1.E-commerce will eventually impact nearly all commerce.

It is important to study
e-commerce in order to be able to perceive and understand the opportunities and
risks that lie ahead.

More specifically, you will be able to:

 analyze an existing or new idea for an e-commerce business

 identify the most effective business model to use
 understand the technological underpinnings of an e-commerce presence
(the security and ethical issues raised, how to moptimally market &
advertise the business, using both traditional e-marketing tools and social,
mobile, and local marketing)

2a

E-commerce E-business
 Making purchases/ transaction over  Perform all type of business activities
Internet through Internet

 E-commerce is an important part of

E-business

 E-commerce involves transaction related  E-business involves money and all of

to money activities of a company

 One business uses only one commercial  One business requires multiple websites
web such as Amazon, Shopee, Lazada => such as CRMs (Customer Management
an representation of business Systems), ERPs (Enterprise Resourcing
Planning)

 Connect different business processes

 Connect with customers (B2C)
(B2B)

2c) The technology juggernauts behind e-commerce are the Internet, the Web, and
increasingly, the mobile platform
2b) Major current themes in EC: business, technology, society. From a business
perspective, one of the most important trends to note is that all forms of e-
commerce continue to show very strong growth. From a technology perspective,
the mobile platform has finally arrived with a bang, driving astronomical growth
in mobile advertising and making true mobile e-commerce a reality. At a societal
level, major issues include privacy and government surveillance, protection of
intellectual property, online security, and governance of the Internet.

3.Ubiquity: available just about everywhere, at all times => The marketplace is extended
beyond traditional boundaries and is removed from a temporal and geographic location.
“Marketspace” is created; shopping can take place anywhere. Customer convenience is,
and shopping costs are reduced.

Global reach: The technology reaches across national boundaries, around the earth. =>
Commerce is enabled across cultural and national boundaries seamlessly and without
modification. “Marketspace” includes potentially billions of consumers and millions of
businesses worldwide

Universal standard: There is one set of technology standards => There is a common,
inexpensive, global technology foundation for businesses to use

Richness: Video, audio, and text messages are possible. => Video, audio, and text
marketing messages are integrated into a single marketing message and consuming
experience.

Interactivity: technology that allows for two-way communication between merchant and
consumer and among consumer => Consumers are engaged in a dialog that dynamically
adjusts the experience to the individual and makes the consumer a co-participant in the
process of delivering goods to the market

Information density: The technology reduces information costs and raises quality =>
Information processing, storage, and communication costs drop dramatically, while
currency, accuracy, and timeliness improve greatly. Information becomes plentiful,
cheap, and accurate.
Personalization/Customization—The technology allows personalized messages to be
delivered to individuals as well as groups.

Social technology: —User-generated content and social networks. => Enables user
content creation and distribution and supports development of social networks.

4. Business-to-Business (B2B)

A B2B model of business involves the conduct of trade between two or more
businesses/companies. The channels of such trade generally include conventional
wholesalers and producers who are dealing with retailers.

Business-to-Consumer (B2C)

Business-to-Consumer model of business deals with the retail aspects of e-commerce, i.e.
the sale of goods and/or services to the end consumer through digital means. The facility,
which has taken the business world by storm, enables the consumer to have a detailed
look at their proposed procurements before placing an order. After the placement of such
orders, the company/agent receiving the order will then deliver the same to the consumer
in a convenient time-span. Some of the businesses operating in this channel include well-
known players like Amazon, Flipkart, etc.

This mode of purchase has proved to be beneficial to the consumers when compared to
the traditional method, as they are endowed with access to helpful contents which may
guide their purchases appropriately.

Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)

This business model is leveraged by a consumer for selling used goods and/or services to
other consumers through the digital medium. The transactions here are pursued through a
platform provided by a third party, the likes of which include OLX, Quickr, etc.
Consumer-to-Business (C2B)

A C2B model is the exact reversal of a B2C model. While the latter is serviced to the
consumer by a business, the C2B model provides the end consumers with an opportunity
to sell their products/services to companies. The method is popular in crowdsourcing
based projects, the nature of which typically includes logo designing, sale of royalty-free
photographs/media/design elements, and so on and so forth.

Note – the term ‘crowdsourcing’ was coined in the year 2005 as a sourcing model that
facilities individuals/organizations to obtain goods/services from internet users.

Business-to-Administration (B2A)

This model enables online dealings between companies and public administration, i.e. the
Government by enabling the exchange of information through central websites. It
provides businesses with a platform to bid on government opportunities such as auctions,
tenders, application submission, etc. The scope of this model is now enhanced, thanks to
the investments made towards e-government.

Consumer-to-Administration (C2A)

The C2A platform is meant for consumers, who may use it for requesting information or
posting feedbacks concerning public sectors directly to the government
authorities/administration. Its areas of applicability include:

The dissemination of information.

Distance learning.

Remittance of statutory payments.

Filing of tax returns.

Seeking appointments, information about illnesses, payment of health services, etc.

 5. They attract extremely large audiences (over 2 billion users worldwide as of
December 2019 in the case of Facebook). These audiences present marketers with
extraordinary opportunities for targeted marketing and advertising.

More recently, the reinvention of e-commerce has resulted in a set of on-demand,

personal service businesses such as Uber, Airbnb, Instacart, and Deliveroo. These
businesses have been able to tap into a large reservoir of unused assets (cars, spare
rooms, and personal spare time) and to create lucrative markets based on the mobile
platforminfrastructure. The Insight on Business case, Rocket Internet, takes a look at
Rocket Internet, which has invested in and mentored a number of startups.

E-commerce has gone through three stages: innovation, consolidation, and reinvention.

• The early years of e-commerce were a technological success, with the digital
infrastructure created during the

period solid enough to sustain significant growth in e-commerce during the next decade,
and a mixed business success, with significant revenue growth and customer usage, but
low profit margins.

• E-commerce entered a period of consolidation beginning in 2001 and extending into

2006.

• E-commerce entered a period of reinvention in 2007 with the emergence of the mobile
digital platform, social

networks, and Web 2.0 applications that attracted huge audiences in a very short time
span.

6.Describe the major themes underlying the study of e-commerce.

E-commerce involves three broad interrelated themes:

- Technology - To understand e-commerce, you need a basic understanding of the

information technologies upon which it is built, including the Internet, the Web,

and mobile platform, and a host of complementary technologies - cloud

 - communications, protocols such as TCP/IP, web servers, HTML, and relational

and non-relational databases, among others.

- Business - While technology provides the infrastructure, it is the business

applications - the potential for extraordinary returns on investment - that create

the interest and excitement in e-commerce. Therefore, you also need to

understand some key business concepts such as electronic markets, information

goods, business models, firm and industry value chains, industry structure, and

consumer behavior in digital markets.

- Society - Understanding the pressures that global e-commerce places on

contemporary society is critical to being successful in the e-commerce

marketplace. The primary societal issues are intellectual property, individual

privacy, and public policy.

7. Identify the major academic disciplines contributing to e-commerce.

There are two primary approaches to e-commerce: technical and behavioral.

Each of these approaches is represented by several academic disciplines.

• On the technical side, this includes computer science, operations

management, and information systems.

• On the behavioral side, it includes information systems as well as

sociology, economics, finance and accounting, management, and marketing.