Study Material for B.COM 
                      E.Business 
                     (18UCON2 ) 
                              
                              
                          Dr.P.Sailaja 
                        Guest Lecturer 
                      Department of commerce 
                  H.H.TheRajash College( Autonomous) 
                         Pudukkottai 
                              
                              
                              
        
        
        
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                                                                 Unit -I 
                 Introduction to E-Business 
                         E-business or Online business means business transactions that take place online with the 
                 help of the internet. The term e-business came into existence in the year 1996. E-business is 
                 an abbreviation for electronic business. So the buyer and the seller don’t meet personally. 
                 Features ofE.Business 
                 Some of the features of e.business are as follows: 
                     ·   There are no geographical boundaries 
                     ·   Much cheaper than traditional business 
                     ·   There are flexible business hours 
                     ·   marketing strategies cost less 
                     ·   Online business receives subsidies from the government 
                     ·   There are a few security and integrity issues 
                     ·   There is no personal touch 
                     ·   Buyer and seller don’t meet 
                     ·   Delivery of products takes time 
                     ·   There is a transaction risk 
                     ·   Anyone can buy anything from anywhere at anytime 
                 Generally  speaking,  when  we  think  of  e-commerce,  we  think  of  an  online  commercial 
                 transaction between a supplier and a client. However, and although this idea is right, we can be 
                 more  specific  and  actually  divide  e-commerce  into  six  major  types,  all  with  different 
                 characteristics. 
                 There are 6 basic Categories /types of Ecommerce: 
                     1.  Business-to-Business (B2B) 
                     2.  Business-to-Consumer (B2C) 
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         3.  Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) 
         4.  Consumer-to-Business (C2B). 
         5.  Business-to-Administration (B2A) 
         6.  Consumer-to-Administration (C2A) 
       1. Business-to-Business (B2B) 
       Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce encompasses all electronic transactions of goods or 
       services  conducted  between  companies.  Producers  and  traditional  commerce  wholesalers 
       typically operate with this type of electronic commerce. 
       2. Business-to-Consumer (B2C) 
       The  Business-to-Consumer  type  of  e-commerce  is  distinguished  by  the  establishment  of 
       electronic business relationships between businesses and final consumers. It corresponds to the 
       retail section of e-commerce, where traditional retail trade normally operates. 
       3. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) 
       Consumer-to-Consumer  (C2C)  type  e-commerce  encompasses  all  electronic  transactions  of 
       goods or services conducted between consumers. Generally, these transactions are conducted 
       through a third party, which provides the online platform where the transactions are actually 
       carried out. 
       4. Consumer-to-Business (C2B) 
       In C2B there is a complete reversal of the traditional sense of exchanging goods. This type of e-
       commerce is very common in crowdsourcing based projects. A large number of individuals make 
       their services or products available for purchase for companies seeking precisely these types of 
       services or products. 
       Architectural Framework for Electronic Commerce 
          The software framework necessary for building electronic commerce applications is little 
       understood in existing literature. In general a framework is intended to define and create tools 
       that integrate the information found in today’s closed systems and allow the development of e-
       commerce applications. It is important to understand that the aim of the architectural frame-work 
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       itself is not to build new database management systems, data repository, computer languages, 
       software agent based transaction monitors, or communication protocols. Rather, the architecture 
       should focus on synthesizing the diverse resources already in place in corporations to facilitate 
       the integration of data and software for better applications. 
          The electronic commerce application architecture consists of six layers of functionality, 
       or  services:  (1)  applications;  (2)  brokerage  services,  data  or  transaction  management;  (3) 
       interface,  and;  support  layers”  (4)  secure  messaging,  security  and  electronic  document 
       interchange;  (5)  middle  ware  and  structured  document  interchange;  and  (6)  network 
       infrastructure and basic communications services 
       Advantages of E-Commerce 
          There’s a reason vendor like Amazon choose to do business online. It gives them some 
       unique advantages over their store-bound competitors. The biggest advantages are the low costs, 
       the flexibility and speed, and the high levels of data. 
         
       Low Costs 
          Opening a store is expensive. We have to pay rent, furnish the space, get the equipment 
       need,  and  hire  employees  to  work  in  it.  The  total    cost  will  depend  on  how  much  space  a 
       businessman  need and where he wants to open the store, but it will run at least a very few 
       amount  to start and then rent and ongoing expenses thereafter. 
         
       Flexibility and Speed 
          Opening a brick and mortar store takes time. A businessman has to find a space, get 
       through the commercial leasing process, and get the store set up. That may involve construction 
       time, or at least the time to decorate and prepare his space. 
         
       Data 
          In 2016, data is king. All of the websites we use every day collect tons of data about us to 
       learn how we surf the web, what sorts of sites we visit, and what kinds of things we purchase. If 
       a person running an e-commerce site, he’ll be able to collect data on how long his customers stay 
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