What is e-commerce?

E-commerce usually refers to a new business operation mode in which buyers and sellers conduct various business activities without meeting each other in a wide range of business activities around the world under the open network environment of the Internet, and realize online shopping of consumers, online transactions between businesses and online electronic payment, as well as various business activities, trading activities, financial activities and related comprehensive service activities. "China Internet Marketing Network" Tinlu related articles pointed out that e-commerce covers a wide range, which can generally be divided into business-to-business or business-to-consumer relationships. In addition, there is a consumer-to-consumer growth model. With the increase of Internet users in China, the consumption pattern of online shopping and bank card payment using the Internet is gradually popularized, and the market share is also growing rapidly, and e-commerce websites are also emerging one after another. The most common security mechanisms of e-commerce are SSL and SET.

Classification situation

B2B, B2C, C2C, B2M four types of e-commerce mode.

B2B refers to business to business.

Just as enterprises do business with other enterprises, business-to-business e-commerce means that enterprises exchange products, services and information through the Internet. Generally speaking, the supply and demand sides of e-commerce transactions are merchants (or enterprises and companies), who use Internet technology or various business network platforms to complete the process of business transactions. These processes include: publishing supply and demand information, ordering and confirming orders, payment process, issuing, transmitting and receiving bills, determining distribution scheme and monitoring distribution process. Sometimes I write B as B, but for simplicity, I simply use its homonym B2B(2 is to). Typical examples of B2B are Alibaba, China Manufacturing Network and HC Network.

B2C is business to customer.

B2C mode is the earliest e-commerce mode in China, which is marked by the official operation of 8848 online mall. B2C means that enterprises provide consumers with a new shopping environment-online stores, and consumers shop and pay online through the Internet. Because this model saves time and space for customers and enterprises, it greatly improves the transaction efficiency, especially for busy office workers, this model can save valuable time.

C2C means consumer to consumer.

C2C, like B2B and B2C, is one of several modes of e-commerce. The difference is that C2C is a user-to-user mode. C2C business platform is to provide an online trading platform for buyers and sellers, so that sellers can actively provide online auction of goods, and buyers can choose their own goods for bidding. The typical example of C2C is Taobao.

B2M talks business with the manager.

Compared with B2B, B2C and C2C, B2M is a brand-new e-commerce model. This kind of e-commerce is essentially different from the above three, and its fundamental difference lies in the different nature of the target customer groups. The target customers of the first three are consumers, while the target customers of B2M are the sellers or workers of enterprises or products, not the final consumers.

Enterprises publish their products or services through the network platform, professional managers obtain the information of their products or services through the network, and provide products sales or enterprise services for enterprises. Enterprises achieve the purpose of selling products or obtaining services through the services of managers. Professional managers get commissions by providing services for enterprises.

Compared with traditional e-commerce, B2M has been greatly improved. In addition to the essential differences in user groups, B2M has a greater characteristic advantage: developing e-commerce offline! The characteristics of the above three kinds of traditional e-commerce: the buyers and sellers of goods or services can only be netizens, while the B2M model can completely take the information of goods and services on the network offline. Enterprises release information, managers get business information, and provide goods or services to everyone, whether online or offline.

Taking the China market as an example, the traditional e-commerce website faces 65.438+400 million netizens, while B2M faces 65.438+400 million China citizens! Typical examples of B2B are e-pace, etc.

E-commerce on the Internet can be divided into three aspects: information service, transaction and payment. The main contents include: e-commerce advertising; Electronic purchase and exchange of transactions and electronic transaction vouchers; Electronic payment settlement and after-sales online service. The main types of transactions are business-to-person transactions (B-to-C mode) and business-to-business transactions (B-to-B mode). There are four subjects involved in e-commerce: customers (individual consumers or enterprise groups), merchants (including vendors, manufacturers, storage and transportation companies), banks (including issuers and acquirers) and certification centers.

From the perspective of trade activities, e-commerce can be realized in multiple links, or it can be divided into two levels. The lower-level e-commerce is e-commerce, e-trade, e-contract and so on. The most complete and advanced e-commerce should be to use the Internet to carry out all trade activities, that is, to completely realize information flow, business flow, capital flow and partial logistics on the Internet. In other words, you can negotiate with customers online, place orders, pay (receive) money, open electronic invoices and even pay taxes through electronic customs declaration in one go.

To achieve a complete e-commerce will involve many aspects, besides buyers and sellers, banks or financial institutions, government agencies, certification bodies, distribution centers and other institutions need to join. Because the parties involved in e-commerce don't know each other physically, the whole process of e-commerce is not a copy of business activities in the physical world. Online banking, online electronic payment, data encryption, electronic signature and other conditions and technologies play an important and indispensable role in e-commerce.

There are two other categories:

B2A e-commerce between commercial organizations and administrative organizations

Business-to-government e-commerce refers to the e-commerce activities between enterprises and government agencies. For example, the government will publish the procurement details online, and through online bidding, enterprises will also bid electronically.

At present, this method is still in the preliminary experimental stage, but it may develop rapidly, because the government can establish an image in this way and promote the development of e-commerce through demonstration. In addition, the government can also manage the administrative affairs of enterprises through this kind of e-commerce. For example, the government can issue import and export licenses and carry out statistical work through e-commerce, and enterprises can handle tax payment and tax refund online.

The government should play an important role in promoting the development of electronic commerce. In the United States, the Clinton administration decided to electronically purchase 70% of the federal government's public procurement in the near future. In Sweden, the government has decided that at least 90% of public procurement will be conducted online.

China's Jinguan Project is to establish an e-commerce framework dominated by foreign trade, and promote the development of various e-commerce activities in China through e-commerce from commercial organizations to administrative organizations, such as issuing import and export licenses, handling export tax rebates, and electronic customs declaration.

C2A Consumer-to-Manager Electronic Commerce

Consumer-to-government e-commerce refers to government-to-individual e-commerce activities. This kind of e-commerce activity has not really taken shape yet. However, in some developed countries, such as Australia, the government tax authorities have designated private tax offices or financial accounting companies to submit individual tax returns electronically. Although this kind of activity has not yet reached the real electronic tax return, it has already had the embryonic form of consumer-to-administrative e-commerce.

With the development of electronic commerce between commercial organizations and consumers, and between commercial organizations and administrative organizations, the government will provide more comprehensive electronic services for individuals in society. Various services provided by government departments to social taxpayers, such as paying social welfare funds, will be conducted online in the future.

Commercial characteristics

E-commerce is a direct product of the explosive development of the Internet and a brand-new development direction of network technology application. Internet itself has the characteristics of openness, globality, low cost and high efficiency, which has also become an inherent feature of e-commerce, greatly surpassing the value of e-commerce as a new form of trade. It will not only change the production and management activities of enterprises themselves, but also affect the economic operation and structure of the whole society. The "electronic" technology platform based on the Internet provides a vast development space for traditional business activities, and its outstanding advantages are incomparable to traditional media means.

★ 1. E-commerce electronizes and digitizes traditional business processes. On the one hand, replacing physical logistics with electronic flow can greatly reduce manpower and material resources and reduce costs; On the other hand, it breaks through the limitation of time and space, so that trading activities can be carried out at any time and any place, thus greatly improving efficiency. Internet has changed the traditional concept of space, and a virtual space or virtual society has emerged, which is different from the actual geographical space. Individuals, companies or institutions in any corner of the world can be closely linked through the Internet to establish virtual communities, virtual companies, virtual governments, virtual shopping malls, virtual universities or virtual research institutes to share information, resources and intelligence.

★ 2. The openness and globality of e-commerce have created more trade opportunities for enterprises. The Internet transcends national boundaries and time and space. No matter where you are, no matter day or night, as long as you click the mouse with your browser, you can log on to the website of any country or region at will and communicate directly with the person you want to communicate face to face.

★ 3. E-commerce enables enterprises to enter the global electronic market at a similar cost, making it possible for small and medium-sized enterprises to have the same information resources as large enterprises and improving their competitiveness.

★ 4. E-commerce redefines the traditional circulation mode, reduces intermediate links, and makes direct transactions between producers and consumers possible, thus changing the whole social and economic operation mode to some extent.

On the one hand, e-commerce breaks down the barriers of time and space, on the other hand, it provides abundant information resources, which provides more possibilities for the reorganization of various social and economic factors, thus affecting the economic layout and structure of society. 2 1 century is an information society, information is wealth, and the speed of information transmission is a matter of life and death for businesses. Internet is favored by merchants because of its fast information transmission speed. It can be said that people in the southern hemisphere can learn about what just happened in ten minutes, a few minutes or even a short time through the Internet. The internet has really turned the whole earth into a global village.

★6. Interactivity: Through the Internet, businesses can communicate, negotiate and sign contracts directly, and consumers can also reflect their feedback suggestions on the websites of enterprises or businesses, and enterprises or businesses should timely investigate product categories and service quality according to consumers' feedback to achieve benign interaction.

Based on the above advantages, as a new business model, e-commerce appeared in front of people in the last decade of the 20th century. Compared with traditional trading methods, e-commerce has many advantages, for example, it can break through the geographical and time constraints, so that people in different regions can freely transmit information, exchange needed goods and trade. Its quickness, rapidity, freedom and low exchange cost are loved by people. Why not?

Ethnicity

Taking European and American countries as examples, it can be said that e-commerce business is developing in full swing. In France, Germany and other European countries, the turnover generated by e-commerce has accounted for 1/4 of the total business volume, while in the United States, it has reached more than 1/3, and the development of e-commerce in European and American countries has only been more than ten years. In the United States, famous e-commerce companies such as AOL, Yahoo and E-Harbor started to make money around 1995, and in 2000, they created 780 million dollars. E-commerce companies such as IBM, Amazon Bookstore, Dell Computer and Wal-Mart Supermarket have all made incredible profits in their respective fields. The rapid development of e-commerce in European and American countries has the following factors:

★ 1. There are many families and enterprises with computers in Europe and America, and the number of netizens accounts for more than two-thirds of the total population, especially teenagers, almost all of whom are netizens. Strong economic conditions and huge netizen groups have created a good environment for the development of e-commerce.

★2. European and American countries generally implement the credit card consumption system, establish a complete credit guarantee system, and solve the online payment problem of e-commerce. In detail, the credit guarantee business in European and American countries has developed for 80 years. In Europe and America, people can move freely and will not be restricted by household registration as in China. In order to facilitate daily life, everyone has a unique credit code, which can't be forged for life. With this credit card, the issuing bank allows the cardholder to make a large overdraft, but the cardholder needs to return the borrowed money within the specified time. If a company or individual maliciously overdraws and fails to repay, it will realize that there is this stain on its credit record wherever it goes in the future. Therefore, westerners generally regard credit as their second life, and no one wants to be greedy for small profits and lose the righteousness. When shopping online, they will directly enter the password when clicking on the item and transfer the electronic money in the credit card to the website. The business website will organize home delivery immediately after confirming the payment.

★3. The logistics distribution system in Europe and America is quite perfect and formal. It is the emergence of large-scale third-party logistics companies in recent years that makes many netizens in different regions often receive the goods they need on the day of shopping or the next day. This is due to the development history of the warehousing and transportation system in Europe and America for nearly a hundred years. Taking the United States as an example, after the Second World Station, many enterprises have effectively changed the operation mode of military logistics support system and applied it to the field of material circulation, and gradually established a decentralized and pervasive logistics distribution network throughout the country. Even more than a decade ago, when the e-commerce business was not widely developed, as long as customers called for goods, they could almost enjoy free door-to-door delivery service. FedEx, UPS (Federal Parcel Express) and other large logistics companies are models, which are responsible for delivering products to customers for various businesses. With such a huge and perfect logistics distribution system, when the e-commerce era comes, the United States only needs to connect all distribution points with computers, which naturally completes the transition from traditional distribution to e-commerce era. The most important and complicated logistics distribution problem in e-commerce activities is solved in this way.

The situation in China

E-commerce in China started with 1997. If American e-commerce is "business-driven", then China e-commerce is "technology-driven", which is the biggest difference in the development model between China e-commerce and American e-commerce. In the United States, the practice of e-commerce is earlier than the concept of e-commerce, and the business needs of enterprises "promote" the progress of network and e-commerce technology and promote the formation of e-commerce concept. When the Internet era came, the United States already had a relatively advanced and developed e-commerce foundation. In China, the concept of e-commerce precedes the application and development of e-commerce, and the "enlighteners" are IT vendors such as IBM. Network and e-commerce technology need to constantly "pull" the business needs of enterprises, and then drive the application and development of e-commerce in China. It is very important to understand this difference, which is a major feature of e-commerce development in China and a key to understand the application and development of e-commerce in China.

1997 and 1998, the main body of e-commerce in China is some IT vendors and media, who conduct "enlightenment education" in various ways to stimulate and guide people's understanding, interest and demand for e-commerce. After this stage, in 1999 and 2000, e-commerce service providers with websites as their main features became the earliest e-commerce users in China and the main body of e-commerce in China at this stage. With the deepening of the application and development of e-commerce and the bursting of the capital market bubble, website e-commerce began to fall into a trough, and enterprises, especially traditions, began to enter the field of e-commerce on a large scale. China e-commerce entered the third stage from 200 1, and enterprise e-commerce became the new subject of China e-commerce.

This change is profound, but it also leads to some incorrect views on the e-commerce situation in China. People have become accustomed to taking website e-commerce, especially some "hot" websites e-commerce as an important or even the only basis for understanding and judging the e-commerce situation. Therefore, the decline of e-commerce in some "hot" websites has led many media and professionals to judge that e-commerce in China is at a low ebb, heading for recession or never recovering. Therefore, many people have great doubts about the development prospect of e-commerce, and more and more negative and negative opinions have begun to appear on the advantages of e-commerce.

This view is understandable, but not correct. In fact, contrary to the surface, e-commerce in China is developing in depth and breadth, and the overall situation is healthy. The main body of e-commerce is changing from IT vendors, media and e-commerce service providers to enterprises. Traditional enterprises are entering the field of e-commerce on a large scale, which is characterized by firmness, effectiveness but not attracting "eyeballs". Enterprise e-commerce is the main perspective to observe and judge the future e-commerce situation.

In the application and development of e-commerce in China, there are many basic issues that need to be reconsidered, such as what is e-commerce, whether e-commerce is e-commerce or e-commerce, how big the scope of e-commerce, whether government procurement is e-commerce, whether online advertising is e-commerce, whether e-commerce packages contain ERP, how to calculate e-commerce transaction volume and so on.

application system

(1) business-to-business application system (b to b)

E-commerce among enterprises will be the main body of e-commerce business, accounting for about 90% of the total transaction volume of e-commerce. At present, e-commerce has greatly improved the efficiency of enterprises in supply, inventory, transportation and information circulation, and the most enthusiastic promoter of e-commerce is merchants. Business-to-business transactions are places where the introduction of e-commerce can produce many benefits. For a commercial enterprise in the circulation field, because there is no production link, e-commerce activities almost cover the management activities of the whole enterprise, and it is the enterprise that uses e-commerce the most. Through e-commerce, commercial enterprises can obtain consumer information more timely and accurately, so as to order goods accurately, reduce inventory and promote sales through the network, thus improving efficiency, reducing costs and obtaining greater benefits.

The general transaction process of e-commerce among enterprises can be divided into the following four stages. The first is the preparation before the transaction. This stage mainly refers to the preparatory activities of the buyers and sellers and the parties involved in the transaction before signing the contract. The second is transaction negotiation and contract signing. This stage mainly refers to the negotiation of all the details of the transaction between the buyer and the seller, and the results of the negotiation between the two parties are determined in the form of documents, that is, the trade contract is signed in the form of written documents and electronic documents. The third is to go through the formalities before the transaction. This stage mainly refers to the process from the signing of the contract between the buyer and the seller to the beginning of the performance of the contract. The fourth is the performance of the transaction contract and the claim.

(2) Enterprise Consumer Application System (B t0 C)

In the long run, business-to-consumer e-commerce will eventually occupy an important position in the field of e-commerce. However, due to various factors, at present and for a long time, this level of business can only account for a relatively small proportion. It takes the Internet as the main means to provide services, realize public consumption and provide services, and ensure the electronization of related payment methods. With the appearance of the World Wide Web (WWW), it has developed rapidly, and it can be regarded as an electronic retail. At present, there are all kinds of commercial centers all over the Internet, providing all kinds of consumer goods and services, from flowers and books to computers and cars.

This shopping process has completely changed the traditional shopping methods such as face-to-face transaction, cash delivery and interview. This is a new and effective way of electronic shopping. Of course, we need a very effective e-commerce security system if we want to conduct e-shopping activities with confidence and boldness.

(3) Enterprise-Government Application System (B to G)

Including government procurement, taxation, commodity inspection and management rules. Everything between the government and enterprises can be covered. For example, the government procurement list can be published through the Internet, and enterprises can reply electronically. With the development of e-commerce, such applications will grow rapidly. The government has two roles here: it is the user of e-commerce, making purchases and acting as a commercial actor. It is also the macro-manager of e-commerce and plays a supporting and normative role in e-commerce. In developed countries, the development of e-commerce often relies mainly on the participation and investment of private enterprises, and the government only plays a guiding role. Compared with developed countries, enterprises in developing countries are small in scale, backward in information technology and low in solvency. Government participation is helpful to introduce technology, expand the scale of enterprises and improve the solvency of enterprises.

(4) Consumer-consumer application systems (C to C)

This application system is mainly reflected in the establishment of online stores. Now there are many online trading platforms, such as Taobao and Yi Bei. These trading platforms provide many consumers with the opportunity to open stores online, which makes more and more people enter the system.

According to the survey, by the end of June, 2006, 5438+February, the registered members of Taobao exceeded 30 million, and the annual turnover in 2006 exceeded 654.38+69 million, far exceeding the total online shopping market in China in 2005. According to Alexa's evaluation, Taobao is the most visited e-commerce website in China, ranking 22nd in the world and 7th in China.

(5) Enterprise-Professional Manager Application System (B to M)

This application system is gradually improving its management mode, transaction mode and other details. Compared with traditional e-commerce, B2M has been greatly improved. In addition to the essential differences in user groups, B2M has a greater characteristic advantage: developing e-commerce offline! The characteristics of the above three kinds of traditional e-commerce: the buyers and sellers of goods or services can only be netizens, while the B2M model can completely take the information of goods and services on the network offline. Enterprises release information, managers get business information, and provide goods or services to everyone, whether online or offline.

Taking the China market as an example, the traditional e-commerce website faces 65.438+400 million netizens, while B2M faces 65.438+400 million China citizens.

Supporting environment

E-commerce not only affects the transaction process of all parties, but also changes the market structure and rules to some extent. Traditionally, the market transaction chain is formed in the exchange of goods, services and currency, and e-commerce strengthens the importance of information factors. So there are information goods, information services and electronic money. The essence of trade has not changed, but some links in the trade process have changed their forms accordingly because of the changes in the attached carriers. In this way, from the perspective of a single enterprise, some changes have taken place in the way of trade. From the perspective of the whole trade environment, some business opportunities have disappeared, while new business opportunities have emerged, some industries have declined, and some industries have risen, thus making the whole trade pattern take on a new look.

In addition to traditional business factors, the supporting environment for e-commerce also includes:

★( 1) Information superhighway actually refers to the construction of network infrastructure: it is mainly composed of backbone network, metropolitan area network and local area network, so that any networked computer can be connected to the world at any time through the network. Information can be transmitted through telephone lines or radio waves.

★(2) Formulation of e-commerce policies, regulations and technical standards: e-commerce is a trade mode based on cross-border information networks, and relevant policies and regulations must be consistent with it. However, the national conditions of different countries are far from each other, and conflicts often occur between the requirements of e-commerce and the specific conditions of each country, which requires the coordinated solution of the international community. For example 1996, the United Nations Trade and Development Council adopted the Model Law on Electronic Commerce. The United States, Russia, Germany, Britain and other countries have promulgated many laws and regulations to promote e-commerce. As far as the whole network environment is concerned, standards are very important to ensure compatibility and universality. Technical standards define technical details such as user interface, transmission protocol and information release standard. At present, many manufacturers and organizations are aware of the importance of standards, and are making joint efforts to formulate unified standards. For example, the publishers of VISA and Master Card cooperated with the industry to formulate the SET protocol to ensure the safe payment of e-commerce.

★(3) Publishing, querying and retrieving information online: Online bookstores like Amazon publish product catalogs and inventory lists on their own websites, attracting a considerable number of customers on the websites. In addition, a complex website server can provide a directory for specific inquirers that conforms to their personal habits, and its function is better and more lasting than any user registration card.

★(4) Development of multimedia information dissemination tools: The contents disseminated on the Internet include words, pictures, sounds and images. , but also need to ensure that the information it conveys is reliable, unbreakable and undeniable, and can provide appropriate evidence in case of dispute. Network communication tools are used to provide two communication methods: one is unformatted data communication, such as messages we send by fax and email, which are mainly aimed at people; The other is formatted data exchange. Electronic data interchange is a typical example. Its transmission and processing process can be automated without manual intervention, that is, machine-oriented. Orders, invoices and freight documents are all suitable for formatted data exchange.