ASSIGNMENTE-COMMERCE

Submitted by:

Urvashi

974

MBA- 4th sem

E- Commerce

Electronic commerce (ecommerce) is a type of business model, or segment of a larger business model, that enables a firm or individual to conduct business over an electronic network, typically the internet. Electronic commerce operates in all four of the major market segments: business to business(Commerceone.com, Franchiseindia.com), business to consumer(Amazon , Flipkart , Jabaong, Myntra), consumer to consumer(Olx.com) and consumer to business(Priceline.com). It can be thought of as a more advanced form of mail-order purchasing through a catalog. Almost any product or service can be offered via ecommerce, from books and music to financial services and plane tickets.

Ecommerce has allowed firms to establish a market presence, or to enhance an existing market position, by providing a cheaper and more efficient distribution chain for their products or services. One example of a firm that has successfully used ecommerce is Target. This mass retailer not only has physical stores, but also has an online store where the customer can buy everything from clothes to coffee makers to action figures.

When we purchase a good or service online, we are participating in ecommerce.Some advantages of ecommerce for consumers are:- Convenience. Ecommerce can take place 24 hours a day, seven days a week.- Selection. Many stores offer a wider array of products online than they do in their brick-and-mortar counterparts. And stores that exist only online may offer consumers a selection of goods that they otherwise could not access.

PROCESS E-COMMERCE

Type the name of the product you want to buy into the search box of a search engine such as Google – for example, skull candy headphones – and click Search  

Web browser communicates back-and-forth over the Internet with a Web server that manages the store's website. We should see a range of websites, from mobile accessories department such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal etc. If we’ve searched for a particular brand, we may also see the brand’s own website. Choose one of these websites and click on the link.

Else, we can directly visit a particular retailer's website.

Then will login into our account if we already have or we can directly login via google account or facebook account.

Then will search by electronics department and will click on the mobile accessories.

Then will click on the headphones then will filter accordingly.

Else, we have the option of searching the product directly.

Otherwise, a new page will open, taking us to the retailer’s website. We can now refine our search by selecting the headphones types, price, compatibility, headphones design etc which is usually at the top left of the screen. Then click Go or Search and browse until we find a product we want.

We have added the products we liked into our wish list. A selection of products is now shown. Now we can easily find the right product according to our requirement.

Then will search the same product at different websites .

Now will compare the product from different websites and choose the best among them in terms of price, Specification, delivery charges etc.

Then will observe the ratings given and read the customer reviews.

Click on the product we are interested in purchasing. If we would like to buy the item, click ADD TO BASKET.

Doing this will save the details of this item until we’re ready to purchase it, just as if we’ve popped something we want to buy into a real shopping basket. The Web server sends her order to the order manager. This is a central computer that sees orders through every stage of processing from submission to dispatch.

The order manager queries a database to find out whether what the customer wants is actually in stock.

If the item is not in stock, the stock database system can order new supplies from the wholesalers or manufacturers. This might involve communicating with order systems at the manufacturer's HQ to find out estimated supply times while the customer is still sitting at her computer (in other words, in "real time").

The stock database confirms whether the item is in stock or suggests an estimated delivery date when supplies will be received from the manufacturer.

We’ll now be taken to our shopping basket, where we can choose to 'Checkout' or 'Continue Shopping'.

If we wish to go ahead and purchase without shopping for other items, we will need to confirm that we are happy with the terms and conditions and click Checkout. A new page will then open that displays a form for us to complete with our name, contact and delivery details.

Now, if we’re happy to proceed with our purchase, click Continue.  

A new page will open that displays a summary of our order, complete with billing and delivery details. If all the details are correct, click Continue.

 

Finally, we choose the method of payment via credit or debit card, net banking, cash on delivery, online EMI, e-gift voucher and then enter details and any other information required. Click Proceed if we’re happy to make the payment.

If customer chooses payment via credit or debit card then The merchant system might make extra checks with the customer's own bank computer.

The bank computer confirms whether the customer has enough funds.

The merchant system authorizes the transaction to go ahead.

At this point, we may be asked for another password if we’ve signed up for 3-D Secure, an added layer of security for online, credit and debit card transactions. This includes Visa’s ‘Verified by Visa’ and MasterCard’s ‘SecureCode’. Once we’ve given the right password, our order will go through.  

The order manager confirms that the transaction has been successfully processed and notifies the Web server.

The Web server shows the customer a Web page confirming that her order has been processed and the transaction is complete.

The order manager sends a request to the warehouse to dispatch the goods to the customer.

We should receive an email confirming that our order has been received. Retailers often send a second email once an item has been posted.

A truck from a dispatch warehouse collects the goods and delivers them.

Terms related to E commerce

Authorization: A payment card transaction performed specifically to determine if the payment account has sufficient funds to complete a given transaction.

Authorized Distributor: A manufacturer-approved or -designated distributor able to sell products in quantity to commercial customers like Internet retailers.

Authorized Retailer: A manufacturer-approved or -designated retailer able to sell products directly to consumers. 

Drop Shipping: A fulfillment strategy wherein the retailer does not actually inventory the drop shipped product, but instead passes the shipping address to either the manufacturer, or a distributor that actually ships the purchased items directly to the customer. 

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language): A markup language specifically created for displaying web pages and applications in web browsers. Like other markup languages, HTML annotates a document, describing its layout and syntax. 

Inventory: The value or quantity of a retailer’s current stock of products. 

JavaScript: A scripting language – ECMAscript – used to make web pages interactive and dynamic.

Minimum Order Size: Manufacturers or distributors may require retailers to place orders that meet a minimum value or unit count. This requirement would be the minimum order size. 

Margins: The difference between what a retailer pays for a product and what the retailer’s customer pays for the product. Margin calculations may consider only the cost of the goods sold or may take into account overhead and other variable costs.

Outsource: The process of contracting work to external, third-party organizations. 

Overhead: The ongoing expenses associated with operating a business.

Patent: Protection for some forms of intellectual property, granting the inventory exclusive right to manufacture, use, or sell an invention for a certain number of years. 

PayPal: Founded in 1998, PayPal is a leading, worldwide payment processing company. The service can process payments for merchants. 

Shipping: The process of physically moving merchandise form a point of origin, like a retailer’s warehouse, to a destination, like a customer’s home.

Social Media: Internet-based tools or websites that facilitate sharing of content, opinions, links, images, or videos between people.

Authentication Verifying: That a person is who he/she claims to be, or that an email message is actually from the person or organization that claims to have sent the message. 

Social Media Marketing: A branch of Internet marketing aimed at promoting products or service via social media. It may be thought of as web-based word-of-mouth marketing.

Browser: A client to a web server that allows the user to read hypertext documents on the World Wide Web. Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer are examples of popular web browsers.

Certificate Authority: A Certificate Authority can be an issuer of Security Certificates used in SSL connections, as well as a trusted third-party organization that can verify the identity and origin of a person or organization. These institutions issue digital certificates directly to end-users or to other certificate authorities allowing them to also issue digital certificates. A certificate authority, such as Thawte or VeriSign, vouches for the identity and the authority of an individual or business to conduct transactions over the Internet.

Clearing: The process a check goes through to validate and transfer funds between banks. An electronic check will clear in the same manner as a paper check.

Common Gateway Interface (CGI) Script: A computer program that allows web servers to forward requests for processing to other programs, which then return their results to the web server.

Digital Cash: Money, in the form of information, that can be stored in electronic wallets or on smart cards. Digital cash systems have been designed for use on the Internet for so-called "micropayments" - payments for goods that are too inexpensive to be paid for by credit cards.

IP Address: A unique number that is assigned to any device connected to the Internet.

ISO Independent Sales Organization: An organization that performs merchant solicitation, sales or service on behalf of financial institutions and/or processors.

 Customer Ratings and Reviews: A summary of a customer’s liking or disliking of their buying experience with a merchant. This can relate to the company itself, the products purchased and/or their overall experience. These are usually listed underneath products with a rating system, found on forums, or social media. They can be critical in convincing other customers to buy, and conversely also quite powerful in they can deter potential customers from completing their transaction.

Web Server: A web server is an information technology that processes requests via HTTP, the basic network protocol used to distribute information on the World Wide Web.