Shaun Aldis

Benefits of E-commerceGlobal Marketplace

P2

If a company is part of the global market, it means that is part of the global online shopping market. This means that a person in England could, for example, buy something from a company in Australia.Some companies are not part of the global marketplace, then it means that it can only trade or sell to customers in its own country, reducing the amount of potential customers the company has.

Benefits of E-commerce24/7 Trading

P2

In a normal, offline business, there are closing hours and holidays for the employees so they can rest. This reduces the amount of time they are open, therefore this reduces the amount of customers to the company.Whereas an online business that has a website with E-commerce capabilities, can stay online and open for business 24 hours 7 days a week. This greatly increases the amount of customers and therefore the amount of revenue.

Benefits of E-commerceLow Start -up & Running Costs

P2

To start up a regular business, you need a substantial amount of money and confidence to start up a business, it costs a lot to rent a premises and hire employees. Also there is a lot of risk involved in starting up a physical premises because unless you have good advertising technique’s, people may not know about the business and slowly the business will become bankrupt

Although an online business, has low start up costs because all that is needed is a computer, and a website, it will costs extra to advertise. Plus the amount of risk involved is less because it is cheaper so therefore there is less to loose.

Benefits of E-commerceSearch Facilities

P2

A website may have a search function, this means that there is a bar that a customer can type into, that allows them to search for things on that website.By adding this simple function to a website it greatly increases the accessibility and user ability of website, this increases the speed of which the website can make a sale, this in turn increases the amount of sales I can do in an hour which increases the amount of revenue the business can make.

Benefits of E-commerce

Fluid Pricing

P2

Fluid pricing is the fall and drop of prices of goods depending on demand.For example, if a site is selling tickets to a concert and the demand is high, the price will go up.But if a company is selling tickets to an art show and the demand is low, then the price will be lower.This is another way a company can maximise the amount of money they make, the more demand for something, the more money a company make.

Weaknesses of E-commerce & how to address this

Consumer Trust

P2

Customer trust is basically what reputation a company has with its customers. This can be increased or decreased by the quality of service or the goods supplied by a business, or by how customers are treated e.g. Customer services.In an online business rather than a physical store, this is harder to gain because there is no direct face-to-face contact between customer and seller. Because it is harder to gain customer trust a company may have less business in its early days until it gains a decent reputation.

Weaknesses of E-commerce& how to address this

Lack of Human Contact

P2

As stated before in the consumer trust area, an online business will have a lack of human contact that you would get in a physical shop, so a customer has to input their credit card details and part with their money without knowing anything about what they are buying and who they are buying it from. This means that an online company that isn’t well known, perhaps a new or small business, will have to work hard to gain the trust of their customers.

Weaknesses of E-commerce& how to address thisProduct Description Problems

P2

When a customer wants to buy something form an online website, they will generally not know a great deal about the product they wish to buy. So they have to rely on the information that is provided by the company. This could be potentially problematic if the company fails to provide an apt description of the product, if they do, they will almost certainly loose a sale to another company that may have the same product but a better description.

Weaknesses of E-commerce& how to address thisSecurity issues

P2

To complete a transaction in an online business, the customer must input their credit card details in order to pay, this raises a large amount of security issue’s.Firstly a customer has to enter their details without knowing who is receiving them and must trust them to only take the money for what is being orderedAlso they must input their home address which could be a security risk for the customer .

The TechnologyBrowsers

Web Authoring Software

P1

Web Authoring Software is software that writes HTML code automaticallyThe advantages of this are that, if a small company wanted to start selling products online, but didn’t want to spend great amounts of money hiring an employee who can write HTML code. They could buy Web Authoring Software instead, which would cost less money and would possibly save time by writing the code automatically.

The TechnologyDatabase systems

IP addresses

P1

An IP address or Internet Protocol address, is a numerical label assigned to any device that joins a computer network which grants that device access so long it is connected.An IP address can be automatically by the network by assigning a different address to every device depending on when they connect. Or by being statically assigned to a device by an administrator, this means that the IP for this device will not change unless the administrator does so manually.

The TechnologyDomain Names

Multiple Domain Registration

P1

Many large companies have more than one domain name. the reason for having multiple domain names is simple, so that if an internet user is trying to get to a companies website and perhaps types in the domain incorrectly, or doesn’t know the full address, they will be directed to the correct site because the company owns all of the incorrect domains.Mostly it is only large companies that do this because it is expensive to purchase multiple domain names

The TechnologyPorts & Protocols

Browser & Platform Compatibility

P1

A large company wants its website to be compatible with as many web browsers and as many platforms as possible to maximise the amount of people that view the website and therefore awareness and possibly sales.A company will usually make a website compatible on all major web browsers and also on mobile devices such as iPads, iPods, smart phones and tablet PC’s

PromotionPaying to be prominent in search engine results

M1

Paying to be prominent in a search engine means a company can pay a search engine, for example Google, to put their business link at the top of the search results list when key words are searched for in the search bar. Often these links will appear in a different colour box so they stand out.

This is were the sponsored links are, meaning these links have been paid for so they are at the top of the page

PromotionNewsgroups & Forums

M1

Another way for a business to advertise online is to set up newsgroups and forums about their products. This is a good idea because it gets information and reviews about a products out onto the internet, and also because the company can monitor what is being said and can, if they wish, delete all negative comments.

This is an example of a public forum concerning the Samsung Galaxy Note 2.

PromotionBanners & Pop-ups

M1

Banners and pop-ups are a poor way of advertising online because banners are expensive to set up because you must buy space on another companies website to put the banner in, and even then, you must rely on the success of the other business to get your business advertised.Similarly pop-ups are also expensive to set up but also, most people will automatically close pop-ups because of the amount of them that contain viruses.

This is where Amazon have chosen to put advertising banner’s, some from other companies

PromotionSpam

M1

Spam, is when a company pay another company to repeatedly send emails to every email address they have access to try and advertise, this is a poor way of advertising. The way this is poor is that the service is paid for in a pay-by-click format, meaning for every time someone clicks the link in the email, they pay a small percentage to the service provider.Also it is poor because most people have filters on their email inboxes, so spam mail will be automatically sent to the junk folder and deleted.

PromotionEnsuring An Effective User Interface

M1

A large company wants to ensure it has an effective user interface on their website. The reason for this is so that any visiting user will have a smooth and flawless use of the site. If the website has imperfections, for example;• Brocken Hyperlinks• Unclear fonts• Difficult navigationThen the customer is less likely to buy any products or services and are even less likely to make a repeat purchase, which would overtime loose the company money and customers

PromotionEstablishing Customer loyalty in a virtual environment

M1

Ensuring customer loyalty is important to a company as it will ensure repeat purchases from existing customers. Ways a company can gain customer loyalty is by;• Identifying them by name when they log in• E-mailing them directly with offers relating to their specific previous purchases• Offering a point system so customers can work towards a rewardAll of these will gain customer loyalty which is crucial to the operation of an E-commerce bases website where there is no human contact when buying products or services.

PromotionSite Names

M1

Memorable site names are essential to an e-commerce website, because the harder the name is to remember or type, the more likely a customer is to end up on a rivals website or give up and not make a purchase.By coupling a memorable site name and previously discussed multiple domain names, a website will maximise the amount of users that can navigate to its websiteAn example of a memorable website name is Amazon.co.uk, it is easy to remember and easy to type in because it is not to complex.Good site names do have weaknesses, for example, they are expensive to purchase.

PromotionDirect Marketing

M1

Direct marketing is when a company targets specific audiences, sometimes the customers a company has targeted can choose to subscribe to an online or tangible newsletter they will receive once every week/month that will contain offers or items specific to them.If customers subscribe to the newsletter then it shows they have an interest in the business and are likely to make a purchaseA weakness of direct marketing is that it is a concentrated market and the company has less potential customers

SecurityHacking

Hacking Prevention

P3, M2

An e-commerce based website must be protected against hacking.This is essential because the website and the company will be dealing with customers personal details including address, contact details and bank/account details. Any leakage of this information would violate the data protection law that all e-commerce sites must abide by.

SecurityViruses

Virus Prevention

P3, M2

An e-commerce website must be safe and free from viruses. If a companies website became infected with viruses, most of its customers wont even visit the website anymore out of fear of their computers becoming infected also. So companies need anti virus software for their website to ensure it doesn’t become infected.

SecurityID Theft

ID Theft Protection

P3, M2

A website that requires a customer to input personal information such as contact information and bank account details, must therefore have sufficient protection against that information being leaked or stolen.If this were to happen the company could be sued and customer loyalty and reputation would go down substantially.

SecurityStrong Passwords

P3

When the company is asking the customer for their payments and/or login details, it should prompt them so set-up the purchase or an account with a strong password.A strong password will help ensure the customers account cannot be accessed by any unauthorised person, and so that the customer can trust the company more because by prompting them to make a strong password, it shows the company cares for customers details, which will improve consumer trust.

Evaluate Existing E-commerce

D1

Business 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

D1

Strengths

Weaknesses

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.