E-Commerce
WHAT IS ELECTRONIC COMMERCE?
The advance and growth in IT & internet have enabled revolutionary vast changes in the way businesses and people trade. Trading in its simplest definition is all about communication. The spread of computers worldwide and the usage of information technology have played a major role in facilitating and enhancing the communication between traders therefore gave the ignition for E-commerce to come to light.
Electronic commerce (e-commerce) has many definitions found in several publications; the definition is in some way arbitrary. According to different publications:
"Electronic Commerce (EC) is where business transactions take place via telecommunications networks, especially the Internet." 1
"Electronic commerce describes the buying and selling of products, services, and information via computer networks including the Internet." 2 The first forms of Electronic commerce was in the 1960s/70s when banks introduced Electronic Funds (EFT) to exchange information within the industry in a secure matter. Later on, by the 1970s to 1980s Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was found which business used for data transmition between companies. And by the 1990s, the World Wide Web helped ecommerce flourish by providing easy to use technology for information publishing and reach.
TYPES OF E-COMMERCE
There are many ways to categorize and identify the types of E-commerce. One of the ways of representing the different and various models is by distinguishing and by identifying the participants directly involved within the transaction. Those are divided into different schemas:
- Business-to-Business (B-to-B)
- Business-to-Government (B-to-G)
- Business-to-Customer (B-to-C)
- Customer-to-Business (C-to-B)
- Customer-to-Customer (C-to-C)
- Government-to-Business (G-to-B)
- Government-to-Customer(G-to-C)
- Government-to-Government (G-to-G)
Business-to-Business (B-to-B)
Business to business ecommerce represents the largest
The advance and growth in IT & internet have enabled revolutionary vast changes in the way businesses and people trade. Trading in its simplest definition is all about communication. The spread of computers worldwide and the usage of information technology have played a major role in facilitating and enhancing the communication between traders therefore gave the ignition for E-commerce to come to light.
Electronic commerce (e-commerce) has many definitions found in several publications; the definition is in some way arbitrary. According to different publications:
"Electronic Commerce (EC) is where business transactions take place via telecommunications networks, especially the Internet." 1
"Electronic commerce describes the buying and selling of products, services, and information via computer networks including the Internet." 2 The first forms of Electronic commerce was in the 1960s/70s when banks introduced Electronic Funds (EFT) to exchange information within the industry in a secure matter. Later on, by the 1970s to 1980s Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was found which business used for data transmition between companies. And by the 1990s, the World Wide Web helped ecommerce flourish by providing easy to use technology for information publishing and reach.
TYPES OF E-COMMERCE
There are many ways to categorize and identify the types of E-commerce. One of the ways of representing the different and various models is by distinguishing and by identifying the participants directly involved within the transaction. Those are divided into different schemas:
- Business-to-Business (B-to-B)
- Business-to-Government (B-to-G)
- Business-to-Customer (B-to-C)
- Customer-to-Business (C-to-B)
- Customer-to-Customer (C-to-C)
- Government-to-Business (G-to-B)
- Government-to-Customer(G-to-C)
- Government-to-Government (G-to-G)
Business-to-Business (B-to-B)
Business to business ecommerce represents the largest
References: Perspective. Prentice Hall, 1999. 4- Choi et al., The Economics of Electronic Commerce. Macmillan Technical Publications, 1997, p. 18.