E commerce

Thomas Carter

Global Marketplace

P2

The advantages of a global marketplace means that people all over the world want to buy stock. E-commerce means that you don’t have to go to the shops and buy items and that you can just buy them online and it can deliver worldwide. E-commerce is a quicker way of buying items online as it is quick. The use of ecommerce means that you can sell items all over the world.

24/7 Trading

P2

24/7 trading is one of the benefits of e-commerce as the shop would be selling stock at all times. This benefits customers that work later hours and don’t have time to do shopping 9-5. This would also help sales because of the time difference making it so they can buy stock and get it delivered across the world.

Low Start -up & Running Costs

P2

The low start up is a benefit of E-commerce as you don’t have to open a shop and all you have to do is buy the servers to create your shop online which will cost less overall as you wouldn’t have to pay rent as you would if you owned a shop. The running cost would not be a lot as if you owned a shop that would make money it would cost a lot on rent.

Search Facilities

P2

most e-commerce sites now have a search facility where it takes just seconds to find the product you want. If you were in desperate search for stock you could type in what you needed and it would relocate you to the shop means more traffic going to the website.

Fluid Pricing

P2

fluid pricing mean that the shops stock is in high demand the higher the prices will go, plus if the e-commerce website wants to sell off the stock the cheaper the items will become. Fluid pricing means that they will be making more money either way as if they become popular the prices rise and if they want to sell off the items the cheaper it will get.

Consumer Trust

The consumers trust between the company is key and to make a good relationship with the customer they must abide to the customers choice and be fair.

P2

Lack of Human Contact

P2

The lack of human contact puts the downside on the business as it makes the website seem less friendly and not too welcoming.On the positive side, the lack of human contact means the customer doesn’t have to go out to get the item and that it can be delivered to the users door.

Product Description Problems

P2

If the product is labelled incorrectly the consumer might be being buying the wrong item with bad reputation that will come with it as false advertising for items.If the item is wrongly bought and this is the companies fault it can be returned to seller so that is a positive, that you will be refunded.

Security issues

P2

The website must entail some security otherwise the firewall will be hacked with either Trojan or worm viruses entering the computer system leaving the shop unprotected and at risk. A good website would never fail to go down and will always be protected.If the shop is hacked that means that service cannot resume and you would be losing out on profit.

Browsers

Web Authoring Software

P1

Browsers allow you to view websites posted on the internet. They normally need interaction by the user so they can be directed to the correct page.The features of the browser are toolbar Icons, Display Window, Scroll Bars. Typically well known browsers are Google chrome and internet explorer.

Web authoring software is typically written in HTML code and it is when the users want to create web pages and this software can enable the users to do so.The web authoring software essentially writes out the homepage and gives the user the HTML code to design it.Adobe Dreamweaver is an example of web authoring software as the program teaches you to design a webpage and how to make your online website to look professional.

Database systems

IP addresses

P1

E-commerce websites generally have a database that the user of the website can scan through to see all the different products.Amazon would use a database where they would store different products and also a persons information to see what items they've already viewed.

The ip address determines whether the protocol will allow to transmit the information across.protocol is essentially connecting to the ip address which would then decide whether the information can be accessed by the user.Ports is what connects the protocol to the ip address and lets the information be accessed by the user wanting to go on the website.

Domain Names

Multiple Domain Registration

P1

The domain names needs to be easy as it wont get many searches if it has a hard name to remember it is best when they are simple words. For example: gov - Government agencies, org - Organisations (non-profit). If you have a simple name when the user types in something such as bike it would come up with your bike shop up for sale.Most websites have multiple domain names so that they get more traffic coming to the website.

If you need people to visit your website and gain more traffic you should take up more domain names whilst keeping it simple so more people can find your website.If the user uses W3C we can check the compatibility with other browsers and platforms and this would gain more people on the website.

Ports & Protocols

Browser & Platform Compatibility

P1

If the users protocols and ports match that means the user can then go on to there desired website. If the users ports and protocols do not match they will not configure unless you change what is wrong.

The browser compatibility makes it so that the user can gain more traffic towards the website and using W3C means that the browser and the platform are both compatible and working.

Paying to be prominent in search engine results

To make sure that the website is going to get viewing and possible purchases you can pay to make sure that your website is going to priority and become the top search on Google results etc. it costs a lot of money but it would gain more viewership.

M1

Newsgroups & Forums

The website can be posted on to newsgroups and forums. This is a great way to gain more interest in the website by telling people of a great website for shopping. You can create a page on Facebook and this is free and will link many people to the website page. On the downside not many people want to join these websites as they could get spammed with information.

M1

Banners & Pop-ups

The banners and pop ups come up on peoples desktop and this is not very effective as people just use anti virus ware so they don’t have deal with these things. On the positive many people see this banner or pop up and may remember the website for when they next shop online.

M1

Spam

Spam is an email that is not sent to one particular customer it is just sent to people in the mass numbers, this can be annoying as most of it does not meet the users needs. Most people would have the spam filtered out to a junk folder.

M1

Ensuring An Effective User Interface

Having an effective user interface means that people that are not technology clever can easily work the website and it also means that the maintenance of the website is well routine done and working. Having an effective user interface makes the website get more views and if it looks good you are more likely to use it again.

M1

Establishing Customer loyalty in a virtual environment

Having a customer loyalty on the e-commerce website means rewarding the customers and emailing them offers with deals. Many of the users will respond well to this and they might be a returning customer if you see an offer that you like to see.Also, you can reward the customers if they buy items off the website and give them 15% off the next item and they might return back to the website.

M1

Site Names

Website names are more productive within the user if they are memorable to the user. Websites such as eBay, Facebook and YouTube. You will use the website more if you can remember it.

M1

Direct Marketing

Direct marketing means sending the user leaflets, newsletter on the latest offer. This would only occur to a specific market and they would have to sign up for this offer so they can gain viewership towards the website and this might generate more money.

M1

Play.com is a website and is very beneficial of e-commerce as they use things such as shopping and you can add items to your basket so you can do more shopping and they also make you add a way of making payment, this makes you feel more inclined to doing shopping. The title play.com means that this is a website where you can purchase entertainment devices.

The amazon website shows that they have their own device e.g. the kindle. The kindle is an amazon made product and is a reading device and if you want to buy more books on the device. The term amazon means that the search is never ending as it is as big as the amazon and that they are a big company that sells a lot of items.

EBay is a well-known website that is used by millions of people to sell items online. EBay generate a large profit of money as they take a percentage of the money used to sell items on eBay is tariffed and millions of pounds are generated by this every day. EBay also benefit off ecommerce as they takes sponsors off companies such as apple and use them on them on their website and this can entice the user to click on the adverts.

Hacking

Hacking Prevention

P3, M2

Hacking can occur within the website when they haven't got a secure firewall. The hackers can find out users information such as billing information, bank details. They can infiltrate this information and use it to spend money on other websites. This is called ID theft.

The hacking can be prevented by setting up a secure firewall and also putting encryption behind this to make sure that the website is secure and cannot be hacked. This means that the website must urge its users to have strong passwords and to have good anti spyware.

Viruses

Virus Prevention

P3, M2

Viruses can occur in many different ways. They can be an advertisement wrongly clicked by the user under false pretentions. There are two different kinds of viruses that can be sent. The Trojan virus which is a virus which can slow down your computer whereas the worm virus just hacks into your computer taking things such as bank details.

There are many virus to stop prevention of downloading viruses. You should have a decent version of spyware which would let you know that the file is corrupted and dangerous towards the computer. The shop would have to have a good spyware to make sure they cant be hacked or download viruses.

ID Theft

ID Theft Protection

P3, M2

ID theft is when the website is infiltrated and consumers of the website have their bank details left within the website on their account have all their information stole. The identity theft can only occur if the website does not have good spyware to protect the website.

ID theft can be prevented from happening if the user has a good spyware and make sure that website is secure and has good encryption codes so that they cant be hacked.

Strong Passwords

P3

The user would be encouraged to have a strong password so that their information could not be infiltrated and hacked into. Users should also not use the same password for every website that they visit as if a website was hacked they could use that password for another website and use identity theft. The user would also be encouraged to use a variety of different cases of letters and also use numbers. Also they should not use key words such as information on themselves. E.g. date of birth, hometown. Password example: PassWord123

D1

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 companies such as HMV and virgin, they have moved into the ecommerce side of business and that is selling well and more people are becoming familiar with the use of ecommerce and this entitles people to buy online instead of going out to the shop and buying it there.The websites layout is of videos and games that are for sale giving the user links to the latest available item.The website security is well built as the business is well known and within its span it has not gone down since.

D1

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.

The strengths of companies moving into the business of ecommerce is that more people are beginning to use it and the newer generation are beginning to use technology more frequently and buying items online is very popular.The strengths of the site HMV is that it is direct to the latest items and it also has search items for the less desired items.

The weaknesses of the website is that it is bounded with advertisements for different websites and items and this makes the consumer not sure what is happening.