الأحد، 11 مايو 2014

E-Commerce: Applications and Issues


First, Overview of E-Business and E-Commerce:

v  The dot-com era

v   Over 1.9 billion people are now connected to the Internet

v   More than 130 million people are buying online

v   E-commerce began in 1995

v   Marketplace →  Marketplace

E-Commerce (EC): describes the process of buying, selling, transferring or exchanging of products, services or information via computer networks, including the Internet.

E-business: is a broader definition of EC, including

ü   buying and selling of goods and services

ü   servicing customers

ü   collaborating with partners

ü   conducting e-learning

ü   conducting electronic transactions within an organization.

 

·         Pure versus Partial EC depends on the degree of digitization involved:

  • The product can be physical or digital.
  • The process can be physical or digital.
  • The delivery agent can be physical or digital

·         Brick-and-mortar: purely physical organizations

·         Click-and-mortar: organizations are those that conduct some EC activities, yet their business is primarily done in the physical world [multichannneling]

·         Pure Play: organizations that are engaged only in EC

Types of E-Commerce:

v  Business-to-Consumer (B2C): the sellers are organizations and the buyers are individuals

v  Business-to-Business (B2B): both the sellers and buyers are business organizations

v  Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C): both the sellers and buyers are individuals

v  Business-to-Employee (B2E): An organization uses e-commerce internally to provide information and services to its employees.

v  E-Government (E-Gov.): the use of Internet technology to deliver information about public services to citizens (Government-to-Citizen [G2C]), business partners and suppliers (called government-to-business [G2B]) and between governments [G2G].

ü  Mobile Commerce (m-commerce): e-commerce that is conducted using a mobile phone

E-Commerce Business Models :

ü  Online Direct Marketing: manufacturers sell directly to

o   customers

ü  Electronic Tendering System: businesses (or governments) request quotation from suppliers [uses B2B or G2B]   -[Example:  e-tendering The Tender Board ]

ü  E-auction – an auction which is held over the Internet

o                             www.ebay.com

ü  Forward Auction: the highest bidder wins the auction

ü  Reverse Auction: the lowest bidder wins the auction

 

ü  Name-your-own-price: customers decide how much they want to pay  www.priceline.com

 

ü  Find-the-best-price: customers specify a need and an intermediary compares providers and shows the lowest price 

ü  Viral marketing: receivers send information about your product to their friends.

ü   Group purchasing: small buyers aggregate demand to get a large volume discount [E-Coops]

ü  Product customization: customers use the Internet to self-configure products or services. Sellers then price them and fulfill them quickly.  



ü  Deep discounters: company offers deep price discounts. Appeals to customers who consider only price in their purchasing decisions

ü  Membership: only members can use the services provided, including access to certain information, conducting trade, etc.

Benefits of E-Commerce
 

·         Benefits to organizations

o   Makes national and international markets more accessible

o   Lowering costs of processing, distributing, and retrieving information

·         Benefits to customers

o   Access a vast number of products and services around the clock (24/7/365)

·         Benefits to Society

o   Ability to easily and conveniently deliver information, services and products to people in cities, rural areas and developing countries

Limitations of E-Commerce

v  Technological Limitations

o   Lack of universally accepted security standards

o   Insufficient telecommunications bandwidth

o   Expensive accessibility

v  Non-technological Limitations

o   Perception that EC is unsecure

o   Unresolved legal issues

o   Lacks a critical mass of sellers and buyers

Second, Business-to-Consumer B2C

Electronic retailing (E-tailing): the direct sale of products and services through the Internet

 E-marketplace: a central, virtual market space on the Web where many buyers and sellers can conduct E-commerce and E-Business activities

E-storefront: a Web site that represent a single store


E-mall/ Cybermall: a collection of individual shops under one Internet address  http://www.e-mall.com.sa/

- Referral Mall     www.bing.com/shopping

 

Online Service Industries:

A key issue is disintermediation


Cyberbanking: involves conducting banking activities from home, a place of business or on the road instead of at a physical bank location.
E-Bank / virtual Bank/ Cyber Bank: a bank that is dedicated only to Internet transactions
Online job market :The internet offers promising new environment for job seekers and for companies searching for hard-to-find employees.
Travel services :The internet is an ideal place to plan, explore and arrange almost any trip economically .

 

Issues in E-Tailing:
Channel conflict: occurs when manufacturers disintermediate their channel partners such as distributors, retailers, dealers, and sales representatives, by selling their products directly to consumers, usually over the Internet through e-commerce.
[Ford allows customers to configure a car online but requires them to pick it up from a dealer, where they arrange financing, warranties and services]
Multichanneling: is a process in which a company integrates its offline and online channels.
Order fulfillment: finding the product to be shipped; packaging the product; arrange for speedy delivery to the customer; and handle the return of unwanted or defective products.

Third,  Business-to-Business (B2B)

In B2B e-commerce, the buyers and sellers are organizations

There are several business models for B2B applications:

  • B2B Sell-Side Marketplace
  • B2B Buy-Side Marketplace
  • Electronic Exchanges
  • In the sell-side marketplace, organizations sell their products or services to other organizations electronically from their own Web site and/or from a third-party Web site.

 

This model is similar to the B2C model in which the buyer comes to the seller’s site, views catalogs, and places an order.  In the B2B sell-side marketplace, the buyers are organizations.

  • The buy-side marketplace is a model in which organizations buy needed products and services from other organizations electronically.

v  Exchanges independently own by a third party and connect many buyers and many sellers

  • Vertical Exchanges: connects buyers and sellers in a given industry


  • Horizontal Exchanges: connects buyers and sellers across many industries, and are used mainly for MRO materials


  • Functional Exchanges: needed services

such as temporary help or extra office

space are traded on an “as-needed” basis


Fourth, Electronic Payments

n  Implementing EC typically requires E-payment  

n  E-payment systems enable you to pay for goods and services electronically.

E-check: encrypted check with digital signature that is similar to a paper check, and is used mostly in B2B.

E-credit card: allows customers to charge online payments to their credit card account, and is used mostly in B2C.
 
Fifth, Ethical and Legal Issues:

v  Privacy: ecommerce provides opportunities for businesses to track online consumers using cookies or special spyware

v  Cybersquatting refers to the practice of registering domain names solely for the purpose of selling them later at a higher price.


The original owner of www.tom.com received $8 million for the name

v  Taxes and other Fees: when and where (and in some cases whether) electronic sellers should pay taxes

v  Copyright: protecting intellectual property in e-commerce and enforcing copyright laws is extremely difficult

 

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