Internet:eCommerce

Overview
Electronic commerce is the name given to any business that takes place electronically. According to the United Nations definition this includes "the sharing of business information by any electronic means (such as email or messenging, World Wide Web, electronic bulletin boards, smart cards, electronic funds transfer and electronic data exchange)". Participants include suppliers, customers, government bodies and other partners.

Usually this refers to the buying and selling of goods or services or the transfer of money over the Internet or an Intranet. However e-commerce also covers advertising, marketing, and disseminating information to employees and customers. Essential to all e-commerce are security issues, such as secure financial transactions and secure access to web-sites.

By 2008, US eCommerce and Online Retail sales were projected to reach $204 billion, an increase of 17 percent over 2007.Apparel ($26.6 billion), computers ($23.9 billion), and autos ($19.3 billion) will be the largest three sales categories. (National Retail Federation, 2009)

Home business
If you are a small home business how can you create a web presence for minimal cost
 * 1) Use Google sites to create a Web site (or weebly.com)
 * 2) List yourself in finda ( http://www.finda.co.nz )
 * 3) List yourself in the Yellow pages online ( http://yellow.co.nz ) - I understand it is possible to get a very basic listing for free
 * 4) Create a Twitter Account and tweet with your instrument as a hash tag
 * 5) Create a Facebook page with basic details
 * 6) Create a Wordpress blog (http://www.wordpress.com ) - and have an RSS feed in Facebook

Note search engines tend to spider social media streams more quickly than web sites.

Retail (e-tailing)
The most obvious example of e-commerce is on-line retail (sometimes called "e-tailing") where web sites have on-line catalogues, and act as virtual stores sometimes gathered into a virtual mall. The benefits of mail order over the web include 24-hour availability, a global reach, and the ability to interact and provide custom information and ordering. For example customers are able to view products on their computers or televisions, access extra information about the products, and visualize the way the products may fit together (e.g. trying different layouts for furniture in a room with dimensions they have entered). Forrester Research estimates e-retail will soar from US$7.8 billion in 1999 to over US$204 billion by 2008.

PCI Compliance This is now in force in New Zealand. NZ retailers who offer website shopping carts that complete commercial transaction over the internet using credit cards need to be PCI compliant. ANZ Eftpos have gone so far as telling retailers that if they don't become complaint before a given timeframe they will no longer be offered the merchant bank facilties that enables the transaction to be handled.(Jones, 2011)

E-Business
Using web technologies it is possible to manage the complete supply chain, from manufacturing to retailing.


 * Selling a twitter service
 * http://www.tweet2eat.co.nz/
 * @Tweet2eat helps Hawke's Bay locals discover deals and events on right now at restaurants, wineries and cafes in Hastings, Napier and Havelock North. Tweet2eat also helps Bay businesses succeed online by reaching Bay locals online and enticing them in.

Case Study: Lion in the Sun
Lion in the Sun ( http://www.lioninthesun.com ) is a UV Protection swimwear e-business based in the UK and New Zealand selling products world-wide. The following diagram shows the e-business model for Lion in the Sun (Sanders, 2009).



Shopping online
Cope, Kristina (2004) 20 questions you must ask before spending a penny shopping online’. eMail communication 13-Aug-2004. Do they...
 * 1) Do they have a Privacy Policy
 * 2) Do they make it easy to purchase it from them?
 * 3) Do they have a Privacy Policy?
 * 4) Does their merchant (who processes their credit card) have a sophisticated fraud-detection and screening solution to minimise scam artists and thieves from counterfeiting your card details? http://support.worldpay.com/fraud/
 * 5) Do they shoow you the total price in your local currency? http://products-from-nz.com/basket
 * 6) Do they show you the freight costs to your doorstep? http://products-from-nz.com/basket
 * 7) Do they keep you informed through the whole order process? http://products-from-nz.com/orderstatus
 * 8) Do they have 3rd party audit certification/review of their website?
 * 9) Do they have a comprehensive warranty and guarantee policy? http://products-from-nz.com/quality
 * 10) Do they promote and adhere to ethical business practices and do they state them for all to see?
 * 11) Do they have a help section?
 * 12) have some customer references to look at? http://products-from-nz.com/opinions
 * 13) tell you a little about themselves?
 * 14) go the extra mile for you?
 * 15) use nice, clear, large images to show you what you are purchasing?
 * 16) give the size of the items they sell in both metric and imperial units?
 * 17) make it easy to find an item in their store?
 * 18) make it easy to browse all the different departments within the store?
 * 19) have clear sizing information if they sell clothes?
 * 20) have clear statements on their site showing their dedication to providing customers with a safe shopping experience?

Growth
20% of e-commerce is business to consumer (B2C) 80% is Business-to-business (B2B) and is the fastest growing.

Retail purchases
Examples of products that are reported to be selling well on-line (not all companies are profitable yet), along with example websites:
 * Books
 * Amazon ( http://www.amazon.com/ )
 * Barns and Noble ( http://www.barnsandnoble.com/ )
 * computer and network products
 * PriceSpy ( http://www.pricespy.co.nz ) - actually uses web services.
 * Dick Smith ( http://www.dse.co.nz/ )
 * Paradigm Computers ( http://www.pp.co.nz )
 * Groceries
 * Woolworths ( http://www.woolworths.co.nz/ ) - online grocery shopping and delivery.
 * Flowers
 * Interflora ( http://www.interflora.co.nz/ )

Money making opportunities
There are many ways that you can make money via the internet, as well as many scams. For example:
 * Work at home mom makes 4,397 pounds/ month Part-Time, News Daily 7. Retrieved October 15, 2010 from http://newsdaily7.com/internet_jobs.html?t202id=24231&t202kw=300biz7 . Note disclaimers at the bottom of the page and that even the comments are probably made up!!

Customer to Business
How Hashtags and Social Media Can Bring Megacorporations to Their Knees (Howe, 2012)

Shopping carts
Most on-line retail web sites use shopping cart systems.
 * These allow you to browse from page to page adding products to your cart.
 * At any time you can check the contents of your cart, and decide to alter the quantities of each item or delete it from the cart.
 * Only when you decide to "check out" do you enter your payment details and submit the order to be processed.
 * Most shopping cart systems also allow you to store your details, so that when you return to make a second order you don’t have to type in your details again.

Store builder software
There are many companies producing Store builder packages that allow you to create a complete online store (e.g. Able Commerce). These products include shopping cart systems along with Back Office components that allow the storeowner to add products, change prices, hide out of stock items, set up promotions, securely download orders and upload a new product database. Usually the whole thing is controlled using a Web browser. They provide product catalogue databases, secure transactions, firewalls between the database and the web site, etc. They may be cheaper than on-line malls, but you don’t get prominent placement on websites, and you are responsible for promoting your site yourself.

Internet banking
All banks now have an internet presence. ASB was the first major bank in NZ to have a bank specifically set up around the Internet.

Market research
In the last few years it has become widely recognized that because of the interactive nature of the Internet, companies can gather data about prospective and current customers in unprecedented amounts. For example they can gather information about individuals and companies through site registration, on-line questionnaires, and as part of taking orders.

The issue of whether data is being collected with the knowledge and permission of market subjects has been raised. Microsoft refers to its policy of data collection as "profiling". A proposed standard has been developed that will allow Internet users to decide who can have what personal information.

Email and fax
E-commerce is also conducted through the more limited electronic forms of communication such as e-mail, and fax. Some companies attempt to use e-mail and fax to send unsolicited ads to consumers and other businesses. However this is usually viewed as online junk mail or spam, so may be counter-productive. A more legitimate use of email are e-mail newsletters for subscribers. These may contain details of web site updates or the latest company or product news. An increasing number of business web sites offer newsletters and they are fast becoming a standard marketing tool. Companies may also buy ad space in email newsletters, also called sponsoring a newsletter. For example many of the major web design and development web sites offer weekly newsletters about the latest issues and products for web design. The mailing list for these can reach many tens of thousands of people, most of whom are presumably industry professionals. This is thus a targeted audience, so the top of each email message has an advert for, usually, a new piece of web design software.

Building brand awareness
Building "brand awareness" is a highly important part of a business` advertising and marketing strategy. According to a study by Opinion Research, the Internet "builds brands at warp speed." James Detorre, president of the Brand Institute, calls the speed with which brands are created and gain recognition on the Internet, "an unbelievable scenario." Talking about the likes of Yahoo!, Netscape, and Amazon.com, he continues, "These companies have become recognized by one out of four adults in the United States rapidly, some in as little as six months. Such an achievement used to take 10 to 20 years."

Promoting your website
(Wilson, 2009), ("21 Ways", 2006)
 * Create a Social Media presence
 * Why use social media? DEI Worldwide (2008), shows the growing impact of social media sites in the USA at that time. Some of the key findings were:
 * 70% of consumers used social media websites as an online resource to get information on a company, brand or product
 * 60% of consumers reported that they would be likely to pass on information online
 * 67% of consumers agreed that recommendations they had received from social media sites had had an influence on their buying decisions
 * Why do users sign up? One survey shows that 64% want to learn about specials or sales, 62% want to learn about new products and services, 35% for entertainment reasons, and 30% for various other reasons. (What Social Followers Want, 2010).
 * Sweepstakes A sweepstake offers people who register on the website or subscribe to a newsletter within a certain timeframe to have a chance of winning a free gift.
 * E-mail
 * newsletters Sending a weekly e-mail newsletter to registered members that offers news and tips related to your company or industry with links back to your site.
 * promotions Promoting your website using e-mail promotions such as vouchers, discounts etc. Spending time on the content and look of the e-mail is important to prevent it looking like spam.
 * Link strategies Driving additional traffic to your site can be achieved by linking your site with other sites. For example, having a link displayed on a tourist information website diverting to your hotel website. Google and other major search engines record the number of incoming links to your website ("link popularity"). More links will help you rank higher in the search engines. Links from trusted sites help your site rank higher than links from lower traffic sites.
 * Online discussion groups and chats Posting content in online discussion groups and chats will show the activity of the business. Ensuring that your URL is included in your signature is very important. Avoiding aggressive marketing techniques ensures that the group or chat is not being spammed. Example include twitter and facebook.
 * Viral marketing techniques Viral marketing is using website visitors to spread the word. Examples of viral marketing are: 'e-mail this link' links, social networking batches such as 'Join Us' on Facebook, etc.
 * Online directory listings Submitting your site to key directories such as Yellow Pages or Yahoo Directory will help get more traffic and a higher ranking.
 * Banner ads Banner ads are very common on the web, but are expensive and usually annoy users, as they distract from the main website they are visiting and may waste bandwidth.

Return on investment
HOW TO: Calculate the ROI of Your Social Media Campaign (Turner, 2010)

B2B: Business to business

 * Ecommerce between businesses
 * E-commerce is not just business to customer (also called B to C or B2C), but also business to business (B to B or B2B) which actually accounts for 80% of all on-line retail.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
EDI is the exchange of business data using an understood data format. It predates today’s Internet. EDI involves data exchange among parties that know each other well and make arrangements for one-to-one (or point-to-point) connection, usually dial-up. In 2000 The NZ Customs service handle $NZ6 billion in transactions a year electronically, B2B. (Hoskings, R. 2000 Sep 11)