The document discusses several advantages and disadvantages of online shopping and e-commerce websites compared to traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Key advantages include websites being accessible 24/7 from anywhere in the world, having lower start-up and running costs than a physical store, and allowing for easier product searches. However, some customers may prefer human interaction and be worried about security, privacy, or inaccurate product descriptions online. The document also covers related topics like internet browsers, web authoring software, and techniques for advertising and marketing websites.

3. Global Marketplace
Anybody in the world can access the internet, meaning that anybody can
access a particular website, making a companies items much more
accessible than if company had a shop.
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4. 24/7 Trading
A website can be accessed at any time of the day, whereas, shops
usually shut at 6pm. This makes a companies products more accessible
to the rest of the world.
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5. Low Start -up & Running Costs
Hiring a domain is usually relatively cheap, and once a website is designed,
there is no need to update it for a while, keeping costs down, and saving the
company money.
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6. Search Facilities
Instead of looking around a city centre, and looking around a shop, customers
can use a search engine to easily find a particular needed item. This makes
shopping a lot easier, and causes less stress for a customer.
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7. Fluid Pricing
When prices are increased or decreased quickly depending on
circumstances, this is called fluid pricing. This can save a customer a lot of
money, as prices drop a lot.
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8. Consumer Trust
Consumers can worry about several different issues when using e-commerce
sites, amongst those are worries over whether the company is a legitimate,
worries over their personal information and security worries.
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9. Lack of Human Contact
Some customers are deterred from purchasing online because they cannot speak
to anyone from the business directly. Some find this impersonal and prefer to have
face to face contact.
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10. Product Description Problems
Some consumers may worry that what is described on the e-commerce site
might not accurately reflect the real product. This is especially difficult with
colour options as some computers display colours slightly differently. The quality
of the image used is also another factor.
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11. Security issues
Perhaps the main worry for consumers is that their financial details will not be safe,
that the business will use them in some unauthorised way or security of this
information may not be sufficient.
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12. Browsers
An internet browser is a piece of software on which you can access the
internet. They usually have a clean, simple GUI, and are generally easy to
use. Some examples of this are Opera, Chrome, Firefox, TOR, and Internet
Explorer
Web Authoring Software
You use web authoring software to create websites, which can then be
accessed from anywhere on the internet. An example of web authoring
software is Dreamweaver.
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13. Database systems
A database system is a table of data in which a
user can input information. You can make graphs
that coincide with the data.
IP addresses
An IP address is a series of numbers given by an
ISP which can be used to identify a computer.
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14. Domain Names
A domain name is a URL in which a user can
search for and find a company or organisations
website.
Multiple Domain Registration
A domain name is a URL in which a user can
search for and find a company or organisations
website.
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15. Paying to be prominent in search engine results
Companies can pay the owners of search engine
to place their website at the top of search results,
which will improve business and lead to a profit
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16. Newsgroups & Forums
A forum is a type of site where discussions about
particular topics take place. Users can express
their opinions and others can comment on these.
A newsgroup is a site that displays current events
which are popular.
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17. Banners & Pop-ups
Banners are usually advertisements, which
companies pay for, to improve custom. Pop-ups
are usually similar, but the advert ‘pops-up’ in a
new window, covering the current, causing the
user to view it. These are a popular way to
advertise relatively cheaply. The Advert is usually
hyperlinked to the companies site so if a user is
interested, they need only click it.
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18. Spam
Spam usually comes in the form of emails.
Companies usually mass send emails to many
recipients in order to widely advertise their
company, for free.
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19. Ensuring An Effective User Interface
It is important that sites are clean, simple and
easy to- use. If a site is cluttered, a customer will
be less likely to be bothered to wade through the
pages looking for items, and use a different site.
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20. Establishing Customer loyalty in a virtual environment
Websites can do promotions, in the form of a
code, which can give 10% off purchases. This
entices customers to buy off a companies site,
and not take their business elsewhere.
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21. Site Names
It is important to have a easy to remember URL. If
a URL is hard to remember, a customer is less
likely to use it.
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22. Direct Marketing
Direct marketing sends advertisements to
particular audiences, based on specific pieces of
data compiled from various sources. This makes
adverts more appealing to an audience. It is
basically the opposite of spam emails.
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23. Hacking
Forcing your way into a computer system by bypassing or going
through passwords, to acquire information.
Hacking Prevention
Make sure passwords are strong and secure, and make sure
antivirus and antimalware is up to date.
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24. Viruses
Software made to either steal information, such as bank details or
mess up software or hardware.
Virus Prevention
As before, make sure passwords are strong and secure, and make
sure antivirus and antimalware is up to date. Do not download dodgy
software or files from the internet.
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25. ID Theft
Stealing bank details and personal details, in order to use
somebodies credit cards to purchase things. This usually happens
when a user gets a Worm or a keylogger virus.
ID Theft Protection
Make sure you scan your PC regularly for spyware.
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26. Strong Passwords
It is very important to not use easy to guess passwords, such as
‘password’ or ‘Password123’. It is advised to use a password with
capital letters, lowercase letters, numbers and punctuation, to ensure
that it is hard to get your password.
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