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The World Wide Web is one of the most innovative technologies that changes the business environment and has a dramatic impact on the future of electronic commerce (EC). The future of EC will accelerate the shift of the power toward the consumer, which will lead to fundamental changes in the way companies relate to their customers and compete with one another (Slywotzky, 2000).
E-commerce, defined as “the buying and selling of information, products, and services via computer networks” (Kalakota et al, 2004)) is radically changing the dynamics of the business environment and the way in which people and organizations are conducting business with one another.
Lee (2001) suggests that e-commerce has altered the outlook of businesses from one focused on lean manufacturing (termed as economics of scarcity) to a focus on information which he terms as economics of abundance.
According to the definition of The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Electronic Commerce or E-commerce as it is popularly called, refers to commercial trade in the open network integration, including that between the enterprise and enterprise (B2B), and that between the enterprise and consumer (B2C). Although transactions among businesses represent the bulk of electronic commerce, most attention has focused on business-to-consumer in Internet sales.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Business-to-Consumer Electronic-Commerce: B2C e-commerce is defined as: an exchange between producers and end consumers of goods, services and explicit knowledge about goods and services (or information about consumers) for available consumption in return for the actual or potential payment of monies (Jewel & Timbrell, 2001 AU34: The in-text citation "Jewel & Timbrell, 2001" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
Business-to-Business Electronic-Commerce: B2B is the use of Web-based technologies to buy, sell or exchange information between two or more companies. B2B transactions can take place directly between companies or through a third party (an intermediary) who helps match buyers and sellers, (IBM, 2001 AU33: The in-text citation "IBM, 2001" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
Electronic-Commerce: E-commerce, defined as “the buying and selling of information, products, and services via computer networks” (Kalakota et al, 2004 AU35: The in-text citation "Kalakota et al, 2004" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. )) is radically changing the dynamics of the business environment and the way in which people and organizations are conducting business with one another.
World Wide Web: The World Wide Web (abbreviated as WWW or W3, commonly known as the Web) is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a Web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them via hyperlinks (W3C, 2013).