Chapter 7: E-Commerce: Applications and Issues

Discuss the five online services of business-to-consumer electronic commerce, provide a specific example of each service, and state how you have used or would use each service.

Electronic banking, also known as cyberbanking, involves conducting various banking activities from home, at a place of business, or on the road instead of at a physical bank location. Online securities trading involve buying and selling securities over the web. Online job matching over the web offers a promising environment for job seekers and
for companies searching for hard-to-find employees. Thousands of companies and government agencies advertise available positions, accept resumes, and take applications via the internet. The Internet is an ideal place to plan, explore, and arrange almost any trip economically. Online travel services allow you to purchase airline tickets, reserve hotel rooms, and rent cars. Most sites also offer a fare-tracker feature that sends you e-mail messages about low-cost flights. Online advertising over the web makes the advertising process media-rich, dynamic, and interactive.
We leave the examples to you.

Describe the three business models for business-to-business electronic commerce, and provide a specific example of each model.

          In the sell-side marketplace model, organizations attempt to sell their products or service to other organizations electronically from their own private c-marketplace website and/or from a third-party website. Sellers such as Dell Computer (www.dellauction.com) use sell- side auctions extensively. In addition to auctions from their own websites, organizations can use third-party auction sites, such as eBay, to liquidate items. The buy-side marketplace is a model in which organizations attempt to buy needed
products or services from other organizations electronically. E-marketplaces, in which there are many sellers and many buyers, arc called public exchanges, or just exchanges. Public exchanges are open to all business organizations. They frequently arc owned and operated by a third party. There are three basic types of public exchanges: vertical, horizontal, and functional. Vertical exchanges connect buyers and sellers in a given industry (e.g., www.plcifiticsnet.com in the plastics industry). Horizontal exchanges connect buyers and sellers across many industries (e.g., Worldbid. com, www.worldhid.com). In functional exchanges, needed services such as temporary help or extra office space arc traded on an "as-needed" basis (e.g., Employease, www. employeaw.com).