Why E-commerce?

Benefits of E-commerce

Global Marketplace

A global marketplace can benefit a company as audiences can be targeted globally instead of smaller business that don’t use ecommerce.

1.Increase sales globally2.Target all ages3. Expanding company

P2

Benefits of E-commerce

24/7 Trading

24/7 Trading is very beneficial to a company as when using ecommerce a global market place means that people can order from around the world whenever they want. Sales can be all day long where as with a shop you have to close it the website stays on all the time and including holidays so no matter when it is there are still sales.

P2

Benefits of E-commerce

Low Start -up & Running Costs

The low costs of ecommerce are a dramatic advantages to a physical shop as there are several costs that go with having a shop such as insurance, rent and décor of the shop compared to a website there are companies that rent out website at very low prices which profits for the company are higher

P2

Benefits of E-commerce

Search Facilities

The search facilities in a website allows the user to search for a criteria that a product/s matches this could cut time out and immediate stock amounts which benefit the user more than the company but this adds to the GUI of the website and adds to the users view of the website what can induce more sales.

P2

Benefits of E-commerce

Fluid Pricing

Fluid pricing is when prices can change easily through a website this is very beneficial to ecommerce as more money can be made by using this method whereas staff are need to re-price the items physically these staff have to be paid which costs the company whereas with a website programs can be run to the website r4e price when the amount of stock is lowered or hired .

P2

Weaknesses of E-commerce

Consumer Trust

Websites can sometimes put of users with poor design and uses the website can be described as un trust worthy this can make a website have very few sales some of the qualities that may put of customers are adverts suspicious links.

P2

Weaknesses of E-commerce

Lack of Human Contact

Human contact is lacked when using e commerce as this may put off people if they require information from a person in this field of the shop that you want to buy from. These expertise can not given over the website this is a big weakness of e commerce.

P2

Weaknesses of E-commerce

Product DescrIPtion Problems

The lack of the physical ability to touch and feel the object is taken out of the experience when online shopping. When in store in shops you can test out the product for quality whereas when online shopping the ability to do this is lost. The product descrIPtion can be bias as the company will not point out the bad points of the products this is where reviews are better.

P2

Weaknesses of E-commerce

Security issues

P2

The security issues surrounding e-commerce are buying products online with credit and debit cards most websites now have a secure payment software but other have no protect and can be very dangerous because people can hack and make transactions. Other issues are not just the details of cards but also your account with particular websites that don’t have the necessary security protocols like making sure that users have strong passwords and other security measures on there servers.

The TechnologyBrowsers

Web Authoring Software

P1

The web authoring software can help a small company have a website but at a small cost compared to having to pay a website designer. An example of this software is adobe Dreamweaver this writes the html code for your you the way in which create the website is through a GUI interface that is easy to use but can still create very good websites the licence for this software is much cheaper the hire a website designer but may not look as professional. For instance when a simple square is drawn then the following code”” is written by the Dreamweaver program you can also use the program to write code so if learnt then it could be used using the software makes making a website much more user friendly.

The TechnologyDatabase systems

IP addresses

P1

IP addressesThese are addresses are given to a device that is connected to the internet each IP addresses are unique to each device these devices can be specific to a network or random the IP addresses is made up of four sets of numbers from 0 to 255 fro instance the common home network address is 192.168.0.2 this is the a devices IP address. Websites also have there own I address as the website is hosted by a server which can distribute several IP addresses ProtocolsProtocols are what makes the internet work in a certain way if the protocols are not the same

Ports

The TechnologyDomain Names

Multiple Domain Registration

P1

This is a tactic for more customers and the prevention of rival companies getting there business. A website for a company is at the heart of ecommerce as when a user visits the website rather than using a search engine most users type in the specific address in the address bar and often they make mistakes these domains(website addresses) are also purchased to stop rival companies getting them and stealing there business.

Domain name – A name in which the website is called e.g. www.google.co.uk

A good example for this is www.whitehouse.com as you can see is only the resource location away from www.whitehouse.gov

The TechnologyPorts & Protocols

Browser & Platform Compatibility

P1

Browsers are what is referred to when a program can read html codes and display the GUI version of this html code. Browsers like IE9 and Google Chrome are common browsers with the browsers the websites also updated and if your browsers are not updated the compatibility may be compromised. This is the platform compatibility and some browsers may not be able to read and produced some code. All browsers allow you to type in a URL that is unique to the website also know as a website address this will often take you straight to the website if the spelling is correct.

Promotion

Paying to be prominent in search engine results

M1

Being the prominent result in the search engine results is important as most people will click on this link. For instance when a keyword is typed in to Google then the first result that best matches the keywords compared to what you have typed.

The company will have to pay to have this link and therefore this is where most of a search engine money comes from other companies paying for this.

This is a search result for the iPhone 5 immediately the paid results are prominent and are circled.

The sponsored ads will have paid more than the main results.

Promotion

Newsgroups & Forums

M1

A newsgroup and forum can be bias when they are official forum the administrators can manipulate what is on there and what is not so when a user visits the forum and newsgroup they will only probably see the good points about the product a positive from this promotion is that from a companies point of view the users can only see good points and therefore attracted to the product.

Some times unofficial forums do post common problems and bugs and these do tend to help the user community with that particular product and they are unofficial they do not mind if the product doesn’t work well there are there to help the users.

Promotion

Banners & Pop-ups

M1

Banners and popups are the windows and graphics on websites that advertise and bot the site and company get money for host the banner whereas popups are separate windows that pop up and advertise a product or site some people click on these links as they are convenience at that moment and therefore the user is more likely to click on it. On most browsers they are popup blockers that stop these from happening and as well as ad block that stop banners appearing.

Virus’ can be downloaded with you knowing from banners popups and not genuine links

Promotion

Spam

M1

Spam are emails that are sent from a company that is trying to advertise there product most email companies now have a built in spam filter that stop these emails coming through in to your ordinary inbox and enter you spam folder instead. When an email comes through from an email address that doesn’t meet the required characteristics it filters it out and sometimes the email wasn’t actually spam. Some viruses contain software that allows them to access your emailaccount on the computer where you log on and send emails to your contacts claiming about things you’ve bought and the contacts click on it and takes them to the link of the product and the virus is downloaded and this process is repeated. Spam is defined by an email from a address that was not asked for or signed up for.

Promotion

Ensuring An Effective User Interface

M1

Ensuring An Effective User Interface is important when users visit you’re a site that they are drawn in to the site the user interface including styling how professional the site looks and a how well the user can use the site.

For instance when a user visits a site and has a specific product in mind and a search bar is not there then a user would rather visit a site that does despite price other things that can affect the effectiveness is the navigation around the site. Computer users can ranged from novices and experienced users but all websites must be aimed at the novice and then all users can use the site. Obvisiouly user interface may need to be easier depending on target audience so the ceebebies sites will such a easier interface that the smallest of kids can use it.

Promotion

Establishing Customer loyalty in a virtual environment

M1

This is also a benefit of having a good user interface as if a user likes the site and has a good and effective interface the loyalty it almost guaranteed. In virtual environment customer service can still be measured like comments reviews and answers to queries. Other features that make a company have customer loyalty are:

• Professional styled website• Helpful features (search bar)• Accurate delivery• Low amount of discrepancies• LOW PRICES

Promotion

Site Names

M1

A site name is an important as that there advantages to some website name and address such things like

Short simple Easy to remember Hard to misspell accidentally

An example of this is www.game.co.uk this is hard to misspell this is a good feature as rival company do have similar name that are rival companies that could steal their business.

There are companies with multiple sites names that redirect you there site even if you spell the address the site above although does not have this and some custom does go to the over company.

Promotion

Direct Marketing

M1

Direct marketing is when a company on a website gives the choice to there target audience to sign up for news and updates on the company and their products. This option let the user be part of the company and there specific target audience.

Some companies offer a weekly or monthly newsletter that is sent by email to promote their products and price reductions the is a advantage as is the user has signed that say to the company that there are interested in the products and are more likely to buy things.

SecurityHacking

Hacking Prevention

P3, M2

Hacking Hacking is a security threat wear security is broken on a machine whether is be on a personal machine or a server this is where you break the security on a machine so you can gain access this is strictly illegal and is getting more and more common and groups are formed to hack information held by the government.

Hacking preventionThe prevention of hacking is very important if the information on the machine is valuable. Firewalls are put in place to stop hackers and there are new ones all the time that are stronger and defend against new hackers. Firewalls stop the programs used to but hackers sometimes make new software the firewall is not capable to defend so therefore just slows the hackers down

SecurityViruses

Virus Prevention

P3, M2

Virus prevention comes in levels these levels are the amount of protection there offer paid prevention is better than open source software and also offer different types of security to the user this is usually firewall internet security and AntiSpyWare features.

Some virus prevention software offers real time scanning so if you were downloading something that was malicious then it would detect it but t sometime the virus is disguised and it not always detected a deep scan is usually need to find them all. The anti virus software has a database built in to the program that has a definition for each virus and is updated regularly but others have a link to online database which is also updated.

Security

ID TheftId theft is getting more and more common as computer become more advanced so do the virus and other software than can help a user thieve an identity. Viruses can send information to other computers which tells them that tells them that these keys were pressed say when followed by an email address then can thieve your identity. Other types of thieve tricking you in to id theft is called phishing were the user is tricked in to clicking a link to pay for something and then they just recorded what you type and then they can just access your account. A https webpage is a secure webpage were security is strong and is very hard for other users to thieve identity.

ID Theft ProtectionProtection against ID theft is up to the user they have to vigilante when it comes to paying online companies like PayPal are trying to stop identity thieving by securely paying through a middle man system

P3, M2

Security

Strong PasswordsStrong passwords are vital to any account no matter how precious to you a strong password includes: Numbers Letters Special charactersThese three features make the password strong by simply make more outcomes because they are more characters also a password should be at least 8 characters long this makes the possible number of outcomes over 1million.Things that are not strong passwords Dates that are special to you Names The password “password”

P3

Evaluate Existing E-commerce

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

Evaluate Existing E-commerce

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.