BIT Lecture 3 - Bus & E-Commerce

Electronic Commerce

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

Electronic Business

similar to e-commerce but
encompasses much more – essentially
all business operations that use
technology.
• servicing customers, collaborating
with business partners, performing
electronic transactions

EC’s Impact

• Increase an organization’s reach

  • Increase market share

  • Reduce cosys

  • Small businesses can now operate and compete in market spaces that were formerly dominated by larger companies

• Removes many of the barriers that previously impeded entrepreneurs seeking to start their own businesses 

Definitions and Concepts 

• Degree of digitization = the extent to which the commerce has been transformed from physical to digital 

  • Purely physical organizations are referred to as brick-and-mortar

  • Companies engaged only in Ev are considered virtual (or pure-play)

  • buying an e-book - the product, delivery, payment are entirely digital

• All other combos with a mix of digital and physical are considered partial EC

  • Clicks-and-morter (or clicks-and-bricks) conduct some e-commerce activities, yet primary business is carried out in the physical world.

• Purchasing a shift a shirt online as the product is physical, delivery is physical, only the transaction was digital.

Business-to-consumer (B2C) 

• Involves transactions between a business offering products or services directly to consumers without intermediaries 

• Ordering a new pair of shows on Amazon

• Buying groceries with Instacart

• Subscribing to an online course through a digital hub

Business-to-business (B2B)

• Both the sellers and the buyers are business organizations

• Encompasses a broad spectrum of transactions, from war materials to finished product distribution and everything in between

• retailer stocking up from their wholesaler

• manufacturer stocking up on a component of their product from their supplier

• The largest form of e-commerce

Concumer-to-consumer (C2C)

• An individual sells products or services to other individuals with the help