1.Introduction to Electronic Commerce

Question 1

Definition of E-Commerce

Answer 1

E-Commerce is the ​

• exchange of information, products, services or payment, at any stage of the supply chain, whether business between
  
  • business and consumer or
  • between public and the private sector
  • or paid or unpaid.

Question 2

Definition of Electronic Business

Answer 2

• all electronically mediated information exchanges, both within an organization and with external stakeholders supporting the range of business processes

⇒ a business has integrated information and communication technologies into its operations

⇒ E-business is understood to be the integration of all these activities with the internal process of a business through ICT

► E business is the electronical exchange of all information by the integration of information and communication technologies into a company’s operations.

Question 3

The Differences between E-Commerce and E-Business

Answer 3

Main Difference= E-Business doesn’t involve an exchange of value across organizational boundaries

E-Commerce = The exchange of value (money, products) and therefore digitally enabled commercial transactions

→ online display of information, goods and services

→ selling/ ordering / billing

→ Handling of payments and transactions

} process of purchase

E-Business = digital enabling of transactions and processes within a company

→ CRM/SCM/Enterprise resource planing/knowledge management

→ “handling the whole business”

Question 4

Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)

Answer 4

• Consumers interacting with consumers (peer-to-peer)
• Blogs and communities
• product recommendations
• social networks
• Ebay, Craigslist

Question 5

Business-to-Consumer (B2C)

Answer 5

• Business selling to individual Consumers
• Transactional: Amazon
• Brand-Building: Unilever
• Media owner: News Corps
• Comparison intermediary: check24.de

Question 6

Consumer-to-business

Answer 6

• Consumers selling to businesses
• Consumer-feedback
• “name your own price”
• Vendors bid on job
• priceline, dell Ideastorm

Question 7

Business-to-Business (B2B)

Answer 7

• businesses selling to other businesses
• alibaba, euroffice, salesforce

Question 8

Ubiquity

Answer 8

• Internet technology is available everywhere at all times

⇒ the marketplace is not restricted to a physical space and thus it’s extended beyond traditional boundaries (= marketspace)

Question 9

Global reach

Answer 9

= commercial transaction reach across cultural, regional and national boundaries

Question 10

Universal standards

Answer 10

= the technical standards for conducting e-commerce are universal

Question 11

Social Technology

Answer 11

= allowing users to create and share content with a worldwide community

Question 12

Personalization & customization

Answer 12

= marketing messages to specific individuals by adjusting the messages to a customer’s personality

Question 13

Information density

Answer 13

= the total amount and quality of information available to all market participants

→ E-commerce reduce information collection, storage and communication

Question 14

Interactivity

Answer 14

= two-way communications between merchant and consumer by comments, forms, social networks

Question 15

Richness

Answer 15

= the complexity and content of message (= Video, sound, text)

→ E-commerce technologies have the potential for offering considerably mre information richness than traditional media

→ possibility to sell “complex goods”