Doing Business in

the Online World

CH#9B
E –commerce

 Ecommerce, also known

as electronic commerce or
internet commerce, refers to the
buying and selling of goods or
services using the internet, and the
transfer of money and data to
execute these transactions
 E-Commerce at consumer level
Overview:
 Tens of thousands of online businesses cater to
the needs of consumers. These companies
websites provide information about product and
services , take orders, receive payments, and
provide on-the-spot customer service.
 These websites can be divided into two general
categories:
• Shopping Sites
• Personal-finance sites
Online Shopping

 Online Shopping means buying a product or service through a website.

 Effective online shopping sites share a few essential features:

• A catalog where you can search for information about products and services.

• A checkout section where you can securely pay for the items you want to
purchase.

• A customer service page where you can contact the merchant for assistance.

 Some of the examples of online shopping sites are

• Amazon.com

• Ebay.com
Online Stores versus physical locations

• In a physical store, you can wander and see the merchandise for yourself. If the store is
too big or the layout is too confusing , you can ask representive for guidance. This is one
of the big advantage of going to the store yourself.

• In an online store, you don’t have that advantage of physical store. You can’t walk around
and pick up the merchandise of yourself or grab some free samples.

Using Online Catalogs

• Online catalogs would be very difficult if merchants did not provide easy-to-use catalogs
on their website.

• Many e-commerce websites are setup like categories. These catalogs lump products into
categories.
Paying for Purchases
• Online merchants usually try to make
online shopping as similar as possible to
shopping at a real store.

• You can pay for your purchase in several

ways

• One-Time credit card purchase

• Set up an online account

Online Banking and Finance

• Retailors are not the only businesses reaching out to consumers over the web. If you
are interested in investing, borrowing money, buying insurance, applying for a credit
card or doing some other task, you can do it online now.

Online Banking

• The term online banking refers to using a bank’s website to handle banking-related
issues. We can do the following tasks:
• Create an Account

• Transfer funds

• Record or view transactions

• Pay Bills
E-Commerce at the Business Level

• E-Commerce has given companies an entirely different way to conduct business.

Using powerful websites and online databases, companies not only sell goods to
individual customers, but also track inventory, send invoices, and receive payments.

Business-to-Business Transactions

• A business-to-business transaction is one that take place between companies;

consumers are not involved.

• Any financial transaction between two companies can be considered a B2B

transaction.
Intranets and Extranets

• An intranet is a private network that allows employees and staff in an enterprise to

securely share knowledge and information easily within the company or
organization. Information, tools, directories, and services available on a company’s
intranet are typically unavailable to the general public.

• An extranet is a private network that leverages internet technology and public

telecommunication system to share part of a business's information or operations
over a secure system with suppliers, vendors, partners, customers, or other
businesses. An extranet is often considered part of a company's intranet that is
extended to authorized users outside of the organization.
Telecommuters
• A telecommuter is someone who normally
works in a location other than company’s
office or factory.

Security
• When using an e-commerce site, you can
determine if the current page is secure in
two ways:
• By checking the URL

• By checking your browser status bar