What is E-commerce?

Question

You see I'm in the 10th grade and I'm taking classes with seniors, and i have to do a paper on E-commerce, but i don't even know what that is so somebody please tell me what it is so I can I have a clue wat to right about

Answer 1

You can go to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Here is some information, but there is a lot more on Wikipedia
I hope this helps.

E-commerce - Electronic commerce
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Electronic commerce (also referred to as EC, e-commerce or ecommerce) consists primarily of the distributing, buying, selling, marketing, and servicing of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The information technology industry might see it as an electronic business application aimed at commercial transactions; in this context, it can involve electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, e-marketing, online marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), automated inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Electronic commerce typically uses electronic communications technology of the World Wide Web, at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although of course electronic commerce frequently depends on computer technologies other than the World Wide Web, such as databases, and e-mail, and on other non-computer technologies, such as transportation for physical goods sold via e-commerce.

According to Forrester Research (as cited in Kessler, 2003), electronic commerce in the United States generated sales worth US $12.2 billion in as of 2003.

The meaning of the term "electronic commerce" has changed over the last 30 years. Originally, "electronic commerce" meant the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, usually using technology like Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), where both were introduced in the late 1970s, for example, to send commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically.

The 'electronic' or 'e' in e-commerce refers to the technology/systems; the 'commerce' refers to be traditional business models. E-commerce is as the complete set of processes that support commercial/business activities on a network. In the 1970s and 1980s, this would also have involved information analysis. The growth and acceptance of credit cards, Automated Teller Machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s were also forms of e-commerce. However, from the 1990s onwards, this would include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing.

In the dot com era, it came to include activities more precisely termed "Web commerce" -- the purchase of goods and services over the World Wide Web usually with secure connection (HTTPS, a special server protocol that encrypts confidential ordering data for customer protection) with e-shopping carts and with electronic payment services, like credit card payment authorizations.

Today, it encompasses a very wide range of business activities and processes, from e-banking to offshore manufacturing to e-logistics. The ever growing dependence of modern industries on electronically enabled business processes gave impetus to the growth and development of supporting systems, including backend systems, applications and middleware. Examples are broadband and fiber-optic networks, supply-chain management software, customer relationship management software, inventory control systems and financial accounting software.

When the Web first became well-known among the general public in 1994, many journalists and pundits forecast that e-commerce would soon become a major economic sector. However, it took about four years for security protocols (like HTTPS) to become sufficiently developed and widely deployed. Subsequently, between 1998 and 2000, a substantial number of businesses in the United States and Western Europe developed rudimentary web sites.

Although a large number of "pure e-commerce" companies disappeared during the dot-com collapse in 2000 and 2001, many "brick-and-mortar" retailers recognized that such companies had identified valuable niche markets and began to add e-commerce capabilities to their Web sites. For example, after the collapse of online grocer Webvan, two traditional supermarket chains, Albertsons and Safeway, both started e-commerce subsidiaries through which consumers could order groceries online.

The emergence of e-commerce also significantly lowered barriers to entry in the selling of many types of goods; accordingly many small home-based proprietors are able to use the internet to sell goods. A famous one would be Ebay(tm).

Answer 2

Essentially e-commerce is selling things on the internet. Not long ago there was no e-commerce. People either went to a store or used a phone to order things from companies. Before that "mail order" was the newest technology for buying and selling. That was just as it sounds, people sending a letter to a company to buy something from them.
Pretty much anything you see these days that starts with "e-" will be related to the internet. The "e" stands for "electronic" as in electronic mail or e-mail.
If you can, imagine a world without e-commerce, without the internet (or cell phones for that matter), and even without computers! That is why your parents feel like the world is moving so much faster. It is! It's moving at the speed of light, or electricity at least.
Forms of e-commerce include websites, those nasty pop-ups that everyone tries to avoid, and advertising sent by e-mail. So far, e-commerce has not surpassed "brick and mortar" commerce (buying things at stores that are in buildings, since a lot of buildings are made out of bricks, with mortar the white layers between the bricks). I don't have any statistics handy, but I would guess it is passing sales made over the phone.
Some websites that may help are:
http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkiQtkLZF8fAAHRVXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE2OTB1MXRiBGNvbG8DdwRsA1dTMQRwb3MDNQRzZWMDc3IEdnRpZANGODYxXzcy/SIG=12brpcbq8/EXP=1169678765/**http%3a//www.export.gov/sellingonline/whatisecommerce.asp

3a//www.cid.harvard.edu/cidtrade/issues/ecommerce.html

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkjCwj7ZFRTkAKgZXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE2cmJpamtnBGNvbG8DdwRsA1dTMQRwb3MDMgRzZWMDc3IEdnRpZANGODYxXzcy/SIG=12l4fjm12/EXP=1169678640/**http%3a//www.webtomarket.com/Advantages/E-commerce/e-commerce.shtml

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkjCwj7ZFRTkAMAZXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE2MWdzZTBlBGNvbG8DdwRsA1dTMQRwb3MDMwRzZWMDc3IEdnRpZANGODYxXzcy/SIG=11t4hmb42/EXP=1169678640/**http%3a//www.siliconpeak.com/ecommerce.html

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkjCwj7ZFRTkAXwZXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1Y2hjNW1vBGNvbG8DdwRwb3MDMQRzZWMDb3YtZWFzdAR2dGlkA0Y4NjFfNzI-/SIG=1heqngljq/EXP=1169678640/**http%3a//rc12.overture.com/d/sr/%3fxargs=15KPjg1%252DtSnpamwr%252Drdr%255FBSuOBy1kaxca58MtpC5B6GtRc5iMxXOh2aaTImMx4Tfo2swPRxfGX%255Fq4UJfX%252DkPiJEgyIRluKEPWugoHFyoo4Mayh4edw2L4txe3tmI5INNc3Uy68fNL%252Dqd7aYdv6P3ZL6PxbjhCY%252D%255Fdtyceyze4YBuuJ1VJljg2XZY1Vv61bh8TFXel4TMFdC9yekiTnZs0TxtwnoOylZhsiMiqm7WkPvAWNIzRhp7DPeIYXuLDxjN7MZLKp2ogALxXEoeQwt0PLnDzOnJo2ICvXhPQBwRoUEujsJGKImBOTmJuA2uKKd8w2o%252D%252DaX52cDkXGhXFsaHRBe7W4aljeMzBr71fWK8oZHp%252Dm%255FCKoUfWLBTZ2Ol4A%252DYLuNcYQsk7Fziw%255FBme5dqU%252E%26yargs=www.NetworkSolutions.com

But be careful, some these sites might try to get you to buy something!

Good Luck!

Answer 3

E-Commerce stands for Electronic Commerce which consists of buying, selling, distributing, marketing and servicing of products over the internet.

ATM machine withdrawals and credit card purchases over the internet are considered E-commerce usage.

Answer 4

[edit] Etymology
Shortened form of electronic commerce.


[edit] Noun
Wikipedia has an article on:
E-commercee-commerce

Commercial activity conducted via the Internet.

[edit] Style
e-commerce when used in the body of a sentence or paragraph. e-Commerce when used at the beginning, or in the body, of a headline or title where all significant words are capitalized. E-commerce only when used at the beginning of a sentence.

Answer 5

i'm not quite sure, however i am in biz with an online publishing company that is doing exceedingly well. have you heard of Webuction? click on the products tab.