E-Commerce or Electronic Commerce means buying and selling of goods, products, or

services over the internet. ... The standard definition of E-commerce is a commercial transaction
which is happened over the internet. Online stores like Amazon, Flipkart, Shopify, Myntra,
EBay, Quikr, Olx are examples of E-commerce websites.
(Or)
E-Commerce or Electronics Commerce is a methodology of modern business, which addresses
the requirements of business organizations. It can be broadly defined as the process of buying or
selling of goods or services using an electronic medium such as the Internet.
Nature of E-Commerce
It has also been described as a "fusion of telecommunications and computing technology to
conduct business. That is the creation and management of relationships between buyers and
sellers, facilitated by an interactive and pervasive electronic medium".Some of the main reasons
for the increase in electronic trading are:-
1. The drive to reduce the costs;
2. Easy accessibility to the lnternei;
3. The lack of regulation on the Internet;
4. Access to global markets for vendors;
5. Greater choice and potentially lower prices for purchasers;
6. Lower inventory costs for vendors;
7. The ability to enter new markets more easily.

Concepts:
1. Personalization
Personalization is the process of tracking what your site visitors look at on (and off) your site
so you can get a better understanding of their preferences.
2. Product recommendations
Product recommendations show your potential customers that you pay attention to their
wants and needs. It also allows them to get a bigger picture of your inventory and — as we
mentioned above — move more products.
3. Cart reminders
One of the most frustrating parts of running an ecommerce store is customers who leave your
website when they have products in their carts.
4. Product social sharing
For every product on your site, you have an opportunity to cause an impact on social media.
Someone shopping for your items might find something their friend would like, so it's important
that you let them tweet, post, or share about what you have.
5. Product reviews
Adding reviews to your ecommerce website provides value to customers and encourages
them to buy from your site. Online reviews provide the social proof shoppers are looking for, and
they can help your ecommerce store establish trust and credibility with customers.
6. Email campaigns
In addition to sending abandoned cart emails, you can use email marketing to send
personalized updates to customers and potential customers. For example, you can send
personalized emails on customers’ birthdays or other important milestones.
7. Responsive design
 Your customers don't just shop on desktops or laptops. They shop on phones, tablets, and
other devices that all show your website in different ways.
TYPES OF E-COMMERCE
E-commerce business models can generally be categorized into the following categories.
 Business - to - Business (B2B)
 Business - to - Consumer (B2C)
 Consumer - to - Consumer (C2C)
 Consumer - to - Business (C2B)
 Business - to - Government (B2G)
 Government - to - Business (G2B)
 Government - to - Citizen (G2C)
Business - to - Business
A website following the B2B business model sells its products to an intermediate buyer who
then sells the product to the final customer. As an example, a wholesaler places an order from a
company's website and after receiving the consignment, sells the endproduct to the final
customer who comes to buy the product at one of its retail outlets.

Business - to - Consumer
A website following the B2C business model sells its products directly to a customer. A
customer can view the products shown on the website. The customer can choose a product and
order the same. The website will then send a notification to the business organization via email
and the organization will dispatch the product/goods to the customer.
Consumer - to - Consumer
A website following the C2C business model helps consumers to sell their assets like
residential property, cars, motorcycles, etc., or rent a room by publishing their information on the
website. Website may or may not charge the consumer for its services. Another consumer may
opt to buy the product of the first customer by viewing the post/advertisement on the website.

Consumer - to - Business
In this model, a consumer approaches a website showing multiple business organizations
for a particular service. The consumer places an estimate of amount he/she wants to spend for a
particular service. For example, the comparison of interest rates of personal loan/car loan
provided by various banks via websites. A business organization who fulfills the consumer's
requirement within the specified budget, approaches the customer and provides its services.

Business - to - Government
B2G model is a variant of B2B model. Such websites are used by governments to trade and
exchange information with various business organizations. Such websites are accredited by the
government and provide a medium to businesses to submit application forms to the government.

Government - to - Business
Governments use B2G model websites to approach business organizations. Such websites
support auctions, tenders, and application submission functionalities.
Government - to - Citizen
Governments use G2C model websites to approach citizen in general. Such websites
support auctions of vehicles, machinery, or any other material. Such website also provides
services like registration for birth, marriage or death certificates. The main objective of G2C
websites is to reduce the average time for fulfilling citizen’s requests for various government
services.

E-business :
E-Business (electronic business) is any process that a business organization conducts over
a computer-mediated network. ... Their processes include production-, customer-, and internal-
or management-focused business processes.
E-Business Models
 Business - to - Business (B2B)
 Business - to - Consumer (B2C)
 Consumer - to - Consumer (C2C)
 Consumer - to - Business (C2B)
Business - to – Business
A website following the B2B business model sells its products to an intermediate buyer who
then sells the product to the final customer. As an example, a wholesaler places an order from a
company's website and after receiving the consignment, sells the endproduct to the final
customer who comes to buy the product at one of its retail outlets.
Business - to - Consumer
A website following the B2C business model sells its products directly to a customer. A
customer can view the products shown on the website. The customer can choose a product and
order the same. The website will then send a notification to the business organization via email
and the organization will dispatch the product/goods to the customer.
Consumer - to - Consumer
A website following the C2C business model helps consumers to sell their assets like
residential property, cars, motorcycles, etc., or rent a room by publishing their information on the
website. Website may or may not charge the consumer for its services. Another consumer may
opt to buy the product of the first customer by viewing the post/advertisement on the website.
Consumer - to - Business
In this model, a consumer approaches a website showing multiple business organizations for a
particular service. The consumer places an estimate of amount he/she wants to spend for a
particular service. For example, the comparison of interest rates of personal loan/car loan
provided by various banks via websites. A business organization who fulfills the consumer's
requirement within the specified budget, approaches the customer and provides its services.
KEY ELEMENTS OF A BUSSINESS MODEL :
1) Value Proposition
Define how a company's product or service fufils the need of customers.
 Examples of successful value propositions
 Personalization/ Customization
 Reduction of product search, price discovery costs
 Facilitation of transactions by managing product delivery
2) Revenue Model
Define how the firm will earn revenue generates profits and produce a superior return on
invested capital
Major types:
 Advertising revenue models
 Subscription revenue models
 Transaction fee revenue model
 Sales revenue model
 Affiliate revenue model
3) Market Opportunity
Refers to a company's intended market space and the overall potential financial opportunities
available to the firm in that market space
4) Competitive Environment
Refers to the other competition selling similar products and operating in the same market
space
Influenced by
 How many competitors are active?
 How large operations are
 The market share for each competitor
 How profitable these firms are
 How they price their product
5) Competitive Advantage
Achieved when a firm can produce a superior product and/or bring a product to market, at
a lower price than most, or all, of their competitors.
Types of competitive advantage:
 First mover advantage
 Unfair competitive advantage
6) Market Strategy
Plan that details how a company intends to enter a new market and attract strategy
7) Organizational Development
Describes how the company will organize the work that needs to be accomplished
8) Management Team
Employees of the company responsible for making the business model work
-Strong management team gives instant credibility to outside investors

Factors Affecting E-commerce-

Key drivers of e-commerce may be categorized in terms of 4 key business environment
factors which influence thee-commerce industry.Theyare
1. Technological Factors-
 State of telecommunication Infrastructure
 Acces to new technological developments
 Bandwidth availability and Internet rates
2. Political Factors-
 Number and type of government initiatives to support use and development of modern
technology
 Discouraging rules and regulations of the government
 Ability of the government to adapt and plan for technological growth and development

3. Social Factors-
 Literacy level of the people and penetrationrate of PC's
 Number of internet users
 Willingness and ability of the people to adopt new technology

4. Economic Factors -
 Economic growth of the country
 Average income of the people
 Cost of Hardware and Software
 Cost of access to telecom infrastructure
 Commercial Structure and Innovative

Technology used in E-Commerce

Internet:
The Internet is the biggest world-wide communication network of computers.
The Internet has millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks,
which together carry many different kinds of information. The short form of internet is the
'net'. ... It is used by billions of people all over the world.
Or
The Internet is a vast network that connects computers all over the world. Through the Internet,
people can share information and communicate from anywhere with an Internet connection.

World Wide Web:

The internet is a huge network of computers all connected together. The World Wide
Web ('www' or 'web' for short) is a collection of webpages found on this network of computers.
Your web browser uses the internet to access the web.
Evolution
Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn are credited with inventing the Internet communication protocols
we use today and the system referred to as the Internet.The concept of Internet was originated in
1969 and has undergone several technological & Infrastructural changes as discussed below:
The origin of Internet devised from the concept of Advanced Research Project Agency Network
(ARPANET).
 ARPANET was developed by United States Department of Defense.
 Basic purpose of ARPANET was to provide communication among the various bodies of
government.
 Initially, there were only four nodes, formally called Hosts.
 In 1972, the ARPANET spread over the globe with 23 nodes located at different
countries and thus became known as Internet.
 By the time, with invention of new technologies such as TCP/IP protocols, DNS, WWW,
browsers, scripting languages etc.,Internet provided a medium to publish and access
information over the web.
Evolution
World Wide Web was created by Timothy Berners Lee in 1989 at CERN in Geneva. World
Wide Web came into existence as a proposal by him, to allow researchers to work together
effectively and efficiently at CERN. Eventually it became World Wide Web.
The following diagram briefly defines evolution of World Wide Web:

Designing, Building and Launching an E-Commerce Web site:

Select a domain name and hosting
Before deciding the e-commerce platform to build your website on, one of the important
things is choosing and registering the domain name for your website. Your domain name is the
face of your e-commerce website and should reflect the brand’s name. After you’re done
choosing your domain name, the next step is to host your e-commerce website. WordPress
Hosting is one of the best hosting platforms for a new e-commerce website
Choose an e-commerce platform
The second more important factor when it comes to the success of your e-commerce
website is choosing the right platform to create your website. It is at such times that smart e-
commerce website solutions provide you with a platform where all you need to do, to set up a
website, customize it and you’re good to go
Build your e-commerce website on your preferred platform
Now that you’ve chosen an e-commerce platform, the next step is to build your website
on it. Platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, etc. have a user-friendly user-interface that is easy
to understand and navigate. These platforms have drag and drop options, as well as, plenty of
customization features available.After adding the products to your site and customizing the look
and feel of it, Some of the items that your website needs to have are:
  An ‘About Us’ talking about the vision and mission of your business
 A ‘Contact Us’ to help customers get in touch with you
 An interactive homepage that displays featured deals and any ongoing sale
 It is essential you have a blog to publish press releases, new information on products,
how to use them, FAQs etc.
Secure your website using SSL and Install Backup Services
You’ve decided on your products, the platform to build your website on, figured out how
to create an e-commerce website, this means you’re done with the major portion of setting up
your e-commerce website.After figuring out the design and data of your website, it is now time
to secure it.Setting up backup right from the moment your website is launched is important.
Set up your payments
Setting up payments is the next steps in building your e-commerce website. Here you
need to take care of both how is the money coming to you and how would you transfer it to your
bank account. This needs to be a secure gateway an setting up a merchant account is thus, a vital
process.Some of the options you can choose from are PayPal, Visa, American Express etc. if
you’re planning to set up your business with ResellerClub, here are the payment
options provided by us.

Create a Great Checkout Experience

 Enabling customers to purchase multiple items at once

 Offering free shipping if you can, or
 Being very clear about shipping costs upfront (before customers get to the checkout)
 Sending cart abandonment emails anytime someone leaves without completing their
purchase

Launching your Website

Now that you’ve registered your domain name and even hosted, the next step is to make
your website live on the internet for the world to view. At this stage, your website is ready to be
live on the internet but it still requires a lot of grooming.