The document discusses the benefits and challenges of e-commerce for businesses. It provides examples of HMV and Virgin moving successfully into online sales. Their websites feature videos, games and latest products for sale. Website security is strong since they are well-established brands. The main strengths are appealing to newer generations accustomed to online shopping and easy searches. A weakness is advertisements can confuse consumers on the site.

1. Thomas Carter

2. Global Marketplace
The advantages of a global marketplace means that
people all over the world want to buy stock. E-commerce
means that you don’t have to go to the shops and buy
items and that you can just buy them online and it can
deliver worldwide. E-commerce is a quicker way of buying
items online as it is quick. The use of ecommerce means
that you can sell items all over the world.
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3. 24/7 Trading
24/7 trading is one of the benefits of e-commerce as the
shop would be selling stock at all times. This benefits
customers that work later hours and don’t have time to
do shopping 9-5. This would also help sales because of
the time difference making it so they can buy stock and
get it delivered across the world.
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4. Low Start -up & Running Costs
The low start up is a benefit of E-commerce as you don’t
have to open a shop and all you have to do is buy the
servers to create your shop online which will cost less
overall as you wouldn’t have to pay rent as you would if
you owned a shop. The running cost would not be a lot
as if you owned a shop that would make money it would
cost a lot on rent.
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5. Search Facilities
most e-commerce sites now have a search facility where
it takes just seconds to find the product you want. If you
were in desperate search for stock you could type in
what you needed and it would relocate you to the shop
means more traffic going to the website.
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6. Fluid Pricing
fluid pricing mean that the shops stock is in high
demand the higher the prices will go, plus if the e-
commerce website wants to sell off the stock the
cheaper the items will become. Fluid pricing means
that they will be making more money either way as if
they become popular the prices rise and if they want
to sell off the items the cheaper it will get.
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7. Consumer Trust
The consumers trust between the
company is key and to make a
good relationship with the
customer they must abide to the
customers choice and be fair.
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8. Lack of Human Contact
The lack of human contact puts the downside on the
business as it makes the website seem less friendly and
not too welcoming.
On the positive side, the lack of human contact means the
customer doesn’t have to go out to get the item and that it
can be delivered to the users door.
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9. Product Description Problems
If the product is labelled incorrectly the consumer
might be being buying the wrong item with bad
reputation that will come with it as false advertising for
items.
If the item is wrongly bought and this is the companies
fault it can be returned to seller so that is a positive,
that you will be refunded.
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10. Security issues
The website must entail some security otherwise the
firewall will be hacked with either Trojan or worm
viruses entering the computer system leaving the shop
unprotected and at risk. A good website would never
fail to go down and will always be protected.
If the shop is hacked that means that service cannot
resume and you would be losing out on profit.
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11. Browsers
Browsers allow you to view websites posted on the internet. They normally
need interaction by the user so they can be directed to the correct page.
The features of the browser are toolbar Icons, Display Window, Scroll
Bars. Typically well known browsers are Google chrome and internet
explorer.
Web Authoring Software
Web authoring software is typically written in HTML code and it is when the
users want to create web pages and this software can enable the users to
do so.
The web authoring software essentially writes out the homepage and gives
the user the HTML code to design it.
Adobe Dreamweaver is an example of web authoring software as the
program teaches you to design a webpage and how to make your online
website to look professional.
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12. Database systems
E-commerce websites generally have a database that the user of the website
can scan through to see all the different products.
Amazon would use a database where they would store different products and
also a persons information to see what items they've already viewed.
IP addresses
The ip address determines whether the protocol will allow to transmit the
information across.
protocol is essentially connecting to the ip address which would then decide
whether the information can be accessed by the user.
Ports is what connects the protocol to the ip address and lets the information
be accessed by the user wanting to go on the website.
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13. Domain Names
The domain names needs to be easy as it wont get many searches if it
has a hard name to remember it is best when they are simple words. For
example: gov - Government agencies, org - Organisations (non-profit).
If you have a simple name when the user types in something such as bike
it would come up with your bike shop up for sale.
Most websites have multiple domain names so that they get more traffic
coming to the website.
Multiple Domain Registration
If you need people to visit your website and gain more traffic you should take
up more domain names whilst keeping it simple so more people can find your
website.
If the user uses W3C we can check the compatibility with other browsers and
platforms and this would gain more people on the website.
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14. Ports & Protocols
If the users protocols and ports match that means the user can then go on
to there desired website. If the users ports and protocols do not match they
will not configure unless you change what is wrong.
Browser & Platform Compatibility
The browser compatibility makes it so that the user can gain more traffic
towards the website and using W3C means that the browser and the platform
are both compatible and working.
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15. Paying to be prominent in search engine results
To make sure that the website is going to get viewing
and possible purchases you can pay to make sure that
your website is going to priority and become the top
search on Google results etc. it costs a lot of money
but it would gain more viewership.
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16. Newsgroups & Forums
The website can be posted on to newsgroups
and forums. This is a great way to gain more
interest in the website by telling people of a
great website for shopping. You can create a
page on Facebook and this is free and will
link many people to the website page. On
the downside not many people want to join
these websites as they could get spammed
with information.
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17. Banners & Pop-ups
The banners and pop ups come up on peoples desktop
and this is not very effective as people just use anti
virus ware so they don’t have deal with these things.
On the positive many people see this banner or pop up
and may remember the website for when they next
shop online.
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18. Spam
Spam is an email that is not sent to one
particular customer it is just sent to people in
the mass numbers, this can be annoying as
most of it does not meet the users needs.
Most people would have the spam filtered
out to a junk folder.
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19. Ensuring An Effective User Interface
Having an effective user interface means that people
that are not technology clever can easily work the
website and it also means that the maintenance of
the website is well routine done and working. Having
an effective user interface makes the website get
more views and if it looks good you are more likely to
use it again.
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20. Establishing Customer loyalty in a virtual environment
Having a customer loyalty on the e-commerce website
means rewarding the customers and emailing them offers
with deals. Many of the users will respond well to this and
they might be a returning customer if you see an offer that
you like to see.
Also, you can reward the customers if they buy items off
the website and give them 15% off the next item and they
might return back to the website.
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21. Site Names
Website names are more productive within the user if
they are memorable to the user. Websites such as
eBay, Facebook and YouTube. You will use the website
more if you can remember it.
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22. Direct Marketing
Direct marketing means sending the user
leaflets, newsletter on the latest offer. This
would only occur to a specific market and
they would have to sign up for this offer so
they can gain viewership towards the
website and this might generate more
money.
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23.  Play.com is a website and is very beneficial of e-commerce as
they use things such as shopping and you can add items to your
basket so you can do more shopping and they also make you
add a way of making payment, this makes you feel more inclined
to doing shopping. The title play.com means that this is a
website where you can purchase entertainment devices.

24.  The amazon website shows that they have their own device e.g. the kindle. The
kindle is an amazon made product and is a reading device and if you want to buy
more books on the device. The term amazon means that the search is never ending
as it is as big as the amazon and that they are a big company that sells a lot of items.

25.  EBay is a well-known website that is used by millions of people to sell items online.
EBay generate a large profit of money as they take a percentage of the money used
to sell items on eBay is tariffed and millions of pounds are generated by this every
day. EBay also benefit off ecommerce as they takes sponsors off companies such as
apple and use them on them on their website and this can entice the user to click on
the adverts.
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26. Hacking
Hacking can occur within the website when they haven't got a secure firewall. The
hackers can find out users information such as billing information, bank details.
They can infiltrate this information and use it to spend money on other websites.
This is called ID theft.
Hacking Prevention
The hacking can be prevented by setting up a secure firewall and also
putting encryption behind this to make sure that the website is secure
and cannot be hacked. This means that the website must urge its
users to have strong passwords and to have good anti spyware.
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27. Viruses
Viruses can occur in many different ways. They can be an advertisement
wrongly clicked by the user under false pretentions. There are two different
kinds of viruses that can be sent. The Trojan virus which is a virus which can
slow down your computer whereas the worm virus just hacks into your
computer taking things such as bank details.
Virus Prevention
There are many virus to stop prevention of downloading viruses. You should
have a decent version of spyware which would let you know that the file is
corrupted and dangerous towards the computer. The shop would have to
have a good spyware to make sure they cant be hacked or download viruses.
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28. ID Theft
ID theft is when the website is infiltrated and consumers of the website have their
bank details left within the website on their account have all their information stole.
The identity theft can only occur if the website does not have good spyware to
protect the website.
ID Theft Protection
ID theft can be prevented from happening if the user has a good spyware
and make sure that website is secure and has good encryption codes so
that they cant be hacked.
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29. Strong Passwords
The user would be encouraged to have a strong password so that their
information could not be infiltrated and hacked into. Users should also not use
the same password for every website that they visit as if a website was
hacked they could use that password for another website and use identity
theft. The user would also be encouraged to use a variety of different cases of
letters and also use numbers. Also they should not use key words such as
information on themselves. E.g. date of birth, hometown.
Password example: PassWord123
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30. Business Summary
For companies such as HMV and virgin, they have moved into the
ecommerce side of business and that is selling well and more people are
becoming familiar with the use of ecommerce and this entitles people to buy
online instead of going out to the shop and buying it there.
The websites layout is of videos and games that are for sale giving the user
links to the latest available item.
The website security is well built as the business is well known and within its
span it has not gone down since.
Discuss: What business sells, Why they would have moved into e-commerce, Structure of website, Layout of
products, Website security, Ease of use, Delivery options
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31. Strengths
The strengths of companies moving into the business of ecommerce is that
more people are beginning to use it and the newer generation are beginning to
use technology more frequently and buying items online is very popular.
The strengths of the site HMV is that it is direct to the latest items and it also
has search items for the less desired items.
Weaknesses
The weaknesses of the website is that it is bounded with advertisements for
different websites and items and this makes the consumer not sure what is
happening.
Strengths- think about the benefits for this company when moving into e-commerce. Strengths of current site.
Weaknesses- think about problems that may have had to overcome. Weaknesses of current site.
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