eCommerce Dictionary: words and phrases
This page allows you to find words, phrases and acronyms related to technology and eCommerce.
We provide this facility here to assist you in research and to provide explanations of words and phrases that may be unknown or unfamiliar to you
yet may be influential or critical to making important business or financial decisions.
Type a word, acronym or phrase in the search box below to find matches or click Show all phrases to see all current eCommerce related phrase entries.
45 results for "Commerce"| Phrase | Description |
|---|---|
| Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce | A group set up by the U.S. Congress under the Internet Tax Freedom Act of 1998 to recommend a plan for taxing sales made over the Internet. |
| audit trail | Information on the significant steps in the progress of a transaction which allows an auditor to determine that there are no errors in the reporting of the transaction. In electronic commerce a good audit trail can help resolve programming errors and discrepancies in the how a transaction is recorded by the parties to the transaction. |
| B2B eCommerce | Business to Business transactions through the Internet |
| B2C eCommerce | Business to Consumers (retail) transactions through the Internet |
| click-through rate | The percent of individuals viewing a Web page who click on a specific banner ad appearing on the page. Overall click-through rates have declined substantially since the early days of electronic commerce on the Web. |
| Commerce Server | The server that manages and maintains all transactional and backend data for a commerce website. |
| Community | In the context of the Internet and electronic commerce, people who participate in a online discussion group or bulletin board, or who return frequently to a Web site because of a common interest in a given subject. One business strategy developing on the Internet is to create a community and then sell access to the group for marketing purposes. (See bulletin board system in the hard copy dictionary.) |
| Contextual Marketing | Contextual Marketing is becoming more popular with increasing use of search engine marketing, and will only gain greater strength with the evolution of wireless marketing (m-commerce). Wireless marketing will take advantage of knowing where the consumer is located using GPS. This can then translate into marketing messages that have direct relevance to the consumer as the messages relate to the context of the consumer at the point in time they are being delivered. |
| Cyberspace | The internet may be considered as an imaginary area without limits within which people can communicate with each other, conduct research and shop in e-commerce stores. |
| Digital signature | A digital code attached to an electronically transmitted message to identify the sender. A digital signature uses an algorithm with two different but mathematically related cryptographic keys: one key for creating a digital signature or transforming data into a seemingly unintelligible form, and the other key for verifying a digital signature or returning the message to its original form. Like a written signature, the purpose of a digital signature is to authenticate the sender of the message and plays an important role in e-commerce. |
| directory service markup language (DSML) | A language which allows XML enabled applications, particularly electronic commerce applications, to share information from a variety of directories without knowing the specific data formats for each vendor's directory. The language extends the LDAP (lightweight directory access protocol) to Web applications. |
| distribution channel | A method by which a manufacturer or software developer delivers its goods to customers and receives payment in return. A direct channel, whereby the company transacts business with its customers with no intermediaries, is common in business-to-business commerce and in catalog sales, direct mail, or telemarketing to consumers. Indirect channels may use any variety of distributors, resellers, retailers, agents, or other intermediaries. In many indirect channels the goods are marketed using the brand of the manufacturer while sales, installation, service, and customer support are provided by an intermediary. In the original equipment manufacture (OEM) channel the product often takes on a brand owned by the intermediary and often becomes part of a more comprehensive offering by the intermediary. By making it easy for customers to find and do business with manufacturers, electronic commerce often makes a direct channel more cost effective for the manufacturer than it had previously been. See channel conflict. |
| Distribution Channel | The method through which a product is sold including retailers, catalogers, internet commerce websites, etc. |
| DNS parking | A service provided by web hosts which secures domain names for future use by the web hosts' customers. Other companies or individuals cannot, therefore, register for that same domain names. e-Commerce hosting providers usually include this service free of charge. |
| Domain Name | A plain-language name for a web a site. This is translated into an internet protocol number that is used to locate and access the site on the internet. A domain name (also known as a host name) is an alphanumeric name that identifies a computer on the internet. While it is possible to reach computers on the internet by using the IP address, IP addresses are not easy to remember. Domain names provide an easily referenced way of reaching remote computers. pureCommerce.com is a domain name |
| E-Commerce | Business conducted exclusively through an electronic format. E-commerce refers to all forms of business activities conducted across the internet. This can include E-tailing, B2B, intranets and extranets, online advertising, and simply online presences of any form that are used for some type of communication (customer service for example). |
| E-tailing | E-tailing refers to retailing over the internet. Thus an e-tailer is a B2C business that executes a transaction with the final consumer. E-tailers can be pure play businesses like Amazon.com or businesses that have evolved from a legacy business, Tesco.com. E-tailing is a subset of e-commerce. |
| Filter | A program that accepts a certain type of data as input, transforms it in someway and then outputs the transformed data. For example, a program that sorts names is a filter because it accepts the names in unsorted order, sorts them, and then outputs the sorted names. Utilities allowing the import or export of data are also sometimes referred to as filters. Asp e-Commerce solutions generally include a filter to block attacks. |
| hard copy | A physical document, usually text on paper. While additions to The Electronic Commerce Dictionary appear as soft copy in this Web page the original book is available only in hard copy. |
| IBEX | International Business Exchange. An online service that allows businesses to identify suppliers, make and receive bids, negotiate contracts, and arrange the delivery of goods and services world-wide. A company may post its requirements and receive bids without revealing its identity. IBEX is a joint effort of AT&T, Dun & Bradstreet, General Electric, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It is scheduled for availability in 1996. |
| Identity Thef | dentity theft refers to the stealing of information about a person that allows a second person to assume the identity of the first. Essentially this only requires knowledge of very limited information, including a social security number. While most Identity Theft still occurs through traditional means of scouring house hold waste materials, the threat of theft over the internet is a concern for e-commerce. It can occur as data is in transit (for a transaction) or data that is stored on a company's site, that is stolen, or from phishing activities. Theft can also occur via google hacking (i.e. documents that are available on the internet that should not be available, but are easily found via the search engines.) Identity theft is a major concern for privacy advocates. |
| Inflection year | The point at which the infrastructure for e-commerce has been established, and the market starts to take rapid advantage of it. Posited by e-commerce analysts to be 2000. |
| Infrastructure | The hardware and software necessary for e-commerce transactions to take place. |
| Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) | An association of companies that advertise on the Internet. Key activities include establishing terminology and standards for measuring advertising, conducting research relevant to electronic commerce and advertising, and addressing industry issues such as privacy and taxation. |
| Internet Tax Freedom Act of 1998. | A law passed by the U.S. Congress that placed a three-year moratorium on new taxes on Internet access fees and prohibited multiple and discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce. The Internet appears likely to drive a major simplification of the sales tax laws which vary greatly between different states and local governments across the country. The act also set up the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce |
| IPO | Initial Public Offering (IPO) refers to the offering of stock in a company to the public through a public market. NASDAQ is a popular market for e-commerce related companies. The IPO of a company serves as a significant liquidity opportunity for early investors, including founders and the Venture Capital investors. |
| J2EE | The Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) defines the standard for developing multitier enterprise applications. J2EE simplifies enterprise applications by basing them on standardized, modular components, by providing a complete set of services to those components, and by handling many details of application behavior automatically, without complex programming. The Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition, takes advantage of many features of the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition, such as "Write Once, Run Anywhere" portability, JDBC API for database access, CORBA technology for interaction with existing enterprise resources, and a security model that protects data even in internet applications. Building on this base, Java 2 Enterprise Edition adds full support for Enterprise JavaBeans components, Java Servlets API, JavaServer Pages and XML technology. The J2EE standard includes complete specifications and compliance tests to ensure portability of applications across the wide range of existing enterprise systems capable of supporting J2EE. Code9 has written several e-Commerce Software solutions in J2ee. |
| M-Commerce | M-Commerce (Mobile Commerce) refers to access to the internet via a mobile device, such as a cell phone or a PDA. Once m-commerce becomes ubiquitous (it has greater rates of acceptance in places like Europe and Japan than it does in the US due to standards that have developed (Japan the standard is I-mode, in europe is WAP), it will change the utility of the web from a business standpoint. Contextual Marketing, the ability to communicate with a person when the person is likely to be receptive to the communication, will further evolve, due to the mobility of access versus a PC. GPS is used to identify where someone is located. SMS is the messaging system across mobile devises that complements m-commerce. |
| Mail server | A computer in a network providing post office facilities. It stores incoming mail for distribution to users and forwards outgoing mail through the appropriate channel. The term may also be used to refer to e-commerce software or Shopping Carts that performs this service which resides on a machine with other services. |
| NEAC | The National Electronic Authentication Council facilitates the uptake by consumers and business of authentication and e-commerce technologies. It aims at bringing about quality labels to best practice organisations and systems, endorsing industry developed codes of practice, recognising relevant shopping carts industry standards, and raising awareness of authentication technologies. |
| Newsgroup | A message board on the internet. Also known as e-commerce internet discussion groups. They begin by one member posting an initial query or comment to which other members reply. The discussion forms a chain of related postings called a message thread. |
| PKI Public Key Infrastructure | A set of independent services to be developed by competing organizations that will support the use of Public Key in information security applications as well as in electronic commerce. The PKI will determine the policies for issuance of digital certificates, will issue and revoke certificates, and will save the information needed to subsequently validate the certificates. It will include certificate authorities organized both in hierarchies and in peer-to-peer networks. (See Public Key Cryptography, digital certificates, and certificate authority in the hard copy dictionary.) |
| Platform | The web site on which e-commerce transactions occur |
| PTAL | Payment Transaction Application Layer. An open standard developed in part by CommerceNet (which see in the hard copy dictionary) which allows merchants to accept any type of electronic payment over the Internet. |
| Query | Request for information, usually from a search engine. Such as when requesting information about a product in an e-commerce store. |
| Security | Safety. This can apply to various aspects of an e-commerce transaction including anonymity, encrypted information, contract commitment, and responsible care compliance. |
| SMS | sms] SMS refers to the standard adopted for text messaging via a cell phone. This allows people on separate networks to send text messages across networks. SMS supplements standards being developed for m-commerce. |
| Software licensing | This allows individuals or groups to use a software application (such as an ecommerce software). Some software licenses may allow programs to be used on different computers but not simultaneously. However, most licenses only allow the individual to use the program on one computer. Usually, copies of the software cannot be made other than for backup purposes. |
| STC Secure Transaction Channel | A patent-pending technology from V-One corporation which uses an "out of band" end-to-end security method with DES and RSA public key cryptography to conceal and transmit transaction data to credit card processors over the Internet. STC reduces the risk of merchant fraud by not allowing the merchant to view in plain text any of the financial data contained in the encrypted envelope sent by the purchaser. The data is decrypted at a decryption server used by the merchant bank or credit card processor. The U.S. Departments of State and Commerce have granted export approval to STC. See CyberWallet. |
| TACDFIPSFKMI | Technical Advisory Committee to Develop a Federal Information Processing Standard for Federal Key Infrastructure A committee established by the Secretary of Commerce to develop guidelines and technical standards for key recovery. The committee consists of twenty-four private sector cryptography experts and is assisted by government advisors. |
| Third party platform | A third party platform is an independent entity, set up by a company that is not selling chemicals in which it has a proprietary interest. Alternatively, e-commerce can be conducted through a chemical supplier's own web site. |
| Transaction system | The way in which one buys/sells chemicals – by phone, fax, e-mail, e-commerce, sales meeting, etc. |
| UNCID Uniform Rules of Conduct for Interchange of Trade Data by Teletransmission. | A set of voluntary guidelines published by the International Chamber of Commerce for the use of EDI and particularly EDIFACT (which see in the hard copy dictionary). |
| Uniform Resource Locator (URL) | The global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web. The first part of the address indicates what protocol to use, and the second part specifies the IP address or domain name where the resource is located. Example: pureCommerce e-Commerce Software url is http://www.purecommerce.com |
| Viral marketing | Any marketing techniques that induce the spreading of files, especially digitised materials over the Internet, between and among consumers, which increases the market reach of products without significant additional marketing costs. Code9 Software is knowledable in these types of marketing campaigns and offers e-commerce software for these purposes. |
