What is e-commerce?

What is e-commerce?

Simply speaking, e-commerce refers to business activities conducted using electronic networks. But the definition of e-commerce is still not a very clear concept. Governments, scholars, and business people from various countries have given many different definitions based on their status and degree of participation in e-commerce. Comparing these definitions will help us understand e-commerce more comprehensively.

1 World E-Commerce Conference on the Concept of E-Commerce

From November 6 to 7, 1997, in Paris, the capital of France, the International Chamber of Commerce held the World E-Commerce Conference (THE WORLD BUSINESS AGENDA FOR ELECTRONIC's most authoritative concept of e-commerce: e-commerce (ELECTRONIC COMMERCE) refers to the electronicization of the entire trade activity. In terms of coverage, it can be defined as: the parties to the transaction conduct electronic transactions rather than through face-to-face exchange or exchange. Any form of business transaction conducted in a direct interview; from a technical perspective, it can be defined as: e-commerce is a collection of multiple technologies, including exchanging data (such as electronic data interchange, email), obtaining data (*shared database , electronic bulletin boards) and automatic data capture (barcode), etc.

2 Definition of government departments

The definition of "e-commerce" given by the European Parliament is: "E-commerce is. Business activities conducted by electronic means. It processes and transmits data by electronic means, including text, sound and images. It involves many aspects of activities, including electronic trade of goods and services, online data transfer, electronic fund transfer, electronic securities trading, Electronic shipping documents, commercial auctions, collaborative design and engineering, online materials, public product acquisition. It includes products (such as consumer goods, specialized equipment) and services (such as information services, financial and legal services), traditional activities ( Such as fitness, sports) and new activities (such as virtual shopping, virtual training).

3 Definitions of authoritative scholars

American scholars Revi Kalakota and Andrew B. Whiston pointed out in their monograph "The Frontier of Electronic Commerce": "Broadly speaking, e-commerce is a modern business method. This method satisfies the needs of government organizations, manufacturers, and manufacturers by improving the quality of products and services and increasing the speed of service delivery. and consumers' needs to build low costs. This concept is also used to find information through computer networks to support decision-making. Generally speaking, today's e-commerce connects buyers and sellers' information, products, and servers through computer networks. Future e-commerce operators will connect buyers and sellers through one of the countless computer networks that constitute the information highway. ”

4 Our definition

Shanghai e-commerce security certificate management. The center defines e-commerce as “e-commerce refers to the use of digital electronic means to exchange business data and conduct business activities. E-commerce (EC) mainly includes the use of electronic data interchange (EDI), email (E-MAIL), The main technologies of Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and INTERNET enable paperless exchange of business information between individuals, companies and countries. ”

5 The definition of e-commerce in the IT (information technology) industry.

The IT (information technology) industry is the direct designer of e-commerce and the direct manufacturer of equipment. Many companies have given the definition of e-commerce based on their own technical characteristics. Although the difference is huge. But in general, whether it is the view of the International Chamber of Commerce, HP's E-WORLD, or IBM's E-BUSINESS, they all agree that e-commerce is the use of existing computer hardware equipment, software equipment and network infrastructure through certain A way to conduct various business activities in an electronic network environment connected by protocols.

The rapid development of e-commerce

Internet e-commerce = business opportunity

The development of Internet e-commerce does not only mean a business opportunity for a company , it also means the birth of a new global network-driven economy, which is not a lie. We are moving towards a world with billions of connected computers, where information means wealth. According to reports, the turnover of the global e-commerce market will reach US$25 billion from 1995 to 2000, and it is expected that the products and services involved in global e-commerce will increase to US$450-600 billion from 2000 to 2010. Computers connected through the Internet will be an effective tool for enterprises to win in the next 10 years.

E-commerce trade

Electronic trading is the sale of products and services through the Internet. Many people confuse electronic transactions with e-commerce, which is understandable. No matter what, trading is an important part of business.

Business is the exchange of goods and services, that is, buying and selling activities. Even the traditional form of commerce is a dynamic business process that occurs between buyers and sellers. Therefore, e-commerce systems are a natural step for any e-commerce activity.

E-commerce is electronic shopping, including wholesale and retail. Today we have achieved electronic commerce.

More and more people are joining the ranks of online shopping every day. E-commerce provides a convenient purchasing method that people need, and presents a unique opportunity to merchants of all sizes. In particular, for those merchants who have established automatic chain supply systems, the opportunities for electronic transactions between merchants are even greater.

Electronic business systems can expand the sales market and thereby expand the customer database. This shows people another potentially huge business opportunity. If you connect the e-commerce network system to your database, you can enable merchants to keep track of the number of customers, purchase volume, purchase types, trends and product preference at any time. Merchants can then provide customers with products they are most likely to purchase based on their needs

. Thus becoming a tool to help merchants achieve market sales goals.

Electronic business systems provide you with more business opportunities. Merchants have begun to use electronic business systems. Any entrepreneur

understands that no matter what kind of goods a business sells, this competitive advantage is the key to the success of the business.

Characteristics of e-commerce

Universality: As a new transaction method, e-commerce brings production enterprises, circulation enterprises, consumers and governments into a network economy and digital economy. A new world of survival;

Convenience: In the e-commerce environment, people are no longer restricted by geography, and customers can complete business activities that were more complicated in the past in a very simple way, such as online banking all day long. Accessing and withdrawing funds accounts, querying information, etc., while allowing enterprises to greatly improve the quality of service to customers;

Integrity: E-commerce can standardize the workflow of transaction processing and combine manual operations and electronic information processing Integrated into an indivisible whole, this can not only improve the utilization of manpower and material resources, but also improve the rigor of system operation;

Security: In e-commerce, security is a crucial The core issue is that it requires the network to provide an end-to-end security solution, such as encryption mechanism, signature mechanism, security management, access control, firewall, anti-virus protection, etc. This is very different from traditional business activities. ;

Coordination: Business activities itself is a coordination process, which requires coordination between customers and within the company, manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers. In an e-commerce environment, it requires even more coordination between banks, The entire process of e-commerce is often completed in one go through the full collaboration of multiple departments such as the distribution center, communications department, and technical services.