Principles of Electronic Commerce_Unit_II.ppt

IT8005 – Electronic Commerce
IV Year / VIII Semester

UNIT II BUILDING AN E-COMMERCE
WEBSITE, MOBILE SITE AND APPS
Systematic approach to build an E-Commerce:
Planning, System Analysis, System Design,
Building the system, Testing the system,
Implementation and Maintenance, Optimize Web
Performance – Choosing hardware and software –
Other E-Commerce Site tools – Developing a
Mobile Website and Mobile App.

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 Before begin to build a website or app of own, there are some
important questions will need to think about and answer.
 What’s the Idea?
 Where’s the Money: Business and Revenue Model
 Who and Where is the target audience?
 What is the Ballpark? Characterize the Marketplace
 Where’s the content coming from?
 Know Yourself: Conduct a SWOT Analysis

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 Before begin to build a website or app of own,
there are some important questions will need
to think about and answer.
 Develop an E-commerce Presence Map
 Develop a Timeline: Milestones
 How much will this cost?

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 What’s the Idea? (The Visioning Process)
 To have a vision of what hope to accomplish and how
hope to accomplish it.
 The vision includes not just a statement of mission,
but also identification of the target audience,
characterization of the market space, a strategic
analysis, a marketing matrix, and a development
timeline.

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 What’s the Idea? (The Visioning Process)
 It starts with a dream of what’s possible, and
concludes with a timeline and preliminary budget for
development.
 If examine any successful website, usually tell from
the home page what the vision that inspires the site is.

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 Where’s the Money: Business and Revenue
Model:
 To develop a preliminary idea of business and
revenue models.
 Basic business models include portal, e-tailer, content
provider, transaction broker, market creator, service
provider, and community provider.

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 Where’s the Money: Business and Revenue
Model:
 The basic revenue model alternatives are advertising,
subscriptions, transaction fees, sales, and affiliate
revenue.
 Example: the New York Times digital business model
is to both sell subscriptions and sell ad space.

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 Who and Where is the target audience?
 Without a clear understanding of target audience, will not have
a successful e-commerce presence.
 Target audience can be described in a number of ways:
demographics, behavior patterns (lifestyle), current consumption
patterns (online vs. offline purchasing), digital usage patterns,
content creation preferences (blogs, social networks, sites like
Pinterest), and buyer personas (profiles of your typical
customer).

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 What is the Ballpark? Characterize the Marketplace:
 The chances of success will depend greatly on the
characteristics of the market are about to enter, and not just
an entrepreneurial brilliance.
 Enter into a declining market filled with strong
competitors, and you will multiply your chances of failure.

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 What is the Ballpark? Characterize the
Marketplace:
 Enter into a market that is emerging, growing, and has
few competitors, and you stand a better chance.
 Enter a market where there are no players, and you
will either be rewarded handsomely with a profitable
monopoly on a successful product.

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
Marketplace:
 Features of the marketplace to focus on include
the demographics of the market and how an e-
commerce presence fits into the market.

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
Marketplace:
 Is the market growing, or receding in size? If it’s
growing, among which age and income groups?
 Is the marketplace shifting from offline to online
delivery? If so, is the market moving toward
traditional websites, mobile, and/or tablets?

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 Is there a special role for a mobile presence in this market?
What percentage of your target audience uses a website,
smartphone, or tablet?
 What about social networks? What’s the buzz on products like
yours?
 Are your potential customers talking about the products and
services you want to offer on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or
blogs?

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 The structure of the market is described in terms of direct
competitors, suppliers, and substitute products.
 To make a list of the top five or ten competitors and try to
describe their market share, and distinguishing
characteristics.
 To find out everything about competitors.

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 This content is what search engines catalog as they crawl
through all the new and changed web pages on the Internet.
 The content is why customers visit your site and either
purchase things or look at ads that generate revenue.
 The content is the single most important foundation for
your revenue and ultimate success.

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 Two kinds of content: static and dynamic.
 Static content is text and images that do not
frequently change.
 Dynamic content is content that changes regularly,
say, daily or hourly.

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 Know Yourself: Conduct a SWOT Analysis:
 A SWOT analysis is a simple but powerful
method for strategizing about business and
understanding where should focus our efforts.
 It describes your strengths, weaknesses, threats,
and opportunities.

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 Once conducted a SWOT analysis, can consider ways
to overcome weaknesses and build on strengths.
 For instance, consider hiring or partnering to obtain
technical and managerial expertise, and looking for
financing opportunities

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 Develop an E-commerce Presence Map:
 E-commerce has moved from being a PC-centric
activity on the Web to a mobile and tablet-based
activity as well.

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 Potential customers use various devices at different
times during the day
 They involve themselves in different conversations
depending on what they are doing—touching base
with friends, viewing photos on Instagram, tweeting,
or reading a blog.

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 To have a rough idea of the time frame for developing
your e-commerce presence when you begin.
 Break the project down into a small number of phases that
could be completed within a specified time.
 Timeline defers the development of a mobile plan until
after a website and social media plan have been developed
and implemented.

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
Phase Activity Milestone
Phase 1: Planning Envision e-commerce presence;
determine personnel
Mission statement
Phase 2: Website
Development
Acquire content; develop a site design;
arrange for hosting the site
Website plan
Phase 3: Web
Implementation
Develop keywords and metatags; focus
on search engine optimization; identify
potential sponsors
A functional
Website
Phase 4: Social media
plan
Identify appropriate social platforms
and content for your products and
services
A social media
Plan
Phase 5: Social media
implementation
Develop Facebook, Twitter, and
Pinterest presence
Functioning social
media presence
Phase 6: Mobile plan Develop a mobile plan A mobile media plan

E-COMMERCE PRESENCE
 How much will this cost?

E-Commerce Presence – A Systematic Approach
 Building a successful e-commerce presence requires a
keen understanding of business, technology, and social
issues, as well as a systematic approach.
 Challenges:
 developing a clear understanding of business objectives
 knowing how to choose the right technology to achieve
those objectives.

 Be aware of the main areas where you will need to make decisions.
 On the organizational and human resources fronts, to bring together
a team of individuals who possess the skill sets needed to build and
manage a successful e-commerce presence.
 This team will make the key decisions about business objectives
and strategy, technology, design, and social and information
policies.
 To make decisions about hardware, software, and
telecommunications infrastructure.

 Planning: The Systems Development Life
Cycle:
 Next step in building an e-commerce website will
be creating a plan document.
 To tackle a complex problem - To proceed
systematically through a series of steps.

 Planning: 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.

 Planning: The Systems Development Life Cycle:
 Steps:
 Systems analysis/planning
 Systems design
 Building the system
 Testing
 Implementation

 Planning: The Systems Development Life
Cycle:

 Systems Analysis/Planning:
 Identify business objectives,
 System functionality, and
 Information requirements

 To identify the specific business objectives for
your site, and then develop a list of system
functionalities and information requirements.
 Business objectives are simply capabilities you
want your site to have.

 System functionalities are types of information
systems capabilities you will need to achieve your
business objectives.
 The information requirements for a system are the
information elements that the system must produce in
order to achieve the business objectives.

Business Objective System Functionality Information Requirements
Display goods Digital catalog Dynamic text and graphics
catalog
Provide product information Product database Product description,
stocking numbers, inventory
Levels
Personalize/customize
product
Customer on-site tracking Site log for every customer
visit
Engage customers in
conversations
On-site blog; user forums Software with blogging and
community forum
functionality

Business Objective System Functionality Information Requirements
Execute a transaction Shopping cart/payment
system
Secure credit card clearing;
multiple payment options
Accumulate customer
information
Customer database Name, address, phone, and
e-mail
Coordinate
marketing/advertising
Ad server, e-mail server, e-
mail
customers linked to e-mail
and banner ad campaigns
Understand marketing
effectiveness
Site tracking and reporting
system
Number of unique visitors,
pages visited, products
purchased,

 System Design: Hardware and Software
Platforms:
 A system design specification—a description of the
main components in the system and their relationship
to one another.
 The system design itself can be broken down into two
components: a logical design and a physical design.

 System Design: Hardware and Software Platforms:
 A logical design includes a data flow diagram that describes the flow
of information at your e-commerce site.
 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

 System Design: Hardware and Software
Platforms:

 Building the System: In-house versus Outsourcing:
 Outsourcing means that hire an outside vendor to provide
the services involved in building the site rather than using
in-house personnel.
 Second decision to make: will you host (operate) the site
on your firm’s own servers or will you outsource the
hosting to a web host provider?

 Building the System: In-house versus
Outsourcing:

 Build Your Own versus Outsourcing:
 If elect to build your own site, there are a range of
options.
 Unless you are fairly skilled, you should use a pre-
built template to create the website.
 WordPress is a website development tool with a
sophisticated content management system.

 A content management system (CMS) is a database
software program specifically designed to manage
structured and unstructured data and objects in a
website environment.
 A CMS provides web managers and designers with a
centralized control structure to manage website
content.

 WordPress also has thousands of user-built plug-ins and widgets
that you can use to extend the functionality of a website.
 Websites built in WordPress are treated by search engines like
any other website: their content is indexed and made available to
the entire web community.
 Revenue-generating ads, affiliates, and sponsors are the main
sources of revenue for WordPress sites.
 Tools: Google Sites, Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly.

 The decision to build a website on your own has a
number of risks.
 The complexity of features such as shopping carts,
credit card authentication and processing, inventory
management, and order processing, the costs involved
are high.

 Host Your Own versus Outsourcing:
 Most businesses choose to outsource hosting and pay a
company to host their website, which means that the hosting
company is responsible for ensuring the site is “live,” or
accessible, 24 hours a day.
 With a co-location agreement, your firm purchases or leases a
web server (and has total control over its operation) but locates
the server in a vendor’s physical facility.

 Co-location has expanded with the spread of
virtualization where one server has multiple
processors (4 to 16) and can operate multiple
websites at once with multiple operating systems.

 While co-location involves renting physical space for your
hardware, you can think of using a cloud service provider as
renting virtual space in your provider’s infrastructure.
 Cloud services are rapidly replacing co-location because they
are less expensive, and arguably more reliable.
 Cloud service providers offer a standardized infrastructure,
virtualization technology, and employ a pay-as-you-go billing
system.

 Testing the system:
 As much as 50% of the budget can be consumed by
testing and rebuilding.
 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.
 This acceptance test verifies that the business
objectives of the system as originally conceived are in
fact working.

 Another form of testing is called A/B testing (or split
testing).
 This form of testing involves showing two versions (A and
B) of a web page or website to different users to see which
one performs better.
 A template test compares the same general page content
using two different layouts and or design treatments.

 A new concept test compares a control page with one
that is very different.
 A funnel test compares the flow through a series of
pages (such as a product page, to a registration page,
to shopping cart page, versus skipping the registration
page) to see which one results in a higher percentage
of conversions.

 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.

 Implementation and Maintenance:
 The long-term success of an e-commerce site will depend
on a dedicated team of employees (the web team) whose
sole job is to monitor and adapt the site to changing market
conditions.
 The web team must be multi-skilled; it will typically
include programmers, designers, and business managers
drawn from marketing, production, and sales support.

 One of the first tasks of the web team is to listen to
customers’ feedback on the site and respond to that
feedback as necessary.
 A second task is to develop a systematic monitoring
and testing plan to be followed weekly to ensure all
the links are operating, prices are correct, and pages
are updated.

 Other important tasks of the web team include
benchmarking (a process in which the site is
compared with those of competitors in terms of
response speed, quality of layout, and design) and
keeping the site current on pricing and promotions.

 Factors in Optimizing Website Performance:

 Using efficient styles and techniques for page design
and content can reduce response times by two to five
seconds.
 Simple steps include reducing unnecessary HTML
comments and white space, using more efficient
graphics, and avoiding unnecessary links to other
pages in the site.

 Page generation speed can be enhanced by segregating
computer servers to perform dedicated functions (such as
static page generation, application logic, media servers, and
database servers), and using various devices from vendors
to speed up these servers.
 Using a single server or multiple servers to perform
multiple tasks reduces throughput by more than 50%.

 Page delivery can be speeded up by using
specialized content delivery networks or by
increasing local bandwidth.

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
 Simple vs. Multi-Tiered Website Architecture:
 Websites simply delivered web pages to users who
were making requests through their browsers for
HTML pages with content of various sorts.
 Website software was appropriately quite simple—it
consisted of a server computer running basic web
server software – It is called as Single tier system
architecture.

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
 System architecture refers to the arrangement of software, machinery,
and tasks in an information system needed to achieve a specific
functionality.
 The development of e-commerce required a great deal more
interactive functionality, such as the ability to respond to user input
(name and address forms), take customer orders for goods and
services, clear credit card transactions on the fly, consult price and
product databases, and even adjust advertising on the screen based on
user characteristics.

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
 Simple vs. Multi-Tiered Website
Architecture:
 Two-tier architecture:
 Web server responds to requests for web pages and a
database server provides backend data storage.

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
 Multi-tier architecture:
 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.
 A multi-tiered site typically employs several physical computers,
each running some of the software applications and sharing the
workload across many physical computers.

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
 Simple vs. Multi-Tiered Website
Architecture:
 Multi-tier architecture:

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
 Web Server Software:
 All e-commerce sites require basic web server
software to answer requests from customers for HTML
and XML pages.
 When you choose web server software, you will also
be choosing an operating system for your site’s
computers.

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
 Apache, which works with Linux and Unix operating
systems, is the leading web server software.
 Unix is the original programming language of the Internet
and Web, and Linux is a derivative of Unix designed for
the personal computer.
 Apache is free and can be downloaded from many sites on
the Web; it also comes installed on most IBM web servers.

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
 Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) is
another popular type of web server software. IIS is
based on the Windows operating system and is
compatible with a wide selection of Microsoft
utility and support programs.

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
 Web Server Software – Functionality:
Functionality Description
Processing of HTTP requests Receive and respond to client requests for HTML pages
Security services (Secure
Sockets Layer)/ Transport
Layer Security
Verify username and password; process certificates and
private/ public key information required for credit card
processing and other secure information
File Transfer Protocol Permits transfer of very large files from server to server
Search engine Indexing of site content; keyword search capability
Data capture Log file of all visits, time, duration, and referral source
E-mail Ability to send, receive, and store e-mail messages
Site management tools Calculate and display key site statistics, such as unique
visitors, page requests, and origin of requests

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
 Site Management Tools:
 Site management tools are essential if you want to keep your
site working, and if you want to understand how well it is
working.
 Site management tools verify that links on pages are still valid
and also identify orphan files, or files on the site that are not
linked to any pages.
 A site management tool can quickly report on potential
problems and errors that users may encounter.

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
 Site Management Tools:
 Regularly checking that all links on a site are
operational helps prevent irritation and frustration in
users who may decide to take their business elsewhere
to a better functioning site.
 Site management tools can help you understand
consumer behavior on your website.

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
 Dynamic Page Generation Tools:
 E-commerce sites must intensively interact with users who
not only request pages but also request product, price,
availability, and inventory information.
 Example: Amazon.
 E-commerce sites are just like real markets—they are
dynamic. News sites, where stories change constantly, also
are dynamic.

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
 The contents of a web page are stored as objects in a
database, rather than being hard-coded in HTML.
 When the user requests a web page, the contents for that
page are then fetched from the database.
 The objects are retrieved from the database using Common
Gateway Interface (CGI), Active Server Pages (ASP), Java
Server Pages (JSP), or other server-side programs.

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
 Standard data access method called Open Database
Connectivity (ODBC) makes it possible for
applications written in the C programming language to
access data from any database regardless of the
database and operating system software being used via
an ODBC driver that serves as a translator between the
application and the database.

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
 Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) is a version of
ODBC that provides connectivity between applications
written in the Java programming language and a wide
range of databases.
 Price discrimination— the ability to sell the same
product to different customers at different prices

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
 Application Softwares:
 Web application servers are software programs that
provide the specific business functionality required of
a website.
 The basic idea of application servers is to isolate the
business applications from the details of displaying
web pages to users on the front end and the details of
connecting to databases on the back end.

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
 Application servers are a kind of middleware
software that provides the glue connecting
traditional corporate systems to the customer.

CHOOSING SOFTWARE
Application Server Functionality
Catalog display Provides a database for product descriptions and prices
Transaction processing Accepts orders and clears payments
List server Creates and serves mailing lists and manages e-mail
marketing Campaigns
Mail server Manages Internet e-mail
Audio/video server Stores and delivers streaming media content
Chat server Creates an environment for online real-time text and audio
interactions with customers
News server Provides connectivity and displays Internet news feeds
Database server Stores customer, product, and price information

CHOOSING SOFTWARE - E-Commerce Merchant
Server Software Functionality
 Online Catalog:
 A company that wants to sell products online must have a
list, or online catalog, of its products, available on its
website.
 It includes a database capability that will allow for
construction of a customized online catalog.
 The complexity and sophistication of the catalog will vary
depending on the size of the company and its product lines.

 Shopping Cart:
 Shoppers to set aside desired purchases in preparation
for checkout.
 A merchant server software program residing on the
web server, and allows consumers to select
merchandise, review what they have selected, edit
their selections as necessary, and then actually make
the purchase by clicking a button.

 Credit Card Processing:
 It verifies the shopper’s credit card and then puts
through the debit to the card and the credit to the
company’s account at checkout.

CHOOSING SOFTWARE - Merchant Server
Software Packages
 An integrated environment that promises to
provide most or all of the functionality and
capabilities.
 An important element of merchant software
packages is a built-in shopping cart that can
display merchandise, manage orders, and clear
credit card transactions.

Software Packages
 An e-commerce template is a predesigned website that
allows users to customize the look and feel of the site
to fit their business needs and provides a standard set of
functionalities.
 Most templates today contain ready-to-go site designs
with built-in e-commerce functionality like shopping
carts, payment clearance, and site management tools.

Software Packages
 The Basic plan also includes a mobile storefront,
search engine optimization tools, social media
support, and a variety of other marketing tools.
 Open source software is software developed by a
community of programmers and designers, and is
free to use and modify.

Software Packages
Functionality Open Source Software
Web server Apache
Shopping cart, online catalog Many providers: osCommerce, Zen Cart, AgoraCart,
X-cart, AspDotNetStorefront
Credit card processing Credit card acceptance is typically provided in
shopping cart software but you may need a merchant
account from a bank as well
Database MySQL
Programming/scripting language PHP, Perl, Ruby and Django
Analytics Google Analytics, Piwik, CrawlTrack, and Open
Web Analytics

Software Packages
 The disadvantage is that it will take several
months for a single programmer to develop the
site and get all the tools to work together
seamlessly.

Choosing an E-commerce Software Platform
 Evaluating tools and making a choice is one of
the most important and uncertain decisions will
make in building an e-commerce site.
 The real costs are hidden—they involve training
staff to use the tools and integrating the tools into
your business processes and organizational
culture.

Choosing an E-commerce Software Platform
 The following are some of the key factors to consider:
 Functionality, including availability on an SaaS basis
 Support for different business models, including m-commerce
 Business process modeling tools
 Visual site management tools and reporting
 Performance and scalability
 Connectivity to existing business systems
 Compliance with standards
 Global and multicultural capability
 Local sales tax and shipping rules

Choosing Hardware
 The hardware platform refers to all the underlying
computing equipment that the system uses to achieve its e-
commerce functionality.
 To have enough platform capacity to meet peak demand
(avoiding an overload condition), but not so much platform
that you are wasting money.
 Failing to meet peak demand can mean your site is slow, or
actually crashes.

Choosing Hardware
 Right Sizing Hardware Platform: The Demand Side
 Demand on a website is fairly complex and depends primarily
on the type of site you are operating.
 The number of simultaneous users in peak periods, the nature of
customer requests, the type of content, the required security, the
number of items in inventory, the number of page requests, and
the speed of legacy applications that may be needed to supply
data to the web pages are all important factors in overall demand
on a website system.

Choosing Hardware
 Right Sizing Hardware Platform: The Demand
Side
 One important factor to consider is the number of
simultaneous users who will likely visit your site.
 In general, the load created by an individual customer
on a server is typically quite limited and short-lived.

Choosing Hardware
 Right Sizing Hardware Platform: The Demand
Side
 A web session initiated by the typical user is stateless,
meaning that the server does not have to maintain an
ongoing, dedicated interaction with the client.
 A web session typically begins with a page request,
then a server replies, and the session is ended.

Choosing Hardware
 Right Sizing Hardware Platform: The Supply Side:
 Scalability refers to the ability of a site to increase in size
as demand warrants.
 Vertical scaling refers to increasing the processing power
of individual components.
 Horizontal scaling refers to employing multiple computers
to share the workload and increase the “footprint” of the
installation.

Choosing Hardware
 Right Sizing Hardware Platform: The Supply
Side:
 Improving the processing architecture—is a
combination of vertical and horizontal scaling,
combined with artful design decisions.

Other E-Commerce Site Tools
 Website Design: Basic Business Considerations:
 From a business manager’s perspective, there are certain design
objectives you must communicate to your website designers to
let them know how you will evaluate their work.
 At a minimum, your customers will need to find what they need
at your site, make a purchase, and leave.
 A website that annoys customers runs the risk of losing the
customer forever.

 Website Design: Basic Business
Considerations:
E-commerce website features that annoy Customers
Requiring user to view ad or intro page
before going to website content
Inability to use browser’s Back button
Pop-up and pop-under ads and windows No contact information available
Too many clicks to get to the content Unnecessary splash/flash screens, animation,
etc.
Links that don’t work Music or other audio that plays automatically
Confusing navigation; no search function Unprofessional design elements
Requirement to register and log in before
viewing content or ordering
Text not easily legible due to size, color,
format
Slow loading pages Typographical errors
Content that is out of date No or unclear returns policy

 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 functionality Site works with the most popular browsers
Simple graphics Avoids distracting, obnoxious graphics and sounds
Legible text Avoids backgrounds that distort text or make it illegible

 Tools for Search Engine Optimization:
 Metatags, titles, page contents:
 Search engines “crawl” your site and identify keywords as well as
title pages and then index them for use in search arguments.
 Identify market niches:
 Instead of marketing “jewelry,” be more specific, such as
“Victorian jewelry,” or “1950s jewelry” to attract small, specific
groups who are intensely interested in period jewelry and closer to
purchasing.

 Offer expertise:
 FAQ pages, guides, and histories are excellent ways to
build confidence
 Get linked up:
 build a blog that attracts people and who will share
your URL with others and post links in the process.

 Buy ads:
 Choose your keywords and purchase direct exposure on web
pages.
 Local e-commerce:
 If your website is particularly attractive to local people, or
involves products sold locally, use keywords that connote
your location so people can find you nearby.

 Tools for Interactivity and Active Content:
 The more interactive a website is, the more
effective it will be in generating sales and
encouraging return visitors.
 Although functionality and ease of use are the
supreme objectives in site design.

Tools for Interactivity and Active Content
 Common Gateway Interface (CGI):
 A set of standards for communication between a browser and a
program running on a server that allows for interaction between
the user and the server.
 CGI permits an executable program to access all the information
within incoming requests from clients.
 The program can then generate all the output required to make
up the return page (the HTML, script code, text, etc.), and send it
back to the client via the web server.

 Active Server Pages (ASP) and ASP.NET:
 Server-side programming for Windows
 ASP enables developers to easily create and open records
from a database and execute programs within an HTML
page, as well as handle all the various forms of interactivity
found on e-commerce sites.
 ASP permits an interaction to take place between the
browser and the server.

 Active Server Pages (ASP) and ASP.NET:
 ASP uses the same standards as CGI for
communication with the browser.
 ASP.NET 5, a major rewrite aimed at providing
an improved, modern, cross-platform web
framework for cloud.

 Java, Java Server Pages (JSP), and JavaScript:
 Java is a programming language that allows
programmers to create interactivity and active content
on the client computer, thereby saving considerable
load on the server.
 Write Once Run Anywhere [WORA] programs.
 Java is used on 97% of enterprise desktop computers

 Java Server Pages (JSP) is a web page coding standard that
allows developers to use a combination of HTML, JSP scripts,
and Java to dynamically generate web pages in response to user
requests.
 JSP uses Java “servlets,” small Java programs that are specified
in the web page and run on the web server to modify the web
page before it is sent to the user who requested it.

 JavaScript is used to control the objects on an HTML
page and handle interactions with the browser.
 It is most commonly used on the client side to handle
verification and validation of user input, as well as to
implement business logic.

 ActiveX and VBScript:
 ActiveX programming language to compete with Java
and VBScript to compete with JavaScript.
 ActiveX has full access to all the client’s resources—
printers, networks, and hard drives.
 ActiveX and VBScript work only if you are using
Internet Explorer.

 PHP, Ruby on Rails (RoR), and Django:
 PHP is an open source, general purpose scripting
language that is most frequently used in server-side
web applications to generate dynamic web page
content.
 Ruby on Rails (RoR or Rails) is an open source web
application framework based on the Ruby
programming language

 RoR is based on a philosophy known as convention over
configuration, or coding by convention (CoC).
 It means that the framework provides a structured layout that
minimizes the number of decisions that the programmer needs to
make, thereby simplifying and speeding development.
 JavaScript and Ajax are highly integrated into RoR, which
makes it easy to handle Ajax requests for page updates

 Django is also an open source web application
framework.
 It is based on the Python programming language.
 Django is optimized for the creation of complex,
database-driven websites.

 It allows for fast development, focuses on automating
as much as possible, emphasizes the reusability of
various components, and follows the DRY (Don’t
Repeat Yourself) programming principle.
 Example: Instagram

 Other Design Elements:
 Widgets are small chunks of code that execute
automatically in your HTML web page.
 Social networks and blogs use widgets to present users
with content drawn from around the Web (news headlines
from specific news sources, announcements, press releases,
and other routine content), calendars, clocks, weather, live
TV, games, and other functionality.

 Other Design Elements:
 Mashups are a little more complicated and involve pulling
functionality and data from one program and including it in
another.
 The most common mashup involves using Google Maps data
and software and combining it with other data.
 Example: If you have a local real estate website, you can
download Google Maps and satellite image applications to your
site so visitors can get a sense of the neighborhood

Personalization Tools
Personalization - The ability to treat people
based on their personal qualities and prior
history with your site.
 Customization - The ability to change the
product to better fit the needs of the customer.

 To have Personalize web content, if you knew the
personal background of the visitor. You could also
analyze the pattern of clicks and sites visited for every
customer who enters your site.
 The primary method for achieving personalization and
customization is through the placement of cookie files
on the user’s client computer.

A cookie is a small text file placed on the
user’s client computer that can contain any
kind of information about the customer, such
as customer ID, campaign ID, or purchases at
the site.

The Information Policy Set
 A privacy policy—a set of public statements
declaring to your customers how you treat their
personal information that you gather on the site.
 Accessibility rules—a set of design objectives
that ensure disabled users can effectively access
your site.

Developing a Mobile Website and
Building Mobile Applications
 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.
 Like traditional websites, mobile websites run on a
firm’s servers, and are built using standard web tools
such as server-side HTML, Linux, PHP, and SQL.

 Like all websites, the user must be connected
to the Web and performance will depend on
bandwidth.

 A mobile web app is an application built to
run on the mobile web browser built into a
smartphone or tablet computer.
 Mobile web apps are specifically designed for
the mobile platform in terms of screen size,
finger navigation, and graphical simplicity

 Mobile web apps can support complex
interactions used in games and rich media,
perform real-time, on-the-fly calculations, and
can be geo-sensitive using the smartphone’s
built-in global positioning system (GPS)
function.

 A native app is an application designed specifically to
operate using the mobile device’s hardware and operating
system.
 These stand-alone programs can connect to the Internet to
download and upload data, and can operate on this data even
when not connected to the Internet.
 Native apps are built using different programming
languages depending on the device.

 A hybrid app has many of the features of both
a native app and a mobile web app.

 Planning and Building a Mobile Presence:
 Identifying the business objectives, and from
these, deriving the information requirements of
mobile presence.

Business
Objective
System Functionality Information Requirements
Driving sales
Digital catalog; product database Product descriptions, photos,
SKUs, Inventory
Branding
Showing how customers use your
Products
Videos and rich media; product
and customer demonstrations
Building customer
Community
Interactive experiences, games
with multiple players
Games, contests, forums, social
sign-up to Facebook
Advertising and
Promotion
Coupons and flash sales for
slowselling items
Product descriptions, coupon and
inventory management
Gathering
customer
feedback
Ability to retrieve and store user
inputs including text, photos, and
video
Customer sign-in and
identification; customer database

 The first step is to identify the business objectives you
are trying to achieve.
 Once you have a clear sense of business objectives,
you will be able to describe the kind of system
functionality that is needed and specify the
information requirements for your mobile presence.

 After you have identified the business objectives,
system functionality, and information requirements,
think about how to design and build the system.
 Branding or building community – Native app
 Awareness, products – a mobile website or mobile
web app

 Mobile Presence: Design Considerations:
 Designers need to take mobile platform constraints
into account when designing for the mobile platform.
 Mobile first design beginning the e-commerce
development process with a mobile presence rather
than a desktop website.

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.

 Responsive web design (RWD) tools and design
techniques make it possible to design a website
that automatically adjusts its layout and display
according to the screen resolution of the device on
which it is being viewed, whether a desktop, tablet,
or smartphone.

 RWD tools include HTML5 and CSS3 and its three key design
principles involve using flexible grid-based layouts, flexible
images and media, and media queries.
 RWD uses the same HTML code and design for each device,
but uses CSS to adjust the layout and display to the screen’s
form factor.
 RWD sites typically work well for sites that primarily deliver
content.

 Using RWD can be costly, often requiring a
complete redesign of the website’s interface.
 Another problem with RWD, particularly if not
coupled with mobile first design.

 Adaptive web design (AWD) or adaptive delivery or
responsive web design with server-side components
(RESS))
 The server hosting the website detects the attributes of the
device making the request and, using predefined templates
based on device screen size along with CSS and JavaScript,
loads a version of the site that is optimized for the device.

 AWD – Advantages:
 Faster load times,
 The ability to enhance or remove functionality on the fly,
 A better user experience, particularly for businesses where
user intent differs depending on the platform being used.
 A variation on AWD uses a cloud-based platform to provide
similar functionality.

 Cross Platform Mobile App Development Tools:
 Appery.io, a cloud-based platform that enables you to
a drag-anddrop visual builder tool to create HTML5
apps using jQuery Mobile.
 Appery.io supports Android, iOS, and Windows
Phone applications.

 Cross Platform Mobile App Development
Tools:
 Codiqa is a similar tool that is even easier to use.
It also provides a drag-and-drop interface and
builds an app with 100% HTML5 components,
without the need to do any coding.

 Cross Platform Mobile App Development Tools:
 Conduit is a free mobile app builder that allows you to
include a variety of functionality, including e-
commerce, notifications, and a social feed.
 PhoneGap is a mobile development framework that
uses software called Apache Cordova to enable
building hybrid mobile applications using HTML,
CSS, and JavaScript.

 Cross Platform Mobile App Development
Tools:
 Appcelerator is a similar, less technical tool for
creating and managing hybrid mobile apps.

 Mobile Presence: Performance and Cost
Considerations:
 Building a mobile web app that uses the mobile device’s
browser requires more effort and cost than developing a
mobile website and suffers from the same limitations as
any browser-based application.
 The most expensive path to a mobile presence is to build a
native app.

 Mobile Presence: Performance and Cost
Considerations:
 Native apps can require more programming expertise,
although there are many new development packages that
can build mobile native apps with minimal programming
expertise.
 None of the elements used in existing website can be
reused.

Principles of Electronic Commerce_Unit_II.ppt

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