CIS 451: eCommerce Application Development

Dr. Ralph D. WestfallJanuary, 2009

CIS 451 primarily a technical course

ASP.NET also HTML, JavaScript, SQL, XML

but also covers eCommerce issues web site design for eCommerce web site usability and accessibility marketing issues role of eCommerce in world economy

eCommerce Overview what is eCommerce? why do “techies” need to learn

business aspects of eCommerce? eCommerce business issues eCommerce tools eCommerce applications

“shopping carts” shopping cart exercises

What is eCommerce? what do you think it is? what do businesses do?

eCommerce definition value chain

Pre-Internet eCommerce

airline reservation systems EFT (electronic funds transfer) ATMs (automated teller [cash] mac

hines) EDI (electronic data interchange)

Advantages of Internet very easy to use

web browser interface compatible with all kinds of hardware global low cost delivery of content to large

numbers of users like radio in the 1920s

multimedia capabilities

Web-Based eCommerce business to consumer (shopping)

Amazon consumer to consumer (auction

sites) eBay

business to business EDI on the web

Business Aspects of eCommerce for Technologists field is continuing to develop

technical employees in large organizations

need to communicate with business people

small businesses/consultants less technical vs. non-technical

specialization

E-business (EBZ) major at Cal Poly

eCommerce Sequential Stages

1. Publish: static web pages2. Interact: content updated regularly,

customers follow links, search site, etc.

3. Transact: orders, payments, shipping4. Integrate: part of way business is done5. Transform: organization restructured

from Informatics-Review, Vol. 3, No. 7

Benefits of eCommerce customers (top line)

reach new customers (Hot!Hot!Hot!) serve existing customers better

customer relationship management (vendor of CRM services)

costs (bottom line) potentially lower throughout value

chain: (intranet/extranet)

International eCommerce potentially huge markets need to deal with major difficulties

high shipping costs (postal codes [scroll])

legal issues: tariffs, documentation translation currency exchange fraud

Norwegian base for E-C in Europe

eCommerce Business Issues relation to business strategy?

low cost (high volume) product differentiation niche (specialized product or limited

region) competitive implications?

within & outside industry short vs. long-term profitability?

Amazon just had first profit ever in 2002

eCommerce Issues - 2 timing? (first mover advantage) costs? (how much to spend) evaluation? (how measure

success) impact on existing relationships?

suppliers, partners, distributors, customers

eCommerce Tools - 1 tutorials for frequently used

programming technologies HTML (3.2, 4.0) JavaScript JSP (Java Server Pages) SQL ASP.NET replacing Perl? PHP

eCommerce Tools - 2 multimedia free trial downloads

image tools (e.g. Adobe PhotoShop, etc.) sound tools (e.g. Adobe Audition

[formerly [Cool Edit]) video (+ audio) tools (e.g. Flash)

shareware and totally free software Audacity (sound) free multimedia Google search

Shopping Cart Applications reviews

how to choose order problems (75% abandoned) Yahoo! Merchant Solutions: Starter Yahoo! Merchant Solutions: Standa

rd Yahoo! Merchant Solutions:

Professional

Exercise from a customer perspective, evaluate one

of the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions carts try the "tour" of Yahoo! Merchant

Solutions advantages, disadvantages, questions understandability of instructions ease of use to create site(?)

2 students per 3-person team need to submit the above + international shipment findings (slide 11) for Exercise 3