Introduction to e-Commerce
Week of May 31 – June 9
▪ Categories of e-Commerce: o Electronic commerce includes shopping on the World Wide Web as well as activities such as businesses trading with other businesses or the government, etc., and is broken down by the authors into five categories (p. 5): 1. Business-to-consumer (B2C) occurs when businesses sell finished products or services to individual consumers (pp. 5,7). 2. Business-to-business (B2B) occurs when businesses sell unfinished materials, products, or services to other businesses (pp. 5,7). 3. Business processes that support buying and selling activities includes the maintenance and sharing of information with their customers, suppliers, employees, and partners. These are processes that help organizations work more efficiently (pp. 5-7). ▪ A transaction is an exchange of value, such as a purchase, a sale, or the conversion of raw materials into a finished product. ▪ Business processes are the group of logical, related, and sequential activities and transactions in which businesses engage. 4. Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) occurs when individuals buy and sell items among themselves. Online auctions such as eBay would be perfect examples (pp. 7-8). 5. Business-to-government (B2G) includes business transactions with government agencies. Businesses pay taxes, file reports, or sell goods and services to government agencies (pp. 7-8). 6. Instructors note: The authors fail to mention a sixth category of e-Commerce, government-to-government (G2G). This includes transactions between one government agency and another.
▪ Older e-Commerce Technologies: o It is important to note that commerce was conducted online before the popularity of the World Wide Web through technologies such as EFT and EDI. o Electronic Funds Transfers (EFT) are electronic transmissions of account