How does the world wide web allow businesses to communicate with customers
Advertising Follow-Up Sales Sales to consumers Sales to other businesses Non-Sales Transactions (statements and bill pay)
What is ecommerce?
business conducted with the Internet and via the web including sales, advertising, and bill pay options
Is setting up an ecommerce site difficult?
Setting up an organization for ecommerce can be as intensive as setting up a physical store front.
What are some business problems that could be solved with an ecommerce site?
Broadening the customer base
Recapturing customers lost to online competitors
Serving existing customers better
Integrating departments of existing business
What are some of the risks of moving online in ecommerce
Same customers moving from in-store to online
Facing new competition online
Existing customers don’t need/want online store
Employee concerns
What are some of the costs of moving online using ecommerce
Computer equipment and infrastructure
Hiring personnel to manage the website
Legal expertise required to protect your intellectual property, regulations online, and customer privacy
What are some of the decisions that need to be made in terms of ecommerce
Design website in-house or hire an ASP (Application Service Provider)
Buy or lease equipment
Use existing software or have custom software written
Give a general overview of how an order is placed (and what your responsibilities are in that cycle as the website owner) starting from the point of the customer discovering your site to the point of sale
Customer learns of your site and goes there
Identify return customers and personalize the site
Provide a secure environment for making purchase
Process the payment
Communicate with accounting and credit company
How do you fulfill orders?
Update inventory
Contact shipping system and shipping company
Arrange pick up and delivery to customer
What are the 9 steps to a typical online transaction
- Customer goes on Internet to your website
- Customer logs into a database management system
- Customer goes into the online order entry system
- Customer goes into the accounting system
- Credit card is verified
- Inventory is checked to make sure there is enough stock
- Customer goes into the shipping system
- Item goes from the shipping system to the shipper
- Item goes from the shipper to the customer
What are some ways that customers learn about your site?
- Conventional print advertising with URL
- An obvious domain name (home page URL)
- Search engine results (sponsored link)
- Presence on a portal (website about a topic) with links to retail, wholesale, and informational websites
What is a domain name?
home page URL
What corporation registers domain names?
ICANN
What does ICANN stand for
Internet corporation for assigned names and numbers
What is a portal?
A website about a topic
What are two efficient ways to identify return customers and personalize the site for them?
- Require the user to register and log in
* Leave a cookie on the users computer
Why should we require the user of an ecommerce site to register and log in
To connect to the database with the user’s past history on the site
What is a cookie
A cookie is a small text file containing information about the user.
Why do we leave cookies on a user’s computer
To allow continuity between one page of a site and another
How do we provide a secure environment for making a purchase
Encryption and Authentication
What is the role of encryption in ecommerce
ensure sensitive information is encrypted for transmission
What is the role of authentication in ecommerce
verify that your website is legitimate
What are two payment processing options
1: Process payment while the customer waits
2: Record order and payment info and complete transaction offline and then email customer the confirmation
Explain payment processing option 1: while the customer waits
- Online form communicates with accounting software
- Accounting system verifies customer credit
- Customer can correct bad information
- No need to keep credit card numbers
