Study Questions

1. What is e-commerce?

2. Have you ever purchased a product online? If yes, list motives that encouraged you to buy online. Did the purchase go smoothly? Did you face any difficulty?

3. Study several e-commerce Web sites (Amazon, for example).

   1. Describe the Web sites.

   2. Find data about the companies. Compare this data with data about similar businesses that

      1. Do not offer online purchasing.

      2. Combine e-commerce with the traditional way of doing business.

4. Identify main features of e-commerce Web sites.

5. How do e-commerce companies present their merchandise? Is this way different from the way traditional companies present their merchandise?

6. What advantages and disadvantages does e-commerce have over traditional commerce?

7. Suggest possible connections between e-commerce and the Code of Ethics of Software Engineering.

8. Suggest possible connections between e-commerce and education in general and the education of software engineers in particular.

9. There are different e-commerce business models. This question focuses on the B2B and B2C (Business to Business and Business to Customer, respectively) models.

   1. For each of these two models, find two examples of online companies. Describe differences and similarities between the Web sites of these companies.

   2. Some argue that e-commerce fits the B2B model especially well because of the relative ease that it offers in comparing huge numbers of prices. In your opinion, does this argument appeal also to private customers? How can you validate your opinion?

10. If you wanted to establish an e-commerce company, what would be your first steps?

11. Why and how can software developers use the timeless nature of the Internet for their everyday work?

12. Find connections between the timeless nature of the Internet and the content of Chapter 3, Working in Teams.