E-commerce

DEFINITION, TYPES ADVANTAGES AND

DISADVANTAGES.
By:
Dheeraj Srinath

E-COMMERCE

Trading in products or services using computer

networks, such as the Internet.

Uses technologies such as mobile commerce,

electronic funds transfer, supply chain
management, Internet marketing, online
transaction processing, electronic data
interchange (EDI), inventory management
systems, and automated data collection
systems

E-commerce Features

Global Reach

Richness

Interactivity

Information Density

Types of e-commerce
The classification of ecommerce is based on:

who orders the goods and services to be

sold,
who sold those goods and services and the
nature of transactions.

Classification of e-commerce

Business-to-Business (B2B) e commerce

Business-to-Consumer (B2C) e commerce
Consumer-to-Business (C2B) e commerce
Priceline, elance
Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) e commerce
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) e commerce
Craigslist
M-commerce

1. Business-to-Business (B2B)
e-commerce

The companies include in the B2B

ecommerce are manufacturers, wholesalers
rather than retailers only.
High customer competence
Often relationship-driven (little search)
Mostly commodities and standardized goods
Pricing is based on quantity of orders and is
often negotiable.

2.Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
e-commerce

In this e-commerce type, business and consumers

are involved.
Business sell to the public typically through catalogs
utilizing shopping cart software
Highly search-driven (relationships hard to come by)
Customer competence varies widely
Many non-standardized goods sold here
Depends on attractive electronic market places to
entice and sell products and services to the
consumer

3. Consumer-to-Business (C2B) ecommerce

Also called demand collection model.

It enables buyers to name their own price, often
binding, for a specific good or services generating
demand
A consumer posts his project with a set budget
online and often within hours companies review the
customers requirements and bid for the project.
Then the customer will review the bids and selects
the company that will complete the project.

4. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
e-commerce

It facilitates the online transaction of goods or

services between two peoples.
However, there is no visible intermediary involved,
but the parties cannot carry out the transactions
without the platform, which is provided by the online
market such as eBay.

Examples:
Advertisement of personal services over the internet.
Selling of knowledge and expertise online.

5. Peer-to-Peer (P2P)
e-commerce
Like C2C but without the platform commercially
involved.
May need software for communication on the
common platform.
Examples:
Craigslist, Napster, Mininova

Advantages of E-commerce

Faster buying/selling procedure, as

well as easy to find products.
Buying/selling 24/7.
Low operational costs and better
quality of services.
Easy to start and manage a business.
No need of physical company set-ups.
Customers can easily select products
from different providers without
moving around physically.

Disadvantages of E-commerce

Any one, good or bad, can easily start a business.

And there are many bad sites which eat up
customers money.

There is no guarantee of product quality.

Mechanical failures can cause unpredictable effects

on the total processes.

As there is minimum chance of direct customer to

company interactions, customer loyalty is always
on a check.

There are many hackers who look for opportunities,

and thus an ecommerce site, service, payment
gateways, all are always prone to attack.