E-Commerce Overview and Concepts

E-Commerce

• Business-to-Consumer (B2C): Business sells products directly to customers. Customers view products online, select, and order.
• Business-to-Business (B2B): A business sells its products to an intermediate buyer who then sells to the final customer. For example, a wholesaler places an order from a company's website and then sells the product to end consumers at retail outlets.
• Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C): Consumers use the website to sell their assets such as property, cars, or motorcycles. They can also rent out rooms by publishing information on the website.

E-Commerce Trade Cycle

• A trade cycle is a series of exchanges between the customer and supplier.
• Commonly exchanged documents include purchase orders and invoices.
• Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): Computer-to-computer exchange of formatted documents via telecommunications or electronic storage media.

E-Commerce Security Concerns

• Security is a significant concern in e-commerce.
• Credit card theft and identity theft are major issues.
• Goods Delivery issues such as shipment delays, delivery problems, and mix-ups can lead to customer dissatisfaction.

Social Commerce

• Using social media websites (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) to promote and sell products and services.
• Measured by how much consumers interact with the company's marketing through retweets, likes, and shares.

E-Governance

• The implementation of information technology in government processes and functions to achieve simple, moral, accountable, and transparent governance.
• Purpose: Simplifying access to services for government, citizens, and businesses.
• Types:
  • Government-to-Citizen (G2C): Providing essential services such as license renewals and tax payments.
  • Government-to-Business (G2B): Exchange of services between government and business organizations. Aims to eliminate paperwork, save time and cost, establish transparency.
  • Government-to-Government (G2G): Interaction between different government departments and agencies. Sharing databases and collaborating through online communication.

Advantages of E-Governance

• Reduced corruption
• High transparency
• Increased convenience
• Direct participation of constituents
• Reduction in overall cost
• Expanded reach of government

E-Commerce Technology

• Encryption: A method to convert data into an unreadable format (cipher text) to protect confidentiality.
• Symmetric (Private-Key) Encryption: Uses the same key for both encryption and decryption.
• Asymmetric (Public-Key) Encryption: Uses different keys for encryption and decryption. A public key is used to encrypt data, and a private key is used to decrypt it.
• Digital Signature: Guarantees the authenticity of an electronic document or message, using asymmetric encryption.
• Digital Certificate: An electronic password, also known as a public key certificate or identity certificate. Allows secure data exchange over the internet using public key infrastructure (PKI).

This quiz explores the essential concepts of e-commerce, including different models such as B2C, B2B, and C2C. It also covers the trade cycle and the importance of electronic data interchange (EDI). Security concerns in e-commerce will be addressed as well.