The impact of electronic commerce on procurement, shopping, business collaboration, and
customer services as well as on delivery of various services is so dramatic that almost
every organization is affected. E-commerce is changing all business functional areas and
their important tasks, ranging from advertising to paying bills. The nature of competition is
also drastically changing, due to new online companies, new business models, and the
diversity of EC-related products and services. EC provides unparalleled opportunities for
companies to expand worldwide at a small cost, to increase market share, and to reduce
costs. In this chapter we will explain the major applications of EC, the issues related to its
successful implementation and to its failures, and what services are necessary for its
support. We look at business-to-consumer (B2C) commerce, business-to-business (B2B)
commerce, intra business commerce, and e-government. Also, we will demonstrate the
impact on the various functional areas of organizations.
Electronic commerce describes the buying, selling, and exchanging of products, services,
and information via computer networks, primarily the Internet. Some people view the term
commerce as describing transactions conducted between business partners. To them, the
term electronic commerce seems fairly narrow, so many use the term e-business instead. It
refers to a broad definition of EC, not just buying and selling, but also servicing customers,
collaborating with business partners, and conducting electronic transactions within an