ECOMMERCE IN THE UNITED STATES & MEXICO

Ecommerce in The United States & Mexico

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Literature Review5

The Dot-Com Bubble7

The Dot-Com Crash9

Ethics & E-Commerce10

Distinguishing Features11

Availability of Information11

Lack of Transparency13

Absence of Accountability13

Perception of Vulnerability14

Data and Discrimination15

Amazon and Price Discrimination16

Kozmo and Delivery Discrimination17

Discussion17

Hype Versus Reality19

Conclusions23

References27

Ecommerce in The United States & Mexico

Introduction

E-commerce is the exchange of digitized information within and across organizations relating to communications, electronic ordering, and management of product and service activities. Distinctively in e-commerce, technology operates simultaneously as the tool that automates business transactions and workflows and as an organization's additional touch point or primary/sole interface with its customers. Ecommerce signifies business activity and financial and commercial transactions carried out over the Internet and an ever increasing array of other technology devices.

Electronic commerce, or “e-commerce,” is a broadly used term to describe transactions conducted over the Internet, whether completed by individuals, organizations, or companies. E-commerce is usually used to represent individual purchases made via the World Wide Web, though it is also applicable to business-to-business applications, such as selling inventory online or general procurement activities.

Before e-commerce could become a phenomenon, the general public first had to become acquainted and comfortable with the Internet. Marc ?ndreessen and a team of computer scientists at the University of Illinois cleared the first hurdle to mass acceptance in 1993 when they introduced the Mosaic browser. Mosaic married graphics and images to the predominantly text-based World Wide Web and made usage easier through point-and-click access.

Electronic commerce, also known as “e-commerce,” refers to the marketing, distribution, sale, and exchange of products and services via the Internet and encompasses a multitude of Web-based (often called “virtual”) commercial transactions. Through e-commerce, funds are transferred, supply chains are managed, and data are collected. E-commerce depends on and is the result of the application of new technologies to traditional forms of business. The commercial transactions that result are considered virtual or simulated in contrast with traditional, or “real,” brick-and-mortar transactions because they take place invisibly. The e, for “electronic,” reflects the technological systems that facilitate commerce, and e-commerce thus entails the complete network of systems and processes that enable commercial transactions to take place electronically via the Internet.

E-commerce is a vehicle through which businesses reach out to a virtual marketplace of customers united by need, desire, and/or mere curiosity. It enables firms to transcend barriers such as time and geography and thereby allows businesses to reach a broader audience than might otherwise be possible. It also provides businesses with the opportunity to collect massive amounts of information about their stakeholders particularly their customers. Finally, use of the Internet by firms enables them to exercise significant control over operations and marketing.

?t the same time, e-commerce can serve as a Pandora's box for firms, for there are just as many, if not more, obstacles as there are opportunities for businesses as they operate in US? and the virtual world. Because the Web is largely unregulated, the Net creates an illusion of freedom for businesses and individuals and lulls them into the idea that conventional ...