Importance of E-commerce Today

E-commerce is generally associated with buying and selling over the Internet, or conducting any form of transaction involving the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods or services through a computer-mediated network. Although is it a popular, this definition is not comprehensive enough to capture recent developments in this new and revolutionary business phenomenon. More popular and complete definition is: E-commerce is the use of electronic communications and digital information processing technology in business transactions to create, transform, and redefine relationships for value creation between or among organizations, and between organizations and individuals.
International Data Corp estimates the value of it by 2000 at US$350.38 billion. This is projected to reach to as high as US$3.14 trillion by 2004. IDC also predicts an increase for the Asian’s percentage share in worldwide e-commerce revenue from 5% in 2000 to 10% in 2004. While some people use e-commerce and e-business interchangeably, they have distinct concepts about that. Information and communications technology is used in e-commerce in inter-business or inter-organizational transactions and in business-to-consumer transactions.
On the other hand, in e-business, ICT is used to enhance one’s business. It includes any types of process that a business organization conducts over a computer-mediated network. A more popular definition of e-business is: The transformation of an organization’s processes to deliver additional customer value through the application of technologies, philosophies and computing paradigm of the new economy. There are three primary processes are enhanced in e-business.
1. Production processes: It is a process which include procurement, ordering and replenishment of stocks; processing of payments; electronic links with suppliers; and production control processes, among others.
2. Customer-focused processes: this process includes promotional and marketing efforts, selling over the Internet, processing of customers’ purchase orders and payments, and customer support, among others. And

3. Internal management processes: this is a process in which include employee services, training, internal information-sharing, video-conferencing, and recruiting. Electronic applications increase information flow between production and sales forces to improve sales force productivity. Workgroup communications and electronic publishing as internal business information are likewise made more efficient.