CH.8 E-COMMERCE AND WEB 2.0

      There are many companies utilizing E-Commerce nowadays which is the buying and selling of goods and services over public and private computer networks. There are three types of e-commerce merchant companies; there are those that sell directly to consumers, those that sell to companies, and those that sell to government. Business to consumer is the supplier and a retail consumer. There are merchant companies and nonmerchant companies. Merchant companies are companies that actually take the title to the goods they sell. Non merchant companies are arranged for the purchase and sale of goods without ever owning or taking title to those goods. Web storefront is very popular and is where customers enter and manage their orders. An example would be Amazon. A nonmerchant e-commerce would be auctions and clearinghouses. Ebay is a great example of a nonmercant e-commerce which allows sellers to sell their products with bids or could also be considered a clearinghouse because some goods do have a stated price provided by the sellers. Disintermidation has increased market efficiency because of disintermidation which is the elimination of middle layers of distribution and suppliers. You can purchase an LCD tv directly from the manufacturer and would get delivered directly from the manufacture to you. It eliminates the distributors and retailer's inventory carrying costs and you eliminate shipping overhead and handling activity. There are two types of conflicts that are involved with e-commerce which are channel and price conflict. Channel conflict is where a manufacturer that wants to sell products directly to consumers. Price conflict is when manufacturers offer products at prices lower than those available through existing sales channels. A very important of an organization is a supply chain which is a network of organizations and facilities that transforms raw materials into products delivered to customers. Considerations include location, size, and operations; inventory includes all of the materials in the supply chain. To determine supply chain profitability you need the sum  of the revenue generated by the supply chain and the sum of the costs that all organizations in the supply chain incur to obtain that revenue. Social networking is the interaction of people connected by friendship, interests, business associations. Proper social networking from a company can lead to great business and long term profitably by spreading the word of their company positively.