Mechanics of E-commerce

Business dimensions

E-commerce business dimensions vary according to the nature of the product or service. Electronic publishers and financial services companies provide a high quality direct marketing interface with individual consumers.Manufacturers of commercial airliners, on the other hand, do not sell products directly to consumers. Their interest in E-commerce relates tocoordinating logistics and maintenance functions with the airlines and design, procurement and production functions with the suppliers of components and sub-assemblies.

 

There are two types of interactive business dimensions:

 

Customer dimension

 

·         This refers to the placing of finished goods and services with final customers who can be corporate entities or individual consumers.

 

·         Tangible goods must be delivered using physical infrastructures.

 

·         The primary function of the electronic infrastructure in case of tangible goods is to provide catalogue, ordering, billing, payment and despatch facilities.

 

·         When intangible products are involved, every element in the transaction is normally electronic, including distribution.

 

Enterprise dimension

 

·         This has primarily an inter-corporate or inter-organizational (including business-to-government) supply chain orientation.

 

·         The final objective is to achieve flexibility and efficiency gains in design, procurement, manufacturing and logistics processes related to the production of components, their assembly into finished products and their delivery to the final point of sale.

 

·         In some cases, this dimension can also encompass product support and maintenance.

 

·         E-commerce facilitates migra­tion between the customer and enterprise dimensions. For example, automobile manufacturers who now use electronic networks primarily to support production and maintenance supply chains and to com­municate with franchised dealers, could eventually use E-commerce to sell their products directly to individual consumers, per­haps employing virtual showrooms to illustrate various design options.