Electronic Commerce Software Chapter 4 Electronic Commerce Software

Learning Objectives In this chapter, you will learn about: Basic functions that an electronic commerce package should provide Characteristics to look for in an ISP-hosted electronic commerce solution Types of traditional and electronic store models Software packages available for small electronic sites

Learning Objectives (Cont.) Software packages suitable for medium-sized to large electronic commerce sites Electronic commerce solutions for large organizations with an existing infrastructure and legacy software in place Several electronic commerce sites and their characteristics

Factors of software solution The expected size of the enterprise and its projected traffic and sales Budget Determine your target commerce audience Use a full-service ISP or host the electronic commerce site in-house

Electronic Commerce Requirements A catalog display Shopping cart capabilities Transaction processing Tools to populate the store catalog and to facilitate storefront display choices

Catalog Display A small commerce site can have a simple catalog, which is a static listing of goods and services. Larger catalog has photos of items, descriptions, and a search feature. For example, “MP3.com” is a large commerce site and “Women in Music” is a small site.

Shopping Cart Online forms were used for online shopping. A new way of online shopping is through shopping carts. QuickBuy is one company that makes this type of shopping cart software. Cookies are bits of shopping information stored on a client computer.

Transaction Processing Transaction processing occurs when the shopper proceeds to the virtual checkout counter. Software needs to calculate price, volume discounts, sales tax, and shipping costs. Sales tax may vary in different states.

Electronic Commerce Tools Inexpensive storefronts that are offered by established portals, such as Yahoo!. Robust software suites that run on large, dedicated computers and interact with database systems such as Oracle. B2B systems must be able to connect to existing legacy systems, including ERP software packages.

Marketing Smarts Visibility of Web sites is important. Web malls will list your Web site in a portal-style directory. Registering your own domain name helps visibility. Also, including a META tag in your store’s home page.

Hosting Services The total costs of setting up your own in-house Web commerce site are expensive. Web hosting services allow businesses to start electronic commerce inexpensively. Web hosting services provide all the services that an ISP does.

Types of hosting services Self-hosting Shared hosting Dedicated hosting Collocated hosting

Implications of Self-hosting The online business owns and maintains the server and all its software. It implies full control, instant hardware access, and complete flexibility. Business must have additional staff, Web expertise, expensive equipment, and a high-speed direct Internet connection.

Implications of Shared Hosting Your Web or commerce site resides on the same server as several other sites. It is inexpensive, requires very little of an online store’s time to maintain. It has a very high-speed connection to the Internet. It may lose direct control from online stores. Security concerns arise from unrelated online businesses sharing the same server.

Implications of Dedicated Hosting A Web host provides a server for your Web site alone. More Web and commerce software options, a good high-speed connection, more control to site’s design become available. Higher software costs and maintenance costs can be incurred.

Implications of Collocated Hosting The server is owned by the online store but is located at the Web host’s site. The Web host provides maintenance based on the level of service the online business requires. Maintenance costs are higher than self-hosting. “ValueWeb” is an example of a Web hosting service. It provides services of shared hosting, dedicated hosting, and collocation services.

Comparison of Web Hosting Electronic commerce stores get a variety of services for a low monthly fee. Web hosting customers have their own domain name and IP address. Advantages of a shared web host over dedicated hosting or self-hosting: Low setup fee No staff and capital costs Free technical support

Fundamental Host Services Basic packages are free or low-cost electronic commerce software supplied by the Web host for building Web sites. The host makes money from advertising banners placed on the storefront’s Web pages. B-City, BizLand.com and HyperMart are examples of these types of hosts. Customer purchase transactions are handled by e-mail in this host service.

Banner Advertising Exchange Sites Banner exchange sites (BESs) are Web sites that help electronic merchant promote their stores online. The BES organizes the banner exchange among members, enforces rules, and collects statistics of banner advertisement. Examples of BESs are BannerExchange.com, Eurobanner, Exchange-it, LinkExchange, etc.

Full-Service, Shared Mall-Style Hosting Full-service shared hosting sites provide online stores with good service, good Web creation tools, and little or no banner advertising clutter. It charges a monthly fee, one-time setup fees, and customer transaction fee. Yahoo! Store, GeoShops, ShopBuilder, and Virtual Spin Internet Store are examples of this type of Web hosts.

Yahoo! Store Yahoo! Store is a good value among full-service shared hosting sites. Merchants can create, change, and maintain their Yahoo! storefronts through a Web browser. On its own site, Yahoo! Holds all the stores’ pages in a proprietary format. Yahoo’s management page contains many management, reporting, and global site setting tools.

Bigstep.com Bigstep.com provides a well-designed storefront package without charging hosting fees. Bigstep enables merchants to create, change, and maintain a storefront through a Web browser. Bigstep’s reports provide data mining capabilities. Data mining can help business find customers with common interests.

ShopBuilder ShopBuilder provides the electronic commerce tools you need to build a shop on its site. ShopBuilder automatically generates and sends receipts by e-mail to customers after completing transactions. ShopBuilder supports real-time transaction processing, including credit card authorization and verification.

Estimated Operating Expenses The first-year operating cost can vary depending on the Web host selected. A good guideline for processing fees is to multiply your expected annual gross sales by 3%. Setup and Web site maintenance costs include; equipment, communications, physical location and staff.

Midrange Packages Midrange packages allow the merchant to have explicit control over merchandising choices, site layout, internal architecture, and remote and local management options. Midrange software has connectivity with database systems and store catalog information. INTERSHOP enfinity, WebSphere, and Commerce Server 2000 are examples of this type of software.

INTERSHOP enfinity INTERSHOP enfinity is produced by INTERSHOP Communications Inc. This software provides: search and catalog capabilities electronic shopping carts online credit card transaction processing connection to existing business systems and databases, such as DB2 and Oracle It has setup wizards and catalog and data management tools.

WebSphere Commerce Suite IBM produces the WebSphere Commerce Suite. It comes complete with catalog templates, setup wizards, and advanced catalog tools. It can be used both for B2B and B2C applications. This system runs on AIX, Solaris, and Windows NT operating systems.

Commerce Server 2000 Microsoft creates the Commerce Server 2000. Commerce Server 2000 provides tools for: User profiling and management Transaction processing Product and service management Target audience marketing

Commerce Server 2000 Microsoft pipelines model a series of business processes: The Commerce Interchange Pipeline for B2B The Order-processing Pipeline for B2C Commerce Server 2000 has tools for advertising, promotions, cross-selling and customer targeting and personalization.

Enterprise Solutions for Large Firms Enterprise-level commerce software is called e-business software. E-business software interacts with a wide variety of existing back office systems, including database, accounting, and ERP systems.

Enterprise Solutions for Large Firms An enterprise-scale solution requires: A Domain Name Server (DNS) An SMTP system to handle e-mail An HTTP server An FTP server for upload and download capabilities A database server

Enterprise Solutions for Large Firms Examples of e-business systems: IBM’s WebSphere Commerce Suite, Pro Edition Netscape’s Netscape CommerceXpert Oracle’s iStore Pandesic Web Business Solution (Intel and SAP)