1. E-commerce allows companies to target global audiences 24/7 through online marketplaces and websites, increasing potential sales. 2. Operating costs are much lower for e-commerce businesses compared to physical stores, as they do not have expenses like rent, utilities, and staffing physical locations. 3. Websites provide useful search functions and fluid pricing that allow customers to easily find products and see up-to-date pricing, improving the customer experience.

2. Global Marketplace
A global marketplace can benefit a company as
audiences can be targeted globally instead of
smaller business that don’t use ecommerce.
1.Increase sales globally
2.Target all ages
3. Expanding company
P2

3. 24/7 Trading
24/7 Trading is very beneficial to a company as
when using ecommerce a global market place
means that people can order from around the
world whenever they want. Sales can be all day
long where as with a shop you have to close it the
website stays on all the time and including
holidays so no matter when it is there are still
sales.
P2

4. Low Start -up & Running Costs
The low costs of ecommerce are a dramatic
advantages to a physical shop as there are several
costs that go with having a shop such as insurance,
rent and décor of the shop compared to a website
there are companies that rent out website at very
low prices which profits for the company are higher
P2

5. Search Facilities
The search facilities in a website allows the user to
search for a criteria that a product/s matches this
could cut time out and immediate stock amounts
which benefit the user more than the company but
this adds to the GUI of the website and adds to the
users view of the website what can induce more
sales.
P2

6. Fluid Pricing
Fluid pricing is when prices can change easily
through a website this is very beneficial to
ecommerce as more money can be made by using
this method whereas staff are need to re-price the
items physically these staff have to be paid which
costs the company whereas with a website
programs can be run to the website r4e price when
the amount of stock is lowered or hired .
P2

7. Consumer Trust
Websites can sometimes put of users with poor
design and uses the website can be described as un
trust worthy this can make a website have very few
sales some of the qualities that may put of
customers are adverts suspicious links.
P2

8. Lack of Human Contact
Human contact is lacked when using e commerce
as this may put off people if they require
information from a person in this field of the shop
that you want to buy from. These expertise can not
given over the website this is a big weakness of e
commerce.
P2

9. Product DescrIPtion Problems
The lack of the physical ability to touch and feel the object
is taken out of the experience when online shopping.
When in store in shops you can test out the product for
quality whereas when online shopping the ability to do
this is lost. The product descrIPtion can be bias as the
company will not point out the
bad points of the products this is
where reviews are better.
P2

10. Security issues
The security issues surrounding e-commerce are buying products
online with credit and debit cards most websites now have a secure
payment software but other have no protect and can be very dangerous
because people can hack and make transactions. Other issues are
not just the details of cards but also
your account with particular
websites that don’t have the
necessary security protocols like
making sure that users have strong
passwords and other security
measures on there servers.
P2

11. Browsers
Web Authoring Software
The web authoring software can help a small company have a website but at a small
cost compared to having to pay a website designer. An example of this software is
adobe Dreamweaver this writes the html code for your you the way
in which create the website is through a GUI interface that is easy to use but can
still create very good websites the licence
for this software is much cheaper the hire a website
designer but may not look as professional. For instance
when a simple square is drawn then the following code
”” is written by the Dreamweaver program you can also use
the program to write code so if learnt then it could be
used using the software makes making a website
much more user friendly.
P1

12. Database systems
IP addresses
IP addresses
These are addresses are given to a device that is connected to the internet each IP
addresses are unique to each device these devices can be specific to a network or
random the IP addresses is made up of four sets of numbers from 0 to 255 fro
instance the common home network address is 192.168.0.2 this is the a devices IP
address. Websites also have there own I address as the website is hosted by a
server which can distribute several IP addresses
Protocols
Protocols are what makes the internet work in a certain way if the protocols are not
the same
Ports
P1

13. Domain Names
Multiple Domain Registration
This is a tactic for more customers and the prevention of rival companies getting
there business. A website for a company is at the heart of ecommerce as when
a user visits the website rather than using a search engine most users type in
the specific address in the address bar and often they make mistakes these
domains(website addresses) are also purchased to stop rival companies getting
them and stealing there business.
Domain name – A name in which the website is called e.g. www.google.co.uk
A good example for this is www.whitehouse.com as you can see is only the
resource location away from www.whitehouse.gov
P1

14. Ports & Protocols
Browser & Platform Compatibility
Browsers are what is referred to when a
program can read html codes and display the
GUI version of this html code. Browsers like
IE9 and Google Chrome are common browsers
with the browsers the websites also updated
and if your browsers are not updated the
compatibility may be compromised. This is the
platform compatibility and some browsers may
not be able to read and produced some code.
All browsers allow you to type in a URL that is
unique to the website also know as a website
address this will often take you straight to the
website if the spelling is correct.
P1

15. Paying to be prominent in search engine results
Being the prominent result in the search engine results is important as most people
will click on this link. For instance when a keyword is typed in to Google then the
first result that best matches the keywords compared to what you have typed.
The company will have to pay to have this link and therefore this is where most of
a search engine money comes from other companies paying for this.
This is a search result for the iPhone
5 immediately the paid results are
prominent and are circled.
The sponsored ads will have paid
more than the main results.
M1

16. Newsgroups & Forums
A newsgroup and forum can be bias when they are official forum the
administrators can manipulate what is on there and what is not so when a user
visits the forum and newsgroup they will only probably see the good points about
the product a positive from this promotion is that from a companies point of view
the users can only see good points and therefore attracted to the product.
Some times unofficial forums do post common problems
and bugs and these do tend to help the user community
with that particular product and they are unofficial they do
not mind if the product doesn’t work well there are there
to help the users.
M1

17. Banners & Pop-ups
Banners and popups are the windows and graphics on websites that advertise and
bot the site and company get money for host the banner whereas popups are
separate windows that pop up and advertise a product or site some people click on
these links as they are convenience at that moment and therefore the user is more
likely to click on it. On most browsers they are popup blockers that stop these from
happening and as well as ad block that stop banners appearing.
Virus’ can be
downloaded with
you knowing from
banners popups
and not genuine
links
M1

18. Spam
Spam are emails that are sent from a company that is trying to advertise there
product most email companies now have a built in spam filter that stop these
emails coming through in to your ordinary inbox and enter you spam folder instead.
When an email comes through from an email address that doesn’t meet the
required characteristics it filters it out and sometimes the email wasn’t actually
spam. Some viruses contain software that allows them to access your email
account on the computer where you
log on and send emails to your
contacts claiming about things you’ve
bought and the contacts click on it
and takes them to the link of the
product and the virus is downloaded
and this process is repeated. Spam is
defined by an email from a address
that was not asked for or signed up
for. M1

19. Ensuring An Effective User Interface
Ensuring An Effective User Interface is important when users visit you’re a site
that they are drawn in to the site the user interface including styling how
professional the site looks and a how well the user can use the site.
For instance when a user visits a site and has a specific product in mind and a
search bar is not there then a user would rather visit a site that does despite price
other things that can affect the effectiveness is the navigation around the site.
Computer users can ranged from novices and experienced users but all websites
must be aimed at the novice and then all users can use the site. Obvisiouly user
interface may need to be easier depending on target audience so the ceebebies
sites will such a easier interface that the smallest of kids can use it.
M1

20. Establishing Customer loyalty in a virtual environment
This is also a benefit of having a good user interface as if a user likes the site
and has a good and effective interface the loyalty it almost guaranteed. In
virtual environment customer service can still be measured like comments
reviews and answers to queries. Other features that make a company have
customer loyalty are:
• Professional styled website
• Helpful features (search bar)
• Accurate delivery
• Low amount of discrepancies
• LOW PRICES
M1

21. Site Names
A site name is an important as that there advantages to some website name and
address such things like
 Short
 simple
 Easy to remember
 Hard to misspell accidentally
An example of this is www.game.co.uk this is hard to misspell this is a good feature
as rival company do have similar name that are rival companies that could steal
their business.
There are companies with multiple sites names that redirect you there site even if
you spell the address the site above although does not have this and some custom
does go to the over company.
M1

22. Direct Marketing
Direct marketing is when a company on a website gives the choice to
there target audience to sign up for news and updates on the
company and their products. This option let the user be part of the
company and there specific target audience.
Some companies offer a weekly or monthly newsletter that is sent by
email to promote their products and price reductions the is a
advantage as is the user has signed that say to the company that
there are interested in the products and are more likely to buy things.
M1

23. Hacking
Hacking Prevention
Hacking
Hacking is a security threat wear security is broken on a machine whether is be
on a personal machine or a server this is where you break the security on a
machine so you can gain access this is strictly illegal and is getting more and
more common and groups are formed to hack information held by the
government.
Hacking prevention
The prevention of hacking is very important if the information on the machine is
valuable. Firewalls are put in place to stop hackers and there are new ones all
the time that are stronger and defend against new hackers. Firewalls stop the
programs used to but hackers sometimes make new software the firewall is not
capable to defend so therefore just slows the hackers down
P3, M2

24. Viruses
Virus Prevention
Virus prevention comes in levels these levels are the amount of protection there
offer paid prevention is better than open source software and also offer different
types of security to the user this is usually firewall internet security and
AntiSpyWare features.
Some virus prevention software offers real time scanning
so if you were downloading something that was malicious
then it would detect it but t sometime the virus is disguised
and it not always detected a deep scan is usually need to
find them all. The anti virus software has a database built in
to the program that has a definition for each virus and is
updated regularly but others have a link to online database
which is also updated.
P3, M2

25. ID Theft Protection
Protection against ID theft is up to the user
they have to vigilante when it comes to paying
online companies like PayPal are trying to stop
identity thieving by securely paying through a
middle man system
ID Theft
Id theft is getting more and more common as computer become more advanced so do
the virus and other software than can help a user thieve an identity. Viruses can send
information to other computers which tells them that tells them that these keys were
pressed say when followed by an email address then can thieve your identity. Other
types of thieve tricking you in to id theft is called phishing were the user is tricked in to
clicking a link to pay for something and then they just recorded what you type and
then they can just access your account. A https webpage is a secure webpage were
security is strong and is very hard for other users to thieve identity.
P3, M2

26. Strong Passwords
Strong passwords are vital to any account no matter how precious to you a
strong password includes:
 Numbers
 Letters
 Special characters
These three features make the password strong by simply make more
outcomes because they are more characters also a password should be at least
8 characters long this makes the possible number of outcomes over 1million.
Things that are not strong passwords
 Dates that are special to you
 Names
 The password “password”
P3

27. Business Summary
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
D1

28. Strengths
Weaknesses
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.
D1