E-Commerce in Hong Kong free essay sample

With the following predictions of e-commerce trends, e-superstore is taken as the example to show how to exploit a business opportunity on internet. 1. Definition of E-Commerce From words of Sean De Burca, 2004, E-Commerce stands for Electronic Commerce and is defined as the exchange of business information and transactions by using electronic methods. These methods include the use of telephone and fax, use of internet, intranet and extranet, use of ATM, use of digital cash and so on. (Sean de burca, Richard Fletcher, linden Brown, 2004, p. 671) Jeffrey F. Rayport, 2001, states that there are four common characteristics of e-commerce. The first one is about the exchange of digitized information which includes the electronic order, music or even the books. The second one is technology-enabled, it means that technology provides an interface for transaction between parties, such as ATM, Internet browsers, electronic data interchange (EDI) and so on. Also, e-commerce sometimes is technology-mediated which means that there is no human, but technology, involving in the transactions and makes the market changing from place to space. We will write a custom essay sample on E-Commerce in Hong Kong or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The last one is that e-commerce includes the computer onnected-network, either inside or outside of an organization, to support the exchange of the digitized information. An efficient network is always a critical successful factor to an e-commerce business. Figure 1A below shows the major e-commerce activities. (Jeffrey F. Rayport Bernard J. Jaworski, 2001, p. 2-3) Figure 1A Types of E-Commerce activities (Sean de burca, Richard Fletcher, linden Brown, 2004, p. 671) ActivitiesDetails Exchanges of digital productsSoftware, books, CDs Marketing channelsAdvertising, market research, public relations Service provisionFlight ticket, educational services EntertainmentGames, online video Financial transactionsBuying and selling, payment 1. 1 Types of E-Commerce Jeffrey F. Rayport, 2001, distinguishes e-commerce into four categories which are business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-consumer (C2C) and consumer-to-business (C2B). (Jeffrey F. Rayport Bernard J. Jaworski, 2001, p. 3) 1. 11 Business-to-Business (B2B) refers to the business activities between two organizations. This type of e-commerce activities always involve in purchasing and procurement, inventory management, payment management, and system support. Purchasing of materials for manufacturing and goods for retailing are the typical examples of B2B activities. E. g. Alibaba. com and freemarkets. com. (Jeffrey F. Rayport Bernard J. Jaworski, 2001, p. 3) 1. 12 Business-to-consumer (B2C) refers to, just as the phase that, exchanges between businesses and consumers. This always involves the sales activities, service provision and consumer search. Sales of books, songs, commodities and travelling packages are the typical examples in such e-commerce activities. E. g. Amazon. com Dell. com. (Jeffrey F. Rayport Bernard J. Jaworski, 2001, p. 4) 1. 13 Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) refers to exchanges among consumers. In this type of e-commerce activities, third party may or may not involve in it. Auction activities, web-based communications, job search engine and personal services are the examples of C2C. E. g. Ebay. com, www. icq. com and Jobsdb. com. (Jeffrey F. Rayport Bernard J. Jaworski, 2001, p. 4) 1. 14 Consumer-to-business (C2B) refers to a type of e-commerce in which consumers, with the same demand, form a group to businesses. However, it is less popular rather than other three categories.