The first thing that springs to mind is customers details being leaked through insufficient security measures - such as the recent case with Sega
http://news.hitb.org/content/sega-pass-hacked-customer-details-leaked
Worse still, rather than mundane information being taken, like date of birth, email addresses and passwords (as in the case above), transactional sites which collect banking details are especially reliant on security. This leads people to be very wary of websites that ask for this information, so a sizeable portion of the market may simply be unwilling to register these details.
Online orders also have a bit of a reputation for being wrong, late or delivered incorrectly. This can be through user error or an error in programming, but is a very real problem. Overly complicated ordering systems, or products which have very little in terms of specification or images can lead to the problems listed above.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_shopping
Another area which can cause issue is the difficulty with after sales service, particularly in a high volume transactional business. Automated e-mails might be able to scheduled at a particular time to ensure the customers satisfaction with the product/service, but if the customer has any issues with the product or services given, it can sometimes be a more fluid process if the customer can come back to the business (as in face-to-face dealings)
Other issues would arise, but I see the aforementioned problems as perhaps the biggest issues with starting or running a transactional site, the first t
wo being things that may "go wrong" and the second being somewhat more of a deterrent to sales.
2. Define eCommerce and eBusiness
eCommerce and eBusiness are directly involved with one another, as demonstrated by the figure to the right.
eBusiness can be roughly defined as an "umbrella" term, encompassing any use of internet or associated technology for any facet of running a business - i.e. procurement, logistics and ordering, deliveries, marketing, etc. It is also used in some cases to describe businesses that run entirely online (i.e. http://www.amazon.com/ or http://www.ebay.com.au/ )
eCommerce is a term which describes a much narrower focus within the wider subset of eBusiness (as demonstrated by the diagram above) eCommerce, as a term, is used to describe any transactional activities of a business that are conducted online. This is generally assumed to be of a financial nature (i.e. buying and selling) but could also be used to mean any correspondence with customers, as that could be classed as a transaction of information.
Some activities that businesses undertake can fall under both categories
Sourced from http://www.davechaffey.com/E-business/C1-Introduction/E-business-E-commerce-defined
3. What is the difference between buy side and sell side eCommerce?
Buy side commerce refers to the transactional activities of the business which enable it to supply its customers with goods or services. It is the branch of eCommerce that can be said to deal exclusively with suppliers and third parties (banks, etc) excluding customers
Sell side eCommerce is the opposite of buy side eCommerce. It is all the transactional activities which deal with the customers and other third parties which are responsible for allowing the business to run profitably (i.e. bringing money into the business)
Information sourced from http://www.davechaffey.com/E-business/C1-Introduction/E-business-E-commerce-defined
Diagram sourced from http://bisrhul.blogspot.com/2010/10/in-1989-rob-mcewen-inherited-through.html
4. Describe the different types of eBusiness
Consumer to Consumer (C2C)
C2C eBusinesses are also called online auction sites or online marketplaces. They generally allow a consumer to post products/services which they can provide and then allow other consumers to bid on or buy them. The most famous example would be http://www.ebay.com/, but another would be http://www.trademe.co.nz/. Other non-financial examples are social networking sites, and Skype.
Consumer to Business (C2B)
C2B eBusiness generally involves the consumer being able to return feedbacks or ratings to businesses. It can also include consumers being commisioned to advertise businesses on their websites (www.google.com/adsense)
Consumer to Government (C2G)
Similar to C2B eBusiness, except feedback is instead forwarded to government departments
Business to Consumer (B2C)
B2C eBusiness (such as http://www.amazon.com/ or http://www.jeanswest.com.au/) are eBusinesses where the business itself sells directly through to the consumer. They would probably be the most common type of eBusiness.
Business to Business (B2B)
B2B eBusinesses are any eBusiness which interacts with other businesses. This can include advertising sites, wholesalers and the like, but can also include B2B marketplaces. Examples would be http://www.ec21.com/ and http://www.yellowpages.com.au/
Business to Goverment (B2G)
Similar to C2G eBusinesses in the sense that they are primarily used to correspond and/or provide feedback to government departments.
Government to Consumer (G2C)
G2C eBusinesses provide consumers with information, transactional opportunities, and other services. http://www.ato.gov.au/ would be the most well known example
Government to Business (G2B)
As G2C eBusiness with Businesses being the targets for information, services, etc. http://www.ato.gov.au/ would also serve as an example for this type of business.
Government to Government (G2G)
G2G eBusinesses are used for inter-departmental communications.
Sources:
http://www.eservglobal.com/uploads/files/index.pdf
5. Which digital technology has the highest penetration rate? Explain and source your answer.
I would say that mobile phones have the highest penetration rate in the market, given that nowadays mobile phones are capable of being much more than simple communication now. The recent advances to technology mean that mobiles are now used more as portable PC's and diaries, which enables the modern businessperson to be much more efficient with their time.
The below figure shows an upwards trend in mobile phone penetration
(hyperlink leads to figure)
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/ict/graphs/mobile.jpg
Information also sourced from: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/ict/index.html
6. List 4 drivers to adoption of sell side eCommerce by business
- Avoidance of losing customers to competitors who ARE adopting an eCommerce environment within their business
- Reduces operating costs if moving to an entirely online environment (can cut costs of staffing by cutting need) and by lowering start-up costs if beginning an entirely new venture
- Expanding market share by reaching customers who they may not have otherwise been able to access the business
- Reducing the risk of loss through theft and other means
7. List 4 barriers to adoption of sell side eCommerce by business
- Lack of knowledge. A lot of business owners do not have the technological know-how to properly manage an eCommerce site and would have to employ the sservices of an IT or design professional to set up and maintain the site, which can be costly.
- Costly to set-up/run. As mentioned above, the business owner would most likely not have the programming knowledge to set up a professional transactional website, and would need to employ an IT professional or multimedia designer to build the site, which could be costly
- Not relevant to market. For certain markets (although it would be an extremely small percentage) the option of adopting a sell side eCommerce site would simply not make good business sense.
- No access to a reliable internet service. For geographically isolated locations, a reliable internet connection is not always possible. Like the example above, it is a very very small percentage of businesses that would apply to this, but it is still a viable barrier.
Source:
http://www.ibimapublishing.com/journals/IBIMABR/volume2/v2n5.pdf
http://wigebusiness.blogspot.com/2009/09/benefits-of-sell-side-e-commerce-in.html
8. How might a restaurant in Sturt Street Ballarat benefit from an online presence?
An online presence for a restaurant enables them to market to a very wide demographic, and to expand their customer flow by reaching people who previously may have not known about the restaurant.
It could be a great way to advertise deals to a wide variety of people at one time, and considering that Ballarat has a university, it could tailor deals for university students to try and increase their customer base in that demographic. University students are very avid users of the internet, and as such, it would most likely be the easiest way to increase business from this sector.
It would also benefit the buy side of the business, as they could source other, cheaper suppliers, thus reducing costs and allowing for a higher profit.
In terms of competitors with online presence, it would allow the restaurant to check on the current deals and allow them to maintain competitiveness and check the general state of the industry in Ballarat. If competitors did not have an online presence, it would be a point of difference, as the restaurant would be seen as innovative and more modern than its competition.
9. What are some examples of digital information?
Digital information is a very broad term. It simply means a form of information that has certain properties, (which differentiate them from analog information)
These being:
- Synchronization Since digital information is a sequence that is transmitted in Binary form, it must be able to be determined where the sequence begins. An analogy would be that a human speaking without synchronization would have no pauses between words
- Language To make sense of the sequence, both the sender and the receiver of the information must be aware of the language of the information being sent. If only one party knew the language of the information, the other would be hard pressed to comprehend it.
- Errors Compared to analog information, digital information being transmitted is relatively error free, due to the more simple nature of digital information as compared with analog information.
- Copying Because of the relatively error free nature of digital information, it is much better suited to making copies of, as with analog information, each successive copy will be of a lesser quality, whilst digital information remains the same
- Granularity An example of analog information that includes a continuous variable (i.e. temperature) will always have some degree of error if represented digitally (which is limited to a discrete or fixed number of symbols. With the temperature example, it may be 31.84665 degrees, but a digital thermometer that is set with only three digits will show 31.8, with an error margin of .04665 degrees. This is called "quantization error"
In terms of computers and the internet, digital information can come in many formats that can be stored. Digital sound files (.mp3, .mp4, .wav etc) digital video/tv files (.divx, .mpg etc) digital picture files, and digital word processing files are the most commonly used examples of digital information, although not the only digital information formats out there.
Digital information can also be a non-computer term. Morse code and the abacus are both older examples of digital information in use.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital#Properties_of_digital_information
10. What is the semantic web? Are we there yet?
The semantic web is an idea that hypothesizes that we can, at some point, give computers some form of conciousness and enable them to analyze and interpret information available on the internet, thus making a smarter and more efficient version of the world wide web, by reducing the need for human or user "direction" in certain functions.
The idea behind it is that although the web is full of information, a user is required to input certain terms and perform certain functions to pull up said information, and then sift through all of the sites which are returned. With a semantic web, the search engine would be able to "understand" the words put in as a search and make sense of them, thus performing a much more refined and relevant search, and cutting out the irrelevant or ridiculous sites.
I believe that we are getting closer and closer to a semantic web. In terms of search engines, we no longer use a rating/word counting system, which stop nonsense sites with a certain term repeated over and over from topping the list. We now use much more complicated algorithms which are much more efficient at locating the information we desire, and as such, are edging closer to the possibility of a semantic web.
Sourced from http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/Semantic-Web
References
Sega Pass hacked, customer details leaked. HITBSec News, 18th June 2011, retrieved August 7th 2011
http://news.hitb.org/content/sega-pass-hacked-customer-details-leaked
Online Shopping Article, Wikipedia, n.d, retrieved August 7th 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_shopping
Define E-Business and E-Commerce, davechaffey.com, 27th March 2008, retrieved August 8th 2011
http://www.davechaffey.com/E-business/C1-Introduction/E-business-E-commerce-defined
(Diagram) "Networked Organizations", "Goldcorp Inc" Weblog entry, 17th October 2010, retrieved August 8th 2011
http://bisrhul.blogspot.com/2010/10/in-1989-rob-mcewen-inherited-through.html
e-Commerce Models, n.d, retrieved August 8th 2011
http://www.eservglobal.com/uploads/files/index.pdf
(Diagram) "Mobile Phone Subscribers per 100 Inhabitants 1997-2007", n.d, retrieved August 8th 2011
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/ict/index.html
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/ict/graphs/mobile.jpg
ICT Data and Statistics, International Telecommunications Union, 15th July 2008, retrieved August 8th 2011
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/ict/index.html
"Electronic Commerce Adoption Barriers in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Developing Countries: The Case of Libya"
Hunaiti. Z, Masa'Deh. R, Mansour. M, & Al-Nawafleh. A. Published in Ibima Business Review, Volume 2 (2009), retrieved August 9th 2011
http://www.ibimapublishing.com/journals/IBIMABR/volume2/v2n5.pdf
Wig's e-Business Blog: "Benefits of Sell-Side E-Commerce in Developing Nations" 29th September 2009, retrieved August 9th 2011
http://wigebusiness.blogspot.com/2009/09/benefits-of-sell-side-e-commerce-in.html
Digital Information Article, n.d, retrieved August 9th 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital#Properties_of_digital_information
What is Semantic Web? January 2000, retrieved August 9th 2011
http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/Semantic-Web
*Where references and sources are cited, the notes and Powerpoint slide from Week 1 (available on Moodle) were also used as a source of information. I wasn't sure how to reference them.
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