Why E-commerce?

By Liam Snape

Benefits of E-commerceGlobal Marketplace

P2

The global marketplace is where people from all around the world can buy things from your E-commerce site, once people start to buy products from your site from all around the world that’s when you begin to build a global marketplace.

Benefits of E-commerce24/7 Trading

P2

The benefits of 24/7 is that you can purchase items from anywhere at any time meaning you can order something to your home address and have it delivered there in a few days with no closing time so if you are nocturnal you can lead a somewhat normal life, well close to one anyway.

Benefits of E-commerceLow Start -up & Running Costs

P2

The fact that it is based off of the internet means you don’t have to ire much staff to keep it running you can hire 4 or 5 or maybe a few more to run the website and then hire a couple of drivers unless you are going to use a third party courier company in order to deliver all of your packages and then just pay for the server.

Benefits of E-commerceSearch Facilities

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The fact that you can search to see whether the item you want is in stock or not is a great convenience tool and will make people more happy because you have saved them some time by allowing them to have sifted through some of the guff and gotten straight to it therefore allowing them to make a purchase quicker and heightening the chances of them telling others about you.

Benefits of E-commerceFluid Pricing

P2

Fluid pricing is the ability to modify the prices based off of supply and demand meaning if demand is high you can either raise the prices and when demand is low you can lower the prices meaning if you wait a while you can always get that nice garden decoration that you always wanted for a good price as long as demand goes low enough.

Consumer trust • consumer trust is a hard thing to build in conventional shops so imagine

how harder it is to build it in a shop that you never actually visit a shop meaning no human interaction whatsoever just browsing and purchase no people to explain something you are unsure about, there are no cashier’s meaning the whole place feels very robotic and without a soul that on top of the fact you hear stories about websites like this conning people into buying things they wouldn’t normally buy or having them steal your bank details and what not.

• And then once you have gained a level of consumer trust its hard to keep as its lost easier then it is gained say if you’re delivery goes wrong or they ship you the wrong item, these can impact consumer trust in a big way.

Lack of human contact• The lack of human contact is a god send for people like me, but for people

in the older generations it probably feels like an empty way to buy things without a personality and leaving it quite soulless, some people prefer to have people around to ask to explain a product to them and some people want to go to a till before they leave because its what they are used to and people prefer to do something that they understand rather then venture into something new, it was hard enough trying to get my mum to trust Amazon.

• Personally I prefer the lack of contact, it makes the whole thing quicker and removes many barriers that would otherwise the process down but on a whole i can also see why people would not like this.

Product description problems• If there is a product description problem that’s the fault of the staff who

research and run the website from the HQ so to speak.• It is up to them to keep the information up to date and correct because if

the customer can find what the product is before you can they are probably going to think that you are not running a business as good as you could be

The TechnologyBrowsers

Web Authoring Software

P1

Browsers allow the user to view different pages of the site and to see special offers and allow them to purchase things via the internet.

This is the type of software used to create websites like e-commerce ones and it can be modified in special software that allow people to create websites in a slideshow like fashion or to create them in an HTML format.

The TechnologyDatabase systems

IP addresses

P1

The database system is where they keep track of there products and how they remember who you are e.g. Your email and your personal home address to save you from having to type it in each time you order something but when it comes to keeping stock its as simple as just checking what where and how many there is.

Each computer has a unique IP address and that is to make sure that the information goes to the right place instead ending up somewhere it shouldn’t.

The TechnologyDomain Names

Multiple Domain Registration

P1

The domain name is the virtual address(es) of your website by typing these into your search engine or your address bar it will take you to the desired website e.g. Amazon.com

you may have more than one that all take you to the same place just in case somebody makes a mistake while typing e.g. Amazoon will probably take you amazon.com

The TechnologyPorts & Protocols

Browser & Platform Compatibility

P1

Ports & protocols act as a form of security and defence from malicious software like viruses, key loggers and spyware if t wasn’t for all the ports and protocols then the website would become infected and littered with these and once you log onto the website so would computer become infected after having downloaded some cookies from the site, protocols are a way communicating, lets say if two people are in a debate and they do not agree on something most of the time it becomes impossible to see that persons side of the argument and that is what a protocol is, if two computers don’t sing the same tune they don’t communicate.

To reach the most possible users the website has to be compatible with the most browsers and browser types possible because by not doing that they are losing out on a considerable amount of people.

PromotionPaying to be prominent in search engine results

M1

Companies can pay search engines like Google to appear in the top of the search rankings meaning that people will see there website quicker.By doing this they can ensure that more people discover there website at a faster rate because people will not have to search through pages and pages of results to find them.It acts as a form of advertisement (promotion)

Advantages- people will find your website quicker and easier.

Disadvantage- it goes to the highest bidder meaning if someone bids higher then you, then you are going below them in the search ranking…simple.

PromotionNewsgroups & Forums

M1

A newsgroup/Forum is a place on the internet where people come to have a moan and a whine but also to speak about certain services and how they could be improved and to often get into conversations.

Although if the newsgroup/forum is an official one instead of a third party one there is a slight chance that the comments read on the website are going to biased and censored where as most unofficial ones like IGN tend to be biased because they are paid to give good reviews.

The advantages of this- is that you can get the opinions of other people before you yourself go to buy a product.

The disadvantages is that- a lot of the websites that are newsgroups and or forums are mostly biased in order to get a true opinion you must find people who have promised to avoid the greed of the corporate machine.

PromotionBanners & Pop-ups

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Now everybody hates pop-ups so I would suggest staying away from those but a banner people don’t mind as long as it doesn’t get intrusive of what they are trying to look at, at least I don’t anyway but what I'm saying here is that people hate nothing more than something that just slows them down when it comes to doing what they set out to do.

The disadvantage of these is that people just don’t trust them as for many years story’s have gotten around over viruses getting on and destroying entire systems from the inside out.

Most of these banners cause popups to happen from completely unrelated websites to the banner that was clicked and then those continue to give you viruses.

Advantages- it acts as a form of advertisement for the people who look around even if they don’t click it, so regardless of clicks you are still making a name for your product.

PromotionSpam

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Spam is just a great way to get people to ignore you because we all know that nobody ever achieved anything by forcing themselves in peoples face...well apart from getting a punch in the face but anyway spam does nothing but help increase the distrust of whoever is receiving it towards the sender, “yes” they might have signed up to a newsletter but that does not mean spam them everyday with special offers maybe do it once a week in a condensed little bundle and them people wont mind it.

The disadvantages of spam- are that it causes a huge amount of distrust between the person sending the email and the person trying to increase there brand awareness.

The advantages- it allows you to get word out about your product at a much faster rate despite it causing slight irritation to the people receiving it.

PromotionEnsuring An Effective User Interface

M1

Ensuring an effective user interface is not hard, as long as it is easy to use and easy to understand and to interpret the users will have no qualms in telling other people about you whereas if your User Interface is hard to use and hard to understand people will not feel very satisfied after having used your service.

The advantages of having a good user interface- from having a good UI that is quick responsive and easy to use people are more likely to recommend your website to other people.

The disadvantage- if it is a bad UI word will spread and people will avoid you like a new plague has just struck.

PromotionEstablishing Customer loyalty in a virtual environment

M1

Establishing customer loyalty is a hard thing to do you can force is by having things like gift cards that can only be spent at that certain website but to end up building up that kind of customer/provider relationship you will have to have built up a certain amount of consumer trust to the point where they don’t want to shop anywhere else because they think that they don’t do as good of a job at providing a service as you do

The advantages- customer loyalty is better than having more customers by a slight margin because it means they will advertise you via word of mouth and that you are more capable of milking for every penny they have.

Disadvantage- annoy them or have something go wrong then they will lose all faith in you and probably never return.

PromotionSite Names

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Your site name cant be similar then a site that is already out there because if it is people will think you are just ripping off that website but if you make it different enough to the point that people remember it then you have completed the first step also remember to make the site name simple because if you have a really long winded website name, the chances of them making a mistake while typing it increases.

Advantage- having an unoriginal and small site name increases the percentage that people will remember it and when needed can recommend it correctly.

Disadvantage- having a long winded and original name will just come across as another generic name and will likely get you ignored.

PromotionDirect Marketing

M1

You can do things like marketing through other websites like YouTube or through search engines like Google either way its a way of popping up on everyone's radar or maybe even advertise yourself on a website like facebook because we all know that every mum on the planet is on that and you want them to buy as much stuff as you can get them to for there family and that because the more they buy the more advertisements you can afford to put up on search engines and websites.

Advantages- you can tailor your advertisements to a specific audience meaning you don’t have to spend more and then fall on deaf ears.

Disadvantage- get it wrong and then you have just wasted time and money on tailoring an advertisement to the wrong audience.

SecurityHacking

Hacking Prevention

P3, M2

To prevent things like hacking the website will have an algorithm or something dedicated o constantly changing the position of where a persons details are stored or whether it just acts as a wall that blocks anything that doesn’t quite fit into it, of course it will have to constantly have parts we-written as hackers find ways to get around it or have parts just shifted around in order to keep one up on the hackers.

Hacking is the act of a group of people dedicated to breaking through the websites security in the hope of either stealing some items or stealing somebody's personal details and using them to possibly commit identity fraud or to hold said person to blackmail or ransom.

SecurityViruses

Virus Prevention

P3, M2

These malicious software sent through the internet to the websites in question have to get through the security of the websites to actually do any damage but if they were to get through they would cause catastrophic damage to people that would end up receiving them in things like cookies and emails that contain phishing scams or they could change the website all together.

You an prevent virus’s getting through by having multiple firewalls you can slowly widdle down what virus’s that get through and then allow the protocol to deal with the final ones.

SecurityID Theft

ID Theft Protection

P3, M2

ID Theft is the act of somebody somehow getting hold of your personal information and then using for there own gain at the cost of your bank account balance.

To protect from such things websites should get there users to change there website regularly and have multiple email addresses set up to one account (one as the main one and one as the backup) along with several security questions.

SecurityStrong Passwords

P3

The reason strong passwords are encouraged is because there are people out there who have written and created programs for the sole purpose of trying to guess your password from an infinite amount of possibilities and sometimes just to try and brute force hack into it the longer more complicated the password the harder it will be to get into.

Evaluate Existing E-commerce

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Business Summary

Discuss: What business sells, Why they would have moved into e-commerce, Structure of website, Layout of products, Website security, Ease of use, Delivery options

For example I am going to use steam the digital distribution platform for gamers

They sell games at crazy discounts regardless of loyalty and how much you have bought beforehand.

Look at those for discounts. But look at how well the page is displayed, I can say that from personal experience this website is easy to us and easy to navigate, making the customer be satisfied by the service.

Evaluate Existing E-commerce

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Strengths

Weaknesses

Strengths- think about the benefits for this company when moving into e-commerce. Strengths of current site. Weaknesses- think about problems that may have had to overcome. Weaknesses of current site.

Its strengths are that the service is easy to use and very rarely fails meaning the customer is always left satisfied with the service delivered and is never left receiving something that is considered to be less than optimal which is more than can be said for company’s that provide the same kind of service.

You can only use the games bought from there if you are signed in and have an internet connection unless you set it to offline mode beforehand which does make those new to it rather frustrated or those who have no online connection for a few days.