Most people tend to believe that e-commerce is just about buying and selling stuff over the Internet. Actually, electronic commerce is a general term describing the electronic exchange of business information between two or more organizations’ computers. For instance, consider the income tax Return electronic filing, online portals like Prodigy, online banking and online billing for services or products received. Besides, e-commerce also means buying and selling any goods or services over the Internet, electronic fund transfers and all other ways of doing business in the virtual space.

Since the Internet spread dramatically over the entire Globe, the amount of businesses done electronically has grown amazingly. A large amount of online transactions are done completely electronically for virtual services like subscriptions to premium content websites. However, most e-businesses also imply the transportation of physical goods in some way. Online retailers are also known as e-tailers and online retail known as e-tail and usually, all major retail brands have an online e-commerce presence.

Electronic means of carrying transactions between two or more businesses are referred to as business-to-business or B2B. Electronic commerce that is carried out between businesses and their consumers is known as business-to-consumer or B2C. A great example of B2C is Amazon.com. E-commerce is usually considered the sales part of the electronic business and it also consists of data exchange enabling the financing and payment of the business transactions.  

Some of the most popular applications related to electronic commerce are:

When thinking about modern electronic commerce, we are talking about everything from ordering digital content for immediate online use, to ordering traditional goods or services, to “meta” services to facilitate other types of electronic commerce. On the consumer level, e-commerce is mostly done over the Internet. A potential customer can go online and buy anything from books or different types of food, to expensive items like cars and real estate. Another great example is online banking –paying the bills online, buying or selling stocks, transferring funds from one account to another and even sending money to other countries and everything just from a few clicks away.

Although everything seems so incredibly easy and fast, there is one concern though. Security. How can you and your business stay safe from online theft? The answer is clear. Every time, before you have entered your credit card information and purchased goods over the Internet, make sure that the payment system is fully protected. Experienced users will always choose to do business and conduct secure transactions via protected and secured websites.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is an important security protocol that provides data security and privacy of communication over the Internet. Payment gateways on e-commerce websites are usually protected by SSL, so when you are being prompted for your personal credit card information via protected e-commerce websites, a cryptographic key is being generated. As the result of encryption, your authenticated session has a unique private key and there is only one transaction being conducted during authenticated session.

Going further, in order to promote trust among business providers and consumers online, the Internet Better Business Bureau introduces the Code of online business practices. Internet Better Business Bureau is dedicated to provide online businesses and consumers with highly trusted marketplace and client loyalty and confidence for best business relations. The BBU standards in online business transactions are specially created to assist the companies in providing public and private protection in e-commerce.

These days one of the biggest issues for e-commerce organizations is the management of secure information because more and more people become reluctant in giving out any credit or personal information over the web. This can be addressed by choosing McAfee Secure for their e-commerce websites to protect their business from threats coming from the potential issues before any damage is done. McAfee Safe protects e-commerce websites from malwares by using the best practices. The McAfee Safe trustmark on e-commerce websites also helps to build consumer trust if they know that their private information is safe.  

For more information – http://www.arnima.com/Solutions/Web-ECommerce-Design.asp 

Having a number of websites already created as an examples to show business owners, will make explaining electronic commerce easier. In your own local community, you may be surprised to find a number of small businesses that do not yet have a presence on the Internet. If you contact these business owners and discuss with them the necessity of an online presence, you will probably find many takers, as it is generally only a lack of information which has held them back previously.

Although small businesses already have their stable of clients or customers, still they must constantly attract new customers to keep the business viable. Even if the small businesses owner does not want to sell items online, a website that provides information to Internet users in their searching, can increase their business. If there were a sign-up form or opt-in page on the website, offering the latest, up-to-date- information on their particular industry, or some freebies, or reports, they would then have an already interested, captive audience to send offers to. Electronic traffic is sometimes better than walk-in traffic.

With some sort of tangible study of Internet marketing and search engine-optimisation, including how keywords figure into search results and search engine rankings, you can offer the small business owner the relevant information for a fee. You can charge for a consultation in which you lay out a plan for the small business owner to create a presence online to draw in more customers.

If you think that the teaching of electronic commerce is something that is beyond your skills, there are dozens, even hundreds, of e-commerce packages already available online. For a price, a small business owner can buy a hosted site, create a website, a package of advertising, have information on how to promote and rank significantly on search engines, and usually all of this with the help of software that does all technical work for you. You, yourself don\’t actually have to understand all of it, in order to benefit financially.

One of the ways the creators of these all-in-one packages sell so many of them is through affiliate marketing. With this simple concept — they create the package, then they allow other people to promote the package for them. That\’s YOU. When a package is sold, thanks to the effort of someone else, YOU (tracked by the link the purchaser used to get to the package) the seller, known as the affiliate marketer, is paid a percentage of that sale. That\’s YOU.

Provided you follow the directions at the site of the package you want to market, you can market it online, or profit by selling packages to local businesses. In this way Teaching E Commerce can be Profitable.

In India, the business idea has been redefined at a phenomenal rate through the introduction of Internet business. The business world is changing in the last two years; Internet has brought new ideas and restructured every business. On the Internet today is considered one of the most important source of revenue and act as a platform providing many tools, where an individual or a small group or large organization can buy or sell the data, product or service. Today, with the use of this tool, you can easily do business online without disruption. Electronic commerce refers to these tools and forms of business activities are conducted through the Internet.Thus, electronic commerce can be the Internet has helped the trade, which contributes to the marketing, promotion and distribution of products. As its name shows, it also may mean that the conduct of trade in goods or commercial transactions over the Internet. We are living in an era of energy technology and online marketing has affected our standard of living. The term electronic commerce is new and gaining popularity in his hour by hour. As the current scenario, many small and medium enterprises use the Internet to reach potential customers through physical channels, such as large stores are now seriously reduce their costs relative to income. In the scenario of transgression business, electronic commerce is becoming more innovative to promote their products or services.During this time our standard of living change, customers now spend their time day and not moving from shop to shop to buy a product. E-commerce has been their solutions, which has created a mobile technology and maps. Solutions focus on the implementation of a better use of e-commerce technology. It has actually made people easier to have a visually diverse and online products and services with a single click. If we look at the current situation, we can easily say that electronic commerce is not just to talk about online stores, but also about financial matters. Many financial institutions offer their customers user-friendly features to gain access their bank accounts via the Internet currently. No other idea that this new technology is to become the new secret to increase their sales.In previous years Business business, e-commerce and e-commerce solutions provider has grown so strong that no one can now give the idea that his business effectively without the help of e-commerce business solutions provider. E commerce also help us provide better service and e-commerce store online ordering system. It is expected that the growth of the Internet service provider market continues to make e-commerce growth in a very simple and the end of this year 2010, e-commerce business can be about 200 billion dollars.Find an ideal solution for electronic commerce for your business can sometimes be an overly complex, and if you need an e Commerce solution that not only encourage visitors to visit your website, but not acquisition procedure and payment all problems. Another key aspect of e-commerce solution is the speed of processing. In addition, you must provide a secure server that uses encryption to keep track of your target customers, such as numbers of a credit card. Your e Commerce solution must provide potential customers a sense of security so can be secured by placing an order online. Internet today represents the largest bazaar fate and potential new customers than ever and has improved the e-commerce solution will help you get benefits beyond their expectations.BySangesh – To read More Articles, Log on to http://sangeshnn.blogspot.com/

What is e-commerce? e-Commerce, also known as eCommerce, is short for “electronic commerce.” Great. So what’s “electronic commerce,” then? Simple. It’s buying and selling stuff over the Internet. “Stuff” can include goods, services, or both. e-Commerce covers a broad range of businesses, from stores selling specific products, to auctions, to (legal, paid-for) downloading of music and movies. It has become one of the most important results of the spread of the Internet. Think about it. You can go online, buy a book, and have it delivered to your door the next day, without ever setting foot in a bookstore. It seems so natural now, but people couldn’t always do that. When it comes to buying and selling stuff, barriers of time and distance mean very little anymore. e-Commerce has grown incredibly fast over the last few years. Expect this to continue, or even accelerate. Also, you can expect the line between ‘regular’ and ‘e’ commerce to blur more and more. Almost every kind of business will be done will be at least partly over Internet.What is e-commerce? It’s a new way of doing business, relying on innovations in moving money and information around electronically, marketing goods and services over the Internet, processing the actual transaction online and Internet security. The explosive growth of e-commerce creates amazing opportunities. The chance of getting rich inspires people to invent new and better ways of doing all this. Modern e-commerce usually relies mostly on the World Wide Web, at least in part, although it can involve quite a range of technology from the old-fashioned phone call to email to dedicated electronic connections between the business and the customer. Businesses also sell stuff to other businesses, rather than to consumers, over the Internet. Business to business e-commerce is usually referred to as “B2B”. Manufacturers buy parts, retail stores buy from wholesalers, everybody hires programmers, and more and more of this is getting done over the Internet. e-Commerce has a lot of advantages over old-fashioned approaches for B2B. Done right, e-commerce is faster, cheaper, more convenient and can reach more potential customers. It’s worth mentioning that when we describe e-commerce as buying and selling stuff over the internet, it doesn’t quite tell the whole story. It isn’t just selling, e-Commerce also includes passing data back and forth in order for financing and payment to happen. After all, what is the point of selling stuff if you don’t get paid for it? Oh. One more thing. You know that tiny little lower case “e” at the beginning of the word e-commerce? Ever wonder why it’s not a large, beefy upper case E? The answer is simple: the e stands for electronic, and electronic, literally, means having to do with electrons. Electrons are the sub-atomic particles whose moving around gives us energy in the form of electricity. The scientific symbol for electron is a small e. What is e-commerce? Business done electronically. Buying and selling stuff over the Internet. What is e-commerce? Soon, it may be all commerce.

Introduction

Commerce refers to all the activities the purchase and sales of goods or services.

Marketing, sales, payment, fulfillment, customer service. Commerce comprises the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money between two or more entities. Commerce functions as the central mechanism which drives capitalism and certain other economic systems (but compare command economy, for example).

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily since the spread of the Internet. A wide variety of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems.

History

–        Used by the banking industry to exchange account information over secured networks

–        Used by businesses to transmit data from one business to another

–        Cheaper to do business (economies of scale)

–        Enable diverse business activities (economies of scope)

Applications

Some common Business applications related to electronic commerce are:

Some Other Applications are:

Government Regulations

In the United States, some electronic commerce activities are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). These activities include the use of commercial e-mails, online advertising and consumer privacy. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 establishes national standards for direct marketing over e-mail. The Federal Trade Commission Act regulates all forms of advertising, including online advertising, and states that advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive.[3] Using its authority under Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive practices, the FTC has brought a number of cases to enforce the promises in corporate privacy statements, including promises about the security of consumers’ personal information.[4] As result, any corporate privacy policy related to e-commerce activity may be subject to enforcement by the FTC.

Types

Business to Consumer

One of the most common models in E-Commerce is the Business-To-Consumer (B2C) model. In B2C transactions, online transactions are made between businesses and individual consumers. Businesses sell products and services through electronic channels directly to the consumer.

Consumer to Consumer

Consumer-to-consumer (or C2C) electronic commerce involves the electronically-facilitated transactions between consumers through some third party. A common example is the online auction, in which a consumer posts an item for sale and other consumers bid to purchase it; the third party generally charges a flat fee or commission.

Consumer to Busines

Consumer-to-business (C2B ) is an electronic commerce business model in which consumers (individuals) offer products and services to companies and the companies pay them. This business model is a complete reversal of traditional business model where companies offer goods and services to consumers (business-to-consumer = B2C).

Business to Business

Business-to-business (B2B) is a term commonly used to describe electronic commerce transactions between businesses, as opposed to those between businesses and other groups, such as business and individual consumers (B2C) or business and government (B2G).

Building an ecommerce site

Creating Customized Shopping Cart :- Shopping Cart is like a store front where you can display your products, catalogue, price etc. The customer comes to your store through website and selects the item which he requires, after selection gets completed he will be shown with the total amount to be paid for the items he has selected. He would be given an option for paying through Credit Card and complete the transaction. Approaching Payment Gateway Service Provider :- Now the Payment Gateway Service Provider comes into picture who are authorized to accept credit card on behalf of merchant. It may be a Bank or Authorized Company who can accept and process credit card online. They Provide us with the payment gateway software that needs to be integrated with the website to enable secure transaction. The providers are been certified by Digital Certified Authorities like Verisign, Thwate etc which build trust among buyer and can transact safely. Integrating Payment Gateway with your Website :- This is very important part and the last stage of completing you e-presence. Some Team at Cyberweb Global Services Ltd will integrate the Payment Gateway software with your website to carry online transaction safely and securely.

Division of E commerce

As a place for direct retail shopping, with its 24-hour availability, a global reach, the ability to interact and provide custom information and ordering, and multimedia prospects, the Web is rapidly becoming a multibillion dollar source of revenue for the world’s businesses. A number of businesses already report considerable success. As early as the middle of 1997, Dell Computers reported orders of a million dollars a day. By early 1999, projected e-commerce revenues for business were in the billions of dollars and the stocks of companies deemed most adept at e-commerce were skyrocketing. Although many so-called dotcom retailers disappeared in the economic shakeout of 2000, Web retailing at sites such as Amazon.com, CDNow.com, and CompudataOnline.com continues to grow.

In early 1999, it was widely recognized that because of the interactive nature of the Internet, companies could gather data about prospects and customers in unprecedented amounts -through site registration, questionnaires, and as part of taking orders. The issue of whether data was being collected with the knowledge and permission of market subjects had been raised. (Microsoft referred to its policy of data collection as “profiling” and a proposed standard has been developed that allows Internet users to decide who can have what personal information.)

EDI is the exchange of business data using an understood data format. It predates today’s Internet. EDI involves data exchange among parties that know each other well and make arrangements for one-to-one (or point-to-point) connection, usually dial-up. EDI is expected to be replaced by one or more standard XML formats, such as ebXML.

E-commerce is also conducted through the more limited electronic forms of communication called e-mail, facsimile or fax, and the emerging use of telephone calls over the Internet. Most of this is business-to-business, with some companies attempting to use e-mail and fax for unsolicited ads (usually viewed as online junk mail or spam) to consumers and other business prospects. An increasing number of business Web sites offer e-mail newsletters for subscribers. A new trend is opt-in e-mail in which Web users voluntarily sign up to receive e-mail, usually sponsored or containing ads, about product categories or other subjects they are interested in.

Thousands of companies that sell products to other companies have discovered that the Web provides not only a 24-hour-a-day showcase for their products but a quick way to reach the right people in a company for more information.

Security includes authenticating business transactors, controlling access to resources such as Web pages for registered or selected users, encrypting communications, and, in general, ensuring the privacy and effectiveness of transactions. Among the most widely-used security technologies is the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), which is built into both of the leading Web browsers.

Advantages

Unlimited Market Place and Business Access Which Extend Customer Base

A 24 Hour Store Reduced Sale Cycle

Lower Cost of Doing Business

Eliminate Middlemen

Easier Business Administration

Disadvantages

Process

–        Advertising, marketing

–        Catalog, negotiation

–        Order capture

–        Payment

–        Transaction

–        Fulfillment (physical good, service good, digital good)

–        Customer service

–        Order tracking