Chapter 4 Electronic Commerce Software 1 Learning

Chapter 4 Electronic Commerce Software 1

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 modles • Software packages available for small electronic sites 2

Learning Objectives • Software packages suitable for mediumsized 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 3

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 4

Electronic Commerce Requirements • • A catalog display Shopping cart capabilities Transaction processing Tools to populate the store catalog and to facilitate storefront display choices 5

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, “MP 3. com” is a large commerce site and “Women in Music” is a small site. Click to see Figure 4 -1: Click to see Figure 4 -2: 6

Shopping Cart • Online forms were used for online shopping. • A new way of online shopping is through shopping carts. • Quick. Buy is one company that makes this type of shopping cart software. • Cookies are bits of shopping information stored on a client computer. Click to see Figure 4 -3: Click to see Figure 4 -4: 7

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. Click to see Figure 4 -5: 8

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. • B 2 B systems must be able to connect to existing legacy systems, including ERP software packages. 9

Marketing Smarts • Visibility of Web site 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 store’s home page. 10

Hosting Services • The total costs of setting up your own inhouse 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. 11

Types of hosting services • • Self-hosting Shared hosting Dedicated hosting Colocated hosting 12

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 highspeed direct Internet connection. 13

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 store’s time to maintain. • It has a very high-speed connection to the Internet. • It may lose direct control from online stores. • Security concerns arising from unrelated online businesses sharing the same server. 14

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 site’s design. • Higher software costs and maintenance costs. 15

Implications of Colocated Hosting • The server is owned by the online store but is located at the Web host’s site. • The Web host provides maintenance based on the level of service the online business requires. • Maintenance costs are higher than self-hosting. • “Value. Web” is an example of a Web hosting service. It provides services of shared hosting, dedicated hosting, and colocation services. Click to see Figure 4 -6: 16

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 17

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 storefront’s Web pages. • B-City, Biz. Land. com and Hyper. Mart are examples of these types of hosts. • Customer purchase transactions are handled by email in this host service. Click to see Figure 4. 7: 18

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 Banner. Exchange. com, Eurobanner, Exchange-it, Link. Exchange, etc. Click to see Figure 4 -8: 19

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, Geo. Shops, Shop. Builder, and Virtual Spin Internet Store are examples of this type of Web hosts. Click to see Figure 4 -8: 20

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. • Yahoo’s management page contains many management, reporting, and global site setting tools. Click to see Figure 4 -9: Click to see Figure 4 -10: Click to see Figure 4 -11: 21

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. • Bigstep’s reports provide data mining capabilities. • Data mining can help business find customers with common interests. Click to see Figure 4 -13: Click to see Figure 4 -14: 22

Shop. Builder • Shop. Builder provides the electronic commerce tools you need to build a shop on its site. • Shop. Builder automatically generates and sends receipts by e-mail to customers after completing transactions. • Shop. Builder supports real-time transaction processing, including credit card authorization and verification. 23

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. 24

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, Web. Sphere, and Commerce Server 2000 are examples of this type of software. 25

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 DB 2 and Oracle • It has setup wizards and catalog and data management tools. Click to see Figure 4 -16: 26

Web. Sphere Commerce Suite • IBM produces the Web. Sphere Commerce Suite. • It comes complete with catalog templates, setup wizards, and advanced catalog tools. • It can be used both for B 2 B and B 2 C applications. • This system runs on AIX, Solaris, and Windows NT operating systems. Click to see Figure 4 -17: 27

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 28

Commerce Server 2000 • Microsoft pipelines model a series of business processes: – The Commerce Interchange Pipeline for B 2 B – The Order-processing Pipeline for B 2 C • Commerce Server 2000 has tools for advertising, promotions, cross-selling and customer targeting and personalization. Click to see Figure 4 -18: 29

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. 30

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 Click to see Figure 4 -19: 31

Enterprise Solutions for Large Firms • Examples of e-business systems: – IBM’s Web. Sphere Commerce Suite, Pro Edition – Netscape’s Netscape Commerce. Xpert – Oracle’s i. Store – Pandesic Web Business Solution (Intel and SAP) 32