E-Business

Electronic business, or e-business, can be defined as any business process that relies on an automated information system. In this day and age, lots of business activities and transactions are done with the use of the World Wide Web. By using e-business, companies are able to work more closely with their suppliers, partners, and customers.

One of the largest companies using e-commerce (a subset of e-business) is www.amazon.com. This Seattle based company was one of the first major companies to sell goods over the internet. Amazon began as an online bookstore, but when there was a profit being made soon diversified into other areas including DVD’s, CD’s, video games, furniture, and more. Customers are also able to use the website to sell their own merchandise, much like the way www.ebay.com works, but without the use of an auction. Throughout its success, Amazon now has websites in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, China, Japan, and France.

There are, however, some legal issues that Amazon and all online retailers may face when dealing with e-business. Within the development of the business, the creator must establish a registered domain and trademark, followed by some copyright protection. The company must then display all of the terms and conditions within their site. There should also be rules and regulations defined for the advertisement of the site by placing banners on other well known sites. Having an attorney handy is always helpful when starting an e-business as well.

When dealing with the customer, Amazon must have the customers privacy and security at the top of their “most important things” list. While shopping on the internet, most individuals do not think about what is happening when they send their personal and credit card information to the seller. Most likely, what is being thought of if how easy it is to shop without even having to get out of bed. Customers do not think of how many hands their personal information is going to go through before they receive their merchandise. Therefore, the business (Amazon) itself becomes solely responsible for what happens from this point forward.

What Amazon does to protect the customer is to firstly have every customer who shops on their website create a unique username and personal security password. Sometimes this password will also have a secret question along with it in case of a forgotten password. If the customer does not share this information with anybody else, there should not be much of a problem. Secondly, when paying for