E-Commerce Unit - 2 Material
E-Commerce Unit - 2 Material
Internet in e commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services, or the
transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the internet. These
business transactions occur either as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C),
consumer-to-consumer or consumer-to-business.
The Internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that
transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a “network of
networks” that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government
networks, which together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online
chat, file transfer, and the interlinked web pages and other resources of the World Wide Web
(WWW).
The Internet and the World Wide Web are not synonymous. The Internet is a collection of
interconnected computer networks, linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless
connections, etc. In contrast, the Web is a collection of interconnected documents and
other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. The World Wide Web is one of the services
accessible via the Internet, along with various others including e-mail, file sharing, online
gaming and others described below.
America Online, Comcast, Earthlink, etc. are examples of Internet service providers. They
make it physically possible for you to send and access data from the Internet. They allow you to
send and receive data to and from their computers or routers which are connected to the Internet.
World Wide Web is an example of an information protocol/service that can be used to send
and receive information over the Internet. It supports:
Multimedia Information (text, movies, pictures, sound, programs . . . ).
Hypertext Information (information that contains links to other information resources)
Graphic User Interface (so users can point and click to request information instead of
typing in text commands).
The server software for the World Wide Web is called an HTTP server (or informally a Web
server). Examples are Apache and IIS. The client software for World Wide Web is called a Web
browser. Examples are: Netscape, Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, and Mozilla. These
examples are particular “brands” of software that have a similar function, just like Lotus 123 and
Excel are both spreadsheet software packages.
Domain name & Internet Organization
An Internet domain name is a unique name of an organization or person on the Internet.
The name is combined with a generic top-level domain (gTLD), such as .com or . org. For
example, computerlanguage.com is the domain name for the publisher of this encyclopedia.
A business domain name is the web address of your business website; it's what you type into
your web browser to reach a website. Instead of entering the address of your physical address,
you enter the domain name to access your business website.
A domain name (often simply called a domain) is an easy-to-remember name that's associated
with a physical IP address on the Internet. It's the unique name that appears after the @ sign
in email addresses, and after www. in web addresses.
Types of Networks
According to the communication requirements, multiple types of network connections are
available. The most basic type of network classification depends on the network's geographical
coverage.
Below mentioned are different types of networks:
PAN (Personal Area Network)
LAN (Local Area Network)
MAN (Metropolitan Area Network)
WAN (Wide Area Network)
What Is Local Area Network (LAN)?The Local Area Network (LAN) is designed to connect
multiple network devices and systems within a limited geographical distance. The devices are
connected using multiple protocols for properly and efficiently exchanging data and services.
Attributes of LAN Network:
The data transmit speed in the LAN network is relatively higher than the other network
types, MAN and WAN.
LAN uses private network addresses for network connectivity for data and service
exchange, and it uses cable for network connection, decreasing error and
maintaining data security.
Advantages and Disadvantages of LAN Network
Advantages Disadvantages
Advantages Disadvantages
Advantages Disadvantages
#2 Information Exchange
At its simplest, a website provides a quick and easy way of communicating information between
buyers and sellers. You can list your opening hours, contact information, show images of your
location or products, and use contact forms to facilitate enquiries from potential customers or
feedback from existing ones. You can even upload promotional videos to really engage your
customers and sell your business in an effective and cost efficient way. This is also a good way
to promote your social media channels and build up a community with your customers
#3 Credibility
In today’s modern world, there is an expectation for any reputable company to have some kind
of online presence. Potential customers would likely be distrusting of any business that didn't
have a telephone number or a physical address, and the same can be said for not having a website
and email address. These are useful tools to share crucial information about your business with
customers and answer all the What’s and Why’s that they may have. What’s more, having a good
quality, easy-to-use website makes customers feel comfortable using your services, as they will
assume they can expect the same positive experience in all areas of your business.
#4 It Cuts Costs
As well as simply displaying information, you can also use your website to sell goods & services
directly to consumers, in some cases removing the need to use “brick-and-mortar” stores which
involve large operating costs (staff wages, rental, utilities to name just a few). Eliminating these
overheads will also allow you to lower your prices, giving your business that real competitive
edge. It can also be used internally within your business; do you have any news you want to
share with colleagues or have any important information that can be accessed by management?
Having an internal website can save you a lot of time as everything you need is one place and
can be accessed at any time.
#5 Market Expansion
As your site is accessible to anyone all over the world, the ability to break through geographical
barriers has never been easier. Anyone, from any country, will be able to find your company and
as such, is now a potential customer.
#6 Consumer Insights
Analytic tools allow you to identify who your typical customer is, how they found you, what
they like, and adapt your business to maximise purchases through your site. The diverse range of
data available can also help you better understand how your social media channels affect your
brand, and can even highlight opportunities to change the offline aspects of your business such as
branch opening times, promotions and product ranges.
#7 Advertising
Tools like Google AdWords or advertising on Facebook give you the power to reach customers
with much more accuracy and reliability than with traditional offline advertising methods. SEO
and online advertising are a great way to help build up awareness, if it’s done correctly traffic to
your website can see an increase. Be the first company that a potential new customer sees when
searching for a specific product or service online, and use your website's contact page or e-
commerce features to make purchasing a product or finding a retail outlet easier than ever before.
#8 Competitors Online
If you don’t have a website it is highly likely that your competitor will do, this means that you
are missing out on gaining new customers and can be in the forefront of their minds. It is crucial
that no opportunities are missed and are gained by the competition.
#9 Customer Service Online
Websites provide an easier way to handle customer service. Offering answers to regularly asked
questions in a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section, you can reduce customer service costs
and save yourself time and money, as well as providing much more information. This also means
that customers can receive a reply instantly and saves time, which helps to encourage positive
customer relations in the long run. This could be a benefit for you, all positive feedback can be
uploaded into a testimonial, your customers are happy why not show it off?!
Relevance: When you will send targeted email, you will be sending only emails that resonate
with a particular segment. Your subscriber segments will receive less content that's not relevant
to them and hence the unsubscribe rate will go lower. Your subscribers will remember you as a
brand that's made for them and will come back to you for more information or products.
Response: When the image, copy, style, send time etc., of your email are targeted to a particular
audience, there is a high chance they will relate to it and will respond by taking the action you
specified.
Relationship: Targeted emails help build a relationship with your audience because when they
like the message, take an action and look forward to your emails, they are also likely to tell their
friends about it as if you are something they trust and have a bond with.
Revenue: The one big mistake marketers make it talk about the right topic to the wrong people.
But with targeted emails, you have narrowed your subscriber base and tailored your messaging
accordingly. This will get them to read, take action, trust you and hence buy from you.
Retention: Even past customers are a segment and likely know a lot about you. So when the
messaging for them is targeted around new offers, or something exclusive for customers only
etc., they are more likely to come back and shop again. So you can see how targeted email
marketing will help retention.
What is Banner exchange
Definition:
The exchange of banners is an advertising technique that consists of a reciprocal exchange in
which two web pages agree to exchange this type of advertising format on their respective sites.
The exchange can be arranged for free or through an Ad Server, which allows the rotation of a
banner on a multitude of websites.
To understand this practice, you must first make it clear what a banner is. It is the most popular
advertising format on the internet and consists of including a graphic advertising piece within a
web page with the aim of attracting traffic to the page itself. It is increasingly common to find
banners that include videos, more attractive to users.
An Internet advertising network that swaps banner ads among its members. Each time a member
site displays an ad from the network, it receives some amount of credit that is used to display its
own banner in the network. Also called a "banner swap network," some banner exchanges offer a
"click exchange," in which credit is given when someone clicks on the ad, not just the impression
on the page.
An Internet advertising network that swaps banner ads among its members. Each time a
member site displays an ad from the network, it receives some amount of credit that is used to
display its own banner in the network.xamples of banner exchange networks
include LinkExchange, SmartAge and Hyperbanner.
Shopping Bots
The bot automatically scans numerous online stores to find the most affordable product for the
user to purchase. Shopping bots are also known as retail bots and order bots.
...
Examples of popular Shopping bots
Kompose Chatbot. ...
Shopify Messenger. ...
WeChat. ...
H&M. ...
SnapTravel. ...
Madi. ...
Kik Bot shop. ...
Readow.
A shopping bot is an online price comparison software tool which automatically searches the
products of many different online stores to locate the most affordable rates for customers.
Generally, these shopping bots rank items by price and let buyers link directly to the website of
an online merchant site to actually buy their preferred product.
Shopping bots, short for "shopping robots," can find the best online deals for products, including
films, books, video games, computer devices, TVs, etc. Using shopping bots, buyers can get
quotes from multiple retailers for the same product instantly, without spending extra time
searching for each retailer's price.