Archive for the ‘CEP’ category

Overview of Electronic Commerce

• B2C and B2B are types of e-commerce.
• B2C stands for business-to-consumer. B2C involves transactions conducted between businesses and consumers over the Internet. For example, placing an order for a book or a home appliance by a consumer to a business over the Internet.

The commerce that is conducted through wireless devices such as mobile phones, vending machines, ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) is known as m-commerce. It is used for the sale of mobile phones, ring tones, and games, etc. The B2B commerce and the B2C commerce can be conducted by the wireless devices that are connected to the Internet.

T-Commerce is a type of commerce in which transactions are carried out over the digital television. It is a new concept that is not very popular now. In this type of commerce, television signals can be used to carry data such as teletext, html documents, etc., to the Internet through a set-top box.

EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) is an electronic system in which state governments in the USA provide benefits to their authorized citizens through a debit card. The benefits provided through the EBT are food stamp and cash benefits. A citizen can use the EBT card to purchase food items, which are authorized by USDA’s food items program. Cash benefits can be used to purchase goods from a particular retailer or withdraw cash from an ATM.

EBPP stands for Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment. It is a process through which companies create bills for their customers and receive payments from them electronically over the Internet. EBPP allows consumers to view and pay bills through the Internet. A consumer also has the ability to view his current insurance bills, to submit electronic payments, to view previous EBPP billing and payment history, and to choose to receive emails about his ready bills.

Security is a protective measure that is taken to secure e-commerce transactions, such as payments made through credit cards. Users must be authenticated before being allowed to use such services because an unauthorized user can misuse confidential data such as credit card number.

The commerce that is conducted through the wireless technology is known as m-commerce. It can be conducted through various devices such as ATM, mobile phones, etc. M-commerce seems to have a very bright future. The reasons for its bright future are as follows:

• Massive investments in mobile communications will stimulate competition.

GSM (Global Systems for Mobile Communications) is a digital cellular system. It uses TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) technology, which allows eight simultaneous calls on the same radio frequency.

ATM (Automated Teller Machine) is a device used by banks to provide financial services to customers. ATM can be used to access bank accounts, withdraw cash, check account balance, deposit cash, transfer money, purchase goods, etc. Security is provided through a PIN (Personal Identification Number) known only to the user whom it is allotted.