This document provides an overview of e-commerce, including: - Defining e-commerce and outlining its key features such as ubiquity, global reach, and interactivity. - Describing the main types of e-commerce models including B2C, B2B, C2C, P2P, and m-commerce. - Explaining the important hardware and software requirements for building an e-commerce platform, including considering user load, dynamic content needs, and scaling options.

1. E-Commerce Documentation Version 1.0
E-Commerce Guide
Version 1.0 Date: April 08, 2008
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2. E-Commerce Documentation Version 1.0
INDEX
1What is E-Commerce?................................................................................................................................................................................3
2Features of E-Commerce Technology........................................................................................................................................................3
3Five Primary Revenue Models...................................................................................................................................................................4
4Types of E-Commerce Model.....................................................................................................................................................................4
i.B2C............................................................................................................................................................................................................5
ii.B2B...........................................................................................................................................................................................................5
iii.C2C..........................................................................................................................................................................................................6
iv.P2P...........................................................................................................................................................................................................6
v.M-Commerce............................................................................................................................................................................................6
5Key Elements of E-Commerce Business Model.........................................................................................................................................7
6Infrastructure getting better........................................................................................................................................................................8
7Hardware & Software Requirements..........................................................................................................................................................8
8Important Factors of successful e-commerce site.....................................................................................................................................12
9Our approach for e-commerce..................................................................................................................................................................12
i.Logical design of E-Commerce................................................................................................................................................................12
ii.E-Commerce security environment.........................................................................................................................................................13
iii.Security threats in E-Commerce.............................................................................................................................................................13
iv.Technology Solutions.............................................................................................................................................................................13
v.Online Payment Types.............................................................................................................................................................................14
a.Credit Card..............................................................................................................................................................................................14
b.Kaikake...................................................................................................................................................................................................14
c.Tsudo.......................................................................................................................................................................................................14
10Usability.................................................................................................................................................................................................14
11Testing....................................................................................................................................................................................................14
12Reusable components.............................................................................................................................................................................14
13Change Management .............................................................................................................................................................................15
14Maintenance...........................................................................................................................................................................................15
15Technology Recommendation................................................................................................................................................................15
16Inputs required from client.....................................................................................................................................................................16
17To take care various points.....................................................................................................................................................................16
18. General rule of websites.......................................................................................................................................................................20
21
.................................................................................................................................................................................................21
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1 What is E-Commerce?
E-Commerce is digitally enabled commercial transactions between and among organizations and
individuals. Digital enabled commercial transaction means exchange of values digitally most of the
time over the internet.
2 Features of E-Commerce Technology
Prior to the development of e-commerce, the process of marketing and selling goods was a mass-
marketing and sales force driven process. Consumers were considered to be trapped by
geographical and social boundaries, unable to search widely for the best quality and price.
7 unique features of e-commerce technology challenges traditional business thinking and also
explain us why there is lot of interest in e-commerce systems. Then features are as below
1) Ubiquity
In traditional commerce a marketplace is a physical place you visit in order to transact. Whereas e-
commerce is ubiquitous, meaning that it is available just about everywhere at all times. E-
commerce makes it possible to shop from your desktop, at home or work or even car using mobile.
So the market place is extended beyond traditional boundaries and from a temporal and
geographic location.
Ubiquity reduces transaction costs. Now to transact it is no longer necessary that you spend time
and money to travel to a market. At a broader level ubiquity of e-commerce lowers the cognitive
energy required to transact in a market place. Cognitive energy refers to the mental efforts
required to complete the task. It’s a human tendency that when given a choice, humans will
choose the path requiring the least effort i.e. the most convention path.
2) Global Reach
Traditional commerce involves only the local merchants or national merchants with local outlets.
Television and radio stations and newspaper for instance are primarily local and regional institution
with limited but powerful national networks that can attract a national audience. In contrast to this
e-commerce permits commercial transactions to cross cultural and national boundaries far more
conveniently and cost effectively as compared with traditional commerce. Market size for e-
commerce merchant is roughly equal to the size of world’s online population.
3) Universal Standard
This is one major feature of e-commerce that the technical standards of the Internet and therefore
the technical standards for conducting e-commerce are universal standards and they are shared by
all the nations around the world. In contrast to this most traditional commerce differ from one
nation to the next. The universal technical standards of e-commerce lowers market entry cost
(cost that the merchant has to pay to bring their product to market) At the same time, for
consumers, universal standards reduces search cost (efforts required to find suitable products).
With e-commerce it is possible to easily find all the suppliers, prices, and delivery terms of a
specific product anywhere in the world.
4) Richness
E-commerce technologies have changed the traditional trade-off between richness and reach. The
Internet and the web can deliver, to an audience of millions ‘rich‘ marketing messages with text,
video and audio, in a way not possible with traditional commerce technologies such as radio,
television or magazines.
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5) Interactivity
E-Commerce is interactive, meaning they allow for two way communication between merchant and
consumer. Television for instance cannot ask the viewer any questions, enter into conversation
with viewer or request customer information be entered in the form. In contrast all these activities
are possible in e-commerce. Interactivity allows an online merchant to engage a customer in ways
similar to a face-to-face experience, but on much more massive, global scale.
6) Information Density
The internet and the web vastly increase information density. The total amount and quality of
information available to all market participants, customers and merchant is alike. E-Commerce
technologies reduce information collection, storage, processing, and communication costs. At the
same time, these technologies increase greatly the currency, accuracy and timeliness of
information making information more useful and important than ever. As a result information
becomes more plentiful, cheaper and of higher quality.
7) Personalization / Customization
E-commerce technologies permits personalization, Merchant can target their marketing message to
specific individuals by adjusting the message to a persons name, interests and past purchases. The
technologies also permits customization, changing the product or service based on the users
preferences or prior behaviour. Lot of information of the consumer can be gathered at the time of
purchase, with the increase in information density, online merchants can use this information of
past purchases of consumer. The result is a level of personalization and customization unthinkable
with the existing commerce technologies.
3 Five Primary Revenue Models
Revenue Model Example Revenue Source
Advertising Yahoo.com. Fees from advertisers in exchange
for advertisements
Subscription WSJ.com,
Consumerreports.prg,
Sportsline.com.
Fees from subscribers in exchange
for access to content or services
Transaction Fee eBay.com,
e-trade.com.
Fees (commission) for enabling or
executing a transaction
Sales Amazon.com,
Doubleclick.net,
Salesforce.com.
Sales of good, information or
services.
Affiliate Mypoints.com. Fees for business referrals
4 Types of E-Commerce Model
Type of E-commerce Example
B2C – Business to Consumer Amazon.com is a general merchandiser that sells
consumer products to retail consumers.
B2B – Business to Business eSteel.com is a steel industry exchange that creates
an electronic market for steel producers and user
C2C – Consumer to Consumer eBay.com creates a market space where consumers
can auction or sell goods directly to other consumers
P2P – Peer to Peer Gnutella is a software application that permits
consumers to share music with another directly.
M-Commerce – Mobile Commerce Wireless mobile devices such as PDA’s can us used to
conduct commercial transaction.
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i. B2C
Business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce, in which online business seeks to reach individual
consumers and is most well known and familiar type of e-commerce
Business Model Example Description Revenue Model
Portal Yahoo.com, AOL.com,
MSN.com
Offers an integrated package of services
and content such as search, news, e-
mail, chat, music downloads, video
streaming etc
Advertising,
Subscription fees,
Transaction fees.
E-tailer Amazon.com, Online version of retail store, where
customers can shop at any hour of the
day or night without leaving home or
office
Sales of Goods
Content Provider WSJ.com,
Sportsline.com,
CNN.com
Information and entertainment providers
such as newspapers, sports sites, and
other online sources that offer customers
up-to-date news and special interest,
how to guidance, and tips and/ or
information sales
Advertising,
Subscription fees,
affiliate referral
fees
Transaction
Broker
e-Trade.com,
expedia.com,
monster.com
Processors of online sales transactions,
such as stock brokers and travel agent
that increases consumers productivity by
helping them get things done faster and
more cheaply.
Transaction Fees.
Market Creator eBay.com,
Priceline.com
Web-based businesses that use internet
technology to create market that brings
buyers and sellers together
Transaction Fees.
Service Provider xDrive.com,
whatisworthtoyou.com
Companies that make money by selling
users a service, rather than a product
Sales of Services
Community
Provider
About.com,
ivillage.com
Sites where individual with particular
interests, hobbies, and common
experience can come together and
compare notes.
Advertising,
Subscription fees,
affiliate referral
fees
ii. B2B
Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce, in which business focuses on selling to other
business, is about three times the size of B2C e-commerce, even though most of the public
attention has focused on B2c.
Business Model Example Description Revenue Model
Marketplace /
Exchange
DirectAg.com, e-
Steel.com
Helps bring buyers and sellers together
to reduce procurement costs for a
specific industry
Transaction fees.
E-Distributer Grainger.com Connecting business directly with other
businesses, reducing sales cycles and
mark-up
Sales of Goods
B2B Service
Provider
Employeematters.com,
salesforce.com
Rends internet based softwares
application to business.
Sales of Services
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Matchmaker iShip.com Helps business find what they want and
need on the web
Transaction Fees.
Infomediary Doubleclick.net,
autobytel.com
Gathers information from consumers and
uses it to help advertisers find most
appropriate audience. Gathers customer
data, and uses it to direct vendors to
customers.
Sales of
Information
iii. C2C
Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) e-commerce provides a way for consumers to sell each other,
with the help of an online business.
Business Model Example Description Revenue Model
Consumer-to-
Consumer
eBay.com, Half.com Helps consumers connect with other
consumers who have items to sell
Transaction fees.
iv. P2P
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) e-commerce enables users to share files and computer resources without a
common server. Focus of P2P companies is on helping individuals make information available for
anyone’s use by connecting users on the web.
Business Model Example Description Revenue Model
Peer-to-Peer Napster.com,
My.MP3.com
Technology enabling consumers to share
files and services via web.
Subscription fees,
advertising,
transaction fees.
v. M-Commerce
M-commerce, short term for Mobile-commerce, which takes the traditional e-commerce models
and leverages emerging new wireless technologies to permit mobile access to the web.
Traditional e-commerce provides access to any-one, anytime via the Internet. The major
advantage of m-commerce is that it provides access to anyone, anytime and anywhere using
wireless devices.
Business Model Example Description Revenue Model
M-Commerce Amazon.com Extending business applications using
wireless technology
Subscription fees,
advertising,
transaction fees.
Sales of goods /
services etc.
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5 Key Elements of E-Commerce Business Model
For any successful business model in any arena, you must make sure that the model
effectively addresses eight key elements
1) Value proposition: Company’s value proposition is at a very heart of its business model.
Value proposition defines how a company’s product or service fulfils the needs of customers.
Why will customer choose to do business with your firm? What will your firm provide that
other firms do not?
From customers point of view successful e-commerce value proposition includes
personalization and customization of product offerings, reduction of product search costs,
reduction of price discovery costs, and facilitation of transaction by managing product
delivery.
2) Revenue Model
3) Market Opportunity
4) Competitive Environment
5) Competitive Advantage
6) Market Strategy
7) Organizational Development
8) Management Team
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6 Infrastructure getting better
7 Hardware & Software Requirements
To improve speed, capacity and scalability of e-commerce application it is very important to
decide / select the hardware and software.
1) Hardware
In selecting the hardware the objective is to have enough platform capacity to meet the
peak demand (avoiding an overload condition), but not so much that you are wasting
money. Falling to meet the peak demand can mean that your website is slow, or actually
crashes.
To decide the hardware for the application it is very necessary to study the “Demand”
and then work on how the demands can be Supplied. Demands from the e-commerce
site can be listed as below
i) Load factor
ii) Nature of user requests
iii) Dynamic pages on the site
Load factor:
Following are the load factors that should be considered while deciding hardware for your
application
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Innovation
1961 - 1974
Institutionalization
1975 - 1995
Commercialization
1995 
1) Concept of packet
switching - 1961
2) First demonstration of WAN
- 1962
3) Communications
technology hardware of the
Internet is born. The First Inter
Network – 1969
4) First “Killer app” (E-mail) of
the internet is born – 1972
5) Client-Server computing
Invented - 1973
6) Invention of TCP/IP - 1974
1) Desktop computers
Invention - 1980
2) Other 適iller apps like�
telnet and FTP join with E-
mail - 1983
3) Concept of hyperlinked
document introduced 1984�
4) Private firms such as PSI
and UUNET form to handle
commercial Internet traffic
-1988
5) WWW Invention 1989�
6) Internet backbone grew
stronger 1990�
7) Browser Enabled web
pages takes off 1993�
8) First commercial web
browser Netscape becomes�
available 1994�
9) Start of e-commerce era -
1994
1) Fully commercial civilian
Internet is born. Network
Solutions (a private firm) is
given a monopoly to assign
Internet address - 1995
2) Government agencies,
universities and business firms
plan the development of an
internet 100 to 1000 times faster
than the existing Internet 1.
3) Governance over domain
names and addresses passes to
a private nonprofit international
organization.

9. E-Commerce Documentation Version 1.0
Load factors Significance
Number of simultaneous users
and their frequency – Hits per day
The more the visitors you have, the greater the
demand on your system
Nature of customer requests Viewing dynamic pages requires far more capacity
that viewing static web pages
Type of content The more dynamic pages and more large multimedia
files you have, the greater will be the load on the
system
Bandwidth to site The greater the bandwidth connection, the higher the
maximum number of requests will be.
User Requests:
Second factor is user requests which refer to the nature of customer requests and
customer behaviour on your site. An intel study found that 80% of the visitors simply
browse – requesting static web pages. However user request for more advance services
such as search to site, registration, order placing via shopping cart or downloading large
multimedia files require more processing power, and performance may deteriorate
rapidly.
Dynamic Pages:
Requests for dynamic page generation puts load on the processor, this rise in the load
degrades the performance. Dynamic page generation and business logic are CPU
intensive operations and require a great deal of processing power.
The above mentioned Demands can be satisfied by improving the scalability. For scaling
your application to meet the above demands we need to consider the following methods
Scaling Method Description
Vertical Scaling Increase your processing supply by improving
your hardware but maintaining the physical
footprint and number of servers.
Horizontal Scaling Increase your processing supply by adding
servers and increasing your physical facilities..
Improve Processing architecture Increase your processing supply by identifying
operations with similar workloads, and using
dedicated tuned server for each type of load.
Vertical Scaling:
You can scale your site vertically by upgrading the servers from a single processor to
multiple processors.
450 Mhz 450 Mhz 450 MHZ 525 MHZ …. 525 MHZ
Pentium II Pentium III Pentium III Alpha Alpha
Xenon Xenon 21264 21264
Compaq Proliant Compaq Proliant 7000 Compaq AlphaServer 8400
1850, 1 CPU 2 CPU’s, 2GB RAM 14 CPU’s, 28GB RAM
512 MB RAM
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Drawbacks
1) It can become expensive to purchase new machines with every growth cycle and
2) Entire site becomes dependent on a small number of very powerful machines i.e. if
you have two such machines and one goes down, half or entire site may become
unavailable.
Horizontal Scaling:
Horizontal scaling involves adding multiple single processor servers to your site and
handling the load among the servers.
Diagram
Advantages:
1) It is inexpensive and can be accomplished using older PC’s that other wise would be
disposed off.
2) It introduces redundancy – if any machine fails, chances are that another machine
can pick up the load dynamically.
Drawbacks:
1) Special load balancing software is needed to direct the incoming request.
2) When your site grows from a single machine to perhaps ten or twenty the size of the
physical facility required increases and there is added management complexity.
Improve Processing Architecture:
This is a combination of vertical and horizontal scaling, combined with artful design
decision. Some of the most common steps are listed below for improving the
performance of site.
Architecture Improvement Description
Separate Static content from Dynamic
Content
Use specialized servers for each type of
workload
Cache static content Increase RAM to a gigabyte range and store
the static content in RAM
Cache database lookup tables Cache tables used to look up database records
Consolidate business logic on
dedicated servers
Put shopping cart, credit card and other CPU-
intensive activity on dedicated servers
Optimize Code Examine code using review mechanism to
ensure it is operating efficiently.
Optimize the database Examine database queries and executing time
and take necessary steps to reduce access
time.
Advantages:
1) Since the work load gets divided as IO intensive or CPU intensive activity it becomes
easy to fine tune the server for each type of load.
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2) Upgrading the RAM size makes drastically improvement in the server speed and
reduces the load on the hard drive.
3) Number of servers required for concurrent users also reduces.
2) Software
E-Commerce site requires software like web server, application server, and dynamic
page generation tool.
Web Server: All e-commerce sites require basic web server software to answer requests
from customers for HTML or XML pages. The leading web server software choices are
shown below
Apache Http
MS IIS
Netscape
Enterprise
Zeus
Other
The leading web server software with over 60% of the market, is Apache HTTP which works
with UNIX operating system. Apache was developed by the world wide community of internet
innovators. Apache is free and can be downloaded from any site. There are thousands of
utility software program written for Apache.
Microsoft Internet Information Server (MS IIS) is the second major web server software
available with about 20% of the market. IIS is based on Windows NT (windows 2000, 2003,
etc) operating system and is compatible with a wide section of Microsoft utility and support
programs.
Note the choice of web server has little effect on users of the system. As the pages they see
will look the same regardless of the development environment.
Application Servers: Web application servers are software programs that provide a specific
business functionality required for a web site. The basic idea of application server is to
isolate the business application from a details of displaying web pages to the users on the
front end and the details of connecting to database on the back end. Application servers are
middleware software.
Few of the application servers and their functionality is as listed below
Application Server Functionality
Mail Server Manages Internet E-mail.
Audio / Video Server Stores and delivers streaming media content
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Chat Server Creates and environment for online real-time text and audio
interactions with customers
News Server Provides connectivity and displays Internet news feeds
Fax Server Provides fax reception and sending using web server
Database Server Stores customer, product and price information
Ad Server Maintains web-enabled database of advertising banners that
permits customized the personalized display of
advertisements based on customers behaviour and
characteristics.
Dynamic page generation tools: Prior to the development of e-commerce, web sites
primarily delivered unchanging static content in the form of HTML. But after the progress of
the Internet programming the contents of the site keeps on changing dynamically. With the
dynamic page generation, the content of a web page are stored as objects in a database,
rather being hard coded in HTML. Following are the technologies used to store or retrieve the
information from the database base on the fly.
1) CGI (Common Gateway interface)
2) ASP (Active server pages)
3) PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor)
4) JSP (Java Server Pages)
8 Important Factors of successful e-commerce site
Factors Description
Functionality Pages that work, load quickly and point the customer
toward your product offering
Informational Links that customer can easily find to discover more
about you and your product
Ease of use Simple fool-proof navigation
Redundant Navigation Alternative navigation to the same content
Ease of Purchase One or two click to purchase
Multi browser functionality Site works with the most popular browsers
Simple Graphic Avoids distracting, obnoxious graphics and sound that
the user cannot control
Legible text Avoid backgrounds that distort text or make it illegible
9 Our approach for e-commerce
i. Logical design of E-Commerce
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ii. E-Commerce security environment
There are six key dimensions to e-commerce security. They are
1) Integrity: Ability to ensure that information being displayed on the website or
transmitted or received over the internet has not been altered in any way by
unauthorized party.
2) Non repudiation: refers to the ability to ensure that e-commerce participants do
not deny their online actions.
3) Authenticity: Refers to the ability to identify the identity of a person or entity
with whom you are dealing on the internet.
4) Confidentiality: refers to the ability to ensure that messages and data are
available only to those who are authorized to view them.
5) Privacy: refers to the ability to control the use of information a customer provides
about himself to an e-commerce merchant.
6) Availability: refers to the ability to ensure that an e-commerce site continues
function as intended.
iii. Security threats in E-Commerce
iv. Technology Solutions
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v. Online Payment Types
a. Credit Card
b. Kaikake
c. Tsudo
10 Usability
11 Testing
12 Reusable components
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13 Change Management
14 Maintenance
15 Technology Recommendation
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16 Inputs required from client
17 To take care various points
Following points are to be taken care while executing eCommerce project
Requirements:
a. Browsing compatibility: Client needs to mention that which all browser and versions of the
same to be compatible. A list to be prepared, points to be taken care during development
phase.
b. Testing for browsers to be planned and conducted.
c. Inverted V model is to be followed. (To prepare ATC, ITC and UTC while preparing Proto
type & FS, Design and specification documents)
d. Project plan is to be prepared and all the assignments to be included. It keeps on getting
updated.
e. Statistics for no. of users visited, no. of times particular user visited in specific time
f. For standard look & feel, CSS template to be defined where font size, color, etc can be
defined and changed quickly
g. If site required to be Multi linguistic, it is apt to be designed using resource file
h. Location for validations (server side and client side or both to be discussed and defined apt)
i. Adding products and their attributes to be easy
j. Build on existing: check if client allows (OS commerce - readymade shopping cart in php is
proven cart management component)
Screen design and layout-
a. Preparing screen design in html format
b. To prepare a functional document
c. To conduct brain storming sessions within team members, and improve on the gaps
observed in proto type and FS. Involve top resource in the discussions.
d. To get both prototype and FS approved by client.
Design: Following points to be checked
a. Design pattern to be decided (MVC). Project is to be spited into Front end, middle tier
(business rules) and DAO layer.
b. Base unit is to be decided for all future activities (screen or class). Generally screen based
design is simple. All communication to be based on base unit.
c. Framework is to be decided like struts and hibernate.
d. List of common classes is to be prepared.
e. List of other classes is to be prepared.
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f. Output of design document is list of the screens, list of the classes, and list of tables.
g. ER diagram / Database design to be discussed within team members. Primary and
secondary keys of each table are to be reviewed. Subsequently it is to be approved by client.
h. Never ever store the credit card number in DB
i. Each addition / edition is to be captured as fields in database (who, time and date stamp)
j. There are few products which belong to more than one category. We need to handle
categorization of the products appropriately.
Low level design:
a. There are two types of specification format. Type 1 is pseudo code where all technical
information (like class, variable, parameters, their relationship, validations, business rules,
etc) is captured and type 2 is functional document for base unit where all business rules are
captured in detail. Type 2 is generally preferred by developers.
b. Review of specifications is to be conducted by two levels, a. peer to peer and second by
team leader.
c.
Development
a. If feasible important and complex screens to be taken for development prior to other screen
development by forming a technical task team (TTT).
b. TTT understands the issues much in advance than other team members.
c. TTT learning to be shared with all team members
d. Configuration management to be implemented and back up mechanism of configuration
server to be implemented
e. Team is to be formed either as per module wise or tier wise based on the nature of the
project.
f. Coding convention to be prepared, discussed, improved & understood and implemented.
g. Reviews by self, Peer to peer and by PL to be planned and conducted.
h. Unit testing to be conducted
i. Review comments and defects to be uploaded in defect tracking system
Testing:
a. UTC, ITC and ATC to be planned and conducted at apt phases.
b. White box testing and retrieval of data (queries testing) to be conducted
c. For testing payment systems, either dummy server to be installed or separate dummy
account to be operated with the help of third party payment system.
d. Automated testing for reasonable size & critical project would prove beneficial.
e. Payments, delivery, various status (order, shipped, delivered, payment) are extremely
important checks and to be verified by seniors.
f. Currency conversion is most critical functionality
Performance: It is most important points and needs to be taken care right from RA phase
a. Defining and agreeing with client the performance criteria
b. Performance testing to be planned and to be conducted
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c. Queries to be validated on edit-pad of database checking how much time it takes. It is
proven fact that more than 95% improvement is observed by writing correct and efficient
queries. Do nor try to create the same objects (retrieved data) in sub queries.
d. One might need to shift the code from middle tier to stored procedure.
Screen design and layout-
a. Site navigation should be simple. We need to design user friendly and efficient screen flow.
User wants quickly important and as much information. No. of clicks to reach to the
necessary information is important measure for end users’ satisfaction (and followed as
three click rule). Sometimes main link like “purchase” or “add to cart” is missing and
customer is forced to see more details though details given are sufficient.
b. All images used should clearly depict the product/service. Ensure that images are optimized
for rapid download.
c. Check if product is ready to sell or customizable. Screen flow differs in both the cases.
d. Cart creation and retrieval are to be handled with at most care. (front end as well as
database point of view). It should give user friendly feel while navigation, and not of
irritation.
e. Price should change after changing the quantity of the item and press of tab immediately.
(Visit of server becomes necessity)
f. Other related links to be given for reference just to next location.
g. Important information like availability of stock, other products of nearest matching
specification is to be readily given.
h. Sales text must be grammatically sound and spelt correctly. Poor spelling loses credibility
points straight away.
i. Efficient integration of search engines at appropriate screens is important. Ensure that there
is plenty of well laid out textual content on the site to attract search engines as well as to
inform prospective clients. Use keyword and key phrase rich text; that is, utilize copy that
includes common phrases that people would enter into search engines when performing a
query.
j. Wish list like feature is very popular.
k. Get standard pages like policy, term & condition, FAQ, etc from legal expert.
l. A feature like live online chat with customer support is becoming popular and also can be
integrated.
m. Sessions to be killed if secured web page is open without any action for more than
stipulated time
n. Copy and paste of url to other PC should not be working
o. Check the IP address: It's important that each order processed from site also contains
information regarding the IP address of the person placing the order. The IP address can be
easily traced using free tools such as DNS Stuff.
We need to understand type of payment requested by client. In Japan they are generally: a. Credit
card b. Mobile edy c. EZ and d. Cash on delivery. In each case we need to understand the flow
clearly and accordingly interface t be developed. There are good specification documents available
for each payment method.
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Payment gateway and securities
a. To define few screens ssl layer (https) in consultation with client. During these web pages,
transmission of information
b. Get the documents of each payment gateway system (specification)
c. Understand login and authentication parameters, encryption and decryption of the
parameter and at which point of transaction is to be processed.
d. Build the code in line with above
e. Multi currency site is a bit complicated unless payments are handled by third party.
f. While utilizing payment gateways for credit card transactions, it is important to ask the
gateway provider about their screening features (this precedes actual credit card payment
processing).
g. Many payment gateway providers use the Address Verification System (AVS).However
transaction should not be approved when AVS fails.
h. A CVV2 number is the three last digits located on the back of a credit card, or the four
stand-alone digits on the front of an Amex card.
i. There will be screens where registered and non registered users can access. There will be
few screens where authentication of the users would be required or users need to be paid
user. Generally single sign-off is to be avoided if client agrees.
Deployment:
a. Deployment diagram is to be prepared. There is absolute necessity of redundancy for DB
and application servers.
b. Set of development server and live servers to be kept. Before copying the class files/ jar
files to live server, all IT & AT to be conducted and client permission to be sought.
c. Logs are to be maintained for all copy events.
d. Watch the traffic continuously. There are lots of free tools available. We need to conclude
peak hours of the visits.
e. Back up process to be defined and followed for every day. (Incremental and complete back
up methodology)
f.
Few tips: http://www.thunderdata.com/wiki/Main/ECommerceTexas
a. Use a standard merchant account. A merchant account accepts and processes credit cards on
behalf of your business and cost $35 per month through Thunder Data. This small
investment states that a bank has reviewed your credit history and found you a good
candidate for above board transactions giving your buyer confidence to complete the
purchase.
b. Make sure your purchases are funneled through a secure payment gateway. A secure
gateway collects credit card data safely and prevents hackers from intercepting the
information over the Internet. A secure connection is confirmed by the presence of a lock
icon on the lower right corner of the browser and by the https:// designation in the address
bar.
c. Provide good photographs and enlargements. In the absence of touching the product, buyers
want to see excellent representations of what they are buying.
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d. Invest in the aesthetics of the website. Beautiful websites with great products will sell more
than unattractive sites with the same products. First impressions are the most lasting, and on
the web it is extremely important to impress visitors instantly to hold their attention.
e. Avoid a database to display products. Dynamically generated pages --those created from a
database--simply don't have the permanence that static or infrequently changing pages do.
Therefore, they generally perform worse on search engines. How do you tell if a database is
used? Dynamic pages normally show the domain name, with an appended string that uses a
question mark and categories paired with product names or ID values using an equal sign.
Some pages may take the following format:
http://somedomain.com/buy.php?itemid=102
http://somedomain.com/catalog.mv?Product_Type=shirts&Product_No=93A
http://www.somedomain.com/collections.php?specials=AK21B
f. Use static pages to display products for increased search engine performance. Software
such as ThunderCart, a plugin for our editable websites, allows for very easy administration
for the non tech savvy sellers. The intuitive interface allows you to easily upload products,
descriptions, and pricing. We created the plugin to improve search performance for online
catalogs.
g. Invest in search engine optimization or SEO. SEO concentrates on reaching the top pages
of search listings for buyers looking for your products. It is not enough to be found by your
business' name; some buyers will have no idea you exist. You need to be found for those
who are interested in your products or services.
h. Provide an online form to allow your customers to provide you with information you need
in order to help them. The more information you collect on an individual, the better
prepared you will be when you respond. In addition, contact forms allow potential
customers to request additional information at any hour of the day. One note: do try to
make forms comprehensive but not cumbersome.
i. If you receive a contact form, follow up! This simple instruction is extremely important and
one that many website owners tend to neglect. The faster your response time, the greater the
chance you will have to make the sale. We ''strongly recommend that no more than 12
hours elapse before you respond back to your contact
References:
http://www.thunderdata.com/wiki/Main/ECommerceTexas
http://www.topology.org/comms/netmon.html
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles2/ecommerce-articles.htm
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles/ecommerce-site-s1p1.htm
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles2/card-fraud-strategies.htm
18. General rule of websites
Specifications Web site Customer Service Module:--
1. Generally to avoid using green and orange colors.
2. Each page layout shall be consistent.
3. Selection of the images shall be done very critical.
4. Wallpaper shall be bright & simple – selection shall be done very critically.
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5. It is preferred to have No. of frames limited to maximum four: top horizontal, left side –
vertical, for content and bottom links.
6. Mouse over effect shall be incorporated.
7. Scrolling news is a good concept
8. Punch lines shall be created considering the business of Singtel.
9. Menu & sub-menu concept for ease of browsing
10. Repetition of information shall be avoided.
11. Mismatch of the colors shall be avoided.
12. Consistency across the site shall be maintained.
13. Links: Mouse over/out/click functionality: - it is different color when a> mouse over b>
mouse out c> mouse click and d> in which page you are presently. Link text color (within
button) also shall be changed to red after visit.
14. Location of the images in each page shall be consistent wherever possible.
15. To use small colorful arrows for the listing instead of bullet marks for the listing.
16. Text height in all pages shall be same; similarly other parameters also should be consistent
like font style, text color, and intensity of boldness.
17.
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