Role of Web in E-Commerce

The World Wide Web is improving contact means, partnership, and production efficacy. A major advantage is rapid communication and interaction among participants, with business leaders able to make intelligent moves and techniques much more promptly than in the previous years when internet was not yet widely used 1. Customers visiting business sites can make all necessary transactions using the internet without the hassle of going to the actual store. 2. They can even view and buy anything in that website 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. 3. Updates on order status and delivery schedule can also be known through the internet. Thus, the customer is well-informed about his purchase, from choosing the product to actually getting it. 4. Customers can view detail technical specifications of products even if they are miles away or separated by seas from the supplier. Through this, customers can make more intelligent assessment of the products being sold. This is specifically applicable to products that involve intensive designing means such as for laboratory equipments or manufacturing facility machineries. 5. Customers can have a more personal connection with the business through the Internet and on the other hand, businesses can have continuous communication with the customer. With the internet, making follow-ups on pending orders has become easier. Moreover, even payment of orders has become simple, secured and trouble-free through the use of the World Wide Web.

Web and Intra business

In this technological age, internet has been a necessity in almost all fields. Its contribution in ebusiness and e- commerce opens an opportunity to a faster, accurate and efficient customer service with a less consumed time and cost. In e- commerce, the internet serves as the primary medium to handle almost all of business transactions. It provides low cost advertising and fastest way of doing business open to all size of businesses. With internet technologies offer a direct communication link for customer and supplier, thus eliminate intermediary people which the main cause of high cost and delay. From that, lower cost on purchasing and selling products are achieved as well as offers satisfaction to both customer and supplier in terms of time spent from business transaction to delivery. Direct transaction definitely reduces time and cost spent, thus leads to more profit for the organization.

The internet offers a wider range of marketplace. Companies are able to compete both in local and international market without considering so much its size. Putting your business in World Wide Web, youre making it available around the world and youre doing business in different

nationalities. E- commerce allows people to carry out business without the barriers of time and distance. Anyone can log on to the internet at any point of time. With e- commerce it makes your business available anytime, either day or night. As e-commerce system also made available with do automation in almost all business process the company does. You can directly purchase and sell products and services at a single click of the mouse via organization website with accuracy and speed. It is made possible to negotiate and deal business virtually anytime even without human supervision. E-commerce is known as the most important facet of internet technologies nowadays. With e- commerce discrimination issues large, medium, small scale businesses have been eliminated. Internet technologies offer a chance to each business organization to excel in the market. Information has been made available in the internet. The company can search for the best strategy in running a business in different scope, as well as provide them information with an update on current business trend and how to put their business inline. It enables them to make their business compete both in local and international market.

B2B e-commerce
B2B e- commerce is the exchange of products and services between businesses rather than between business and consumers. Its competitive advantage not only in local and international market are recognized in the recent time and is believed to increased more rapidly in the next several years. More and more businesses are turned into B2B e- commerce especially there business is associated in World Wide Web. Buying and selling of goods are done through digital communication which offers a lot of benefits for business organization over a traditional way of making transaction E- commerce centralizes business process that leads to faster, accurate and up to date data processing. For instance, once the companies cater order from customer via organizations website, the order taken out will be automatically recorded: update inventory with the latest available stocks, create invoice then manage payments. This process will only take a very short period of time as compare to traditional way of business process. Then delivery of orders is taken right afterwards. The strategic benefits of making the business e- commerce enabled is that it helps reduce the delivery time, labor cost and cost incurred most in the common areas: document preparation, error detection, mail preparation, telephone calling, data entry, overtime, supervision expenses. These tasks are included for the task to automatically perform by the e- commerce system. Converting business into e- business also provides operational benefits, as mentioned human interaction is no longer that necessary. E- commerce include reducing both time and personnel required to complete business processes, and reducing strain on other resources.

With the continuous progress and development of internet technologies, it also offers progress and development in all the fields associated with it, including e- commerce. With that, e-commerce technology will not only become faster and smarter, but could completely transform the way companies processes in terns of handling internal information and customer service. In B2B e- commerce, one promising concept is the collaborative commerce, in which companies set up hubs that can be used not only by their customers but can interact also with other companies site. This innovation was found out to change the way companies do business with one another. With these portals, companies that regularly do business with one another will be able to access real time information about product availability and pricing. Companies will be able to send invoices and pay liabilities.

Secure Electronic Transaction (SET)

Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) uses digital certificates, issued to merchants and other businesses and customers, to perform a series of security checks verifying that the identity of a customer or sender of information is valid. SET provides the basic framework within which many of the various components of securing digital transactions function. Digital certificates, digital signatures, and digital wallets all function according to the SET protocol. It is a system for ensuring the security of financial transactions on the Internet. It was supported initially by Mastercard, Visa, Microsoft, Netscape, and others. With SET, a user is given an electronic wallet ( digital certificate) and a transaction is conducted and verified using a combination of digital certificates and digital signature s among the purchaser, a merchant, and the purchaser's bank in a way that ensures privacy and confidentiality.

How SET works

Assume that a customer has a SET-enabled browser such as Netscape or Microsoft's Internet Explorer and that the transaction provider (bank, store, etc.) has a SET-enabled server. 1. The customer opens a Mastercard or Visa bank account. Any issuer of a credit card is some kind of bank. 2. The customer receives a digital certificate . This electronic file functions as a credit card for online purchases or other transactions. It includes a public key with an expiration date. It has been through a digital switch to the bank to ensure its validity. 3. Third-party merchants also receive certificates from the bank. These certificates include the merchant's public key and the bank's public key. 4. The customer places an order over a Web page, by phone, or some other means.

5. The customer's browser receives and confirms from the merchant's certificate that the merchant is valid. 6. The browser sends the order information. This message is encrypted with the merchant's public key, the payment information, which is encrypted with the bank's public key (which can't be read by the merchant), and information that ensures the payment can only be used with this particular order. 7. The merchant verifies the customer by checking the digital signature on the customer's certificate. This may be done by referring the certificate to the bank or to a third-party verifier. 8. The merchant sends the order message along to the bank. This includes the bank's public key, the customer's payment information (which the merchant can't decode), and the merchant's certificate. 9. The bank verifies the merchant and the message. The bank uses the digital signature on the certificate with the message and verifies the payment part of the message. 10.The bank digitally signs and sends authorization to the merchant, who can then fill the order.

Difference b/w E- business and E-commerce

E-commerce describes the process of buying, selling, transferring, or exchanging products, services, and/or information via computer networks, including the Internet. E-business refers to a broader definition of e-commerce, not just the buying and selling of goods and services, but also servicing customers, collaborating with business partners, conducting elearning, and processing electronic transactions E-commerce e-Commerce is a new way of doing business, available to companies of all sizes, to create new relationships and extensions to existing business built on relationships, networks and webs of activities. ECommerce levels the playing field for any organization that chooses to participate, small or large. It is most commonly associated with buying and selling information, products, and services via the Internet, but it is also used to transfer and share information within organizations through Intranets to improve decision-making and eliminate duplication of effort. The new paradigm of eCommerce is built not just on transactions but on building, sustaining and improving relationships, both existing and potential. eCommerce is the use of international networked computers to create and transform business relationships. Applications provide business solutions that improve the quality of goods and

services, increase the speed of service delivery, and reduce the cost of business operations. Its a new methodology of doing business in three focal areas: Business-to-business Business-to-consumer Intra-business

Goals of E-commerce
The goals of eCommerce are similar to the goals of reengineering: 1) reduced costs 2) Lower product cycle times 3) faster customer response 4) improved service quality