Information and communication technologies are of widespread interest and their use is rapidly expanding all over the world. With the introduction of new achievements in information and communication technologies, trading activities through electronic media have become possible. The Internet has altered the world fundamentally. This is no longer a futuristic statement made by a technologist; rather, it is a reality that we all take for granted. Checking e-mail and visiting favorite web sites have become integrated into our lives. Employers commonly expect from a job applicant that he/she has already visited the company’s web site to learn about its market, people, and financials. Children use the Internet for their homework, and educators argue that those who have no access to the Internet are fundamentally disadvantaged. Teenagers chat in the wee hours of the morning and exchange photos with friends far-off.
Within an individual business, the Internet has altered every department. Companies using the Internet have reexamined and streamlined their supply chains to reduce inventory-holding costs, reduce the time to market, and improve demand forecasting. Intranets helped companies to share the knowledge that they create among different business units. Salespeople are faced with better-informed consumers who ask much tougher questions. Large internal company meetings at multinational levels, such as IBM, interconnect all employees from different countries. Therefore, Internet is the tool that can help many companies to reach a lot of customers in a manner more effectively by means of using more targeted messages, and more efficiently, that’s less expensive than ever before. Those who embrace this fact and struggle with learning how to change their businesses at the moment, and probably for a while, should ultimately turn out to be big winners. And those who ignore this will likely to be in some degree of difficulty.
Electronic commerce is a phenomenon, which is rapidly remodeling the parameters of trade in a digital dimension. It has the potential to revolutionize the way individuals and organizations interact. It offers efficiency for the companies in the form of increased market access and information, and decreased operating and procurement costs.
For consumers, the benefits accrue in the form of enhanced price competition, customization of products, goods and services, increased choice of products, and greater shopping convenience.
On the other hand, website design carries a vital importance for all internet pages. Whether it is a personal website or a commercial website, it is all important to have a successful webdesign. Today, many universities, schools, colleges, governmental organizations, companies, multinational, small and business enterprises, service providers, people etc. have all websites. As it is important for all types of these sites, website design is very effective in e-commerce websites.
The purpose of this study is to educate the managers of today and tomorrow about the fundamentals of e-commerce and help them to manage e-commerce process with perceiving the importance of website design in these e-services.
2. AN EXAMINATION OF E-COMMERCE ACTIVITIES
2.1 E-COMMERCE AND ITS TYPES TO DEVELOP WEBSITE DESIGNS
The result extracted from this part of the study is a collection of rigorous concepts for e-commerce frameworks and approaches that represent an entire application suite of tools for doing business in the networked economy for the efficiency of website design for these e-commerce websites. As the observation of business practices, while often fascinating and instructive, is not enough, we have taken our knowledge of practice through case studies and subsequently through with conceptualization. Our tools stand for a critical source of competitive advantage for companies and their managers.
2.1.1 A contemporary definition
E-commerce can be described as ‘the buying and selling of information, products and services with the assistance of computer technology and the Internet’. This description basically includes the exchange of electronic information between participants and it is normally followed by the exchange of goods and payment transactions. During an e-commerce process, many different activities may also take place. Examples to some of these activities can include marketing, interaction with clients and suppliers, interaction with government, acquisition of products and the sales forthcoming of these events.
‘Electronic commerce can be formally defined as technology-mediated exchanges between parties as well as any intra- or inter-organizational activities on electronically bases that facilitate such exchanges’. (Rayport, 2001)
Generally e-commerce refers to the ability of entities or individuals to make transactions or trade electronically. Since there is no complete agreement about the e-commerce’s coverage and definition, many different definitions can be made to e-commerce. As it can be accepted, all steps related to an e-commerce activity or at least few steps should be processed in an electronic environment. It includes exchange of tangible goods, information, and services. Besides the above general definition, each international organization has its own definition of e-commerce.
The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) which has important works on creating legal environment of the e-commerce prepared "Model Law on Electronic Commerce" in 1996. According to model law, e-commerce is defined as to exchange all data messages in the electronic platform via using both less complicated instruments such as telex, fax and more complicated instruments such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the Internet, and e-mail (UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce with Guide to Enactment, 1997).
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defined e-commerce as trade operations of individuals and entities via transmission of digital data such as sound, image, and text through open and closed network areas (Definition of E-commerce OECD Policy Briefs, 1997).
According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), e-commerce is to realize production, advertisement, sale and distribution of goods and services through telecommunication networks. According to the Turkish E-Commerce Coordination Board (ETKK), e-commerce is defined as to realize production, advertisement, sale, insurance, distribution, and payment of goods and services through electronic system. In order to be accepted as an e-commerce activity, at least one step of each transaction of trade should be processed in the electronic media. E-commerce activity has three distinct parts defined as advertisement and market searching, making order for goods and payment, and delivery (Elektronik Ticaretin Tan??m?? ve Temel Ara??lar??, 2004). In light of the above definitions, a general definition of the term ‘e-commerce’ can be made in such a way that it includes all kind of trade activities in which the parties communicate electronically without the requirement of direct relations or direct physical exchange.
Another description for e-commerce includes carrying out of transactions via electronic means. The integration of electronic commerce and conventional business processes is supposed to provide instant information to the business partners of a particular company. This should then lead to a very efficient value chain by which products are manufactured and distributed. This efficiency is believed to be reached as a result of that the companies can respond very quickly to their business partner’s needs. During the last decade of the previous century, the absolute desire of organizations to accomplish the best incorporation between business processes led to the development and improvement of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.
The exponential development of the Internet technologies is sometimes not easy to follow and requires dedication and commitment from all players of the game, whether they are participating for commercial reasons or studying the academic merit of e-commerce.
The meaning of electronic commerce is to buy and sell products or services using electronic means such as the World Wide Web or other computer networks. With the usage of the Internet, electronic trading developed rapidly with the growth of the commerce as well. With this development, innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange, inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems are drawn attention and encouraged. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction’s lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well.