Week 3

1) When a company is attempting to sell a product via the Internet to a customer, as we found from week one, there are many problems that the company may face. One of the difficulties of running an online business is the fact that there is no personal interaction with the customer. When designing a customer-centric website The designer keeps this in mind and try to creates the most friendly personably environment possible. When a person looks at a website to purchase a good they want their experience to be simple, quick and painless. They want to be able to understand what they are doing and want to be able to execute their purchase in a safe and secure manner. Because of the lack of human contact customers may be tentative about purchasing online but a good customer-centric site will allow them to feel ease and comfort.

            Customer-Centric Sites are hard are difficult to accomplish because all customers are different both with their knowledge of technology and their amount of patience. When you cut out the human contact from the purchasing experience you lose many things and frankly those things are very hard to recreate in a web-based format this is what customer centric websites strive for.

2. Define the term 'presence'. Write an additional paragraph that describes why firms that do business on the Web should be more concerned about presence than firms that operate in the physical world.

Presence, when describing the internet can be described as the actual number of people visiting your site. Simply having a website on the internet for people to see does not mean a thing. That website is useless if people are not trafficking it. Each time a person visits a site that site gains exposure and carries the potential of getting more viewers. A website must arrange the correct key words to make sure that when people are searching for a product in a search engine theirs is the one that “pops up”. Internet Businesses are more concerned with presence than a business in the physical world because there is so much more competition on the internet. In the physical world if a person needs a new sweater they will go to one of the maybe 10 places that sell sweaters in their vicinity. So the store that is selling sweaters knows that everyone knows they sell sweaters and does not care about how many people walk through the store. While on the internet there may as well be a hundred thousand stores that sell sweaters so the eBusinesses will be fighting over the presence of that one customer.

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7. List four barriers to the adoption of sell-side eCommerce.
1. Technological Barriers
1. eCommerce takes a certain amount of IT work to create and maintain an electronic transactional business. And some business may not be equipped or have access to the resources needed.
2. Initial Cost
1. The cost of buying a domain name, acquiring the proper technology required, hiring a computer guru, and establishing you eBusiness can create quite a barrier for businesses.
3. Lack of knowledge or Fear of the internet
1. many business may be reluctant to start an Ebusiness because they just don’t know what they are getting into
4. May not be aware of the Potential
1. Business owners may not know what awaits them and their business on the world wide web.
8. How might a restaurant on Sturt Street benefit from an online presence?
1. Through advertising on popular ballarat webpages they might increase their clientele.
2. They might offer incentives and deals through social networking sites to target a different demographic of the community.
3. They might provide a orderig online option to increase productivity and queue times.
9. What are some examples of Digital information?
1. Binary information stored on a hard drive, operating system to run an iPhone, a saved word document, photos on a digital camera.
10. What is the semantic web? Are we there yet?
1. The semantic web is a form of the internet that is fully understood by machines. Machines would be able to find, do, interact, and process the web the way humans do. We do not yet have the capability of the semantic web and frankly the idea kinda frightens me.
   
   

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5. Which Digital Technology has the highest penetration rate?
1. Wireless Mobile phones have the highest penetration rate. The number of Mobile phone users is still growing and the number of “smart phone” users is on the rise also. According to International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry there were 194.5 million U.S. Wireless Subscribers in 2008 and the wireless penetration was over 65 percent of the U.S. Population. People now can do literally everything from their phones from business to social networking to managing their bank accounts and it’s all in their pocket ready to be used 24/7.
1. Citation-MLA
1. Deloitte, Jane. "Wireless Quick Facts." CTIA The Wireless Association. CTIA, 02/Mar/2007. Web. 16 Mar 2011. <http://files.ctia.org/pdf/Wireless_Quick_Facts_October_05.pdf>.
6. List, Four drivers to adoption of sell-side eCommerce by business.
1. Reduce Labor Cost
1. By selling goods or services through electronic means cuts down on the requirement of human interaction thus leading to less staff and ultimately/hopefully more profit return.
2. Increase Efficiency
1. Through Electronic transactions and sell-side eCommerce there are unlimited transaction times and store hours. More people can shop across the country without a business needing to expand a physical store or hire more staff.
3. Pressure from other Businesses
1. Many Businesses have already made the jump to Electronic Commerce and Businesses that have not would be losing market share and customers to the more technologically advanced businesses, thus feeling pressure to start eCommerce of their own.
4. Increasing the Product output
1. By opening up your Business on the World Wide Web you increase your clientele thus creating more demand. You also make it easier to provide and deliver your product to a wider range of people in the Web versus a conventional physical store.

Week One Questions eBusiness/eCommerce (Answers 1-4)

1. Internet Risks – Give Examples of 4 things that can go wrong with a transactional site?
1. Security Issues
1. Transactional sites require that the customer provide personal details, Payment/Credit Card Numbers, Shipping and address information, Telephone Numbers, Email addresses and much more. If someone were to “hack” or steal this information then the customers would lose faith in the company or transactional site and cease to shop with them (among many other problems).
2. Reliance Upon Technology
1. Technology is a wonderful thing however it carries its faults. With a transactional site or any eBusiness there is always the possibility of computer crashes, viruses, hardware/software problems, power outages etc. Any of the above problems would and could cause a loss of revenue and clientele base, the severity of the dilemma depending on how long the technology problem lasts.  
3. Customer Contact
1. With any type of eBusiness you obviously lack that face to face, person to person aspect of shopping, thus creating a communication barrier. If you are running a small online transactional business you may have neither the funding nor the resources to be able to communicate with your clientele. And if you are a Giant online transactional service you may be inundated with thousands of customer requests a day and it may take too much time and resources to reply to them all in a timely fashion.
4. Shipping Issues
1. Through a transactional website every good that is sold must be shipped and every service delivered to the respective customer. Although the mailing system is fairly straightforward there are always issues with lost and damaged packages. Damaged packages can cost the company money through the return of damaged goods that cannot be resold.

2. Definitions of E-Commerce & E-Business
1. eCommerce
1. Any online transaction involving the purchasing or selling of goods or services over an electronic service i.e. The internet.
2. eBusiness
1. All parts of industry/business including, but not limited to, Marketing, Management, Product , Price, Promotion, Product Placement that are conducted and monitored via an Electronic system like the Internet.

3. What is the Difference between Buy side and Sell side eCommerce?
1. Buy-Side eCommerce would include electronic transactions made by a firm to acquire goods or services needed.
2. Sell-Side eCommerce would include goods or Services rendered from a firm via an electronic transaction.

4. Describe the different types of eBusiness.
1. Consumer to Consumer
1. Businesses set up where individuals sell and buy goods form other individuals directly.
2. Business to Consumer
1. Certified Business entities sell goods to individual consumers through a transactional site.
3. Government to Consumer
1. Government provides services through electronic means to individuals.
4. Consumer to Business
1. Electronic feedback, and information services directly from an individual to a Business entity.
5. Business to Business
1. Transactional sites specializing in dealings from businesses to another business.
6. Government to Business
1. Transactions including tax returns, legal notices and many more services provided by the Government to Businesses.
7. Consumer to Government
1. Transactions including tax filing, and feedback provided by individual consumers to the Government.
8. Business to Government
1. Business tax info and feedback form Businesses to the government
9. Government to Government
1. all intergovernmental transactions including international