E-COMMERCE BUISNESS
Submitted By
Shalini Srivastava
1804301154
[Link] Agriculture
A3 T1
Submitted to
Subject Name-
Subject Incharge name- Shobhit Prajapati
SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE STUDIES,
QUANTUM UNIVERSITY, ROORKEE
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I am thankful to my subject faculty, Mr. Shobhit Prajapati , for giving me such a
nice opportunity to do a report on AI am grateful to him for clarifying my
thinking in several pertinent issues and providing a meaningful insight of the
subject.
This report could not have been written without the generous assistance of
countless individuals who shared their knowledge and expertise. To all of you, I
extend my deepest appreciation.
Finally, and most importantly, my grateful thanks to the Almighty God, for His
grace on me.
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E-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or
selling of products on online services or over the Internet. Electronic commerce
draws on 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 is in turn driven by the
technological advances of the semiconductor industry, and is the largest sector
of the electronics industry.
Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web for at least
one part of the transaction's life cycle although it may also use other
technologies such as e-mail. Typical e-commerce transactions include the
purchase of online books (such as Amazon) and music purchases (music
download in the form of digital distribution such as iTunes Store), and to a less
extent, customized/personalized online liquor store inventory services. There
are three areas of e-commerce: online retailing, electronic markets, and online
auctions. E-commerce is supported by electronic business.
E-commerce businesses may also employ some or all of the followings:
• Online shopping for retail sales direct to consumers via Web
sites and mobile apps, and conversational commerce via live
chat, chatbots, and voice assistants
• Providing or participating in online marketplaces, which process
third-party business-to-consumer (B2C) or consumer-to-
consumer (C2C) sales
• Business-to-business (B2B) buying and selling;
• Gathering and using demographic data through web contacts and
social media
• Business-to-business (B2B) electronic data interchange
• Marketing to prospective and established customers by e-mail or fax
(for example, with newsletters)
• Engaging in pretail for launching new products and services
• Online financial exchanges for currency exchanges or trading
purposes.
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A timeline for the development of e-commerce:
• 1971 or 1972: The ARPANET is used to arrange a cannabis sale
between students at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, later described as "the
seminal act of e-commerce" in John Markoff's book What the
Dormouse Said.
• 1972: Mohamed M. Atalla files a patent for a secure transaction
system over telecommunications networks,
utilizing encryption techniques to assure telephone link security, a
precursor to Internet-based e-commerce.
• 1976: Atalla Technovation (founded by Mohamed Atalla) and Bunker
Ramo Corporation (founded by George Bunker and Simon Ramo)
introduce products designed for secure online transaction processing,
intended for financial institutions.
• 1979: Michael Aldrich demonstrates the first online shopping system.
• 1981: Thomson Holidays UK is the first business-to-business
(B2B) online shopping system to be installed.
• 1982: Minitel was introduced nationwide in France by France
Télécom and used for online ordering.
• 1983: California State Assembly holds first hearing on "electronic
commerce" in Volcano, California. Testifying are CPUC, MCI Mail,
Prodigy, CompuServe, Volcano Telephone, and Pacific Telesis. (Not
permitted to testify is Quantum Technology, later to become AOL.)
• 1984: Gateshead SIS/Tesco is first B2C online shopping
system[10] and Mrs Snowball, 72, is the first online home shopper
• 1984: In April 1984, CompuServe launches the Electronic Mall in the
US and Canada. It is the first comprehensive electronic commerce
service.
• 1989: In May 1989, Sequoia Data Corp. Introduced Compumarket,
the first internet based system for e-commerce. Sellers and buyers
could post items for sale and buyers could search the database and
make purchases with a credit card.
• 1990: Tim Berners-Lee writes the first web browser, WorldWideWeb,
using a NeXT computer.
• 1992: Book Stacks Unlimited in Cleveland opens a commercial sales
website ([Link]) selling books online with credit card
processing.
• 1993: Paget Press releases edition No. 3 of the first app store,
The Electronic AppWrapper[17]
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• 1994: Netscape releases the Navigator browser in October under the
code name Mozilla. Netscape 1.0 is introduced in late 1994
with SSL encryption that made transactions secure.
• 1994: Ipswitch IMail Server becomes the first software available
online for sale and immediate download via a partnership
between Ipswitch, Inc. and OpenMarket.
• 1994: "Ten Summoner's Tales" by Sting becomes the first secure
online purchase through NetMarket.
• 1995: The US National Science Foundation lifts its former strict
prohibition of commercial enterprise on the Internet.
• 1995: Thursday 27 April 1995, the purchase of a book by Paul
Stanfield, Product Manager for CompuServe UK, from W H Smith's
shop within CompuServe's UK Shopping Centre is the UK's first
national online shopping service secure transaction. The shopping
service at launch featured W H Smith, Tesco, Virgin Megastores/Our
Price, Great Universal Stores (GUS), Interflora, Dixons Retail, Past
Times, PC World (retailer) and Innovations.
• 1995: [Link] is launched by Jeff Bezos.
• 1995: eBay is founded by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as
AuctionWeb. It is the first online auction site supporting person-to-
person transactions.
• 1995: The first commercial-free 24-hour, internet-only radio stations,
Radio HK and NetRadio start broadcasting.
• 1996: The use of Excalibur BBS with replicated "Storefronts" was an
early implementation of electronic commerce started by a group
of SysOps in Australia and replicated to global partner sites.
• 1998: Electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded for
printing from the Web.
• 1999: Alibaba Group is established in China. [Link] sold for
US$7.5 million to eCompanies, which was purchased in 1997 for
US$149,000. The peer-to-peer filesharing
software Napster launches. ATG Stores launches to sell decorative
items for the home online.
• 1999: Global e-commerce reaches $150 billion
• 2000: The dot-com bust.
• 2001: eBay has the largest userbase of any e-commerce site.
• 2001: [Link] achieved profitability in December 2001.
• 2002: eBay acquires PayPal for $1.5 billion. Niche retail
companies Wayfair and NetShops are founded with the concept of
selling products through several targeted domains, rather than a
central portal.
• 2003: [Link] posts first yearly profit.
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• 2004: [Link], China's first online B2B transaction platform, is
established, forcing other B2B sites to move away from the "yellow
pages" model.
• 2007: [Link] acquired by R.H. Donnelley for $345 million.
• 2014: US e-commerce and Online Retail sales projected to reach $294
billion, an increase of 12 percent over 2013 and 9% of all retail
sales. Alibaba Group has the largest Initial public offering ever, worth
$25 billion.
• 2015: [Link] accounts for more than half of all e-commerce
growth, selling almost 500 Million SKU's in the US.
• 2017: Retail e-commerce sales across the world reaches $2.304
trillion, which was a 24.8 percent increase than previous year.
• 2017: Global e-commerce transactions generate $29.267 trillion,
including $25.516 trillion for business-to-business (B2B) transactions
and $3.851 trillion for business-to-consumer (B2C) sales.
Types of E-commerce Business Models
1. B2C – Business to consumer.
B2C businesses sell to their end-user. The B2C model is the most common
business model, so there are many unique approaches under this umbrella.
Anything you buy in an online store as a consumer — think wardrobe,
household supplies, entertainment — is done as part of a B2C transaction.
The decision-making process for a B2C purchase is much shorter than a
business-to- business (B2B) purchase, especially for items that have a lower
value.
Think about it: it’s much easier for you to decide on a new pair of tennis shoes
than for your company to vet and purchase a new email service provider or food
caterer.
Because of this shorter sales cycle, B2C businesses typically spend less
marketing dollars to make a sale, but also have a lower average order value and
less recurring orders than their B2B counterparts.
And B2C doesn’t only include products, but services as well.
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B2C innovators have leveraged technology like mobile apps, native advertising
and remarketing to market directly to their customers and make their lives easier
in the process.
For example, using an app like Lawn Guru allows consumers to easily connect
with local lawn mowing services, garden and patio specialists, or snow removal
experts.
Additionally, home service businesses can use Housecall Pro’s plumbing
software app to track employee routes, text customers, and process credit card
payments on the go, benefitting both the consumer and business alike.
2. B2B – Business to business.
In a B2B business model, a business sells its product or service to another
business. Sometimes the buyer is the end user, but often the buyer resells to the
consumer.
B2B transactions generally have a longer sales cycle, but higher order value and
more recurring purchases.
Recent B2B innovators have made a place for themselves by replacing catalogs
and order sheets with ecommerce storefronts and improved targeting in niche
markets.
In 2020, close to half of B2B buyers are millennials — nearly double the
amount from 2012. As younger generations enter the age of making business
transactions, B2B selling in the online space is becoming more important.
3. C2B – Consumer to business.
C2B businesses allow individuals to sell goods and services to companies.
In this ecommerce model, a site might allow customers to post the work they
want to be completed and have businesses bid for the opportunity. Affiliate
marketing services would also be considered C2B.
Elance (now Upwork) was an early innovator in this model by helping
businesses hire freelancers.
The C2B ecommerce model’s competitive edge is in pricing for goods and
services.
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This approach gives consumers the power to name their price or have
businesses directly compete to meet their needs.
Recent innovators have creatively used this model to connect companies to
social media influencers to market their products.
4. C2C – Consumer to consumer.
A C2C business — also called an online marketplace — connects consumers to
exchange goods and services and typically make their money by charging
transaction or listing fees.
Online businesses like Craigslist and eBay pioneered this model in the early
days of the internet.
C2C businesses benefit from self-propelled growth by motivated buyers and
sellers, but face a key challenge in quality control and technology maintenance.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF ECOMMERCE
The invention of faster internet connectivity and powerful online tools has
resulted in a new commerce arena – Ecommerce. Ecommerce offered many
advantages to companies and customers but it also caused many problems.
ADVANTAGES OF ECOMMERCE
• Faster buying/selling procedure, as well as easy to find products.
• Buying/selling 24/7.
• More reach to customers, there is no theoretical geographic
limitations.
• Low operational costs and better quality of services.
• No need of physical company set-ups.
• Easy to start and manage a business.
• Customers can easily select products from different providers
without moving around physically.
DISADVANTAGES OF ECOMMERCE
• 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.
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• There are many hackers who look for opportunities, and thus an
ecommerce site, service, payment gateways, all are always prone to
attack.
Why should you choose E-commerce?
With the ever increasing use of the internet and its popularity among all
demographic segments, electronic commerce is by all means the way to go for
virtually all businesses. Creating an online presence means that a business
owner or company can reach to potential customers and expand business
operations, gaining a significant authority in the marketplace. It is almost
impossible for a company to compete in today’s very competitive business
world if it lacks a strong online presence, which is the essence of e-commerce.
A wide range of small and large companies have leveraged ecommerce to
bolster sales by listing their services and products online, where consumers can
check them and make enquires, as well as place orders at the click of a
computer button.
Empowering Customers
E-commerce has gone a long way in empowering consumers through the
internet. Through their websites and online advertisements, businesses can
communicate with their clients, provide information on new products and
complete sales. Consumer forums and features which allow consumers to give
feedback and comments regarding products and services have conferred on the
customer more say, so that with e-commerce, customers are able to contribute to
the making of the right product for them and having a say on how services are
delivered. This is not only good for the customer, but also for the producers as
they are able to make goods and design services that suit their customers,
avoiding wastages and enhancing customer satisfaction. Ecommerce also saves
time for both businesses and consumers and enhances the customer’s
convenience.
Increased Efficiency
Ecommerce has helped businesses improve their efficiency through
streamlining the production and service delivery process. Execution of online
business transactions that are fast and cost effective has gone a long way in
bolstering business efficiency. What is more, businesses leverage the
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information obtained through e-commerce channels such as online customer
forums to improve the quality of their products, enhance customer satisfaction
and make better corporate decisions. E-commerce has also simplified sales and
marketing as salespeople can complete sales online, saving time, increasing
revenue and enhancing efficiency.
Exploring New Businesses
E-commerce enables new and existing businesses to venture into the market and
reach potential customer without the need for physical presence. This way,
business organizations can create products, avail them on their websites and
other electronic portals and make sales through online transactions, a move that
is only possible through electronic commerce. All in all, the importance of
electronic commerce in the marketplace cannot be overstated, as it has
revolutionized the way of doing business.
e-Commerce process flow
• Customer places an order in your eCommerce system
• Order details are extracted from your eCommerce system and entered into
your business software
• Order is passed to the warehouse to be processed
• Order is placed for fulfilment
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