Electronic Commerce

Electronic commerce is the set of products and processes facilitating the secure purchase of goods and services over the Web, including such functions as:

• Advertising
• Marketing
• Shopping
• Purchasing
• Paying
• Shipping/delivery

e-commerce is a special case of online interaction between users and businesses where products are sold through a catalog using such components as a shopping cart or wallet. The pattern can also include links to back-end systems that provide inventory updates, order processing, delivery systems, and credit checking.

e-commerce solutions allow enterprises to reach new customers and manage transactions electronically. Consumers can purchase with confidence, knowing their transactions are secure and their privacy is protected.

Electronic Commerce as a Composite pattern

As shown in the figure above, the Composite pattern for an Electronic Commerce solution will consist of the following mandatory patterns:

• A Self-Service business pattern which provides customers access to Web site functions such as browsing the catalog, placing an order, making a payment and so on
• An Information Aggregation pattern which is used to present information from multiple sources using a unified catalog of items
• An Application Integration pattern that is used to combine the Self-Service pattern and the Information Aggregation pattern to provide a unified solution to the customer and provides a Population application pattern to populate the catalog.

Additionally, Electronic Commerce solutions can have several variants that optionally include the following patterns:

• An Access Integration pattern that provides for more sophisticated functions aimed at increasing the user-friendliness of the site such as personalization and pervasive device access
• A Collaboration business pattern that provides functions such as automatic order confirmation through e-mail or online chat capabilities with customer service representatives
• An Extended Enterprise pattern that can be used to implement a direct connection with a shipping company that is used to ship the order to the customer

For an example of a variant of the Electronic Commerce composite pattern which exploits many of these optional patterns review the Pervasive Commerce Portal composite pattern.

e-commerce Examples

Online retail industry:

• Consumers purchasing goods
• Buyers purchasing goods from a supplier
• Company employees purchasing goods on behalf of their customers
  (for example, consumers ordering goods through a call center employee who is using an online buying system)

If you've determined that the Electronic Commerce composite pattern can provide an appropriate solution design for your business need, the next step is to select an Electronic Commerce application pattern. The Electronic Commerce composite pattern can be implemented using either of two Application patterns, providing solution flexibility so that the determined pattern can address the specific needs of the business process being automated.

If the Electronic Commerce composite pattern is not appropriate for your development efforts, review the Business patterns to determine which pattern best addresses your e-business needs.

• Updated Electronic Commerce composite pattern

  Updated: 12-17-2004
  The Pervasive Commerce Portal composite pattern has been documented as a variation of the Electronic Commerce composite pattern.

• Feasibility:
  This material will help you determine the high-level shape of an Extended Enterprise solution, and can ensure your approach looks similar to other successful implementations. Reuse of prior approaches can be an effective way to begin most major projects. Obviously, modifications will be needed for any unique requirements of a given set of partners. This pattern provides a drill-down from high-level architecture to low-level designs and guidance.

• Risk:
  Basing new projects on prior designs and ideas helps to lower the risk of failure. Creating or inventing approaches for each project tends to result in a lower success rate. Frequently, projects begun "from scratch" simply do not work and have major exposures in such areas as security, performance, availability, undefined requirements, and cost overrun.

• Cost-benefit:
  By starting with reasonably complete architecture you can save considerable development time and can obtain assurance that the end solution will have a much higher chance of success. Actual savings will vary, but project teams have realized a 10% to 50% reduction of work effort in their design and architecture phases alone.