Page 60 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

38 2 E-Commerce: Mechanisms, Platforms, and Tools

Figure 2.1 The EC
activities–mechanism connection

activities, such as payment and order fulfillment (Chapter 11) catalog or the buyer’s “My Account.” E-catalogs can be very
and security (Chapter 10). Also, standard IT technologies such large, so using a search engine may be useful. Buyers usually
as RFID, EDI, and extranets are described in Online Tutorial T2. like to compare prices; therefore, an online price comparison
In the next section, we describe online markets. Before service can be useful (now available on smartphones). Some
we do this, however, we will describe what happens during a sellers (e.g., American Airlines, Amazon.com) provide price
typical purchasing process. comparisons showing competitors. If not satisfied, the buyer
may abandon the seller’s site. If satisfied, the buyer will
place the chosen item in a virtual shopping cart (or bag). The
The Online Purchasing Process buyer may return to the seller’s catalog to choose more items.
Each selected item is placed in the shopping cart. When the
Customers buy goods online in different ways. The most com- item selection is completed, the buyer goes to a checkout
mon is purchasing from catalogs at fixed prices. Sometimes page, where a shipment option is selected from a menu
prices may be negotiated or discounted. Another way to deter- (e.g., standard, next day). Finally, a payment option is
mine price is dynamic pricing, which refers to non-fixed prices selected. For example, newegg.com allows you to pay by
such as those in auctions or stock (commodity) exchanges. credit card, PayPal, check after billing, in installments, and
The process starts with a buyer logging on to a seller’s so on. After checking all the details for accuracy, the buyer
website, registering (if needed), and entering an online submits the order.