1. Why E-commerce?

2. Benefits of E-commerce
Global Marketplace
Having 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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3. Benefits of E-commerce
24/7 Trading
A shop that is open 24/7 will gain customers that shop when most shops have shut meaning that there will
be more customers overall.
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4. Benefits of E-commerce
Low Start -up & Running Costs
Having 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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5. Benefits of E-commerce
Search Facilities
With 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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6. Benefits of E-commerce
Fluid Pricing
When 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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7. Weaknesses of E-commerce
& how to address this
Consumer Trust
Customers 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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8. Weaknesses of E-commerce
& how to address this
Lack of Human Contact
People 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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9. Weaknesses of E-commerce
& how to address this
Product Description Problems
When shopping online there is usually a description and an image of each product that is
being sold, however on websites the description may be unreliable or/and not trusted due to human or web coding errors.
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10. Weaknesses of E-commerce
& how to address this
Security issues
When 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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11. The Technology
Browsers
A browser is software that reads HTML code to browse the internet for example Firefox,
Google Chrome or Internet Explorer.
Web Authoring Software
A 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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12. The Technology
Database systems
E-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 addresses
An 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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13. The Technology
Domain Names
A 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 Registration
Many 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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14. The Technology
Ports & Protocols
A port is what connects an IP to a protocol (the web browser) when using a web browser.
Browser & Platform Compatibility
A 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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15. Promotion
Paying to be prominent in search engine results
When 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 engine
can 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 to
be 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.
Positives
More people would find the site when searching for other things or general things
It acts as an effective advertising for the company
Negatives
It costs a lot
Make participating search engine less reliable and trustworthy
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16. Promotion
Newsgroups & Forums
Newsgroups
Positive
Are 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
Forums
Positive
Its cheap to make and use
Negative
People are put off having to sign up to something due to privacy concerns.
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17. Promotion
Banners & Pop-ups
A banner is the rectangle/s on websites that display adverts and pop ups are the boxes that display adverts that appear when a
person visits a page of a website or clicks on a link to a website
Popups
Advantages
They are cheap to buy
Disadvantages
Popups annoy people
People can fillter out popups
Banners
Advantages
Cheap to buy
Disadvantages
May be ignored by people
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18. Promotion
Spam
Spam 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.
Advantages
Its cheap to use
Disadvantages
People find spam annoying and will not be very interested in even looking at them
People can get spam blockers
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19. Promotion
Ensuring An Effective User Interface
If 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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20. Promotion
Establishing Customer loyalty in a virtual environment
If a website impresses a first time customer the person is more likely to revisit the website, every good website aims to make a
good 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 have
an account on the website.
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21. Promotion
Site Names
If 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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22. Promotion
Direct Marketing
To 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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23. Security
Hacking
Hacking is someone gaining unauthorized access to another persons financial/personal data or/and their computer or online account.
Hacking Prevention
This 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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24. Security
Viruses
Viruses are malicious software that hack into a persons computer in order to damage it or to steal information from it for example
Trojan 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 Prevention
This 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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25. Security
ID Theft
Identity 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 Protection
This 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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26. Security
Strong Passwords
A 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.
Uppercase
Lowercase
Symbol EG / or &
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27. Evaluate Existing E-commerce
Business Summary
The 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:
Description
Vision Statement
Mission Statement
Values
Goals
Market research and Market differentiation and Marketing message and Marketing mix and Measurement
Sales
Operations plan
Personnel Plan
Financial Plan
Executive 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
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28. Evaluate Existing E-commerce
Strengths
By having a plan for a business it makes it a lot easier to organize business meetings and to manage financial issues.
When evaluating a
Weaknesses
When making a summary for a business usually requires a lot of time and organizing skills to create. A poorly made plan will be very bad
for 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.
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