2. Traditional definition of E-commerce
The notion of utilizing devices constructed, or working by principles of electronics for the exchange or buying and selling of commodities on a large scale

3. The Debate
The exact process and devices utilized during that process are irrelevant and still considered E-commerce as long as any part of the process relates to the technology of Internet.
The flow of information is that matters and that is what E-commerce is all about.

4. Framework of Activities for the strategic planning of the integration of an E-business
Building and maintaining the technical Infrastructure
Advertising
Taking care of the customers – visitors
Channel transparency
Security, privacy, spam
Globalisation and Legal issues

5. 1. Building & maintaining the technical infrastructure
ISPs’ (Internet Service Provider) view:
Available bandwidth
Internet pricing scheme and rates
Service stability
Company’s perspective
Processing speed and power
Server efficiency and availability
Dedicated expert personnel
Site sophistication and system maintenance

6. 2. Advertising Affiliate programs – sites Pay per click Pay per lead
Pay per sale
Stickiness
Integrated online and offline advertising campaign
Marketing and product research
Buy the intellectual rights (copyrights, trademarks) of old and/ or bankrupt well-known companies with good reputation

7. 3. Taking care of the customers – visitors
Internet marketing metrics:
Number of people responded,
Number of new vs. repeat visitors,
Visitor interest areas,
Media with best clickthrough rate for a particular cost,
Time spent on site,
Cost vs. benefit analysis
CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
Customisation (cookies, customers’ ids),
Information about product availability and features,
Payment methods,
Availability of different communications media (online, offline)
(Jere King, Vice President of WorldWide Marketing Communications, Cisco Systems)

8. 4. Channel Transparency Channel transparency
Ability/ availability to close sales/ deals online/ offline,
Processes independent of place, time and communications media,
Collaboration
Business deals with other companies,
Sell products through small subsidiaries/ chain stores,
Consolidation
Getting together with other companies under the same “roof” when needed

9. 5. Security issues and technologies
Security concerns:
Privacy/spam
Integrity,
Authentication,
Non-repudiation,
Network availability and stability
Methods, techniques and systems to secure communications
Secret-key cryptography, public-key cryptography,
Digital envelope, digital signatures,
SSL protocol, SET protocol
Certificates, certification authorities

10. 5. Security breach incidents from 1998 to 2001
Source: CERN

11. 6. Globalisation & Legal Issues
What is globalisation
Globalisation issues
Languages,
Politics,
Colors,
Wording
Import – export issues
Taxation
International trade law

12. Internet and E-commerce in Greece
Total population about 10,500,000 people
Average personal income in Greece is $11,740
Standard of living at 67% of E.U. average (January 2001)
Online population:
33% of the population are simply computer users
800,000 Internet users by the end of 2000
1,330,000 Internet users by the end of 2001
2,000,000 Internet users by the end of 2002 (Ministry of Economics)
Projection of at least 3,500,000 users by the end of 2004 as a result of Greek government’s initiatives and the Olympic Games
19% of Internet penetration
Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit, (

13. Internet and E-commerce in Greece (cont.)
Ages between 15 and 24 are using computers and the Internet the most
Average use of computers/week is 14.2 hours, average usage of the Internet/week is 6.3 hours
20% uses the Internet for communication purposes i.e. , chat, 20% to search for products or services (not to buy), 13% for entertainment or to be informed, and only 1.6% uses it for e-commerce or e-banking or e-taxiing activities,
60% rejects the use of the Internet,
78.4% is connected with a dial-up connection, 19.4% with some type of ISDN connection and only 0.7% are using ADSL

14. Internet and E-commerce in Greece (cont.)
29% Greek companies with even basic web sites vs. 46% of the average in E.U.
6% Greek business transactions done through the Internet vs. 19 percent of selling and 26 percent of buying in the E.U.
No planning and cost vs. benefit analysis
No human resources assigned to the task of taking care of, maintaining and responding to the activities through their Web sites

15. Categorization of Countries based on the penetration of Internet in their population
Total world population about 6,200 million people (
560 million Internet users around the world, only less than 10%
Countries could be divided into four categories:
Category 1: high Internet penetration > 40%
Category 2: high projected growth, now > 10% online
Category 3: low Internet penetration, high potential
Category 4: no significant Internet penetration and no expectations for the foreseeable future.

16. Categories and Countries
Category 1: Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, Sweden, U.S., Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, Norway, New Zealand, U.K., South Korea, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, Japan
Category 2: Germany, Portugal, Ireland, Israel, Belgium, Italy, Slovenia Rep., U.A.E., France, Spain, Estonia Rep., Czech Rep., Malaysia, Poland Rep., Panama, Slovak Rep., Greece, Chile, Hungary, Kuwait.
Category 3: Uruguay, Latvia Rep., Lebanon, Russian Fed., Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Turkey, Puerto Rico, Croatia, South Africa, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Thailand, China, Oman, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Philippines, Yugoslavia, Iran, Jordan, Bolivia, Ukraine, Indonesia.
Category 4: many South American, several East Asian, African (below Sahara desert), most of Arab nations, etc.

17. Total Population vs. Total Online Population shares of the Countries from the four categories
Countries of Categories 1 & 2 (U.S.A., Europe, Far East Asia, Australia and a few others) <20% of the total world population but >80% of the Internet worldwide
Countries of Category 3 (like China) are growing fast in Internet penetration.
Countries of Category 4 (like most Arab nations, and Sub-Saharan African countries are not developing)

18. Reasons explaining the irregular spreading of the Internet and E-commerce technology around the Globe
Personal Income
Education
Technological Infrastructure
Economic motivation
Political stability
Social (and/ or religious) acceptance
Existence of Legal framework

19. Difficulties in Measuring E-commerce Growth (or shrinking)
No real business data proving either growth or downturn,
Laying off employees. What does it mean?
Jobs are added in fields related to e-commerce,
Dot-coms are out and E-commerce is in; no more startups, pure virtual dot-coms,
Analysts measure E-Commerce growth in times of economic slowdown and still the outcome of their results is positive,
Bad business practices, misleading, miscalculations,
There is still a lot of uncovered territory,
A huge population of Internet users still stays away from buying online.

20. Projections of Worldwide eCommerce Growth ($B)
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
% of total
sales in 2004
North America
509,3
908,6
1.498,2
2.339,0
3.456,4
50,9%
Asia Pacific
53,7
117,2
286,6
724,2
1.649,8
24,3%
Western Europe
87,4
194,8
422,1
853,3
1.533,2
22,6%
Latin America
3,6
6,8
13,7
31,8
81,8
1,2%
Other
3,0
6,2
10,6
31,4
68,6
1,0%
Total ($B)
657,0
1.233,6
2.231,2
3.979,7
6.789,8
100,0%

21. Conclusion and Projections about E-commerce
E-Commerce is growing up,
The statistics underestimate the effect of e-commerce to the overall business of a retail company,
E-Commerce will continue to grow as e-businesses adopt new ways of doing business more efficiently using the Internet.
E-Commerce will continue to grow as new market sectors enter the digital world

22. Useful Links www.ecommercetimes.com www.eiu.com http://Btobonline.com