What Is Electronic Commerce?

E-commerce still has no uniform definition, which is one of the reasons why the concept of e-commerce is easy to cause confusion. Different books and institutions at home and abroad have different definitions of e-commerce. E-commerce researchers have given many definitions of e-commerce from different perspectives.

Introduction to E-Commerce

(Basic meaning)

The introduction of e-commerce should be distinguished from e-commerce. E-commerce is a new discipline and a new industry, and it is developing rapidly at different places. Introduction to e-commerce is a course in colleges and universities at present, which is a general introduction to the basic theories and skills of e-commerce to college students. Introduction to e-commerce This textbook is basically written by university teachers, and business people rarely get involved in this field. Due to the closed nature of university teachers, textbooks written often lag behind the rapid development of e-commerce.

With the continuous development of Internet technology, it has not only changed people's business models, but also changed people's lives. E-commerce has gradually become a new business transaction model that people must adapt to. Since the emergence of e-commerce in the late 20th century, it has become a landmark in the information age in just a few decades. In essence, e-commerce is the result of the pursuit of high work efficiency and the continuous development of informationization of business activities. It is also a new economic form. It plays an increasingly important role in the operation of enterprises, markets and even the national economy.

E-commerce originates from Electronic Commerce in English and is abbreviated as EC. As the name suggests, its content contains two aspects, one is electronic means, and the other is commercial activities.

E-commerce in a broad sense means conducting business trade and transactions on the Internet.

(1) E-commerce usually refers to browser-based /

1. The combination of virtual and reality

2. Break through time and space restrictions

3. Global market with huge consumer base

4. Highly free and autonomous market environment

Even today, whether it is B2C or B2B, whether it is a traditional enterprise e-commerce, or the birth of a new Internet company, it is no new thing; the stock market requires everyone to tell stories, models, etc It has almost filled up all people's imagination, but can we say that we have entered the century or society of e-commerce? No! Because even if many of our companies under the banner of e-commerce today do not even understand the full and true meaning of e-commerce, of course, it is not even possible to implement them completely.

There is a quiz: I opened a flower selling website, users can order flowers from the Internet, and I will deliver them to the door, so I am an e-commerce company, right? If yes! Then you may encounter the following video.

Well, after the laugh, we should have reached the conclusion of the previous proposition. Obviously, companies with only one website cannot achieve the goals of e-commerce to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and increase customer satisfaction. An enterprise without a certain management foundation, including a defined organizational structure, workflow, and work specifications, is not an e-commerce enterprise; an enterprise with management but no information technology is not an e-commerce enterprise. The so-called e-commerce, which has only a website without management and information, is connected to a small alley on the expressway, and there is no traffic jam.

In fact, it is not only today's emerging Internet companies that can see the previous scenario. It is also a challenge for those of our traditional companies with low levels of informationization. Such a challenge is even more severe for Chinese companies operating in a planned economy environment for a long time, because for a long time we have been following the plan issued at the beginning of the year, purchasing in accordance with the plan, and looking at inventory sales. The market changes and the high-speed response of the elastic mechanism and awareness, so how to make traditional enterprises e-commerce is also a serious topic.

Then in turn ask what kind of business can be considered an e-commerce business? Of course, the use of the Internet and WEB websites to achieve business is a basic feature, but the core is that the enterprise must operate within an "Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP)" based on sound management ideas and work processes.

This resource planning system is the basic platform for companies to conduct business. User orders enter this system after being filtered by the company's business department, and become the main input of the system. The other input of the system is the actual situation of the current inventory (including materials, finished products, The number and geographical distribution of products), transportation resources and cycles, procurement resources and cycles, production capacity and cycles, etc., the system runs once at a fixed time (Lenovo is every two hours), and the output of each run is: A confirmation form of user orders, a purchase plan, a production plan, and a distribution plan. Among them, the order confirmation result of the user will be directly fed back to each order user, telling him whether he can supply, the exact time of supply, the place of supply, the mode of transportation, etc. These information are the clear supply priority formulated by the system according to the enterprise Order model and certain boundary conditions are calculated. For example, in the previous example of buying flowers, if there is a warehouse, then the delivery time is only the time required for delivery (depending on the geographical location); if not, then the purchase cycle is added; if an order contains multiple products, Then the delivery time must be the last set, and so on. These are automatically controlled by the system, which reduces the difficulty and difference of human control, and user satisfaction will definitely be improved as a result. And all the purchasing, production, and distribution systems of the company are not mechanical and passive work. Buy them when they are out of stock, and look at the finished product warehouse for production, and then send them when they are ready, but according to the system plan instructions. Act according to information and methodically. In most cases, the scenes in the video can be avoided. This is not only a guarantee for customer satisfaction, but also a guarantee for enterprises to reduce costs and increase profits. The system runs once at a certain time, not every time after each order comes in. The reason is also to enable the resources in the enterprise to be used in a more optimized manner. For example, procurement may be more economical in batches, and it also reflects the efficiency of human work, as well as production, and the production process itself has an information problem. Let s take a look at a video below. This video is basically recorded on the background of Lenovo itself, reflecting how a real e-commerce company is running.

After reading this video, we can summarize: the essence of real e-commerce is actually the informationization process of all aspects of business operations, and it is not simply the past work process and standard information, but according to new methods and conditions The process of change in the face of old processes.

The following is a model of how e-commerce in China's larger enterprises can be summarized based on Lenovo's experience. Of course, it is impossible to copy it, but I hope to give you inspiration. As an important part of its own business, Lenovo will also provide our targeted consulting, suggestions, and even implementation plans for the specific situation of different enterprises in the future.