has more
information available in terms of informative content and there is also a widespread idea that

1
0
you’ll be buying cheaper, without jeopardizing an equally personalized customer service, as
well as ensuring quick processing and delivery of your order.

3. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C):

Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) type e-commerce encompasses all electronic transactions of

goods or services conducted between consumers. Generally, these transactions are conducted
through a third party, which provides the online platform where the transactions are actually
carried out.

4. Consumer-to-Business (C2B):

In C2B there is a complete reversal of the traditional sense of exchanging goods. This type of
e-commerce is very common in crowdsourcing based projects. A large number of individuals
make their services or products available for purchase for companies seeking precisely these
types of services or products. Examples of such practices are the sites where designers
present several proposals for a company logo and where only one of them is selected and
effectively purchased. Another platform that is very common in this type of commerce are
the markets that sell royalty-free photographs, images, media and design elements, such as
iStockphoto.

5. Business-to-Administration (B2A):

This part of e-commerce encompasses all transactions conducted online between companies
and public administration. This is an area that involves a large amount and a variety of
services, particularly in areas such as fiscal, social security, employment, legal documents
and registers, etc. These types of services have increased considerably in recent years with
investments made in e-government.

6. Consumer-to-Administration (C2A):

1
1
The Consumer-to-Administration model encompasses all electronic transactions conducted
between individuals and public administration.

Examples of applications include:

•Education - disseminating information, distance learning, etc.

•Social Security - through the distribution of information, making payments, etc.

•Taxes - filing tax returns, payments, etc.

•Health - appointments, information about illnesses, payment of health services, etc.

Both models involving Public Administration (B2A and C2A) are strongly associated to the
idea of efficiency and easy usability of the services provided to citizens by the government,
with the support of information and communication technologies.

Disadvantages of E- commerce

1. Strong dependence on information and communication technologies (ICT).

2. Lack of legislation that adequately regulates the new e-commerce activities, both
nationally and internationally.

3. Market culture is averse to electronic commerce (customers cannot touch or try the
products).

4. The users’ loss of privacy, the loss of regions’ and countries’ cultural and economic
identity.

5. Insecurity in the conduct of online business transactions.

Origin of E-Commerce

1
2
In the late 1960s the U.S. Defense Department developed a secure and robust
communications network (ARPANET) linking organisations engaged in defense research,
which was designed to be able to continue functioning even if part of it was damaged, e.g. by
nuclear attack. During the 1970s ARPANET became increasingly used by academics for
sharing research material and eventually evolved into the worldwide network of inter-
connected networks known as the Internet (or simply the 'net).

In 1989 Tim Berners Lee proposed the World Wide Web (WWW or web) while working at
CERN, the Swiss based scientific organisation for research into sub nuclear physics. Berners
Lee initially envisaged a text based global hypertext system enabling fast and efficient
communication between scientists located around the world and released the first text based
browser in January 1992.

The 1990s saw the advent of affordable desktop computers together with the emergence of
Microsoft's Windows as the dominant personal computer (PC) operating system. Its point-
and click graphical interface utilized a set of (supposedly) universally understandable icons to
represent tasks such as file management and printing.

September 1992 saw the release of Mosaic. Developed by Marc Andreessen and others at the
National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, Mosaic was
the first web browser with a graphical interface. The web started to become the familiar face
of the Internet providing easy access to a wealth of text, images, animation, sound and video.

Growth and evolution of E - commerce

Matthew Gray, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, estimated there were a mere
130 web sites in June 1993, which had risen to 650,000 by January 1997. Leading search
engine Google now claims to index 1,346,966,000 web pages. Global Reach placed the
worldwide number of Internet users at 369,400,000 in Sept 2000. The Electronic Telegraph
quoted a survey by MMXI Europe in July 2000, which found that nearly one in five people in
Britain uses the Internet from home. Many more have access to the 'net at work or school, or
from public libraries and Cybercafés.

1
3
The largely academic roots of Cyberspace meant the commercial exploitation of the 'net was
initially viewed with hostility. In 1994 two Arizona lawyers, Laurence Canter and Martha
Siegel, posted advertisements to a large number of newsgroups offering legal help to
foreigners seeking U.S. work permits. Their act caused outrage, resulting in thousands of
complaints including death threats. Since then attitudes have changed with most users
accepting most forms of 'net advertising as means of paying for the huge amount of valuable
free content available, just as television advertising pays for the programmes.

However, the non-commercial ethos of the web remains evident in the vast quantity of
valuable content which is still freely available, including daily newspapers such as the Times
and the entire contents of the Encyclopedia Britannica. This is significant for the
contemporary e-commerce enterprise.

Timeline E - Commerce

1984 - Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was standardized through ASC X12. This
guaranteed that companies would be able to complete transactions with one another
reliability.

1990 - Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first web browser, World Wide Web (WWW), using a
NeXT computer.

1992 - Compuserve offers online retail products to its customers. This gives people the first
chance to buy things off their computer.

1994 - Netscape arrived and providing users a simple browser to surf the Internet and a safe
online transaction technology called Secure Sockets Layer.

1995 - Two biggest names in e-commerce are launched which is Amozon.com and eBay.com

1998 - The Digital Subscriber line (DSL) provides faster, always-on Internet service to
subscriber across California. This prompts people to spent more time, and money, online.

1999 - Retail spending over the Internet reaches $20billion, according to Business.com 2000
- The dot-com bust.

The U.S government extended the moratorium on Internet taxes until at least 2005. 2003 -
Amazon had its first year with a full year of profit.

E- Commerce business models:

1
4
The other day, my friend Michel told me, with a smile, that there are just two models
(Amazon and the rest) and that very few offer great profitability. Notwithstanding the marked
difference between pure player and ‘traditional’ retailers, here are nine different eCommerce
business models (without talking numbers):

1. The Single Brand: This is when a brand decides to create its own eCommerce site, à la
Hermes or Louis Vuitton.

2. Marketplace: A eShopping Mall with multiple brands and categories. Examples: Amazon,
eBay, Price Minister, LeBonCoin. Many outfits have chosen to outsource their eCommerce
logistics to the Amazon platform, including some of the bigger players in the past (such as
Target, Toys R Us, Borders͙ ).

3. Vertical marketplace: A eShopping mall on a specific segment. Examples: Zappos

(shoes), Diapers.com, OneStopPlus (plus size fashion).

4. Community marketplace: Built around a lifestyle, a community marketplace involves

identifying and galvanizing a shared mindset. Examples: Etsy, Craigslist, ModCloth
(Indie/Retro/Vintage clothing), SkullCandy (earphones & headphones).

5. Flash Sell marketplace: The concept is creating pent up demand to be bought at specific
time slots, and sometimes in limited series. The majority of flash sell concepts seem to be
concentrated on fashion. Examples: Ideeli, VentePrivee, Gilt Group, HauteLook.

6.Crossover: A blend of Brick & Click stores. Examples: Lavinia (wine), FarFetch
(independent fashion labels), Cyrillus (fashion)͙ and, of course, we can say the same for all
major distribution chains with their own eCommerce site (à la Walmart, Carrefour, etc.).

7. Personalization: The online nature of sites allows for a greater ease of personalization.
Examples: There are a number of variations on this theme. In the tech space, you can order a
custom-built computer with DELL or Apple (where you can also order your name on the
back of your ipod). In design or interior decoration, you have Made or MyFab. Or again
ShirtsmyWay or DesignYourOwnDishes (coming soon).

8. Immaterial going Physical: In other words, making an electronic version into something
real. Examples abound: Other than the likes of foto.com, shutterfly and snapfish that turn
your digital photos into photo albums and personal calendars, you have Blurb to print your
own book, Flipstory to convert YouTube videos into real flip books, or again TasteBook to
create personalized recipe books.

1
5
9. Facebook or Social Commerce: Putting up an f-Commerce site is another option, still
largely uncharted and unproven. Examples of note: Asos, 1-800-Flowers, Coca-Cola,
Mark.girl Cosmetics. You also have some companies doing partial offers on Facebook, such
as Victoria Secrets which have used their fan page to offer gift vouchers.

E- commerce business models:

1. Vanity: Vanity websites allow you to promote an individual interest or indulge in a hobby.
An example of a vanity site is a writer who starts a blog as a form of self-expression. A
vanity site typically is not a means to earn a large income. However, some income may be
generated by using an ad serving application, such as Google AdSense, to place
advertisements on your site that produce revenue when visitors click on them.

2. Storefront: is used to sell products via a website. Products may be manufactured by the
seller or sold through methods such as drop shipping, in which a site owner sells the products
of a third party. Auction websites such as eBay.com are another common form of storefront
site from which entrepreneurs can sell merchandise through a bidding process.

3. Subscription: Subscription websites allow readers to gain access to information in a

method similar to subscribing to a newspaper or magazine. Entrepreneurs who possess a high
level of expertise in a field, such as investing or how to make money through a particular
business venture, often use subscriptions as a revenue source. They may disseminate
information in the form of a newsletter sent periodically by email.

4. Business-to-Business: E-commerce sites, also known as B2B, give businesses the

opportunity sell products to other businesses online. Purveyors of products such as computer
systems and office supplies allow small business owners to make purchases without having to
visit a physical location. This can save them time and perhaps even money, such as when
they receive discounts for buying through a website.

5. Affiliate Marketing: is when one business sells the products of another in return for a
commission. An example of an affiliate marketing model is when an individual creates a

1
6
website providing information about stock market investing. He then registers with the
affiliate program of a business that sells a book about how to make money investing in stocks
and places a link to the book on his site. When a customer clicks on the link and purchases
the book, the site owner receives a commission.

8 Key elements of a E-commerce Business model:

1) Value Proposition:

Define how a company's product or service fufils the need of customers.

-Examples of successful value propositions

-Personalization/ Customization

-Reduction of product search, price discovery costs

-Facilitation of transactions by managing product delivery

2) Revenue Model:

Define how the firm will earn revenue generates profits and produce a superior return on
invested capital

-Major types:

Advertising revenue models: CNN.com

Subscription revenue models: MATCH.com

Transaction fee revenue model: EBay, E-Trade, Hotwire Sales revenue model: Amazon,
LLbean, Gap.com

Affiliate revenue model: E-pinions, Banner Exchange, Edmunds à sends traffic to another
website

3) Market Opportunity:

Refers to a company's intended market space and the overall potential financial opportunities
available to the firm in that market space.

4) Competitive Environment:

1
7
Refers to the other competition selling similar products and operating in the same market
space

5) Competitive Advantage:

Achieved when a firm can produce a superior product and/or bring a product to market, at a
lower price than most, or all, of their competitors.

6) Market Strategy:

Plan that details how a company intends to enter a new market and attract strategy

7) Organizational Development:

Describes how the company will organize the work that needs to be accomplished

8) Management Team:

Employees of the company responsible for making the business model work

-Strong management team gives instant credibility to outside investors

OR

1. Value proposition: benefits the customer enjoys when buying from a company.

2. Revenue model: how the money is made?

3. Market opportunity: the nature and size of a company's marketplace.

4. Competitive environment: other companies occupying the same marketplace.

5. Competitive advantage: advantages a company enjoys over its competitors.

6. Market strategy: how a company will target its customers and promote its products.

7. Organizational development: a company's management structure.

8. Management team: experience and skills of a company's leaders.

Types of e commerce business models:

1
8
1. Drop-Shipping:

Drop-shipping is when you sell items on your website that are manufactured, fulfilled, and
shipped to your customers by someone else. Generally, these relationships are established
between you and a manufacturer or a wholesaler who has a warehouse full of the items you’d
like to sell. Once the proper agreements are in place, the manufacturer or wholesaler will
send you images of the products you wish to sell along with pricing. You’ll then place those
items for sale in your e-commerce store. Your job is to sell the items, and the manufacturer or
wholesaler will fulfill the orders and ship them to your customers. Some of the benefits
people love most about the drop-shipping model is that there’s very little upfront investment
to be made. You don’t buy any of the products until one is ordered and paid for. Once your
foundation is set up with the platform you’re selling from, and your relationship with your
drop-shipping partner is in place, your primary focus is driving targeted buyers to your store
and providing an amazing customer experience. Once the sale is made, that is when you pull
money out of your pocket to pay for the
item sold. This is a low-risk, high-reward model. You don’t have to stock any inventory or
deal with the headache of order fulfillment.

Some of the drawbacks are that you have no control over the shipping and fulfillment, and
sometimes your suppliers let you down. If a supplier is running behind or forgets to provide
you with a tracking number, that increases your customer service responsibilities. ISO, since
you’re not keeping any of the inventory, you don’t always know if an item is running low.
You could end up unknowingly selling something that’s out of stock. Then you have to deal
with the customer service and reputation ramifications.

2. Wholesaling and Warehousing:

This model is when you buy products in bulk and store them in a warehouse somewhere.
Usually people who prefer this model are selling product in volume. People most commonly
use this in a B2B market as opposed to a B2C model. Using my previous example of an e-
commerce store selling bearded dragon supplies, in this case, I’d be the wholesaler who sold
the tank to a B2C business owner for $50, and they’d sell it individually on their website for
$100. Whether or not I would also fulfill the order would depend on the type of business I’m
in. With this model, you get better pricing because you’re buying in bulk instead of making
one-off purchases, as in a drop-shipping business. If you’re buying in bulk and selling the
items individually on your website to consumers, you also have better margins than you do
with drop-shipping.

1
9
However, if you’re like most people using this model, you’re selling in bulk to businesses
who are selling to consumers, which has lower margins. In most wholesale businesses, you
need to create enough sales volume to make up for the smaller margins. This model also
requires high upfront investments for purchasing and housing the product.

3. White Labeling and Manufacturing:

Manufacturing is when you’re actually paying to have the items created for you. In white
labeling, you aren’t manufacturing the product, but your licensing contract allows you to put
your name or brand on it as if you are the manufacturer. So with this scenario, you are either
manufacturing products overseas or importing them from overseas and putting your brand on
them. You’re the top of the product chain at this point.

When you’re importing or manufacturing overseas, your margins are much higher. You get to
create the product for a very low price and then sell it online for a much higher price. You
also control all the shipping and fulfillment yourself; while it’s more work, it has a lot of
benefits, too. You get to control the entire cycle and always know what’s going on with the
product. So, at this point, you can take advantage of wholesalers and drop-shippers to retail
your products for you.

This model isn’t for the commitment-phobic. There’s no easy way to end a manufacturing
contract. You had the products made, you’ve imported them into your country, and you have
them sitting in a warehouse somewhere. You also have to develop a process to monitor and
maintain quality control. This is definitely an advanced model. There’s almost always a large
cash investment required upfront, so you need to have a financial plan.

OR

1. Brokerage - Brokers are market-makers: they bring buyers and sellers together and
facilitate transactions.

2. Advertising - The web advertising model is an extension of the traditional media

broadcast model. The broadcaster, in this case, a web site, provides content (usually, but not
necessarily, for free) and services (like email, IM, blogs) mixed with advertising messages in
the form of banner ads.

2
0
3. Infomediary - Independently collected data about producers and their products are useful
to consumers when considering a purchase. Some firms function as infomediaries
(information intermediaries) assisting buyers and/or sellers understand a given market.

4. Merchant - Wholesalers and retailers of goods and services. Sales may be made based on
list prices or through auction.

5. Manufacturer (Direct) - The manufacturer or “direct model”, it is predicated on the

power of the web to allow a manufacturer (i.e., a company that creates a product or service)
to reach buyers directly and thereby compress the distribution channel.

6. Affiliate - In contrast to the generalized portal, which seeks to drive a high volume of
traffic to one site, the affiliate model, provides purchase opportunities wherever people may
be surfing. It does this by offering financial incentives (in the form of a percentage of
revenue) to affiliated partner
sites.

7. Community - The viability of the community model is based on user loyalty. Users have a
high investment in both time and emotion. Revenue can be based on the sale of ancillary
products and services or voluntary contributions; or revenue may be tied to contextual
advertising and subscriptions for premium services.

8. Subscription - Users are charged a periodic - daily, monthly or annual - fee to subscribe to
a service.

9. Utility - The utility or “on-demand” model is based on metering usage, or a “pay as you
go”approach.

Impact of e-commerce on business:

2
1
1. Selling online goods :

Advantages

- It opens the market to customers nationally and internationally.

- It enables smaller companies to compete with larger companies.

- It reduces in staffing and/or high street stores thereby reducing costs.

- It provides the option to offer 24 hour shopping at minimum additional cost.

Disadvantages

-Stiffer competition - businesses once competing with the shop in the next town now find
themselves competing on a global scale.

-Staff reductions- with increased competition, local companies may have to reduce their work
force.

-Cost of restructuring- the move to e-commerce may not be a smooth one and will certainly
require a degree of investment.

-Customer concerns- if high street stores are closed in an effort to save money, customers
who prefer to shop on the high street may not be comfortable buying online so may go
elsewhere.

2. Increased dependency on the Internet :

Now, both for companies and individuals, there is pressure to have Internet access to do
everyday things such as submit orders or look up details in a catalogue. There are initiatives
to make as many services available on the Internet as possible, including e-government,
where government departments such as the Inland Revenue can be dealt with using secure
websites

E-commerce infrastructure

2
2
 Unit -2

History of the internet:

The history of the Internet begins with the development of electronic computers in the 1950s.
Initial concepts of packet networking originated in several computer science laboratories in
the United States, United Kingdom, and France. The US Department of Defense awarded
contracts as early as the 1960s for packet network systems, including the development of the
ARPANET (which would become the first network to use the Internet Protocol). The first
message was sent over the ARPANET from computer science Professor Leonard Kleinrock's
laboratory at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to the second network node at
Stanford Research Institute (SRI).

Packet switching networks such as ARPANET, NPL network, CYCLADES, Merit Network,
Tymnet, and Telenet, were developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s using a variety of
communications protocols. Donald Davies was the first to put theory into practice by
designing a packet-switched network at the National Physics Laboratory in the UK, the first
of its kind in the world and the cornerstone for UK research for almost two decades.
Following, ARPANET further led to the development of protocols for internetworking, in
which multiple separate networks could be joined into a network of networks. Access to the
ARPANET was expanded in 1981 when the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the
Computer Science Network (CSNET). In 1982, the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) was
introduced as the
standard networking protocol on the ARPANET. In the early 1980s the NSF funded the
establishment for national supercomputing centers at several universities, and provided
interconnectivity in 1986 with the NSFNET project, which also created network access to the
supercomputer sites in the United States from research and education organizations.
Commercial Internet service providers (ISPs) began to emerge in the very late 1980s. The
ARPANET was decommissioned in 1990. Limited private connections to parts of the Internet
by officially commercial entities emerged in several American cities by late 1989 and 1990,
and the NSFNET was decommissioned in 1995, removing the last restrictions on the use of
the Internet to carry commercial traffic.

Since the mid-1990s, the Internet has had a revolutionary impact on culture and commerce,
including the rise of near-instant communication by electronic mail, instant messaging, voice

2
3
over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone calls, two-way interactive video calls, and the World
Wide Web with its discussion forums, blogs, social networking, and online shopping sites.
The research and education community
continues to develop and use advanced networks such as NSF's very high speed Backbone
Network Service (vBNS), Internet2, and National LambdaRail. Increasing amounts of data
are transmitted at higher and higher speeds over fiber optic networks operating at 1-Gbit/s,
10-Gbit/s, or more. The Internet's takeover of the global communication landscape was
almost instant in historical terms: it only communicated 1% of the information flowing
through two-way telecommunications networks in the year 1993, already 51% by 2000, and
more than 97% of the telecommunicated information by 2007. Today the Internet continues
to grow, driven by ever greater amounts of online information, commerce, entertainment, and
social networking.

History timeline of internet:

1960s-1970s: ARPANET: Commonly thought of as the predecessor to the Internet and
created by the US Department of Defenses Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA).
The first known fully operational packet-switching network, the ARPANET was designed to
facilitate communication between ARPA computer terminals during the early 1960s, at a
time when computers where far too expensive for widespread usage. Though conception of
the idea behind ARPANET began as early as 1962, the first stable link between multiple
computers through the ARPANET occurred in 1969, ten years after the first conceptual
network architectural models were initiated independently by Paul Baran and Donald Davies.

1965: The first network experiment linking two computers takes place between the TX-2
computer by Lincoln Labs and the Q-32 mainframe operated by the RAND corporations
System Development Corporation. It is the first time in which two computers directly
communicated with one another.

1970: The first radio network which makes use of random packet transmission, the Alohanet,
is launched at the University of Hawaii.

1972: Robert Kahn exhibits the first public demonstration of the ARPANET at the
International Computer Communication Conference. This public demonstration is also the
first time that electronic mail (email) is exhibited and is a major catalyst for increasing
interest in developing network technology. The first email programs called SNDMSG and
READMAIL are written by Ray Tomlinson marking the beginning of one of the most widely
used applications today.

2
4
1975: The first commercially available popular personal computer, the Altair 8800 is
introduced as a kit. 1976: Apple Computer founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

1978: The first mass-marketed personal computer, the Apple II, is launched. 1984: Apple
Macintosh is launched.

1985: The first domain is registered.

1989: Performance Systems International begins offering TCP/IP network services to

businesses.

1991: Senator Al Gore sponsors the High Performance Computing Act which establishes the
National Research and Education Network.

1993: The Whitehouse and the United Nations go online and develop an official internet
presence. 1994: Jeff Bezos designs the business plan for Amazon.com.

1995: Bill Gates authors the now famous memo, The Coming Internet Tidal Wave. By 1995,
the bulk of US internet traffic is routed through interconnected network service providers and
Microsoft Windows 95 is launched. 1995 proves to be an eventful year in the formation of
contemporary internet culture because it also sees the official launch of the online bookstore
Amazon.com, the internet search engine Yahoo, online auction site Ebay, the Internet
Explorer web browser by Microsoft, and the creation by Sun Microsystems of the Java
programming language which allows for the programming of animation on websites giving
rise to a new level of internet interactivity.

1996: The United States Congress passes the Communications Decency Act which is seen as
a direct assault by censors on the ideals of free speech and information as promoted online.
Congress passes the act in response to perceived public concern over the increased
availability of pornography and other graphic and controversial matter made possible by the
spread of the internet and cyberspace. The Communications Decency Act or
Telecommunications Reform Act was an attempt by the US government to extend
congressional oversight of laws aimed at regulated radio and television to the internet. John
Perry Barlow responds with his now famous essay A Declaration of Independence for
Cyberspace. Barlows essay is an impassioned declaration of cyberspace and the internet as
realms of freedom and liberty that is not subject to the authority of national governments.

1998: Google Inc. is founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page to promote and oversee their
new search engine which will rival yahoo.

1999: The dawn of internet music and video piracy controversies rises with the introduction
of the Napster file-sharing software by Shawn Fanning, a college student. During the same

2
5
year, the Internet encounters the first malicious computer virus capable of automatically
copying and sending itself to all email addresses listed in an infected users address book.

2000: After a bitter antitrust lawsuit, Microsoft is ordered to break into two separate
businesses focusing on its highly successful Windows operating system and its other
numerous software applications. 2000 would go down in Internet history as the rise and burst
of the internet bubble. That year, the presence of internet consumer companies was
widespread and visible in everyday life, including the visibility of .dotcom companies which
paying millions of dollars for half-minute advertisements to air during the Super Bowl. When
investors heard reports that Microsoft would be unable to settle its antitrust lawsuit with the
government, the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffers the biggest one-day drop in its history
up to that point. Microsoft will settle its lawsuit in 2001 allowing it to remain a single
company, but in 2000, the internet revolution marches on with Googles rise to become the
worlds largest search engine and the first official instance of internet voting taking places in
the United States during a Democratic party primary in
Arizona.

2002: Napster is shut down after it fails to win a lawsuit brought by the Recording Industry
Association of America.

2003: The rise of spam; unsolicited junk mail messages begin to account for over half of all
e-mail messages sent and received. Though the US Congress passes anti-spam legislation, the
scourge of unsolicited email remains.

Commercialization of Internet services:

1995 was the trigger year for the commercialisation of the Internet. Bill Gates went online
with MSN, and there is a rumour that some weeks before he had bought most of the
copyrights for pictures which Time Warner, Walt Disney, and Westinghouse had not reserved
for some billion dollars. Internet idealists are very disappointed about these developments,
while financial oriented brokers repeatedly bring to mind the mood of the gold-rush.

Today everybody can observe this fantastic technological revolution. But old onliners at the
International Information Online Meeting in London, like me, are aware that it was in reality
a hard and slow evolution.

2
6
We had to fight for the acceptance of online for two decades. In Germany we started the
DIMDI user group, with our first German Online Meeting in Cologne in 1979. Year by year
it was the same revolutionary feeling for us to have offers of new databases, royalties,
consumer prices, search and download capabilities, intelligent terminals, networks, software
packages, in-house systems, hypertext, CDROM and multimedia. Step by step, online
documentation changed from the transfer of simple ASCII-text to the availability of small
virtual libraries.

The Internet used to be an esoteric little toy for the military and scientists who wanted to
share information and to prevent that information from being lost in case of nuclear war.
However, the Internet experienced explosive growth only when it became commercialized
starting around 1995. Without the influx of money of private companies in the form of
advertising revenue and the improvements in the infrastructure (backbone, routers, etc.), I
doubt that the Internet could have expanded as fast as it has. With commercial interests
looming over the Internet, advertising was inevitable. In fact, advertising on the Internet has
become somewhat like advertising on the Superbowl -- people come for the ads themselves
instead of the content. With the blurring of the distinction between advertising and content,
the Internet is conducive to this desire for the ads instead.

As a medium become its own message (which makes it so that now there is a demand for
advertising in and of itself, and that thus the question of "believing" in it or not is no longer
even posed), advertising is completely in unison with the social.

What better evidence than people willingly, on their own dime, going to visit a website
promoting a movie? The website could contain movie clips, interviews with the actors,
promotional stills, and a plot summary. Or, perhaps, websites for shows like Star Trek?

Major considerations in developing e-commerce website:

1. Online merchant account: REQUIRED - A merchant account allows you to accept credit
card payments. If you already have a merchant account for your retail business, contact your
merchant account company to find out if your existing account will allow you to take orders
placed online. If not, or if you don't already have a merchant account, you may apply for your
online merchant account with our easy Online Application.

2
7
2. Online payment gateway: An online payment gateway automatically authenticates online
credit card payments. Many new e-commerce wait until their sales reach a certain level to add
a payment gateway. With LetMeShop e-commerce software you may start out with out a
payment gateway and add it at any time. We recommend Payflow Pro for most payment
gateways.

3. E-commerce Software: REQUIRED - Choose the e-commerce play that fits your needs.
LetMeShop gives you the option of choosing a plan that fits your needs. The professional
plan gives you a sound foundation with many of the best marketing features to help you be
successful with your e-commerce website.

4. Security Certificate: REQUIRED - Every e-commerce website should have their own
security certificate. LetMeShop recommends GeoTrust to all of our customers. GeoTrust
provides more security certificates than any other certificate company in the US. Don't worry
about the technical details...we will process your request and install the certificate on your
website for you.

5. Design your website: REQUIRED - LetMeShop makes it easy for you to create a
professional design with a minimum of technical know how. And remember, we are always
just an email or phone call away if you need help. Don't forget, we offer several inexpensive
e-commerce design packages. 6. Develop your privacy statement and terms and conditions of
use: In most cases, businesses are required to have a privacy statement that tells people what
you do with the information gathered on the website. You also need to create a detailed set of
terms and conditions of use to let people know what you will and will not do.

5. Enter your products: REQUIRED - This may well be the most time consuming step of
building an e-commerce website. Just remember, you can start selling as soon as you have
any number of products in your e-commerce website and continue building the number of
products in your website as you go along.

6. Publish your site: As soon as you can, publish your website. It sometimes takes months
for your website to get indexed by the search engines.

2
8
7. Register your website with the major search engines and directories: This is one of the
most important steps of building an e-commerce website. DO NOT use an automated process
for registering your website...take the time to do it individually for each major search engine
and directory.

8.Manage your e-commerce website: REQUIRED- Successful e-commerce websites are

well managed. You need to continually make changes, set up promotions and specials,
change the content on your home page and focus on creating content for the search engines.

Factors in optimizing website for performance:

1. Minimize HTTP Requests:

According to Yahoo, 80% of a Web page’s load time is spent downloading the different
pieces-parts of the page: images, stylesheets, scripts, Flash, etc. An HTTP request is made for
each one of these elements, so the more on-page components, the longer it takes for the page
to render. That being the case, the quickest way to improve site speed is to simplify your
design.

•Streamline the number of elements on your page.

•Use CSS instead of images whenever possible.

•Combine multiple style sheets into one.

•Reduce scripts and put them at the bottom of the page.

Pro tip: Start a campaign to reduce the number of components on each page. By doing this,
you reduce the number of HTTP requests needed to make the page render—and you’ll
significantly improve site performance.

2. Reduce server response time:

Your target is a server response time of less than 200ms (milliseconds). And if you follow the
tips in this article, you’re well on your way to achieving this. Google recommends using a
web application monitoring solution and checking for bottlenecks in performance.

2
9
Pro Tip: Read this report by Single hop, Critical Ecommerce Infrastructure Needs, to learn
nine things you need to focus on to keep your site performing well.

3. Enable compression:

Large pages (which is what you could have if you’re creating high-quality content) are often
100kb and more. As a result, they’re bulky and slow to download. The best way to speed
their load time is to zip them—a technique called compression. Compression reduces the
bandwidth of your pages, thereby reducing HTTP response. You do this with a tool called
Gzip. Most web servers can compress files in Gzip format before sending them for download,
either by calling a third-party module or using built-in routines. According to Yahoo, this can
reduce download time by about
70% and since 90% of today’s Internet traffic travels through browsers that support Gzip, it’s
a great option for speeding up your site.

4. Enable browser caching:

When you visit a website, the elements on the page you visit are stored on your hard drive in
a cache, or temporary storage, so the next time you visit the site, your browser can load the
page without having to send another HTTP request to the server. Here’s how Tenni Theurer,
formerly of Yahoo, explains it. The first time someone comes to your website, they have to
download the HTML document, stylesheets, javascript files and images before being able to
use your page. That may be as many as 30 components and2.4 seconds.

5. Minify Resources:

WYSIWYG resources make it easy to build a Web page, but they sometimes create messy
code—and that can slow your website considerably. Since every unnecessary piece of code
adds to the size of your page, it’s important that you eliminate extra spaces, line breaks, and
indentation in your code so your pages are as lean as possible. It also helps to minify your
code. Here’s Google’s recommendation:

•To minify HTML, you can use PageSpeed Insights Chrome Extension to generate an
optimized version of your HTML code. Run the analysis against your HTML page and
browse to the ‘Minify HTML’ rule. Click on ‘See optimized content’ to get the optimized
HTML code.

•To minify CSS, you can try YUI Compressor and cssmin.js.

3
0
•To minify JavaScript, try the Closure Compiler, JSMin or the YUI Compressor. You can
create a build process that uses these tools to minify and rename the development files and
save them to a production directory.

6. Optimize images:

With images, you need to focus on three things: size, format and the src attribute. Oversized
images take longer to load, so it’s important that you keep your images as small as possible.
Use image editing tools to:

•Crop your images to the correct size. For instance, if your page is 570px wide, resize the
image to that width. Don’t just upload a 2000px-wide image and set the width parameter
(width=”570”). This slows your page load time and creates a bad user experience.

•Reduce color depth to the lowest acceptable level.

•Remove image comments.

Image format

•JPEG is your best option.

•PNG is also good, though older browsers may not fully support it.

•GIFs should only be used for small or simple graphics (less than 10×10 pixels, or a color
palette of 3 or fewer colors) and for animated images.

•Do not use BMPs or TIFFs.

7. Optimize CSS Delivery:

CSS holds the style requirements for your page. Generally, your website accesses this
information in one of two ways: in an external file, which loads before your page renders, and
inline, which is inserted in the HTML document itself.

Pro Tip: When setting up your styles, only use one external CSS stylesheet since additional
stylesheets increase HTTP requests. Avoid including CSS in HTML code, such as divs or
your headings (like the inline CSS pictured above). You get cleaner coding if you put all CSS
in your external stylesheet.

3
1
8. Prioritize above-the-fold content:

Having just recommended that you use only one CSS stylesheet and no inline CSS, there is
one caveat you need to consider. You can improve user experience by having your above-the-
fold (top of the page) load faster—even if the rest of the page takes a few seconds to load.

Pro Tip: Consider splitting your CSS into two parts: a short inline part that styles above-the-
fold elements, and an external part that can be deferred.

9. Reduce the number of plugins you use on your site:

Too many plugins slow your site, create security issues, and often cause crashes and other
technical difficulties.

Pro Tip: Deactivate and delete any unnecessary plugins. Then weed out any plugins that slow
your site
speed.Try selectively disabling plugins, then measuring server performance. This way you
can identify any plugins that harm your site speed.

10. Reduce redirects:

Redirects create additional HTTP requests and increase load time. So you want to keep them
to a minimum. If you’ve created a responsive website, more than likely, you have redirects in
place to take mobile users from your main website to the responsive version.

Pro Tip: Google recommends these two actions to make sure a responsive redirect doesn’t
slow your site:

•Use a HTTP redirect to send users with mobile user agents directly to the mobile equivalent
URL without any intermediate redirects, and

3
2
 Online Payments Systems

(Unit-3)

Online payment systems:

The on-line payment systems are e-commerce businesses allowing money transfers to be
made only through Internet (most of them maintain fully functional mobile applications).
They function as a fast and secure electronic alternative to traditional methods as cheques,
money orders or bank transfers. The systems perform payment processing not only for online
vendors, auction sites, and other corporate users, but between their costumers, for which it
charges a fee which is much less than the bank wire transfer equivalent.

1. ACH payments are electronic credit and debit transfers, allowing customers to make
payments from their bank accounts for utilities, mortgage loans, and other types of
bills. ACH stands for Automated Clearing House and most payment processors offer
ACH payment options to their customers, especially for monthly- and subscription-
based transactions. Most payment solutions use ACH to send money (minus fees) to
their customers.
2. A merchant account is a bank account that allows a customer to receive payments
through credit or debit cards. Merchant providers are required to obey regulations
established by card associations. Many processors (such as the ones listed below) act
as both the merchant account as well as the payment gateway.
3. A payment gateway allows merchants to securely pass credit card information
between the customer and the merchant and also between merchant and the payment
processor. The payment gateway is the middleman between the merchant and their
sponsoring bank.
4. A payment processor is the company that a merchant uses to handle credit card
transactions. Payment processors implement anti-fraud measures to ensure that both
the front-facing customer and the merchant are protected.
5. PCI compliance is when a merchant or payment gateway sets their payment
environment up in a way that meets the Payment Card Industry Data Security
Standard (PCI DSS). The PCI DSS standard was created by the Payment Card
Industry Security Standards Council to increase security of cardholder data and to
reduce fraud.

3
3
The typical online payment process has the following stages:

1. Customer submits the payment information to the merchant. For example customer
completes the payment form on the merchant website and submits the information.

2. The merchant submits the payment information to the online payment gateway.

3. The online payment gateway submits the payment to the payment processor.

4. The payment processor authorizes the payment and responds to the payment gateway.

5. The payment gateway responds back to the merchant.

6. The merchant responds back to the customer showing if the online payment was successful
or not and taking the appropriate action.

An e-commerce online payment system facilitates the acceptance of electronic payment for
online transactions. Also known as a sample of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), e-
commerce online payment systems have become increasingly popular due to the widespread
use of the internet-based shopping and banking.

E Commerce threats

Threats: anyone with the capability, technology, opportunity, and intent to do harm. Potential
threats can be foreign or domestic, internal or external, state-sponsored or a single rogue
element. Terrorists, insiders, disgruntled employees, and hackers are included in this profile
(President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection)

1. Intellectual property threats: Use existing materials found on the Internet without the
owner's permission, e.g., music downloading, domain name (cybersquatting), software
pirating

2. Client computer threats:

· Malicious codes

· Active contents

3
4
3. Sniffer program:

· Backdoor

· Spoofing

· Denial-of-service

4. Server threats:

· Privilege setting

· Server Side Include (SSI),

· Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
· File transfer

· Spamming

5. Stride:

Threats faced by the application can be categorized based on the goals and purposes of the
attacks. A working knowledge of these categories of threats can help you organize a security
strategy so that you have planned responses to threats. STRIDE is the acronym used at
Microsoft to categorize different threat types. STRIDE stands for:

· Spoofing: Spoofing is attempting to gain access to a system by using a false

identity. This can be accomplished using stolen user credentials or a false IP address.
After the attacker successfully gains access as a legitimate user or host, elevation of
privileges or abuse using authorization can begin.
· Tampering: Tampering is the unauthorized modification of data, for example as it
flows over a network between two computers.
· Repudiation: Repudiation is the ability of users (legitimate or otherwise) to deny
that they performed specific actions or transactions. Without adequate auditing,
repudiation attacks are difficult to prove.
· Information disclosure: Information disclosure is the unwanted exposure of
private data. For example, a user views the contents of a table or file he or she is not
authorized to open, or monitors data passed in plaintext over a network. Some
examples of information disclosure vulnerabilities include the use of hidden form

3
5
 fields, comments embedded in Web pages that contain database connection strings
and connection details, and weak exception handling that can lead to internal
system level details being revealed to the client. Any of this information can be very

useful to the attacker.

· Denial of service: Denial of service is the process of making a system or
application unavailable. For example, a denial of service attack might be
accomplished by bombarding a server with requests to consume all available system
resources or by passing it malformed input data that can crash an application process.
· Elevation of privilege: Elevation of privilege occurs when a user with limited
privileges assumes the identity of a privileged user to gain privileged access to an
application. For example, an attacker with limited privileges might elevate his or her
privilege level to compromise and take control of a highly privileged and trusted
process or account.

Network threats and countermeasures:

The primary components that make up your network infrastructure are routers, firewalls, and
switches. They act as the gatekeepers guarding your servers and applications from attacks and
intrusions. An attacker may exploit poorly configured network devices. Common
vulnerabilities include weak default installation settings, wide open access controls, and
devices lacking the latest security patches. Top network level threats include:

1. Information Gathering:

Network devices can be discovered and profiled in much the same way as other types of
systems. Attackers usually start with port scanning. After they identify open ports, they use
banner grabbing and enumeration to detect device types and to determine operating system
and application versions. Armed with this information, an attacker can attack known
vulnerabilities that may not be updated with security patches.

Countermeasures to prevent information gathering include:

3
6
•Configure routers to restrict their responses to foot printing requests.

•Configure operating systems that host network software (for example, software firewalls) to
prevent foot printing by disabling unused protocols and unnecessary ports

2. Sniffing:

Sniffing or eavesdropping is the act of monitoring traffic on the network for data such as
plaintext passwords or configuration information. With a simple packet sniffer, an attacker
can easily read all plaintext traffic. Also, attackers can crack packets encrypted by
lightweight hashing algorithms and can decipher the payload that you considered to be safe.
The sniffing of packets requires a packet sniffer in the path of the server/client
communication.

Countermeasures to help prevent sniffing include:

•Use strong physical security and proper segmenting of the network. This is the first step in
preventing traffic from being collected locally.

•Encrypt communication fully, including authentication credentials. This prevents sniffed

packets from being usable to an attacker. SSL and IPsec (Internet Protocol Security) are
examples of encryption solutions.

3. Spoofing:

Spoofing is a means to hide one's true identity on the network. To create a spoofed identity,
an attacker uses a fake source address that does not represent the actual address of the packet.
Spoofing may be used to hide the original source of an attack or to work around network
access control lists (ACLs) that are in place to limit host access based on source address
rules.

Although carefully crafted spoofed packets may never be tracked to the original sender, a
combination of filtering rules prevents spoofed packets from originating from your network,
allowing you to block obviously spoofed packets.

Countermeasures to prevent spoofing include:

•Filter incoming packets that appear to come from an internal IP address at your perimeter.

•Filter outgoing packets that appear to originate from an invalid local IP address.

4. Session Hijacking:

3
7
Also known as man in the middle attacks, session hijacking deceives a server or a client into
accepting the upstream host as the actual legitimate host. Instead the upstream host is an
attacker's host that is manipulating the network so the attacker's host appears to be the desired
destination.

Countermeasures to help prevent session hijacking include:

•Use encrypted session negotiation.

•Use encrypted communication channels.

•Stay informed of platform patches to fix TCP/IP vulnerabilities, such as predictable packet
sequences.

5. Denial of Service:

Denial of service denies legitimate users access to a server or services. The SYN flood attack
is a common example of a network level denial of service attack. It is easy to launch and
difficult to track. The aim of the attack is to send more requests to a server than it can handle.
The attack exploits a potential vulnerability in the TCP/IP connection establishment
mechanism and floods the server's pending connection queue.

Countermeasures to prevent denial of service include:

• Apply the latest service packs.

•Harden the TCP/IP stack by applying the appropriate registry settings to increase the size of
the TCP connection queue, decrease the connection establishment period, and employ
dynamic backlog mechanisms to ensure that the connection queue is never exhausted.

•Use a network Intrusion Detection System (IDS) because these can automatically detect and
respond to SYN attacks.

Online Consumer Behavior:

When consumers visit a web site, data is gathered about their online behavior. The site
collects information about the visitor that includes the following:

Ø Pages visited

Ø Amount of time spent on each page

Ø Links clicked

3
8
Ø Searches performed

Ø Components with which they interact

The sites collect the data, along with other factors, and create a profile that links to that
visitor's web browser.

Site publishers can then use this data to create defined audience segments based on visitors
that have similar profiles. When visitors return to a specific site or a network of sites using
the same web browser, those profiles can be used to allow advertisers to position their online
ads in front of those visitors who exhibit a greater level of interest and intent for the products
and services being offered.

On the theory that properly targeted ads will fetch more consumer interest, the publisher (or
seller) can charge a premium for these ads over random advertising (or ads) based on the
context of a site. Behavioral marketing can be used on its own or in conjunction with other
forms of targeting based on factors like geography, demographics, or contextual web page
content. It's worth noting that many practitioners also refer to this process as audience
targeting.

Online Audiences:

Customers:

Finding your customers is going to be different for each business but a good point to start is
usually with your CRM system and look at the data that you can extract from it - what can it
tell you about your customers’ demographics, interests and purchase cycle?

There’s also some great info that you can find from web analytics tools such as Google
Analytics.

All of this will help your to build up a better picture of who your online customers are and it
is at this point you can start to understand the difference between them and your offline
customer - for example they might be younger or a higher percentage might be female.

Visitors:

This one should be fairly straight forward as above with your web analytics tool but this time
it’s looking at visits where a conversion didn’t take place. There are various reasons that the
visitors might not be converting, it could be that they’re visiting some content and not at the
right stage to convert which is fine or it could be that you’re attracting the wrong type of
visitors with your content which could be more concerning, this article gives a great overview

3
9
of where this has gone slightly wrong for a brand before. The importance has to be on
creating content for customers not just to get links or visits.

This time we might look at:

· What are the demographics of our visitors and how does the content they visit differ by
demographic?

· What other interests is GA telling us our visitors have?

· What sources are they coming from?

· Where are they dropping out?

· What are the most popular landing pages?

Broadcasters:

These are the people that are talking about you online but this doesn’t necessarily mean that
they’re your customers or that they’re visiting your website. gain it’s important to
understand who these people are and what they’re saying about you.

It’s when looking at the broadcasters that you’ll be able to start identifying the influencers
and brand advocates and these are the most important people to focus on in your strategy.

Fans & Followers:

Similar to above your fans and followers on your social channels will provide you with more
great insight into your audience. Most of the platforms’ own insight tools offer great insight
into the demographics of your fans and followers and looking at your most and least popular
content on there will be crucial in shaping your future strategy.

Steps to understand the online audience behavior:

1.Peer recommendation: Most of the people use friends’ recommendation to make

online purchases. If you have an account on various social networking sites (SNS) such as
Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Stumble Upon, LinkedIn, then your business page is just few
steps away from being, shared, liked, mentioned on Twitter handle and being tagged. Social
media is the quickest way for online users to spread your company information amongst
their peers.

2. People use more of search to find information: Think about it, when you are looking for
yoga classes or the features of an Apple handset, you first go to your search engine type out

4
0
the keywords in the search box and find detailed information about what you want. Online
users use search engines to research on products and services for further purchases.

3. Study what your audiences search for: Understand what online users are searching for in
social media and search engines. Know what they are looking for in both the campaigns. In
search, they might be looking for what your company does, what are the reviews of your
company, where your company is located and so on and on social sites they look for how
many people have liked you, what have people commented on your products and services,
how well is your business active on
the social networks.

4. Respond to your audiences immediately: Whether on social sites or on search sites reply
to your audiences’ doubts and comments immediately. Show that as a business, you are
concerned about them; you want to help them in buying the best products and services.
Remember to reply with a positive note, a negative comment can drive your customers away,
which can be bad for your business.

5. Online reputation management: As mentioned in the previous point, negative feedback

to your audience can damage your online reputation. nswer customers’ complaints in a
positive way and compliment them for visiting your site and their satisfaction in making
purchases from your site. Show that you understand your current and potential audiences very
well.

6. Observe the audience behavior: Ask yourself, will people join, participate or make
donations for your campaign? Will they revisit your campaign? And will they talk about you
to their peers? Monitor the steps audiences will take regarding your search and social
campaigns. Get to know at what time they visit your site, their needs and wants, where are
they geographically located. Consistently review and monitor their behavior.

Online marketing technologies:

1. Analytics:

Marketing is at an inflection point where the performance of channels, technologies, ads,

offers - everything — are trackable like never before. Over a century ago retail and
advertising pioneer John Wanamaker said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted;
the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Today smart marketers do know which half isn’t
working. But to do that you need to have web analytics programs set up, and have people on
the marketing team who know how to use data. Far and away the most popular website

4
1
analytics tool is the free Google Analytics, which is used on over 80% of small and mid-
market websites. It’s definitely the place to start; at some point you may find a need for the
paid version or other enterprise analytics tools such as Adobe Analytics. Note that the tools
below also have their own analytics platforms.

2. Conversion Optimization:

Conversion optimization is the practice of getting people who come to your website (or
wherever you are engaging with them) to do what you want them to do as much
as possible, and usually that involves filling out a form so that at the very least you have their
email address. Typically only about 3% of people coming from an online ad will fill out a
website form; with conversion optimization that can be doubled to roughly 6%. With
outstanding offers or marketing apps some companies have created conversion rates several
times higher than that; I have a form on my website with a 33% conversion rate. If you’re
going to go to the effort and expense of getting people to your website, you need to get as
many of them as possible to convert.

3. Email:

E-mail marketing is the 800-pound gorilla of digital marketing. And I’m not talking about
spamming people by buying lists that are being sold to your competitors, too. I’m talking
about getting people to give you permission to email them additional information, and then
sending only valuable content tailored to the person’s interests. It takes more than one touch
to close a sale; email marketing is so powerful because you’re staying in front of customers
and prospects who have said that they want to hear from you.

4. Search Engine Marketing:

Search Engine Marketing includes both paid search ads, like GoogleAd Words, and search
engine optimization (SEO) to try to get high organic search listings for your website content.
Since most people, even B2B buyers of big ticket items, use search as part of their work, you
need to be there when these people are searching for what you’re selling. With search ads you
can test and optimize on keywords, ad copy, offers, the website forms you take them to, and
more, and track the people downstream if you integrate your GoogleAd Words data with your
Google Analytics data and CRM so that you know not just which ads are clicked on the most
but which ads lead to the most opportunities and revenue. These insights can be applied to all
of your online and traditional marketing. SEO involves not just technical enhancements to the
site but, most importantly, regularly creating high quality content, which is what Google,
really values and ranks highly.

4
2
5. Remarketing:

You’ve experienced remarketing: it’s when you go to a website and then, when you leave that
site, their ads appear on other sites that you visit. It’s really easy to set up and incredibly cost
effective because you’re only advertising to people who have already expressed enough
interest in you to come to your site. It can even be customized to show ads for the particular
products or services they looked at. And since you usually pay on a CPM basis, you get tons
of free impressions. Over 50% of software companies use remarketing, but less than 10% of
other companies do; follow the lead of those software companies.

6. Mobile: Half of emails are now opened on smartphones, and soon half of search will be
done on smartphones, so all websites need to be mobile friendly. But today, less than a third
of them are. Simply put, you need to have a site that is easy to read and use on a phone. If
you don’t, Google penalizes you with lower mobile search rankings. So that mobile-friendly
site is step one; after setting up a mobile-friendly website you can go on to mobile search
advertising and other forms of mobile marketing. But this is, after all, just a starter kit.

7. Leading Tools: The most common technique for making a mobile-ready website is to use
responsive design, which automatically resizes the website to fit the device on which it’s
being viewed. You can usually tell that a site is responsive by resizing your desktop browser
from a horizontal to a smaller, vertical (smartphone-like) size and seeing if the site
automatically reconfigures itself, as the mayoclinic.org site does. The other major approach is
to create and maintain a separate mobile site such as the New York Times does at
mobile.nytimes.com; smartphones are automatically directed to that site.

8. Marketing Automation: Marketing automation brings it all together. It is a terrific

technology that includes analytics, online forms, tracking what people do when they come to
your website, personalizing website content, managing email campaigns, facilitating the
alignment of sales and marketing through lead scoring and automated alerts to sales people,
informing these activities with data from your CRM and third party sources, and more. There
isn’t enough room to go into more detail here; just get it.Leading marketing automation
programs for small businesses and mid-market companies:

· Hub Spot

· Act-On

· Infusion Soft

4
3
Branding strategies for E-commerce:

1. Unique Selling Proposition - What makes your store or products different (and essentially
better)than your competitors? This is your unique value proposition and it should be
emphasized throughout your marketing to show customers why they should choose your
brand over all others.

2. Focus on Quality - Many customers remain loyal to brand because they enjoy reliable
quality each time they order. You may even want to offer a money-back guarantee to increase
sales (studies show that a money-back guarantee can increase sales up to 21%). Highlight
qualities like where your products are made, the materials, the source of the materials, and
more to showcase quality as a differentiating factor for your brand.

3. Flip Traditional Branding - Traditional branding is designed to make customers feel

good about themselves and their purchase. But if you offer a quirky product or a product
where you can showcase a unique tone and identity, you should! This will get you noticed
and differentiate you from competitors in a big way.

4.Use Personalization - If you personalize everything from your online experience down to
the package and unboxing process, you’re going to stand out in a great way. You may not
think that a package makes a significant difference, but it can!

5.Show Customers Gratitude - Loyal customers will reward your business with increased
social proof, word-of-mouth marketing, and even repeat sales that generate the majority of
your revenue. You can show customers gratitude with a note in the package (or by
email),loyalty programs, and countless other methods. Figure out what works best for your
store and you’ll be glad you did.

Ethical issues in e-commerce:

1. Theft of Information:

4
4
It's not difficult for computer hackers to access vital personal information online. Many
customers carry out transactions by filling in forms with personal data, including name,
physical address, date of birth, email address and telephone number. Since you can't use cash
online, and writing and sending a check is impractical, customers use credit cards; they
transmit card numbers, expiration dates and security codes over the Internet, where it's
vulnerable to theft. A debit card number and expiration can provide direct access to a bank
account, although the unauthorized user in most cases would also need a PIN. To avoid these
issues, e-commerce sites need to use updated security software to encrypt personal
information.

2. Poor Service:

Online sellers can ship damaged or counterfeit goods to customers, or fail to ship any goods
at all. They may refuse returns or fail to give credit to the customer who in good faith returns
the purchase. They may fail to protect goods in shipment and refuse to take any responsibility
when the goods are damaged. Unresponsiveness is another common complaint in the e-
commerce world; websites may offer a customer help line but never answer it or divert the
customer to the wrong number. The ability to mount and take down websites within minutes
allows unethical people to accept orders, and money, and then disappear, only to pop up later
with the some goods under a different business name and website.

3. Baits and Switches:

The ability to mass e-mail promotions to a huge population of potential customers means that
spam and scams abound. Sellers often advertise amazing deals on the latest gadgets, such as
laptops, flat-screen televisions and cellphones, and then divert the curious to sites that don't
sell those goods at all, or place a set of strict conditions -- such as providing a lot of personal
information -- on the purchase. Another common bait-and-switch technique is to
promise ridiculously easy money to job-seekers through self-employment at home. The
hopeful customer finds herself paying money for e-book courses or job lists that will result in
absolutely nothing happening, except for a large debit to her bank account.

4. Intellectual Property Theft and Copyright Trolls:

The basic cut-and-paste allows anyone with Internet access to directly copy the original
works of another. Text, photos, music, artwork and ideas routinely move from the creators to
the copiers, with no permission for use granted or sought. The victim of this theft only has
recourse if he's registered a copyright and then wants to spend the time and trouble to write
demand letters and threaten lawsuits. At the other end of the ethical spectrum, "copyright
trolls" buy the rights to movies, books and music, threaten mass lawsuits against thousands of

4
5
people found to be downloading the material and demand a quick settlement from each of
them.

E-Commerce Applications

(UNIT-4)

Application of E-commerce:

1. Retail and Wholesale: E-commerce has a number of applications in retail and wholesale.
E-retailing or on-line retailing is the selling of goods from Business-to-Consumer through
electronic stores that are designed using the electronic catalog and shopping cart model.
Cybermall is a single Website that offers different products and services at one Internet
location. It attracts the customer and the seller into one virtual space through a Web browser.

2. Marketing: Data collection about customer behavior, preferences, needs and buying
patterns is possible through Web and E-commerce. This helps marketing activities such as
price fixation, negotiation, product feature enhancement and relationship with the customer.

3. Finance: Financial companies are using E-commerce to a large extent. Customers can
check the balances of their savings and loan accounts, transfer money to their other account
and pay their bill through on-line banking or E-banking. Another application of E-commerce
is on-line stock trading. Many Websites provide access to news, charts, information about
company profile and analyst
rating on the stocks.

4. Manufacturing: E-commerce is also used in the supply chain operations of a company.

Some companies form an electronic exchange by providing together buy and sell goods, trade
market information and run back office information such as inventory control. This speeds up
the flow of raw material and finished goods among the members of the business community.
Various issues related to the strategic and competitive issues limit the implementation of the

4
6
business models. Companies may not trust their competitors and may fear that they will lose
trade secrets if they participate in mass electronic exchanges.

5. Auctions: Customer-to-Customer E-commerce is direct selling of goods and services

among customers. It also includes electronic auctions that involve bidding. Bidding is a
special type of auction that allows prospective buyers to bid for an item. For example, airline
companies give the customer an opportunity to quote the price for a seat on a specific route
on the specified date and
time.

More application of e-commerce:

1. Document automation in supply chain and logistics

2. Domestic and international payment systems

3. Enterprise content management

4. Group buying

5. Print on demand

6. Automated online assistant

7. Newsgroups

8. Online shopping and order tracking

9. Online banking

10. Online office suites

11. Shopping cart software

12. Teleconferencing

13. Electronic tickets

14. Social networking

15. Instant messaging

16. Pretail

17. Digital Wallet

4
7
Online retailing:

Online shopping (sometimes known as e-tail from "electronic retail" or e-shopping) is a form
of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a
seller over the Internet using a web browser. Alternative names are: e-web-store, e-shop, e-
store, Internet shop, web-shop, web-store, online store, online storefront and virtual store.
Mobile commerce (or m-commerce) describes purchasing from an online retailer's mobile
optimized online site or app.

An online shop evokes the physical analogy of buying products or services at a bricks-and-
mortar retailer or shopping center; the process is called business-to-consumer (B2C) online
shopping. In the case where a business buys from another business, the process is called
business-to-business (B2B) online shopping. The largest of these online retailing corporations
are Alibaba, Amazon.com, and eBay.

The B2C e-commerce market in India has exhibited rapid growth and has attracted large
investments from the PE/VC community. With positive fillips from the demand and supply
side, this market is likely to reach $60Bn by 2017.

Online retail is the fastest growing channel globally, as confirmed by the Planet Retail’s retail
panel data.
The online channel is expected to grow at a much faster rate vis-a-vis more established
channels as is
expected to account for 10.1% of overall retail sales in 2018, up from 6.5% in 2013, and
3.5% in 2008.

The Indian online retail market has had a dream run in recent years when it comes to
transaction value, however significant challenges still remain. These challenges are expected
to drive consolidation in the market. If provided with the right regulatory enablers and
economic conditions playing out favorably, the online market opportunity could be
substantially higher.

It remains to be seen as to how the current establishment views the online retail market
opportunity which could be a potential market discontinuity in the India consumption story.

E procurement:

4
8
E-procurement is the business-to-business purchase and sale of supplies and services over the
Internet. An important part of many B2B sites, e-procurement is also sometimes referred to
by other terms, such as supplier exchange. Typically, e-procurement Web sites allow
qualified and registered users to look for buyers or sellers of goods and services. Depending
on the approach, buyers or sellers may specify prices or invite bids. Transactions can be
initiated and completed. Ongoing purchases may qualify customers for volume discounts or
special offers.

OR

E-procurement (electronic procurement, sometimes also known as supplier exchange) is the

business-to-
business or business-to-consumer or business-to-government purchase and sale of supplies,
work, and services through the Internet as well as other information and networking systems,
such as electronic data interchange and enterprise resource planning.

The e-procurement value chain consists of indent management, e-Informing, e-Tendering, e-

Auctioning, vendor management, catalogue management, Purchase Order Integration, Order
Status, Ship Notice, e-
invoicing, e-payment, and contract management. Indent management is the workflow
involved in the preparation of tenders. This part of the value chain is optional, with individual
procuring departments defining their indenting process. In works procurement, administrative
approval and technical sanction are obtained in electronic format. In goods procurement,
indent generation activity is done online. The end result of the stage is taken as inputs for
issuing the NIT.[citation needed]

Elements of e-procurement include request for information, request for proposal, request for
quotation, RFx (the previous three together), and eRFx (software for managing RFx projects).

E Procurement Benefits:

1. The automatic processing and auctioning of orders (electronic POs etc.) and of related
trading documents and data, thereby enhancing the speed and certainty of doing business at a
lower total cost;

2. Improved workflow of the internal procurement process - this enables end-user self-service
and decentralization, with control through company-specific catalogues;

3. New functionality such as e-requests for quotation and online bidding in auctions;

4. Connectivity to external supply chains and the allowance of shared real-time information;

4
9
5. Improvement in supply chain mechanisms, leading to mutual benefit for all using e-
procurement software;

6. Knowledge of your purchasing process - e-procurement software will give you the
visibility you want into your spending. The data e-procurement software gives you is
absolutely critical.

7. A virtual elimination of paperwork and paperwork handling

8. A reduction in the time between need recognition and the release and receipt of an order

9. Improved communication both within the company and with suppliers

10. A reduction in errors

11. Lower overhead costs in the purchasing area

12. Purchasing personnel spend less time on processing of purchase orders and invoices, and
more time on strategic value-added purchasing activities.

Online auctions

An online auction is an auction which is held over the internet. Online auctions come in many
different formats, but most popularly they are ascending English auctions, descending Dutch
auctions, first-price sealed-bid, Vickrey auctions, or sometimes even a combination of
multiple auctions, taking elements of one and forging them with another. The scope and reach
of these auctions have been propelled by the Internet to a level beyond what the initial
purveyors had anticipated. This is mainly because online auctions break down and remove
the physical limitations of traditional auctions such as geography, presence, time, space, and
a small target audience. This influx in reachability has also made it easier to commit unlawful
actions within an auction. In 2002, online auctions were projected to account for 30% of all
online e-commerce due to the rapid expansion of the popularity of the form of electronic
commerce.

An online auction is a service in which auction users or participants sell or bid for products or
services via the Internet. Virtual auctions facilitate online activities between buyers and
sellers in different locations or geographical areas. Various auction sites provide users with
platforms powered by different types of auction software.

Online auctions are a widely accepted business model for the following reasons:

1. No fixed time constraint

5
0
2. Flexible time limits

3. No geographical limitations

4. Offers highly intensive social interactions

5. Includes a large numbers of sellers and bidders, which encourages a high-volume online
business

E commerce portal

First of all, let’s get a brief idea on what exactly web portals are. Portals are websites too. But
they offer more extensive information and services from various other sources. Portals bring
together sites and services organized about some common theme. They differ widely in the
areas of information/ activities they deal with such as local community portals, interest
groups, commercial activity or market sector portals and the additional features they supply
such as discussion forum, surveys, expertise directories,
etc.

Hence portals are like doorways on the Internet. They open to us information from a wide
variety of sources and even from other internet users. They also offer a host of services at a
single place.

Ecommerce portals offer people and businesses to sell and purchase a host of products or
services through the internet along with offering the various other features of a portal. There
are mainly two types of Ecommerce Portals:

1. Business to Business ecommerce portals (B2B)

2. Business to Consumer (B2C)

Business to business portals is the exchange of products or services on the Internet between
businesses rather than between businesses and consumers. B2B is companies buying from
and selling to each other online.

B2C Model - B2C (Business to Consumer) is the online selling of products or services by a
company to a consumer for his/her own use. It refers to the selling or buying of products and
services through the Internet from web retailers to web customers.

B2C Ecommerce portals are a great way to promote brand and products. It allows consumers
to have a better understanding of the product with information on the product, price tags,
pictures, consumer reviews etc.

5
1
Shopping cart

One word you will hear a lot in relation to an Ecommerce portal is Shopping cart. Aptly
called so, the shopping cart on Ecommerce portal acts pretty much like a shopping cart in a
supermarket. The shopping cart is where you the items you wish to purchase on the E-
Commerce portal are listed out. The shopping cart shows you the list of items, quantity and
price of each item and the totaled value of the items. You can add or remove items from your
shopping cart.

Online shopping is usually a secure affair. Most portals require you to become a registered
customer where you will have a username and password. After adding items to your shopping
cart, you make payments with you credit card. You type in the credit card number to make
payment. But how does the transaction actually take place? That is where the Payment
Gateway comes into play.

Payment Gateways

On an ecommerce website or ecommerce portal, the customer can make a secure purchase
using the Payment Gateway. A payment gateway is an e-commerce application service
provider service that authorizes payments for e-businesses, online retailers. It is the
equivalent of a physical point of sale terminal located in most retail outlets. Payment gateway
protects credit cards details by encrypting sensitive information, such as credit card numbers,
to ensure that information passes securely between the customer and the merchant and also
between merchant and payment processor. A payment gateway facilitates the transfer of
information between a payment portal (such as a website, mobile phone or IVR service) and
the Front End Processor or acquiring bank. The various payment gateway service providers
include PayPal, Verising, Mastercard, HSBC etc.

Ecommerce portals are extremely popular methods to promote brands and businesses. The
Ecommerce portal offers an online storefront that is completely customizable. It helps sell
products to a global marketplace with taxes, duty, discounts, and shipping costs automatically
calculated. A great feature of an Ecommerce portal is it allows easy management of multiple
promotion and discounting schemes. Ecommerce web portal owners can completely manage
their online store via the Admin panel, a web-based management area. Another advantage is
that the Ecommerce portal allows the sale of numerous products with intelligent
merchandising tools such as cross-selling, promotions, and automated e-mail. Ecommerce
portal owners can manage visitors to the site - keep track of who's on the site and what they
are doing. The portals even deliver features such as the ability to manage the shopping basket

5
2
- keep track of who wants to buy what. Service provider and retailers can manage customers -
handle the conversion from 'visitor' to 'customer', along with all the order capture
information.

E commerce portal development services:

1. Shopping portal

2. Large ecommerce store

3. B2C E-Commerce portal

4. B2B E-Commerce portal

5. Multi-store E-Commerce site

6. Enterprise E-Commerce portal

7. E-Commerce web development

8. On demand E-Commerce solutions

9. Multichannel E-Commerce portal

10. Custom E-Commerce portal development

Social networks:

A social networking service (also social networking site, SNS or social media) is a platform
to build social networks or social relations among people who share similar interests,
activities, backgrounds or real-life connections.

Most social network services are web-based and provide means for users to interact over the
Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Social network sites are varied and they
incorporate new information and communication tools such as mobile connectivity,
photo/video/sharing and blogging. Online community services are sometimes considered a
social network service, though in a broader sense, social network service usually means an
individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered. Social
networking sites allow users to share ideas, pictures, posts, activities, events, and interests
with people in their network. While social networking has gone on almost as long as societies
themselves have existed, the unparalleled potential of the Web to facilitate such connections
is only now being fully recognized and exploited, through Web-based groups established for
that purpose.

5
3
Depending on the social media platform, members may be able to contact any other member.
In other cases, members can contact anyone they have a connection to, and subsequently
anyone that contact has a connection to, and so on. Some services require members to have a
preexisting connection to contact other members.

The main types of social networking services are those that contain category places (such as
former school year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-
description pages), and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now
combine many of these, with American-based services such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn,
Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, Tumblr, and Twitter widely used worldwide

Online communities:
An online community is a group of people with common interests who use the Internet (web
sites, email, instant messaging, etc) to communicate, work together and pursue their interests
over time.

Online communities are communities first and online second. By this, I mean that we all live
in and around real-world communities all the time- just forget the word online for now.

You live in a geographic community, you work within a professional community, you may
go to church with a religious community and your friends represent a social community.
Wherever people share common interests, there is a community.

However, you may never feel that you are a part of these communities. One reason may be
geography- it simply isn't easy enough for the members of your community to get together in
a single place. Secondly, there may not be an easy way for you to communicate and get to
know the other community members. Lastly, it may be that no one else realizes the
community exists.

An online community is a virtual community whose members interact with each other
primarily via the Internet. For many, online communities may feel like home, consisting of a
“family of invisible friends."

Those who wish to be a part of an online community usually have to become a member via a
specific site and necessarily need an internet connection. An online community can act as an
information system where members can post, comment on discussions, give advice or
collaborate. Commonly, people communicate through social networking sites, chat rooms,

5
4
forums, e-mail lists and discussion boards. People may also join online communities through
video games, blogs and virtual worlds

Key difference between social networks and communities:

1. Social networks tend to recommend specific peer-to-peer connections; communities tend

to allow members to find and establish their own connections.

2. A social network contains a huge array of people who may have nothing in common;
communities bring together a cohesive group.

3. Social networks usually control the member/user experience; communities usually provide
more flexibility and options.

4. Social networks are generally top-down, broadcast mechanisms; communities generally

allow more member input and discussion. (Note that some social networks contain
communities.)

5. Social networks tend to be mutually exclusive (i.e., you can't embed Google+ content into
a Facebook post); communities tend to provide a neutral container for all types of content to
be shared (from social networks, as well as original content).

5
5
 REFERENCE

1. Randy C. Marchany, Tom Wilson. A Keystroke 

Recorder Attack on a Client/Server Infrastructure. 
Proceedings of the Network Security '96 
Conference, SANS Institute 
2. Peter Keen. Ensuring E-Trust. ComputerWorld, 
3/13/00 issue 
3. Jane Bryant Quinn. The Spies in Your Pocket". 
Newsweek, 8/16/99 
4. Northcutt, Cheswick, Kent, Cooper, Marchany et al. 
Consensus Roadmap for Defeating Distributed 
Denial of Service Attacks. 
www.sans.org/ddos_roadmap.html
5. "Distributed System Intruder Tools - Trinoo and 
Tribe Flood Network", Computer Incident Advisory 
Capability, Lawrence Livermore National 
Laboratory, CIAC 00.040, 12/21/99 
6. Patrick Thibodeau. Privacy Concerns Rankle 
Industry – In Blow to sites, FTC pushes for 
regulation. Computerworld, 5/29/00, Vol 34.no 22. 
7. “Lucrative mail theft on the rise”, RoanokeTimes 
reprint of LA Times article, 6/1/00 
8. Ravi Kalakota, Andrew B. Whinston. Electronic 
Commerce: A Manager’s Guide, Addison-Wesley, 

5
6
ISBN: 0-201-88067-9 
9. William Safire. The Phantom of the Internet. New 
York Times Service, article appeared in 6/4/00 issue 
of the Roanoke Times. 
10. The SANS Institute, www.sans.org/topten.htm 
11. The Internet Audit Project, 
http://www.securityfocus.com/templates/forum_mes
sage.html?forum=2&head-32&id=32
12. www.detached.net
13. www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cth186.htm
14. www.sans.org/dosstep/index.htm
15. http://communication.howstuffworks.com/electronic-payment2.htm 
 http://communication.howstuffworks.com/electronic-payment1.htm 
16. H.M. Deitel, P.J. Deitel, K. Steinbuhler. e-Business and e-Commerce for
Managers. 
Prentice Hall Publishing, New Jersey.2001. pages 92, 94, 95, 97, 193 
17. Efraim Turban, David King, Jae Lee, Dennis Viehland. Electronic Commerce
2004 – A Managerial Perspective. Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey. 2004. pages
498, 499, 507, 517 
18. Bayles, Deborah. E-commerce Logistics & Fulfillment: Delivering of Goods.
Prentice Hall PTR, New Jersey.2001. pages 94 -95, 97 
19. CyberSource® Annual Online Fraud Report – 2008 Edition. page 4 (accessed
June 15, 2008)
URL: http://www.cybersource.com/cgi�bin/pages/prep.cgi?
page=/promo/FraudReport2008NA/index.html 
20. MasterCard URL: http://www.mastercard.com/securecode (accessed June 16,
2008) 
21. Visa Inc. URL: http://www.visa.com/verified (accessed June 16, 2008) 
22. Online material: Efraim Turban, David King, Jae Lee, Dennis Viehland.
Electronic Commerce 2008 – A Managerial Perspective.
http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/5073/5195381/pdf/Turban_Online_W12.p
df
23. Pan-Western E-Business Team (accessed June 12, 2008)
URL: http://www.e-bc.ca/media/ebizguides/internet_payment_processing.pdf 
24.https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_payflow-gateway �overview-
outside (accessed June 12, 2008)
25. URL: http://checkout.google.com/support/sell/bin/topic.py?topic=8664 (accessed 
June 13, 2008) 

5
7
26. URL: http://www.authorize.net/company/whatwedo/ (accessed June 15, 2008)

5
8