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Electronic Commerce is the buying and selling of products or
services through innovative technologies such as Internet online
services, business online services, commercial on-line services, CD
ROM, multimedia kiosks, interactive televisions and screen phones.
Growing at an annual rate of over 50% and expecting to reach $4
billion by the year 2000, the electronic commerce marketplace is
the way many people will do business in the 21st century.
A business case for conducting electronic commerce is very
compelling. Local companies can establish a global presence and
market products and services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with
comparatively low overheads. Businesses can define innovative
products and services, advertise their existence, provide searchable
electronic catalogues, support secure electronic payment systems,
deliver these products and services, and provide customer support
all using specialized electronic commerce technologies. More
importantly, businesses need to be involved in electronic commerce
because clients, competitors and colleagues are exploring this
medium now.
The electronic marketplace is a vast universe of products and
services, with few clear road maps, directory services or clear
instructions. Searching for products and services in this maze can
be difficult, but rapid progress is being made so that electronic
commerce is becoming a viable option today. If you are considering
electronic commerce opportunities, you will want support for a
number of considerations, such as:
- As buyers and sellers in electronic marketplace do not meet
face to face, authentication or proving of identity of both buyers and
sellers is a must.
- Certification or guaranteeing identity of buyers or sellers by
an official third party is sometimes also required.
- Once identity is verified, authorization or the ability to
control access to specific resources or conduct certain transactions
come into play.
- Since transactions are conducted over an electronic medium,
confidentiality or secrecy of transmission and integrity or
completeness of transactions has to be ensured.
- Nonrepudiation, meaning agreement to buy and sell between
buyers and sellers, is another special issue that needs to be
addressed in the context of an electronic marketplace.
- Once such an agreement exists, confirmation or a method to
record the order and receive a receipt must also exist.
- Intelligent agents or personal shoppers are currently under
development to act as a proxy for the buyers.
- Finally, a secure, reliable and flexible method of payment for
the product or services is crucial for the transaction to take place.
- For examples of inovative uses of electronic commerce, visit some of
the following:
-
Time Warner's Pathfinder Network
- Experimental Stock Market
Data
- DealerNet - The Source for New
Car Information,
- Bank of America
- Welcome to Pizza Hut!
- FedEx Airbill
Tracking Form
- NPR Online
- Lands' End, Inc.
- Ticketmaster Online
- Money & Investing Update
- Holiday Inn:
Online Reservations
- Real Estate On-Line's
New York City Real Estate Guide
- Xenon Labs: The
Universal Currency Converter
- Homes and Land
-
- Electronic Commerce Associations
- EDI/Electronic
Commerce Organizations
- Security Issues
- On Security
- ELECTRONIC COMMERCE LAW
- Press
Release
- Reference Material
- DISA:Home Page
- Doing
Business in the Information Age
- The EDI Group, Ltd.
- EDI-TIE, The 'Net' place for
UN/EDIFACT
- ECRC Program
- Advertising Law
Internet Site
-
Payment Systems
- CyberCash, Inc.
- The CheckFree
- DigiCash
- FIRST VIRTUAL Holdings Incorporated
- The NetBill Project
- The
NetCash(SM) anonymous network payment system
- The NetCheque(SM)
network payment system
- VISA
- Electronic
Cash
- The Smart Card Cyber Show
- Electronic Commerce Magazines
- iWorld
- 12 Web
Page Design Decisions for Businesses and Organizations
- Electronic Newsstand
- NewsPage
Electronic Commerce Mailing Lists
- Internet Mailing Lists
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