1. What is electronic commerce?

2. How can use you a B2B e-marketplace to reduce your dependency on a particular supplier?

3. How do convenience and specialty items differ in the B2C e-commerce business model?

4. Why do commoditylike and digital items sell well in the B2C e-commerce business model?

5. What is mass customization?

6. How does a reverse auction work?

7. How are vertical and horizontal e-marketplaces different?

8. What can a marketing mix include for a B2C e-commerce business?

9. What are the major types of B2C e-commerce payment systems?

10. What is the difference between a client-side digital wallet and a server-side digital wallet?

11. How are Secure Sockets Layers (SSLs) and Secure Electronic Transactions (SETs) different? How are they the same?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (p. 156)
1. In what ways can shopping over the Internet be more convenient for consumers? In what ways can it be less convenient? List at least five products you would have no hesitation in buying over the Internet, five products you may want to think about a bit before you do it, and five products you would never consider buying over the Internet. Justify your reasons in each case.

2. In your opinion, according to Porter’s Five Forces Model, has competition increased or decreased overall as a result of the Internet and e-commerce. Specifically address each of the five forces in Porter’s model.

3. Under what circumstances would it be appropriate to consider using viral marketing? See if you can think of an organization with an online presence that could benefit from viral marketing but is not currently using it. It could be your school, for example, or it could be an organization you are involved with. How would you suggest the organization go about using viral marketing in order for it to achieve the desired results? What are some of the other marketing techniques available for an e-commerce Web site to use? Why is it important to consider a mix of techniques rather than just relying on a single one?

4. Describe the services provided by value-added networks that make it easier for companies to exchange EDI transactions with each other. What are the pros and cons of using value-added networks for B2B e-commerce? Why don’t more companies use the Internet for EDI since it is much cheaper than using a value-added network? Assume that you work for a telecommunications company that operates a value-added network (AT&T or GXS). What sort of strategies would you encourage your company to explore to deal with the possibility of losing considerable amounts of revenues as your customers leave you in favor of using other the Internet-based services?

5. Throughout this chapter, we’ve illuminated numerous differences between businesses and end consumers as customers. Review those differences and then write down what you believe to be the three most significant ones. For each, record how businesses and end consumers are different. For the differences that you did not choose as the three most important, be prepared to justify your decision.

6. we focused much of our discussions on using such technologies as B2B e-marketplaces to create tighter supply chain managements, thereby driving out costs. Another major business initiative is that of customer relationship management (CRM). How can B2C e-commerce businesses utilize the Internet to further enhance their CRM initiatives? How can B2B e-commerce businesses utilize the Internet to further enhance their CRM initiatives? Will become easier to harder to maintain relationships with customers as businesses move toward more “electronic” commerce? Why or why not?