Session Eleven Summary:
Electronic Commerce

A student in the class presented the practical side of electronic commerce by discussing his plans to devise and launch an Internet business. His intention is to establish a series of web sites that facilitate commerce between individual collectors of rare records and other collectibles. People interested in buying or selling an item would enter the particulars into a database that other potential sellers and buyers could search. In addition, he would act asgo-between once a potential buyer and seller had identified each other. The seller would ship her merchandise to him, and he would collect the purchase price (retaining a percentage for commission) after confirming that the merchandise was geniune and in good condition. The class was especially interested in his plan to set up chat rooms and bulletin boards on his site. His strategy is to attract traffic to the site by establishing a sense of community among site visitors.

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