E-Commerce:

Fundamentals and Applications

Chapter 13 : E-Service

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E-Commerce: Fundamentals and Applications 1 Wiley and the book authors, 2001
 Outline

Categories of E-Services
Web-Enabled Services
Matchmaking Services
Information-Selling on the Web
E-Entertainment
Auctions and Other Specialized Services

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E-Commerce: Fundamentals and Applications 2 Wiley and the book authors, 2001
 Categories of e-services
Categories of e-services:
Web enabling services that were previously provided
by humans in branches and/or office agencies
E-services that provides matching services
E-services that sell information content of one sort or
another
Entertainment e-services
Specialized e-services such as e-Auctions.

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E-Commerce: Fundamentals and Applications 3 Wiley and the book authors, 2001
 Web Enabled e-services
Previously provided by humans in branches and/or
office agencies.

e-services:
save time and effort for the user
bring convenience and improve the quality of life.
reduce cost for the consumer

They include:
Banking
Stock Trading
Education

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E-Commerce: Fundamentals and Applications 4 Wiley and the book authors, 2001
 Match Making e-services
Greatest growth in E-Services.
An individual or business specifies his/her
requirements in relation to the service.
E-commerce site then does a search over its own
databases or over the Internet (using mobile agents)
The information is then returned to the e-service
provider site
They include:
Jobs and Employment sites
e-Travel
e-Insurance
e-Loans

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E-Commerce: Fundamentals and Applications 5 Wiley and the book authors, 2001
 Selling Information on the Web
Sell information content of one sort or another.
Provide some information free.
Make money on the transactions
This group includes e-commerce sites that:
Do Online Publishing such as web based
newspapers
Consultancy advice
Specialized financial or other information

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E-Commerce: Fundamentals and Applications 6 Wiley and the book authors, 2001
 e-Auction and other specialized e-services
To achieve the best possible price for items which
sellers wish to sell
Seller puts up the items for sale but does not give a
fixed price for it.
The item is then subject to a series of bids until a bid is
acceptable and the item is sold.
The whole process is conducted by somebody called
an auctioneer.
Types of auctions includes:
English Auction
Dutch Auction and
A price quantity pair auction
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E-Commerce: Fundamentals and Applications 7 Wiley and the book authors, 2001
 Forward auction Vs. reverse auction
Forward auction
Increasing bid auctions on the Internet
The seller puts up an item for sale and specifies an
acceptable minimum price
The item is then posted on the auction site
together with the minimum price
the bidding is kept open for a specified period
During this period, potential buyers bid for the item
The latest high bid is displayed.

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E-Commerce: Fundamentals and Applications 8 Wiley and the book authors, 2001
 Forward auction Vs. reverse auction (cont.)
Reverse auction:
the seller puts up an item for sale at a high price
price of this item is progressively reduced until a
potential buyer accepts the bid
items are then deemed to have been sold to the buyer.
Alternative reverse auction:
Buyer puts a request for proposal (RFP) on a website
Sellers post items/services that would meet that
request along with the price they would sell the items or
services
Buyer accepts the lowest bid for the items that meet his
goals
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E-Commerce: Fundamentals and Applications 9 Wiley and the book authors, 2001
 C2C e-auction sites
A consumer selling an item to another consumer
These auction sites can be:
generalized auction sites
specialized auction sites
agent based auction supporting sites
Generalized auction sites like eBay

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E-Commerce: Fundamentals and Applications 10 Wiley and the book authors, 2001
 B2B e-auction sites
Three models
Use of a liquidation broker to sell excess items.
the liquidation broker is essentially a third party auction
site that does the auctioning for you
Use of your own web site to auction items.
Use of the auction facility on a Virtual Market site
These approaches will be increasingly used by
business particularly if they are dealing with
perishable commodities.

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E-Commerce: Fundamentals and Applications 11 Wiley and the book authors, 2001