COMP 6125 An Introduction to Electronic

Commerce

Session 1: Selling On The Web

Introduction

• Not all e-commerce initiatives are goaled towards providing revenue; some aim to reduce costs, improve customer service

• A web site should reflect the goals and strategies of the company

Types of Revenue Models• Web catalog

• Digital content

• Advertising-supported

• Advertising-subscription mixed

• Fee-for-transaction

• Fee-for-service

Strategy Issues

• Channel conflict and Cannibalization

• Strategic alliance and Channel distribution management

• Mobile commerce

Channel Conflict and Cannibalization

• Sales activities on a company’s site interferes with its sales outlets

• Example: Levi Strauss & Company

Strategic Alliance

• Strategic Alliance: When 2 or more companies join forces to undertake an activity over an extended period of time– Example: Target site housed within the Amazon.com

site

• Channel distribution management: When companies take over responsibility for a particular product line within a retail store– Handleman Company manages inventories of music

CDs in physical stores for Wal-Mart, Kmart

M-Commerce

• From 1997, industry experts have been predicting that m-commerce would present important growth opportunities

• And every year they are wrong!

Methodology For An Effective Web Presence

• Identifying Web Presence goals

• Making Web Presence consistent with Brand image

• Achieving Web Presence goals

Objectives Of An Effective Site

• Attract visitors to the site

• Make the site interesting enough so visitors stay and explore

• Convince visitors to follow links to get information

• Create an impression consistent with organization's desired image

Objectives…(cont.)

• Build a trust relationship with visitors

• Reinforce positive images already established about the company

• Encourage visitors to return to the site

• Businesses that are successful on the Web realize that every visitor to their site is a potential customer

Customer-Centric Site Design

• Putting the customer at the center of all site designs

• Guidelines:– How visitors navigate vs company’s organizational

structure– Build the site for the oldest browsers with the lowest

bandwidth (possibly multiple versions of site)– Test text visibility on smaller monitors– Conduct usability tests

Activity 1.2

• Go to Zhivago Marketing Partners – http://www.zhivago.com

• Go to Webby Awards – http://www.webbyawards.com

References

• Electronic Commerce, Seventh Annual Edition by Gary Schneider