E-Commerce

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IT applications- E-Cards, E-Shopping, E-Commerce

E-Cards

An electronic card (e-card) is a special occasion, greeting or post card created and customized within a website and sent through the Internet to the recipient. Customizations may include a wide variety of backgrounds and text fonts including some as cursive writing, graphic images, cartoon-style animations (proprietary to Adobe), video and sometimes even music.

This term is also known as ecard, icard, i-card, digital postcard, cyber greeting card or digital greeting card.

Virtual cards were first started by Judith Donath at MIT Media Lab in 1994 and were created by the website called The Electronic Postcard.

Virtual card recipients are often sent an email with a link to a website where the card was created. Then the card may be viewed, played, copied, printed, etc. Such websites invariably include banner ads and others selling a variety of products. Some websites use virtual cards to market and draw attention to their other products and services, which may be their main product or service. The recipient is offered the opportunity to send their own customized cards to friends, family, etc. using their desktop machines, mobile devices and phones.

Advantages of virtual cards include the ease of sending them to many recipients, being environmentally friendly compared to paper/hard copy cards and the versatile and highly customizable content.

E-Shopping

When you buy a product or a service over the internet, instead of going to a traditional brick-and-mortar store, it is called online shopping. Globally, an increasing number of people are buying over the Internet because it is more convenient.
Online Products
starting with groceries and greeting cards to cell phones and ringtones for the cell phones, everything can be purchased online. While most people still find it convenient to buy their groceries from the neighbourhood shop, many people are purchasing rail and air tickets over the Internet. In addition, people and corporates as well, are also purchasing a variety of services online — such as a broking service or job search service.
Brief History

Online shopping became popular during the Internet boom in 1999-2000. Amazon.com, the online bookstore founded by Jeff Bezos, created history by becoming the first bookstore with a presence only on the Internet. Following the success of Amazon, many bookstores with a physical presence also created an online presence on the Internet. Later, portals such as Yahoo.com and MSN.com also started online shopping channels where people could buy more than just books. Closer home, portals such as Indiatimes.com and Rediff.com came up with similar options for the Indian consumer.
Advantages of shopping online

It is convenient, faster and sometimes also cheaper. For instance, rather than standing in a long queue and waiting for your turn to purchase a ticket, people are finding it simpler to log on to a website and buy it. In some instances, one may have to pay a premium for an online purchase but it is still preferred because the convenience factor is higher.
Payment

Although online players in India are coming up with innovative ways to make payments, credit cards are still the most widely accepted form of making payments over the Internet.
Security of payment

Security standards for online shopping are now well-established, so it is safe to pay online using your credit card. Your credit card details and other information are encrypted and sent over a secure layer over the Internet. Although no system is completely fraud-proof, the large number of people going online bears testimony to the acceptance and safety of online shopping.
Future scope

Now a days, with more advanced technologies many things are about to come. Cheap internet and Mobile with widely avilable services as well as incresing Mobile apps, giving huge boost to online shopping. With Digital India Scheme and technology development, online shopping has been spread very fast in India.

E Commerce

E-commerce is a transaction of buying or selling online. Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems.

Examples of Ecommerce

·         Online Shopping

Buying and selling goods on the Internet is one of the most popular examples of ecommerce. Sellers create storefronts that are the online equivalents of retail outlets. Buyers browse and purchase products with mouse clicks. Though Amazon.com is not the pioneer of online shopping, it is arguably the most famous online shopping destination.

·         Electronic Payments

When you are buying goods online, there needs to be a mechanism to pay online too. That is where payment processors and payment gateways come into the picture.

Electronic payments reduce the inefficiency associated with writing and mailing checks. It also does away with many of the safety issues that arise due to payment made in currency notes.

·         Online Auctions

When you think online auction, you think eBay. Physical auctions predate online auctions, but the Internet made auctions accessible to a large number of buyers and sellers. Online auctions are an efficient mechanism for price discovery. Many buyers find the auction shopping mechanism much interesting than regular storefront shopping.

·         Internet Banking

Today it is possible for you to perform the entire gamut of banking operations without visiting a physical bank branch. Interfacing of websites with bank accounts, and by extension credit cards, was the biggest driver of ecommerce.

·         Online Ticketing

Air tickets, movie tickets, train tickets, play tickets, tickets to sporting events, and just about any kind of tickets can be booked online. Online ticketing does away with the need to queue up at ticket counters.

Types of Ecommerce

Ecommerce can be classified based on the type of participants in the transaction:

·         Business to Business (B2B)

B2B ecommerce transactions are those where both the transacting parties are businesses, e.g., manufacturers, traders, retailers and the like.

·         Business to Consumer (B2C)

When businesses sell electronically to end-consumers, it is called B2C ecommerce.

·         Consumer to Consumer (C2C)

Some of the earliest transactions in the global economic system involved barter — a type of C2C transaction. But C2C transactions were virtually non-existent in recent times until the advent of ecommerce. Auction sites are a good example of C2C ecommerce.

Benefits of Ecommerce

The primary benefits of ecommerce revolve around the fact that it eliminates limitations of time and geographical distance. In the process, ecommerce usually streamlines operations and lowers costs.

Specialized Forms of Ecommerce

On some platforms, ecommerce has shown the promise of explosive growth. Two such examples are:

·         M Commerce

Mcommerce is short for “mobile commerce.” The rapid penetration of mobile devices with Internet access has opened new avenues of ecommerce for retailers.

·         F Commerce

Fcommerce is short for “Facebook commerce.” The immense popularity of Facebook provides a captive audience to transact business.

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