What is E-commerce ?

E-commerce is an emerging concept that describes the process of buying and selling or exchanging of products, services, and information via computer networks including the Internet
can be defined from different perspectives
• communications perspective
• business process perspective
• service perspective
• online perspective



     Origins and Growth of E-commerce 
• Electronic Fund Transfers (EFT)
o refers to the electronic transmissions of account exchange information over
private networks
• Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
o occurs when one business transmits computer-readable data in a standard format to another business







     Features of E-commerce Technology
• ubiquitous
• global reach
• universal standards
• richness
• interactivity
• information density
• personalization




Advantages of E-commerce
Benefits to Merchants 
o increases sales opportunities for the seller
o reduces operational costs
o increases purchasing opportunities for the buyer
o provides wide range of choices
o use the web to target their offers to a niche market
o 11 The store is always open! 11
o establishes better relationships with customers
o low cost information distribution
o increases speed to market
o expanded delivery channels
o global exposure and reach




Benefits to Consumers 
o convenience
o informative
o value presented upfront: demo and free download
o no long wait times
o easy flow and navigation
o search capabilities
o engaging presentation
o constant updates
o easy to buy





Disadvantages of E-commerce 
• Cost and Justification
• Security and Privacy
• Lack of trust and user resistance
• Others limiting factors




Major Types 
• Market Relationships
o Business-to-Consumers (B2C)
o Business-to-Business (B2B)
o Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
• Technology-based
o Peer-to-Peer (P2P)
o Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce)