What is E-Commerce ?
Electronic Commerce, or
e-commerce, is buying and selling on-line. There
exists no widely accepted definition for
electronic commerce. However in general,
e-commerce can be defined as any transaction
that involves an on-line commitment to purchase
or to sell a good or service, and that results
in the import or export of this good or service.
The term E-business is usually
applied in a broader sense. It includes buying
and selling on-line, but also other aspects of
on-line business activity, such as purchasing,
tracking inventory, managing production and
handling logistics, customer support services,
supply chain management and collaborative
engineering.
Benefits of E-Commerce
For suppliers, main benefits
of E-Commerce are the possibility to automate
and cut costs in repetitive processes, to reach
a wider market, to source products from a wider
supplier-base, and to be able to respond to
customer queries quickly and cheaply.
The lower cost
base enables suppliers to price more
competitively, and customers to purchase at
lower prices .
Consumers also
benefit from e-commerce as normal business hours
constraints do not exist any more with online
access and they can choose and purchase from a
bigger market
Credit Cards Entrenched In Europe's eCommerce
Credit card use by online consumers averaged 36
per cent across Europe in 2002, while accounting
for about 20 billion of the 30 billion spent on
eCommerce, according to Forrester Research and
Visa EU. Payments on cards are consequently the
single most popular means of payments, the
European Card Review notes, even if some e-tailers
also offer domestic payment methods to optimize
sales at their sites. Forrester analyst, Hellen
Omwando, says cultural habits prevail, with 80
per cent of [Swedens] online users having been
so for three years, but they still prefer
alternative payments like COD or invoicing.
INDUSTRY CANADA RELEASES E-COMMERCE CODE OF
PRACTICE
Industry Canada has released the Canadian
Code of Practice for Consumer Protection in
Electronic Commerce. The Code establishes
benchmarks and best practices for companies that
sell goods or services to consumers via the
Internet. The Code is undergoing pilot testing
in a number of sectors, and the reviewed code
will be available for endorsement from July to
September 2003. The revised Code will be
published in the fall of 2003.
We have the
pleasure to inform you of the tenue of an
international congress on the trustmarks in
e-commerce, that will be held in Luxembourg
between the 17 and 19 september 2003. You will
find any usefull information at :
www.e-trustmarks.lu
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