What is E-Commerce?

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Let’s go shopping.  Those are my favorite words to hear.  It doesn’t matter if I’m looking for something specific or just browsing the stores with the girls, shopping is my favorite pastime.  But not everyone has these same feelings as I do.  Many times I hear people complaining that the stores are too crowded or they never have what they went there for.  That’s where the importance of e-commerce comes into play.

So you may be asking what e-commerce is.  It’s actually short for electronic commerce.  It is also interchangeable with e-business (Shelly, 2010).  It is a way of doing business electronically over the internet.

E-businesses definitely have its advantages.  When establishing a business, geographic location plays a huge factor in whether a business is going to succeed.  One would normally set up shop close to its targeted customers.  Take that factor out of the mix because with e-business you can reach consumers anywhere around the world.  The next factor in establishing a business is to have convenient hours.  With e-business, consumers can browse, select and purchase items while you are sleeping.  The other key factor is floor space.  When having a local business, one can only display a certain number of products and have limited inventory of these items.  With e-business, this inventory is endless.  It seems like e-business is a win-win situation for both the business and the consumer.  Look how simple a process it is.

Courtesy of digiteen2008.wikispaces.com

To attract its consumers and keep them coming back, e-businesses are focusing their websites to tailor to the consumers interests.  This is done through personalization and customization (Shelly, 2010).  Personalization is an automated process that the website generates based on your browsing and purchasing history.  I’m sure you have all seen this where once you have viewed something, the website suggests other things you may be interested in.  A lot of this has to do with what other consumers have viewed and purchased together.  Customization is something that the consumer updates based on their personal preferences as to what they would like to see.

Being an avid shopper, I am also a very smart shopper and I love to get deals.  With that being said, lately I find myself browsing more often than purchasing when I am out and then coming back home to see if I can get a better deal online.  Even Black Friday businesses have caught on to the importance of doing business and having deals online.  Are you ready to check it out?

References

Shelly, Napier, Rivers  Discovering the Internet  2010

            Course Technology, Cengage Learning, Boston, Massachusetts

Internet Technologies

So far we talked about everything the internet has to offer.  But what actually allows this data to be shared from user to user.

There are basically three different types of computer networks (Shelly, 2010):

• Local Area Networks (LAN) – this is a network that supports a small area.  Think of it in terms of your place of employment or Empire State College campus at Appletree Business Park.
• Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN) – this network expands out a little further.  A MAN can support multiple buildings across a city or state.  This would be beneficial to a place like Empire with several campuses located throughout New York State.
• Wide Area Networks (WAN) – this network can cover large areas expanding across the country or even around the world.  Because of the large capacity of a WAN, it might consist of a single network or can be a combination of multiple LANs.

More on Internet Usage

There is even more to what you can find on the internet.  The best is shopping (and that’s only because I love to shop and look for bargains).  Not only am I able to expand my search of what I am looking for to different states or even countries, I can price compare so that I know that I am getting the best deal around.  I found this especially useful when buying books for my college classes.  There are several out there including DealOz, AbeBooks and Half.

Banking is another popular resource that many are finding convenient.  You can do everything from issue checks, check balances and even transfer funds (Shelly, 2010).  Although many people are already on board with this, I am not.  And this surprises a lot of people because they know that I am constantly on the Internet.  For some reason, this is one area that still scares me when it comes to the security of it.  I think once I am done with school and can afford the time to research more into it, I will jump on the bandwagon.

Are you an internet user or do you prefer doing things the old-fashion way? I would consider myself both depending on the subject matter at hand.

References

Shelly, Napier, Rivers  Discovering the Internet  2010

            Course Technology, Cengage Learning, Boston, Massachusetts

Internet Usage

I don’t know about you, but I depend a great deal on the internet.  My husband laughs at me and makes a smart remark every time I go to Google something we were discussing.  I can’t help it.  With all the wealth of information that is available to you, why not take a second to look something up.

My favorite is when my husband is arguing with me about something.  Normally we would have to wait to find out the answer while he would insist that he is right.  With the help of the internet, I am able to prove him wrong and make him eat his words.

Think back to the day, when the local weather (and by local is was usually the weather at the airport) could be seen on the hour and on the half-hour.  First of all, that was a long time to wait and if you missed it, you had to wait another half-hour.  At least now The Weather Channel runs the weather updates constantly on one of their two channels, but even that is very generic to the area.  The other downfall was the fact that the weather was based from a specific central location.  Living 15 miles away from the airport, my weather can be totally different from that on the TV.  With the help of the internet, I am able to customize by search for a specific area (usually by zip code or town).