Essay Example For High School Students about Electronic Commerce

Traditional commerce perhaps started before recorded history when our ancestors first decided to specialist their everyday actively.

Instead of each family unit having to grow crops, search for food, and make tools, families developed skills in one of these areas and traded some of their production for other needs. It started with bartering, which eventually gave way to the use of currency, making transactions easier to settle. However, the basic mechanisms of trade were the same.Some body rated a product or provided a service, which somebody else found valuable, and therefore was willing to 'pay' for it in exchange. Thus, commerce, or doing business, is a negotiated exchange of valuable products or services between at least two parties and includes all activities that each of the parties undertakes to complete the commercial transaction. Any commercial transaction can be examined from either the buyer's or the seller's viewpoint.

These two sides of a commercial transaction are shown In the diagram given below. (a) Buyer's Side of Traditional Commerce Identify specific buying needSearch for products or services that will satisfy the specific need Select a vendor Negotiate a purchase transaction, Including delivery, logistics, inspection, testing and acceptance Receive product/ service and make payment Perform regular product maintenance and make warranty claims. (b) Seller's Side of Traditional Commerce Conduct market research to Identify customer needs Create product or service that will meet customers' needs Advertise and promote product or service Negotiate a sale transaction including delivery logistics, inspection, testing, and Dispatch goods and invoice customerReceive and process customer payments Provide after-sale support, maintenance, and warranty services. Electronic Commerce: It can be loosely defined as 'doing business electronically'. More rigorously, e- commerce is buying and selling over digital media. It includes electronic trading of physical goods and of intangibles such as information.

This encompasses all the trading steps such as online marketing, ordering, payment, and support for delivery. It includes the electronic provision of services, such as after-sales support, as well as electronic support for collaboration between companies, such as collaborative sign.A further definition of e-commerce is provided by the European Union website; which defines 'Electronic commerce as a general concept covering any form of business transactions of information exchange executed using information and communication technology, between companies, between companies and their customers, or between companies and public administrations. Electronic commerce includes electronic trading of goods, services and electronic material'.

A Typical Customer Query Interaction in an E-commerce Activity Some people use the term Internet commerce to mean electronic commerce that specifically uses theInternet as its data transmission medium. E-commerce did not Just happen in the last five years. Automobile companies and supermarkets in the western countries have been doing e-commerce for many years; their e-commerce technology is called electronic data interchange (DE'). Airline seats have also been sold using e-commerce systems; and the French have also been using e-commerce since 1983, but they do it in French with a system called T©l©tell. How do you know which products can be sold more effectively using traditional commerce, and which using electronic commerce?Products that buyers prefer to ouch, smell, or examine closely are difficult to sell using e-commerce.

For example, customers might be reluctant to buy high fashion garments and perishable food products, if they cannot examine the products closely before agreeing to purchase them. Retail merchants may have long traditional commerce experience in creating store environments that help convince customers to buy. This combination of store design, layout, and product display knowledge is called merchandising.Many salesperson have developed skills that allow them to identify customer needs and find products or services that meet those needs. The art of merchandising and personal selling can be difficult to practice over an electronic link. Easily sold using e-commerce.

Customers are willing to order a book title without examining the specific copy they will receive, because one copy of a new book is identical to other copies of the same book, and because the customer is not concerned about its other qualities such as freshness, or smell.Furthermore, e- commerce also offers the advantage of providing the ability to offer a wider selection of book titles than even the largest physical bookstore; which outweighs the advantage of a traditional bookstore, such as the customer's ability to browse the book. Internet and WWW: What is the Internet and World Wide Web? The Internet is a worldwide network of computers that use common communication standards and interfaces to provide the physical backbone for a number of interesting applications. One of the most utilized of these Internet applications is the World Wide Web.What sets the Web apart is an easy-to-use interface to a complex network of computers and data.

WWW Basics: Browsers A browser is an application which provides a window to the Web. All browsers are signed to display the pages of information located at Web sites around the world. The most popular browsers on the market today include Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Web Sites Information on the Web is displayed in pages. These pages are written in a standard language called HTML (HyperText Markup Language) which describes how the information should be displayed regardless of the browser used or the type of computer.

Pages also include hypertext links which allow users to Jump to other related information. Hypertext is usually underlined and in a different color and can include individual words, sentences, or even graphics. A Web site is a collection of related Web pages with a common Web address. Web Addresses Web sites and the pages they contain each have a unique worldwide address. This address (or Uniform Resource Locator, URL, in Internet Jargon).

The address for Microsoft is www. Microsoft. Com. For most sites, this is all you need to specify and it defaults to the main page (or home page) for the site.

In some cases, you may also need or want to specify the path and file name such as www. Microsoft. Com/office. Note the extension .

Com after Microsoft. There are six of extensions that help to divide the computers on the Internet into understandable groups or domains. These six domains include: . Com = commercial, . Gob = government, .

Du = education, . Org = organizations, . Net = networks, . Mil = military. There are also extensions for sites outside of the U. S.

Including: . Jp ?Japan, . UK = United Kingdom, . FRR = France, and so on.

Browser Extensions Both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers provide the ability to extend the functionality of your browser by downloading additional programs that work within the browser. Www. Netscape. Com/plugging.

Microsoft calls them "Active Controls" and can be found at wry. Active. Com. Web Multimedia The Web is rapidly evolving from primarily text-based documents to multimedia experience of sight, sound and motion which rival CD-ROOM titles. There are a number of new multimedia technologies and browser add-ins that can enhance your Web surfing.

Audio Hear live broadcasts, sample songs from your favorite bands, or even use the Web to have two-way "web phone" conversations. Some good sites to start include: Real Audio at www. Relation. Com Web Phone at www. Woebegone.

Com Video Participate in a live video-conference or see the latest movie clips. Relabeled at www. Realtor's. Com CUE-Seem at www. Whitening. Com Manipulate three dimensional objects and experience virtual reality on the Web.

VRRP at www. VRRP. SSI. Com Animation Interact with some of the most engaging and entertaining sites on the web.

Macromedia Showplace at www. Macromedia. Com Narrative Enliven at wry. Narrative.

Com Other Internet Applications Electronic Mail One of the most widely used applications in business, electronic mail (or e-mail) provides very fast delivery of messages to any enabled site on the Internet. Users must have an e-mail account established with their Internet service provider and a unique e-mail address (such as santa@northpole. Com). Most browsers include integrated e-mail software. UseNet and Newsgroups One of the most popular applications for non-business use on the Internet is the UseNet.

UseNet is a very large public bulletin board where individuals can engage in a wide range of activities including: publish ideas, ask questions, sell items, etc. E- mail is the primary method of posting to a newsgroup. Most browsers include an integrated "News Reader" to read and post to Newsgroups. UseNet topics are organized into Newsgroups which start with prefixes such as race. And alt.

There is a whole culture of Jargon and net etiquette (or netiquette) associated with the UseNet. FTP FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, is used primarily as a tool to efficiently uploading and downloading files on the Internet.It is often used transparently on Web sites where there are a large number of downloads. Role of WWW: The World Wide Web (abbreviated as WWW or WWW and commonly known as the Web), is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web rouser, one can view web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them via hyperlinks.

* Recommendations for structure and interpretation of hypertext documents. * Recommendations for stylishness, especially CSS, from the WAC. * Standards for Semisecret (usually in the form of JavaScript), from Ecma International. Recommendations for the Document Object Model, from WAC. * Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), which is a universal system for referencing resources on the Internet, such as hypertext documents and images. IRIS, often called URL, are defined by the Thief's RFC 3986 / SST 66: Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax, as well as its predecessors and numerous URI scheme-defining RFC; * HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), especially as defined by RFC 2616: HTTP/I .

1 and RFC 2617: HTTP Authentication, which specify how the browser and server authenticate each other.Value Chains: The key to intra-business e-commerce is improving value chain efficiency. The Value Chain for a Personnel Computer Manufacturer Sub-processes of Value Chains: Efficiency and Effectiveness of Value Chains: * Objective: reduce operating costs * Efficiency gains Within individual processes * Across the value chain * Efficiency-based competitive advantage * Hidden from public view * Relatively easy to sustain Strategic Business and Industrial Value Chain: E-commerce Role in Business Commerce includes two words trading and aids to trade.Trading means buying and selling goods, service, and aid to trade means the ways by which trading has done. The main purpose of business concern is to earn profit. To make profit it is necessary to buying and selling.

Buying and selling is an integral part of commerce. Commerce includes two words trading and aids to trade. Trading means buying and selling goods, service, and aid to trade means the ways by which trading has done. The main purpose of business concern is to earn profit.To make profit it is necessary to buying and selling. Buying and selling is an integral part of commerce.

Thus, business and commerce cannot separate from each other. For business, it is very necessary to include commencing the goods and services. Commerce is an important word, which has related to business. Now the concept of E-commerce has come which is very popular.

E- Commerce is an important word, which is connecting to business.That concern to sell or buy goods and services in large scale to explore business, for the transferring of goods and services from one place to another and receiving payment for all this, this has done on net which provide business concern a wider market than manual market, E-commerce brings a new revaluation in the business world. Buy the goods and services to large number of people. It helps them to make more and more profit. Because profit is the key of any type of commercial business, for becoming commercial it is necessary to do selling and buying of goods and services.Commerce or E-commerce and business are two spheres of a coin, which could not separate.

Without commencing of goods and services none business can achieve his target to earn profit. Commerce and E-commerce provides true and fair record of all the transactions of business, without commerce or E-commerce the records of business transaction cannot maintain, commerce or E-commerce saves the money of business providing systematic records of business transactions, it provides accuracy, speedy and cheaply way to do business.Thus, in end we can say business is incomplete without commerce or E-commerce. New Roles for E-commerce These integration efforts are likely to continue in the future. "You're getting to the point where consumers are more and more expecting Web sites to help them do their retail buying," Gartering research director David Cheer told the E-commerce Times. "They may not necessarily be looking for the click to order, but they're looking for store-locator information, to help plan a project.

Also, more companies will start to offer post-product support that, in effect, serves as brand enhancement for the next sale. Through all of these tactics, the Web will become an integral part of the 360 degrees of the sales cycle," Cheer said. And as businesses increasingly embrace e-commerce, consumers' level of comfort and familiarity with online transactions also will keep rising steadily. With more consumers turning to the Internet to shop and interact with the same brands they see in the real world, the importance of the online channel will keep growing.This growth should prompt even more retailers to set up shop on the Web, perpetuating a cycle that will boost e- commerce revenue to record levels again and again in coming years.

Packet Switched Networks: A packet-switched network is a digital communications network that groups all transmitted data, irrespective of content, type, or structure into suitably sized blocks, called packets. The network over which packets are transmitted is a shared network which routes each packet independently from all others and allocates transmission resources as needed.The principal goals of packet switching are to optimize utilization of available link capacity, minimize response times and increase the robustness of communication. When traversing network adapters, switches and other outwork nodes, packets are buffered and queued, resulting in variable delay and throughput, depending on the traffic load in the network.