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Contents
E-Commerce Overview:........................................................................................................................................3
History:............................................................................................................................................................. 3
International E-Commerce:...............................................................................................................................5
Internet Overview:................................................................................................................................................9
Origin of Internet:.............................................................................................................................................9
WWW Operation.............................................................................................................................................14
Content Marketing..........................................................................................................................................16
Email Marketing:............................................................................................................................................17
Types of Branding:..........................................................................................................................................21
Types of Auctions:...........................................................................................................................................22
E-CRM:............................................................................................................................................................... 23
Elements of SCM:...........................................................................................................................................24
E-Payment Overview..........................................................................................................................................33
ERP System:.......................................................................................................................................................36
E-Commerce Overview:
In its simplest form ecommerce is the buying and selling of products and services by businesses or
consumers over the World Wide Web (WWW). People use the term "E-Commerce" or "Online
Shopping" to describe the process of searching for and selecting products in online catalogues and
then "checking out" using a credit card and encrypted payment processing. Internet sales are
increasing rapidly as consumers take advantage of;
Lower prices offered by vendors operating with less margin than a bricks and mortar
store.
Greater convenience of having a product delivered rather than the cost of time and
transport and parking of going to a store.
Sourcing product more cheaply from overseas vendors.
Great variety and inventory offered by online stores.
Comparison engines that compare and recommend product.
Auction sites, where they did for goods.
History:
Ecommerce was introduced 40 years ago and, to this day, continues to grow with new
technologies, innovations, and thousands of businesses entering the online market each year. The
convenience, safety, and user experience of ecommerce has improved exponentially since its
inception in the 1970s.
Ecommerce Timeline
1960-1982
Paving the way for electric commerce was the development of the Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI). EDI replaced traditional mailing and faxing of documents with a digital
transfer of data from one computer to another.
Trading partners could transfer orders, invoices and other business transactions using a data format
that met the ANSI ASC X12, the predominant set of standards in North America.
Once an order is sent, it is then examined by a VAN (Value-Added Network) and finally directed to
the recipients order processing system. EDI allowed the transfer of data seamlessly without any
human intervention.
Michael Aldrich, an English inventor, innovator and entrepreneur is credited with developing the
predecessor to online shopping. The idea came about during a stroll with his wife and Labrador
when Aldrich lamented about their weekly supermarket shopping expedition. This conversation
sparked an idea to hook a television to their supermarket to deliver the groceries. Immediately after
the discussion Aldrich quickly planned and implemented his idea.
In 1979 Aldrich connected a television set to a transaction processing computer with a telephone
line and created what he coined, teleshopping, meaning shopping at a distance.
1982-1990
It was apparent from the beginning that B2B online shopping would be commercially lucrative but
B2C would not be successful until the later widespread use of PCs and the World Wide Web, also
known as, the Internet. In 1982, France launched the precursor to the Internet called, Minitel.
The online service used a Videotex terminal machine that was accessed through telephone lines.
The Minitel was free to telephone subscribers and connected millions of users to a computing
network.
By 1999, over 9 million Minitel terminals had been distributed and were connecting approximately
25 million users in this interconnected network of machines. The Minitel system peaked in 1991
and slowly met its demise after the success of the Internet 3 years later. Eventually, in 2011, France
Telecom announced its shutdown of the Minitel service system. Sadly, it had not become what it
had hoped to be, the Internet.
90s To Present
In 1990 Tim Berners Lee, along with his friend Robert Cailliau, published a proposal to build a
Hypertext project called, WorldWideWeb. The inspiration for this project was modeled after
the Dynatex SGML reader licensed by CERN.
That same year, Lee, using a NeXTcomputer created the first web server and wrote the first web
browser. Shortly thereafter, he went on to debut the web on Aug. 6, 1991 as a publicly available
service on the Internet. When Berners Lee decided he would take on the task of marrying
hypertext to the Internet, in doing that, the process led to him developing URL, HTML and HTTP.
When the National Science Foundation lifted its restrictions on commercial use of the NET in
1991, the Internet and online shopping saw remarkable growth. In September 1995, the NSF began
charging a fee for registering domain names. 120,000 registered domain names were present at
that time and within 3 years that number grew to beyond 2 million. By this time, NSFs role in the
Internet came to an end and a lot of the oversight shifted to the commercial sector.
Due to the increased popularity and availability of Internet access many traditional small business
are considering E-Commerce as a valid and profitable sales channel. However, E-Commerce and
traditional commerce are very different, and it's important to weight carefully the differences
between E-Commerce and traditional commerce in order to decide if it would be a good fit for
your business or just a costly mistake.
Direct Interaction
Traditional commerce is often based around face to face interaction. The customer has a chance to
ask questions and the sales staff can work with them to ensure a satisfactory transaction. Often this
gives sales staff an opportunity for upselling, or encourage the client to buy a more expensive item
or related items, increasing the shop profits. On the other hand, E-Commerce doesn't offer this
benefit unless features such as related items or live chats are implemented.
Lower Costs
E-Commerce is usually much cheaper than maintaining a physical store in an equally popular
location. Compared with costs such as commercial space rent, opening an online store can be done
at a fraction of the price for less than $50 per month. This can prove invaluable for small business
International E-Commerce:
International ecommerce is rapidly gaining momentum. According to a recent Internet Retailer survey,
75% of e-retailers already sell to customers abroad; of the remaining quarter, 70% plan to start doing
so within a year. With over 80% of all online consumers living abroad, and global audiences eagerly
taking advantage of America's rich product supply and favorable exchange rates, international
ecommerce is especially on the rise in the US.
While going global is promising, it also poses considerable challenges, requiring retailers to
thoroughly understand the needs, tastes, rules and regulations of their different target markets
worldwide, offer localized websites and customer service solutions, manage the logistics behind
international shipping and fulfillment, mitigate the risks of credit card fraud, and handle international
chargebacks. All these tasks can seem daunting.
One of the big opportunity areas for small/medium ecommerce businesses is therefore in international
sales. While ASOS, Wiggle, Zappos, and some of the big online pureplays take selling overseas
hugely seriously, its still a relatively untapped market. For example its more common for continental
European retailers to focus cross-border than for UK businesses to do so. And yet, the US & UKs
recognised position as ecommerce leaders put independents in a good position to explore it.
At basic stages of maturity, the options for a small-to-medium business selling internationally are:
1. Prevent overseas shoppers from buying from you. (ie. avoid international altogether)
2. Simply turn on the ability for international users to purchase from you.
3. Localise currency, pricing, and catalogue.
4. Translate the site & tailor for particular high-opportunity countries. (still fairly reactive)
5. Proactively market to find & grow new customers internationally & serve other countries.
6. Open a localised site, and localise fulfilment.
7. Go full multi-channel, with both online and offline presence.
A big chunk of online traders sit at #2 there: If someone from another country reaches the checkout
stage, they can probably enter their address successfully, and perhaps tax has been calculated properly,
but in the main it is an accident if they make international sales rather than the result of careful
planning & execution.
Yet its easy to change that and move up the maturity scale if international retail is right for your
business. This article therefore aims to help you step toward defining a loose plan to tackle
Economic forces are factors such as inflation, interest rates, labor and government monetary
policies that influence levels of production and demand for goods and services. These factors
dictate the availability and affordability of production resources, as well as the abilities of
consumers to afford your end products. E-commerce involves transacting business through the use
of automated information technology applications. The outcomes of e-commerce activities are
affected by economic forces, as was evidenced by the 2007-2009 global economic crisis.
According to the Census Bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce, e-commerce declined by
5.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007. This clearly shows
that economic factors affect e-commerce.
Levels of Inflation:
Inflation is the sustained rise in the prices of products. Rising inflation affects the demand for e-
commerce goods or services because it reduces the number of items consumers can afford. This
affects your e-commerce business, particularly if you deal in nonessential or luxurious items.
Consumers actually restrict their spending to essential items during periods of high inflation.
Inflation also increases the costs of your inputs, such as electricity, Internet, online advertising and
computer maintenance. The adverse effects of high costs of operations, coupled with falling
demand for e-commerce products, reduce profits.
Rates of Interest:
Low interest rates encourage borrowing, while high interest rates discourage borrowing.
Prevalence of low interest rates boosts e-commerce business because it increases the amount of
money in circulation as a result of heightened lending and borrowing activities in the financial
sector. Consumers can spend more on your e-commerce products when they have more money at
their disposal. In contrast, high interest rates stifle money circulation and suppress demand for e-
commerce products. They also increase the financing costs of your business, especially if you
borrow loans with variable interest rates.
Trends of Employment:
Trends of employment are important indicators of economic progress. Low unemployment rates
translate to growing demand for e-commerce products because more people earn income. High
unemployment rates signal worsening economic conditions, as no new jobs are created and many
people lose jobs. As a result, the demand for e-commerce products declines with increased rates of
unemployment and vice versa.
Internet Overview:
Internet is defined as an Information super Highway, to access information over the web. However, It
can be defined in many ways as follows:
Internet is a world-wide global system of interconnected computer networks.
Internet uses the standard Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
Every computer in internet is identified by a unique IP address.
IP Address is a unique set of numbers (such as 110.22.33.114) which identifies a
computer location.
A special computer DNS (Domain Name Server) is used to give name to the IP Address
so that user can locate a computer by a name.
For example, a DNS server will resolve a namehttp://www.tutorialspoint.com to a
particular IP address to uniquely identify the computer on which this website is hosted.
Internet is accessible to every user all over the world.
Origin of Internet:
The concept of Internet was originated in 1969 and has undergone several technological &
Infrastructural changes as discussed below:
The origin of Internet devised from the concept of Advanced Research Project Agency
Network (ARPANET).
ARPANET was developed by United States Department of Defense.
Internet allows us to communicate with the people sitting at remote locations. There are
various apps available on the wed that uses Internet as a medium for communication.
One can find various social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo,
Google+, Flickr, Orkut etc.
One can surf for any kind of information over the internet. Information regarding
various topics such as Technology, Health & Science, Social Studies, Geographical
Information, Information Technology, Products etc can be surfed with help of a search
engine.
Apart from communication and source of information, internet also serves a medium
for entertainment. Various modes for entertainment over internet are (Online Television,
Online Games, Songs, Videos, and Social Networking Apps).
Internet allows us to use many services like Internet Banking, Matrimonial Services,
Online Shopping, Online Ticket Booking, Online Bill Payment, Data Sharing, E-mail.
Internet provides concept of electronic commerce that allows the business deals to be
conducted on electronic systems.
Disadvantages of Internet:
There are always chances to loose personal information such as name, address, credit
card number. Therefore, one should be very careful while sharing such information.
One should use credit cards only through authenticated sites.
Another disadvantage is the Spamming. Spamming corresponds to the unwanted e-
mails in bulk. These e-mails serve no purpose and lead to obstruction of entire system.
Virus can easily be spread to the computers connected to internet. Such virus attacks
may cause your system to crash or your important data may get deleted.
Also a biggest threat on internet is pornography. There are many pornographic sites that
can be found, letting your children to use internet which indirectly affects the children
healthy mental life.
There are various websites that do not provide the authenticated information. This leads
to misconception among many people.
World Wide Web was created by Timothy Berners Lee in 1989 at CERN in Geneva. World Wide
Web came into existence as a proposal by him, to allow researchers to work together effectively
and efficiently at CERN. Eventually it became World Wide Web.
The following diagram briefly defines evolution of World Wide Web:
WWW Architecture:
WWW architecture is divided into several layers as shown in the following diagram:
WWW Operation
WWW works on client- server approach. Following steps explains how the web works:
User enters the URL (say, http://www.tutorialspoint.com) of the web page in the
address bar of web browser.
Then browser requests the Domain Name Server for the IP address corresponding to
www.tutorialspoint.com.
After receiving IP address, browser sends the request for web page to the web server
using HTTP protocol which specifies the way the browser and web server
communicates.
Then web server receives request using HTTP protocol and checks its search for the
requested web page. If found it returns it back to the web browser and close the HTTP
connection.
Now the web browser receives the web page, It interprets it and display the contents of
web page in web browsers window.
Future
There had been a rapid development in field of web. It has its impact in almost every area such as
education, research, technology, commerce, marketing etc. So the future of web is almost
unpredictable.
Apart from huge development in field of WWW, there are also some technical issues that W3
consortium has to cope up with.
User Interface
Step 5
When people think of online marketing and the search engines, SEO is usually the first thing that
comes to mind. SEO is used to create a site that the search engines will rank as one of the most
relevant pages for a given term. The fact is, 95 percent of searchers click on a page that appears on
the first page results for Google, Yahoo! or Bing. You can see that search rank is a big deal!
Building a solid SEO strategy consists primarily of selecting relevant keywords and providing
valuable content related to those keywords. In the past, SEO was driven by factors like keyword
placement, keywords density, and even how many times a keyword was used to link to that page.
But the search engines quickly discovered that keywords could be easily manipulated. A page that
had nothing to do with a keyword could be ranked in top three, just by optimizing the page. Today,
this means that sites who rely solely on keywords are often ignored by the search engines.
Instead, SEO should include:
Relevant Keywords
Content Marketing
Content marketing is not a new concept. In fact, John Deere started the trend in 1895 when they
released The Furrow, an agricultural magazine. Other companies like Jell-O and Michelin followed
suit with recipe books and automotive tips. Content marketing is important because it helps build
For some, social media is nothing more than a way to stay in touch with old friends. But for
businesses, social media is a way to tie SEO and content marketing together. Search engines take
into consideration the number of shares a page receives when it ranks that particular piece of
content.
Social media is also quickly becoming the primary way content is shared. Sites like Twitter,
Google+, Stumble Upon, and Facebook all allow consumers to share valuable content with others
in their network. Research shows people are more likely to trust content shared from people they
know, so a share is akin to a 4 star rating!
A common mistake in social media marketing is thinking a large number of followers is all you
need. In fact, many businesses have sprouted up offering to sell you 100 or 1000 real friends or
fans. Keep in mind that friends and fans are not enough you need to build engagement. Friends
that are purchased are often not your target demographic or are fake accounts. Neither will help
you accomplish your goals.
In order to make the most of a social media marketing strategy, you need to interact with your fans
and create a true community. Show that you are accessible by allowing people to ask questions,
voice concerns, and even complain. Then address these issues in a professional manner. Provide
them with content that interesting, not just promotional. Remember, social media is first of all
social!
Email marketing has become a vital tool for small businesses that want to send regular marketing
messages. The initial attractions are obvious - it's fast and cheap. But that's not all - email
marketing offers sophisticated opportunities to target messages to the right people at the right time
and bring in serious business.
Response rates for bulk emails are higher than for direct mailings, thanks to the immediacy of the
medium. Results can be measured and used to make subsequent email marketing more tightly
focused.
Direct marketing via email is an ideal communication method for any small firm that relies on
its website for much of its business. Email messages can highlight special offers and new products
and then prompt recipients to click through to the website.
Email marketing done badly does present some pitfalls, however. Indiscriminate emailing will be
seen as spam. Responsibility and relevance are the watchwords. You must have permission to
email the recipient. And if you want them to respond positively, you must send messages that
are genuinely of value to them.
Following are the 8 reasons which shows the effectiveness of online advertising for businesses;
1. Digital Advertising Drives Sales & ROI
Nielsen completed more than 800 studies over the past seven years, collaborating with more than
300 CPG brands and 80 companies to measure the correlation between online advertising and
offline consumer purchases.
Nielsen concluded that brands can experience a return of almost three dollars in incremental sales
for every dollar spent in online advertising that has been precisely delivered using purchase-based
information.
2. Digital Advertising Enhances the Effectiveness of Non-Digital Media Channels
An econometrics study conducted by Brand Science and Microsoft shows that online advertising
not only delivers excellent ROI efficiency itself, but it also makes other media spend work harder.
When the researchers compared the difference in ROI performance between studies that have an
online element and those that do not, the results were striking adding online to the media mix
has a positive impact on the campaign ROI for all media, from a delta of +4% for radio to +51%
for outdoor and a whopping +70% for television.
3. Digital Advertising Is Effective Across The Entire Customer Journey
Automakers are sophisticated users of digital media, so McKinsey analyzed 24 customer touch-
points for more than 9,000 new car buyers to better understand which points of engagement drive
customers premium perceptions and purchase decisions.
Not only did they find that digital is key to driving premium perception (second only to live
experiences), they discovered that digital channels dominate the path-to-purchase (in this case,
McKinseys automotive consumer decision journey [CDJ] framework).
With traditional media, brands were constrained in their ability to influence prospects across the
entire journey and to do so in a granular, discrete manner. Not so with digital media.
4. Digital Advertising Drives Word-Of-Mouth at Scale
Prepared by: M. Saddam Uddin (ACCA) Email: Saddam_u@hotmail.com
Page 19 of 36
According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family
(word of mouth) over all forms of advertising, and there is little doubt that digital advertising
turbo-charges this effective persuasion channel.
ShareThis has a unique view of the word of mouth phenomenon; its ubiquitous sharing tools allow
it to touch the lives of 95% of U.S. internet users across more than 2 million publisher sites and
120+ social media channels.
In its quantitative study, Return on a Share, Quantifying the Monetary Value of Social Sharing, it
found:
Recommendations have more impact on a consumers purchase decision than both brand and
price 57% of decisions are based on this.
Online shares are almost as valuable as in-person recommendations a consumer is 9.5% more
likely to buy a product with an excellent shared recommendation compared with 10.6% more
likely via an excellent in-person recommendation. In contrast, a negative recommendation can
reduce purchase intent by 11% for an online share and 11.2% for an in-person one.
The specific value of a share can be determined by measuring how much more a consumer will
pay for a product if they have had an excellent online recommendation (via sharing). Share this
calculated a delta of +$3,708 for a family size car, +$24.91 for tablets, and +$0.92 for household
goods, for example.
5. Digital Creative Drives Interaction & Lifts Brands
It is well known that the quality of ad creative is the most important determinant of ad
effectiveness. A seminal comScore ARS study showed that creative quality drives more than half
of the sales changes for brands analyzed, four times higher than the impact of the specific media
plan.
Digital creative adds the dimension of interaction to sight, sound, and motion and greater
interaction has been shown to drive brand effectiveness.
For example, IAB, comScore, and Vibrant Media partnered to study the effectiveness of mobile
advertising for Oreo, Hellmans, and Microsoft Windows Phone. Standard banners were compared
to the IAB Rising Stars, which include interaction.
Results across the three ad campaigns show that consumers are twice as likely to interact with a
Mobile Rising Star ad as a standard mobile ad and have higher brand lift after interacting with a
Mobile Rising Star ad (83% more likely to have an improved impression of the brand, 74% to
recall the brand, 22% to recall the message, and 12% to recommend the brand).
6. Digital Advertising Is More Efficient Than Traditional Media
While it is dangerous to generalize about media costs given the wide array of choices within each
medium, digital advertising can generally be seen to be among the most efficient means of
reaching an audience.
Further, on a cost-per-conversion basis, the IAB estimates digital to be five to six times more
efficient than direct mail.
7. Digital Advertising Is Essential To Reaching an Audience:
In 2013, time spent with digital media among U.S. adults surpassed time spent with TV, and this
gap will likely continue to widen. U.S. adults are estimated to spend 4 hours, 28 minutes per day in
front of their TV. Combining online and mobile devices, however, U.S. adults are expected to
4. Creating and Maintaining Brands on the web. Elements of Branding, Branding types, Brand
Leveraging Strategies) Online Auctions and Web portals (Auction overview, Its Origin, Types
of Auctions, web portals and early web communities)
Types of Branding:
Product
Products enjoy some of the most common types of branding. Walking through supermarket or retail
store aisles is an easy way to understand product branding. Certain labels will jump off the shelves
because they have achieved their marketing goals. Successful product branding is what nudges a
consumer to choose one brand over another. The brand has established a reputation as the best or most
popular in its class. Think of soft drinks, athletic shoes, computers or jeans and see what brand names
pop into your head first. These are prime examples of product branding.
Personal
Personal branding is a popular marketing tool among athletes, musicians, politicians and other
celebrities. A politician will attempt to brand himself into the type of person the voters want to put in
office. A celebrity often becomes self-branded based on his own personality, while others are molded
by public relations firms and agents. In addition to a personal brand, a celebrity might become
associated with products bearing his name.
Corporate
Corporate branding is essential for any business that wants to develop a reputation in the marketplace.
Everything the company does has an effect on its image. A corporation markets its product or service,
its corporate culture, its employees and its contributions to the community. A corporation's branding
can become tarnished overnight because of an industrial disaster or a poor decision by management. If
the damage is severe, a corporation might start over with an entirely new strategy for branding a
completely new image.
Geographic
Geographic or regional branding conjures images of certain products or services when the name is
mentioned. While the Southwest region of the U.S. might be known for spicy foods, the Midwest is
known for steaks. The tourism industry uses branding to lure travelers to the area. Southern states
boast their sunshine and beaches, while mountainous areas become known for winter sports such as
skiing and snowboarding.
Cultural
Cultural branding develops a reputation about the environment and people of a particular location or
nationality. New Englanders are thought to be hard-working, and perhaps too serious, while New
Yorkers are viewed as people always on the go and moving at a rapid-fire pace. Cultural branding is
another tool in tourism such as inviting travelers to experience the Amish country.
Online auctions provide a business opportunity that is perfect for the Web. An auction site can charge
both buyers and sellers to participate, and it can sell advertising on its page. Web auctions can provide
a general auction site that has sections devoted to specific interests.
Origin of Auctions:
Auctions became common activities in 17th-Century England. The 18th Century saw the birth of two
British auction houses Sothebys in 1774 and Christies in 1766. Colonial auctions were used to sell
farm equipment, animals, tobacco, etc. In an auction, a seller offers an item up for sale, but does not
establish a price. Potential buyers are given information about the item or some opportunity to
examine the item; they can then offer bids.
Types of Auctions:
English Auctions:
Bidders publicly announce their successive higher bids until no higher bid is forthcoming in the
English auction. The auctioneer pronounces the item sold to the highest bidder at that bidders price.
An English auction is an open auction because the bids are publicly announced. An English auction
has a minimum bid or reserve price. English auctions that offer multiple units of an item for sale and
that allow bidders to specify the quantity they want to buy are called Yankee auctions.
Dutch Auctions:
The Dutch auction is a form of open auction in which bidding starts at a high price and drops until a
bidder accepts the price. Dutch auctions are also called descending-price auctions. Dutch auctions are
particularly good for moving large numbers of commodity items quickly.
Web Auctions:
Web auctions are one of the fastest-growing segments of online business today. Business analysts
predict that Web auctions will account for 40% of all electronic commerce by 2004. Three broad
categories of auction Web sites are emerging: general consumer auctions, specialty consumer auctions,
and business-to-business auctions.
General Consumer Auctions:
One of the most successful consumer auction Web sites is eBay. The eBay home page includes links to
categories of items. Sellers pay eBay a listing fee and a sliding percentage of the final selling price.
Buyers pay nothing to eBay. The most common format used on eBay is a computerized version of the
English auction. Another auction type offered by eBay is an increasing-price format for multiple item
auctions that eBay calls a Dutch auction. In either type of eBay auction, bidders must constantly
monitor the bidding activity. Times Mirror started Auction Universe in 1997 and sold it in 1998 to the
Classified Ventures. It then closed in August 2000. Portal sites, such as Yahoo! and Excite, have
created auctions. Amazon.com has also recently expanded its business to include auctions. Amazons
By the late 1990s, virtual communities were selling advertising to generate revenue. Search engine,
entertainment, and Web directory sites were also selling advertising to generate revenue. Beginning in
1998, a wave of purchases and mergers occurred among these sites. The new sites that emerged still
used an advertising-only revenue generation model and included all the features offered by virtual
communities, search engines sites, Web directories, and information entertainment sites.
Industry observers predicting success for Web portals may be correct. The companies that run Web
portals certainly believe in the power of portals. Many large organizations have built internal Web
portals to provide information to their employees. This creates an online community and saves
significant amounts of money that would normally be spent on printing and distributing memos.
Early Web Communities:
One of the first Web communities was the WELL community. Member of the WELL pay a monthly
fee to participate in its forums and conferences. In 1995, Beverly Hills Internet opened a virtual
community site. Virtual communities for consumers can continue as money-making propositions, or at
least cover their expenses if they offer something sufficiently valuable to justify a charge for
membership. Most virtual communities have been unable to support themselves. Most virtual
communities have closed or been sold to companies like Yahoo!
5. E-Commerce Application regarding business management (E-CRM overview, CRM and E-
Commerce, CRM Strategies, SCM overview, Element of SCM, SCM strategies / Models:
E-CRM:
Electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM) involves the integration of Web channels
into the overall enterprise CRM strategy with the goal of driving consistency within all channels
relative to sales, customer service and support (CSS) and marketing initiatives. It can support a
seamless customer experience and maximize customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and revenue.
Scope of Social CRM:
Monitoring, analysing and responding to conversations through social listening tools
Find the best ways to get involved, influence sales and generate leads by understanding social
platforms
Develop customer relationship tools/self help/service and support
Benefits of e CRM
Reducing costs in customer targeting (customising emails on large scale therefore reducing
costs for direct mail)
Increasing the meaning of information
Elements of SCM:
Demand Management
Demand management is an essential element in supply chain management, focusing companies and
their partners on meeting the needs of customers, rather than the production process. The lead
company in the supply chain makes partners aware of customers needs, encouraging them to
maximize component or supply quality and add value to the finished product. By raising awareness of
customers needs and increasing collaboration, companies can improve the competitiveness of the
whole supply chain and increase business opportunities for all members.
Communication
Effective communication helps the entire supply chain improve the efficiency and productivity of its
operations by enabling all members to share the same demand and operational information.
Communication keeps all members informed of developments that affect their contribution to the
supply chain, enabling them to quickly adjust their operations in line with changing demand
conditions. Effective communication also enables members to respond rapidly to new business
opportunities, helping to get new products to market quickly or increasing supply levels following a
successful marketing campaign.
Integration
Integrating supply chain processes helps each member reduce its inventory costs a key to successful
chain management, according to a case study on the retailer Wal-Mart by the University of San
Francisco. Suppliers share up-to-date information on demand to route their products to Wal-Marts
warehouses for onward shipment to stores with minimum time in inventory. This reduces Wal-Marts
costs significantly, enabling them to offer customers highly competitive pricing. To achieve this level
of integration, companies develop single information networks that enable all members to access and
share supply and demand data securely. The networks are based on open standards, such as Internet
Protocol, so all members can communicate, even if they have different internal networks.
Collaboration
Collaboration in the supply chain strengthens relationships between members, improving teamwork
and helping all members increase their business. Lead companies run business development and
training programs to improve supply chain partners market and product knowledge. They also
Ethical Issues
Intermediation is one of the most important and interesting e-commerce issue related to loss of jobs.
The services provided by intermediaries are
(i) Matching and providing information.
(ii) Value added services such as consulting.
The first type of service (matching and providing information) can be fully automated, and this service
is likely to be in e-marketplaces and portals that provide free services. The value added service
requires expertise and this can only be partially automated. The phenomenon by which
Intermediaries, who provide mainly matching and providing information services are eliminated is
called Disintermediation.
The brokers who provide value added services or who manage electronic intermediation (also known
as info mediation), are not only surviving but may actually prosper, this phenomenon is called
Reintermediation.
Where are the headlines about consumers defrauding merchants? What about fraud e-commerce
websites? Internet fraud and its sophistication have grown even faster than the Internet itself. There is
a chance of a crime over the internet when buyers and sellers do not know each other and cannot even
see each other. During the first few years of e-commerce, the public witnessed many frauds committed
over the internet. Lets discuss the legal issues specific to e-commerce.
Fraud on the Internet
E-commerce fraud popped out with the rapid increase in popularity of websites. It is a hot issue for
both cyber and click-and-mortar merchants. The swindlers are active mainly in the area of stocks. The
small investors are lured by the promise of false profits by the stock promoters. Auctions are also
conductive to fraud, by both sellers and buyers. The availability of e-mails and pop up ads has paved
the way for financial criminals to have access to many people. Other areas of potential fraud include
phantom business opportunities and bogus investments.
Copyright
The copyright laws protect Intellectual property in its various forms, and cannot be used freely. It is
very difficult to protect Intellectual property in E-Commerce. For example, if you buy software you
have the right to use it and not the right to distribute it. The distribution rights are with the copyright
holder. Also, copying contents from the website also violates copy right laws.
Domain Names
The competition over domain names is another legal issue. Internet addresses are known as domain
names and they appear in levels. A top level name is qburst.com or microsoft.com. A second level
name will be qburst.com/blog. Top level domain names are assigned by a central non-profit
organization which also checks for conflicts or possible infringement of trademarks. Problems arise
when several companies having similar names competing over the same domain name. The problem
of domain names was alleviated somewhat in 2001 after several upper level names were added to com.
Another issue to look out for is Cybersquatting, which refers to the practice of registering domain
names with the desire of selling it at higher prices. Security features such as authentication, non-
repudiation and escrow services can protect the sellers in e-commerce.
One needs to be careful while doing e-commerce activities. The need to educate the public about the
ethical and legal issues related to e-commerce is highly important from a buyer as well as seller
perspective.
Every Website sits on a computer known as a Web server. This server is always connected to the
internet. Every Web server that is connected to the Internet is given a unique address made up of a
series of four numbers between 0 and 255 separated by periods. For example, 68.178.157.132 or
68.122.35.127.
There are four leading web servers Apache, IIS, lighttpd and Jagsaw. Now we will see these servers
in bit more detail.
Apart from these Web Servers, there are other Web Servers also available in the market but they are
very expensive. Major ones are Netscape's iPlanet, Bea's Web Logic and IBM's WebSphere.
lighttpd
The lighttpd, pronounced lighty is also a free web server that is distributed with the FreeBSD
operating system. This open source web server is fast, secure and consumes much less CPU power.
Lighttpd can also run on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris operating systems.
You can have detailed information about this server at lighttpd
Jigsaw Server:
Jigsaw (W3C's Server) comes from the World Wide Web Consortium. It is open source and free and
can run on various platforms like Linux, Unix, Windows, Mac OS X Free BSD etc. Jigsaw has been
written in Java and can run CGI scripts and PHP programs.
E-Payment Overview
An electronic payment is any kind of non-cash payment that doesn't involve a paper check. Methods
of electronic payments include credit cards, debit cards and the ACH (Automated Clearing House)
network. The ACH system comprises direct deposit, direct debit and electronic checks (e-checks).
Types of E-Payments
The following types of electronic payments are most common today. That said, it is important to
realize that new payment types are continual being discovered and there are additional methods that
exist or are being developed continuously.
Cards
Credit cards, debit cards and prepaid cards currently represent the most common form of electronic
payments. For all 3 types of cards the consumer or the business most often uses a plastic card,
commonly with a magnetic stripe. The cardholder gives his or her card or card number to a merchant
who swipes the card through a terminal or enters the data to a PC. The terminal transmits data to his or
her bank, the acquirer. The acquirer transmits the data through a card association to the card issuer
who makes a decision on the transaction and relays it back to the merchant, who gives goods or
services to the cardholder. Funds flow later for settlement with credit cards and are debited
immediately for debit or pre-paid cards.
Along with magnetic stripe cards, smart cards are and will increasingly be used for payments. Smart
cards are at present overwhelmingly plastic credit cards with an embedded computer chip. Until
recently, many smart cards operated using proprietary rather than common standards. A standard set of
specifications, EMV, has been developed and is being used increasingly so that the chips on smart
cards are interoperable. Korea and Japan are among the most advanced countries in Asia for smart card
payments, with Malaysia catching up fast due to government mandates for banks to issue smart cards.
Most credit and debit cards are expected to be issued or reissued as smart cards by 2008 or earlier.
Over time, the chip for payment can be expected to move onto other devices. A smart card might
then become the computer chip in a phone, PDA or other device that can perform the same function as
Internet
Online payments involve the customer transferring money or making a purchase online via the
internet. Consumers and businesses can transfer money to third parties from the bank or other account,
and hey can also use credit, debit and prepaid cards to make purchases online.
Current estimates are that over 80% of payments for online purchases are made using a credit card or
debit card. At present, most online transactions involve payment with a credit card. While other forms
of payment such as direct debits to accounts or pre-paid accounts and cards are increasing, they
currently represent a less developed transaction methodology.
Mobile Payments
Mobile phones are currently used for a limited number of electronic transactions. However, the
percentage seems likely to increase as mobile phone manufacturers enable the chip and software in the
phone for easier electronic commerce.
Consumers can use their mobile phone to pay for transactions in several ways. Consumers may send
an SMS message, transmit a PIN number, use WAP to make online payments, or perform other
segments of their transaction with the phone. As phones develop further, consumers are likely to be
able to use infrared, Bluetooth and other means more frequently to transmit full account data in order
to make payments securely and easily from their phone.
Additionally, merchants can obtain an authorization for a credit or debit card transaction by attaching a
device to their mobile phone. A consortium in the US also recently announced PowerSwipe, for
example, which physically connects to a Nextel phone, weighs 3.1 ounces, and incorporates a
magnetic stripe reader, infrared printing port, and pass-through connector for charging the handset
battery.
Financial Service Kiosks:
Companies and service providers in several countries, including Singapore and the US, have set up
kiosks to enable financial and non-financial transactions. These kiosks are fixed stations with phone
connections where the customer usually uses a keyboard and television-like screen to transaction or to
access information.
At AXS stations in Singapore, for example, consumers can make electronic bill payments, send email
or SMS message and make phone calls. Kiosks in the United States enable the customer to send
money via wire transfers, cash checks, make purchases using cash, and make phone calls.
Located at convenient public locations such as bus or subway stations, convenience stores or shopping
malls, these kiosks enable electronic payments by individuals who may not have regular access to the
internet or mobile phones.
Television Set-Top Boxes and Satellite Receiver:
Specialized boxes attached to a television can also be used for payments in some locations. The set-top
box attaches to the television and a keyboard or other device, and customers can make purchases by
viewing items on the television. Payment is made electronically using a credit card or other account.
While usage is presently low, it could grow substantially in countries with a strong cable or satellite
television network.
Biometric Payments:
Prepared by: M. Saddam Uddin (ACCA) Email: Saddam_u@hotmail.com
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Electronic payments using biometrics are still largely in their infancy. Trials are underway in the
United States, Australia and a limited number of other countries. Most biometric payments involve
using fingerprints as the identification and access tool, though companies like Visa International are
piloting voice recognition technology and retina scans are also under consideration. Essentially, a
biometric identifier such as a fingerprint or voice could replace the plastic card and more securely
identifies the person undertaking the transaction. The electronic payment is still charged to a credit
card or other account, with the biometric identifier replacing the card, check or other transaction
mechanism.
Electronic Payments Networks:
Various countries have electronic payments networks that consumer can use to make payments
electronically. ACH (Automated Clearing House) in the US, domestic EFTPOS networks in Australia
and Singapore, and other networks enable electronic payments between businesses and between
individuals. The consumer can go online, to a financial service kiosk or use other front-end devices to
access their account and make payments to businesses or other individuals.
Person-to-Person (P2P) Payments:
P2P payments enable one individual to pay another using an account, a prepaid card or another
mechanism that stores value. PayPal in the US, which was recently purchased by Ebay, is one of the
most frequently used P2P mechanisms. The Tower Group estimates that the volume of P2P payments
will grow from 105 million transactions in 2002 to 1.4 billion transactions by 2005. P2P payments can
be made through a variety of means, including services like PayPal, transfers using card readers, or
other. In the future other devices, such as mobile phones or PDAs, could also be used to enable P2P
electronic payments.
ERP System:
ERP is an industry acronym for Enterprise Resource Planning. Broadly speaking, ERP refers to
automation and integration of a company's core business to help them focus on effectiveness &
simplified success.
SYSPRO defines the meaning of ERP
As one of the longest standing ERP vendors, we often get asked by prospects (and potential
employees) to define ERP. The Information Technology industry is renowned for its adoption of
acronyms, which are often widely used, but not fully understood. The term 'ERP' itself is not self-
explanatory and refers to the business software that has been designed to record and manage your
enterprise data.
An ERP System automates and integrates core business processes such as taking customer orders,
scheduling operations, and keeping inventory records and financial data. ERP systems can drive huge
improvements in the effectiveness of any organisation by:
assisting you in defining your business processes and ensuring they are complied with
throughout the supply chain;
protecting your critical business data through well-defined roles and security access
enabling you to plan your work load based on existing orders and forecasts
providing you with the tools to give a high level of service to your customers