Unit 1final.pdf

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e-Commerce Unit 1

Sikkim Manipal University Page No. 1

Unit 1 Introduction to e-Commerce

Structure:

1.1 Introduction

Learning objectives

1.2 e-Commerce or Electronic CommerceAn Overview

1.3 Electronic CommerceCutting edge

1.4 Electronic Commerce Framework

Selecting the best e-commerce framework

Electronic commerce and media convergence

The anatomy of e-commerce applications

e-Commerce applications

Multimedia storage servers

1.5 Summary

1.6 Glossary

1.7 Terminal Questions

1.8 Answers

1.9 Case-Let

1.1 Introduction

Electronic commerce, also termed as e-commerce, is a process of buying

and selling of goods or services using electronic systems. These electronic

systems can be either the Internet or other computer networks.

e-Commerce is also known as e-business. The World Wide Web plays a

major role in the implementation of e-commerce in most of the

organisations.

This unit introduces you to the concepts of e-commerce. It also helps you

understand how electronic commerce acts as a cutting edge. In this unit, we

will discuss the framework of electronic commerce and the role of media

convergence in electronic commerce. We will also discuss the different

applications of e-commerce and the anatomy of e-commerce applications.

We shall also study about multimedia storage servers.Learning objectives

After studying this unit, you should be able to:

Describe e-commerce.

Define the e-commerce framework.


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Analyse the role of media convergence in e-commerce.

Explain the anatomy of e-commerce applications. List the different types of e-commerce applications.

1.2 e-Commerce or Electronic Commerce An Overview

Often referred to as simply e-commerce, electronic commerce1 refers to

business that is conducted over the Internet using any of the applications

that rely on the Internet, such ase-mail, instant messaging,shopping carts,

Web services, UDDI, FTP, and EDI, among others. Electronic commerce

can be between two businesses transmitting funds, goods, services and/or

data or between a business and a consumer.

Electronic Commerce or e-commerce is the latest concept in todays

business scenario. Broadly speaking, the e-commerce business

methodology addresses the needs of organisations, retailers and

consumers to reduce the costs, while improving the quality of service and

increasing the speed of delivery of goods.

Today, e-commerce refers to buying and selling of information, products and

services through computer networks. However, in the future, it may refer to

carrying out business transactions through any of the myriad of networks

that make up the Superhighway or I-way.

Business-to-Business or B2B e-commerce is a process of conductingelectronic commerce between businesses. The e-commerce option is

exercised in many companies that carry out B2B transactions. On the other

hand, business-to-consumer or B2C is a process of conducting electronic

commerce between businesses and consumers. The best example for B2C

is electronic commerce implemented by companies such as Amazon.com,

wherein a customer is directly online to the sellers computer using the

internet. In Amazon.com, the business transactions are done both

electronically and interactively in real-time for new books.

1.3 Electronic Commerce

Cutting edgeAs we now know the concept of e-commerce, let us discuss how

e-commerce acts as a cutting edge in the present days business world.

1 http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/E/electronic_commerce.html
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/I/Internet.htmlhttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/application.htmlhttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/E/e_mail.htmlhttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/I/instant_messaging.htmlhttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/Web_services.htmlhttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/U/UDDI.htmlhttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/F/FTP.htmlhttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/E/EDI.htmlhttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/E/EDI.htmlhttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/F/FTP.htmlhttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/U/UDDI.htmlhttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/Web_services.htmlhttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/I/instant_messaging.htmlhttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/E/e_mail.htmlhttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/application.htmlhttp://www.webopedia.com/TERM/I/Internet.html


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Electronic commerce can also be defined as a modern business technique,

and it acts as a cutting edge

2

for business. It deals with the organisationalrequirements, trade, and customers to reduce the costs while improving the

product quality and also increasing the speed of product delivery.

The traditional business scenario is varying quickly because the customers

and businesses search for flexibility to change business partners, proposals,

and networks. When deciding on business approaches, most of the

companies are looking outside and also within their organisations. These

activities include setting up private electronic connections to customers,

dealers, distributors, industry groups, and also opponents. This is done to

improve the competency of business communications, to assist in

expanding the market share, and to preserve long-standing feasibility intoday's business environment.

Numerous networks make up the Information Superhighway (I-way). The

Information Superhighway can develop this trend to another level in total. It

also facilitates businesses to exchange information. This process is done

continuously between varying customer groups, suppliers, and research

partners in both commercial and academic world on an international basis.

The importance of e-commerce is based on the truth that time is the most

essential feature. Time plays a vital role for both business and customers in

commercial markets. With e-commerce, more business dealings arehandled on the same day as very less time is spent on each deal from the

business standpoint. This will also help the customer to save more time

during their transactions. Hence, in this case, e-commerce helps in

replacing the traditional commerce technique where a single transaction

costs valuable time. With the help of e-commerce, an order is placed and

then executed through internet quickly, without any difficulty. For example,

traditional banking processes take more time whereas, at present a banking

transaction is done via the Internet and the time spent is also less. Thus, it is

proved that e-commerce is helpful to both businesses and customers, as

payments and documentation are done with better effectiveness.

e-Commerce is a more commercial and cost effective method than

traditional commerce method. This is because by using e-commerce, the

2 http://www.e-commerceprogram.com/


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dealers of products can save on the selling expenses, which they can use

for expanding their business. For example, Dell, a big computer enterpriseadopts such a technique to carry out their transactions using internet,

without the involvement of any third parties. Internet advertisement is

cheaper, as compared to a roadside poster or promotion through television

commercials. The total expenditure required to for business dealing in

e-commerce is considerably less than a traditional commerce method. For

example, only a head office is required to manage an e-commerce business

rather than a head office with many branches. Other than that, the

expenses for staff, maintenance, communications, and office rental is

replaced by a single web hosting for the e-commerce industry.

Connectivity plays a significant part for both customers and businessbecause it is the major factor which determines the entire business. From

the business perspective, e-commerce offers more improved connectivity for

its customers, as their personal websites can be accessed almost from any

place via Internet. Hence, more customers can be in touch with the

company's transactions, which results in removing the restrictions with

respect to physical location. From the customers point of view,

e-commerce is a very convenient and suitable method because:

They can look through the entire list of catalogues without any

disturbance.

They can evaluate costs between products, and brands and alsopurchase from another country. This can be done while at home or at

work, without moving a single inch from their chair.

e-Commerce is more convenient for both customers and business, as online

business has less formalities compared to traditional commerce techniques.

In the international market scenario, e-commerce has given rise to various

opportunities for many companies and financiers. For example, because of

the success of e-commerce, more funds are invested in electronic

securities, internet services, business plans, and new technologies. As a

result, various e-commerce markets have evolved, improving the globalmarket.


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Activity 1:

List some of the innovations that you are familiar with that have emergedsince the usage of e-commerce in recent business environment.

Hint:Internet marketing

Self-Assessment Questions

1. __________ refers to business that is conducted over the internet using

any of the applications that rely on the Internet.

2. _________ e-commerce is a process of conducting electronic

commerce between businesses.

3. Numerous networks make up the ________.

4. The importance of e-commerce is based on the truth that time is themost essential feature. (True/False)?

5. ________ plays a significant part for both customers and business

because it is the major factor which determines the entire business.

1.4 Electronic Commerce Framework

A framework can be defined as a structure for supporting or attaching

something else, particularly a support that is used as the foundation for

something being created. Hence, an e-commerce framework comprises the

set of infrastructure required for carrying out the e-commerce business. This

set of infrastructure typically includes the network requirements and thedifferent software applications that are for e-commerce.

The e-commerce vision summarised above assumes a series of essential

infrastructure services and values steady with a broad architectural

framework. This framework must allow flexibility, interoperability and

directness necessary for the successful development of electronic

commerce. The e-commerce framework offers a set of options to the

customers. Most of the electronic commerce plans have different strategies

for security and privacy, their skill to deal with the payments, and their

usability to different transactions. They also vary in their business models.

Such variations promote innovation and allows for supplier and customer

options. But yet, you need a broad framework to gain wide acceptance. This

includes the following requirements and peculiarities of carrying out various

business forms in this upcoming electronic environment.


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Interoperability: Electronic commerce is based on a common set of

required services and standards that allow interoperability. Service providersand application designers use these services and standards as building

blocks. They achieve the goals and objectives of e-commerce by combining,

enhancing and customising these building blocks as per the requirements.

Maximum flexibility for innovation: The innovation in e-commerce will

grow and be established in ways that are impossible to visualise. This will

result in evolution of new services and businesses. We can already see that

many electronic marketplaces are giving rise to new openings for new

services and businesses. Existing services and products will be specified

and adapted. Hence, the electronic commerce framework plays a vital part

in adapting the changes and then later dealing with the new applications.

Information-intensive products:It is observed that the most important set

of products that are sold through e-commerce are the pure information

products. For example: electronic journals, catalogues, videos, interactive

video games, software programs, electronic coupons, and so on. They also

include electronic keys to cars, hotel rooms, storage sections, and airport

boarding gates. Some of these products can be designed or modified by a

customer. For example, customers want their own selection of articles to be

attached in an electronic book, or modify their own clothing designs. This

capability calls for a customer-driven activity a design phase, to the

purchase cycle. Hence, it is necessary to have all the activities in the

process of the transaction designing, customising, ordering, billing,

payment and distribution tightly integrated and happening simultaneously.

New revenue collecting techniques: We already know about the

traditional techniques of revenue collection, for example, payment upon

receipt, advance payment, and so on. At present, electronic commerce

supports more improved methods of revenue collection. For example, an

information product service provider will allocate the product broadly and

then charge on a usage basis -- which means charging the customer only

when the information is used. This information can be a software program, adigital record, or an electronic key used to open and start a rental car.

Meterware is a new strategy implemented in recording and billing

customers constantly depending on their product usage. Along with


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Meterware, electronic cash and cheques also help in gaining new customers

and sharing products.Legacy systems: The legacy systems that are prevailing in electronic

commerce field include mainframe-based agreement, paper cheques, and

payment systems, and so on. An electronic commerce infrastructure gains

success only when it allows the user to easily shift from traditional systems

to innovative, electronic systems, and applications and processes.

Transaction devices: e-Commerce dealings include different kinds of

legacy and recently formed devices, media, and systems over which

transactions take place. Hence, it is necessary that e-commerce adapts the

technologies and devices required for reaching and maintaining the mass

market.

We can conclude that an electronic commerce framework developed with all

of these needs and considerations in mind will form a strong basis for an

extremely useful and effective electronic commerce infrastructure.

1.4.1 Selecting the best e-commerce framework

Deciding on the best e-commerce framework is one of the major challenges

for any organisation. The framework should be selected based on the three

evaluation points:

Features.

Requirements.

Luxuries.

Figure 1.1 explains the three evaluation points of e-commerce framework.

Figure 1.1: Three Evaluation Points of e-Commerce Framework


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Featuresare those elements of the framework that make it more prominent

and clear from other offerings.Requirementsare the basic requirements of the framework that allow it to

do its work. If one among these is lost, then it becomes difficult to use a

particular framework, even with the presence of any other features.

Luxuries are the components whose presence is not so important, but they

are required to make the case for a framework that comes at a bonus price.

The luxury components add something extra to the system to make it worthy

of the premium price. The three important factors to look for in any

e-commerce framework are:

Template management.

Core framework functionality.

Search engine features.

The framework should be adaptable in order to be able to cope with future

evolution of the site and market. At the same time, it should be able to

support the existing business and make it as easy as possible.

You cannot create content that will be suitable for submission to search

engines, unless you achieve good integration with search engine

optimisation functions. Failing to do so will lead to your site creator spending

considerable time preparing submission pages instead of making use of that

valuable time for extending the site.

So long as you can balance between the cost and the benefits, it is worth

paying the extra amount to have a framework that saves you from all that

work involved in maintaining the infrastructure and processing payments.

The end result is profitability, as expensive manual work is removed from

the process.

1.4.2 Electronic commerce and media convergence

By now you must be familiar with the e-commerce framework. Let us now

discuss the role of media convergence in e-commerce.

Media Convergence3 is a process of interlinking of computing and

information technology organisations, telecommunication networks, and

3 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1425043/media-convergence


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content providers from various media. These media include journals,

newspapers, music, television, radio, and entertainment software. Mediaconvergence conveys jointly the three Cs and they are computing,

communications, and content.

Convergence happens at two major levels:

1. Technologies: Creative content is transformed into industry-related

digital forms for delivery. This is done via broadband or wireless

networks to exhibit on various computer or computer-related devices

and also on cellular telephones to personal digital assistants (PDAs) to

digital video recorders (DVRs).

2. Industries: Companies that are spread all over the business spectrum

starting from media to telecommunications to technology, combine orcreate strategic agreements. The purpose of these alliances is to

expand new business models that can yield profit from the emerging

customer expectations of availability of content.

We all are aware that there is a rapid growth with respect to usage of

electronic applications and the internet and people, all over the world, have

entered the digital age because of technological development. Most of the

media-related organisations are experimenting with new openings and

concerns - afforded by what is termed as "convergence". The act of

combining together of different media and integrating new personalised

services is both inspiring and overpowering.

The implementation of high-quality computers, changing to digital platforms,

and formation of high-speed computer networks has helped us with new

ways of doing things. The old explanations that provided division between

TV, Radio, Cable, Newspapers, and Films are gone forever. During 1990s,

there was evolution of ownership convergence which resulted in creation of

media-based multinational companies. For example, Disney, Viacom, Sony,

and so on. From the customers perspective, the Internet has also changed

our favourite delivery systems, which include newspapers that provide video

and TV that offer interactive conversations, and radio that offers web-cams.

Media convergence has a major part to play in the field of e-commerce and

information technology. Media convergence is particularly a blending of

television, personal computer, and telecommunications. This helps in

providing a high-speed Internet access, traditional television programs and


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interactive services in a single box. The convergence at a technological

level will facilitate audio, video, and data to be conveyed to customers usinga single pipeline. This pipeline may be in the form of wire which could be

cable or DSL, or may be wireless. This will help the customers to not only

access the Internet from a single box, but also access high-speed networks

through various access points including TVs, PCs, mobile phones and other

mobile devices, public booth, and home appliances.

Activity 2:

Visit http://syntaxclothes.com/ and collect information on the major

factors they consider in creating an e-commerce framework.

Hint:Template management

Self Assessment Questions

6. The _________ in e-commerce will grow and be established in ways

that are impossible to visualise.

7. ________ is a new strategy implemented in recording and billing

customers constantly depending on their product usage.

8. A process of interlinking of computing and information technology

organisations, telecommunication networks, and content providers

from various mediums is _________.

9. Creative content is transformed into industry-related digital forms for

delivery. (True/False).10. The convergence at a ________ level will facilitate audio, video, and

data to be conveyed to customers using a single pipeline.

1.4.3 The Anatomy of e-commerce applications

In the previous section, we discussed about e-commerce and media

convergence. Let us now discuss about the anatomy of e-commerce

applications.

Currently, the best and the easiest form of interaction between businessmen

and customers is the Internet. Online buying & selling of products, which

includes websites, is gaining popularity because of rapidly advancingtechnology-related concepts. Online business is developing quickly through

different software that allow customers to perform buying and selling

activities without much difficulty.


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As discussed in the previous sections, e-commerce applications comprise

multimedia content and multimedia storage servers as well as theinformation delivery system, the devices that function as interfaces for

various e-commerce applications and the network service providers that

serve as access points.

1.4.4 e-Commerce applications

As you must have understood by now, a number of software and hardware

applications are used to carry out the e-commerce transactions. Some

common e-commerce applications include:

Email.

Enterprise content management.

Instant messaging.

Newsgroups.

Online shopping and order tracking.

Online banking.

Online office suites.

Domestic and international payment systems.

Shopping cart software.

Teleconferencing.

Electronic tickets.

Some of the benefits of e-commerce applications include: Expanding geographical reach.

Expanding customer base.

Increasing visibility with the help of Search Engine Marketing.

Providing the required business information to customers.

Making the website available 24/7/365.

Building customer reliability.

Reducing marketing and advertising expenses.

Collecting customer data.

Increasing sales.

e-Commerce applications must have the skill to deal with the activities

involved in a business. Those skills include accepting and managing

payments, handling the checkout pipeline, and choosing, collecting and

distributing products to customers. Apart from these, companies use the


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applications to improve the online experience of customers and in turn

enhance customer traffic.Electronic Payment Systems

An electronic payment system (EPS)4 is a system of financial exchange

between buyers and sellers in the online environment that is facilitated by a

digital financial instrument (such as encrypted credit card numbers,

electronic cheques, or digital cash) backed by a bank, an intermediary, or by

legal tender.

EPS plays an important role in e-commerce because it is necessary to close

the e-commerce loop, since billing and payment are the last activities in any

sales transactions. In developing countries, the underdeveloped electronic

payments system is a serious impediment to the growth of e-commerce. In

these countries, entrepreneurs are not able to accept credit card payments

over the Internet due to legal and business concerns. The primary issue is

transaction security.

Search Engines: A Search engine is a program which accesses a vast

record of information on the World Wide Web. It includes individual words in

web files and location of the files containing the words. For example, you

are the user of a search engine and you want to find a file, then type a

query. This is followed by a group of keywords connected by Boolean

connectors such as and and or. In some cases, a natural languagesentence is also used. Once you enter your query and do a search, the

search engine will throw up all the files that contain the keywords that were

used in your search. For example, the query Java & compiler will return with

the addresses of all those web files that have the words Java and

compiler.

Other commercial websites

Other commercial websites used in e-commerce include:

Anonymous remailer:It is a website which allows you to send an email

anonymously or secretly to some recipient.

Link checking sites: The site to which you submit the address of a web

page is a link checking site. It will save this address in a database and

4http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/E-Commerce_and_E-Business/

e-Commerce_Applications:_Issues_and_Prospects


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then at times verify if the document is still available. If it notices that a

document is not available, then it sends an email to the customer whohad requested the site to observe the document.

Archive sites: The websites that offer customers a facility to store their

files or documents at a safe location are archive sites. This site protects

against any harm being done to the computer or fear of losing some

important data. Archive sites users need to register with it using a login

name and a password. The users are then asked to follow a set of

instructions that help them to carry out the process of gathering their

files together to be sent to the remote location.

Change notification sites:Variations on link checking sites are change

notification sites. In this site, the customer is informed when thedocument is altered, but not when a web document is unavailable. For

example, you visit a tourism website and when browsing, you see a

page which contains an advertisement about some holiday package to a

particular destination. With the help of this application, you can keep

abreast of any updation to that particular page.

E-mail providers: The sites which offer free email facilities, which

provide a facility of sending anonymous mail and constructing mailing

lists are e-mail providers. E-mail providers are very useful for the users

who cannot afford the usual mailing software. This site is also helpful for

frequent travellers who can visit such sites from any part of the world.

The major drawback of this site is that it is slow as compared to

conventional mailing services such as Microsoft Outlook and Eudora.

Anatomy of an e-commerce Website

Consider an e-commerce website as a storefront for products or services

that you wish to sell online. Your main task is to convert your website user

into actual customers. You must have a lot of interesting content and

products on your website to attract search engines and also to notify

potential customers.

Given below are the main parts of an e-commerce site: Online product catalogue is the main place used to store and handle

the information about products or collection of products.

Shopping cart is a commonly used interface that customers apply to

pick products that they want to purchase. The shopping cart helps in


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maintaining information about the products that your customer wishes to

buy and also support them with the checkout process. Checkout systemgathers required payment details from the customer,

which also include shipping & billing addresses, credit card details, or

other payment mechanism details. It may also be organised to present

shipping rates, taxes, vouchers, or estimate other variations to arrive at

the final cost.

Payment gateway is a protected service that moves payment and credit

card details from your website to a merchant account assigned by a

bank or financial organisation that deals with online transactions. It also

handles any response or the feedback that is got from the bank, for

example, when a customer has inadequate funds or is using an invalid

credit card.

Merchant account is a special bank account that permits your website

to allow online payments to be done through credit or debit cards. The

banks that have merchant account facility charge changing fees per

transaction and transaction types.

Fulfilment is when the order is worked through e-commerce website

and then results in a completed order that is shipped out.

1.4.5 Multimedia storage servers

Due to recent advancement in communication and technologies, it hasbecome possible and economically practical to offer online access to

various information sources such as books, magazines, pictures, video

clips, and scientific data. The planning of such services includes providing

multimedia storage servers that are linked to customer sites with the help of

high-speed networks. Customers of such services are allowed to recover

multimedia objects from the server for real-time playback at their own sites.

Moreover, the recovery can be interactive, which means that customers may

stop, break, continue, and also record and correct the media information if

they have the consent to do so.

The design of such multimedia services varies considerably from traditional

text/numeric storage and recovery services. This is because of two basic

features of digital audio and video:

Real-time storage and retrieval: Both audio and video media are

repeatedly referred to as continuous media (CM). This is because they


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consist of a series of media quanta, for example, video frames or audio

samples which communicate the meaning only when accessedconstantly in time. Additionally, a multimedia object usually includes

some media constituents whose playback is temporally coordinated.

Large data transfer rate and storage space necessity: Playback of digital

video and audio transfer data at a very high rate. Therefore, a

multimedia service has to give useful mechanisms for storing,

recovering, and controlling data in huge quantities at high speeds.

As a result, the crucial components in the design phase of such multimedia

services include:

Multimedia storage servers that help in supporting continuous recovery

of media information from the storage subsystem.

Network subsystems that guarantee synchronous and appropriate

delivery of media information to the display sites.

Some of the multimedia objects include images, text, audio, and video.

Multimedia storage servers assist in providing access to these multimedia

objects. The design of such servers primarily varies from usual servers

because of:

Real-time storage and retrieval requirements.

Large storage space and data transfer rate needs of digital multimedia.

There is development of various multimedia applications because of rapidprogress in the fields of communication, compression technology, and also

Internet. Examples for such applications are interactive multiplayer games,

distance education, online virtual worlds, and so on.

These applications vary from the usual applications in two ways and they

are:

1. Firstly, they provide storage, transmission, and processing of

heterogeneous data types which include text, image, audio, and video

that vary in their features (for example, size, data rate, real-time

requirements, so on).

2. Secondly, different from conventional best-effort applications, these

applications require varied performance requirements for example,

regarding timeliness on the networks and operating systems.


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Activity 3:

Make a list of some common e-commerce applications that you arefamiliar with.

Hint: Online shopping and order tracking


11. A ________ is a program which accesses a vast record of information

on the World Wide Web.

12. A website which allows you to send an email anonymously or secretly

to some recipient is ________.

13. The site to which you submit the address of a web page is _________.

14. ________ are very useful for the users who cannot afford the usualmailing software.

15. _________ is a protected service that moves payment and credit card

details from your website to a merchant account.

16. ________ are linked to customer sites with the help of high-speed

networks.

1.5 Summary

Electronic commerce or e-commerce deals with purchasing and selling of

products or services via electronic systems. These electronic systems are

mostly in the form of Internet. There are different names given to electroniccommerce, which include e-commerce and or e-business. The Internet has

been extremely helpful in carrying out trade electronically.

The traditional business situation is changing quickly as the customers and

businesses search for flexibility to change business partners, plans, and

networks. The companies are searching for activities outside and also within

their organisations to decide on business strategies. These activities include

setting up private electronic connections to customers, dealers, distributors,

industry groups and also opponents. Electronic commerce plans have

different approaches for their security and privacy, their ability to handle

payments, and their usability to different transactions. They also vary in theirbusiness tactics.

The e-commerce framework comprises the exclusive hardware and

software requirements that make the business transactions happen on the


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Internet. It includes some specific applications like search engine, online

payment applications, online shopping carts and so on.Media convergence plays a crucial role in e-commerce and information

technology. Media convergence refers to a merger of television, personal

computer, and telecommunications into a single box. This facilitates the

users to have high-speed Internet access, traditional television programs,

and interactive services in a single application. Multi-media servers play a

very important role in e-commerce, as they are required to store and

transform all forms of information like data, voice, music and video.

1.6 Glossary

Term Description

Anonymous Having no recognition, name, identity, or known source

Convergence The occurrence of two or more things coming together

Interoperability The capability to exchange and use information

Peculiarity A weird or strange feature

Teleconferencing A meeting of people who are in different locations held usingtelecommunications equipment as closed-circuit television

1.7 Terminal Questions

1. Explain briefly how e-commerce acts as a cutting edge in todays

business world.

2. Explain any three requirements needed to create a broad e-commerce

framework and also to perform various business activities.

3. Explain briefly the role of media convergence in e-commerce.

4. List some common applications related to e-commerce.

5. Explain briefly any three commercial websites.

6. Explain the main parts of an e-commerce site.

1.8 Answers


1. Electronic commerce

2. Business-to-Business

3. Information Superhighway.

4. True


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5. Connectivity

6. Innovation7. Meterware

8. Media Convergence

9. True

10. Technological

11. Search engine

12. Anonymous remailer

13. Link checking site

14. E-mail providers

15. Payment gateway

16. Multimedia storage serversTerminal Questions

1. Refer section 1.3 Electronic CommerceCutting Edge.

2. Refer section 1.4 Electronic Commerce Framework.

3. Refer section 1.4.2 Electronic commerce and media convergence.

4. Refer section 1.4.4 e-Commerce applications.



1.9 Case-Let

Patrick Allis International: Serving multiple customers

Patrick Allis International is the worlds leading designer and distributor of

clothing, accessories, and perfumes. The products are sold in

departmental stores, and also online and in the companys own retail

stores. Before Patrick Allis International thought of starting a new online

presence, it already had a brochure website. But this site had many

issues which included outdated and useless design and images,

branding problems, and also lacked interactivity. It was very difficult to

revise and update the site because there was no integrated content

management system. Hence, this demanded Patrick Allis to create a newonline presence to have a proper interaction with visitors, financiers, and

also job seekers. Hence, they consulted Trinity Partners to find the

solution for this problem.


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e-Commerce Unit 1


Solution:

Trinity Partners initiated the process with an established Website

Requirement Specification (WRS) stepwise approach and methodically

implementing research & strategy, designing and information

architecture.

Both Patrick Allis International and Trinity Partners defined all the goals

for the new site which included enhancing the customer experience,

improving the interaction with various customer groups, and also

competently promoting the companys multiple brands.

Then Trinity Partners designed the new site, setting up a clear, user-

friendly navigation, and also creating attractive visuals, with stylish flashimages to give an aesthetic look for advertisements.

Success:

Patrick Allis International now has developed an influential online

communication tool it had imagined. This in turn has helped in improving

the interaction with visitors, financiers and job seekers. It has also helped

in increasing the brands visibility and also enhancing recognition.

Questions:

1. What were the problems faced by Patrick Allis International from the

companys brochure website?

Hint: Outdated and useless design and images.2. What were the goals defined by both Patrick Allis International and

Trinity Partners for creation of new site?

Hint: Enhancing the customer experience.

http://www.ecommercepartners.net/Case-Studies/Perry-Ellis.shtml

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_commerce

http://www.e-commerceprogram.com/

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1425043/media-

convergence

Unit 1final.pdf

Documents

Transcript of Unit 1final.pdf