A self-service environment in which consumers carry out activities and transactions independently

A self-service environment in which consumers carry out activities and transactions independently

E-commerce is where the process of buying and selling of products or services is conducted over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of business transactions. This is an effective and efficient way of communicating within an organization and one of the most effective and useful ways of conducting business. The service then proceeds to make the transaction easier due to that you only need to put in your bank account details once and no need to input the pin number of your card. There are also other ways of buying online without the use of a credit or debit card. One way is PayPal which is essentially a online credit card and some websites offer gift cards in which can be bought in a store and then the code transferred over to the online website. So you have to be careful on the internet as a lot of things are up to you to decide, so it's best to have knowledge of what your buying, who you are buying it from, how the deal is being transferred whether things are 'legit' or not. If you do things correctly and you have great knowledge of the internet, it's dangers and you know how to avoid them, the internet can be very beneficial for buying things quickly and cheaply.

Mobile technologies that blur the distinction between home and work

Mobile technologies that are blurring the distinction between home and work

Smart phones now make it easy to work from the comfort of your own home. This is due to the rising quality of smartphones and the new innovative uses for them. This makes it easier to complete certain jobs than having to drive to the workplace or office to boot up a computer which depending on how old the computer is can take any period of time. If the user can operate a phone with enough efficiency then they can get a smart phone to be able to do the exact same job as a computer but with a greater level of speed. This will make the use of going into work to complete a job unnecessary. Allowing more time at home and only needing to go into the office when needs be. you bring a lot of your personal data around with you at all times, so with this, it's kind of a good thing as it may make a person feel more secure and help them carry out at a quicker pace, or it may slow them down and distract them. with a mobile phone the distinction between work and home can be blurred as the work life can now be interfered with the private life. But with the advantage of this technology and the way it is so portable, you can essentially do certain types of work anywhere you want. New tablets and portable devices are making this easier and becoming really useful as they can expand work potential by giving you a lot of accessibility to many things.

Virtual communities

Virtual communities (where people are brought together via the Internet)

 

A virtual community is a social network of individuals who interact through specific social media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals. Online message centres allow users to choose which thread, or board of discussion, users would like to read or contribute to. With the access of the internet many different types of communities have developed, where people can share information about certain subjects, like things people are interested in. A user will start a discussion by making a post on a thread. Other users who choose to respond can follow the discussion by adding their own post to that thread. Shortly after the rise of interest in message boards and forums, people started to want a way of communicating with their "communities" in real time. The downside to message boards was that people would have to wait until another user replied to their posting, which, with people all around the world in different time frames, could take a while. These communities are great just to quickly pick up bits of information, and get more involved on the internet. The only problem is, that being on the internet with these communities can be very influential, and can sometimes put across bad views on things and make you believe things that aren't true.

Increased Business Opportunities (large and small)

Increased business opportunities (large or small)

Using the internet will allow you to increase your customer base. By creating an online presence, your marketing campaigns can include a population of people that you could never reach through stores. You can use the internet to present to your customers what upcoming events or products may be available to them. And when you are doing great things, your followers are more likely to share your business with their friends and family who may also be interested in what you have to offer. You can advertise specials that you are offering to your customers, increasing the reach of your special promotions. You can also use online content to let the public know more about the personal side of your business, like how you handle your customers. Businesses can also have an opportunity to sell products and services online, they can create a system where everything is done online without having to go to a shop and buy a product or service, you can simply just log onto a custom made website and order it with a card payment. So selling things online are made quicker, with less effort and things can be delivered. You can also set up a system where you sign up to a website with an email address and updates and information can be sent straight to customers. This is also a good way to keep people informed and involved.

Greater Interaction with Others and Organisations

Greater interaction with others and organisations

Due to the increase in the use of the internet many businesses have started off on the web and have moved to the high street or they have moved from the high street to having a web shop as well. This gives the businesses ability to appeal to a greater audience. Businesses can contact one another without the need of travelling to meet a client; instead they can just contact each other by using email or using other means of internet messaging. This gives the company more access to others and being able to create more business opportunities. A lot of people can use the internet to review something they are interested in, and with the interaction of others, you can quickly pick up an overview of something. for example amazon allows people to review a product after purchase to allow you to share your views with other potential buyers. There are a lot of advantages to having this ability to quickly contact people, as it reduces work, effort and stress. If a business puts in the effort to interact online, more people will like you as your web presence shows you are passionate, if your web presence is high, people can see the effort you are putting in with the site you produce and the way you advertise, and it gives a great example of the way you are viewed. this allows a business to increase its knowledge around the world by interacting with different people and businesses.

Sharing Infomation Quickly

Sharing information quickly

The internet can be used to share information over the internet. Ways to do this is to use Wi-Fi or to be able to use 3G/4G. There are many different ways in which to share information across the web. One way is to use SMS to send messages to other people, this uses the phone 3G to send the message via satellite. Another way to send information quickly is to use instant messaging. This is a online chat room which sends the messages over the internet. Blogs contain posts, sometimes similar to journal entries, from a person or a group. The posts are dated and listed in reverse chronological order. People can comment on posts as well as provide links to related sites, photos, and blogs. social media has grown in a rapid succession as the introduction of twitter and other such websites has given users greater choice in how they want to share their thoughts and information. here is a video about the growth of social media.

 

due to the success of social media, business have been utilising the social media for their personal gain due to the great number of people which use the social media websites everyday. this given businesses easy free advertising.

Presenting infomation in different ways

Presenting information in different ways

 

There are many ways in which people can present information across the internet. One way in which presenting information is in a blog. This way people can put their views across the internet. There many different websites which offer the opportunity to post their views about different subjects. These could be about current world news or how to help people set up different computers. The use for a blog would depend on the person. Another way of presenting information is on a Facebook page. This way people who share the same view point or interests can join you in putting their view across. Another use for this is that they can be used to form groups. These groups could be friends wanting to share their views or can be used for businesses to get free and easy advertising. To look through all different types of images online, Google Images makes things very easy and puts data in a presentable format where you can look through the images you want. YouTube is the same, but for videos, and people can create their own 'Channels' to publish their own videos and upload onto the internet.