E-COMMERCE AND CUSTOMER SERVICE.pdf

Allied Academies International Conference page 67 Proceedings of the Academy of Information and Management Sciences, Volume 14, Number 1 New Orleans, 2010 E-COMMERCE AND CUSTOMER SERVICE Pratik Shrestha, Cameron University Samuel Lane, Lane Import Roscoe Dandy, Nova Southeastern University Chad Marcum, Cameron University ABSTRACT Commerce in its simplest form is defined as the exchange or buying and selling of goods or services in a large scale requiring transportation from one place to another. When this exchange or buying and selling of goods and services takes place over electronic systems like internet, email or other computer networks, then it is known as e-commerce. With the advancement of the digital world and its strong presence in our everyday life, it is only natural for the businesses to move in this direction. E-commerce consists of everything from online shopping to electronic transfer of funds or online travel reservation to online banking as well as online auctions and online information sharing. With a business transaction only a few key strokes or mouse clicks away, e-commerce has not only simplified the business process but has also brought together buyers, sellers and producers from all over the world. Thanks to e-commerce, businesses can reach a large market of consumers and similarly, consumers can choose and shop from a large number of businesses online. E-commerce also provides a great leverage to the producers or manufacturers of goods. Now, the producers can set up their own online stores in the form of web sites and sell directly to the consumer without relying on the wholesalers or retailers. If they lack the technical expertise to set up their own site, they can set up their online store in one of the many online retail stores like EBay and Amazon, for a small fee. However, e-commerce is more than just online shopping. It also includes business to business (B2B) transactions where big companies and financial organizations use the inter