Building an E-commerce Presence: Web Sites, Mobile Sites, and Apps
Dec 21, 2015
Imagine E-commerce Presence
Vision
The Business
Target Audience
Marketplace
Content
SWOTAnalysis
PresenceMap
Timeline and Milestones
VISIONING PROCESS
Identification of:
Target audience
Market character
Strategic analysis
Internet marketing matrix
Development timeline
BUSINESS AND REVENUE MODEL Idea of the business
Revenue models
TARGET AUDIENCE Demographics
Behavior patterns (Lifestyles)
Current consumption patterns
Market conditions
Suppliers, competitors, and substitute products
Market shares of competitors
CHARACTERIZE THE MARKETPLACE
Helpful Harmful
Internal STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
External OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
SWOT ANALYSIS
E-COMMERCE PRESENCE MAP Develop the type of presence
Decide type of platform will be used
Activity depending on factors above
A Systematic Approach of Building an E-commerce
Making decision on the main area to build an e-commerce
Build the e-commerce Web sites using system development life cycle (SDLC) System analysis/planning System design Building the system Testing Implementation
Specifics business objectives for the sites
Develop a list of system functionalities and information requirements
SYSTEM ANALYSIS/PLANNING
SYSTEM DESIGN System design specification
Logical design
Physical design
BUILDING THE SYSTEMIN HOUSE OUTSOURCE
Positive Negative
Able to build the desired site
Difficult learning curve
Allow to change the site rapidly
Delay entry to the market
Positive Negative
Get into the market sooner
Taking long time to evaluate package
State-of-art software is well tested
More investment required to change the site
TESTING THE SYSTEM
Unit testing
System testing
Acceptance testing
IMPLEMENTATION AND MAINTENANCE
Begin the operational life of the system
Continuously maintain the site
Benchmark if necessary
Choosing Software and Hardware
SIMPLE VS MULTI-TIERED WEB SITE ARCHITECTURE
Web sites simply dilivered Web pages to users who were making request through their browsers for HTML pages with content of various sorts.
All e-commerce sites require basic Web server software to answer request from customers for HTML and XML pages.
Web server sofware is divided into:
Site management tools: essential to keep site working, and to understand how well it works.
Dynamic page generation tools: One of the most important innovations in Web site operation has been the development of dynamic page generation tools.
WEB SERVER SOFTWARE
Are software programs that provide the specific business functionality required of a Web site.
APPLICATION SERVERS
Online catalog: lists of the product available online
Shopping cart: allow shoppers to set aside desired purchased for checkout
Credits card processing: A site’s shopping cart typically works in conjunction with credit card processing software
E-COMMERCE MERCHANT SERVER SOFTWARE FUNCTIONALLY
MERCHANT SERVER SOFTWARE PACKAGES (E-COMMERCE SUITES)Choosing an E-commerce suits
Key factors to consider:
Functionality
Support for different business models
Business process modeling tools
Visual site management tools and reporting
Performance and scalability
Connectivity to existing business system
Compliance with standards
Global and multicultural capability
Local sales tax and shipping rules
While existing firms often have the financial capital to invest in commercial merchant server software suites, many small firms and start-up firms do not.
WEB SERVICES AND OPEN OPTIONS
Whether you host your own site or outsource the hosting and operation of your site, you’ll need to understand certain aspect of computing the hardware platform.
THE HARDWARE PLATFORM
The most important factor the speed of your site is the demand that customer put on the site.
RIGHT-SIZING HARWARE PLATFORM: THE DEMAND SIZE
RIGHT-SIZING HARDWARE PLATFORM: THE SUPPLY SIDE
Once you estimate the likely demand on your site, you’ll need to consider how to scale up your site to meet demand
DEVELOPING A MOBILE WEB SITE AND BUILDING MOBILE APPLICATIONS
• Mobile web site• Responsive web design
• Mobile web app• Native app
Planning and Building A Mobile Web Presence
Steps:•Identify the business objectives, system functionally, and information
requirements•Consider which to develop
Other E-commerce Site Tools
Web site design: Basic business considerationsEnabling customers to find and buy what they
need
Tools for Web site optimizationSearch engine placement
Metatags, titles, contentIdentify market niches, localize siteOffer expertiseLinksSearch engine adsLocal e-commerce
Tools for Interactivity and Active Content
CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
ASP (Active Server Pages)/ASP.NET
Java, JSP, and JavaScript
ActiveX and VBScript
ColdFusion
Web 2.0 design elements: Widgets, mashups
Personalization Tools
PersonalizationAbility to treat people based on personal qualities
and prior history with site
CustomizationAbility to change the product to better fit the
needs of the customer
Cookies Primary method to achieve personalization
The Information Policy Set
Privacy policy
Set of public statements declaring how site will treat customers’ personal information that is gathered by site
Accessibility rulesSet of design objectives that ensure disabled users
can affectively access site
DEVELOPING A MOBILE WEB SITE AND BUILDING MOBILE APPLICATIONS
• Mobile web site
• Responsive web design
• Mobile web app
• Native app
Planning and Building A Mobile Web PresenceSteps:
• Identify the business objectives, system functionally, and information requirements
• Consider which to develop
Mobile Web Presece: Design Considerations
Feature of Mobile Platform:
• Hardware
• Connectivity
• Displays
• Interface