ECommerce

Muhammad Shabbir Hassan

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Definition of e-Commerce

• ‘Formulating commercial transactions at a site remote from the trading partner and then using electronic communications to execute that transaction.’

• The definition includes business to business and business to consumer transactions.

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History of E-Commerce• ARPAnet created in 1969 (evolved to TCP/IP)• Personal computers exploded in 1981

– Processing power increases, cost decreases

• LANs and WANs became requirements in 1980s• The Internet was of significant size by mid 1980s• WWW started in 1990 with HTTP and HTML• General browser technology created in 1993

(used HTTP, ftp and .gif and .jpg images)• Search engines soon followed (AltaVista, Lycos)

History of Internet Growth

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

Users,sites,traffic,revenue

Initial Novelty Utility

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History of E-Commerce• Businesses transformed Internet technologies into

intranets, extranets to solve integration problems• Object Oriented Programming (Java) and the Web provide

new client-server paradigm• Audio (.wav), video (.mpg), animation (Flash) standards• Broadcast and Push technologies, e.g. PointCast• Portals, intelligent web agents, personalization• General telecom (audio, video) over IP• Wireless Internet access (cell phones and PDAs) …

pervasive computing

2001 Daniel L. Silver 6

Key Technologies Enabling E-Commerce Evolution

• Decreasing cost of increasingly more powerful hardware – GHz processors, GB drives

• Integration of voice, data, image, video data• Distributed database methods• Graphical user interfaces (GUI)• Communications (TCP/IP, HTTP) protocols and

content/ publication (HTML, XML) standards• Object oriented methods (Java, J2EE, ORB)

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E-Commerce technologies

• The three e-Commerce technologies are:– Electronic Markets– Electronic Data Interchange– Internet Commerce

Electronic Markets

Internet Commerce

EDI

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Electronic markets• The use of information and communications technology to

present a range of offerings available in a market segment and hence enable:– the purchaser to compare the prices (and other attributes);– make a purchase decision.

• The usual example of an electronic market is an airline booking system.

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Electronic markets

• There is the potential for new electronic markets to be created using Internet technologies.

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Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

• EDI provides a standardised system for coding trade transactions so that they can be communicated directly from one computer system to another.

• EDI removes the need for printed orders and invoices and avoids the delays and errors implicit in paper handling.

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Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

• EDI is used by organisations that make a large number of regular transactions. Examples are the large supermarket chains and the vehicle assemblers which use EDI for transactions with their suppliers.

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Internet commerce• Information and communications technologies can also be used to

advertise and make once-off sales of a wide range of goods and services.

• This type of e-Commerce is typified by the commercial use of the Internet. The Internet can, for example, be used for the purchase of books that are then delivered by post or the booking of tickets that can be picked up by the clients when they arrive at the event.

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Internet commerce

• It is to be noted that the Internet is not the only technology used for this type of service and this is not the only use of the Internet in e-Commerce.

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The trade cycle

• Conducting a commercial transaction involves the following steps:– Pre-Sale:

• Search - finding a supplier• Negotiate – agreeing the terms of trade

– Execution:• Order• Delivery

– Settlement:• Invoice• Payment

– After-sales, e.g. warrantee and service