The use of the Internet and the Web to conduct business transactions. It involves digitally enabled commercial transactions between and among organizations and individuals.
What is the difference between e-Commerce and e-Business?
- e-Commerce involves digitally enabled commercial transactions between organizations and individuals.
- e-Business does not involve commercial transactions.
- e-Business is the digital enablement of transactions and processes within a firm.
When does e-Commerce become e-Business?
e-Business turns into e-commerce when an exchange of value occurs across firm boundaries.
What is information asymmetry?
Information asymmetry is the term used to describe the study of decisions in transactions where one party has more or better information than the other. Generally applies to information about price, cost and hidden fees.
What are some of the unique features of e-Commerce technology?
UGU RIIPS:
-Ubiquity -Global Reach -Universal Standards -Richness -Interactivity -Information Density -Personalization -Social Technology
What do the Terms Ubiquity and Global Reach mean?
- Ubiquity: available almost everywhere at all times. - Global Reach: potential market size is roughly equal to the size of the online population of the world
What do the terms Universal Standards and Richness mean?
-Universal Standards: Technical standards of the Internet, and therefore of conducting e-commerce are shared by all the
nations of the world.
-Richness: Information that is complex and content rich can be delivered without sacrificing reach.
What do the terms Interactivity and Information Density mean?
Interactivity: Allows for two way communication between the merchant and the consumer.
Information Density: The total amount and quality of information
available to all market participants is vastly increased and is cheaper to deliver.
Personalization: Enables merchants to target their marketing messages to a person's name, interests and past purchases and allows them to change their product or service to suit the purchasing behavior and preferences of a customer.
What is Social Technology?
User content generation and Social Networking technologies.
A marketplace that is not limited to the traditional boundaries of time and geographic location, thanks to the ubiquitious nature of ecommerce
What are three benefits of Universal Standards?
1 - Reduced search costs for consumers 2 - Becomes simpler, faster with more accurate price discovery 3 - Lower market entry costs for merchants
Compare online and traditional transactions in terms of richness.
Traditional transactions provide more richness in terms of face-to-face interaction, including visual and aural cues. Online transactions does not have this, but however overcomes the limitations of reach providing complex info to a global audience.
Name three business consequences that can result from growth in information density
Greater Price Transparency: Customers can find out a variety of prices in a market Greater Cost Trans: Consumers can find out the cost merchants pay for products Greater opportunities for marketers to practice price discrimination
Web 2.0 refers to web applications and technology that allows users to create, edit and distribute content to other users across the internet.
List 5 examples of Web 2.0 websites and explain why you include them in your list
Facebook: Allows users to share short messages, photos videos and more with their friends.
Youtube
Wikipedia
Twitter: Allows users to share short text based messages and images.
Reddit: Allows users to discover + share interesting links to other websites
What does B2C mean? Give examples of B2C websites
Business2Consumer
Yahoo Shopping (Portal) Amazon.com (Retail) Barnes&Noble.com (Retail) Tigerdirect.com (Retail) Newegg.com (Retail) Priceline (Service) Expedia (Service) Travelocity (Service) WSJonline.com (Content) Time.com (Content) NYtimes.com (Content)
Give examples of B2B websites
Intel.com
Grainger.com Verisign.com Paypal.com
Give examples of C2C websites
Ebay.com Ubid.com Craigslist.com Taobao.com
Give examples of P2P websites
Livesteam.com ThePirateBay.org
How are the Internet and the Web similar to or different from other technologies that have changed commerce in the past?
Similar - Each new technological innovation causes the startup of many businesses, but eventually it is only the larger, more established companies that survive. Different - The Internet - 53% US housholds in 10 years. 30% 38 yrs radio. 30% 17 yrs TV.
Describe the three different stages in the evolution of e-commerce
ICR (think of icarus)
Innovation - 1995-200 charaterized by excitement and idealistic visions Consolidation - After 2000. More traditional firms began to use the Web to enhance their businesses Reinvention - 2006 Social networking, Web 2.0
What are the major limitations on the growth of e-commerce? Which is potentially the toughest to overcome?
1) Price of PCs. 2) Need for people to learn complicated Operating Systems (in comparison to TV or telephone) 3) Unlikelihood that digital shopping will replace the social and cultural experience of traditional shopping. Social and cultural limitations are
hardest to overcome.
What are 3 factors that will contribute to greater Internet penetration in U.S households in the next decade?
1) Price of entry level PC like netbooks and smartphones with Internet access has fallen to $200 2) Enhanced capabilities eg Integration with TV, pay-per-view (eg Netflix) 3)Evolution of OSs into simpler platforms 4) Increasing use of wireless web tech
Define Disintermediation and explain the benefits to Internet users of such a phenomenon.
The removal of the market middlemen (distributers, wholesalers etc.) between producers and consumers. The benefit is reduced prices of products for consumers, as the costs of shipping, storage, markup etc. for middlemen is cut out.
How does disintermediation impact friction-free commerce?
Disintermediation of markets would create intense competition. This along with lowered trasaction costs would eliminate product brands, eventually resulting in the elimination of unfair competitive advantages and high returns on capital, which is the goal of f-f commerce.
What are some advantages and disadvatages of being a first mover?
Adv: Ability to build a brand name early on and establish a large customer base before followers enter the market.
Disadv - Historically many first movershave not succeded and are instead reolaced by the fast follower, which are lager firms with the resources
necessary to develop mature markers.
What are 10 Usability Heuristics?
VMH CHAUFER
Visibility of system status Match between system and real world Help and Documentation
Consistency Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors Aesthetic and minimalist design User control and Freedom Flexibility and Efficiency of Use Error
Prevention Recognition rather than recall
Name and Define two methods of purchasing goods
Contract purchases and Spot purchases CP: Long term agreements to buy a specified amount of a product SP: Purchase of goods that meet the immediate needs of a firm
List 5 potential benefits of B2B eCommerce
Increased Price Transparency Increased opportunities for collaborating with suppliers and distributors Lower transaction costs due to elimination of paperwork and partial automation of procurement process Improved quality of products due to increased coorperation among buyers and sellers Lower administrative costs
List some basic problems with a website with bad design
- Infomation is too cluttered - Use of too much colour - Search box should be at the top right corner - Too many menus - Menus at top and bottom of a short page (redundant) - Bad navigation
What are at least four things online merchants need to know about search engines and their use?
-register with as many search engines possible so that users looking for similar sites find yours -Make sure that keywords used in their website match keywords likely to be used by prospective customers -Link sites to as many other sites as possible.
What are the key attributes of a good domain name?
-Short -Memorable -Not easily confused for other domain names -Not easily misspelled -Reflects the nature of the business -Preferably a dot-com suffix
What is a business model?
A set of planned activities designed to result in profit in a marketplace
A description of a business model.
An eCommerce business model ____________________
Leverages unique qualities of internet and web.
List the 8 key elements of a business model
VRM CC MOM
Value Proposition Revenue Model Markey opportunity Competitive environment Competitive advantage Market strategy Organizational development Management team
Describe the five primary revenue models used by eCommerce firms
AT ASS
Advertising revenue model Transaction fee revenue model
Affiliate revenue model Subscription revenue
model Sale revenue model
What are some of the specific ways that a company can obtain a competitive advantage?
-Developing a global market while its competitors only have a national or regional market -obtaining favorable terms from supplies, shippers or labor sources that competitors do not have -having a patent on a product that competitors can't imitate -brand
Why is it difficult to categorize eCommerce business models?
Because the number of business models is limited only by the human imagination, and new business models are being invented daily.
Besides news and articles, what other forms of information or content do content providers offer?
music, photos, videos, artwork, games, educational materials
Name and describe five services currently available through the Web
E-mail: sending of text messages and file attachments to other internet users Instant Messaging: real
time conversation using text Search Engines: Websites that enable users to locate information by matching keywords Podcasts Wikis Internet Telephony (VoIP)
Name three types of system testing
Unit Testing System Testing Acceptance Testing
What are the eight most important factors impacting Web Site design?
Functionality Informational Ease of use Redundant Navigation Ease of purchase Mulitibrowser functionality Simple Graphics Legible Text
How would you protect your firm against a DoS attack?
Increase redundency of your network's servers. Firewalls and proxy servers that filter communications directed at servers should be used.