蘑菇街英语简介

1. Introduction

Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce) has almost successful overnight . Equally quickly it has become a

significant element in commercial activities globally, particularly in the developed countries where suitable

infrastructure

support

is

available.

E-Commerce,

of

course,

has

no

single

definition,

meaning

only

commercial activity which is somehow linked to or supported by electronic communications. It may be

anything

from

a

simple

advertising

presentation

available

on

the

World

Wide

Web,

or

an

e-mail

communication;

all

the

way

to

an

entire

multi- million

dollar

transaction

initiated

and

promulgated

in

electronic form up; to and in some cases including the actual delivery via the net of information intensive

goods or services.

1

2. Advantages of E-commerce

The advantages of E-Commerce from a commercial perspective are numerous:

?

Online and more or less

instantaneous searches

with an unlimited number of criteria such as description,

category,

subcategory,

location,

color,

size,

and

price

range

-

i.e.

The

use

of

computerized

information

management for a huge and rapidly expanding globally distributed knowledge/information base along with the

availability

of

full

colour

media

including

graphics,

animation,

sound

and

now

video

and

no

space

or

time

limitations as to information delivery.

?

Full

two-way

24

hours/day,

7

days/week

communications/information

access

capability

which

allows

for

instantaneous response and feedback concerning product/services and related information.

?

Full

processing of transactions

(including delivery) for information intensive goods such as software, text,

images,

video,

and

music;

downloadable

directly

to

the

consumer's

computer

at

the

time

of

purchase

and

including

the

opportunity

for

limitless

product

comparison.

All

of

this

leads

directly

to

greatly

intensified

competition in these markets and lower margins, reducing costs to the end user.

?

The

elimination

of

the

need

for

middlemen

(disintermediation),

leading

to

lowered

transaction

costs

(including marketing, sales, transaction processing), reduced overhead, and reduced inventory and labor costs.

?

The

delivery of after-sales service and support

directly and low cost.

3. E-Commerce and Community Economic Development

E-Commerce presents significant challenges to Community Economic Development (CED)

. CED has

for

the

most

part

been

low

technology,

focussing

on

those sectors

of

the

economy

which

traditionally

have

not

been

technology

or

knowledge

intensive

and

with

relatively

low

technical

skill

requirements

such as real estate development or rehabilitation, food retailing, craft manufacture and sale, tourism and

particularly eco-tourism and so on. Most regions and communities with a strong interest in CED have

been low income, with low skill levels, and little technology or training infra-structure. They have been

ill-equipped to take leading edge advantage of the development of technology opportunities and have

been

.

5

4

In many cases the Internet has come to be a central element in certain areas of social development and