PROJECT REPORT ON E-COMMERCE

SUBMITTED TO:Mrs.Roma Joshi SUBMITTED BY:RAVNEET KAUR

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INDEX

Content no.
1. Introduction History Meaning 2. Elements of E Commerce Some important elements 3. E-Commerce Process Applications and Infrastructure 4. Advantages 5. Disadvantages

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INTRODUCTION

HISTORY
Early development Originally, electronic commerce was identified as the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). These were both introduced in the late 1970s, allowing businesses to send commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically. The growth and acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s were also forms of electronic commerce. Another form of e-commerce was the airline reservation system typified by Sabre in the USA and Travicom in the UK. From the 1990s onwards, electronic commerce would additionally include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing. In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web web browser and transformed an academic telecommunication network into a worldwide everyman everyday communication system called internet/www. Commercial enterprise on the Internet was strictly prohibited by NSF until 1995.[1] Although the Internet became popular worldwide around 1994 with the adoption of Mosaic web browser, it took about five years to introduce security protocols and DSL allowing continual connection to the Internet. By the end of 2000, many European and American business companies offered their services through the World Wide Web. Since then people began to associate a word "ecommerce" with the ability of purchasing various goods through the Internet using secure protocols and electronic payment services.

MEANING OF E-COMMERCE
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, ecommerce or ecommerce, refers to the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. However, the term may refer to more than just buying and selling products online. It also includes the entire online process of developing, marketing, selling, delivering, servicing and paying for products and services. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily with widespread Internet usage. The use of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing,online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at one point in the transaction's life-cycle, although it may encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail, mobile devices and telephones as well. A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely in electronic form for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, but mostly electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Online retailers are sometimes known as e-tailers and online retail is sometimes known as e-tail. Almost all big retailers are now electronically present on the World Wide Web. Electronic commerce that takes place between businesses is referred to as businessto-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market). Electronic commerce that takes place between businesses and consumers, on the other hand, is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C. This is the type of electronic commerce conducted by companies such as Amazon.com. Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce where the buyer is directly online to the seller's computer usually via the internet. There is often no intermediary service involved, and the sale or purchase transaction is completed electronically and interactively in real-time. However in some cases, an intermediary may be present in a sale or purchase transaction, or handling recurring or one-time purchase transactions for online games.Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of business transactions.
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ELEMENTS OF E COMMERCE

1. Call-to-action button

Any online shops have it a generous offer, a good price-quality ratio and a good design will bring in few buyers if the call-to-action button is not easy to find. Such a button should be designed so as to provide a strong contrast, but not hurtful for the eyes, a smooth as possible integration in the layout, without being irritating to the customers. Likewise a call-to-action button is more likely produce sales if its complemented by an appealing text message. The examples below are more than eloquent: 2. Easy to use menu

A potential buyer who uses Internet services is not always a keen connoisseur of the latest technologies and any new element in the layout of a site can be a terrible source of problems. To avoid even the smallest discomfort to visitors, the menu should be as complete as possible and placed in plain sight, typically any supplementary effort on the part of the users is severely punished. Even if the menu is sufficiently complete, most online stores have inserted in the design a search form that allows easier control to display relevant results. The thorny problem consists in creating a menu + a search form not bushy enough to bore the
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visitor but efficient enough to easily and quickly guide him to the searched products. 3. Accessible site A common mistake of designers is placing in one basket Internet users and online buyers. Forming the ranks of the online shoppers are most Internet users but there are many persons who use Internet services sporadically. Another category of buyers consists of people with disabilities, who require a more accessible site in order to be able to navigate. Apparently, the percentage of those who for health reasons cannot use the full potential of the Internet is low, but combined with people who have difficulty in use, we have a number that cannot be ignored. On top of the moral aspect, which cannot be neglected, the commercial aspect is crucial, thus any online store owner must treat the issue of accessibility seriously. 4. Images+sliding

The big disadvantage of an online store consists in the lack of physical touch or the possibility to see and observe the products with your own eyes. To compensate for this situation, programmers must use images as suggestive as possible, giving precise details. In this problem, the type of the product plays a key role. A site featuring and offering for sale electronics will not need a lot of images but instead a more accurate description of the characteristics, while an online store specializing in selling clothes requires more images. On the other hand, the use of very clear, with a larger resolution images, attracts customers but it also means longer load times, which is not enjoyable to anyone. Another interesting factor that can attract customers is the type of slide used, sometimes it happens that a transition effect will be considered awesome by buyers and boring by the designer. You must not forget that an ordinary buyer does not know jQuery or JavaScript. 5. Loading time The world lives at a fast pace and time is the most precious resource and consequently has no patience to open a site that requires a few seconds to load. Any online store owner should be aware that loading time is a great way of chasing away customers. 6. The Newsletter the first step in getting loyal customers A newsletter is the guarantee that you will obtain some loyal visitors and ignoring this aid can be very expensive. A visitor can appreciate an online store but will soon forget the address so he wont be converted into a regular user. A newsletter addresses exactly this quandary: it keeps the subscriber updated with the latest products and promotional offers. 7. The possibility to offer feedback and commentaries Any buyer is well aware that he assumes certain risks in shopping online, but by reading reviews, comments or any feedback from others who have benefited from a similar product, they can make their own opinion. This seemingly unimportant thing is crucial to convince visitors of quality: a product with many positive feedbacks is definitely viewed with more confidence than one without any reviews. Equally important is the possibility to provide feedback after purchasing a product, to ensure valuable fair and transparent feedback. In the short run it will not seem like much, but in perspective, in the long term this will contribute to building a brand.

In conclusion, a successful online store is determined by an attractive and functional design, some elements playing a more important role, but decisive remain the quality and the price of the offered products. No customer will buy a product of questionable quality at a steeper price only because the site has an impressive design.

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SOME IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF E-COMMERCE ARE: Consumer shopping on the Web, called B2C (business to consumer) Transactions conducted between businesses on the Web, call B2B (business to business) Transactions and business processes that support selling and purchasing activities on the Web.

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ESSENTIAL E-COMMERCE PROCESSES

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The nine essential e-commerce processes required for the successful operation or management of e-commerce activities consist of: Access control and security Profiling and personalizing Search management Content management Catalogue management Payment Workflow management Event notification Collaboration and trading Access Control and Security: E-commerce processes must establish mutual trust and secure access between the parties in an e-commerce transaction by authenticating users, authorizing access, and enforcing security features. Profiling and Personalization: Profiling processes gather data on an individual and their website behaviour and choices, and build electronic profiles of their characteristics and preferences. User profiles are developed using profiling tools such as user registration, cookie files, website behaviour tracking software, and user feedback. Search Management: Efficient and effective search processes provide a top e-commerce website capability that helps customers find the specific product or service they want to evaluate or buy. Content and Catalog Management: Content management software helps e-commerce companies develop, generate, deliver, update, and archive text data, and multimedia information at e-commerce websites. E-commerce content frequently takes the form of multimedia catalogs of product information. Generating and managing catalog content is a major subset of content management. Content and catalog management may be expanded to include product configuration processes that support Web-based customer self-service and the mass customization of a company`s products. Configuration software helps online customers select the optimum feasible set of product features that can be included in a finished product.
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Workflow Management: E-business workflow systems help employees electronically collaborate to accomplish structured work tasks within knowledge-based business processes. Workflow management in both e-business and e-commerce depends on a workflow software engine containing software models of the business processes to be accomplished. The workflow model expresses the predefined sets of business rules, roles of stakeholders, authorization requirements, routing alternatives, databases used, and sequence of tasks required for each e-commerce process. Event Notification: Most e-commerce applications are event-driven systems that respond to a multitude of events. Event notification processes play an important role in ecommerce systems, since customers, suppliers, employees, and other stakeholders must be notified of all events that might affect their status in a transaction. Collaboration and Trading: This category of e-commerce processes are those that support the vital collaboration arrangements and trading services needed by customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders to accomplish e-commerce transactions.

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E COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
Supply chain management Video on demand Remote banking Procurement and purchasing Online marketing and advertisement Home shopping Auctions

E COMMERCE INFRASTRUCTURE Information superhighway infrastructure Internet, LAN, WAN, routers, etc. telecom, cable TV, wireless, etc. Messaging and information distribution infrastructure HTML, XML, e-mail, HTTP, etc. Common business infrastructure Security, authentication, electronic payment, directories, catalogs, etc.

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Advantages of Ecommerce

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1. Overcome Geographical Limitations If you have a physical store, you are limited by the geographical area that you can service. With an ecommerce website, the whole world is your playground. Additionally, the advent of mcommerce, i.e., ecommerce on mobile devices, has dissolved every remaining limitation of geography. 2. Gain New Customers With Search Engine Visibility Physical retail is driven by branding and relationships. In addition to these two drivers, online retail is also driven by traffic from search engines. It is not unusual for customers to follow a link in search engine results, and land up on an ecommerce website that they have never heard of. This additional source of traffic can be the tipping point for some ecommerce businesses. 3. Lower Costs One of the most tangible positives of ecommerce is the lowered cost. A part of these lowered costs could be passed on to customers in the form of discounted prices. Here are some of the ways that costs can be reduced with ecommerce: Organic search engine traffic, pay-per-click, and social media traffic are some of the advertising channels that can be cost-effective. Personnel The automation of checkout, billing, payments, inventory management, and other operational processes, lowers the number of employees required to run an ecommerce setup. 4. Locate the Product Quicker It is no longer about pushing a shopping cart to the correct aisle, or scouting for the desired product. On an ecommerce website, customers can click through intuitive navigation or use a search box to immediately narrow down their product search. Some websites remember customer preferences and shopping lists to facilitate repeat purchase. 5. Eliminate Travel Time and Cost It is not unusual for customers to travel long distances to reach their preferred physical store. Ecommerce allows them to visit the same store virtually, with a few mouse clicks. 6. Provide Comparison Shopping Ecommerce facilitates comparison shopping. There are several online services that allow customers to browse multiple ecommerce merchants and find the best prices.
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7. Enable Deals, Bargains, Coupons, and Group Buying Though there are physical equivalents to deals, bargains, coupons, and group buying, online shopping makes it much more convenient. For instance if a customer has a deep discount coupon for turkey at one physical store and toilet paper at another, she may find it infeasible to avail of both discounts. But the customer could do that online with a few mouse-clicks. 8. Provide Abundant Information There are limitations to the amount of information that can be displayed in a physical store. It is difficult to equip employees to respond to customers who require information across product lines. Ecommerce websites can make additional information easily available to customers. Most of this information is provided by vendors, and does not cost anything to create or maintain. 9. Create Targeted Communication Using the information that a customer provides in the registration form, and by placing cookies on the customer's computer, an ecommerce merchant can access a lot of information about its customers. This, in turn, can be used to communicate relevant messages. An example: If you are searching for a certain product on Amazon.com, you will automatically be shown listings of other similar products. In addition, Amazon.com may also email you about related products. 10. Remain Open All the Time Store timings are now 24/7/365. Ecommerce websites can run all the time. From the merchant's point of view, this increases the number of orders they receive. From the customer's point of view, an "always open" store is more convenient. 11. Create Markets for Niche Products Buyers and sellers of niche products can find it difficult to locate each other in the physical world. Online, it is only a matter of the customer searching for the product in a search engine. One example could be purchase of obsolete parts. Instead of trashing older equipment for lack of spares, today we can locate parts online with great ease.

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Disadvantages of E-Commerce

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Shipping Takes Time If you sell physical goods, shipping it halfway round the world might take several days, weeks or even more. It means you cannot send certain products as fresh food or dairy products. Who on earth would love to have stale bread delivered to his door? we can solve this by this way:-Browse through your products. Pick the ones you can easily deliver, highlight them on your online store. While products that cannot be easily delivered are the ones you should sell on your physical store, with your online store functioned as its promotional media. Shipping Costs More The basic shipping cost rule is simple: the more the weight, the more the cost. If you sell a couch to someone on another continent, the shipping cost would be ridiculous.

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Doubts and Fears Many people dont understand the awesomeness of shopping online. They are too afraid to buy something on the web because they doubt if the store is reliable, curious if the product is as good as it looks like on the site, afraid that you would steal their money. Doubts and fears are human basic instincts. Embrace them to deal with them. Write blog posts, newsletters or FAQs about how reliable your store is, about how you are going to deal with customers complaints and feedbacks, about how and when they can contact you. Provide security as everyone needs to feel secured. It is a solving idea. Inability to Feel the Physical Online store doesnt provide the opportunity to actually touch, wear or sit on the product. Therefore selling such products as apparel and furniture online might be tricky. Its solving idea:- Provide the most comprehensive and complete product description. If doable, provide demos of the products. Harmful Malicious Codes The server backing up your online store might be infected by malicious codes. If thats the case, your online store might be the hellgate that sends those little devils to your customers computers. Its solving idea:-Choose the most reliable server provider. It might cost you, but the risk of having an infected server would cost you even more. Shopping is Social Experience People love to shop in the mall because it gives them an opportunity to have fun with friends and family. Its something online stores lack of. Its solving idea:-Integrate social element into your online store. If matched with your products, some interactive games will do no harm.

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Too Many Competitors Yes, you can easily create an online store. Using our WordPress e-commerce themes you can even do it in less than 5 minutes. Problem is, everyone else can, too. If there are thousands of online stores selling similar products, how can you attract visitors so they actually buy from you and not from others? Its solving idea:-As any other business form, you need to be great in such element as business plan, marketing, sales, customer support and others. That way youll have your online store standing out in the crowd. And as any other successful businessman, youll just need to keep learning. Dare yourself to try new, unexplored business moves. Never be too prideful to do the cliches as they are well, proven to be good. Now that you have understand the advantages and the disadvantages of ecommerce, you should be ready to open your very own online store.

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