1. What is E-commerce?

Electronic commerce, better known as E-commerce, refers to the commercial activities

—such as on-line shopping and payment transactions—carried out using computers
and the Internet.

2. Explain advantages and disadvantages of E-Commerce.

Advantages and disadvantages of E-Commerce:
E-commerce covers the global information economy, which includes electronic trading goods
and services, electronic fund transfer, online procurement, direct marketing and electronic
Billing. E-commerce provides the procedures or the ways for generating profits by increasing
the number of transactions. Some of the main advantages of E-commerce are as follows:
Increased access:
E-commerce has made it easier for businesses to reach people around the world and
run their operation without approaching their suppliers directly. E-commerce
businesses provide access to the consumers and the other businesses all over the
world
Reduces competitive gap:
E-commerce reduces marketing and advertising expenses. So, smaller companies can
also compete on quality, price and availability of goods with the bigger companies.
Reduced sale cycle:
The customers access the product listing and the pricing directly from the Internet
without any phone calls and e-mails.
Reduced cost of business:
E-commerce reduces the effort required to do business. It reduces the amount of
manpower required, inventory costs, purchasing costs and order processing costs
associated with faxing, phone calls and data entry.
Easy business administration:
With the use of efficient software, most of the business-related tasks can be done
automatically. Business processes like storing of inventory levels, shipping and
receiving logs and other business administration processes are automatically stored.
Better payment system:
With the advancement in payment technologies, E-commerce allows encrypted and
secure payment facilities on-line.
Reduced burden on staff:
E-commerce simplifies the customer service and sales support tasks , thus relieving
the staff from one of their job responsibilities.
Medium to grow business:
E-commerce serves as a medium for start-up, small- and medium-sized companies to
reach the global market.
Network production:
E-commerce allows parceling of the production process to the contractors who are
geographically separated but are connected through the Internet. This helps in selling
of add-on products, services and new systems.
Disadvantages:
E-commerce has helped customers to find the required product in an easy way. But,
there are some difficulties that exist in the use of E-commerce. Some of the most
common difficulties are as follows:

1. It is difficult to decide the criteria on which taxes should be charged on the selling of
goods over the Internet in case the business and the customer are in different states.
It would be unfair to collect taxes from businesses whose products are not marketed
over the Internet and to allow businesses selling their products over the Internet not to
pay any tax
2. The issue of security is another major area of concern on E-Commerce. The security
issues concerning personal and financial information about a customer still exists even
with the improvement of data encryption techniques.
3. The cost that is involved in the development and deployment of the E-commerce
application is very high.
4. Some protocols are required to develop some specific E-commerce applications that
are not standardized around the world. The deployment of such applications over the
Internet required that these protocols should be available on the client side.
5. The integration of E-commerce infrastructure with the present organizational
Information technology system is difficult. The technologies used in the development
of an E-commerce application in an organization may be different from that of the
presently existing application used in -the organization.
6. There are no common rules and regulations agreed to by all the parties involved in
the development and usage of Web resources and applications.
7. On the business side, higher employee training is required for proper management
of the process involved in the transactions.

3. Explain the Architecture of E-Commerce.

E-commerce Architecture

E-commerce is based on the client-server architecture. A client can be an application,

which uses a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that sends request to a server for certain
services. The server is the provider of the services requested by the client.

In E-commerce, a client refers to a customer who requests for certain services and the
server refers to the business application through which the services are provided. The
business application that provides services is deployed on a Web' server. The Web
server is a computer program that provides services to "other computer programs and
serves requested Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML) pages or files.

In client-server architecture, a machine can be both a client as well as a server. There

are two types of client server architecture that E-commerce follows: two-tier and
three-tier.
Two-tier architecture:
In two-tier client-server architecture the user interface runs on the client and the
database is stored on the server. The business application logic can either run on the
client or the server. The user application logic can either run on the client or the
server. It allows the client processes to run separately from the server processes on
different computers.

The client processes provide an interface for the customer that gather and present the
data on the computer of the customer. This part of the application is known as
presentation layer. The server processes provide an interface with the data store of
the business.
This part of the application is known as data layer. The business logic, which validates
data, monitors security and permissions and performs other business rules, can be
kept either on the client or the server. The following Figure shows the outline of the
two-tier architecture.
Three-tier architecture:
The three-tier architecture emerged in the 1990s to overcome the limitations of the
two-tier architecture. In three-tier architecture, the user interface and the business
application logic, also known as business rules and data storage and access, are
developed and maintained as independent modules.
The three-tier architecture includes three tiers: top tier, middle tier and third tier. The
top tier includes a user interface where user services such as session, text input, and
dialog and display management reside.
The middle tier provides process management services such as process development,
process monitoring and process resourcing that are shared by the multiple
applications.
The third tier provides database management functionality. The data management
component ensures that the data is consistent throughout the distributed
environment, the centralized process logic in this architecture, which makes
administration easier by localizing the system functionality, is placed on the middle
tier.

The following Figure shows the outline of the three-tier architecture.

4. What are the different models of E-Commerce.

Business Models Of E-Commerce
In E-commerce, business models are models that define the way in which business is'
done over the Internet. Creating and deploying an E-commerce Website is a
prerequisite for creating any E-commerce solution. Identification of the business model
is first step in the development of an E-commerce Website.
Business models in E-commerce can be categorized into the following four types,
depending on the type of parties involved in transaction:

1. Business-to-Business: It is defined as E-commerce between any two companies.

Business-to-Business (B2B) E-commerce, which deals with relationships among
businesses that have two primary components, E-frastructure and E-market. E-
frastructure is the architecture of B2B, and E-market refers to a Website where buyers
and sellers interact with each other and conduct transactions. Some of the application
areas of B2B are supplier management, inventory management, distribution
management, channel management and payment management.
2. Business-to-Consumer: It is defined as E-commerce between companies and
consumers. Business-to-Customer (B2C) involves selling and buying of goods and
services over the Internet from Web retailers to Web customers. With B2C E-
commerce, the retailer sells the products and the services to unknown and un trusted
strangers. Therefore, extra effort must be made to capture customer and payment
information. The most common application areas of this type of E-commerce are
purchasing product and information and personal finance management.
3. Business-to-Government: It is defined as E-commerce between companies and
the public sector. Business-to-Government (B2G) E-commerce refers to the use of the
Internet for public procurement, licensing procedures and the other government-
related operations. Internet-based purchasing policies increase the transparency of
the procurement process and reduce the risk of irregularities.
4. Consumer-to-Consumer: It is defined as E-commerce between consumers.
Customer-to-Customer (C2C) E-commerce is characterized by the growth of the E-
marketplace and on-line auctions, particularly in industries where business firms can
bid for what they want from multiple suppliers.

Q. Define following?
E-Learning, or electronic learning, is the delivery of learning and training through
digital resources. Although eLearning is based on formalized learning, it is provided
through electronic devices such as computers, tablets and even cellular phones that
are connected to the internet. This makes it easy for users to learn anytime,
anywhere, with few, if any, restrictions.

Electronic governance or e-governance implies government functioning with the

application of ICT (Information and Communications Technology). Hence e-Governance
is basically a move towards SMART governance implying: simple, moral, accountable,
responsive and transparent governance

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Here’s a simpler explanation of each part:

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1. **What is E-commerce?**

- E-commerce (short for electronic commerce) is when people buy and sell things
using the internet and computers. For example, online shopping or paying for services
on websites.

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2. **Advantages and Disadvantages of E-commerce:**

 **Advantages:**

- **Increased Access:** Businesses can sell products worldwide without meeting

suppliers in person.

- **Less Competition Costs:** Small businesses can compete with big ones without
spending much on marketing.

- **Faster Sales:** Customers can view products and prices online instantly.

- **Lower Business Costs:** It reduces the need for lots of workers and lowers costs
related to orders, inventory, and processing.

- **Easier Management:** Software can automate tasks like managing inventory and
shipping.

- **Better Payment Systems:** Online payments are secure and easy.

- **Less Staff Burden:** Customer service is easier, reducing the workload for
employees.

- **Business Growth:** E-commerce helps small businesses reach global markets.

- **Network Production:** Different parts of production can be done in different

locations connected online.

**Disadvantages:**

- **Tax Issues:** It's hard to decide where and how to apply taxes when selling
online.

- **Security Concerns:** There's always a risk with sharing personal and financial
information online.

- **High Costs:** Building an e-commerce website can be expensive.

- **Different Standards:** Some online applications need special standards that

aren’t the same worldwide.

- **Integration Problems:** It can be hard to combine e-commerce with existing

business systems.

- **No Unified Rules:** There are no common rules globally for how websites should
operate.

- **Employee Training:** Staff needs special training to manage e-commerce.

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3. **Architecture of E-commerce:**

- E-commerce uses a **client-server** structure. A **client** (the customer) makes

requests, and a **server** (the business system) provides the service or product.

- The server is often a **web server** that handles requests from the customer’s
computer.

There are two types of architecture:

- **Two-tier architecture:** The customer interacts with a user interface (like a

website), and the data (products, prices) is stored on a server.

- **Three-tier architecture:** This splits the system into three parts:

1. **Top tier:** The user interface (like a website).

2. **Middle tier:** Manages how processes run.

3. **Third tier:** Handles the database and makes sure the information is accurate.

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4. **Different Models of E-commerce:**

- **Business-to-Business (B2B):** Companies sell goods or services to other

companies.

- **Business-to-Consumer (B2C):** Companies sell goods or services to individual

consumers.

- **Business-to-Government (B2G):** Businesses provide services to the

government, such as for licensing or procurement.

- **Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C):** Individuals sell goods or services to other

individuals, like on eBay.

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**E-learning:** Learning through electronic devices like computers or phones, making
it easy to learn from anywhere.

**E-governance:** The use of technology by the government to make processes

simple, transparent, and accessible to citizens.

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Does this make the concepts clearer?