E-commerce

Lets listen!
Hello, ever yone! Im Cesar Or tega. My
uncle Lucho and I own a shoe business. We
create and produce our own designs, and
sell our products at different points of
purchase all over the city.

My uncle is a little bit traditional in the

way he likes to do business. I think that s
a good thing, but now I would like to tr y
E-commerce in our company because in my
classes at SENA we are learning a lot about
the advantages of this new industr y. I have
researched a lot on this topic and I want to
show my uncle all the benefits we can get
from using E-commerce to promote
our products.

Now, you and I are going to persuade my

uncle to innovate in our business.

Let s go!
Cesar: Hi, uncle! I have a ver y interesting proposal for you.
Uncle Lucho: Really? What is it about?
Cesar: Have you ever heard about E-commerce?
Uncle Lucho: mmmh I think I have, but I dont know much about it.
Ok. Let me explain to you what E-commerce is all about.
E-commerce or electronic commerce refers to buying and selling
products or services over internet or intranet. It may include a wide
range of technologies such as telephones, mobile devices and also
e-mail. In other words, it is the use of the internet and the web to
make commercial transactions. This activity is per formed between and
among organizations and individuals ( Turban, King, & Lang, 2010).
Uncle: mmh... It sounds good, but you know I prefer to do business the
old way.
Cesar: Ok. Lets compare these two ways to do business before we make
any decision.

Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje - SENA. Reservados todos los derechos 2012.

 E-commerce

Traditional business E-commerce

Traditional commerce consists on the interac-
tion between the salesperson and the buyer
in a physical place. It is more personal.
It is more useful when manufacturers or
retailers try to persuade customers to buy
a product.
E-commerce is usually done online and it is
very impersonal.
Consumers have access to detailed informa-
tion not only from manufacturers but also
from previous customers comments.

Customers can verify the identity of the seller
and the physical location.
It is necessary to pay for a commercial
space (Kurtus, 2011)
Buyers feel insecure because they ignore many
aspects from the products or manufacturers.
It is necessary to pay for a place to store
goods, but it is cheaper than renting a
store in a prime location ( (Business Re-
sources, 2013).

Consumers are naturally exposed to the rela- In this case, E-commerce needs to imple-
ted products (Business Resources, 2013). ment other strategies such as upselling or
cross-selling to attract customers (Business
Resources, 2013).
Table 1. Difference between traditional business and E-commerce

Uncle: This topic is ver y fascinating. Tell me: are E-commerce and
E-business the same?

Cesar: Good question. Lets see.

E-commerce
It involves commercial transactions between
sellers and buyers on the internet.
Figure 1. Difference between
e-commerce and e-business
E-business
It goes far beyond e-commerce since it dee-
pens into the process and culture of an en-
terprise. It is a huge system that involves
customers, buyers, e-commerce technolo-
gies, collaborative applications, intranet, ex-
tranet among many other factors (Business
programmers.com, 2009).

Uncle: Well, I think that if we want to innovate, we must know

ever ything about the business. So, it is necessar y to do a lot of
research on E-commerces advantages and disadvantages to be more
informed about how to implement it.

Cesar: Yes, of course! But I know for sure that E- commerce has more
advantages for our business than disadvantages. Let s see the table.

Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje - SENA. Reservados todos los derechos 2012.

 E-commerce

Advantages
The most important advantage is that it
enables a business or an individual to reach
the global market. With this tool even small
enterprises can sell and purchase goods and
services since there arent any geographic
restrictions (Bora, 2012).
Disadvantages
One E-commerce disadvantage is that the
Internet has still not touched the lives of a
great number of people, due to the lack of
either knowledge or trust (Bora, 2012).

Consumers can easily check a specific pro -
duct and even find out its original manufac -
turer in order to purchase it at a much che -
aper price than charged by the wholesaler
(Bora, 2012) .
This system is not suitable for all business
products,for example, perishable commodi-
ties like food items. People prefer to buy
them in a conventional way (Bora, 2012).

E-commerce systems can operate all the
time. Customers dont have to wait weeks for
a catalogue. Messages are almost
instantaneous.(Business Education, 2009).
Additionally, it provides information about
possible presale products that are being
tested.
E-commerce significantly reduces the cost
associated to customers care, marketing,
store information, and inventory manage-
ment. Therefore, E-commerce reduces the
burden in infrastructure and cuts down the
supply chain offering better prices to buyers.
Returning products online can be a problem.
There are many doubts about the payment of
the return postage, the time this takes, or
even the quality of the product.(Business Edu
-
cation, 2009)
When buyers buy on the internet, they
need to give their personal information, at
least credit card details and their e-mail
address. This could lead to credit card
fraud, or identity theft (Khurana, s.f).

It is easy to purchase a product since custo-

mers are able to buy and receive items in the
comfort of their home.

Table 1. Difference between traditional business and E-commerce

Cesar: Well, uncle, what do you think about E-commerce now?

Uncle: mmmmhhhh well, I think it could be a very good opportunity for us.
Cesar: Really? It is great! (We persuaded him)

Lets read!
Uncle: Im very interested in learning more about E-commerce. I think it
could be a good opportunity for expanding our business. I know times are
changing so we have to open up to new ideas.
Cesar: But in order to go deeper into this topic, it is important to read the
article I have right here. It talks about different types of E- commerce and
E-commerce security.
Uncle: Ok, lets have a look at it.

Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje - SENA. Reservados todos los derechos 2012.

 E-commerce

A
B
C

Lets write!
Well, I think learning about E-commerce has been
ver y useful to us because we have finally decided
to explore all the possibilities this new commercial
strategy offers to people like us who want to
innovate in their business.

What about you?

I think you can use the information given throughout

this material to write a hypothesis specifying what
market sectors your product or ser vice would enter
and why. Design a website.
You can also explain how your product or ser vice
would be affected if offered online.

Additionally, you will have to present graphically the

product or ser vice you want to offer through
E-commerce technology. For this purpose, you need
to include some photos of the product or ser viced
offered as well as some information describing: types
of packing available in the market, shipping costs,
security systems on internet, payment modalities,
and deliver y options you can offer your customers.

This will be a great exercise for you!

Once you finish, dont forget to send it to your tutor!

Good luck!

Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje - SENA. Reservados todos los derechos 2012.

 E-commerce

A
B
C

Vocabulary!
Dear apprentices, lets play!

This is a word search puzzle in which you will

have to look for eight words that are related to
the topic of E-commerce. The words you need to
find are:

Ecommerce
Ebusiness
Firewalls
Internet
Security
Fraud
SSL
Perishable

Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje - SENA. Reservados todos los derechos 2012.