Chapter 4: E-commerce

Chapter 4: E-commerce

1. What is e-commerce? E-commerce: buying or selling goods or services over the internet.

2. Online Shopping

   • Online shopping process: 1. use the internet to locate a website that sells the good you want ot buy. 2. search the website for your item. 3. add the items you want to buy to your 'shopping basket'. 4. proceed to 'checkout'. 5. choose a method of payment e.g. credit or debit card. 6. enter your card details. 7. enter the address information of where the goods need to be delivered.
   • CUSTOMER: Advantages; 1. can compare prices easily. 2. saves time and money wasted travelling to shops. 3. larger range of items available. 4. goods delivered directly to your home which is convenient for disabled people. Disadvantages; 1. may have to wait a while for item to arrive. 2. high postage costs. 3. need to have a credit or debit card to pay for items. 4. cannot check quality of item before purchase.
   • BUSINESS: Advantages; 1. can sell worldwide. 2. customers who are not local can still buy from them. 3. don't have to pay for a physical shop and electricity etc. Disadvantages; 1. need to keep the website up to date. 2. initial installing costs may be high. 3. have to rely on another company to deliver goods.

3. Booking Online

   • Booking online process: 1. use the internet to find a website that provides what you want e.g. cinema tickets. 2. search the website for the film you want a select it. 3. choose the date, the number of people, the time of the film. 4. proceed to 'checkout'. 5. choose a method of payment. 6. enter your card details. 7. enter your email for your tickets to be confirmed.
   • CUSTOMER: Advantages: 1. can get discounts online. 2. a booking can be made any time of day, any day of the week. 3. no double booking. 4. there is fast or instant responses. Disadvantages; 1. not everyone has access to the internet so cannot book online. 2. you must have a credit or debit card to purchase items.
   • BUSINESS: Advantages; 1. it attracts customers that are not local. 2. physical shop is not needed as customers can do it online Disadvantages; 1. initial installation costs can be high. 2. agencies may close as customers are buying online.

4. Online accounts: when booking online you usually have to set up an account with the website which contains a username, password and some personal details. verification checks are used to ensure you have entered necessary data correctly.

5. Searching for products online: when searching for items online, it can be difficult. when you search for something, you get so many results it can be hard to narrow them down to the ones you want. for example, searching "holidays in Spain" around 40,000,000 sites come up because you get all the sites that contain the word "holiday" as well as all the sites with the word "Spain". By being more specific e.g. "holidays in Spain 2014" you cut the results down to around 20,000. even more specific, "cheap holidays in Spain 2014" you get down to around 100-200.

6. Example questions. Page 17 WJEC ICT textbook, blue box questions.

   • 1. Describe the term e-commerce. Answer: e-commerce is buying and selling goods online. the three different ways are; business to business, customer to customer and business to customer.
   • 2. List the process involved in booking a holiday online. Answer: use the internet to find a website that sells a holiday you want. search the website for deals and other offers. choose the date, number of people, number of rooms, departure and arrival date, etc. proceed to 'checkout'. choose a method of payment. enter your credit or debit card details and confirm. enter shipping address or email if they are e-tickets.
   • 3. Give three advantages to the customer of shopping online. Answer: first, they can order and have everything delivered from their home. second, it is convenient for old or disabled people. third, you can often get offers and discounts online.
   • 4. Explain the process of verification. Answer: data verification is there to check that data entered matches i.e. when you enter a password twice this checks they are both the same. this helps to reduce errors but NOT eliminate them completely.