Why E-commerce?

Benefits of E-commerce

Global MarketplaceHaving a global marketplace means that there is a global target audience raver than just the people in the local area of the shop.

Having a global marketplace is an advantage over having a local market because it would mean that the shop would attract a larger number of customers and it would make advertising more effective because the target audience for the advertisement would be everyone who sees it.

An example of a business that would benefit from having a global marketplace raver than a local marketplace would be

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Benefits of E-commerce

24/7 TradingA shop that is open 24/7 will gain customers that shop when most shops have shut meaning that there willbe more customers overall.

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Benefits of E-commerce

Low Start -up & Running CostsHaving a low start up and running cost would mean that if the company failed as a business that there would be less cost and having a low running cost would mean that there is more profit to business and the minimum profit required to not make a loss would be less.

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Benefits of E-commerce

Search FacilitiesWith a good search facility costumers would be able to find products items that they want to buy faster and easier which would encourage the customers to spend more by buying more products.

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Benefits of E-commerce

Fluid PricingWhen the price of an product item changes due to demand or availability on an online shopping website the website could change the price of that item automatically raver than manually changing the price in each physical shop.

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Weaknesses of E-commerce & how to address this

Consumer TrustCustomers may be concerned about the security of there personal details such as credit card details when they shop online, most of the people from the previous generation (older people) feel uncomfortable when using E-commerce, so they would want to be reassured about how the website would be secure and safe to use.

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Weaknesses of E-commerce& how to address this

Lack of Human ContactPeople from the previous gen and traditionalists would prefer to buy items with the aid of a human being as they would value there service higher than that of a machine because they can ask any question and revive an answer with a human which is is better because usually a machine can only answer a limited amount of questions.

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Weaknesses of E-commerce& how to address this

Product Description ProblemsWhen shopping online there is usually a description and an image of each product that isbeing sold, however on websites the description may be unreliable or/and not trusted due to human or web coding errors.

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Weaknesses of E-commerce& how to address this

Security issuesWhen buying items from an online company the customers main concerns are usually whoever or not their financial details being used Inappropriately or if the security used to protect there personal data is properly secure.

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The Technology

BrowsersA browser is software that reads HTML code to browse the internet for example Firefox, Google Chrome or Internet Explorer.

Web Authoring SoftwareA Web site development system that allows Web pages to be visually created like a desktop publishing program. It generates the required HTML code for the pages and is able to switch back and forth (in varying degrees) between the page layout and the HTML. At a high level, the software is judged by its GUI tools used for designing the page. At a low level, the clarity of HTML code that is generated determines how easily people can modify and maintain the site. Comprehensive products can read an entire, existing Web site and display it as a graphical hierarchy of pages. Such products are used to manage the site from that point forward. See Web development software and HTML editor.

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The Technology

Database systemsE-commerce websites use a database in order to store data about the range of products that are available to on the website and also to store information about how customers use the website and their financial details.

A company may get another company to build a database for the E-commerce in order to make it easier to create a E-commerce website, after the database has been created it can be easily adjusted to change things for example prices of products on the site.

IP addressesAn IP (internet protocol) address is a unique code that is used to identify and locate a single computer that is connected to the internet.

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The Technology

Domain NamesA domain (website) name should be short, memorable (odd names are more memorable that normal names) and it should relate to the what is on the website

Multiple Domain RegistrationMany businesses may have more than one domain name, This is because it will direct users to the main website if the user has typed the domain in incorrectly. Rival business will often try and buy domain names with similar names to big companies to try and reach a wider target audience.

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The Technology

Ports & ProtocolsA port is what connects an IP to a protocol (the web browser) when using a web browser.

Browser & Platform CompatibilityA browser is software that reads HTML code to browse the internet for example Firefox, Google Chrome or Internet Explorer.A platform is a type of OS, for example a phone OS is to only be used by a phone like windows 8 for windows phone.Examples of browsers are: Firefox, Safari, Opera, Google Chrome and most commonly Internet Explorer.Examples of platforms are: Mac, PC, PDA, Mobile phone, ipad.

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Promotion

Paying to be prominent in search engine resultsWhen using a popular search engine, what is typed in search terms is not always the most relevant sites. Not necessarily - often, search engines look for search terms within the web pages they've collected and indexed. The results usually reflect t how well the search enginecan produce relevant search results to your inquiry but some search engines will rank sites higher in your results if the site pays a fee, regardless of its relevance to your terms.

There are two main ways to have a search query such as the name of a business tobe prominent in a web search engine such as Google search results which to be the most searched for and relevant entry or to pay a search engine to rank a site or sites higher in the search results.

PositivesMore people would find the site when searching for other things or general thingsIt acts as an effective advertising for the company

NegativesIt costs a lotMake participating search engine less reliable and trustworthy

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Promotion

Newsgroups & ForumsNewsgroups

PositiveAre effective at keeping a product or service popular by keeping people up to date with what the product or service is doing and has done recently.

Negative

ForumsPositive Its cheap to make and use

NegativePeople are put off having to sign up to something due to privacy concerns.

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Promotion

Banners & Pop-upsA banner is the rectangle/s on websites that display adverts and pop ups are the boxes that display adverts that appear when aperson visits a page of a website or clicks on a link to a website

PopupsAdvantagesThey are cheap to buy

DisadvantagesPopups annoy peoplePeople can fillter out popups

BannersAdvantagesCheap to buyDisadvantagesMay be ignored by people

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Promotion

SpamSpam is advertisements that are sent on emails to people who allow a company to allow other company's to use there email address to send them spam emails.AdvantagesIts cheap to use

DisadvantagesPeople find spam annoying and will not be very interested in even looking at themPeople can get spam blockers

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Promotion

Ensuring An Effective User InterfaceIf a website is simple and easy to use it would encore people to use to site, especially if there are no pop ups or banners.

More people are likely to use a website that looks professional and the opposite happens if the website looks unprofessional with make the designing of the layout of as website very important.

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Promotion

Establishing Customer loyalty in a virtual environmentIf a website impresses a first time customer the person is more likely to revisit the website, every good website aims to make agood first impression on the first time a person visits the site.

To keep current customers using a website the company may pay to have special offers that are only available to people who havean account on the website.

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Promotion

Site NamesIf a website has short and/or memorable name it will make it easier for potential customers to remember to site name and therefore are more likely to use the site.

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Promotion

Direct MarketingTo avoid advertising items/services to people what won’t buy the items/services the adverts for the items/services are targeted to be advertised to only people who match a particular criteria witch describes people who would buy the items/services which is the target audience.

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Security

HackingHacking is someone gaining unauthorized access to another persons financial/personal data or/and their computer or online account.

Hacking PreventionThis can be done by making sure the user logs off ever time they log into their account and by having suitable antivirus and firewall software installed on their computer and also having an additional firewall on the router/swich.

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Security

VirusesViruses are malicious software that hack into a persons computer in order to damage it or to steal information from it for exampleTrojan Horse or worm.

A Trojan Horse is a virus the appears to be another program and only attacks the computer once it has been installed onto a computer.

A worm is a virus that copies itself repeatedly in order to overload the hard drive.

Virus PreventionThis can be done by installing both a software (on the hard drive) firewall and a hardware firewall (on the router or switch) and it also can be done by installing anti-virus software (on the hard drive).

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Security

ID TheftIdentity theft is for someone to use another person's identity to access their resources or to get hold of credit and other benefits in that person's name.

ID Theft ProtectionThis can be done on a e-commers website by having a suitable anti-virus/firewall on an online server for each customer which secures their financial details when they use the site.

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Security

Strong PasswordsA strong (good) password is necessary to prevent hackers from guessing peoples passwords to their accounts and therefore hacking into their account.

In order to create a strong password the password should contain various types of characters and both upper and lower case, the password should contain one of each of the below and be a specified number of digits.UppercaseLowercaseSymbol EG / or &

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Evaluate Existing E-commerce

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Business SummaryThe summary of business is important because it describes how well the company manages and sells new and existing products.

A business summary usually contains the following:

DescriptionVision StatementMission StatementValuesGoalsMarket research and Market differentiation and Marketing message and Marketing mix and MeasurementSalesOperations planPersonnel PlanFinancial PlanExecutive 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

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StrengthsBy having a plan for a business it makes it a lot easier to organize business meetings and to manage financial issues.

When evaluating a

WeaknessesWhen making a summary for a business usually requires a lot of time and organizing skills to create. A poorly made plan will be very badfor a business if it is used.

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.