E-commerce 2019: Business. Technology.
Society.
Fifteenth Edition, Global Edition
Chapter 3
Building an E-commerce
Presence
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Learning Objectives
3.1 Understand the questions you must ask and answer, and
the steps you should take, in developing an e-commerce
presence.
3.2 Explain the process that should be followed in building an
e-commerce presence.
3.3 Identify and understand the major considerations involved
in choosing web server and e-commerce merchant server
software.
3.4 Understand the issues involved in choosing the most
appropriate hardware for an e-commerce site.
3.5 Identify additional tools that can improve website
performance.
3.6 Understand the important considerations involved in
developing a mobile website and building
Copyright mobile
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Imagine Your E-commerce Presence (1 of 3)
• What’s the idea? The vision includes:
– Mission statement
– Target audience
– Intended market space
– Strategic analysis
– Marketing matrix
– Development timeline
– Preliminary budget
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Imagine Your E-commerce Presence (2 of 3)
• Where’s the money?
– Business model(s)
– Revenue model(s)
• Who and where is the target audience?
– Demographics, lifestyle, consumption patterns,
etc.
• What is the ballpark? Characterize the marketplace
– Size, growth, demographics, structure
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Imagine Your E-commerce Presence (3 of 3)
• Where’s the content coming from?
• Know yourself-SWOT analysis
• Develop an e-commerce presence map
• Develop a timeline: Milestones
• How much will this cost?
– Simple website: up to $5000
– Small startup: $25,000 to $50,000
– Large corporate website: $100,000+ to millions
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Figure 3.2 E-commerce Presence Map
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Building an E-commerce Site: A
Systematic Approach
• Most important management challenges:
1. Developing a clear understanding of business
objectives
2. Knowing how to choose the right technology to
achieve those objectives
• Main factors to consider
– Management
– Hardware architecture
– Software
– Design
– Telecommunications
– Human resources
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Planning: The Systems Development
Life Cycle
• Methodology for understanding business objectives
of a system and designing an appropriate solution
• Five major steps:
– Systems analysis/planning
– Systems design
– Building the system
– Testing
– Implementation
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Figure 3.5 Systems Development Life
Cycle
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System Analysis/Planning
• Business objectives:
– List of capabilities you want your site to have
• System functionalities:
– List of information system capabilities needed to
achieve business objectives
• Information requirements:
– Information elements that system must produce
in order to achieve business objectives
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Table 3.2 System Analysis, Business Objectives,
System Functionalities, and Information
Requirements for a Typical E-commerce Site (1 of 2)
Business Objective System Functionality Information Requirements
Display goods Digital Catalog Dynamic text and graphics catalog
Provide product Product database Product description, stocking numbers,
information inventory levels
Personalize/customize Customer on-site Site log for every customer visit; data mining
product tracking capability to identify common customer paths
and appropriate responses
Engage customers in On-site blog; user forums Software with blogging and community forum
conversations functionality
Execute a transaction Shopping cart/payment Secure credit card clearing; multiple payment
system options
Accumulate customer Customer database Name, address, phone, and e-mail for all
information customers; online customer registration
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Table 3.2 System Analysis, Business Objectives,
System Functionalities, and Information
Requirements for a Typical E-commerce Site (2 of 2)
Business Objective System Functionality Information Requirements
Provide after-sale Sales database Customer ID, product, date, payment, shipment
customer support date
Coordinate Ad server, e-mail server, Site behavior log of prospects and customers
marketing/advertising e-mail, campaign linked to e-mail and banner ad campaigns
manager, ad banner
manager
Understand marketing Site tracking and reporting Number of unique visitors, pages visited,
effectiveness system products purchased, identified by marketing
campaign
Provide production Inventory management Product and inventory levels, supplier I D and
and supplier links system contact, order quantity data by product
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Systems Design: Hardware and
Software Platforms
• System design specification:
– Description of main components of a system
and their relationship to one another
• Two components of system design:
– Logical design
▪Data flow diagrams, processing functions,
databases
– Physical design
▪Specifies actual physical, software
components, models, and so on
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Figure 3.6(a) A Logical Design for a
Simple Website
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Figure 3.6(b) Physical Design for a
Simple Website
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Building the System: In-House Versus
Outsourcing
• Outsourcing: Hiring vendors to provide services involved in
building site
• Build own v s. outsourcing:
ersu
– Build your own requires team with diverse skill set; choice
of software tools; both risks and possible benefits
• Host own v s. outsourcing
ersu
– Hosting: Hosting company responsible for ensuring site is
accessible 24/7, for monthly fee
– Co-location: Firm purchases or leases web server (with
control over its operation), but server is located at vendor’s
facility
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Figure 3.7 Choices in Building and
Hosting
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Testing the System
• Testing
– Unit testing
– System testing
– Acceptance testing
– A/B testing (split testing)
– Multivariate testing
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Implementation, Maintenance, and
Optimization
• Systems break down unpredictably
• Maintenance is ongoing
• Maintenance costs: Similar to development costs
– A $40K e-commerce site may require $40K
annually to upkeep
• Benchmarking
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Application Servers
• Web application servers:
– Provide specific business functionality required
for a website
– Type of middleware
▪Isolate business applications from Web
servers and databases
– Single-function applications being replaced by
integrated software tools that combine all
functionality needed for e-commerce site
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E-commerce Merchant Server Software
• Provides basic functionality for sales
– Online catalog
▪List of products available on website
– Shopping cart
▪Allows shoppers to set aside, review, edit selections,
and then make purchase
– Credit card processing
▪Typically works in conjunction with shopping cart
▪Verifies card and puts through credit to company’s
account at checkout
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Choosing Hardware
• Hardware platform:
– Underlying computing equipment needed for e-
commerce functionality
• Objective:
– Enough platform capacity to meet peak demand
without wasting money
• Important to understand the factors that affect
speed, capacity, and scalability of a site
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Right-Sizing Your Hardware Platform:
the Demand Side
• Customer demand:
– Most important factor affecting speed of site
• Factors in overall demand:
– Number of simultaneous users in peak periods
– Nature of customer requests (user profile)
– Type of content (dynamic v s static Web pages)
ersu
– Required security
– Number of items in inventory
– Number of page requests
– Speed of legacy applications
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Other E-commerce Site Tools
• Website design: Basic business considerations
– Enabling customers to find and buy what they need
• Tools for search engine optimization
– Search engine placement
▪ Metatags, titles, content
▪ Identify market niches
▪ Offer expertise
▪ Links
▪ Buy ads
▪ Local e-commerce
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Table 3.10 E-commerce Website Features
That Annoy Customers (1 of 2)
Feature
• Requiring user to view ad or intro page before going to website content
• Pop-up and pop-under ads and windows
• Too many clicks to get to the content
• Links that don’t work
• Confusing navigation; no search function
• Requirement to register and log in before viewing content or ordering
• Slow loading pages
• Content that is out of date
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Table 3.10 E-commerce Website Features
That Annoy Customers (2 of 2)
• Inability to use browser’s Back button
• No contact information available (web form only)
• Unnecessary splash/flash screens, animation, etc.
• Music or other audio that plays automatically
• Unprofessional design elements
• Text not easily legible due to size, color, format
• Typographical errors
• No or unclear returns policy
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Table 3.11 The Eight Most Important Factors
in Successful E-commerce Site Design
Factor Description
Functionality Pages that work, load quickly, and point the customer toward
your product offerings
Informational Links that customers can easily find to discover more about
you and your products
Ease of use Simple foolproof navigation
Redundant navigation Alternative navigation to the same content
Ease of purchase One or two clicks to purchase
Multi-browser Site works with the most popular browsers
functionality
Simple graphics Avoids distracting, obnoxious graphics and sounds that the
user cannot control
Legible text Avoids backgrounds that distort text or make it illegible
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Personalization Tools
• Personalization
– Ability to treat people based on personal
qualities and prior history with site
• Customization
– Ability to change the product to better fit the
needs of the customer
• Cookies
– Primary method to achieve personalization
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The Information Policy Set
• Privacy policy
– Set of public statements declaring how site will
treat customers’ personal information that is
gathered by site
• Accessibility rules
– Set of design objectives that ensure users with
disabilities can effectively access site
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Table 3.13 Unique Features That Must be Taken into
Account When Designing a Mobile Presence
Feature Implications For Mobile Platform
Hardware Mobile hardware is smaller, and there are more resource
constraints in data storage and processing power.
Connectivity The mobile platform is constrained by slower connection
speeds than desktop websites.
Displays Mobile displays are much smaller and require simplification. Some
screens are not good in sunlight.
Interface Touch-screen technology introduces new interaction
routines different from the traditional mouse and keyboard.
The mobile platform is not a good data entry tool but can
be a good navigational tool.
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Careers in E-commerce
• Position: UX Designer
• Qualification/Skills
• Preparing for the Interview
• Possible Interview Questions
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Copyright
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