Electronic Commerce Software

1
Chapter 4

• Electronic Commerce Software

2
Learning Objectives

• In this chapter, you will learn about
• Basic functions that an electronic commerce
  package should provide
• Characteristics to look for in an ISP-hosted
  electronic commerce solution
• Types of traditional and electronic store models
• Software packages available for small electronic
  sites

3
Learning Objectives (Cont.)

• Software packages suitable for medium-sized to
  large electronic commerce sites
• Electronic commerce solutions for large
  organizations with an existing infrastructure and
  legacy software in place
• Several electronic commerce sites and their
  characteristics

4
Factors of software solution

• The expected size of the enterprise and its
  projected traffic and sales
• Budget
• Determine your target commerce audience
• Use a full-service ISP or host the electronic
  commerce site in-house

5
Electronic Commerce Requirements

• A catalog display
• Shopping cart capabilities
• Transaction processing
• Tools to populate the store catalog and to
  facilitate storefront display choices

6
Catalog Display

• A small commerce site can have a simple catalog,
  which is a static listing of goods and services.
• Larger catalog has photos of items, descriptions,
  and a search feature.
• For example, MP3.com is a large commerce site
  and Women in Music is a small site.

7
Shopping Cart

• Online forms were used for online shopping.
• A new way of online shopping is through shopping
  carts.
• QuickBuy is one company that makes this type of
  shopping cart software.
• Cookies are bits of shopping information stored
  on a client computer.

8
Transaction Processing

• Transaction processing occurs when the shopper
  proceeds to the virtual checkout counter.
• Software needs to calculate price, volume
  discounts, sales tax, and shipping costs.
• Sales tax may vary in different states.

9
Electronic Commerce Tools

• Inexpensive storefronts that are offered by
  established portals, such as Yahoo!.
• Robust software suites that run on large,
  dedicated computers and interact with database
  systems such as Oracle.
• B2B systems must be able to connect to existing
  legacy systems, including ERP software packages.

10
Marketing Smarts

• Visibility of Web sites is important.
• Web malls will list your Web site in a
  portal-style directory.
• Registering your own domain name helps
  visibility.
• Also, including a META tag in your stores home
  page.

11
Hosting Services

• The total costs of setting up your own in-house
  Web commerce site are expensive.
• Web hosting services allow businesses to start
  electronic commerce inexpensively.
• Web hosting services provide all the services
  that an ISP does.

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Types of hosting services

• Self-hosting
• Shared hosting
• Dedicated hosting
• Collocated hosting

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Implications of Self-hosting

• The online business owns and maintains the server
  and all its software.
• It implies full control, instant hardware access,
  and complete flexibility.
• Business must have additional staff, Web
  expertise, expensive equipment, and a high-speed
  direct Internet connection.

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Implications of Shared Hosting

• Your Web or commerce site resides on the same
  server as several other sites.
• It is inexpensive, requires very little of an
  online stores time to maintain.
• It has a very high-speed connection to the
  Internet.
• It may lose direct control from online stores.
• Security concerns arise from unrelated online
  businesses sharing the same server.

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Implications of Dedicated Hosting

• A Web host provides a server for your Web site
  alone.
• More Web and commerce software options, a good
  high-speed connection, more control to sites
  design become available.
• Higher software costs and maintenance costs can
  be incurred.

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Implications of Collocated Hosting

• The server is owned by the online store but is
  located at the Web hosts site.
• The Web host provides maintenance based on the
  level of service the online business requires.
• Maintenance costs are higher than self-hosting.
• ValueWeb is an example of a Web hosting
  service. It provides services of shared hosting,
  dedicated hosting, and collocation services.

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Comparison of Web Hosting

• Electronic commerce stores get a variety of
  services for a low monthly fee.
• Web hosting customers have their own domain name
  and IP address.
• Advantages of a shared web host over dedicated
  hosting or self-hosting
• Low setup fee
• No staff and capital costs
• Free technical support

18
Fundamental Host Services

• Basic packages are free or low-cost electronic
  commerce software supplied by the Web host for
  building Web sites.
• The host makes money from advertising banners
  placed on the storefronts Web pages.
• B-City, BizLand.com and HyperMart are examples of
  these types of hosts.
• Customer purchase transactions are handled by
  e-mail in this host service.

19
Banner Advertising Exchange Sites

• Banner exchange sites (BESs) are Web sites that
  help electronic merchant promote their stores
  online.
• The BES organizes the banner exchange among
  members, enforces rules, and collects statistics
  of banner advertisement.
• Examples of BESs are BannerExchange.com,
  Eurobanner, Exchange-it, LinkExchange, etc.

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Full-Service, Shared Mall-Style Hosting

• Full-service shared hosting sites provide online
  stores with good service, good Web creation
  tools, and little or no banner advertising
  clutter.
• It charges a monthly fee, one-time setup fees,
  and customer transaction fee.
• Yahoo! Store, GeoShops, ShopBuilder, and Virtual
  Spin Internet Store are examples of this type of
  Web hosts.

21
Yahoo! Store

• Yahoo! Store is a good value among full-service
  shared hosting sites.
• Merchants can create, change, and maintain their
  Yahoo! storefronts through a Web browser.
• On its own site, Yahoo! Holds all the stores
  pages in a proprietary format.
• Yahoos management page contains many management,
  reporting, and global site setting tools.

22
Bigstep.com

• Bigstep.com provides a well-designed storefront
  package without charging hosting fees.
• Bigstep enables merchants to create, change, and
  maintain a storefront through a Web browser.
• Bigsteps reports provide data mining
  capabilities.
• Data mining can help business find customers with
  common interests.

23
ShopBuilder

• ShopBuilder provides the electronic commerce
  tools you need to build a shop on its site.
• ShopBuilder automatically generates and sends
  receipts by e-mail to customers after completing
  transactions.
• ShopBuilder supports real-time transaction
  processing, including credit card authorization
  and verification.

24
Estimated Operating Expenses

• The first-year operating cost can vary depending
  on the Web host selected.
• A good guideline for processing fees is to
  multiply your expected annual gross sales by 3.
• Setup and Web site maintenance costs include
  equipment, communications, physical location and
  staff.

25
Midrange Packages

• Midrange packages allow the merchant to have
  explicit control over merchandising choices, site
  layout, internal architecture, and remote and
  local management options.
• Midrange software has connectivity with database
  systems and store catalog information.
• INTERSHOP enfinity, WebSphere, and Commerce
  Server 2000 are examples of this type of software.

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INTERSHOP enfinity

• INTERSHOP enfinity is produced by INTERSHOP
  Communications Inc.
• This software provides
• search and catalog capabilities
• electronic shopping carts
• online credit card transaction processing
• connection to existing business systems and
  databases, such as DB2 and Oracle
• It has setup wizards and catalog and data
  management tools.

27
WebSphere Commerce Suite

• IBM produces the WebSphere Commerce Suite.
• It comes complete with catalog templates, setup
  wizards, and advanced catalog tools.
• It can be used both for B2B and B2C applications.
• This system runs on AIX, Solaris, and Windows NT
  operating systems.

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Commerce Server 2000

• Microsoft creates the Commerce Server 2000.
• Commerce Server 2000 provides tools for
• User profiling and management
• Transaction processing
• Product and service management
• Target audience marketing

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Commerce Server 2000

• Microsoft pipelines model a series of business
  processes
• The Commerce Interchange Pipeline for B2B
• The Order-processing Pipeline for B2C
• Commerce Server 2000 has tools for advertising,
  promotions, cross-selling and customer targeting
  and personalization.

30
Enterprise Solutions for Large Firms

• Enterprise-level commerce software is called
  e-business software.
• E-business software interacts with a wide variety
  of existing back office systems, including
  database, accounting, and ERP systems.

31
Enterprise Solutions for Large Firms

• An enterprise-scale solution requires
• A Domain Name Server (DNS)
• An SMTP system to handle e-mail
• An HTTP server
• An FTP server for upload and download
  capabilities
• A database server

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Enterprise Solutions for Large Firms

• Examples of e-business systems
• IBMs WebSphere Commerce Suite, Pro Edition
• Netscapes Netscape CommerceXpert
• Oracles iStore
• Pandesic Web Business Solution (Intel and SAP)