Introduction
Electronic commerce, abbreviated “e-commerce”, is the utilization and implementation of information and communication technologies (ICT) and related technologies in management and control of business processes and activities. Business type is the strategic organization of business components for the benefit of all stakeholders; e-business type is defined as the approach an organization acquires to attain profitability on the Internet, Currie, (56). There have been several types adopted by companies, these includes e-shops, e-marketing and collaboration platform, however, E-business types adopted have varied, as the classification of the types show a discrepancy, other researchers such as Sweeney,(51) have suggested types such as electronic order taking, electronic payment only, online catalogue and electronic payment, and a fully integrated e-business however the strategies and types have varied where some types have resulted to opportunities of success and profitability, while other types have resulted to challenges, where the adopting organizations have had to close shop or changed to a different type due to threats as Chaudhury,(231) argues.
Types of e-commerce
Collaboration platform e-commerce
Collaboration platform types and marketing and e-auctions portal shall be considered in the research.Collaboration platforms have been adopted by some companies as a type of e-commerce Bidgoli, (54-56), these involve offering communication platform to clients; companies that have adopted such types have gained relative achievements. Exemplars are intralinks.com, twitter.com and facebook.com, collaboration platform type has therefore been successful.
Marketing e-commerce and E-auctions portal
Some companies have adopted marketing and e-auctions portal, which in some cases has resulted to failure and collapse of the firms; this can be highlighted by the closure of Priceline.com’s WebHouse Club Greenwich, Conan-based WebHouse Group licensee and Perfect YardSale which offered customers pre-owned products.
Opportunities
In e-business business, collaborative environment types are virtual workplaces which involve several components for information exchange, communication and working by different members or teams of an organization. The environment utilises and coalesce technological advances in videoconferencing, internet based conferencing and collaboration, online chats, archived and real time streaming, and instant messaging to a user friendly workspace.
Several successful components are incorporated in collaboration type, these includes social computing. Social computing has been successful since it has impacted on business decision making, risks, opportunities and projections in order to gain strategic advantage. Among the impacts is the augmentation of shadow Information Communication Technology and grassroots social tools, where employees, have access to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) via the Web opt to work without being physically present in their offices as argued by Currie, (34), furthermore cloud computing has impacted on the altering the field of Information technology, this has assisted organizations attain strategic competitive advantages via functional agility, cost reduction and innovation utilization. Social computing has also impacted on enterprise software vendors integrating social functionalities in their applications. More so, social computing has impacted on mobile devices being utilised by organizations for business purposes, by additional application advances such as instant messaging, e-mail and short message service, Schneider, (45).
The objectives and opportunities of collaboration framework type are to generate profits for organizations by offering payable services such as adverts and links to other websites, while the users utilise the collaboration platform provided, they also access the links provided hence providing revenue to the site owners. Collaboration platform type has been utilized by organizations to gain competitive advantage, in terms of increased potential client reach. Social computing such as Enterprise 2.0 has assisted in achieving organizational objectives by fostering communication with all stakeholders. They have also impacted on improving the work environment, advanced customer satisfaction, personalised communication and enhanced collaboration hence improving profitability of the companies.
Threats
E-commerce has had some threats; the adoption of e-shop portal type has been growing speedily as attested by the number of portal products offered. However, the marketplace has been saturated, especially when the client base is limited and the portal company fails to be dynamic to the changing business environment, hence resulting to failures of the companies. Whereas e-shop type has at times failed, there have been successful components and least successful components. Successful components include the presentation services, user services, publishing services and subscription and notification services. However security services, content management services and dynamic components have been less successful. The presentation components have been successful as a link between the user and the portal itself, the user components have also been successful in provision of user interface, customized customer personalization services. Publishing services have been successful in offering clients with required information with the assistance of Subscription and notification components, Ritendra, (345).
The security components have however, been a threat where client information such as personal information and financial data have at times been compromised, content management components have at times failed to be successful where clients have been offered content, not relevant with their needs, such as bombarding customers too much adverts as presented by Effy, (65).
Conclusion
Collaboration platform type has played a role in enabling business achieve strategic objectives, it can furthermore be integrated with service orientation to propel the organization to be strategically ahead of the competition, by meeting client needs, while reducing costs hence gaining competitive advantage. E-shop type also play a crucial role in meeting client needs, however when saturation level is reached, the businesses can fail, therefore the type should be dynamic to meet changing needs of the business environment.
Works Cited
Bidgoli, Hussein. Electronic commerce: principles and practice. London, Academic Press, 2002.
Chaudhury, Abhijit. E-business and e-commerce infrastructure: technologies supporting the e-business initiative. New York : McGraw-Hill, 2002.
Currie, Wendy. Value creation from e-business types. London: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2004.
Effy, Oz. Foundations of e-commerce. New York: Prentice Hall, 2002.
Ritendra, Goel. E-Commerce. New York: New Age International, 2007.
Schneider, Gary. Electronic Commerce. Cape Town: Cengage Learning, 2008.
Sweeney, Susan. The e-business formula for success: how to select the right e-business type, Web site design, and online promotion strategy for your business. New York: Maximum Press, 2001.