E-commerce UNIT- I Notes for BCA students

PART I - Topics (AN OVERVIEW OF E-COMMERCE

• DEFINITION OF E-COMMERCE
• TRADE PROCESS AND TRADE CYCLE
• DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ELECTRONIC COMMERCE AND ELECTRONIC BUSINESS
• SCOPE OF E-COMMERCE
• GENERAL PROBLEMS WITH MANUAL SYSTEMS
• FUNCTIONS OF E-COMMMERCE
• GOALS,AIMS OR OBJECTIVES OF E-COMMERCE
• E-COMMERCE IN BUSINESS FUNCTION
• TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES FOR E-COMMERCE

 DEFINITION OF E-COMMERCE

1) It is a type of industry where buying and selling of product and services is conducted over electronic system such as the Internet and other computer networks.

2) Generate concept covering of any form of business transaction exchange,executed using Information and communication technology(ICT'S).Electronic commerce includes electronic trading of goods,services and electronic material.

3) Formulating commercial transaction at a site remote from the trading partners and then using electronic communication to execute that transactions.

Electronic commerce draws on technology such as

1) Mobile Commerce

2) Electronic Fund Transfer

3) Supply Chain Management

4) Internet Marketing

5) Online Transaction Processing (ATM)

6) Electronic Data Interchange

7) Inventory management etc

TRADE PROCESS AND TRADE CYCLE

There is a linkage with Information exchange i.e

1) What is TRADE PROCESS?

Trade Process :- The process of trading includes all the step and stages required to conclude a sale of any product or services.The trade cycle consists of the following steps :-

1) Search = (THIS IS EXECUTION STEP)

2) Negotiable = (THIS IS EXECUTION STEP)

3) Order = (THIS IS EXECUTION STEP)

4) Deliver = (THIS IS EXECUTION STEP)

5)Invoice - amount due = (THIS IS EXECUTION STEP)

6) Payment = (THIS IS SETTLEMENT STEP)

7) After sales -Replacement policies,service policy. = ( THIS IS SETTLEMENT STEP)

E-commerce can be applied to all,or to different phases of the trade cycle.

- Three generic trade cycles are present,these are the following :-

Ist CATEGORY :- Regular or repeat transaction between commercial trading partners also known as Repeat Trade Cycle.

IInd CATEGORY :- Irregular transaction between commercial trading where execution and settlement are separated also known as Credit Trade Cycle.

IIIrd CATEGORY :- Irregular transaction in once-off transaction or trading relation where executon and settlement are combined together.

SCOPE OF E-COMMERCE

There are 3 categories of E-commerce :-

1) ELECTRONIC MARKET

Th use of information and communication technology to present a range of products or services available in a market segment so that the purchases can compare the prices of the offerings and make a purchase decision.

2) ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE (EDI)

Standardized system for coding trading transaction so that they can be communicated directly from one computer system to another without the need for printing order and invoices and delays and error implicit in paper handling PROTOCOLS and MESSAGES.

3) INTERNET COMMERCE

Information and Communication technology can be used to advertised and can make once off sales of a wide range of goods and services.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ELECTRONIC COMMERCE AND ELECTRONIC BUSINESS

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

1)Any transaction completed over a computer mediated network that includes the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods and services.

2) It is a narrower concept that E-business and include only transaction based business that is online transaction activities.

3)It covers outward facing processes that touch customers,suppliers and internal partners including sales,marketing,order taking,delivery,customer service,etc

ELECTRONIC BUSINESS

1)The transformation of an organisation processes to deliver additional customer value through the application of technologies,psychologies  and computing concepts of the new economy.

2)It is a broader concept that E-commerce and include both transaction based as well as traditional activities.

3)It includes E-commerce as well as internal process such as production,inventory management,risk management,finance,knowledge management,etc.

GENERAL PROBLEMS WITH MANUAL SYSTEMS

1)Slow retrieval of data - The information of customers are stored in different part of site and take a long time to retrieve the data.

2)Paper wastage -A lot of paper is waste due to a number of customers in the company.Information of each on order is stored in the customers file on each page.

3)Unproductive Use of storage space - Paper takes a massive amount of storage space in the room on the site.

4)Poor Data Storage- All the data is stored in filing cabinets.Data would be misplaced due to human error or in the event of a break in the data causing data stolen very easily.

5)Poor customer or client service - Due to inability of information, the service provided to customers is poor.The purpose of customer service is to satisfy the needs of the customers to the point  but due to lack of information it is not accomplished.

GOALS,AIMS OR OBJECTIVES OF E-COMMERCE

1)Collecting money from customers and business partner.

2)Improving the productivity of current process.

3)Developing and supporting new automated process.

4)Changing how you deal with your current customers and new customers.

5)Improving customer service quality and faster customer responses.

6)Personalized customer services.

7)Building security facility.

8)24 hours per day availability.

9)Reduced cost.

10) New product research and cooperative Development

FUNCTIONS OF E-COMMERCE

1) Electronic marketing (Example - NASDAQ)

2) Electronic Selling (Example - EzoneOnline.in)

3) Electronic Services (Installation,troubleshooting, Example - URBANCLAP)

4) Electronic Analytics (Compare features ,Analysis Example - Google Analytics)

5) Process Management

6) Transaction Capabilities

7) Communication and Interaction

8) Payment Handling

9) Product delivery

E-COMMERCE IN BUSINESS FUNCTION

The architecture of E-commerce contains six layers to support existing and future application.The details are as follows :-

1)APPLICATION SERVICE LAYER

This layer is concerned with the type of application used by the business.It can be customer to customer application,business to business application or inter-organisational application.

2)BROKERAGE AND DATA MANAGEMENT

This layer is dealing with the final settlement of any transaction ,it includes order processing and payments services.

3) INTERFACE LAYER

This layer deals with the interface of the application with the customers it includes interactive catalog,directly support function and software agent base comparison.

4) SECURE MESSAGE BUYER

This layer provides security to the e-commerce transaction through the concept of secured HTTP i.e. HTTPs, encrypted email and remote programming.

5) MIDDLE-WARE SERVICES

This layer defines the format of document closed in e-commerce applications.The structured documents are formatted through HTML and the compound document are for using OLP(Online Payment)

6)NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE

This layer deals with the devices like wireless and virtual used for e-commerce like hand mobile phone,personal computers,laptops,etc .It also provides details of web technology through coaxial and optical fiber cables.

TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES FOR E-COMMERCE

1)MOBILE COMMERCE = The delivery of e-commerce capabilities hand anywhere through wireless technology like mobile transfer,mobile ticketing,mobile coupons.

2) ELECTRONIC FUND TRANSFER =The electronic exchange,transfer of money from one amount to another through computer base system.For example :- A payment through Debit and Credit ,electronic bill payments etc.

3)SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT= It spans the movement and storage of raw materials , work-in-progress and transfer goods from point of origin to point of consumption.

4) INTERNET NETWORKING = It uses the internet to deliver the promotional marketing messaging to consumer.It includes

• E-mail marketing
• Search engine marketing
• Social media marketing
• Banners

5) ELECTRONIC  DATA INTERCHANGE (EDI)

It is commonly used for Business to Business (B2B) technology today.It is exchange of business documents such as purchase orders and invoices through computer-to-computer in a standard electronic format.

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