Tutorial 3: E-Commerce/ Types of Online Shopping

E-commerce or electronic commerce, is the selling and buying of goods, products, or services over the internet. With the expansion of the interent and its integration into everday life, more goods and services are being purchased over the internet. The term e-commerce is used interchangeably with e-business. Also websites that take part in online retail selling are said to be conducting e-tailing. Just about anyone can take part in e-commerce. The only necessities are a computer or mobile device, internet access, and the desire to purchase services or goods over the internet. Just about any good or service can be purchased over the internet. Books, flowers, groceries, music, and movies are only a few of the products and services that are available to individuals through e-commerce.

Th three main types of e-commerce are business to business, business to consumer, and consumer to consumer. Business to consumer consists of the sale of services and goods to the general public. Amazon.com is the perfect example of business to consumer e-commerce. The potential customer visits an electronic storefront which includes product descriptions, images, and a shopping cart. Most online stores allow customers to have shopping carts in order to allow them to view their selected products and easily prompt them to check out. Amazon.com is also considered an e-retail site due to the fact that this particular business uses the web to sell products.

Consumer to consumer is another form of e-commerce. This form of e-commerce takes place when one consumer sells directly to another. This ususally happens through online auctions where users bid on items sold by others. The product or service being sold goes to the highest bidder. Ebay.com is the most prevalent and well know website that takes part in consumer to consumer  e-commerce. However the site in this instance only serves as an intermediary. Checking products for quality is not a responsibility of most consumer to consumer sites. Still many consumer to consumer sites charge a flat fee or receive a commission off of the sale or auction of items, goods, or services.

Of the three main types of e-commerce the most prevalent is business to business. The reason for this is that there will be many business to business transactions involving sub-components or raw materials throughout a supply chain. In the end there's only one business to consumer transaction.  Businesses provide services and goods to other businesses such as research, technical support, marketing, advertising, online recruiting, financing and credit services. These services are offered online and businesses alll over the world can take advanatge of them. Business to business transactions ususally take place between a manufacturer and a wholesaler or between a wholesaler and a retailer. Accenture is a company that takes part in business to business transactions. This company provides a plethora of services for other businesses.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_commerce
              http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/e-commerce
              Discovering Computers 2010 "Living in a Digital Age" pgs. 98-100

Images: Screenshots of Amazon, Ebay, and Accenture. These were taken by me personally, in order to illustrate the different examples of electronic commerce sites.