The document provides an overview of e-commerce, including its history, architectural framework, types, applications, impact, distribution channels, advantages, and disadvantages. It discusses how e-commerce emerged in the 1960s with EDI and was further advanced by TCP/IP in the 1980s. The architectural framework for e-commerce consists of six layers focusing on integrating existing corporate resources. The main types of e-commerce are B2B, B2C, C2C, C2B, B2A, and C2A. Common applications include retail/wholesale, marketing, finance, manufacturing, and auctions. The impact of e-commerce on markets, supply chain management, employment, customers, and

2. Contents
1. Introduction & History
2. Architectural Framework of e-commerce
3. Types of e-commerce
4. Common Applications of e-commerce
5. Impact of e-commerce
6. Distribution Channels
7. Advantages & Disadvantages
8. Conclusion
9. Bibliography

3. Introduction
Every individual of a company that wants
to earn a living and develop their company
needs to understand the market potential,
business implications and especially the
technological foundations of e-commerce.
So, what is this e-commerce?
E-commerce, which is short for electronic-
commerce, is associated with the buying
and selling of information, products and
services via computer network today. It is a
modern business methodology that addresses the desire of a firm, consumer and
management to cut costwhile improving the quality of goods and increasing the
speed of services.
When buyer-seller transactions occurin the electronic marketplace, information
is accessed, absorbed, arranged and sold in different ways. The information of a
productor service is as important as the physical productor service itself in
terms of its effect on a company’s profits. Thus, information based business
transactions are creating new ways of doing business, and even new types of
business.
History of E-commerce
The beginnings of e-commerce can be traced to the 1960s, when businesses
started using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to share business documents
with other companies. In 1979, the American National Standards Institute
developed ASC X12 as a universal standard for businesses to share documents
through electronic networks. Prior to that, in the late 1960s, the military
developed ARPAnet to ensure that crucial communications were circulated in
the event of a nuclear attack. But the greatest evolution in e-commerce came in
1982, when ARPAnet switched over to Transmission ControlProtocoland
Internet Protocol(TCP/IP), the same packet-switched technology that powers
the modern Internet.

4. Architectural Framework for E-commerce
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. 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 instead of building new database management
systems or communication protocols. Thee-commerce application architecture
consists of six layers of functionality or services: -
1. Application
2. Brokerage services, data or transaction management
3. Interface and supportlayers
4. Secure messaging and electronic document interchange
5. Middleware and structured document interchange
6. Network infrastructure and basic communication services

5. Types of E-commerce
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.
5.Business-to-Administration (B2A)
This part of e-commerce encompasses all transactions conducted online
between companies and public administration. This is an area that involves a
large amount and a variety of services, particularly in areas such as fiscal, social
security, employment, legal documents and registers, etc. These types of
services have increased considerably in recent years with investments made in
e-government.
6.Consumer-to-Administration (C2A)

6. The Consumer-to-Administration model encompasses all electronic transactions
conducted between individuals and public administration.
Specialised forms of e-commerce
On some platforms, ecommerce has shown the promise of explosive growth.
Two such examples are:
 M-commerce
M-commerce is short for ‘mobile commerce’. The rapid penetration of
mobile devices with Internet access has opened new avenues of
ecommerce for retailers.
 F-commerce
F-commerce is short for ‘Facebookcommerce.’ The immense popularity
of Facebookprovides a captive audience to transact business.

7. Common Applications of E-commerce
Retail and Wholesale:
E-commerce has a number of applications in retail and wholesale. E-retailing or
on-line retailing is the selling of goods from Business-to-Consumer through
electronic stores that are designed using the electronic catalogue and shopping
cart model.
Marketing:
Another application e-commerce is Marketing. Data collection about customer
behaviour, preferences, needs and buying patterns is possible through Web and
E-commerce. This helps marketing activities such as price fixation, negotiation,
product feature enhancement and relationship with the customer.
Finance:
Financial companies are using E-commerce to a large extent. Customers can
check the balances of their savings and loan accounts, transfer money to their
other account and pay their bill through on-line banking or E-banking. Another
financial application of E-commerce is on-line stocktrading. Many Websites
provide access to news, charts, information about company profile and analyst
rating on the stocks.
Manufacturing:
E-commerce is also used in the supply chain operations of a company. Some
companies form an electronic exchange by providing together buy and sell
goods, trade market information and run backoffice information such as
inventory control. This speeds-up the flow of raw material and finished goods
among the members of the business community. Various issues related to the
strategic and competitive issues limit the implementation of the business
models.
Auctions:
Customer-to-CustomerE-commerce is direct selling ofgoods and services among
customers. It also includes electronic auctions that involve bidding. Bidding is a
special type of auction that allows prospective buyers to bid for an item. For

8. example, airline companies give the customer an opportunity to quote the price
for a seat on a specific route on the specified date and time.
Impact of E-commerce
Markets & Retailers:
Economists have theorized that e-commerce ought to lead to intensified price
competition, as it increases consumers' ability to gather information about
products and prices. Research by four economists at the University of Chicago
has found that the growth of online shopping has also affected industry structure
in two areas that have seen significant growth in e-commerce, bookshopsand
travel agencies. Generally, larger firms are able to use economies of scale and
offer lower prices. The lone exception to this pattern has been the very smallest
category of bookseller, shops with between one and four employees, which
appear to have withstood the trend. Depending on the category, e-commerce
may shift the switching costs-procedural, relational, and financial-experienced
by customers.
Supply Chain Management:
E-commerce has the capability to integrate all inter-company and intra-
company functions, meaning that the three flows (physical flow, financial flow
and information flow) of the supply chain are also affected by e-commerce. The
affections on physical flows improved the way of productand inventory
movement level for companies. For the information flows, e-commerce
optimised the capacity of information processingthan companies used to have,
and for the financial flows, e-commerce allows companies to have more
efficient payment and settlement solutions.
Employment:
E-commerce helps create new job opportunities due to information related
services, software app and digital products. At same time, it also causes job
losses as it replaces traditional shopping and do not need amount of in-store
staff. Accompanied with the e-commerce development, it requires broader
range of skills in digit, technology and information base. The employees should
be capable at dealing with large number of customers’ demands and order
process. Therefore, it increases the demand of employees with high skills and
specialized expertise, as well as increases the wages for this group of people. In
contrast, people who with poortechnical skills cannot enjoy the wages welfare.
On the other hand, becausee-commerce requires sufficient stocks that could be
delivered to customers in time, the warehouse become an important element.

9. Warehouse needs more staff to manage, supervise and organize, thus the
condition of warehouse environment will be concerned by employees.
Customers:
With the existence of e-commerce, it brings convenience for customers as they
do not have to leave home and only need to browsewebsite online, especially
for buying the products which are not sold in nearby shops. It could help
customers buy wider range of products and save customers’ time. Then, the
online shopping often provides sales promotion or discounts code, thus it is
more price effective for customers. Moreover, e-commerce provides products’
detailed information; even the in-store staff cannot offer such detailed
explanation. Customers can also review and track the order history online.
However, e-commerce is lack of human interaction for customers, especially
who prefer face-to-face consumption. When the customer regrets to purchase
the product, it involves returning goods and refunding process. This process is
inconvenient as customers need to pack and postthe goods. If the products are
expensive, large or fragile, it refers to safety issues.
Society:
1. E-commerce has changed the relative importance of time, but as the
pillars of indicator of the country's economic state that the importance of
time should not be ignored.
2. E-commerce offers the consumer or enterprise various information they
need, making information into total transparency, and enterprises are no
longer is able to use the mode of spaceor advertisement to raise their
competitive edge.
3. The transparent and real-time information protects the rights of
consumers, because the consumers can use the internet to pick out the
portfolio to their own benefit. The competitiveness of enterprises will be
much more obvious than before; consequently, social welfare would be
improved by the development of e-commerce.
4. The new economy led by e-commerce changes humanistic spirit as well,
but above all, employee loyalty. The enterprises must pay attention to
how to build up the enterprises inner culture and a set of interactive
mechanisms and it is the prime problem for them.
5. Furthermore, though the mode of e-commerce decreases the information
costand transaction cost, its development also makes human beings
overly computer literate. Emphasizing a more humanistic attitude to work
is another project for enterprise to development. Life is the root of all and
technology is merely an assistive toolto supportquality of life.

10. 6. Online merchants gather purchase activity and interests of their
customers. This information is being used by the online marketers to
promote relevant products and services. This creates an extra convenience
for online shoppers.
Distribution Channels
E-commerce has grown in importance as companies have adopted pure-click
and brick-and-click channel systems. We can distinguish pure-click and brick-
and-click channel system adopted by companies.
 Pure-click or pure-play companies are those that have launched a website
without any previous existence as a firm. (myntra)
 Bricks-and-clicks companies are those existing companies that have
added an online site for e-commerce. (westside)
 Click-to-brick online retailers that later open physical locations to
supplement their online efforts. (lenskart)
Advantages of E-commerce
 The main advantage of e-commerce is its ability to reach a global market,
without necessarily implying a large financial investment. The limits of
this type of commerce are not defined geographically.
 A direct channel between the produceror service provider and the final
user is created, enabling them to offer products and services that suit the
individual preferences of the target market.
 Costreduction is another very important advantage normally associated
with electronic commerce. The more trivial a particular business process
is, the greater the likelihood of its success, resulting in a significant
reduction of transaction costs and, of course, of the prices charged to
customers.
 Ecommerce can take place 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Many
stores offer a wider array of products online than they do in their brick-
and-mortar counterparts.
Disadvantages of E-commerce
 E-commerce is strongly dependent on information and communication
technologies (ICT).
 There is a lack of legislation that adequately regulates the new e-
commerce activities, both nationally and internationally.

11.  Market culture is averse to electronic commerce (customers cannot touch
or try the products).
 The users’ loss of privacy, the loss of regions’ and countries’ cultural and
economic identity can becomeunavoidable.
 Insecurity in the conductof online business transactions.
Conclusion
The growing prominence of e-commerce has fundamentally altered the way
business is conducted. It has changed the way a huge variety of products and
services are now sold, from clothes, packaged goods and seafood to hotel
bookings, music files, and taxi services. As a result, companies in all sectors
– whether big or small – cannot afford to ignore this channel. Increasingly,
businesses without an established e-commerce strategy and implementation
plan will find it difficult to survive. It is, therefore, of paramount importance
for businesses to stay abreast of the prevailing trends in the e-commerce field.
Bibliography
www.google.co.in
www.slideshare.net
www.thebalance.com
bloomidea.com
en.wikipedia.org