Definitions and Concepts

Terminologies

• Electronic cash (e-cash) - A digital currency used on the Internet to buy and sell products.
• Electronic commerce (e-commerce) - Any form of commerce in which the buyer of a product or service uses a computer to interact with the computer system of the seller of that product or service.
•  Internet - A collection of interconnected computers that people can log onto share information, to communicate, to be entertained, and to perform electronic commerce transactions.
• Intranet - A network internal to your organization that is built either partially or completely from Internet-based technology.
• World Wide Web (WWW) - A component of the internet that provides uses with the ability to move from computer system to computer system by following predefined links among those system.

What is E- Commerce ?

Electronic commerce  ( EC, or e-commerce) describes the process of buying, selling, transferring, or exchanging products, services, and/or information via computer networks, including the Internet. Some people view the term commerce as describing only transaction conducted between business partners.

When this definition of commerce is used, some people find the term electronic commerce to be fairly narrow. Thus, many use the term e-business instead. E-business refers to a broader definition of EC, not just the buying and selling of goods and services, but also servicing customers, collaborating with business partners, conducting e-learning, and conducting electronic transactions within an organization. Others view e-business as the "other than buying and selling" activities on the Internet, such as collaboration and intrabusiness activities.

Pure EC Vs Partial EC

 Electronic commerce can take several forms depending on the degree of digitization (the transformation from physical to digital) involved. The degree of digitization can relate to:

1. the product (service) sold,
2. the process, or
3. the dilivery agent (or intermediary).

Choi et al. (1997) created a framework that explains the possible configurations of these three dimensions.

• A product can be physical or digital,
• The process can be physical or digital,
• And the delivery agent can be physical or digital.

In traditional commerce all three dimensions are physical, and in pure EC all dimentions are digital. All other combinations include a mix of digital and physical dimension.

If there is at least one digital dimension, we consider the situation electronic commerce but only partial EC. For example, buying a shirt at Wall-Mart Online, or a book from Amazon.com is partial EC, because the merchandise is physically delivered by FedEx. However, buying an e-book from Amazon.com or a software product from Buy.com is pure EC, because the product, its delivery, payment, and transfer agent are all done online.

EC Organizations.

Pure physical organizations (corporations) are referred to as brick-and-mortar (or old-economy) organizations, whereas companies that are engaged only in EC are considered virtual (or pure-play) organizations.

Internet Versus Non-Internet Ec

Most e-commerece is done over the Internet.But EC can also be conducted on private networks, such as value-added networks (VANs, networks that add communication services to exiting common carriers), on local area networks (LANs), or even on a single computerized machine.For example, buying food from a vending machine and paying with a smart card or a cell phone can be viewed as EC activity.