Global Marketplace

P2

Anybody in the world can access the internet, meaning that anybody can access a particular website, making a companies items much more accessible than if company had a shop.

24/7 Trading

P2

A website can be accessed at any time of the day, whereas, shops usually shut at 6pm. This makes a companies products more accessible to the rest of the world.

Low Start -up & Running Costs

P2

Hiring a domain is usually relatively cheap, and once a website is designed, there is no need to update it for a while, keeping costs down, and saving the company money.

Search Facilities

P2

Instead of looking around a city centre, and looking around a shop, customers can use a search engine to easily find a particular needed item. This makes shopping a lot easier, and causes less stress for a customer.

Fluid Pricing

P2

When prices are increased or decreased quickly depending on circumstances, this is called fluid pricing. This can save a customer a lot of money, as prices drop a lot.

Consumer Trust

P2

Consumers can worry about several different issues when using e-commerce sites, amongst those are worries over whether the company is a legitimate, worries over their personal information and security worries.

Lack of Human Contact

P2

Some customers are deterred from purchasing online because they cannot speak to anyone from the business directly. Some find this impersonal and prefer to have face to face contact.

Product Description Problems

P2

Some consumers may worry that what is described on the e-commerce site might not accurately reflect the real product. This is especially difficult with colour options as some computers display colours slightly differently. The quality of the image used is also another factor.

Security issues

P2

Perhaps the main worry for consumers is that their financial details will not be safe, that the business will use them in some unauthorised way or security of this information may not be sufficient.

Browsers

Web Authoring Software

P1

An internet browser is a piece of software on which you can access the internet. They usually have a clean, simple GUI, and are generally easy to use. Some examples of this are Opera, Chrome, Firefox, TOR, and Internet Explorer

You use web authoring software to create websites, which can then be accessed from anywhere on the internet. An example of web authoring software is Dreamweaver.

Database systems

IP addresses

P1

A database system is a table of data in which a user can input information. You can make graphs that coincide with the data.

An IP address is a series of numbers given by an ISP which can be used to identify a computer.

Domain Names

Multiple Domain Registration

P1

A domain name is a URL in which a user can search for and find a company or organisations website.

A domain name is a URL in which a user can search for and find a company or organisations website.

Paying to be prominent in search engine results

M1

Companies can pay the owners of search engine to place their website at the top of search results, which will improve business and lead to a profit

Newsgroups & Forums

M1

A forum is a type of site where discussions about particular topics take place. Users can express their opinions and others can comment on these. A newsgroup is a site that displays current events which are popular.

Banners & Pop-ups

M1

Banners are usually advertisements, which companies pay for, to improve custom. Pop-ups are usually similar, but the advert ‘pops-up’ in a new window, covering the current, causing the user to view it. These are a popular way to advertise relatively cheaply. The Advert is usually hyperlinked to the companies site so if a user is interested, they need only click it.

Spam

M1

Spam usually comes in the form of emails. Companies usually mass send emails to many recipients in order to widely advertise their company, for free.

Ensuring An Effective User Interface

M1

It is important that sites are clean, simple and easy to- use. If a site is cluttered, a customer will be less likely to be bothered to wade through the pages looking for items, and use a different site.

Establishing Customer loyalty in a virtual environment

M1

Websites can do promotions, in the form of a code, which can give 10% off purchases. This entices customers to buy off a companies site, and not take their business elsewhere.

Site Names

M1

It is important to have a easy to remember URL. If a URL is hard to remember, a customer is less likely to use it.

Direct Marketing

M1

Direct marketing sends advertisements to particular audiences, based on specific pieces of data compiled from various sources. This makes adverts more appealing to an audience. It is basically the opposite of spam emails.

Hacking

Hacking Prevention

P3, M2

Forcing your way into a computer system by bypassing or going through passwords, to acquire information.

Make sure passwords are strong and secure, and make sure antivirus and antimalware is up to date.

Viruses

Virus Prevention

P3, M2

Software made to either steal information, such as bank details or mess up software or hardware.

As before, make sure passwords are strong and secure, and make sure antivirus and antimalware is up to date. Do not download dodgy software or files from the internet.

ID Theft

ID Theft Protection

P3, M2

Stealing bank details and personal details, in order to use somebodies credit cards to purchase things. This usually happens when a user gets a Worm or a keylogger virus.

Make sure you scan your PC regularly for spyware.

Strong Passwords

P3

It is very important to not use easy to guess passwords, such as ‘password’ or ‘Password123’. It is advised to use a password with capital letters, lowercase letters, numbers and punctuation, to ensure that it is hard to get your password.