NOTES

“There will be two kinds of businesses – those with a Web site and those no longer in business”.–Bill Gates

E-COMMERCE is using the Internet as a means of electronically doing business.  It can include buying or selling products or services over the Internet.  Businesses and consumers use the Internet to purchase goods and services or gather information.  They use it because it is faster, more convenient (24/7), (24 HOURS A DAY-7 DAYS A WEEK) there are no salespeople pushing a product.  You are also able to compare shop easily without getting in your car.  You can also check web sites that tell you about product safety, reliability and quality.

Purchasing from the Internet is expected to grow 6 times from 1999 to 2003.  Spending is predicted to jump from $10.6 billion in 1999 to $64.8 billion by 2003.
This means plenty of  new jobs FOR YOU  which don’t even exist today.

1.  THE INTERNET AND THE ECONOMY:
Nearly every company has a Web site. Many companies put their Web address on the product, on the ads in magazines, and in ads on television and radio.  Remember this is called a URL –UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATOR.  If you don’t have a URL for a company, you can do one of two things. 1) you can try typing in www.name of company.com or you can do a search using a SEARCH ENGINE  such as Yahoo or Google..

There are two ways a company can sell on the web.  One way is to sell directly to customers or CONSUMERS who are individual people like you and me.  Another way is to sell to other companies. BUSINESS TO BUSINESS
Company Web sites may also use their sites to give you other information that we will look at.

BUSINESS TO BUSINESS sales will continue through the year 2003 as projected.  This means that most businesses will sell to other businesses and then you buy the item from the second business.  If you want to buy a pair of jeans, you would probably get them from a retailer and not from the manufacturer.  If you get a pair of Levi jeans at Hudson’s, Hudson’s would have got them from Levi’s.   This will change but not as fast as you might think.

The company WEB site may also list information on its site about:  job availability, history of the company, all the types of products they produce, helpful hints about the use of their product, how the company is doing financially, stock market info about the company, a directory of employees, new products they are researching and developing (R & D), location of retail stores in your area, how to contact them by phone or postal mail.

Overall, a company with a Web address can use the Internet to:
 -sell their goods or services
 -share information about themselves and their products

Many companies protect their ideas, products and services.  They also protect the name of their company and any logos or symbols that represent their company.   This is called their TRADEMARK and it is usually represented by the symbol ™.  This is the company’s REGISTEREDTRADEMARK symbol  This is different from a patent or copyright.  Remember, a patent protects an idea or invention, and copyright was to protect something written, drawn or art work.

Many individual people have attempted to start their own businesses on the Internet.  Many of them have done well and succeeded.  Many have failed rather quickly. An ENTREPRENEUR  is a person who starts his or her own business.  In the past, they did this in a shop or their home.  They had to depend on word of mouth, advertisements and good signs to let the people know where they were and what they sold.  Today, they can start their business and set the search engines to recognize their Web address when someone does a search attempting to locate a particular product.

2.  TYPES OF BUSINESSES ON THE INTERNET
The Internet can provide the CONSUMER with a vast amount of information
A.  SEARCHING FOR TRAVEL INFORMATION:  By using the Internet for travel, you are able to locate tickets for air travel, lodging, car rental, get details about your destination, restaurant guides, museums etc
You are able to make the booking on-line and will sometimes see a reduced price if you book it on-line.  You will need to use a CREDIT CARD.  A CREDIT CARD is a card that has been issued to a consumer for the purpose of receiving the goods or services and paying later.  You must be 18 to receive a card.  The typical cards are: VISA, MasterCard, AMERICAN EXPRESS, DISCOVER, DINER’S CLUB AND CARTE BLANCHE.  You need three things to get a credit card- 1) good character which means that you have not been in and out of jail or in trouble with the government  2) capacity to earn a wage which means you need to have a job which pays enough for you to pay your regular bills and 3) capital  which is the money you have already saved, how often you take out loans and your ability to re-pay them.  It also includes your assets which are the things you own.  Once you give them your credit card number, you are able to purchase over the Internet.

*When using a credit card over the Internet, you must make sure that you are in a SECURE SITE.  A secure site is one that starts the URL with HTTPS://   It would have an “S” in it.  This means that the site is carefully protected against hackers.  They do this by means of ENCRYPTION CODING which scrambles the credit card number and information about the credit card owner so that it is almost impossible to steal the information.  But. . . we know that nothing is impossible.  My suggestion is that people who use their credit cards over the Internet or over the phone, use one with a lower credit limit.  That way the thief can’t steal as much money.  Remember, you can only charge on your credit card to the limit that has been set by the credit card company.  They may tell you that can charge up to $8000 but you can tell them that you only want your card to go up to $800.  That way, if it is stolen, the thief can only charge $800 and not $8000.
3.  BANKING, INVESTING, LOANS, DOING TAXES
The above are all available on the Internet.
You are able to manage your money in the bank on the Internet.  You can move money from one account to another.  You can also do investments.  Your INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO  is a collection of investments you have for retirement or another means of making an income.  INTEREST INCOME  is the money you make from buying or selling of stocks or investments in other areas.  All companies which trade on the stock market are listed with their TICKER TAPE SYMBOLS.  We will be doing an entire unit on the stock market after this.
You can also check the interest rate on a HOME MORTGAGE  What does that mean???? When you are ready to buy a house you needTWO things.  You need 1) a down payment and 2) a mortgage.  A DOWN PAYMENT is the amount of money you have saved up to reduce the cost of the home.  If you are buying a house that costs $100,000 you might have saved up $10,000 toward it.  That means you buy the house and subtract the down payment.  You would need a load for $100,000 - $10,000 = $90,000.  You would then check around to see who has the best interest rate for that loan.  The INTEREST RATE  is the amount of money you pay for the privilege of borrowing the $90,000.  You can repay that loan in 5, 15, 20, or 30 years.  Most people chose 30 years to repay it.  If you chose fewer years, you would actually pay a lot less in interest but you pay off the loan monthly and your monthly payments would be higher.

WHAT OTHER KIND OF INFO IS THERE ON THE WEB?
You are also able to get information FEDERAL  taxes.  (those taxes which are taken from your paycheck which go to the United States government).  They are Federal Income tax and FICA which is social security tax which is given to older people and people who are in need of financial help.  To get information about taxes, you can go the web site   WWW.irs.gov for the INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE which is the government’s tax agency.

You are also able to shop on-line for AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE.  This is the insurance you need to drive a car.  Insurance protects you, your car, collision with other objects and other people. You would need to give the web site information regarding:  age, gender, area where you live, make and year of car and the type of coverage you would want.  You would tell them how much or how little coverage you need.  If  you have an old wreck of a car, you probably would not want as much coverage as if you had a new fancy car.  The site would also tell you what laws are in affect for your state with regard to UNINSURED MOTORISTS.  Those are people who drive without auto insurance.  It would also tell you if you are in a state which provides for “no-fault” insurance.  This is a way an insurance company determines who will pay for damages if you are involved in an accident with another vehicle or hit an object.

4. RETAIL BUSINESS
You are able to “shop ‘til you drop” on the Internet using E-Commerce.  However, caveat emptor!  Which means LET THE BUYER BEWARE!  “All that glitters is not gold” and there is “no such thing as a free lunch”.  "If the deal seems too good to be true, then it probably is."
Many of the search engines have RETAIL shopping sites on their home page.  These are companies that sell directly to you, the consumer of the goods.  You are the one purchasing it either for yourself or another person maybe as a gift.  Sometimes there are categories for shopping and sometimes an actual company pays the Internet search engine so that the company will have an advertisement right on their web home page.  This is one way search engines make their money.

In 1997, people spent $2 billion for retail purchases. This was the first year that statistics were really kept on Internet purchasing. The amount is expected to be $220 billion this year alone and growing at a pace faster than the speed of light.  Well, not that fast but really fast.

Every time you connect to a retail company on the Internet, a file of information is placed on your hard drive.  This is called a COOKIE.  A cookie is a file of information about you that some Web sites create and store on your hard drive when you visit their site.  Once you go back to that site, the company can pull the information it stored on your hard drive and you would not have to re-enter any information they need from you again.  This can be rather scary.  Some of you have this feature turned “off” on your computer.  The setting is set not to accept “cookies” and this may prohibit you from shopping on-line with certain companies.  This setting is contained in the software of your browser-either Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer.  You would need to look at these or use their ‘help” menus to make the necessary changes.

How do you know if the site is REPUTABLE.  That would mean how do you know that this is really a reliable company.  The best way is through word of mouth.  Ask your friends if they have had any problems with a certain company.  Just because you may know the company name from shopping at their store at the mall, it does not mean that the on-line shopping would be as good.
Another way is to check web sites which have been established to ease your mind.  Just remember that every business on the Internet will not be able to be found with a rating.  Sometimes it will be “hit or miss’ and you may have a bad incident.

www.bizrate.com
 This site collects individual reviews of e-commerce sites, averages the ratings and make some individual comments available.

Shopper.com
 Comparative pricing guide site from Cnet-this covers many companies and those with a blue ribbon next to their name have passed

Cnet believes that the business is good until proven bad.  Keep this in mind when you use their service.

www.bbbonline.com
 This is the Better Business Bureau.  They have been around for a zillion years and they have an excellent reputation for keeping track of companies.

www.consumerreports.org
 This organization has also been around for a zillion years.  But, you have to pay a monthly fee to use their services.

www.deja.com
 This group gives you results of discussions about certain businesses.  You can search a company here.

www.consumer.gov
 The government’s consumer site

A good idea is also to shop “UMBRELLA” sites.  Those are companies which are attached to larger companies.  For example, Amazon.com has an excellent reputation.  Once at their site, you may see other companies listed.  They are usually quite reputable or Amazon would not list them.

There also many on line “zines” (magazines) that you can read on line or download.  Some are free and other costs.  HP has one which gives you data about purchasing computer and peripherals.

On-line shopping site ICONS.
Many sites have icons which are small pictures indicating some information.
? Shopping cart-these are the items you have selected to purchase (you can usually change your mind at some point in your shopping.
? Photo-there are images of the item available by clicking on the icon
? Locked lock-indicates the site is secure when sending info about your credit card details
? Telephone-they have telephone support
? Red bulleyes symbol-you can search their site
? Globe-they have international sites
? Key-they have a secure site
? Stars-a rating systems – 4 stars may be the best ****
? Blue text-it is a link to another site-either within their company or another company

Each company keeps tabs on the number of “HITS” they receive.  They have a counter device on their server that keeps track of how many people go there and where they go.  The  server (computer) that is used to record sales to customers is usually a SQL server.  Standard query language.  MOST SERVERS USED FOR E-BUSINESS NEED EMPLOYEES WHO KNOW HOW TO USE MICROSOFT ACCESS.

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