Download Intro to E

E-commerce
Introduction
What is E-commerce?

The use of the Internet and WWW to
transact business?
Commerce
Commerce implies that two or more
parties exchange something of value.
 If something of value is NOT exchanged,
then it is not commerce.

Digital Transactions


1.
2.
The Internet enabled large-scale digital
transactions.
Digital Transactions enabled
New kinds of efficiencies for existing
businesses
The formation of entirely new businesses
and enterprises
WWW vs. Internet

What is the difference?

Is there a difference?
Recap of MIS

Information systems have 5 components
People
 Data
 Hardware
 Software
 Communication Network

Internet
The Internet is a communication network.
 It is perhaps the ultimate communication
network; it is now an essential part of
almost all Information System.
 But…
 It is not an information system in the
formal sense…
 It is just a communication network

Internet

Hardware Network
routers
 cables


Ethernet cards
Network is built on two key concepts
 Packet Switching
 TCP/IP Protocol

 We’ll
study these in more detail
WWW
Not just a communication network
 World Wide Web is an information system.
 Its evolved into something much bigger
but in the early days it was pretty simple
system.

WWW
Data – Web pages
 People – anyone with a web browser
looking for data
 Software – Web Server, Web Browser
 Hardware – Computers
 Communication Network – The Internet

Internet
Existed before the WWW
 Internet is just a world-wide network of
computer networks.


In the 70’s and 80’s, large companies,
college’s, and the government connected
all kinds of information systems using the
Internet.
Internet vs. WWW
Recap:
 The Internet is *THE* communication
network!
 The WWW is just one of the Information
Systems that uses the Internet
Other systems
Internet
Other systems
WWW
WWW
There is more to the WWW than web
pages…
 email
 file transfer (FTP)
 chat
 video conferencing

WWW
One Key characteristic
 URLs: Uniform Resource Locators
Two secondary characteristics:
 Hypertext
 Use of Web Browsers
 …. More to come

E-Commerce vs. E-Business
E-business
E-commerce
(historically B2B)
(revenue opportunity)
Suppliers
The Firm
The Company
(specifically, the companies
technology infrastructure)
Customers
E-Commerce vs. E-Business
Companies and suppliers have been
integrating their technology infrastructure
for years
 Dating back to the 70’s
 Some books call this E-business
 Some call it B2B E-commerce
 Exchange of valuables (so it is commerce)
 But, The Firm doesn’t make money off this
relationship.

E-Commerce vs. E-Business
Sometimes the customer is another
business.
 Sometimes its an individual consumer.
 E-commerce refers to both cases.
 From the perspective of the Firm, Ecommerce implies that you share
technological infrastructure with your
customers.

Great Innovation

The Internet and WWW finally allowed
companies to share technological
infrastructure with individual consumers.

Amazon

iTunes
Why Study E-commerce?

Wait, why isn’t this course titled Ecommerce

Interesting story…hope you didn’t miss
this lecture.