Electronic commerce, also known as e-commerce, involves buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the internet. It allows consumers to shop online 24/7 from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Common forms of e-commerce include business-to-business transactions, online shopping sites, and online marketplaces where multiple sellers can list products. While e-commerce provides greater convenience and selection for consumers, it also poses risks such as online fraud that are less common with traditional in-person retail transactions.

1. CLIL
Classe V C
Anno scolastico 2015-2016

2. E- commerce
Online shopping
Business to
business
Online
marketplaces
Electronic data interchange
Using
demographic
data
Marketing
by e-mail
Launching
new products

3. Business
applications
Document Automation
Group buying
Payment systems
Print on demand
Automated online assistant
NewsgroupsOnline office suites
Shopping cart software
Teleconferencing
Electronic tickets
Social networking
Online banking
Instant messaging
Pretail
Digital wallet
Enterprice content
management

4. E-commerce
Electronic commerce, is trading in products or
services using computer networks, such as the
Internet.
Modern electronic commerce typically uses
the World Wide Web for at least one part of
the transaction's life cycle, although it may
also use other technologies such as e-mail.

5. Forms
• Contemporary electronic commerce involves
everything from ordering "digital" content for
immediate online consumption, to ordering
conventional goods and services, to "meta"
services to facilitate other types of electronic
commerce.
• On the institutional level, big corporations and
financial institutions use the internet to
exchange financial data to facilitate domestic
and international business. Data integrity and
security are pressing issues for electronic
commerce.

6. • Aside from traditional e-Commerce, the terms
m-Commerce (mobile commerce) as well
(around 2013) t-Commerce have also been
used.

7. Online shopping (known as e-tail from
"electronic retail" or e-shopping) is a form of
electronic commerce which allows consumers
to directly buy goods or services from a seller
over the Internet using a web browser.
Alternative names are: e-web-store, e-shop,
e-store, Internet shop, web-shop, web-store,
online store, online storefront and virtual
store. Mobile commerce (or m-commerce)
describes purchasing from an online retailer's
mobile optimized online site or app.
Online shopping

8. Online customers must have access to the
Internet and a valid method of payment in
order to complete a transaction.
Once a particular product has been found on
the website of the seller, most online retailers
use shopping cart software to allow the
consumer to accumulate multiple items and
to adjust quantities, like filling a physical
shopping cart or basket in a conventional
store.

9. A "checkout" process follows (continuing the
physical-store analogy) in which payment and
delivery information is collected, if necessary.
Some stores allow consumers to sign up for a
permanent online account so that some or all
of this information only needs to be entered
once. The consumer often receives an e-mail
confirmation once the transaction is
complete.

10. Product delivery
Once a payment has been accepted, the goods
or services can be delivered in the following
ways. For physical items:
• Shipping: The product is shipped to a
customer-designated address. Retail package
delivery is typically done by the public postal
system or a retail courier such as FedEx, UPS,
DHL, or TNT.

11. • Drop shipping: The order is passed to the
manufacturer or third-party distributor, who
then ships the item directly to the consumer,
bypassing the retailer's physical location to
save time, money, and space.
• In-store pick-up: The customer selects a local
store using a locator software and picks up the
delivered product at the selected location.

12. For digital items or tickets:
• Downloading/Digital distribution:
The method often used for digital media
products such as software, music, movies, or
images.
• Printing out, provision of a code for, or e-
mailing of such items as admission tickets and
scrip (e.g., gift certificates and coupons). The
tickets, codes, or coupons may be redeemed
at the appropriate physical or online premises
and their content reviewed to verify their
eligibility.

13. Shopping cart systems
Simple shopping cart systems allow the off-
line administration of products and categories.
The shop is then generated as HTML files and
graphics that can be uploaded to a webspace.
It is usually installed on the company's
webserver and may integrate into the existing
supply chain so that ordering, payment,
delivery, accounting and warehousing can be
automated to a large extent.

14. Other solutions allow the user to register and
create an online shop on a portal that hosts
multiple shops simultaneously from one back
office.
Commercial systems can also be tailored so
the shop does not have to be created from
scratch. By using an existing framework,
software modules for various functionalities
required by a web shop can be adapted and
combined.

15. Design
Customers are attracted to online shopping
not only because of high levels of
convenience, but also because of broader
selections, competitive pricing, and greater
access to information. Business organizations
seek to offer online shopping not only because
it is of much lower cost, but also because it
offers access to a worldwide market, increases
customer value, and builds sustainable
capabilities.

16. Advantages
Convenience
Online stores are usually available 24 hours a
day, and many consumers have Internet
access both at work and at home. Other
establishments such as internet cafes and
schools provide internet access as well. In
contrast, visiting a conventional retail store
requires travel and must take place during
business hours. In the event of a problem with
the item consumers are concerned with the
ease of returning an item in exchange for
either the correct product or a refund.

17. Disadvantages
Fraud and security concerns
Given the lack of ability to inspect
merchandise before purchase, consumers are
at higher risk of fraud than face-to-face
transactions. Merchants also risk fraudulent
purchases using stolen credit cards or
fraudulent repudiation of the online purchase.
However, merchants face less risk from
physical theft by using a warehouse instead of
a retail storefront.

18. An online marketplace (or online e-
commerce marketplace) is a type of e-
commerce site where product or service
information is provided by multiple third
parties, whereas transactions are processed
by the marketplace operator. Online
marketplaces are the primary type of
multichannel ecommerce.
Online marketplaces

19. In an online marketplace, consumer transactions
are processed by the marketplace operator and
then delivered and fulfilled by the participating
retailers or wholesalers (often called drop
shipping). Other capabilities might include
auctioning (forward or reverse), catalogs,
ordering, wanted advertisement, trading
exchange functionality.

20. In general, because marketplaces aggregate
products from a wide array of providers,
selection is usually more wide, availability is
higher, and prices are more competitive than
in vendor-specific online retail stores..
Since 2014, online marketplaces are abundant
since organized marketplaces are sought after.

21. Some have a wide variety of general interest
products that cater to almost all the needs of the
consumers, however, some are consumer specific
and cater to a particular segment only. Not only
is the platform for selling online, but the user
interface and user experience matters. People
tend to log on to online marketplaces that are
organized and products are much more
accessible to them.
Examples of some online marketplaces are
Amazon.com, Alibaba, eBay.

22. Business to business
Business-to-business (B2B) refers to a
situation where one business makes a
commercial transaction with another.

23. This typically occurs when:
• A business is sourcing materials for their
production process, e.g. a food manufacturer
purchasing salt
• A business needs the services of another for
operational reasons, e.g. a food manufacturer
employing an accountancy firm to audit their
finances
• A business re-sells goods and services
produced by others, e.g. a retailer buying the
end product from the food manufacturer.

24. The overall volume of B2B transactions is much
higher than the volume of B2C transactions. The
primary reason for this is that in a typical supply
chain there will be many B2B transactions
involving sub components or raw materials, and
only one B2C transaction, specifically sale of the
finished product to the end customer. For
example, an automobile manufacturer makes
several B2B transactions such as buying tires, and
rubber hoses for its vehicles.
The final transaction, a finished vehicle sold to
the consumer, is a single (B2C) transaction.

25. Business to consumers
For consumer brands the buyer is an
individual.
While consumer goods usually cost little in
comparison to B2B goods, the selling process
involves high costs. Not only is it required to
meet the buyer numerous times, but the
buyer may ask for prototypes, samples and
mock ups. Such detailed assessment serves
the purpose of eliminating the risk of buying
the wrong product or service.

26. E-government
E-government (short for electronic government,
also known as e-gov, Internet government,
digital government, online government,
connected government) consists of the digital
interactions between a citizen and their
government (C2G), between governments and
government agencies (G2G), between
government and citizens (G2C), between
government and employees (G2E), and between
government and businesses/commerce (G2B).

27. Essentially, e-government delivery models can be
briefly summed up as (Jeong, 2007):
• G2G (government to governments)
• G2C (government to citizens)
• G2E (government to employees)
• G2B (government to businesses)
• This digital interaction consists of e-citizen at all
levels of government (city, state/province,
national, and
international), governance,information and
communication technology (ICT), and business
process re-engineering (BPR).

28. Electronic data interchange
Electronic data interchange (EDI) is an
electronic communication method that
provides standards for exchanging data via any
electronic means. By adhering to the same
standard, two different companies or
organizations, even in two different countries,
can electronically exchange documents (such
as purchase orders, invoices, shipping notices,
and many others).

29. EDI has existed for more than 30 years, and there
are many EDI standards (including X12, EDIFACT,
ODETTE, etc.), some of which address the needs
of specific industries or regions. It also refers
specifically to a family of standards. In 1996, the
National Institute of Standards and Technology
defined electronic data interchange as "the
computer-to-computer interchange of strictly
formatted messages that represent documents
other than monetary instruments.

30. EDI implies a sequence of messages between
two parties, either of whom may serve as
originator or recipient.
The formatted data representing the
documents may be transmitted from
originator to recipient via telecommunications
or physically transported on electronic storage
media."

31. It distinguishes mere electronic
communication or data exchange, specifying
that "in EDI, the usual processing of received
messages is by computer only. Human
intervention in the processing of a received
message is typically intended only for error
conditions, for quality review, and for special
situations.

32. Using demographic data
• The demographic data commonly found in
marketing databases falls into a few general
categories.
• Financial data: Household income is probably
the most widely used piece of financial data.
In the financial services sector, sometimes net
worth is more useful, although it’s typically
much harder to get at. Home value is another
common trait.

33. • Gender: Certain products are gender specific.
Gender is also used in selecting the so called
head of household. This is the person who
receives your marketing communication and is
considered to be the primary decision maker.
The world of marketing is not the world of
Beaver Cleaver, however. The head of
household is usually female.
• Lifestage data: Age, marital status, and
presence of children are all examples of
lifestage data. The number and ages of
children can also be important.

34. • Lifestyle data: Lifestyle data revolves around
consumption. Does the customer own or rent
their residence? How many cars, boats, TVs, or
motorcycles do they own?
• Geographic data: This essentially amounts to
the customer’s address. But there are some
standard ways of grouping addresses together.

35. Marketing by e-mail
• The E-mail marketing is a type of direct
marketing which uses electronic mail as a
means of communicating commercial
messages (or not) to the public.
In broad sense as any e-mail sent to a
customer (or potential customer), it can be
considered e-mail marketing.

36. • Usually, however, this term is used to refer to:
Sending e-mails with the intention of bringing
a more advanced level the relationship
between a company and its customers, past or
present, and to encourage their loyalty.
Sending e-mail with the intent to gain new
clients or convince those previous to buy
something immediately. Adding line items in
e-mails sent by other companies to their
customers.

37. • The companies, both in the US and in
European countries and in the emerging
economies, investing more and more
resources in e-mail marketing, which is often
used by public and non-profit.
In recent years, we are placing an ever greater
attention to the integration of e-mail
marketing with other management systems
(eg. CRM) and communication (eg. Social
media).

38. • The recent evolution is focusing more and
more on the quality of the contact (profiling
utilities, care of customer satisfaction),
compared to send bulk mail that had
characterized the early days of e-mail
marketing. Today, in fact, the abundant use of
electronic communications by commercial
companies, rejection phenomena caused by
users, so as to increase significantly the
phenomena of junk mail.

39. Launching new products
Introducing a new product into the market is a
significant business achievement. Launching
your new product is your final, important step
in the new product development (NPD)
process. Deciding when, how and where to
launch your product will determine its early
impact on the market. Your marketing strategy
and marketing plan will direct your product
launch and help you make the most of your
business and product exposure opportunities.

40. Document automation
Document automation (also known as
document assembly) is the design of systems
and workflows that assist in the creation of
electronic documents. These include logic-
based systems that use segments of pre-
existing text and/or data to assemble a new
document. This process is increasingly used
within certain industries to assemble legal
documents, contracts and letters.

41. Document automation systems can also be
used to automate all conditional text, variable
text, and data contained within a set of
documents.
Automation systems allow companies to
minimize data entry, reduce the time spent
proof-reading, and reduce the risks associated
with human error. Additional benefits include:
time and financial savings due to decreased
paper handling, document loading, storage,
distribution, postage/shipping, faxes,
telephone, labor and waste.

42. Payment systems
A payment system is any system used to
settle financial transactions through the
transfer of monetary value, and includes the
institutions, instruments, people, rules,
procedures, standards, and technologies that
make such an exchange possible. A common
type of payment system is the operational
network that links bank accounts and provides
for monetary exchange using bank deposits.

43. What makes a payment system a system is the
use of cash-substitutes; traditional payment
systems are negotiable instruments such as
drafts (checks) and documentary credits such
as letters of credit. With the advent of
computers and electronic communications a
large number of alternative electronic
payment systems have emerged.
These include debit cards, credit cards,
electronic funds transfers, direct credits, direct
debits, internet banking and e-commerce
payment systems.

44. Enterprice content management
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is a
formalized means of organizing and storing an
organization's documents, and other content,
that relate to the organization's processes.
The term encompasses strategies, methods,
and tools used throughout the lifecycle of the
content. The Association for Information and
Image Management (AIIM) International, the
worldwide association for Enterprise Content
Management, defined the term in 2000.

45. AIIM has refined the abbreviation ECM several
times to reflect the expanding scope and
importance of information management. The
latest definition encompasses areas that have
traditionally been addressed by records
management and document management
systems. It also includes the conversion of
data between various digital and traditional
forms, including paper and microfilm.

46. ECM is an umbrella term covering document
management, Web content management,
search, collaboration, records management,
digital asset management (DAM), workflow
management, capture and scanning. ECM is
primarily aimed at managing the life-cycle of
information from initial publication or creation
all the way through archival and eventually
disposal.

47. ECM applications are delivered in three ways:
on-premises software (installed on the
organization’s own network), software as a
service (SaaS) (Web access to information that
is stored on the software manufacturer’s
system), or a hybrid solution composed of
both on-premises and SaaS components.

48. ECM aims to make the management of
corporate information easier through
simplifying storage, security, version control,
process routing, and retention. The benefits to
an organization include improved efficiency,
better control, and reduced costs. For
example, many banks have converted to
storing copies of old checks within ECM
systems as opposed to the older method of
keeping physical checks in massive paper
warehouses.

49. Under the old system, a customer request for
a copy of a check might take weeks, as the
bank employees had to contact the
warehouse where the right box, file, and
check, would need to be located. The check
would then need to be pulled, a copy made
and mailed to the bank where it would finally
be mailed to the customer.

50. With an ECM system in place, the bank
employee simply queries the system for the
customer’s account number and the number
of the requested check. When the image of
the check appears on screen, the bank is able
to mail it immediately to the customer, usually
while the customer is still on the phone.

51. Group buying, also known as collective
buying, offers products and services at
significantly reduced prices on the condition
that a minimum number of buyers would
make the purchase. Origins of group buying
can be traced to China where team buying
was executed to get discount prices from
retailer when a large group of people was
willing to buy the same item.
Group buyng

52. In recent times, group buying websites have
emerged as a major player in online shopping
business. Typically, these websites feature a
"deal of the day", with the deal kicking in once
a set number of people agree to buy the
product or service. Buyers then print off a
voucher to claim their discount at the retailer.
Many of the group-buying sites work by
negotiating deals with local merchants and
promising to deliver a higher foot count in
exchange for better prices.

53. Print on demand
Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology
and business process in which copies of a book
(or other document) are not printed until an
order has been received, allowing books to be
printed singly, or in small quantities. While
build to order has been an established business
model in many other industries, "print on
demand" developed only after digital printing
began, because it was not economical to print
single copies using traditional printing
technology such as letterpress and offset
printing.

54. Many traditional small presses have replaced
their traditional printing equipment with POD
equipment or contract their printing out to
POD service providers. Many academic
publishers, including university presses, use
POD services to maintain a large backlist;
some even use POD for all of their
publications. Larger publishers may use POD
in special circumstances, such as reprinting
older titles that are out of print or for
performing test marketing.

55. Book publishing
Print on demand with digital technology is
used as a way of printing items for a fixed cost
per copy, regardless of the size of the order.
While the unit price of each physical copy
printed is higher than with offset printing, the
average cost is lower for very small print runs,
because setup costs are much higher for offset
printing.

56. POD has other business benefits besides
lower costs (for small runs):
• Technical set-up is usually quicker than for
offset printing.
• Large inventories of a book or print material
do not need to be kept in stock, reducing
storage, handling costs, and inventory
accounting costs.
• There is little or no waste from unsold
products.

57. • These advantages reduce the risks associated
with publishing books and prints and can lead
to increased choice for consumers. However,
the reduced risks for the publisher can also
mean that quality control is less rigorous than
usual.

58. Other publishing
• Digital technology is ideally suited to publish
small print runs of posters (often as a single
copy) when they are needed. The introduction
of UV-curable inks and media for large format
inkjet printers has allowed artists,
photographers and owners of image
collections to take advantage of print on
demand. For example, the National Gallery,
London installed a print on demand system in
July 2003. The system increased the number
of images available as prints from 60 to 2,500.

59. • Some companies specialize in POD booklets,
catalogs, or magazines. It is not yet
commercially viable for single copies on
newsprint or newspapers.

60. Service providers
The introduction of POD technologies and
business-models has fueled a range of new
book-creation and publishing opportunities.
The innovation in this space is currently
clustered around three categories of offerings.

61. Automated online assistant
An automated online assistant is a program
that uses artificial intelligence to provide
customer service or other assistance on a
website. Such an assistant may basically
consist of a dialog system, an avatar, as well an
expert system to provide specific expertise to
the user. Automated online assistants have
the ability to provide customer service during
24 hours a day and 7 days a week, and may, at
least, be a complement to customer service by
humans.

62. One report estimated that an automated
online assistant produced a 30% decrease in
the work-load for a human-provided call
centre.
Usage
Large companies such as Lloyds Banking
Group and Royal Bank of Scotland are now
using automated online assistants instead of
call centres with humans to provide a first
point of contact. Also, IKEA has an automated
online assistant in their help center.

63. Components
Dialog system
The main function of the dialog system of
automated online assistants is to translate the
human-generated input into a digital format
that the automated online assistant can use for
further processing by its expert system, as well
as interpret whatever solutions or replies it
generates back to what a human user
understands, and optimally in a way as natural
and user-friendly as possible. A major
underlying technology to such systems is
natural language processing.

64. Avatar
The avatar of an automated online assistant
may be called an interactive online character
or automated character. It makes the
automated online assistant a form of
embodied agent. It aims to enhance human-
computer interaction by simulating real-world
conversations and experience. Such an
interaction model can be constructed to guide
conversations in planned directions or allow
characters to guide natural language
exchanges.

65. Other components
An automated online assistant also has an
expert system that provides specific service,
whose scope depends on the purpose of it.
This system can be described as an intelligent
agent that functions to perceive the needs of
customers in order to perform proper
reactions by various structured systems, such
as question answering. Also, servers and other
maintaining systems to keep the automated
assistant online may also be regarded as
components of it.

66. Newsgroups
A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually
within the Usenet system, for messages
posted from many users in different locations.
Despite the name, newsgroups are discussion
groups, and are not devoted to publishing
news. Newsgroups are technically distinct
from, but functionally similar to, discussion
forums on the World Wide Web. Newsreader
software is used to read newsgroups.

67. Before the uptake of the World Wide Web,
Usenet newsgroups were among the most
popular internet services, and have retained
their noncommercial nature in contrast to the
increasingly ad-laden web. In recent years,
this form of open discussion on the Internet
has lost considerable ground to individually-
operated browser-accessible forums and big
media social networks such as Facebook and
Twitter.

68. Online banking
Online banking is an electronic payment system
that enables customers of a financial institution to
conduct financial transactions on a website
operated by the institution, such as a retail bank,
virtual bank, credit union or building society.
Online banking is also referred as internet
banking, e-banking, virtual banking and by other
terms. To access a financial institution's online
banking facility, a customer with Internet access
would need to register with the institution for the
service, and set up a password and other
credentials for customer verification.

69. The credentials for online banking is normally
not the same as for telephone banking.
Financial institutions now routinely allocate
customers numbers, whether or not
customers have indicated an intention to
access their online banking facility.
Customers' numbers are normally not the
same as account numbers, because a number
of customer accounts can be linked to the one
customer number.

70. The customer number can be linked to any
account that the customer controls, such as
cheque, savings, loan, credit card and other
accounts. To access online banking, a
customer visits the financial institution's
secure website, and enters the online banking
facility using the customer number and
credentials previously setup. Online banking
services usually include viewing and
downloading balances and statements, and
may include the ability to initiate payments,
transfers and other transactions, as well as
interacting with the bank in other ways.

71. Online office suites
An online office suite or online productivity
suite is a type of office suite offered by
websites in the form of software as a service.
They can be accessed online from any
Internet-enabled device running any operating
system. This allows people to work together
worldwide and at any time, thereby leading to
international web-based collaboration and
virtual teamwork.

72. Usually, the basic versions are offered for free
and for more advanced versions one is
required to pay a nominal subscription fee.
Applications are often developed on the Web
2.0 paradigms with leverage on the existing
developer community. Players come from
both the commercial software market and
from the open source, free software
communities.

73. Shopping cart software
• In online marketing, a shopping cart is a piece
of e-commerce software on a web server that
allows visitors to an Internet site to select
items for eventual purchase, analogous to the
American English term "shopping cart.“
In British English, it is generally known as a
shopping basket, almost exclusively shortened
on websites to "basket."

74. • The software allows online shopping
customers to accumulate a list of items for
purchase, described metaphorically as
“placing items in the shopping cart” or “add to
cart.” Upon checkout, the software typically
calculates a total for the order, including
shipping and handling (i.e., postage and
packing) charges and the associated taxes, as
applicable.

75. Teleconferencing
A teleconference or teleseminar is the live
exchange and mass articulation of information
among several persons and machines remote
from one another but linked by a
telecommunications system. Terms such as
audio conferencing, telephone conferencing
and phone conferencing are also sometimes
used to refer to teleconferencing.

76. The telecommunications system may
support the teleconference by providing
one or more of the following: audio, video,
and/or data services by one or more means,
such as telephone, computer, telegraph,
teletypewriter, radio, and television.
Internet teleconferencing
Internet teleconferencing includes internet
telephone conferencing, videoconferencing,
web conferencing, and Augmented Reality
conferencing.

77. Internet telephony involves conducting a
teleconference over the Internet or a Wide
Area Network. One key technology in this area
is Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP). Popular
software for personal use includes Skype,
Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger and
Yahoo! Messenger.
A working example of an Augmented Reality
conferencing was demonstrated at the Salone
di Mobile in Milano by AR+RFID Lab. Is
another AR teleconferencing tool.

78. Electronic tickets
An electronic ticket is a digital ticket. The term
is most commonly associated with airline issued
tickets. Electronic ticketing for urban or rail
public transport is usually referred to as travel
card or transit pass. It is also used in ticketing in
the entertainment industry.
An electronic ticket system is a more efficient
method of ticket entry, processing and
marketing for companies in the railways, flight
and other transport and entertainment
industries.

79. Social networking
A social networking service (also social
networking site or SNS) is a platform to build
social networks or social relations among
people who share similar interests, activities,
backgrounds or real-life connections. A social
network service consists of a representation of
each user (often a profile), his or her social
links, and a variety of additional services.

80. Social network sites are web-based services
that allow individuals to create a public
profile, create a list of users with whom to
share connections, and view and cross the
connections within the system. Most social
network services are web-based and provide
means for users to interact over the Internet,
such as e-mail and instant messaging. Social
network sites are varied and they incorporate
new information and communication tools
such as mobile connectivity,
photo/video/sharing and blogging.

81. Online community services are sometimes
considered a social network service, though in
a broader sense, social network service
usually means an individual-centered service
whereas online community services are
group-centered. Social networking sites allow
users to share ideas, pictures, posts, activities,
events, and interests with people in their
network.

82. A social networking service (also social
networking site or SNS) is a platform to build
social networks or social relations among people
who share similar interests, activities,
backgrounds or real-life connections. A social
network service consists of a representation of
each user (often a profile), his or her social links,
and a variety of additional services. Social
network sites are web-based services that allow
individuals to create a public profile, create a list
of users with whom to share connections, and
view and cross the connections within the
system.

83. Most social network services are web-based and
provide means for users to interact over the
Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging.
Social network sites are varied and they
incorporate new information and communication
tools such as mobile connectivity,
photo/video/sharing and blogging. Online
community services are sometimes considered a
social network service, though in a broader
sense, social network service usually means an
individual-centered service whereas online
community services are group-centered.

84. Social networking sites allow users to share
ideas, pictures, posts, activities, events, and
interests with people in their network. The
main types of social networking services are
those that contain category places (such as
former school year or classmates), means to
connect with friends (usually with self-
description pages), and a recommendation
system linked to trust. Popular methods now
combine many of these, with American-based
services such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn,
and Twitter widely used worldwide.

85. Instant messaging
Instant messaging (IM) is a type of online chat
which offers real-time text transmission over
the Internet. A LAN messenger operates in a
similar way over a local area network. Short
messages are typically transmitted bi-
directionally between two parties, when each
user chooses to complete a thought and select
"send". Some IM applications can use push
technology to provide real-time text, which
transmits messages character by character, as
they are composed.

86. More advanced instant messaging can add file
transfer, clickable hyperlinks, Voice over IP, or
video chat. Non-IM types of chat include
multicast transmission, usually referred to as
"chat rooms", where participants might be
anonymous or might be previously known to
each other (for example collaborators on a
project that is using chat to facilitate
communication). Instant messaging systems
tend to facilitate connections between specified
known users (often using a contact list also
known as a "buddy list" or "friend list").

87. Pretail
Pretail (also referred to as pre-tail, pre-retail,
or pre-commerce) is a sub-category of e-
commerce and online retail for introducing
new products, services, and brands to market
by pre-launching online, sometimes as
reservations in limited quantity before
release, realization, or commercial availability.
Pretail includes pre-sale commerce, pre-order
retailers, incubation marketplaces, and
crowdfunding communities.

88. As of 2013, pretail was a fast growing trend
found in all areas of demand-based consumer
retail: consumer electronics, movies, music,
video games, books, fashion, software,
connected devices, cars, toys, cosmetics, art,
events, etc. This trend is being driven by
companies to enhance new product
development, better manage product
releases.

89. Digital wallet
A system that securely stores users' payment
information and passwords for numerous
payment methods and websites. By using a
digital wallet, users can complete purchases
easily and quickly with near-field
communications technology. They can also
create stronger passwords without worrying
about whether they will be able to remember
them later.

90. Digital wallets can be used in conjunction with
mobile payment systems that allow customers
to pay for purchases with their smart phones.
They can also be used to store loyalty card
information and digital coupons.