Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
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ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Submitted By
Rahul Mathur, BCA-III Year
Bachelor of Computer Applications
Dezyne Ecole College, Ajmer
www.dezyneecole.com
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Thanking You
Rahul Mathur
Bachelor of Computer Applications
III Year
CONTENTS
1. Chapter 1
Introduction
2. Chapter 2
Electronic Commerce and the World Wide Web
3. Chapter 3
Architectural Framework for Electronic Commerce
4. Chapter 4
Technology Behind the Web
5. Chapter 5
Network Security and Firewalls
6. Chapter 6
Electronic Commerce Companies
7. Chapter 7
Pictorial Representation: E-Buying Methodology
8. Chapter 8
Conclusion
Chapter 1
Introduction
Every individual of company that wants to make money and become the next
Microsoft needs to understand the market potential, business implication and
technological foundations of electronic commerce. But what is electronic commerce
everybody is talking about. How does it affect the organisation way of doing
business? What sort of technical and business skills are needed to be successful?
Companies and consumers are discovering that global networking and other
technological innovations are powerful assets if used as competitive weapons in their
day to day activities. E-Commerce is associated with the buying and selling of
information, products and services via computer network today.
Consumer desires are very hard to predict pin point or decipher in electronic markets
whose shape, structure and population are still in early stages. Needs envisioned
include entertainment on demand including 500 channel T.V., video on demand,
games on demand, electronic retailing via catalogues and Kiosks and home shopping
networks. In future, viewers will decide what they want to see and when they want to
participate and successful market places are expected to those that cater to
consumers loneliness, boredom, education and career. In highly competitive society,
where neighbours seldom talk to one another, these outlets give consumer someone
to talk after going home.
Lets take a look at the changing conditions in the new economy with respect to the
retail industry. Consumers are pushing retailers to the wall demanding lower prices,
better quality, and a large section of in-season goods. Retailers are scrambling to fill
the order. They are slashing back-office cost reducing profit-margins, reducing cycle
times, buying more wisely and making huge investment in technology. They are
revamping distribution channels to make sure that warehouses costs are down by
reducing their average inventory levels and coordinating the consumer demand and
supply pattern.
In the push to reduce prices more and more retailers are turning to overseas suppliers
in part because of cheaper labour costs. Retail are the immediate line of fire and had
to do the cost cutting. They put the pressure on the manufacturer and then to the
supplier end of the pipeline. Electronic commerce is forcing companies to rethink the
existing ways of doing target marketing; relationship marketing and even event
marketing. Adaptation would include moving towards computerised paperless
operations to, reduce trading costs and facilitate the adoption of new business
process. Japanese approach JIT (Just in Time) system, total quality control and
quality circles are focused now for delivery of goods through electronic commerce.
Chapter 2
Electronic Commerce and the World-Wide-Web
We have broadly defined electronic commerce as a modern business methodology
that addresses the desire of the firm, consumer and management to cut cost while
improving the quality of goods and increasing the speed of services. The need for
electronic commerce stems from the demand within business and government to
make better use of computing, that is, better apply computer technology to improve
business process and information exchange both within an enterprise and across
organisations. In short, electronic commerce appears to be an integrating force that
represents the digital conversions of twenty-first century business applications and
computing technologies.
Electronic commerce applications emphasize the generation and exploitation of new
business opportunity and to use the popular buzzword, generate business value.
For instance, when buyer-seller transactions occur in the electronic marketplace,
information is accessed, absorbed, arranged and sold in different ways. In fact, the
information a product or service is separated from the physical product or service and
has become important on its own. In some cases, the information can become as
crucial as the actual product or service in terms of its effect on a companys profits.
In short, information based business transactions are creating new ways of doing
business and even new types of business.
Electronic commerce application are quite varied. In its most common form, E-
Commerce is also used to donate the paperless exchange of business information
using EDI, Electronic Mail (E-Mail), Electronic Bulletin Boards, Electronic Fund
Transfer (EFT) and other similar technologies. These technologies are normally
applied in high-payoff areas, recognizing that paper-handling activities usually
increase expense without adding value. On the other hand, the term electronic
commerce is used to describe a new on-line approach to perform traditional
functions such as payment and funds transfer, order entry and processing, invoicing,
inventory management, cargo tracking, electronic catalogue and point-of-sale, data
gathering. More recently, companies have realised that the advertising, marketing
and customer support functions are also part of electronic commerce application
domain. These business functions acts as initiators to the entire order management
cycle that incorporates the more established notions of electronic commerce. In
short, what we are witnessing is the use of the term electronic commerce as an
umbrella concept to integrate a wide range of new and old applications.
Electronic Document Interchange
E-mail Fax
Electronic Messaging
Despite the changes taking place, businesses have three goals: stay competitive,
improve productivity and deliver quality service. These goals are the guiding boys for
firms plotting their course in the turbulent waters of electronic commerce. There are
other factors that companies need to keep in mind. First, most companies have
already made enormous information technology investments to automate their key
internal processes such as purchasing, invoicing and other similar functions. So,
some aspects of the technological infrastructure for electronic commerce are already
in place. The challenge now become: How to effectively leverage this investment.
Second, prices for computer hardware and network equipment continue to fall,
marking information technology an appealing investment for many businesses,
especially when its used for high-impact applications such as linking their distributed
operations. However, investment without a clear idea of the electronic commerce
architecture being built would be akin to driving with blinders on. As a result,
companies that have decided that electronic commerce applications represent one
of the best strategic investment they can make must first exert some effort to
understand the technology underlying electronic commerce applications.
At first glance, it appears that messaging based technologies such as EDI and Male-
Enabled applications, combined with database and information management service,
form the technical foundation for effective electronic commerce solutions. No single
one of these technologies can deliver the full potential of electronic commerce,
however. What we require is an integrated architecture the likes of which has never
been seen before. This integrated architecture is emerging in the form of the World
Wide Web (WWW). As electronic commerce becomes more mature, we are
beginning to see sophisticated applications being developed on WWW. Technically
and commercially, the WWW client-server model seems poised to become a
dominant technology.
Chapter 3
Customer-to-Business
Applications Services Business-to-Business
Intra-organisational
Interactive catalogue
Interface layer Directory support function
Software agents
Global Suppliers
Classic EDI
Private Internal
Commerce Publishing
Customer Oriented
Electronic Commerce
Customers
o Customer-to-Business Transaction
o Business-to-Business Transaction
For example, the current accounts payable process occurs through the exchange
of paper documents. Each year the trading partners exchange millions of invoices,
checks purchase orders, financial reports and other transactions. Most of the
documents are in electronic form at their point of origin but are printed and key-
entered at the point of receipt. The current manual process of printing, mailing and
rekeying is costly, time consuming and error-prone. Given this situation and faced
with the need to reduce costs, small businesses are looking towards electronic
commerce as possible saviour.
o Intra-organisational transaction
Information brokers, for example are rapidly becoming necessary in dealing with the
voluminous amounts of information on the networks. As online database migrate to
consumer information utilities, consumers and information professionals will have
to keep up the knowledge and ownership of all these systems. Whos got what?
How do you use it? What do they charge? Most professionals have enough trouble
keeping track of files of interest on one or two database services. With all the
complexity associated with large number of online database and service bureaus,
its impossible to expect humans to do the searching. It will have to be software
programs-information brokers or software agents, to use the most popular term-Act
on searchers behalf. Information brokerage does more than just searching.
The third layer, interface and support services, will provide interfaces for electronic
commerce applications such as interactive catalogues and will support directory
services-functions necessary for information search and access. These two
concepts are very different. Interactive catalogues are the customized interface to
consumer applications such as home shopping. An interactive catalogue is an
extension of the paper-based catalogue and incorporates additional features such
as sophisticated graphics and video to make the advertising more attractive.
Directories, on the other hand, operate behind the scenes and attempt to organise
the enormous amount of information and transactions generated to facilitate
electronic commerce. Directory services database make data from any server
appear as a local file. A classic example of a directory is the telephone White Pages,
which allows us to locate people and telephone numbers. In the case of electronic
commerce, directories would play an important role in information management
functions. For instance, take the case of buying an airline ticket with several
stopovers with a caveat that the time between layovers be minimized. This search
would require several queries to various online directories to find empty seats on
various airlines and then the availability of seats would be coordinated with the
amount of time spent in the airport terminals.
Secure Messaging and Structured Document Interchange
Services
Broadly defined, messaging is the software that sits between the network
infrastructure and the clients or electronic commerce applications, masking the
peculiarities of the environment. Others define messaging as a framework for the
total implementation of portable applications, divorcing you from the architectural
primitives of your system. In general, messaging products are not applications that
solve problems; they are more enablers of the application that solve problems.
The main disadvantages of messaging are the new types of applications it enables-
which appear to be more complex, especially to traditional programmers-and the
jungle of standards it involves. Because of the lack of standards, there is often no
interoperability between messaging vendors leading to islands of messaging. Also,
security, privacy and confidentiality through data encryption and authentication
techniques are important issues that need to be resolved for ensuring the legality of
the message-based transactions themselves.
Middleware Services
Middleware is a relatively new concept that emerged only recently like so many
other innovations, it came into being out of necessity. Users in the 1970s, when
vendors delivered homogenous systems that worked, didnt have a need for
middleware. When conditions changed-along with the hardware and the software
the organisations couldnt cope: The tools were inadequate, the backlog was
enormous, and the pressure was overwhelming. And, the users were dissatisfied.
Something was needed to solve all the interface, translation, transformation and
interpretation problems that were driving application developers crazy.
With the growth of networks, client-server technology, and all other forms of
communicating between/among unlike platforms, the problems of getting all the
pieces to work together grew from formidable to horrendous. As the cry for
distributed computing spread, users demanded interaction between dissimilar
systems, networks that permitted shared resources, and applications that could be
accessed by multiple software programs. In simple terms middleware is the ultimate
mediator between diverse software programs that enables them talk to one another.
Transparency
Transparency implies that users should be unaware that they are accessing multiple
systems. Transparency is essential for dealing with higher-level issues than
physical media and interconnection that the underlying network infrastructure is in
charge of. The ideal picture is one of a Virtual network: a collection of work-group,
departmental, enterprise and enterprise LANs that appears to the end user or client
application to be a seamless and easily accessed whole.
The web has become an umbrella for wide range of concepts and technologies that
differ markedly in purpose and scope. These include the global hypertext publishing
concept, the universal reader concept and the client-server concept.
The universal readership concept promotes the idea that, unlike the segmented
applications of the past, we can use one application-a universal (or common) user
interface-to read a variety of documents. This concept implies that once information
is published it is accessible from any type of computer, in any country and that any
(authorised) person merely needs to use one simple program to access it. This is
accomplished in the web by using a core browser or application that is augmented
by supporting applications. The core browser implements only minimal functionality
and attempts to offload more specialised work onto the supporting applications.
The client server concept allows the web to grow easily without any centralised
control. Anyone can publish information and anyone (as long as he or she is
authorized) can read and download it. Publishing information requires a server
program and reading data requires a client browser. All the clients and all the
servers are connected to one another by the Internet. The various standard
protocols allows all clients to communicate with all servers. In practice the web
hangs on a number of essential concepts, including the following:
The addressing scheme known as uniform resource locator (URL) makes the
hyper media world possible despite many different protocols.
A network protocol known as hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) used by client
browsers and servers offers performance and features not otherwise available.
A mark-up language (HTML), which every web client is required to understand,
is used for the representation of hypertext documents containing text, list boxes
and graphics information across the net.
Chapter 4
Technology behind the Web
Information providers (or publishers) run programs (called servers) from which the
browsers (clients) can obtain information. These programs can either be Web servers
that understand the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), Gateway programs that
convert an existing information format to hypertext, or a non-HTTP server that Web
browser can access-anonymous FTP or Gopher servers.
Web servers are composed of two major parts: the hypertext transfer protocol for
transmitting documents between servers and clients and the hypertext mark-up
language (HTML) format for documents. The link between HTML files and the HTTP
servers is provided by the uniform resource locators (URLs).
Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
The documents that the browsers display are hypertext that contains pointers to other
documents. The browser let you deal with the pointers in a transparent way-select
the pointer and you are presented with the text to which it points. This pointer is
implemented using a concept that is central to Web browsers: Uniform Resource
Locators (URLs). One way to think about URLs is to use the libraries and location on
a shelf as a metaphor. A URL for a digital library wold be a unique call number that
provides the exact location of every book in the world, including the country, city,
street and library shelf location.
In practice, URLs are the string used as addresses of objects (documents, images)
on the web. Think of them as analogous to your e-mail address. Just as your address
is unique and may be used by any other Internet user to send you mail without
knowing exactly where you are, a URL marks the unique location on the Internet
where a file or service can be found.
URLs follow a fairly consistent pattern. The first part describes the type of resource;
the second part gives the name of the server housing the resource; and the third part
gives full filename of the resource. URLs are universal in that they provide access to
a wide range of network services which required separate applications in the past.
For a new network protocol one can easily form an address as the set of parameters
necessary to retrieve the object. If these parameters are encoded into a concise
string, with a prefix to identify the protocols and encoding, one has a new URL
scheme. Take a look at the URL format below:
FTP : ftp://server.address/complete.file.name
Gopher : gopher://server.address:port/directory/filename
TELNET : telnet://server.address:port
HTTP : http://server.address:port/homepage.html
New : news:misc.stocks.invest
These are URLs for internet news articles and news groups (the NNTP protocol) and
for HTTP archives, for TELNET destinations, e-mail addresses and so on. The same
can be done for names of objects in a given name space.
For example, the URL of the main page for the web project happens to be:
http://web.w3.org/hypertext/web/TheProject.html
The prefix http in the preceding example indicates the address space and defines
the interpretation of the rest of the string. The HTTP protocol is to be used, so the
string contains the address of the server to be contacted and a substring to be passed
to the server. As noted earlier, different protocols use different syntaxes, but they do
have a small amount in common. For example, the common URL syntax reserves
the solidus (/) as a way of representing a hierarchical space, the pound label (#) as
a way of pointing inside the document and question mark (?) as a separator between
the address of an object and a query operation applied to it. Hierarchical spaces are
useful for hypertext, where one work may be split up into many interlinked
documents. The # allows relative names to exploit the hierarchical structure and
allows links to be made within the work independent of the higher parts of the URL,
such as the server name.
URLs are central to the web architecture. The fact that it is easy to address an object
anywhere on the internet is essential for the system to scale and for the information
space to be independent of the network and server topology.
Chapter 5
Network Security and Firewalls
The ability to conduct business on a public network has strong attraction-and the
potential for big savings. Security and confidentiality are essential, however, before
businesses can conduct financial transactions over the internet and a lack of
widespread security measures remains at this time. At present, credit card numbers,
financial records and other important information are not encrypted and can be
intercepted by any savvy Internet hacker.
The discussion of security concern in electronic commerce can be divided into two
broad types:
1. Client-Server Security uses various authorization methods to make sure that only
valid users and programs have access to information resources such as
databases. Access control mechanisms must be set up to ensure that properly
authenticated users are allowed access only to those resources that they are
entitled to use. Such mechanisms include password protection, encrypted smart
cards, biometrics and firewalls.
2. Data and transaction security ensures the privacy and confidentiality in electronic
messages and data packets, including the authentication of remote users in
network transactions for activities such as on-line payment. The goal is to defeat
any attempt to assume another identity while involved with electronic mail or other
forms of data communication. Preventive measures include data encryption using
various cryptographic methods.
The lack of data and message security on the Internet has become a profile problem
due to increasing number of merchants trying to spur commerce on the global
network. For instance, credit card numbers in their plain text form create a risk when
transmitted across the Internet where the possibility of the number falling into the
wrong hands is relatively high. Would you be willing to type in your credit card number
knowing the risk? Even worse, would you expose your customers to that risk? Just
the thought of sniffer programs that collect credit card numbers en masse is enough
to keep merchants away from on-line shopping given the possible lawsuits and other
liability issues. In short, the lack of business transaction security is widely
acknowledged as a major impediment to widespread e-commerce.
Encrypted Documents and Electronic Mail
E-mail users who desire confidentiality and sender authentication are using
encryption. Encryption is simply intended to keep personal thoughts personal. Some
users are already using Pretty Good Privacy (PGP); others are starting to use Privacy
Enhanced Mail (PEM).
E-mail is typically encrypted for the reason that all network correspondence is open
for eavesdropping. Internet e-mail is obviously far less secure then the postal system,
where envelopes protect correspondence from casual snooping. A glance at the
header area of any e-mail message, by contrast, will show that it has passed through
a number of nodes on its way to you. Every one of these nodes present the
opportunity for snooping.
Chapter 6
Step 1 -
Go to the link of the website, www.flipkart.com
Step 2 -
Select the desired product category you want to buy.
Step 3 -
Choose the product you want to buy.
Step 4 -
On the products page, click on Add to WISHLIST to add more products to your
recent shopping.
Step 5 Either Log-In or Sign-Up to add more products to you Wish List.
Step 6 -
To buy, click on BUY NOW button on the products page. Then click on PLACE
ORDER button to place your order.
Step 7 -Now, it will ask, whether you are existing customer or a new
customer. Choose desired option and then click on CONTINUE.
Step 8 -
You are required to fill up all the details asked in the form, then click on SAVE
AND CONITNUE.
Step 9 -
Click on CONTINUE button by confirming your purchase.
Step 10 -
Select the desired PAYMENT METHOD, according to your facility.
Step 11 -
Fill up the details and click on PAY.
Buying Procedure on on-line shopping website, Yepme.
Step 1 -
Step 2 -
Step 3 -
Step 4 -
Step 5 -
Step 6 -
Step 7 -
Step 8 -
Step 9 -
Chapter 8
Conclusion
E-Commerce is growing tremendously. A lot of companies have joined between the period
July and August. Online retail is still a tiny spot in Indias retail market of about $500 billion
a year, but it is growing at a quick pace. A study by retail consultancy Technopark predicts
Indias e-tailing market will reach $32 billion by 2020 from $2.3 billion in 2014.
Ethnic Indian clothes and casual work are favourite products but unusual products like pets-
too are being offered online. With the huge growth that e-commerce has witnessed in recent
times analysed like Devyanshu Dutta, says there is scope for more players to come in. but
some also warn about the risks the space is fraught with, as only a few chances of making
it big. They also see consolidation in the sector going forward.
BIBLIOGRAPHY