Building an E-commerce Presence

Building an E-commerce Presence

1. A Systematic Approach

   • Management Challenges
     • Developing a clear understanding of business objectives
     • Knowing how to choose the right technology to achieve those objectives
   • Main Factors to Consider
     • Human resources
     • Management
     • Hardware
       • 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
       • Right-Sizing Your Hardware Platform: The Demand Side
         • Customer demand: Most important factor affecting speed of site
         • Factors
           • Speed of legacy applications
           • Number of simultaneous users in peak periods
           • Nature of customer requests (user profile)
           • Type of content (dynamic vs. static web pages)
           • Required security (e.g. trading sites require higher security)
           • Number of items in inventory
           • Number of page requests
     • Architecture
       • Simple vs. Multi-tiered Website Architecture
         • System Architecture
           • Arrangement of software, machinery, and tasks in an information system needed to achieve a specific functionality
         • Two-tier
           • Web server and database server
         • Multi-tier
           • Web application servers
           • Backend, legacy databases
     • Software
       • Web Server Software
         • Apache
           • Leading web server software
           • Works with UNIX, Linux operating systems
           • Reliable, stable, part of open software community
         • Microsoft’s Internet Information Server (IIS)
           • Second major Web server software
           • Windows-based
           • Integrated, easy-to-use
       • Dynamic Page Generation Tools
         • Definition
           • Contents stored in database and fetched when needed
         • Advanatages
           • Lowers menu costs
           • Permits easy online market segmentation
           • Enables content management system (CMS)
             • Design
             • Content creation
           • Enables cost-free price discrimination
       • Application Servers
         • Provide specific business functionality required for a website
           • mail server, catalogue display, chat server...
         • Single-function applications being replaced by integrated software tools that combine all functionality needed for e-commerce site
         • Type of middleware
           • Isolate business applications from web servers and databases
       • 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
         • Key factors in selecting a package
           • Functionality
           • Support for different business models, including m-commerce
           • Business process modeling tools
           • Visual site management and reporting
           • Performance and scalability
           • Connectivity to existing business systems
           • Compliance with standards
           • Global and multicultural capability
           • Local sales tax and shipping rules
     • Design
     • Telecommunications

2. Planning: The Systems Development Life Cycle

   • Definition
     • Methodology for understanding business objectives of a system and designing an appropriate solution
   • 5 Major Steps
     • Systems 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
     • Systems Designs
       • System Design Specification
         • Description of main components of a system and their relationship to one another
       • 2 Components of System Design
         • Logical Design
           • Data flow diagrams, processing functions, databases
         • Physical Design
           • Specifies actual physical, software components, models, and so on
     • Implementation & Maintenance
       • Systems break down unpredictably
       • Maintenance is ongoing
         • Costs
           • A £40K e-commerce site may require £40K annually to upkeep
       • Benchmarking
         • Comparison in terms of response speed, quality of layout etc
     • Building the System
       • Outsourcing
         • Definition
           • Hiring vendors to provide services involved in building site
         • Build own VS Outsourcing
           • Build your own requires team with diverse skill set; choice of software tools; both risks and possible benefits
         • Host own VS Outsourcing
           • 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
     • Testing
       • Multivariate testing
       • Unit Testing
       • System Testing
       • Acceptance Testing
       • A/B Testing (Split testing)

3. Website performance and behavioural consequences

   • Important website performance dimensions include: content quality and usefulness followed by ease of use and website design
     • Website performance leads to satisfaction, satisfaction leads to loyalty.
   • Trust and system availability
     • Not as strong as for the earlier mentioned items
     • Trust is important for information websites, but even more essential for transaction sites.