E-commerce 2016
business. technology. society.
twelfth edition
global edition
Kenneth C. Laudon
Carol Guercio Traver
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd.
Chapter 4
Building an E-commerce Presence
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd.
Class Discussion
Thegioididong.com
Mục tiêu của thế giới di động khi thiết kế trang web
TMĐT của doanh nghiệp mình?
Những cân nhắc trong việc thiết kế website của
thegioididong?
Thế giới di động đã làm gì để đáp ứng nhu cầu của
người dùng thiết bị di động?
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 3-4
Imagine Your E-commerce Presence
What’s the idea? Vision includes:
Mission statement
Target audience
Intended market space
Strategic analysis
Marketing matrix
Development timeline
Preliminary budget
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 4-5
Imagine Your E-commerce Presence (cont.)
Where’s the money?
Business model(s):
Portal, e-tailer, content provider, transaction broker,
market creator, service provider, community
provider (social networks)
Revenue model(s):
Advertising, subscriptions, transaction fees, sales,
and affiliate revenue
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 4-6
Imagine Your E-commerce Presence (cont.)
Who and where is the target audience?
Describing your audience
Demographics
Age, gender, income, location
Behavior patterns (lifestyle)
Consumption patterns (purchasing habits)
Digital usage patterns
Content creation patterns (blogs, Facebook)
Buyer personas
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Imagine Your E-commerce Presence (cont.)
Characterize the marketplace
Demographics
Size, growth, changes
Structure
Competitors
Suppliers
Substitute products
Where is the content coming from?
Static or dynamic?
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Imagine Your E-commerce Presence (cont.)
Know yourself—SWOT analysis
Develop an e-commerce presence map
Develop a timeline: Milestones
How much will this cost?
Simple Web sites: up to $5000
Small Web start-up: $25,000 to $50,000
Large corporate site: $100,000+ to millions
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 4-9
SWOT Analysis
Figure 4.1, page 193
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E-commerce Presence Map
Figure 4.2, page 194
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Building an E-commerce Site:
A Systematic Approach
Most important management
challenges:
Developing a clear understanding of
business objectives
Knowing how to choose the right
technology to achieve those objectives
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 4-12
Pieces of the Site-Building Puzzle
Main areas where you will need to make
decisions:
Human resources and organizational
capabilities
Creating team with skill set needed to build and
manage a successful site
Hardware/software
Telecommunications
Site design
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 4-13
The Systems Development Life Cycle
Methodology for understanding business
objectives of a system and designing an
appropriate solution
Five major steps:
Systems analysis/planning
Systems design
Building the system
Testing
Implementation
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Web Site Systems Development Life Cycle
Figure 4.5, Page 198
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System Analysis/Planning
Business objectives:
List of capabilities you want your site to have
System functionalities:
List of information system capabilities needed
to achieve business objectives
Information requirements:
Information elements that system must produce
in order to achieve business objectives
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 4-16
Table 4.2, page 199
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Systems Design:
Hardware and Software Platforms
System design specification:
Description of main components of a system and their
relationship to one another
Two components of system design:
Logical design
Data flow diagrams, processing functions, databases
Physical design
Specifies actual physical, software components, models, and
so on
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 4-18
Logical Design for a Simple Web Site
Figure 4.6 (a), Page 201
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Physical Design for a Simple Web Site
Figure 4.6 (b), Page 201
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Build/Host Your Own vs. Outsourcing
Outsourcing: Hiring vendors to provide
services involved in building site
Build own vs. outsourcing:
Build your own requires team with diverse skill set; choice of
software tools; both risks and possible benefits
Host own vs. outsourcing
Hosting: Hosting company responsible for ensuring site is
accessible 24/7, for monthly fee
Co-location: Firm purchases or leases Web server (with control
over its operation), but server is located at vendor’s facility
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Choices in Building and Hosting
Figure 4.7 Page 202
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Testing, Implementation, and
Testing
Maintenance
Unit testing
System testing
Acceptance testing
A/B testing (split testing)
Multivariate testing
Implementation and maintenance:
Maintenance is ongoing
Maintenance costs: Similar to development costs
Benchmarking
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Factors in Web Site Optimization
Figure 4.10, Page 209
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Simple vs. Multi-tiered
Web Site Architecture
System architecture
Arrangement of software, machinery, and tasks in an
information system needed to achieve a specific
functionality
Two-tier
Web server and database server
Multi-tier
Web application servers
Backend, legacy databases
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 4-26
Two-Tier E-commerce Architecture
Figure 4.11(a), Page 211
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Multi-Tier E-commerce Architecture
Figure 4.11(b), Page 211
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Web Server Software
Apache
Leading Web server software
Works with UNIX, Linux operating systems
Reliable, stable, part of open software community
Microsoft’s Internet Information Server
(IIS)
Second major Web server software
Windows-based
Integrated, easy-to-use
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 4-29
Table 4.4, Page 212
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Site Management Tools
Basic tools
Included in all Web servers
Verify that links on pages are still valid
Identify orphan files
Third-party software for advanced
management
Monitor customer purchases, marketing campaign
effectiveness, and so on
Webtrends Analytics 10
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Dynamic Page Generation Tools
Dynamic page generation:
Contents stored in database and fetched when needed
Common tools:
CGI, ASP, JSP, ODBC, JDBC
Advantages
Lowers menu costs
Permits easy online market segmentation
Enables cost-free price discrimination
Enables content management system (CMS)
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 4-32
Application Servers
Web application servers:
Provide specific business functionality required
for a Web site
Type of middleware
Isolate business applications from Web servers and
databases
Single-function applications being replaced by
integrated software tools that combine all
functionality needed for e-commerce site
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 4-33
E-commerce Merchant Server Software
Provides basic functionality for sales
Online catalog
List of products available on Web site
Shopping cart
Allows shoppers to set aside, review, edit selections,
and then make purchase
Credit card processing
Typically works in conjunction with shopping cart
Verifies card and puts through credit to company’s
account at checkout
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Merchant Server Software Packages
Integrated environment that includes most of
functionality needed
Key factors in selecting a package
Functionality
Support for different business models, including (m-commerce)
Business process modeling tools
Visual site management and reporting
Performance and scalability
Connectivity to existing business systems
Compliance with standards
Global and multicultural capability
Local sales tax and shipping rules
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Web Services and Open-Source Options
Options for small firms
Hosted e-commerce sites
Offer site building tools and templates
Example: Yahoo Stores Basic
Open-source merchant server software
Enables you to build truly custom sites
Requires programmer with expertise, time
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Choosing Hardware
Hardware platform:
Underlying computing equipment needed for
e-commerce functionality
Objective:
Enough platform capacity to meet peak demand
without wasting money
Important to understand the factors that
affect speed, capacity, and scalability of a
site
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 4-37
Right-Sizing Your Hardware Platform:
The Demand Side
Customer demand:
Most important factor affecting speed of site
Factors in overall demand:
Number of simultaneous users in peak periods
Nature of customer requests (user profile)
Type of content (dynamic vs. static Web pages)
Required security
Number of items in inventory
Number of page requests
Speed of legacy applications
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Right-Sizing Your Hardware Platform:
The Supply Side
Scalability:
Ability of site to increase in size as demand warrants
Ways to scale hardware:
Vertically
Increase processing power of individual components
Horizontally
Employ multiple computers to share workload
Improve processing architecture
Outsource to cloud service, CDN
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Table 4.8, Page 223
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Table 4.9, Page 224
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Other E-commerce Site Tools
Web site design: Basic business considerations
Enabling customers to find and buy what they need
Tools for Web site optimization
Search engine placement
Metatags, titles, content
Identify market niches, localize site
Offer expertise
Links
Buy ads
Local e-commerce
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Table 4.10, Page 225
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Table 4.11, Page 226
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Tools for Interactivity and
Active Content
CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
ASP (Active Server Pages)/ASP.NET
Java, JSP, and JavaScript
ActiveX and VBScript
ColdFusion
PHP, Ruby on Rails, Django
Other design elements:
Widgets, mashups
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Personalization Tools
Personalization
Ability to treat people based on personal
qualities and prior history with site
Customization
Ability to change the product to better fit the
needs of the customer
Cookies
Primary method to achieve personalization
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The Information Policy Set
Privacy policy
Set of public statements declaring how site will
treat customers’ personal information that is
gathered by site
Accessibility rules
Set of design objectives that ensure disabled
users can effectively access site
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 4-47
Insight on Technology: Class Discussion
Designing for Accessibility
Why might some merchants be reluctant to make
their Web sites accessible to the disabled?
How can Web sites be made more accessible?
Should all Web sites be required by law to provide
“equivalent alternatives” for visual and sound
content?
What additional accessibility problems do mobile
devices pose?
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 3-48
Developing a Mobile Web Site and
Building Mobile Applications
Types of m-commerce software
Mobile Web site
Responsive Web design
Mobile Web app
Native app
Hybrid app
Runs inside native container
App distribution
Based on HTML5, CSS, Javascript
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Planning and Building a Mobile
Presence
Identify business objectives, system
functionality, and information
requirements
Choice:
Mobile Web site or mobile Web app
Less expensive
Native app
Can use device hardware, available offline
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 4-50
Table 4.13, Page 237
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Mobile Presence Design Considerations
Platform constraints
Graphics, file sizes
Mobile first design
Desktop Web site design after mobile design
Responsive Web design (RWD)
CSS site adjusts layout of site according to device screen
resolutions
Adaptive Web design (AWD)
Server delivers different templates or versions of site
optimized for device
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Cross-Platform Mobile App
Development Tools
Objective C, Java
Low cost, open-source alternatives
Appery.io
Codiqa
PhoneGap
MoSync
Appcelerator
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 4-53
Performance and Cost Considerations
Mobile first design: Most efficient
Mobile Web site:
Resizing existing Web site for mobile access is least
expensive
Mobile Web app:
Can utilize browser API
Native app:
Most expensive; requires more programming
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education Ltd. Slide 4-54
Insight on Technology: Class Discussion
Building a Mobile Presence
What are the key differences between user
experience on a Web site and on a mobile
device?
Why would a mobile Web site or app from the
same merchant need different content or
functionality?
In which cases would a merchant want to
develop a mobile app over a mobile Web site?
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 3-55