E-commerce Module 2

Module 2
Building An E-Commerce Presence: A Systematic Approach.

Meaning of E-commerce.
E-Commerce or Electronic Commerce means buying and selling of goods, products, or services
over the internet. E-commerce is also known as electronic commerce or internet commerce. These
services provided online over the internet network.
Electronic commerce was identified as the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically,
using technology such as
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).
EDI is the structured transmission of data between organizations by electronic means. It is used to
transfer electronic documents or business data from one computer system to another computer
system.
EFT is the electronic exchange or transfer of money from one account to another.

Advantages of E-commerce.
• Faster buying/selling procedure, as well as easy to find products.
• Buying/selling 24/7.
• Low operational costs and better quality of services.
• Easy to start and manage a business.
• No need of physical company set-ups.
• Customers can easily select products from different providers without moving around
physically.
Disadvantages of E-commerce.
• There is no guarantee of product quality.
• There are many hackers who look for opportunities, and thus an ecommerce site, service,
payment gateways, all are always prone to attack.

Building An Systematic Approach of an E-commerce website.

Planning: The Systems Development Life Cycle.

Your second step in building an e-commerce website will be creating a plan document. In order
to tackle a complex problem such as building an e-commerce site, you will have to proceed

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systematically through a series of steps. One methodology is the systems development life
cycle. The systems development life cycle (SDLC) is a methodology for understanding the
business objectives of any system and designing an appropriate solution. The SDLC method
also helps in creating documents that communicate objectives, important milestones, and the
uses of resources to management.
The five major steps involved in the systems development life cycle for an
e-commerce site:
• Systems analysis/planning
• Systems design
• Building the system
• Testing
• Implementation

Step 1. SYSTEMS ANALYSIS/PLANNING: IDENTIFY BUSINESS OBJECTIVES,

SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY, AND INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS
In the systems analysis/planning steps include business objectives, system functionalities and
information requirements. This will ensure that your technology platform is aligned with your
business. We will assume here that we have identified a business strategy and chosen a business
model to achieve your business strategic objectives.
One way to start is to identify the specific business objectives for our site, and then develop a
list of system functionalities and information requirements.
Business objectives are simply capabilities we want our site to have.
System functionalities are types of information systems capabilities we need to achieve your
business objectives.
Information requirements for a system are the information elements that the system must
produce in order to achieve the business objectives. You will need to provide these lists to
system developers and programmers so they know what you as the manager expect them to do.

Step 2-System Design.

Once we have identified the business objectives and system functionalities, and have developed
a list of precise information requirements, we can begin to consider just how all this
functionality will be delivered. we must come up with a system design specification—a
description of the main components in the system and their relationship to one another.

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The system design itself can be broken down into two components:
 A logical design
 A physical design.
A logical design includes a dataflow diagram that describes the flow of information at your e-
commerce site, the processing functions that must be performed, and the databases that will be
used. The logical design also includes a description of the security and emergency backup
procedures that will be instituted, and the controls that will be used in the system.
A physical design translates the logical design into physical components. For instance, the
physical design details the specific model of server to be purchased, the software to be used,
the size of the telecommunications link that will be required, the way the system will be backed
up and protected from outsiders, and so on.

Step 3-Building The System: In-House Versus Outsourcing

In-house software development is any software project that leverages your internal developers.
That is, you specifically employ coders to build tools for your business on a full-time basis.
Outsourcing means that you will hire an outside vendor to provide the services involved in
building the site rather than using in-house personnel.
Step 4-Testing The System.
Once the system has been built and programmed, you will have to engage in a testing process.
Testing is required whether the system is outsourced or built in-house.
Testing involves the following types,
Unit testing involves testing the site’s program modules one at a time.
System testing involves testing the site as a whole, in the same way a typical user would when
using the site.
Acceptance testing requires that the firm’s key personnel and managers in marketing,
production, sales, and general management actually use the system as installed on a test Internet
or intranet server.
Multivariate testing involves identifying specific elements, or variables, on a web page, such
as a headline, image, button and text, creating versions for each element, and then creating a
unique combination of each element and version to test.

Step 5-Implementation And Maintenance

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Once an information system is installed, the process is over. The operational life of a system is
just beginning. Systems break down for a variety of reasons most of them unpredictable.
Therefore, they need continual checking, testing, and repair through the benchmarking process
in which the site is compared with those of competitors in terms of response speed, quality of
layout, and design
Optimize Web performance.
Factors optimizing web performance.
1)Page content.
2)Page delivery.
3)Page Generation.
1) Page content.
The efficient styles and techniques for page design and content can reduce response
times by two to five seconds.
2)Page delivery.
Page delivery can be speeded up by using specialized content delivery networks or by
increasing local bandwidth.
3)Page generation.
Page generation speed can be enhanced by segregating computer servers to perform
dedicated functions (Such as static page generation, application logic, media servers and data
base servers) and using various devices from vendors to speed up these servers.
Development of Mobile website.
 A mobile website is a version of a regular website that is scaled down in content and
navigation so that users can find what they want and move quickly to a decision or
purchase.
 we can see the difference between a regular website and a mobile site by visiting the
Amazon website from your desktop computer and then a smartphone or tablet
computer.
Important Considerations Involved In Developing A Mobile Website And Building
Mobile Applications.
 When developing a mobile presence, it is important to understand the difference
between a mobile website, mobile web apps, native apps, and hybrid apps.
 The first step is to identify business objectives, because they help determine which type
of mobile presence is best.

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 Design should take into account mobile platform constraints. Recent trends include
mobile first design, responsive web design, and adaptive web delivery.
 Developing a mobile website is likely to be the least expensive option; mobile web apps
require more effort and cost; native apps are likely to be the most expensive to develop.

Choosing of software and hardware.

Choosing of software
• system architecture the arrangement of software, machinery, and tasks in an
information system needed to achieve a specific functionality.
• In two-tier architecture, a web server responds to requests for web pages and a
database server provides backend data storage.
• Multi-tier architecture, in contrast, the web server is linked to a middle-tier layer that
typically includes a series of application servers that perform specific tasks, as well as
to a backend layer of existing corporate systems containing product, customer, and
pricing information.
Choosing of hardware.
1.Scalability.
• Ability of site to increase in size as demand warrants
2.Ways to scale hardware.

• Increase processing power of individual components

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• Employ multiple computers to share workload

3.Improve processing architecture.
• Splitting the workload into I/O intensive activities (e.g., serving Web pages)
and CPU intensive activities (e.g., taking orders)