CIN 611ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

ASSIGNMENT 1
1. Discuss how E- Commerce websites work in as much detail as possible.

The basic components of an e-commerce system

Whether you're buying in a store or buying online, everything you do is geared around
a transaction: the basic exchange of money for goods or services. In a real-world store, you
simply take your new jeans to the checkout, hand over some cash, and leave the store with
your purchase in a bag—that's a transaction. It works in a similar way if you're buying online,
but there's one important difference: you never actually get to handle (or even see) the goods
until they arrive at your home sometime later.

If this makes buying online slightly problematic for the purchaser, it also introduces two extra
problems for the retailer (or e-tailer, as online retailers are sometimes known). Apart from
having some means of processing transactions online, it means they also need a way of
checking that the goods you've ordered are actually in stock, and a means of dispatching and
delivering the goods to your address.

In short, then, e-commerce is about combining three different systems: a Web server that can
manage an online storefront and process transactions (making appropriate links to
bank computers to check out people's credit card details), a database system that can keep a
check of the items the store has in stock (constantly updating as people make orders and ideally
making new orders with suppliers when stocks run low), and a dispatch system linked to a
warehouse where the goods can be instantly located and sent to the buyer as quickly as
possible.

Only the first of these three systems is strictly necessary for e-commerce. Many people
successfully run small-scale online stores without either complicated databases or dispatch
systems: they simply have a website to publicize their business and take orders and then they
manage the stock control and dispatch in more traditional ways. Small traders who sell items
on the auction website eBay often work in this way, for example. Their "databases" are in their
head; their "dispatch system" is simply a walk to the local post office.

How do you design an e-commerce website?

The design of virtual stores is often the most important factor in the success or failure of online
businesses. That doesn't simply mean that e-commerce web sites have to
look attractive (though they do): they have to be usable (quick and easy to navigate around
without irritating or confusing people), reliable (customers expect sites to be online 24 hours a
day, seven days a week, and for pages to load without delay), and secure (because no one is
prepared to type their credit card details into a website that isn't safe).

Setting up an online store used to be quite an undertaking. Not only did you have to build a
dedicated website from scratch, you also had to develop your own merchant system that could
securely process credit card details and ship transactions to and from bank computers. These
days, anyone can set up an online store in minutes. Websites like PayPal make it possible to
build a store very quickly and, since they have built-in credit card processing features, handling
transactions couldn't be simpler. Many people set up virtual storefronts on the auction site
eBay and then use PayPal (now a part of eBay too) to process their transactions. Some websites
(notably Amazon) allow you to incorporate mini versions of their store inside your own website
—so you make a small commission selling their products within your own site.

It used to be said that the right domain name was an essential requirement for a successful
online business but some of the most memorably named web sites (including pets.com,
etoys.com and garden.com) were early casualties of the dot.com boom and bust. As successful
Web businesses such as eBay and Amazon have proved, there doesn't necessarily have to be an
obvious connection between the name of a website and things it actually does or sells: all that
matters is that, over time, people will come to know, love, and trust the brand and visit the site
instinctively when they want to buy something.

Managing how you get your products to your customers is crucially important too: you've only
to look at review comments on sites like eBay to see that customers love rapid delivery. That
doesn't mean you need your own warehouse and a fleet of delivery trucks, however.
Companies like Amazon have built complex and highly efficient warehouse and dispatch
systems for their own purposes, which they now allow other people to use as well. Getting
someone else to store your products, pick them, and ship them off to your customers,
worldwide, is called fulfilment—and it means even tiny companies (or one person running a
business from their spare bedroom) can manage deliveries as efficiently and professionally as a
much bigger outfit.

Using e-commerce to sell information

There's lots of money to be made online, but not all of this involves selling goods in the
traditional way. Many online businesses try to make money by offering a mixture of free and
premium services. Yahoo! (which originally stood for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle),
is probably the best-known example of a website like this. Created as a comprehensive
directory of other websites, it mutated into a search engine and then a portal, offering a
gateway to all kinds of other premium services. For example, you can get free e-mail through
Yahoo!, but you can also pay extra for a more sophisticated e-mail system; you can store your
photographs for free on Yahoo's Flickr site, but you can pay an extra sum to have them printed
out or processed in various ways.
Newspapers, magazines, and book publishers also try to make money through a mixture of free
and premium services. While most of them offer their basic content (the horrible, unappealing
name that online businesses give to the words and pictures they publish) for free, using
advertising to make money, some also offer a proportion of their articles for a one-off fixed fee
or subscription). Buying an article involves a transaction similar to the ones you'd make on
Amazon or eBay, so this kind of online publishing is also clearly a variety of e-commerce.

Advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce

Although early reactions to online shopping websites were often mixed ("It takes too long to
find what you want", "I'm not sure they're secure", "The things I want are never in stock", "You
can't see what you're buying"), things have improved greatly over the last decade and online
businesses have found ways round most of the drawbacks. (For example, some online clothing
stores sensibly offer free returns if you don't like the clothes you've bought or if they turn out
not to fit.) Many people now swear by online shopping and wouldn't dream of setting foot in a
real-world store where prices are often higher, waiting lines are longer, and the doors open
only during normal business hours.

For businesses too, e-commerce has opened up all kinds of new opportunities. Not many can
compete with huge businesses like Amazon or eBay, but anyone can open an online store and
start trading within a matter of minutes. Small local stores, long threatened by the growth of
giant retailers like Wal-Mart and Tesco, have found a new lease of life by trading online and
selling their products mail order.

E-commerce has also threatened many traditional ways of doing business. When people flock
to online shopping sites for the Christmas rush, they naturally spend less in real-world stores.
Savvy existing businesses such as Wal-Mart have tried to offset the threat by seizing the
opportunity: "bricks and clicks" (having real world stores and a seamlessly integrated website)
is now generally seen as the way to go. Shoppers have become equally savvy and are adept at
inspecting products in real-world stores before buying online, or using websites to locate local
branches of stores where they can inspect and purchase exactly the goods they want. It's
important to bear in mind that e-commerce still represents only a fraction of all the trade that
we do (for 2017, the US Department of Commerce reported e-commerce reaching about 8.9
percent of total retail sales, as shown in the chart below)—but that fraction has been growing
very steadily, and will keep doing so.

2. List and discuss some prominent features of top 20 Fiji based websites.

1. www.webmasters.com.fj
It is the official website for people who want to do web design.
2. www.usp.ac.fj 
It is the official website of USP students.
3. www.fiji-hotels.com.fj
 Offers the best Fiji resorts that guarantee your perfect holiday. From a wide range of
luxury, budget, boutique, and family resorts, we have something for everyone. Whether
you’re visiting for business, weddings, or honeymoons or simply on holiday, we can find
cheap deals and special packages to make your travel hassle free.
4. www.yellowpages.com.fj 
This is the Premier Business Directory in Fiji. Promotes Fijian businesses on the World
Wide Web.
5. www.ftib.org.fj
It is the official site of Fiji Trade and Investment Board.
6. www.naia.com.fj
It is the website of Discovering Fiji’s finest diving.
7. www.travelfiji.com.fj
It is the official tourism site of the Fiji Visitors Bureau.
8. www.rbf.gov.fj
This includes press releases, working papers, frameworks, details regarding currencies
and securities plus it gives general information about the bank itself.
9. www.fiji.embassy.gov.au
It is located in Suva, the High Commission accredited it to Fiji, Tuvalu and Nauru. It is
Australia’s Permanent Representative to the South Pacific Forum. Also looks after
Australia’s defence cooperation with Tonga, Tuvalu and Samoa together with the
immigration field which has their regional responsibility for the entire South Pacific.
10. www.connect.com.fj
The main internet service provider for Fiji which offers added information regarding web
services and support.
11. www.naturefiji.org
Fiji’s only domestic NGO named NatureFiji-MareqetiViti which works solely for the
conserving and sustaining management of Fiji’s unique natural heritage.
12. www.vodafone.com.fj
Mobile telecommunications company including on-line service, outlet maps and gives
information regarding networks.
13. www.fiji.gov.fj
Is the official website for the Government of Fiji that has information about ministries,
the departments it has, news briefs together with the price releases.
14. www.manafiji.com
This web site contains information regarding the islands and resorts which includes
accommodations, chapels, and facilities. It also provides contacts of the island or resort
staffs.
15. www.lomaniisland.com
 The beachfront resort that is located in the Mamanuca Islands where the customers will
find information regarding accommodations, dining, wedding and event facilities.
16. www.castawayfiji.com
It is a 174 acre private resort that is located on Qalito, also a small reef-ringed island in
the Mamanuca Group that offers windsurfing, sailing, snorkelling, accommodations
together with viewing the reef in a bottomed boat through a glass.
17. www.owlfiji.com
It offers accommodations to its customers for scuba diving, snorkelling and various
other activities together with tours to Levuka and Ovalau Island.
18. www.met.gov.fj
This website provides weather forecasts, warnings, data for the Fiji Islands with the
satellite imagery.
19. www.myfnpf.com.fj
Gives details of the Statutory Authority that is providing a compulsory savings scheme
for the employees. It also includes membership and corporate information.
20. www.ats.com.fj
Providing ground handling services at the Nadi International Airport. This includes line
maintenance, services for passengers and cabin services.