10.1 An overview of e-commerce
Electronic commerce typically involves people using a worldwide network of computers – the Internet – to conduct business. This network can be accessed using devices such as computers, handheld (wireless) devices and mobile phones.
People use the Internet both to access information and services created by others, and to present their own information and services; in essence the Internet allows people to communicate and conduct business – across the world, at any time, and almost instantaneously.
The way the Internet allows people to communicate is also significant. Internet communication often involves text, pictures, video and sound; it is typically represented in the form of electronic mail and websites.
People communicate about many different things using the Internet, including business. Some examples of Internet-based e-commerce activities include:
- visiting an online bookstore to select and purchase books;
- sending electronic mail to people and businesses;
- checking the location and status of parcels in transit;
- using an online marketplace to find suppliers of stationery;
- searching for suppliers of truck spare parts.
It is important to realise e-commerce is not just about selling things to people off the web. Figure 1.1 places e-commerce as we will study it in this course into its broader context, where transaction is the narrowest definition to the lighter outer rings of the figure are the broader e-commerce domain.
Figure 10. 1 The broad domain of e-commerce
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