Unit 4 Power Point : E-Commerce

BBA 3331, Introduction to E-commerce 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit IV Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

3. Define tools of the customer interface.

7. Distinguish the different stages of developing a website.

Reading Assignment Chapter 4: Building an E-commerce Presence: Web Sites, Mobile Sites, and Apps

Unit Lesson If first impressions are lasting ones, the importance of having a well-designed e-commerce site cannot be overstated. The importance of having a solid e-commerce website design has spurred many an e-commerce site on building and creating the perfect site. Just searching on the subject overloads the senses with so much information to wade through. That brings up another issue with e-commerce web design: opinions. It seems that everyone is a critic, and that is why it is very important for the development of an e-commerce to support the stakeholders’ vision. In Unit IV, we look at what goes into building an e-commerce site, and it is not all aesthetics and appeal. The underlying infrastructure of every great e-commerce site is just as important. The list of considerations is long, and the decision-making process is crucial. We will focus on two main areas: (a) the stages of developing a website and (b) the tools of the customer interface. Envisioning Phase At the very beginning, there needs to be a vision. Every e-commerce site should develop a vision and mission statement. This phase includes a timeline of milestones, strategic analysis, as well as identifying the target audience. The envisioning phase is the best time to conduct a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This is used to identify those areas that affect every business the most. Start at the very beginning by identifying your goals. Anyone who is contemplating whether or not to build an e-commerce site needs something to sell. What is it that you want to sell? Next, you need to compel consumers to buy what it is you have for sale. Identify your customers. Who is going to buy from you? This step requires some in-depth research. Identifying your target audience is going to affect the design of your e-commerce site. These are key questions that need to be asked and answered early within the process. Plenty of business professionals have often walked around and wondered how they could develop an e- commerce that leads to wealth and riches. To begin bringing the idea to life, the best thing to do is to put the details on paper. To build an e-commerce site and do it well takes an investment of time and money. How much time depends on the complexity and the hurdles encountered along the way.

UNIT IV STUDY GUIDE

E-commerce Website Design

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Your next consideration is budget limitations. This not only affects the site design but also the underlying decision on what hardware and software you can afford. This would be a good time to decide on what your design limitations are as well. How much of the site can you build? The envisioning phase is a great stage to begin the process of developing a website. The major benefit of the envisioning phase and its tasks is that it helps guide decisions and other considerations that occur later. This is why a well-documented vison, mission, and SWOT analysis are so important. Once we have completed the work within the envisioning phase by stating what we hope to accomplish with our e-commerce presence, we can move on to the planning phase (Sullivan, 2001). Planning Phase The planning phase needs a strong, systematic approach along with keen attention to detail. Since this phase includes the development and the building of the actual site, the person or people involved will need a strong background in management, software, hardware architecture, design, telecommunications, and human resources. Since many teams will make key decisions regarding strategic planning about the design, a stronger managerial presence needs to be felt, and a strong leader is crucial for the right outcome. It is important that the business decisions drive the technology and not the other way around. Allow the needs of the customer to drive your decision on what technologies to implement. Customers will want to be able to easily view, select, purchase, and receive the product without any wasted time or effort. The following list contains some key areas that must be considered:

 developing the site design and architecture;

 creating the functional specification for the e-commerce site;

 developing project plans

 creating project schedules

 creating the development, testing, staging, and production environments; and

 closing the planning phase. Think of the planning phase as developing the solution that will solve all your customers’ needs (Levy, 2009). System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) To help with the conceptual development of the e-commerce website, management can use the system development life cycle (SDLC) to identify the business objectives and to build the right system to support those objectives (Morris, n.d.). This is where we build a conceptual or logical model of the system that will be used to support and run the e-commerce site. The SDLC consists of five steps (Stylusinc, 2007)

1. Systems analysis/planning: Identify what the site is to do for your e-commerce business. Ensure that

the business decisions are driving the technology. Use the business strategy and business model to help with this step. Identify all the different business objectives the system must support such as displaying goods and content, engaging customers, and processing customer transactions just to name a few. You cannot move on to the systems design until this step has been thoroughly identified.

2. Systems design: This includes the main components of the system and how they will work with each other. This step can be broken down to the logical design and the physical design. The logical design depicts how the flow of information moves from one part of the system to the next. The physical design identifies the actual physical components needed to make the logical design a reality. We can speculate the necessary details for the hardware, such as the right server platform from a specific hardware vendor. Here, we can design the business continuity plan (BCP) as well as data backup and recovery procedures.

3. Building the system: This step will be very dependent upon the design budget. The decision to outsource or build the system in-house can include everything or just hosting the website. As of this moment, there are sites that will design, publish, and host your e-commerce site for a fee. There are vendors that will handle the hardware solution of maintaining the servers and the licensing of any software. The mixing and matching of who will be responsible for what, is a key business decision, but the overall responsibility resides with the owner of the e-commerce site. This is a money-driven step in the process.

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4. Testing: The testing phase is not dependent upon any decision to outsource or to keep the build process in-house. Regardless of where the site is maintained or hosted, the testing has to be long and thorough. Unit testing involves testing each component of the site individually. Next, we have system testing that tests everything as a whole, which is much the same way a customer would use the site. The last test is the acceptance test, which is a comprehensive test including the designers, managers, and other key personnel. Each team must provide approval to complete this phase.

5. Implementation and maintenance: The end of the SDLC is actually a new beginning. Once the e- commerce goes live, the life cycle begins again. Technology changes, customer needs change, and hardware wears out. The annual maintenance of an e-commerce can be the same as the cost to build the system in the first place. The cost is high to keep up with the changes and improvements needed to keep the site running at peak performance.

The Customer Interface Once we have our site up and running, we need to be vigilant of the customer experience. There are rules that govern how the customer interface should behave. Some of these rules are written and some unwritten (Goodwin, 2015). The Three-Click Rule Older studies had shown customers are best served if they can find what they are seeking by clicking the mouse button no more than three times. If it requires more than three clicks, then customers are likely to become frustrated before directing their attention elsewhere. However, recent studies debunk the rule. Newer studies (Wright, 2010) show that content is the driving force behind customers staying or going. What the rule does embody is the more abstract concept of building a site that contains concise navigation. Tools of the Customer Interface The customer interface represents how the site is represented to the customer. Before the website can deploy, it is imperative to have a good understanding of what drives customers to and away from an e- commerce site. Factors that play into a customer experience include relevance of information, ease of navigation, finding the right choice, cost and time on task, the variety of options, and secure payment- transaction options (Microsoft, n.d.). The customer interface can be defined by seven characteristics, which have also been known as the seven Cs:

1. Context: Context refers to how the site looks and feels, the site’s layout and design. 2. Content: This is the mix of what the site has to offer: site, sound, text, sales. Buy the product and talk

with others that have already done so. It includes information about the site’s products using text, pictures, and graphics.

3. Community: This involves customers helping to generate new customers. Customers have input that helps generate active content. Examples include chat rooms, message boards, and group memberships. It is also a great way to build customer relationships.

4. Customization: This is self-tailoring by the customers. It allows customers to set their preferences and personalize the site.

5. Communication: This involves how the site communicates with users. Communication can take place one of three ways: site to user, user to user, or user to site.

6. Connection: Connection involves how the site links to other sites. The site provides links to other company sites and to partner sites as well.

7. Commerce: This is how the site handles transactions between the customer and the site. Often, these are credit-card transactions.

How well customers interact and return for repeat business depends upon how well the seven Cs have been addressed before the site is available for customers (Duke, 2013). Conclusion There are many factors that must be considered when building an e-commerce site, including hardware, software, capacity, website design, and organizational capabilities. It is important to allow the business to

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drive the technology and not the other way around. The more time spent in the planning and development of an e-commerce site, the less time spent troubleshooting and redesigning. The whole process of developing an e-commerce site from start to finish begins with a vision of what needs to be accomplished and how best to accomplish what needs to completed.

References Duke, R. (2013, May 23). The role of customer interface in customer experience management. Retrieved from

http://www.usan.com/articles/the-role-of-customer-interface-in-customer-experience-management/ Goodwin, T. (2015, March 3). The battle is for the customer interface. Retrieved from

http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/03/in-the-age-of-disintermediation-the-battle-is-all-for-the-customer- interface/

Levy, G. (2009, June 26). 6 crucial steps to planning your e-commerce website. Retrieved from

http://www.ecommercepartners.net/blog/6-crucial-steps-to-planning-your-e-commerce-website.html Microsoft. (n.d.). Customer interface. Retrieved from https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee712808.aspx Morris, K. (n.d.). Steps in the system development life cycle. Retrieved from

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/steps-system-development-life-cycle-43241.html Stylusinc. (2007, December 31). The software development life cycle (SDLC) - overview. Retrieved from

http://www.stylusinc.com/BI/it-outsourcing/the-software-development-life-cycle-sdlc/ Sullivan, G. A. (2001, August 20). GasTix: A sample .net e-business. Retrieved from

http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=131100&seqNum=5 Wright, C. (2010, October 28). Web optimization: The myth of the 3 click rule. Retrieved from

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-engagement/web-optimization-the-myth-of-the-3-click-rule- 009018.php

Learning Activities (Non-Graded) The following video describes excellent design tips for an e-commerce website: Lynda.com. (2012, March 21). Design tips for an ecommerce web site [Video file]. Retrieved from

https://youtu.be/EmEC-qttRxM The following video distinguishes among hosted, standalone, and basic e-commerce websites: Lynda.com. (2012, March 21). Hosted, standalone, and basic ecommerce web sites [Video file]. Retrieved

from https://youtu.be/HQjz7wtySME Along with all of the guidance about what you should do, there is also a list of things that you should avoid when designing an e-commerce site. The following video describes some of the details: Volusion. (2012, May 1). The 5 major don’ts of building an ecommerce site – two minute Tuesdays [video file].

Retrieved from https://youtu.be/Or8ZQ0TSCLo Non-graded Learning Activities are provided to aid students in their course of study. You do not have to submit them. If you have questions, contact your instructor for further guidance and information