E-commerce 2019

business. technology. society.

15th edition

Chapter 1
Introduction to E-commerce
19 October 2019

Dr. Zainil Hanim Saidin

zainilhanimsaidin@usm.my

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 COURSE ASSESSMENT

1. Group Assignment - 20%

2. Continuous Assessment - 20%

3. Final Exam - 60%

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Total 100%
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GROUP PROJECT JTU396E E-COMMERCE 2019/2020
Step 1
The students have to form a group of 6 to 8 members. Appoint a group leader who will
communicate with the course manager. The group leader has to send the details of the group
members before 3rd Nov 2019 to zainilhanimsaidin@usm.my to register the group (the
registration form is available in e-learning portal).

Step 2
The group has to choose an e-commerce company. The company will need to be assessed in
terms of the eight unique features of e-commerce technology described in Table 1.2 of the
textbook. NAME THE CHOOSEN COMPANY IN THE GROUP REGISTRATION FORM
AS WELL.

Step 3

The group has to:

i. Prepare a report and the report should start with an introduction of that company (e.g.
company profile, background, and nature of business.
ii. Identify each of the eight unique features that the company has.
iii. Discuss in details each of the eight unique features and state how well does the
company implement each of the features.
iv. Provide suggestions for improvement.
v. Also provide the conclusion of the report.

Step 4
The group has to submit the soft copy report via e-mail to zainilhanimsaidin@usm.my AND
a hard copy report to PPPJJ office.

The submission dateline will be given in e-learning portal.

GOOD LUCK

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GROUP PROJECT JTU396E E-COMMERCE 2019/2020

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 Learning Objectives

• 1.1 Understand why it is important to study e-commerce.

• 1.2 Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e-business, identify the
primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major
current trends in e-commerce.

• 1.3 Identify and describe the unique features of e-commerce technology and discuss their
business significance.

• 1.4 Describe the major types of e-commerce.

• 1.5 Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.

• 1.6 Identify the major academic disciplines contributing to e-commerce.

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 E-commerce Revolution

• First 20 years of e-commerce

– Just the beginning
– Rapid growth and change

• Technologies evolve at exponential rates

– Disruptive business change
– New opportunities

• Why study e-commerce

– Understand opportunities and risks
– Analyze e-commerce ideas, models, issues

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 Introduction to E-commerce – “What”

• Use of Internet to transact business

– Includes World Wide Web (Web) such as:
 HTML
• Mobile platform
– Mobile apps and browsers.
• More formally: Definition
– Digitally enabled commercial transactions between and
among organizations and individuals.
– e-commerce refers to the digital enabling of transactions and
processes involving an exchange of value across organizational
boundaries.

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Technological Building Blocks Underlying
E-commerce

• Internet
• World Wide Web
– HTML
• Mobile platform
– Mobile apps

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 The Difference Between E-commerce
and E-business
• E-business:
– Digital enabling of transactions and processes
within a firm, involving information systems
under firm’s control.
– Does not include commercial transactions
involving an exchange of value across
organizational boundaries.

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 Major Trends in E-commerce

• Business trends include:

– All forms of e-commerce show very strong growth
– Growth rate of > 20%
– More in emerging market like China, India and Brazil.

• Technology trends include:

– Mobile platform has made mobile e-commerce reality
– E.g WhatsApp used by > 60% of smartphone users.

• Societal trends include:

– Increased online social interaction and sharing such as posts,
tweets and blogs.
– Increases issues e.g spams, hacked and misused of customer
information.
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 Unique Features of E-commerce
Technology (1 of 2)
1. Ubiquity – available everywhere; every time and no
physical space. If physical place – marketsplace.
2. Global reach – cross cultural, no boundaries.
3. Universal standards – the standards are the same for
all nations because everyone uses the same
technology. E.g price discovery less costly, faster and
accurate, search for supplier becomes easier.
4. Information richness – selling of complex goods and
services becomes less complex but higher message
content (integrate video, audio and text). E.g chatting
with online sales person may reach larger audience.
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Unique Features of E-commerce Technology (2
of 2)
5. Interactivity – allows for two-way communication
(merchant & consumer or among consumer).
6. Information density – information becomes more
plentiful, less expensive and of higher quality.
7. Personalization/customization – marketing message
can be adjusted according to the consumer’s profile.
Permits customization where the technology helps
changing the product/services based on consumer
preferences.
8. Social technology – giving users the power to create
and distribute content on a large scale and allow users
to program their content consumption.
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 Types of E-commerce
• Business-to-Consumer (B2C) – online businesses selling to
individual consumers (most popular). E.g purchase of retail goods
and services, or travel reservation.
• Business-to-Business (B2B) – online business selling to other
business.
• Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) – consumers sell to each other with
the help from online market maker/platform provider . E. g Grab
• Mobile e-commerce (M-commerce) – use of mobile devices to
perform online transactions – determine by the type of technology
used in the transaction.
• Social e-commerce – e-commerce enabled by social networks (e.g
Instagram, twitter, pinterest) and social relationships. E. g network
notification seeking approval for products/services.
• Local e-commerce – focused on engaging consumer based on their
geographical location. E. g Grab again. They locate your location.
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Periods in the Development of E-
commerce

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 E-commerce: A Brief History (1 of 4)
• Precursors
• Late 1970s - Baxter Healthcare modem-based system – started a
primitive form of B2B e-commerce using telephone-based modem.
• During 1980s – Order entry systems expanded – PC-based order
system before the internet.
• The 1980s development of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
standards – allows exchange of documents and digital
transactions across private networks.
• In B2C French Minitel using videotext system was introduced that
combines telephone and screen.
• None of this precursor system had the functionality of internet.

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E-commerce: A Brief
History (2 of 4)

• 1995–2000: Invention
– Sale of simple retail goods on the internet. The
growth patterns is quite slow.
– Limited bandwidth and media – the most was
just the static display only.
– Dot-com crash of 2000 – stock market
valuation plunged with thousands of
companies disappearing. Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education Ltd
 E-commerce: A
Brief History (3 of 4)

• 2001–2006: Consolidation
– Emphasis on business-driven approach rather than
technology driven.
– Traditional large firms expand presence – learn how to use
Web
– Start-up financing shrinks – capital market rejected startup
firms.
– Not just retail products but more complex products and
services sold such as travel and financial service
– Growth of search engine advertising. E. g video ads.
– Business Web presences expand – not just websites but
also e-mail, multiple websites for each product.
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E-commerce: A Brief
History (4 of 4)

• 2007–Present: Reinvention
– Rapid growth of:
 Web 2.0, including online social networks (user generated
content)
 Mobile platform (smartphone and tablet)
 Local commerce (local goods and services)
 On-demand service economy
– Entertainment content develops as source of revenues – easy
to attract people.
– Transformation of marketing – use of social networks, word-of-
mouth, viral marketing and personal marketing from data
repositories.
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Academic Disciplines Concerned with Technology
E-commerce covers every disciplines (multidisciplinary). Two
primary approaches:
• Technical
– Computer science, management science, information
systems
• Behavioral
– Information systems research, economics, marketing,
management, finance/accounting, sociology.
Economists share their interest with marketing scholars to
achieve higher returns on investment. Economists do not take a
purely technical approach to e-commerce.
Management scientists are interested in e-commerce as an
opportunity to study how business firms can exploit the Internet to
achieve more efficient business operations Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education Ltd
Thank You

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