Introduction :
E Commerce stands for electronic commerce and caters to trading in goods and services through the electronic medium such as internet, mobile or any other computer network. It involves the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) in making commerce between consumers and organizations, organization and organization or consumer and consumer. With the growing use of internet worldwide, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has also increased in humungous amounts and so has flourished e-commerce with the prolific virtual internet bazaar inside the digital world which is righty termed as e-malls. Major types of ecommerce:
The several types of e-commerce in use today are classified based on the nature of the transactions: business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), consumerto-consumer (C2C), consumer-to-business (C2B), and non-business and government, and organizational (intra-business). 1) BUSINESS-TO-C ONSUMER E-COMMERCE In B2C e-commerce, businesses sell direct ly a diverse group of products and services to customers . In addition to pure B2C e-commerce players such as Amazon.com, Amazon.com, and hepsiburad hepsiburada.com a.com other other tr aditional businesses have entered the virtual marketplace by establishing comprehensive web sites and virtual storefronts. In these cases, e-commerce supplements the traditional commerce by offering products and services through electronic channels. Wal-Mart Stores, and the Gap are examples of companies that ar e very active in B2C e-commerce. Some of the advantages of these e-commerce si tes and companies include availability of physical space (customers can physically visit the store), availability of returns (customers can return a purchased item to the physical store), and availability of customer service in these physical stores. Figure 3.1 illustrates a B2C relationship. In the figure ISP, means Internet service provider.
2) Business to Business ecommerce Business-to-Business e-commerce holds electronic transactions among and between businesses. The Internet and reliance of all businesses upon other companies for supplies, utilities, and services has enhanced the popularity of B2B e-commerce
and made B2B the fastest growing segment within the e-commerce environment. In recent years extranets (more than one intranet) have been effectively used for B2B operations. B2B e-commerce creates dynamic interaction among the business partners; this represents a fundamental shift in how business will be conducted in the 21st century.
Consumer to Consumer: Using C2C e-commerce, consumers sell directly to other consumers using the Internet and web technologies. Individuals sell a wide variety of services/products on the Web or through auction sites such as eBay.com, eBa y.com, and gittigidiyor.com through classified ads or by advertising. Figure 3.3 illustrates a general C2C e-commerce relationship. Consumers are also able to advertise their products and services in organizational intranets and sell them to other employees.
CONSUMER-TO-BUSINESS CONSUMER-TO-B USINESS E-COMMERCE
Consumer-to-business (C2B) e-commerce that involves individuals selling to businesses may include a service/product that a consumer is willing to sell. Individuals offer certain prices for specific speci fic products/services. Companies such as pazaryerim.com and mobshop.com are examples of C2B. Figure 2-4 shows a C2B e-commerce relationship.
Meaning of B2B Ecommerce: Companies doing business with each other such as manufacturers selling to distributors and wholesalers selling to retailers. Pricing is based on quantity of order and is often negotiable.
Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, Broadvision, Commerce One, Heatheon/Webmd, 12 Technologies, Inc., Ariba , Aspect Development, Baan, BEA Systems, Internet Capital Group, VerticalNet, Vignette are some of the major vendors of e-commerce and B2B solutions [1]. Companies using B2B e-commerce relationship observe cost savings by increasing the speed, reducing errors, and eliminating many manual activities. Wal-Mart Stores is an example for B2B e-commerce. Wal-Mart's major suppliers (e.g., Proctor & Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, and others) sell to Wal-Mart Stores electronically; all the paperwork is handled electronically. These suppliers can access online the inventory status in each store and refill needed products in a timely manner. In a B2B environment, purchase orders, invoices, inventory status, shipping logistics, and business contracts handled directly through the network result in increased speed, reduced errors, and cost savings.[4] B2B e-commerce reduces cycle time, inventory, and prices and enables business partners to share relevant, accurate, and timely information. The end result is improved supply-chain management among business partners
The following paragraphs provide brief descriptions of the advantages of B2B ecommerce: Scalability. An effective ecommerce solution will enable your organization to grow and scale easily to meet market demand and customer needs by opening new sales channels and continuously reaching new market segments. Improved efficiencies. Through integration to the enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other backend business systems, ecommerce provides marked efficiencies for B2B organizations. Customers are able to order online whenever and wherever suits them, customer service can focus on actual customer service functions rather than simply being order takers, and the need to rekey data in independent systems is eliminated, thereby eliminating the possibility of errors and improving shipping processes and increasing order throughput. More customers. A B2B ecommerce site with public-facing catalog pages can be a powerful way to reach new B2B customers. As more and more B2B buyers head online to find the best prices,
manufacturers and distributors can leverage the power of the searchable— searchable —and therefore, ready to index— index —pages of their site to locate new visitors and convert them into customers. Improved brand awareness. Just as ecommerce can help B2B organizations find new customers, so can it help improve brand awareness in the market place. Developing pages that can be indexed by search engine crawlers is the fastest way to improve your site’s search engine optimization and improve the likelihood that your target audience will know who you are. Increased sales. Ecommerce allows your organization to reach new customers, which can quickly result in new sales. However, ecommerce also allows you to easily implement an automated cross-sell and upsell recommendation program, thereby making relevant suggestions to customers on the site and encouraging them to purchase related items or items with more features and functionality. Analytics. B2B ecommerce provides the perfect platform for an organization to launch a comprehensive analytics campaign. Through ecommerce, organizations can measure and evaluate marketing campaigns, sales effectiveness, product mix, inventory turns, customer sales effectiveness, and customer engagement. Customer-centric experience. Amazon.com sets the standard for providing an exceptional ecommerce experience and today’s online shopper expects an Amazon -like experience whether they are shopping for business or pleasure. To remain relevant, B2B organizations need to employ intuitive design, rich content, and interactive functionality in their websites and the ecommerce allows them to do this. Exceptional customer service. Ecommerce provides an exceptional opportunity for the B2B organization to improve its customer service initiatives. Ecommerce sites can provide access to self-serve account and order information after a customer completes the secure login process. Through integration with an organization’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, sys tem, an ecommerce site can display only the products, services and pricing based on customer log in credentials. Improved sales engagement. Your physical sales team will also benefit from the launch of a comprehensive ecommerce effort. A B2B ecommerce site will improve your sales teams’ visibility into customer orders, pricing, and history while on the road or working remotely.
Multi-site capability. Launching channel-specific or co-branded ecommerce sites is easy with the right B2B ecommerce platform. This capability allows you to offer co-branded websites for each of your distributors or key clients as well allow for sites that cater to a specific international audience by presenting content in alternate languages or currencies.
Applications in Food Industry The advent of advanced information and communication technologies has created a multitude of challenges and opportunities in food sectors in developed economies. e-Business applications have enjoyed particular acceptance, given the fact that food industries depend on effective distribution systems in order to meet diversified consumer demands and short delivery times, as well as maintain effective reverse logistics During the last two decades, large companies, especially retailers and manufactures, have used e-business applications to increase their power in agrifood supply chains by enhancing customer service, creating economies of scale, reducing logistics costs, and facilitating the efficient flow of food and information .Such an achievement has been strategically leveraged by information and communication technologies (ICTs) that enhance the performance of food chains, i.e. in terms of cost, time and accuracy of deliveries, and at the same time, assure food quality and safety. Small and medium-sized food companies can use web-based e-business solutions to exploit niche markets and create new market segments by gaining sporadic, low volume suppliers and customers at low marginal cost. Online selling
The following figure shows the status of online selling in the food, beverage and tobacco sector. In particular, it indicates that only 5% of companies use online selling. This percentage is slightly higher in the case of mediumsized enterprises (9%) and large enterprises (8%). Nevertheless, it must be emphasised that in the food industry, online selling is less developed in comparison to the average of other sectors, in which there is a 16% rate of online selling. Spain and the United Kingdom are the countries that use this sales method the most, respectively with 10% and 9% of companies that sell online. Instead, France is the least oriented to online selling (only 2% of companies). The countries revealing the highest percentage of companies that are planning to introduce online selling within the next twelve months are Spain (11%) and the United Kingdom (13%).
Impact of online selling on companies
The following figure shows the impact of online selling on companies in this sector. In particular, online selling has proven to have a positive impact above all in terms of the number of customers (an aspect cited by 64% of the companies that sell online). Moreover, although with a slightly lower
percentage, its impact on the quality of customer service (58%) and on the efficiency of internal processes (57%) has been indicated as positive. There is also a significant percentage of companies that gave a positive opinion about the impact of online selling on their sales turnover, a factor that 12% of the companies even considered a “very positive impact”. The i mpact that online selling on logistics costs and stock management is less positive. For this factor, over 65% of the companies stated that online selling has neither a positive nor a negative impact.
Limitations associated with B2B ecommerce Some of its’
limitations are as follows:
Delay of goods where the earliest to receive goods would be the next day
Some goods cannot be purchased online such as perishable items
Unable to experience the product before purchasing
Fraudulent websites and scams
Security issues leading to credit card fraud or identity theft.
Statement of research problem pursued The major issues associated with B2B ecommerce include. 1) Lack of defining significant problems associated with validation of B2B terms and methodology 2) Organizational internal and external operations are not linked with each other, so there is lack of investigation in finding out what is happening in the business environment and how the relationships are changing.
