Topic 4 - E-business and E-commerce

Question 1

Electronic commerce

Answer 1

The process of buying, selling, transferring, or exchanging products, services, or information through computer networks, including internet.

Question 2

Electronic business

Answer 2

Servicing customers, collaborating with business partners, and performing electronic transactions within an organization, in addition to buying and selling goods.

Question 3

The degree of digitization

Answer 3

The extent to which the commerce has been transformed form physical to digital.

Question 4

Brick-and-mortar organizations

Answer 4

Organizations in which the product, the process, and the delivery agent are all physical.

Question 5

Virtual (or pure play) organizations

Answer 5

Organizations in which the product, the process, and the delivery agent are all digital.

Question 6

Clicks-and-mortar organizations

Answer 6

Organizations that do business in both the physical and digital dimensions.

Question 7

Business-to-consumer electronic commerce (B2C)

Answer 7

The sellers are organizations, and the buyers are individuals.

Question 8

Business-to-business electronic commerce (B2B)

Answer 8

Both the sellers and buyers are business organizations.
- Comprises the vast majority of EC volume.

Question 9

Consumer-to-consumer electronic commerce (C2C)

Answer 9

An individual sells products or services to other individuals.
- Major strategies for conducting C2C on the internet are auctions and classified ads.

Question 10

Business-to-employee (B2E)

Answer 10

Organizations use EC internally to provide information and services to its employees.
- Ex., companies allow employees to manage their benefits and to take training classes electronically. Employees can buy discounted insurance, travel packages, and tickets to events on the corporate intranet. Many companies have electronic corporate stores that sell their products to their employees, usually at a discount.

Question 11

E-government (G2C and G2B)

Answer 11

The use of internet tech. and e-commerce to deliver information and public services to citizens (G2C) and to business partners and suppliers (G2B).
- G2C ex., requesting a birth certificate online, or registering online for sports activities run by your municipality.

Question 12

Mobile commerce

Answer 12

E-commerce that is conducted entirely in a wireless environment.
- Ex., using cellphones to shop over the internet.

Question 13

Social commerce

Answer 13

The delivery of electronic commerce activities and transactions through social computing.

Question 14

Conversational commerce

Answer 14

A type of e-commerce that uses natural language processing to engage in various means of conversation.
- Ex. online chat messaging apps, chatbots on messaging apps or websites, and voice assistants.

Question 15

Business model

Answer 15

The method by which a company generates revenue to sustain itself.

Question 16

Electronic catalogues

Answer 16

Consists of a product database, a directory and search capabilities, and a presentation function.
- Backbone of most e-commerce sites.

Question 17

Auction

Answer 17

A competitive buying and selling process in which prices are determined dynamically by competitive bidding.

Question 18

Forward auction

Answer 18

Auctions that sellers use as a selling channel to many potential buyers; the highest bidder wins the items.

Question 19

Reverse auctions

Answer 19

Auctions in which on buyer, usually an organization, seeks to buy a product or a service, and suppliers submit bids; the lowest bidder wins.

Question 20

Electronic marketplace

Answer 20

A virtual market space on the Web where many buyers and many sellers conduct electronic business activities.
- Ex., FB marketplace.

Question 21

Electronic payment mechanisms

Answer 21

Computer-based systems that allow customers to pay for goods and services electronically, rather than writing a cheque or using cash.

Question 22

Electronic cheques

Answer 22

Customer emails an encrypted electronic cheque to the seller.

Question 23

Electronic credit (or debit) cards

Answer 23

Allows customers to charge online payments to their credit (or debit) account.
- Mainly used in B2C and in shopping by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Question 24

Purchasing cards

Answer 24

B2B equivalent of electronic credit cards
- Payments made are settled within a week.

Question 25

Stored-value money cards

Answer 25

Allow you to store a fixed amount of prepaid money and then spend it as necessary.
- Ex., Presto cards and gift cards.

Question 26

EMV smart cards

Answer 26

Contain a chip that can store a large amount of info as well as a magnetic stripe for backward compatibility.
- EMV stands for Europay, Mastercard, and Visa, the three companies that originally created the standard.

Question 27

Electronic retailing (e-tailing)

Answer 27

The direct sale of products and services through electronic storefronts or electronic malls, usually designed around an electronic catalogue format and auctions.

Question 28

Electronic storefront

Answer 28

The website of a single company, with its own internet address, at which orders can be placed.

Question 29

Electronic mall

Answer 29

A collection of individual shops under one internet address; also known as a cybermall or an e-mall.

Question 30

Disintermediation

Answer 30

Elimination of intermediaries in electronic commerce.

Question 31

2 Functions of intermediaries

Answer 31

1. They provide information.
2. They perform value-added services such as consulting.

Question 32

Fintech

Answer 32

An industry composed of companies that use technology to compete in the marketplace with traditional financial institutions and intermediaries in the delivery of financial services, which include banking, insurance, real estate, and investing.

Question 33

Channel conflict

Answer 33

The alienation of existing distributors when a company decides to sell to customers directly online.

Question 34

Mutlichanneling

Answer 34

A process in which a company integrates it online and off-line channels.

Question 35

Order fulfillment

Answer 35

Anytime a company sells directly to customers, it must complete order fulfillment activities.
- quickly find the products to be shipped; pack them; arrange for the packages to be delivered speedily to the customer’s door; collect the money from every customer, either in advance, on delivery, or by individual billing; and handle the return of unwanted or defective products.
- It can be very difficult to accomplish these activities because a company has to ship small packages to many customers quickly.

Question 36

Personalized pricing

Answer 36

The practice of pricing items at a point determined by a particular customer’s perceived ability to pay.

Question 37

Sell-side marketplace

Answer 37

B2B model in which organizations sell to other organizations from their own private e-marketplace or from a third-party site.
- Key mechanisms are forward auctions and electronic catalogues

Question 38

Buy-side marketplace

Answer 38

B2B model in which organizations buy needed products or services from other organizations electronically, often through reverse auctions.

Question 39

Public exchanges (or exchanges)

Answer 39

Electronic marketplaces in which there are many sellers and many buyers, and entry is open to all; frequently owned and operated by a third party.

Question 40

Vertical exchanges

Answer 40

Connect buyers and sellers in a given industry

Question 41

Horizontal exchanges

Answer 41

Connect buyers and sellers across many industries