Commerce Service Providers (CSP)
CSPs are business or web sites that provide ecommerce solutions.
Digital or Electronic Cash or E-cash or Ecash or Digital Money:
These terms are also used interchangeably, and they refer to any of the various methods that allow a person to purchase goods or services by transmitting a number from one computer to another. The numbers are issued by a bank and represent sums of real money. Digital cash is anonymous and reusable. Unlike credit card transactions, the merchant does not know the identity of the shopper. Yahoo’ Listing of Companies Providing various e-commerce solutions. Cybercash and E-cash are two well known methods.
Electronic Checks or Cheques :
Customers pay for merchandise by writing an electronic check that is transmitted electronically by email, fax or phone. The "cheque" is a message that contains all of the information that is found on an ordinary cheque, but it is signed digitally, or indorsed. The digital signature is encoded by encrypting with the customer’s secret key. Upon receipt, the merchant or "payee" may further indorse by encoding with a private key. When the cheque is processed, the resulting message is encoded with the bank’s secret key, thus providing proof of payment.
Various companies are selling Electronic Check software and services.
Electronic Wallet:
Electronic Wallets store your credit card numbers on your hard drive in an encrypted form. You then make purchases at Web sites that support that particular type of electronic wallet . By clicking on a Pay Button, customers initiate a credit card payment via a secure transaction enabled by the electronic wallet company’s server.
Electronic Commerce or Ecom or Emmerce or EC:
These terms are used interchangeably, and they all mean the same thing — the paperless exchange of routine business information using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) , email, electronic bulletin boards, fax transmissions and Electronic Funds Transfer. It refers to Internet shopping, online stock and bond transactions, the downloading and selling of "soft merchandise" (software, documents, graphics, music, etc.), and business to business transactions.
Extranet:
An extranet is an extension of a corporate intranet. It connects the internal network of one company with the intranets of its customers and suppliers. This makes it possible to create e-commerce applications that link all aspects of a business relationship, from ordering to payment.
Disintermediation:
Disintermediation is the process of bypassing retail channels or mail order houses and selling directly to the customer.
Hard Goods vs Soft Goods:
Hard Goods are items that exist in the real world, as opposed to soft goods, which exist virtually or electronically. For instance, an Internet merchant selling a book that is shipped to the customer in a print version is selling hard goods; a merchant offering a book for download in electronic format is selling soft goods.
High Risk Processors:
High risk processors (or brokers) are financial institutions or companies that that issue merchant status accounts to high risk businesses. They offset their risks by charging higher transaction fees and higher rates than traditional banks do. However, the initial outlay of cash that you will be required to put up is usually much less than the large deposits required by traditional banking institutions. Some brokers may offer other added features such as shopping cart software, web site templates, forms or secure lines for ordering.
Immerce:
Immerce is the new term being used for commerce that is transacted totally over the Internet.
Merchant Account:
A Merchant Account is a relationship between a business (i.e. a merchant) and a merchant bank which allows the retailer or merchant to accept credit card payments from customers. Depending on the country involved, banks or financial institutions could have stiff requirements and regulations regarding the issuing of a merchant account. Many small or home based businesses report that they have great (sometimes insurmountable) difficulties acquiring Merchant Status. If Merchant Status is obtained, the merchant then rents or buys special software that is used to process the transaction. In some cases, depending on the bank and depending on the type of business that you are operating, you will also need to purchase or rent a piece of hardware known as a processing terminal.
An Internet Merchant Account is a special account that permits the acceptance of credit cards online. Transactions are processed online, in real time. While the customer waits, the system checks the credit card to be sure that it has not been reported stolen, has not expired, and is listed to the same address that the customer has given. If the card is approved, the customer and the merchant are both automatically notified that the sale has transpired. This type of account is a stricter banking relationship than one involving face-to-face transactions. Web transactions do not gather signatures from purchasers and therefore there is a higher risk of fraud. Merchant Brokers specialize in obtaining credit card accounts for online businesses. Brokers charge a setup fee and lease or sell the software and hardware as needed. Expect to pay a discount rate, which is the percentage you pay for each transaction processed, as well as various other charges that differ among services. If obtaining a merchant account through a traditional bank is proving to be a problem, merchant brokers are a good alternative.
Microtransactions or Micropayments :
Microtransactions are transactions of tiny amounts — a few cents or a few dollars, typically made in order to download or access graphics, games, and information.
Telephone Billing Systems :
A very new approach, telephone transactions allow the customer to purchase an item or service, and the amount will be billed to his or her telephone bill. To date, this is being used for soft items such as downloads, time measured services (i.e. time spent at a Web site) or for making charitable donations online.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Disadvantage of e-commerce
Disadvantages of E-Commerce
Taxes: How would you tax a business selling goods over the Internet? This question arise when e-commerce became more popular. Should consumers pay sales tax on web purchases? If the business and customer are in different states, who state tax would be applied? During the end of the 20th century, the government was trying to ask this question. If web purchases was free from tax, then brick-and-mortar stores will lose business but customers will pay more over the web since shipping and handling fees are applied. Also, small businesses may lose out both ways because they may not have resources to buy expensive software to figure out the different state taxes for each customer.
Security: The biggest disadvantage of e-commerce is the issue of security. Even with the improvements with data encryption, there are still the danger of someone getting a hold of your personal and financial information. Also, some sites don't have the capabilities to prove authentic transactions. If someone gets your credit card, they can go to one of these sites and purchase items without proving who they are. All they need is your name and credit card number which is already printed on the card.
The use of e-commerce can violate these ACM codes such as 1.2 which states, "Avoid harm to others." The risk of identity theft is one problem that businesses who use the concept of e-commerce of their site. An customer who is a victim of this can have their credit history ruin, even their identity stolen. Also, 1.7 of the codes states, "Respect the privacy of others" Since there is not real standard for security enforced for online transactions, many sites do not have high encryption. Many other sites often illegally collect buying statistics on their customers without permission. When taxes were a bigger issue, code 1.4 was violated. It stated , "Be fair and take action not to discriminate." Business owners complain that transactions over the internet are not tax and that businesses who did not have physical stores were being discriminated against.
Taxes: How would you tax a business selling goods over the Internet? This question arise when e-commerce became more popular. Should consumers pay sales tax on web purchases? If the business and customer are in different states, who state tax would be applied? During the end of the 20th century, the government was trying to ask this question. If web purchases was free from tax, then brick-and-mortar stores will lose business but customers will pay more over the web since shipping and handling fees are applied. Also, small businesses may lose out both ways because they may not have resources to buy expensive software to figure out the different state taxes for each customer.
Security: The biggest disadvantage of e-commerce is the issue of security. Even with the improvements with data encryption, there are still the danger of someone getting a hold of your personal and financial information. Also, some sites don't have the capabilities to prove authentic transactions. If someone gets your credit card, they can go to one of these sites and purchase items without proving who they are. All they need is your name and credit card number which is already printed on the card.
The use of e-commerce can violate these ACM codes such as 1.2 which states, "Avoid harm to others." The risk of identity theft is one problem that businesses who use the concept of e-commerce of their site. An customer who is a victim of this can have their credit history ruin, even their identity stolen. Also, 1.7 of the codes states, "Respect the privacy of others" Since there is not real standard for security enforced for online transactions, many sites do not have high encryption. Many other sites often illegally collect buying statistics on their customers without permission. When taxes were a bigger issue, code 1.4 was violated. It stated , "Be fair and take action not to discriminate." Business owners complain that transactions over the internet are not tax and that businesses who did not have physical stores were being discriminated against.
e business
Electronic Business, commonly referred to as "eBusiness" or "e-Business", may be defined broadly as any business process that relies on an automated information system. Today, this is mostly done with Web-based technologies. The term "e-Business" was coined by Lou Gerstner, CEO of IBM.
Electronic business methods enable companies to link their internal and external data processing systems more efficiently and flexibly, to work more closely with suppliers and partners, and to better satisfy the needs and expectations of their customers.
In practice, e-business is more than just e-commerce. While e-business refers to more strategic focus with an emphasis on the functions that occur using electronic capabilities, e-commerce is a subset of an overall e-business strategy. E-commerce seeks to add revenue streams using the World Wide Web or the Internet to build and enhance relationships with clients and partners and to improve efficiency using the Empty Vessel strategy. Often, e-commerce involves the application of knowledge management systems.
E-business involves business processes spanning the entire value chain: electronic purchasing and supply chain management, processing orders electronically, handling customer service, and cooperating with business partners. Special technical standards for e-business facilitate the exchange of data between companies. E-business software solutions allow the integration of intra and inter firm business processes. E-business can be conducted using the Web, the Internet, intranets, extranets, or some combination of these.Electronic Business, commonly referred to as "eBusiness" or "e-Business", may be defined broadly as any business process that relies on an automated information system. Today, this is mostly done with Web-based technologies. The term "e-Business" was coined by Lou Gerstner, CEO of IBM.
Electronic business methods enable companies to link their internal and external data processing systems more efficiently and flexibly, to work more closely with suppliers and partners, and to better satisfy the needs and expectations of their customers.
In practice, e-business is more than just e-commerce. While e-business refers to more strategic focus with an emphasis on the functions that occur using electronic capabilities, e-commerce is a subset of an overall e-business strategy. E-commerce seeks to add revenue streams using the World Wide Web or the Internet to build and enhance relationships with clients and partners and to improve efficiency using the Empty Vessel strategy. Often, e-commerce involves the application of knowledge management systems.
E-business involves business processes spanning the entire value chain: electronic purchasing and supply chain management, processing orders electronically, handling customer service, and cooperating with business partners. Special technical standards for e-business facilitate the exchange of data between companies. E-business software solutions allow the integration of intra and inter firm business processes. E-business can be conducted using the Web, the Internet, intranets, extranets, or some combination of these.
-wikipedia
Electronic business methods enable companies to link their internal and external data processing systems more efficiently and flexibly, to work more closely with suppliers and partners, and to better satisfy the needs and expectations of their customers.
In practice, e-business is more than just e-commerce. While e-business refers to more strategic focus with an emphasis on the functions that occur using electronic capabilities, e-commerce is a subset of an overall e-business strategy. E-commerce seeks to add revenue streams using the World Wide Web or the Internet to build and enhance relationships with clients and partners and to improve efficiency using the Empty Vessel strategy. Often, e-commerce involves the application of knowledge management systems.
E-business involves business processes spanning the entire value chain: electronic purchasing and supply chain management, processing orders electronically, handling customer service, and cooperating with business partners. Special technical standards for e-business facilitate the exchange of data between companies. E-business software solutions allow the integration of intra and inter firm business processes. E-business can be conducted using the Web, the Internet, intranets, extranets, or some combination of these.Electronic Business, commonly referred to as "eBusiness" or "e-Business", may be defined broadly as any business process that relies on an automated information system. Today, this is mostly done with Web-based technologies. The term "e-Business" was coined by Lou Gerstner, CEO of IBM.
Electronic business methods enable companies to link their internal and external data processing systems more efficiently and flexibly, to work more closely with suppliers and partners, and to better satisfy the needs and expectations of their customers.
In practice, e-business is more than just e-commerce. While e-business refers to more strategic focus with an emphasis on the functions that occur using electronic capabilities, e-commerce is a subset of an overall e-business strategy. E-commerce seeks to add revenue streams using the World Wide Web or the Internet to build and enhance relationships with clients and partners and to improve efficiency using the Empty Vessel strategy. Often, e-commerce involves the application of knowledge management systems.
E-business involves business processes spanning the entire value chain: electronic purchasing and supply chain management, processing orders electronically, handling customer service, and cooperating with business partners. Special technical standards for e-business facilitate the exchange of data between companies. E-business software solutions allow the integration of intra and inter firm business processes. E-business can be conducted using the Web, the Internet, intranets, extranets, or some combination of these.
-wikipedia
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Top E-Commerce Companies Analyzed
Top E-Commerce Companies Analyzed
By Laura Rush, The ClickZ Network, Jul 25, 2002
Articles Contact Laura
Forget the bells and whistles. Forget CRM. Forget the price wars. According to new research released this week from Miller-Williams, e-commerce customers feel that over 80 percent of their decision to purchase or not reside in issues beyond their online experience. What's really important to customers is brand performance.
The research was based on interviews with 976 active customers of various top performing e-commerce companies (excluding travel) including Amazon.com, AOL-Time Warner, BN.com, eBay, Monster.com and Yahoo. Current, former and potential customers were asked to describe their ideal e-commerce company vis-à-vis a subset of the top e-commerce companies.
Of the five attributes customers use to evaluate e-commerce companies, the Clicks Interaction driver makes up only 15 percent of decision-making. The Clicks driver incorporates all aspects of the customer's online experience, including pricing, customer support, the quality of offerings, and mistake rectification. Brand Performance topped the list (35 percent), followed by Financial Longevity (18 percent), Strategic Direction (17 percent) and Bricks Interaction (15 percent). These five attributes, or drivers, make up 100% of a customer's decision to purchase from a site or not. Customers recognize the value of a well-performing brand and today's top e-commerce companies are clearly meeting their expectations - a key to their success. Based on this response, the study suggests that companies should continue, or even increase, their investments in traditional advertising campaigns.
According to the study, Amazon.com is the premier e-commerce company, having translated its Brand Performance into value on the Bricks Interaction. The research shows Amazon's value here is essentially the equivalent of a retail storefront, something that customers don't see in the other e-commerce companies.
Customers wholeheartedly agree that e-commerce companies need to better demonstrate their financial security. What's more interesting is that customers do not necessarily equate financial resources such as revenue, net profits and market value with financial stability. Instead, customers see a company's aggressiveness and ability to seize new markets as increasing their financial longevity. After analyzing 27 bricks & mortar and e-commerce market leading companies, customers ranked Oracle number one in terms of financial security, outperforming others such as AOL-Time Warner, Dell Computer and General Motors. Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com enjoy a high ranking on perceived financial security.
"This shows us why so many recent activities and acquisitions have been taking place in e-commerce," said Miller-Williams CEO, Gary A. Williams. "Their revenues and profits are stabilizing and becoming more predictable so they make nice merger or alliance candidates. E-Commerce customers are voting with their dollars, and the winners are companies that have shown their brand strength and ability to execute in a proven market space."
With respect to Brand Performance, the study warns e-commerce companies currently evaluating the use of pop-up advertisements: Customers see the use of technology and marketing and advertising as being an inseparable part of the company's brand. Key groups of e-commerce users have been resistant to this form of advertising, so use of it may have an impact on the customer's decision to purchase from a site or not.
The report finally offers some key action items on what e-commerce companies can do to win more customers and raise their presence to a higher level.
Miller-Williams analyzed the data from 976 total respondents, with at least 200 respondents per company required for inclusion in the study. At a 95 percent confidence level, the margin of error is +/-3.2 percentage points. For more information, please refer to the Miller Williams Web site.
By Laura Rush, The ClickZ Network, Jul 25, 2002
Articles Contact Laura
Forget the bells and whistles. Forget CRM. Forget the price wars. According to new research released this week from Miller-Williams, e-commerce customers feel that over 80 percent of their decision to purchase or not reside in issues beyond their online experience. What's really important to customers is brand performance.
The research was based on interviews with 976 active customers of various top performing e-commerce companies (excluding travel) including Amazon.com, AOL-Time Warner, BN.com, eBay, Monster.com and Yahoo. Current, former and potential customers were asked to describe their ideal e-commerce company vis-à-vis a subset of the top e-commerce companies.
Of the five attributes customers use to evaluate e-commerce companies, the Clicks Interaction driver makes up only 15 percent of decision-making. The Clicks driver incorporates all aspects of the customer's online experience, including pricing, customer support, the quality of offerings, and mistake rectification. Brand Performance topped the list (35 percent), followed by Financial Longevity (18 percent), Strategic Direction (17 percent) and Bricks Interaction (15 percent). These five attributes, or drivers, make up 100% of a customer's decision to purchase from a site or not. Customers recognize the value of a well-performing brand and today's top e-commerce companies are clearly meeting their expectations - a key to their success. Based on this response, the study suggests that companies should continue, or even increase, their investments in traditional advertising campaigns.
According to the study, Amazon.com is the premier e-commerce company, having translated its Brand Performance into value on the Bricks Interaction. The research shows Amazon's value here is essentially the equivalent of a retail storefront, something that customers don't see in the other e-commerce companies.
Customers wholeheartedly agree that e-commerce companies need to better demonstrate their financial security. What's more interesting is that customers do not necessarily equate financial resources such as revenue, net profits and market value with financial stability. Instead, customers see a company's aggressiveness and ability to seize new markets as increasing their financial longevity. After analyzing 27 bricks & mortar and e-commerce market leading companies, customers ranked Oracle number one in terms of financial security, outperforming others such as AOL-Time Warner, Dell Computer and General Motors. Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com enjoy a high ranking on perceived financial security.
"This shows us why so many recent activities and acquisitions have been taking place in e-commerce," said Miller-Williams CEO, Gary A. Williams. "Their revenues and profits are stabilizing and becoming more predictable so they make nice merger or alliance candidates. E-Commerce customers are voting with their dollars, and the winners are companies that have shown their brand strength and ability to execute in a proven market space."
With respect to Brand Performance, the study warns e-commerce companies currently evaluating the use of pop-up advertisements: Customers see the use of technology and marketing and advertising as being an inseparable part of the company's brand. Key groups of e-commerce users have been resistant to this form of advertising, so use of it may have an impact on the customer's decision to purchase from a site or not.
The report finally offers some key action items on what e-commerce companies can do to win more customers and raise their presence to a higher level.
Miller-Williams analyzed the data from 976 total respondents, with at least 200 respondents per company required for inclusion in the study. At a 95 percent confidence level, the margin of error is +/-3.2 percentage points. For more information, please refer to the Miller Williams Web site.
Friday, January 11, 2008
The Many Flavors of E-commerce
The Many Flavors of E-Commerce
The term e-commerce is really a "catch-all" phrase that encompasses many concepts. To help you better understand, presented below is my over-simplistic definition of e-commerce.
According to Dictionary.COM, the term commerce is defined as follows: "The buying and selling of goods, especially on a large scale, as between cities or nations". This definition is straight forward and easy to understand. From here, we add the "e" for "electronic", and we derive the definition: "buying and selling of goods electronically". This typically means that orders and payments pass electronically. However, there is more to this - much more, as follows:
B2B (Business-to-Business) E-Commerce really refers to supply chain technology, which is by far the largest and most successful e-commerce technology employed today. You can read my Insights about B2B E-commerce here.
B2C (Business to Consumer) E-Commerce refers to the selling and buying of goods and services via the web from web retailers to web customers. This really is the same thing as B2B E-Commerce with one key exception. With B2B implementations, the parties are "Trusted Business Partners" who have an established working relationship. With B2C E-Commerce, the retailers is often selling to unknown, un-trusted strangers. Therefore extra effort must be made to capture customer and payment information. Further, this data is typically verified before orders are fulfilled. In this respect, B2C is a tougher solution to provide than B2B. However, B2C almost always involves a customer typing information into an order screen, there is no need to link together two complex accounting systems. In this respect, B2B is a much tougher solution to deliver.
B2E (Business to Employee) E-Commerce generally refers to the requisitioning of supplies by employees for use in their jobs, but this really has grown to encompass much more. For example, B2E makes it very easy for an employee to requisition a new toner cartridge and printer paper - the order is entirely electronic, and supervisors are asked to approved the requisition in the event that the total order exceeds preset limits for that particular employee. However, B2E has grown into technologies that allow the employee to access their employee records to update address information, shift investments in the 401K plan, or maintain their internal resume. Many companies have found that B2E technologies have dramatically reduced the administrative burdens with the human resources department. Admittedly, maintaining employee information has little to do with commerce, but this term has grown to encapsulate this activity into the B2E definition.
C2C (Consumer to Consumer) E-Commerce has also emerged that allows unknown, un-trusted parties to sell goods and services to one-another. An excellent example of this is found at Ebay, where consumers sell their goods and services to other consumers. To accommodate this activity, several technologies have emerged. Firstly, Ebay allows all sellers and buyers to rate one another. In this manner, future prospective purchasers may see that a particular seller has sold to more than 2,000 customers - all of whom rate the seller as excellent. In another example, a prospective purchaser may see a seller who has previously sold only 4 times and all 4 rate the seller poorly. This type of information is helpful. Another technology that has emerged to support C2C activities is that of the payment intermediary. Pay Pal is a good example of this. Instead of purchasing items directly from an unknown, un-trusted seller, the buyer can instead send the money to Pay Pal. From there, Pay Pal notifies the seller that they will hold the money for them until the goods have been shipped and accepted by the buyer.
B2M (Business to Machines) E-Commerce is a fast emerging area within e-commerce. The general idea is that companies can link to remote machines via the internet. Here is an example. Assume that you drive a truck for Coca Cola and that it is your job is to refill Coke machines throughout your community. You stop at a high rise building that contains a Coke machine on every floor - now what? Do you leave the drinks behind and visit every Coke machine first to determine how many of which brands are needed? Do you carry cases of drinks with you as you go? With B2M technology, the folks at Coke know exactly how many drinks are in each machine by type of drink, and their accounting system produces a restocking report advising the driver accordingly. In this manner, Coca Cola can monitor their machines from afar to determine if they need repair or restocking. This information is then used to schedule efficient delivery routes that allows you to restock the appropriate Coke machines just in time before the inventory is depleted.
As another example, consider the $5 billion Ryder Truck Company - Ryder System Inc. When a truck rolls into one of the company's maintenance bays, the attendant need only push a button to instantly determine the status of that vehicle. Specifically, a technician simply touches a probe on the end of a handheld computer to a coin-shaped disk on the truck's cab that has been busy gathering information on engine performance and fuel consumption from electronic sensors under the hood. All told, these sensors track information related to 65 different aspects of the truck to oil life, tire wear, filter life, gas mileage, and much more. Prior to the introduction of this B2M system in the early nineties, the company's mechanics were wrong almost 50% of the time when it came to identifying problems with the trucks. Now the sources of trouble are identified more quickly and a truck's downtime is often cut in half. The company manages almost 10,000 technicians and 175,000 trucks, but with the B2M system, inventory tracking, parts ordering, maintenance scheduling, and personnel scheduling are streamlined. Additionally, Ryder uses the information it collects on engine-part wear to negotiate longer warranties from suppliers. According to Chief Information Officer Dennis M. Klinger, the new system cost $33 million but reportedly paid for itself in just a few years.
The term e-commerce is really a "catch-all" phrase that encompasses many concepts. To help you better understand, presented below is my over-simplistic definition of e-commerce.
According to Dictionary.COM, the term commerce is defined as follows: "The buying and selling of goods, especially on a large scale, as between cities or nations". This definition is straight forward and easy to understand. From here, we add the "e" for "electronic", and we derive the definition: "buying and selling of goods electronically". This typically means that orders and payments pass electronically. However, there is more to this - much more, as follows:
B2B (Business-to-Business) E-Commerce really refers to supply chain technology, which is by far the largest and most successful e-commerce technology employed today. You can read my Insights about B2B E-commerce here.
B2C (Business to Consumer) E-Commerce refers to the selling and buying of goods and services via the web from web retailers to web customers. This really is the same thing as B2B E-Commerce with one key exception. With B2B implementations, the parties are "Trusted Business Partners" who have an established working relationship. With B2C E-Commerce, the retailers is often selling to unknown, un-trusted strangers. Therefore extra effort must be made to capture customer and payment information. Further, this data is typically verified before orders are fulfilled. In this respect, B2C is a tougher solution to provide than B2B. However, B2C almost always involves a customer typing information into an order screen, there is no need to link together two complex accounting systems. In this respect, B2B is a much tougher solution to deliver.
B2E (Business to Employee) E-Commerce generally refers to the requisitioning of supplies by employees for use in their jobs, but this really has grown to encompass much more. For example, B2E makes it very easy for an employee to requisition a new toner cartridge and printer paper - the order is entirely electronic, and supervisors are asked to approved the requisition in the event that the total order exceeds preset limits for that particular employee. However, B2E has grown into technologies that allow the employee to access their employee records to update address information, shift investments in the 401K plan, or maintain their internal resume. Many companies have found that B2E technologies have dramatically reduced the administrative burdens with the human resources department. Admittedly, maintaining employee information has little to do with commerce, but this term has grown to encapsulate this activity into the B2E definition.
C2C (Consumer to Consumer) E-Commerce has also emerged that allows unknown, un-trusted parties to sell goods and services to one-another. An excellent example of this is found at Ebay, where consumers sell their goods and services to other consumers. To accommodate this activity, several technologies have emerged. Firstly, Ebay allows all sellers and buyers to rate one another. In this manner, future prospective purchasers may see that a particular seller has sold to more than 2,000 customers - all of whom rate the seller as excellent. In another example, a prospective purchaser may see a seller who has previously sold only 4 times and all 4 rate the seller poorly. This type of information is helpful. Another technology that has emerged to support C2C activities is that of the payment intermediary. Pay Pal is a good example of this. Instead of purchasing items directly from an unknown, un-trusted seller, the buyer can instead send the money to Pay Pal. From there, Pay Pal notifies the seller that they will hold the money for them until the goods have been shipped and accepted by the buyer.
B2M (Business to Machines) E-Commerce is a fast emerging area within e-commerce. The general idea is that companies can link to remote machines via the internet. Here is an example. Assume that you drive a truck for Coca Cola and that it is your job is to refill Coke machines throughout your community. You stop at a high rise building that contains a Coke machine on every floor - now what? Do you leave the drinks behind and visit every Coke machine first to determine how many of which brands are needed? Do you carry cases of drinks with you as you go? With B2M technology, the folks at Coke know exactly how many drinks are in each machine by type of drink, and their accounting system produces a restocking report advising the driver accordingly. In this manner, Coca Cola can monitor their machines from afar to determine if they need repair or restocking. This information is then used to schedule efficient delivery routes that allows you to restock the appropriate Coke machines just in time before the inventory is depleted.
As another example, consider the $5 billion Ryder Truck Company - Ryder System Inc. When a truck rolls into one of the company's maintenance bays, the attendant need only push a button to instantly determine the status of that vehicle. Specifically, a technician simply touches a probe on the end of a handheld computer to a coin-shaped disk on the truck's cab that has been busy gathering information on engine performance and fuel consumption from electronic sensors under the hood. All told, these sensors track information related to 65 different aspects of the truck to oil life, tire wear, filter life, gas mileage, and much more. Prior to the introduction of this B2M system in the early nineties, the company's mechanics were wrong almost 50% of the time when it came to identifying problems with the trucks. Now the sources of trouble are identified more quickly and a truck's downtime is often cut in half. The company manages almost 10,000 technicians and 175,000 trucks, but with the B2M system, inventory tracking, parts ordering, maintenance scheduling, and personnel scheduling are streamlined. Additionally, Ryder uses the information it collects on engine-part wear to negotiate longer warranties from suppliers. According to Chief Information Officer Dennis M. Klinger, the new system cost $33 million but reportedly paid for itself in just a few years.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Introduction and Basic Overview of E-Commerce
Introduction and Basic Overview of E-Commerce
The Free Management Library will help you address the major considerations in setting up an e-commerce business. The considerations are as follows.
E-Commerce is Like Any Other Business, Except ...
Developing a business over the Internet requires many of the same major activities as starting any other business. You should do some basic business planning. After all, you need a product. You may need funding to get your business going. You need customers. You need to market products to your customers. You need strong customer service. You need to manage purchases by customers, finances, staff and other resources.
Not All Products Are Very Compatible to Sales Over the Internet
But there are some features unique to e-commerce. Not all products are real compatible to be sold over the Internet. For example, they may require a lot of face-to-face selling. They may cost a lot to ship (a primary practice in e-commerce is that customers buy products, and you ship the products to them). You need to make sure that, because your product may be advertised to the world, that you remain in control of your ideas, or "intellectual property".
You Need an Online "Store"
Basically, you need an "online store" to be an "e-tailer". (Don't fret. You may be able to outsource, or hire, a current store to work with you.) Your store will need a "merchant" account, or the ability to process your customers' credit card transactions over the Internet. This includes needing a "secure server", or that your online store be on a computer system that ensures that customers' credit card numbers cannot readily be read by people who are not supposed to read these numbers. You'll probably need some kind of online order form that customers can complete, in order to purchase your products. You may even want your the processing of customers' order to include processing the customers' credit card numbers right away while they're still online and connected to your Website.
Let's read on to understand the very basics of e-commerce.
Obviously, You Need a Website
You need to design and promote a Website. You'll need access to expertise that can regularly design and maintain this Website for you -- and it will require ongoing attention. Fortunately, there is a great deal of free information available to help you with this design and promotion.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
The invention of e-commerce
The invention of e-commerce (also known as US Patent 6,289,319)
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Sunday December 29, 2002 8:03PMby Matthew Gast
I believe in patents, and I think it’s a great idea that they have such a strong constitutional basis in the U.S. Inventors should be able to protect a unique idea so that they have time to reap the rewards of their efforts, especially when good ideas can be easily copied by a larger competitor. Patents are supposed to protect inventors. I’m much less comfortable with patents being used as a means of attack and a business in and of themselves. The system should protect inventors who are actually inventing, as opposed to inventing on paper. (Think of the difference between a competent network engineer, and a certified “paper tiger.”) If an inventor is building the product or using the process described in the patent, it was clearly worth something to them. If they don’t appear to do anything other than sue people and ask for money, that is much more difficult territory.
Government-sanctioned monopolies are always treacherous territory, and the patent system has a particularly noxious breed of parasite: People who “invent” new technology by studying the state of the art and guessing where it might go, for the purpose of obtaining patents and extorting license fees from productive businesess following along the obvious path of innovation. These patent-system tapeworms file applications for inventions they have no intention of ever putting to use, simply to use the patent document as a method for extorting license fees from others. (Say what you will about Amazon’s “one click” patent, but at they were practicing the patented invention.)
Well, in September of last year, the patent office issued a broad patent, number 6,289,319, for an “[a]utomatic business and financial transaction processing system.” The inventor, Lawrence Lockwood, has enlisted the help of Pangea Intellectual Properties (PanIP) to license the patent. Some news stories state that he licensed his patent to PanIP, while others describe him as a founder of the company.
With the backstory out of the way, I can get to the point of this entry. I ran across a reference to this patent a few days ago when I was reading Bob Lewis’s December 2 InfoWorld column. Lewis says that PanIP “might politely be described as a lawsuit factory.” PanIP’s strategy appears to be to nibble a bevy of small companies to death by suing, and then offering to go away for a license fee. It is not clear whether attacking small business is the end goal, or if it is meant to build licensing momentum before they attack larger e-commerce sites. Many of the companies that have been singled out are small companies that do not have the legal resources to fight a sustained legal battle, and thus have either settled or reverted to less efficient, but non-electronic methods of doing business.
Lockwood has a history of being a paper inventor. He previously sued the SABRE division of American Airlines attempting to extort money for his patents, and had two patents invalidated as a result. According to this InfoWorld article, during a deposition in that suit, American’s lawyer asked about his employment, and Lockwood responded, “I enforce my patents.”
There’s the reason I don’t like him. He doesn’t act like a man who is an inventor using his patent as a well-deserved shield against competition. He anticipates where the action in a field will be and attempts to obtain a patent, then uses the threat of legal action to extort money from smaller companies that can’t afford to fight him. He probably filed for the patent with the plan of using it to live off licensing revenues. It’s quite possible, dare I say likely, that he would have no idea how to set up a Web site, much less practice electronic commerce. (The PanIP Web site doesn’t let you buy a license to any of the patents they represent, after all.) But somehow, we’re supposed to believe that he deserves money from anybody out there with a transaction-processing Web site. As the first group of defendants said, “You may be next.”
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Sunday December 29, 2002 8:03PMby Matthew Gast
I believe in patents, and I think it’s a great idea that they have such a strong constitutional basis in the U.S. Inventors should be able to protect a unique idea so that they have time to reap the rewards of their efforts, especially when good ideas can be easily copied by a larger competitor. Patents are supposed to protect inventors. I’m much less comfortable with patents being used as a means of attack and a business in and of themselves. The system should protect inventors who are actually inventing, as opposed to inventing on paper. (Think of the difference between a competent network engineer, and a certified “paper tiger.”) If an inventor is building the product or using the process described in the patent, it was clearly worth something to them. If they don’t appear to do anything other than sue people and ask for money, that is much more difficult territory.
Government-sanctioned monopolies are always treacherous territory, and the patent system has a particularly noxious breed of parasite: People who “invent” new technology by studying the state of the art and guessing where it might go, for the purpose of obtaining patents and extorting license fees from productive businesess following along the obvious path of innovation. These patent-system tapeworms file applications for inventions they have no intention of ever putting to use, simply to use the patent document as a method for extorting license fees from others. (Say what you will about Amazon’s “one click” patent, but at they were practicing the patented invention.)
Well, in September of last year, the patent office issued a broad patent, number 6,289,319, for an “[a]utomatic business and financial transaction processing system.” The inventor, Lawrence Lockwood, has enlisted the help of Pangea Intellectual Properties (PanIP) to license the patent. Some news stories state that he licensed his patent to PanIP, while others describe him as a founder of the company.
With the backstory out of the way, I can get to the point of this entry. I ran across a reference to this patent a few days ago when I was reading Bob Lewis’s December 2 InfoWorld column. Lewis says that PanIP “might politely be described as a lawsuit factory.” PanIP’s strategy appears to be to nibble a bevy of small companies to death by suing, and then offering to go away for a license fee. It is not clear whether attacking small business is the end goal, or if it is meant to build licensing momentum before they attack larger e-commerce sites. Many of the companies that have been singled out are small companies that do not have the legal resources to fight a sustained legal battle, and thus have either settled or reverted to less efficient, but non-electronic methods of doing business.
Lockwood has a history of being a paper inventor. He previously sued the SABRE division of American Airlines attempting to extort money for his patents, and had two patents invalidated as a result. According to this InfoWorld article, during a deposition in that suit, American’s lawyer asked about his employment, and Lockwood responded, “I enforce my patents.”
There’s the reason I don’t like him. He doesn’t act like a man who is an inventor using his patent as a well-deserved shield against competition. He anticipates where the action in a field will be and attempts to obtain a patent, then uses the threat of legal action to extort money from smaller companies that can’t afford to fight him. He probably filed for the patent with the plan of using it to live off licensing revenues. It’s quite possible, dare I say likely, that he would have no idea how to set up a Web site, much less practice electronic commerce. (The PanIP Web site doesn’t let you buy a license to any of the patents they represent, after all.) But somehow, we’re supposed to believe that he deserves money from anybody out there with a transaction-processing Web site. As the first group of defendants said, “You may be next.”
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