Discuss The Role Of E-Commerce And Ecommerce

e refers to the trade of production or service across the internet using an electronic means. This includes all the activities that help in carrying out a transaction. There is no face to face interaction between the parties. Ecommerce can be business to business, consumer to business and consumer to consumer. Ecommerce covers the external facing processes that touch customers, suppliers and existing partners .

It includes :

• the buying and selling of information as well as products and services.

• the use of telecommunications networks to connect organizations and/or individuals.

• sharing business information and maintaining business relationships.

• Paperless transactions.

• all computerized inter-company and intra-company functions

E-business focuses on internal processes and aimed at cost saving, improvement in efficiency and productivity. E-business is the digital enablement of transactions and processes within a firm and therefore does not include any exchange in value. For instance, e-business turns into e-commerce when a value exchange occurs across firm boundaries.

M-commerce is about “substance delivery (notification and reporting) and transactions (purchasing and data entry) on mobile devices” (Leung and Antypas, 2001).

Most often m-commerce is understood as mobile e-commerce M-commerce is supposed to enable us to buy everything from anywhere over the Internet without the use of a PC. Internet access and Web browsing is assumed to be the key to extending m-commerce to customers (Harter, 2000). In many ways, m-commerce is the continuation of e-commerce with the palm handheld, wireless laptops and a new generation of Web-enabled digital phones already on the market (Keen, 2001).

2.0 Merits of E-business over traditional

Differentiation reduces the substitutability between products, thus benefiting sellers t impact market share very much: Many customers are willing to pay a bit more for the personalised value offers.

Low overhead costs will lead to low prices, implying business is a cost leader. If volume is large enough, prices can be reduced by 40 percent or more.

3.0 Implementing E-business model whilst keeping traditional status

Businesses must not implement e-business just because it is the fad but rather determine whether it will enable their strategy to have a competitive edge. Several e-business models have been introduced and a choice is made depending on the nature of business.

The first step is to document all operations of the business in detail. Base your E-business procedures on current methods but make changes where necessary. Plan each step in the process for instance from receiving orders and executing the order and shipping. Aftersales service and customer service is very important. For an ebusiness, the website is the face of a company in the mind’s eye of the customer. It must be designed to be attractive, easy to navigate, pages must not be overloaded with