Chapter 6

Define e-commerce and distinguish it from e-business.

E- commerce describes the process of buying, selling, and transferring, or exchanging products, services, or information via computer networks, including the internet. E-business is a much broader concept. In addition to the buying and selling of goods and services, e-business also refers to the servicing customers, collaborating with business partners, and performing electronic transactions within an organisation.

Distinguish among B2C, B2B, C2C and B2E electronic commerce.

- B2C -->the sellers are an organisation, and the buyers are individuals.(business to consumer)
- B2B --> both the sellers and the buyers are business organisations (business to business)
- C2C --> an individual sells a product or services to another individual (consumer to consumer)
- B2E -->an organisations uses EC internally to provide information and services to its employees. Companies allow employees to manage their benefits and to take training classes electronically.

List some benefits and limitations of e-commerce.

E-commerce benefits an organisation by making national and international markets accessible and by lowering the costs of processing, distributing and retrieving information. Customers benefit by being able to access a vast number of products and services, around the clock. The major benefit to society is the ability to easily and conveniently deliver information, services, and products to people in cities, rural areas and developing countries.

What are spamming, permission marketing and viral marketing?

· Spamming -is the abuse of electronic messaging systems. It is the indiscriminate distribution of electronic ads without the permission of the receiver.
· Permission marketing asks consumers to give their permission to voluntarily accept online advertising and email. Permission marketing is the basis of many Internet marketing strategies.
· Viral marketing refers to online ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing. The idea behind viral marketing is to have people forward messages to friends, suggesting that they “check this out”. For example a marketer can distribute a small game program embedded with a sponsor’s email that it is easy to forward. Viral marketing allows companies to build brand awareness at a minimal cost.

What are micropayments?

Micropayments are when people, having to pay for something very expensive, pay small payments over a periods of time. It is used to replace the impractical means of paying large amounts of money at once.

For further information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropayment

What is Multichanneling?

Multichanneling is a process in which a company integrates its online and offline channels.

List the major ethical issues in EC

- Threats to privacy
- Protection through encryption
- cookies
- Replaces workers
- Tracking

List the major legal issues of EC.

- Fraud
- Domain names
- other fees
- Copyright
- Taxes
- cyber squatting