E-commerce systems: Architecture, infrastructure, model, and development methodology

• Main Authors: BAJAJ, A., SIAU, Keng
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2000
• Subjects: Databases and Information Systems; E-Commerce
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/9668; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/10668/viewcontent/E_Commerce_Systems__Architecture__Infastructure__Model_and_Development_Methodology.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The last decade has seen tremendous growth in the world wide web (WWW) (Berners-Lee, Caillau, Luotonen, Nielsen, & Secret, 1994) and e-commerce, which now offers organizations and consumers a unique channel to deliver and purchase goods and services. E-commerce is popularly classified as B2B (business to business), B2C (business to consumer) and C2C (consumer to consumer). B2B e-commerce, which is currently the fastest growing segment of e-commerce (Fellenstein & Wood, 2000), consists of making more efficient the flow of goods and services across organizations. This efficiency is typically increased using standards for electronic data exchange, automating certain processes across organizations and providing direct database access to external organizations, usually via the WWW. B2C e-commerce consists broadly of providing consumers uninterrupted access to an organization’s goods and services, with minimal geographical boundaries. This is usually done by creating a virtual storefront, consisting of components such as shopping carts, catalogs, and electronic payment mechanisms. C2C e-commerce consists of providing distribution channels for consumers to sell goods and services to each other. Typical examples of this include auction sites, where users can auction items to each other, and consumer rating services, where consumers can share information about goods and services with each other.