(OLS OF E-COMMERCE There does not exist a simple definition of E-Commerce that adequately describes the coverage its operations, functions and underlying technologies. One common view is: E-Commerce is on shopping via the Internet. Although this is correct, online shopping is only one of many types of Commerce activities. In broader terms: E-commerce is any commercial activity conduct: electronically, particularly via private or open networks, such as internet. There are various tools of e-commerce, which are explained below; A. Business tools B. Merchant tools C. Marketing tools D. Develpoment tools A. BUSINESS TOOLS Business tools are the e-commerce tools which can boost the business with the help of interne! further includes the following. 1, Analytics: Whether you're looking to boost e-commerce sales, generate more leat enhance brand awareness, analytics data can be used to learn a wealth of information @ the business and the customers. This type of information includes how customers find \' site and what they do when they get there. Not only that, but analytics can help to Pe —-INTRODUCTION TO E-COMMERCE out how much time they spend on your site al leave. When you put it all together, taking @ close look attract more visitors to your site and turn more of those @ Gi) (iii) Gv) wv) nd can give you clues that point to why they at your web analytics can help you visitors into paying customers. Visitors: The number of visitors to your site will give you 4 general idea of how well you are getting the word out about your business. tell you what content on your site is the most pular with visitors, think about gy for pages that may not be Page Views: Looking at page views can popular, If you notice that certain pages are very PO] why that might be the case and use that same strate drawing as many views. Referring Sites: Looking at referring sites will give you an excellent snapshot of the type of people who are visiting your site. For example, if you sell kitchen gadgets and you notice that one of your top referring sites is a recipe site, then you know that visitors from that site are in your target audience. Referring sites are also useful in helping you boost traffic, especially for small business owners. Many small businesses partner with business associations to generate more visits. Using an analytics tool, you can see which partnerships are bringing in the most visitors and invest more in those that provide better results. Bounce rate/Exit pages: A bounce rate measures something different than an exit page, but both can give you important insights into why people are leaving your site. In most analytics programs, a “bounce” is recorded when a person visits and leaves within a second or two, usually before the page is even done loading. Top exit pages show you which pages people visit immediately before they leave. If the page contains a “thank you” message after a customer places an order, a high exit or bounce rate would be expected. However, if your product pages are some of your top exit pages, it may be because your descriptions are unclear, or maybe your prices are too high. Keywords and Phrases: Keywords and phrases let you know what terms people are using to find your site in search engines like Google and Yahoo. This can give you some idea of how to add different content to appeal to even more customers. For example, if you are a florist and many people find your web site by typing in “flowers for Mother’s Day,” that’s perfect. However, you can also consider adding content to ‘out buying flowers for anniversaries that will help your site rank highly your site abi “flowers for anniversaries, when people search for ‘Though still a relatively new invention, web analytics is becoming an increasingly popular and effective web site optimization tactic used by online business owners. By providing deep insight into the who, what, when, why and how of web site traffic and visitor behavior, web analytics tools can help you improve the usability of your site and boost sales. Ultimately, your main objective is to create a web site where visitors want to browse and buy.; j eR? EAP a Alerte f your business relies on having the latest information ip Yous wich then business can try alerts, Simply enter in the topic on keywords yo wish type of data you want to retrieve on it from news to blogs to video and more, the y rewslts you would \ike to receive, and get it all via email, You can track a dev es story, stay current on # competitor, or get the latest scoop om WOH eres posible through alerts. 3, Groups, Set up a private group that anyone in your Company CAN ACCES, on any Sexe: access, Organize meetings, store files, create topics and brainstorm Medivdy on v0. projects, 4. Picasa. Picasa helps you to Edit, store and share photos online. Create sideshows Hf 3. products and easily embed the slideshow into your website. 5, Voice. Set up multiple numbers for yous business and have them ring to any fh regardless of which device or carries you use, You can setup a single number thet 1% anywhere, get transcribed voice mail messages via email, and receive free calls and messages in the US, and Canada, with very low sates in the sest of the world. 6. Realtime. Search out all activity on social networks, follow trends, track popular posts 2 find articles, blog posts and tweets from around the world, in real time. 7. Gite Search, Site Search is 2 hosted solution that gives users of your website the ability ( search for anything, on it, just like they would on Google, Tailor the look and feel of the search bar and search results to match your website's aesthetic design. 6. Desktop. Search your business computers just like you search the web with this Desktop search engine. Dozens of sidebar gadget options are available for streaming news, weather and financial reports as well. 9. Directory. Search for virtually everything and everyone that is on the web with this comprehensive, categorized directory listing, Pick a topic, for example, “ecommerce” and drill down to developers, vendors, software and marketing companies and many more- Finance. Upto-the-second domestic and world market news stories from the top sources all over the web, plus stock analysis, trends and a handy custom portfolio creator for easy tracking of specific businesses, News, Stay i arr the latest breaking news locally and globally. The news site is oken down into familiar news sections like World, Business, Science ied States and much more. ad Se eEeey, 42. Calendar, This is an online and interactive cal e te en ett ee ‘event rerninders Via email or text to your mobile phone. and get 13, Docs, This powerful suite of online tools to manage office documents rivals anything from Microwht Office, Create and collaborate on : neampdlincrase tice. ae slideshow presentations, 10. Ws ‘ INTAOOUCTION TO E-con0s,,.= 4 or interactive motion charts to your use your own INTRODUCTION TO E-COMMERCE 14. Chart Tools, Create and embed live image orientes a website with Chart Tools. You can use live data from outside data sources data. B. MERCHANT TOOLS 1. Product Search. Quickly scour the Internet for the best deals on produ needs. cts that your business Google Trends home page Goggle earn (Gaeeenitnsge) | a) extern woanens natures wth Ganda nt a Sash chore tre eedences puch webotes with Temata eben GanadaHame - Abost Sood Tanda 2, ‘Trends, See what other Google users are searching for tight now. Track user search terms in the past day or the past several years. Search out up-to-the-second data in the present and track specific website usage trends for various regions all around the globe. ‘Translate. A powerful translation tool that can translate any text into more than 60 of the world’s most used languages. Use it to translate the text of an ad into another language, search for products or services in the native language of another region using the Translated Search function, It also includes the “Global Market Finder” utility to seek oute INTRODUCTION TO E-COMMERC; ~ key search terms for popular products Overseas, allowing users to then harness thar ¢ weith AdWords’ keyword bid and competition data, the world has never seen before? Search out oy Patents have a new product that : ie ted States Patent and Trademark Office to seven million patents registered at the Unit sur, C. ECOMMERCE MARKETING TOOLS E-commenc includes buying and selling activities conducted online and through other electron: media and devices The proliferation of online retail and e-commerce make the use of marketing tools important to companies as they help attract and retain primary customers. Each tool offers distinct advantages, 1. Websites and Blogs: Businesses commonly develop websites and blogs to promote their companies products and services. Blogs offer an interactive tool to communicate information to customers and receive feedback through comments. Additionally companies use sites and blogs as media for banner ads and other ad placements. For instance, a sports retailer may pay to place banner ads on sports-rated websites and blogs. 2 Email: Email marketing is used to attract new customers and maintain close relationships with existing ones. Companies use lead generation tools and buy email lists to send out mass emails at a low cost. Many companies offer sign-up forms on their websites for email newsletters, They also use email to target loyal customers with information and special promotions. Email clubs allow customers to receive weekly or monthly email promotions. Search engine optimization, or SEO, has become a major marketing tool for small online companies in the early 21st century. SEO is the development of a website that achieves high results in popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Being a top listing in a popular product- or industry-related search is a major source of site traffic. You can buy search placements as well to attract a certain volume of visitors while your site grows. 3. Social Media: E-Commerce businesses also use social media tools, including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube to create awareness, attract customers and interact directly with people. Companies can make brand or product announcements to followers and monitog conversations about their businesses using social media. The immedi interaction and affordability make social media tools appealing to small businesses, ate 4. Virtual Communities: Virtual communities include an People who have shared interests, such as gardening, vi rooms and other interactive formats exist as virtual comi é good venue for e-Commerce ads because of the instance, a seed company might advertise on ag; array of online meeting places for ideo games and books. Forums, cl tunities. These communities provide specialized audience interest. For ardening forum,INTRODUCTION TO E-COMMERCE D. DEVELOPMENT TOOLS 1 Code. Get breaking news from Google about what its developers are working on, from search engines to web apps to mobile apps. Take advantage of the Web Toolkit to pull and optimize browser-based applications, get access to all the latest code for Android and submit your finished app to the Google Apps Marketplace. Code Search. Developers and non-developers alike can use this simple tool to search out any publicly available source code from over 70 different code languages Webmaster Tools. Get detailed reports about your website's visibility on Google to diagnose any access problems Google is having with your site, Analyze data about internal and external links to your site, find out which Google search queries drive traffic to your site and find out exactly how many users arrive there. App Engine. Developers can build and host web apps on the same systems that power Google's popular applications. You can also build enterprise applications with the App Engine for Business. Sites. Quickly create a basic website in minutes and use it for announcements, news or blogging. Create easy access to forms, documents, links and other resources for your business.