Electronic commerce, more commonly abbreviated as e-commerce, is the action of buying and selling products or services through the medium of electronic information systems such as computer networks - the most common of which being the World Wide Web, or internet (Dorogovtsev & Mendes, 2003). A variety of technologies are used to facilitate e-commerce including electronic funds transfer (EFT) which facilitates the electronic exchange of money, online transaction processing (OTP) which handles the data entry and retrieval for transaction processing and electronic data interchange (EDI) which is responsible for processing orders, warehouse stock control and order tracking (Turban, et al., 2009).
Business as we know it is forever changing. Companies are reaching customers all over the world from the World Wide Web? How is this all possible? E-Commerce is the fastest growing way of selling products today.
In general, electronic commerce is the process of buying and selling goods or services using electronic systems between organisations and in business-to-consumers (Saxena, 2013). With the passage of time, electronic commerce had become one of the essential characteristics in the internet era. According to UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) Centre for communication Policy (2001), online shopping has become the third most popular activity on the internet, immediately following e-mail using, instant messaging and web browsing.
e-commerce involves more than just the valuable tools previously mentioned though. e-commerce involves accomplishing a range of business processes to support the electronic buying and selling of goods and services. (Marakas, 2013) Following through with these processes ensures a seamless online transaction as well as customer satisfaction. The diagram below shows the process that occurs on both the buyer’s and seller’s side when a vehicle is sold
E-commerce is defined as commerce that is transacted electronically, as over the internet. Most people think of E-commerce as buying things on the web. In reality, it is much more than that. It does include purchases from such places as Amazon or Borders for you books, to an array of sporting goods stores for your outdoor activities. It also includes services, such as banking. There is business to consumer (B2C) transactions that most of us use today. Another form is consumer to consumer (C2C), which included the popular auction sites. There is also business to business (B2B) commerce done on the internet. They are all forms of E-commerce
The world is shrinking. The technical term for this change is “Globalization.” Distance is becoming more and more irrelevant with each passing day. A neurosurgeon in the United States can direct a real-time brain surgery halfway around the world, in India, via a camera and a monitor. The modern era is one that is dominated by a growing technology industry. People have devices in their pockets with more computing power than that which was required to land a man on the moon. The internet can connect practically anyone anywhere with anyone else anywhere else, as long as they have semi-decent reception. Technology is improving in nearly exponential leaps and bounds, and with this growth comes new forms of communication and, consequentially, commerce.
In 1998, the action plan for electronic commerce was updated. New transport media for EDI and the development of inexpensive conversion tools have shown a potential to reduce some of the barriers indicated in studies of EDI application in Denmark and abroad. However, at the same time that a number of obstacles for diffusion of EDI in b2b relations are reduced or disappear completely, new challenges appear, especially in production and wholesale businesses. In particular, it is favorable to establish EDI solutions with trading partners where the trading pattern involves a large volume and accruing of transactions with a given number of steady business partners. With the advance of new market relations the assumptions on EDI application are under pressure.
There are several various categories of e-commerce systems available today. E-tailers; “An e-tailer is similar to the typical bricks-and-mortar storefront, except that customers only need to connect to the Internet to check their inventory and place an order” (University of Phoenix, 2013, Essentials of Management Information Systems, Chapter 9, p. 303). Content providers; “Content is defined broadly to include all forms of intellectual property. Intellectual property refers to all forms of human expression that can be put into a tangible medium such as text, CDs, DVDs, or stored on any digital (or other) media, including the Web” (University of Phoenix, 2013, Essentials of Management Information Systems, Chapter 9, p. 303). Market creator; “Market creators build a digital environment in which buyers and sellers can meet, display products, search for products, and establish prices” (University of Phoenix, 2013, Essentials of Management Information Systems, Chapter 9, p. 303). Community provider; “Community providers are sites that create a d...
E-commerce application is a platform where there is buying and selling of products and services which are done by businesses and consumers via an electronic medium, mostly without using any paper documents. “E-Commerce applications support transactions between businesses and their customers. They provide 24/7 customer support, allowing customers to order products, check orders and track shipping, review previous orders, reorder products, and manage their accounts.” (Auburn SeeWolf llc , 2009-2012)
E-commerce or electronic commerce is carrying out business communications and transactions through computers and over networks. It involves buying and selling of goods and services through digital communication. E-commerce also includes transactions on the World Wide Web and the Internet and means such as electronic funds transfer, smart cards and digital cash. E-commerce covers outward facing processes that interact with customers, suppliers and external partners such as sales, marketing, delivery, customer service, purchasing of raw materials and supplies for production.