Electronic Commerce Software

1
Chapter 4

• Electronic Commerce Software

Electronic Commerce
2
Objectives

• Desirable functions of E-commerce software and
  ISP-hosted solutions
• Types of traditional and electronic stores
• Software packages for small, medium, and large
  e-commerce sites
• Characteristics of several electronic commerce
  sites

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What kind of software solution is necessary for
your needs?

• Range of pricing options, from almost nothing to
  more than 100,000
• Factors that determine E-commerce software needs
• Enterprise size and projected traffic sales
• Budget
• Target commerce audience
• Technical ability, training, and equipment

4
E-commerce Requirements

• All e-commerce solutions must provide at minimum
• A catalog display
• Shopping cart capabilities
• Transaction processing
• Tools to modify and add to the store catalog and
  storefront display

5
Catalog Display

• Definition a static listing of goods and
  services
• Small storefronts (less than 35 items) can have
  minimum navigation and organization
• Large storefronts must categorize items, and
  provide several methods of finding items (i.e.
  search engines)
• Rule Never stand in the way of a customer who
  wants to purchase!

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Large Electronic Commerce Site Figure 4-1
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Soundsoft Inc New Site(www.soundsoft.net)
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Small Electronic Commerce Site Figure 4-2
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Using a Form to Enter an Order Mail Order Online
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Amazon UK Site(www.amazon.co.uk)
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An Electronic Commerce Shopping Cart Figure 4-4
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Shopping cart

• Represents an improvement over forms-based
  shopping
• Forms were awkward and time-intensive
• Not user-friendly, confusing and error-prone
• Shopping carts
• Keeps track of items selected
• Items can be added or removed
• All item identification is stored automatically
• Running totals are kept

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How Shopping Carts Work

• The Web is a stateless system - unable to
  remember from one transmission to another
• Therefore, shopping carts must store information
  about each shopping cart, to avoid mixed-up
  purchases. Methods used include
• Cookies - stored information on a shoppers hard
  drive
• Temporary numbers added to the end of a shoppers
  URL

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Transaction Processing Mechanism

• Required when the shopper clicks the checkout
  button
• Usually, browser changes to Secure Sockets Layer
  (SSL) chapter 6
• Software calculates tax, shipping charges,
  discounts
• Some software packages connect directly with
  shippers to get shipping costs
• Connected with sellers internal accounting
  system to allow tallying of Web sales

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E-commerce Tools

• Inexpensive hosted e-commerce solutions
• Can create a storefront in less than 1 hour
• Fees vary, but some allow online business for a
  few hundred dollars a month one-time setup fees
  can be up to 200
• All charge monthly fee based on number of items
  for sale
• Mid-range systems
• Prices range from 1000 to over 5000
• Connect into database servers, but are not
  included in the commerce server price

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E-commerce Tools

• Large business solutions
• Business-to-consumer transactions
• Business-to-business transactions require
  additional tools
• Encryption
• Authentication
• Digital signatures and signed receipt notices
• Ability to connect to existing legacy systems
  including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
  software

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Business-to-Business Commerce Server
Topology Figure 4-5
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Marketing Smarts

• Critical to obtain visibility to get traffic to
  your site
• Web malls will list your site in a portal-style
  directory
• Least expensive method for getting visibility is
  obtaining and registering your own domain name
• Make the name say something about your business
• Use Meta tags and search engines

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Hosting Services

• Good for businesses unprepared to obtain all the
  hardware and software necessary for a Web
  presence
• Advantages
• Spreads costs of a large website over several
  renters
• Host provides all expertise, registration,
  payment processing, shipping, and taxes
• Lowers costs because other tenants share
  hardware and software infrastructure

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Basic Packages

• Fundamental host services
• Free or low-cost for small businesses (less than
  50 products and low order volume)
• Do not include shopping carts or transaction
  processing
• Host makes money by placing advertising banners
  on storefronts
• Provide templates for constructing a commerce
  site, although unsophisticated

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BizLand.coms Hosting Service Figure 4-6
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Bizland.com today(www.bizland.com)
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Banner AdvertisingExchange Sites

• Help electronic merchants promote their stores
  online
• Banners are mutually exchanged instead of selling
  advertising space
• Provide ad monitoring software to help determine
  their advertising click-through count
• Provide helpful articles on a variety of
  advertising topics

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LinkExchange Figure 4-7
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LinkExchange has gone now straight to Small
Business Solutions (www.bcentral.com)
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Full-Service Mall-Style Hosting

• Offers online stores good service, good Web
  creation tools, and no banner advertising clutter
• Charges a higher monthly fee than basic service
  providers
• Provides shopping cart software
• Comprehensive customer transaction processing,
  including credit card acceptance

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Successful Store Builders andHosting Services

• Yahoo!Store
• Monthly fees that vary between 100 - 700
• Provides store fronts for very small businesses,
  as well as The Shaper Image and Rolling Stone
• Web-based editing of storefronts

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Yahoo! Store(http//store.yahoo.com/)
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Editing a Yahoo!Store Storefront Page Figure 4-8
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An Items Order Page Figure 4-9
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Management, Reporting, and Site Settings
Page Figure 4-10
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A New Favourite(http//www.despair.com/)
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Successful Store Builders andHosting Services

• GeoShops
• Product of GeoCities
• Similar to Yahoo!Store
• Basic plans cost 25
• Transactional Processing costs 100 monthly, plus
  55 cents per-transaction fee, and a set-up fee of
  195
• No long-term contracts

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GeoShops Home Page Figure 4-11
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Successful Store Builders andHosting Services

• ShopBuilder
• Credit card transactions
• Tracks sales trends
• Computes and graphs statistics
• Items sold
• Customers who visit
• Generates and sends receipts by e-mail
• 20 - 250 monthly fee, depending on number of
  items

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ShopBuilder Web Page Sales Statistics Figure 4-12
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Midrange Packages

• INTERSHOP Merchant Edition
• 5,000 package, providing over 50 storefront
  templates, set-up wizards, good catalog and data
  management tools
• Web-based store managing and editing
• Special notice goes to the inventory manager
• Tracks inventory levels, list of transactions,
  enters new products, discount rules

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INTERSHOP Home Page Figure 4-13
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Large E-Business System Architecture Figure 4-16
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Midrange Packages

• Net.Commerce Start
• Produced by IBM
• Costs 5,000
• Scalable to grow as your company grows
• Site building wizards
• Accommodates electronic download products
• Requires some knowledge of JavaScript, Java, or
  C

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Enterprise Solutions forLarge Firms

• IBMs Net.Commerce Pro
• Netscapes Netscape CommerceXpert
• Oracles Internet Commerce Server
• Intel SAPs Pandesic Web Business Solution

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Net.Commerce Home Page Figure 4-14
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IBMs Net.Commerce now called WebSphere
Commerce(http//www-4.ibm.com/software/webservers
/commerce/wcs_pro/)
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Midrange Packages

• Site Server Commerce Edition
• Published by Microsoft
• Site Foundation Wizard
• Store Builder Wizard
• Tools for the commerce cycles
• Engaging the customer
• Transacting an order
• Analyzing the sales information

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Site Server Commerce Edition Home Page Figure 4-15
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