UNIT NINE: E-Commerce

1. E-Commerce is a modem term that describes the ever growing and expanding on­line economy. It consists primarily of the distributing, buying, selling, marketing, and servicing of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. Since the internet began, thousands upon thousands of new companies have come into existence and are trading goods and services electronically. The e-commerce business may be for products sold direct to the consuming public or to other businesses involved in e-commerce. This portion of the industry₁ is commonly called B2B, which means business to business commerce.

2. The meaning of the term "electronic commerce" has changed over time. Originally, "electronic commerce" meant the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, usually using technology like Electronic Data Interchange (EDI, introduced in the late 1970s) to send. commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically. Later it came to include activities more precisely termed "Web commerce" - the purchase of goods and services over the World Wide Web via secure servers with e-shopping carts and with electronic pay services, like credit card payment authorizations. As of 2005, e-commerce has become well-established all over the world.

.3. Several factors have a role in the success of any e-commerce venture. They may include:

a. Providing expanding network facilitation transaction authorization venture to customers. Vendors can achieve this₂ by offering a product or product-line that attracts potential customers at a competitive price, as in non-electronic commerce.

b. Providing service and performance. Offering a responsive, user-friendly purchasing experience, just like a flesh-and-blood retailer may go some way to achieving these goals.

c. Providing an attractive website. The tasteful use of color, graphics, fonts, animation, photographs and white-space percentage may aid success in this respect₃ .

d. Providing an incentive for customers to buy and to return. Sales promotions to this end can involve coupons, special offers, and discounts.

f. Providing a sense of community. Chat rooms, discussion boards, soliciting customer input and loyalty schemes can help in this respect.

g. Providing reliability and security.