E-commerce In LATAM

Engineering Faculty

E-COMMERCE AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB: AN ENVOLVING RELATIONSHIP

Authors:

• Cassana Huamán, Jackeline Milagros

• Pérez Castagnino, Renzo

Lima, june 21st 2012

ABSTRACT

E-commerce have had a great impact on businesses in the last decade. For the enterprises, e-commerce is a way of reducing physical work, costs and time in business processes. On the side of customers, it has dramatically improved how they purchase products and services. Now the don’t need to get out of their houses to buy products or services. What is more, buyers have Access to products information 24 hours a day, because it all the information they need is on the web.

This is how the world wide web its becoming everyday more used by thousands of users, exchanging not only information, but also making transactions and buying products. In Latin America, E-commerce have had an important impact, specially in Brasil. Our main objective in this research is to investigate how e-commerce has become an strategic tool in businesses and how the world wide web is changing consumers habits.

INTRODUCTION

What would you do without internet for one day? Probably you would be in serious trouble because you needed to finish an important project. Or maybe, you needed to contact someone important thru facebook or skype. The truth is that most of the people, not for saying all of them, that have access to a computer or smartphone with internet, at least surf on the web once a day. The technology evolves everyday and we depend on it each more and more. This does not means that technology is something bad, on the contrary, it help us to simplifies our daily task, communication, transaction on the web, etc.

On this last example, transactions on the web or in other words E-commerce, has considerably increase the number of persons that benefits from this way to do shopping. What would come to your mind if I say that I got a good deal buying a coupon on the web? If you are a frequent web user, probably the first thing that might come up to your mind would be Groupon or Couponatic. This short example reveals how are we adapting to the new tendencies and benefits from them. To understand E-commerce better, it is necessary to review a few of its history and the different types of E-commerce on the web.

E-commerce its is not a term that born when the world wide web was popular. In some sectors such military, government, big industries and universities, used the electronic data interchange (EDI). EDI, simplifies the exchange of information in different areas such accounting or finance.

According to Kenneth and Carol Guercio (2010), a good way to understand the E-commerce evolution is to divide it into three periods: the first refers Innovation (1995-2000), the businesses basically used the Web to public their products with digital infrastructure in consequence the low growth in e-commerce and low profit in sells. The second period is Consolidation (2001-2006), the major of enterprises focused on earnings and profits using business driven that consist knowledge about how to implement the Website in order to consolidate their market positions, brand extensions, etc. Finally, the third is called Reinvention (2006 to present), it reflect the necessity of E-commerce to adapt its tools with the social networking and web 2.0 applications that involves a lot of people in an extremely short time.

WHAT IS E-COMMERCE?

E-commerce is “the use of Internet and the World Wide Web to transact business, also digital enabled transactions include all transactions mediated by digital technology” (Kenneth c. Laudon & Carol Guercio Traver, 2010). In other words, E-commerce refers the way of doing business using digital information thru Internet and Web. It facilitates the transactions between companies and costumes in a real time because it reduces cost and increment profit if it is development effectively. However, this concept could be confused with E-business. “E-business refers primarily to the digital enabling of transactions and processes within a firm, involving information systems under the control of the firm.” (Kenneth c. Laudon & Carol Guercio, 2010). Therefore, E-business does not relate commercial transactions that across companies and it is the beginning of using system of information with technology within do business.

COMMON TYPES OF E-COMMERCE

• Business to Business (B2B): Transactions take place between companies. For example IBM offering online technical support solutions to small businesses.

• Business to Customer (B2C): transactions, selling or communication are done from Businesses to customers. For example amazon.

• Customer to Business (C2B): Like B2C but fliped. Customers puts their needs online and different companies look to provide a service or product to satisfy the customer. For example a customer post on the internet his needs regarding a life insurance.

• Customer to Customer(C2C): Communications its between Customers. For example E-bay.

There is a big interest in predict whether this tendecy of using E-commerce will continue increasing. How this approach between E-commerce and the world wide web has grown in the last decades and how it might be in the future.

HYPOTHESIS

The E-commerce might continue its growing and relation with the world wide web. The companies will have to implement E-commerce in order to be up-to-date with the business tendencies.

METHOD

SURVEY REGARDING THE PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS OR SERVICES IN THE LAST MONTH BY COUNTRY

The main object of this survey is to verify how E-commerce shoppers has increace in Latin-America from 2007 to 2009. In order to accomplish the survey, the first thing was identify the countries where the survey was taken. There are nine countries strategically considered important to consider for this survey: Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela. The number of people that has participated in the survey is 24,433 interviewees wich 2,300 from these made it online. the criteria for selecting participants was based on the income they receive and their economic status. Included only those who have a computer and a credit card. In those countries that do not has a formal organism that register

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