Introduction - Engaging in Electronic Commerce means you will create a method (an eCommerce solution) to perform financial transactions online relating to the buying and selling of goods and services. You should create this eCommerce solution with an identified market(s) in mind and build your website to provide products and services for that market according to their needs, wants, levels of technology and comfort with online shopping.

To succeed with an eCommerce website you must think like a:

1. Business planner
2. Web Architect/Digital Media planner
3. Technology planner

There are several basic choices that affect the effectiveness of your Website in reaching customers, promoting your products and gaining sales. DIYers will need a lot of skills.

• HTML Coding - Tags
• Authoring Tool - Dreamweaver
• Consultant
• Template/Hosts
  • Yahoo or MSN Proprietary systems
  • Shopsite or other Purchased System

How will you make the Content?

• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• Digital Photography or scanning
• Optimizing graphics
• CGI, Flash, Gif animation
• Interactivity - online forms, Java or C++
• Video and Audio Production - Premiere, etc.
• Database - Access, SQL, MySQL

What features will your web solutions need?

Where will you Host the Website?

How can you market, promote and Advertise the Website?

Can you make it financially feasible?

Marketing Sidebar:
Look up "Commerce" in the Thesaurus:
Meaning = Trade.
Synonyms are: exchange, buying, selling, retail, wholesale, trade.

Marketing = Plans and activities that facilitate an Exchange of Values between Producer and Consumer.

Parts of a Marketing Plan:
Product
Price
Place
Promotion

One of 250 approved AMA definitions = A matching process based on goals and capabilities by which a producer creates a marketing mix that meets consumer wants and needs within the limits of society.

Shopping Center/Virtual Mall
(eCommerce Provider hosted)

C2C & Classifieds: http://www.craigslist.com/
C2C & C2B: http://www.ebay.com/
B2B: http://www.business-auctions.com/
Reverse (C2B): http://www.liquidprice.com/

Financial: http://www.schwab.com/
Market Exchanges: http://www.chemconnect.com/

Don't forget that you are marketing, which means that you are focusing on your market...people or businesses and their needs, wants, motivations and satisfaction.

Online retail sales are growing and are forecasted to continue to grow.

Online Sales 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | Forecast to 2012 | B2B Forecast

Forecasts from e-commerce, by Laudon & Traver, Pearson, 2009

e-commerce, by Laudon & Traver, Pearson, 2009

Top 10 eCommerce Business Mistakes

Products that are difficult to sell online Lack of Marketing and advertising A poorly designed website Outdated site content Poor checkout procedures Not testing your site A hard-to-find or non-existent privacy policy Poor order fulfillment Straying from your areas of expertise Poor customer service

Site Features That Annoy Customers

e-commerce, by Laudon & Traver, Pearson, 2009

Three Basics for Success Online

Help customers find what they need Don't keep customers waiting Make it easy to pay Source AllBusiness.com, The Adviser

Here are a few of the reason you might have to put a business online.

• Provide another communication channel to customers for marketing, promotions, public relations or publicity
• Modernize your image and extend your visibility
• Respond to competitors efforts
• Increase your efficiency in responding to customers
• Provide new services
• Start your first business with less capital than a bricks& mortar store
• Reach new markets and customers
• Share databases and other information electronically
• Reduce costs
• better customer service - less phone calls, FAQs, direct access to info
• New distribution channel and faster reaction to changes
• open 24/7
• Sell products and/or services
• other revenue streams

Assuming you are interested in a serious online business presence, let's look at some of the technical steps you'll need to take to engage in eCommerce: click here for a printable version

First, you need to "get" the idea of needing an eCommerce Solution! What is an eCommerce Solution?

Outline of a full web solution:
Printable Version

• Develop an Online Business Model: Develop an Online Business Model: Startup Costs and Typical Monthly Operations (Revenue streams, expenses and profit + loan service) is it a catalog site, promotional only, how to take orders, accept pay fulfill orders, etc. (Santa Cruz Comic News Model - subscriptions, national market, no online ads, etc)
• Web Architecture
  • pages and website
  • navigation
  • create content
  • database
  • interactivity
• eCommerce Model
  • Web host (ISP)
  • Domain Name
  • Internet merchant bank account
  • Obtain a digital certificate (eCommerce identification) VeriSign
  • Gateway Account or Merchant Service Company (a.k.a. cash settlement provider) CyberCash
  • Dynamic or Static Pages
• Choose an eCommerce solution (may include all the items below):
• Web site design (Do it yourself via HTML or authoring tool (Dreamweaver, BBEdit, HomeSite, FrontPage, etc.), outsource to a company or consultant)
• Rent or buy "Off the Shelf" software (ShopSite)
• E-Commerce Store (Yahoo! Store, osCommerc2! , MSN)
• Webpage building systems Spinsite.com, GoDaddy - Why might these be less than satisfactory eCommerce solutions?
  features
  extra credit
• Cyber Malls & Special Interest Sites
• Auction Sites (C2C, B2C?)
• Catalog or Product Display
• Site Search Mechanisms
• Shopping cart software
• Add credit cards (real time transactions) OR Billing & Payment Intermediary Systems like PayPal
• discount, coupons, sale prices
• Database management
• Order Retrieval and processing
• Order Fulfillment System
  • Interface with transportation - UPS, USPS
  • returns, backorders, invoicing
  • guarantees and warranties
  • Customer Service
  • Order tracking
• Marketing and promoting your site (include publicity effort)

This may look intimidating. AND, it is not nearly as detailed as an actual plan and solution will be. We have the rest of the course to make it become familiar and second nature, both as vocabulary and as business strategies. For now, let's make it simpler. An eCommerce Solution is a business marketing option that has the following basic components:

There are an infinite number of possible ways to do the above technical steps and an infinite number of possible costs. So, to sort this out, let's begin to think in terms of business planning.

Process. The Web site development process is really a business planning process. A simple way to see the process is to reduce it to steps.

1. Develop the Online Business Model
2. Develop the concept of the site and the eCommerce strategy
3. Plan the site structure
4. Determine specific features
5. Create the pages
6. Check the site (spelling, navigation, browsers, etc.)
7. Publish the site
8. Promote and market the site
9. Maintenance
10. Responding to customers
11. Revise

Later in this course, we will take this step-by-step process and fill it out as a business plan, complete with goals, strategies, associated costs, implementation plans, financing, financial projections, distribution and order fulfillment, and organizational plans.

So, that's the basics. Next, we'll look at eCommerce technology and participants in the system that help make it all work.