E-Commerce Chapter 4

Website Systems Development Life Cycle

1. Systems analysis/planning 2. Systems design 3. Building the system 4. Testing 5. Implementation Service Delivery

8 most important factors in successful e-commerce site design

1. functionality 2. informational 3. ease of use 4. redundant navigation 5. ease of purchase 6. multi-browser functionality 7. simple graphics 8. legible text

Ways to scale hardware

1. vertically - increase processing power of indiv components 2. horizontally - employ multiple computers to share workload 3. improve processing architecture of site 4. Outsource to cloud service or content delivery network

Pre-roll ad study

30 second ads were the least intrusive (3 seconds the most) 30 second ads had the highest recall (83%) High information and high humor the least intrusive

Customization

Ability to change the product to better fit the needs of the customer

personalization

Ability to treat people based on personal qualities and prior history with site

common tools of dynamic page generation

CGI, ASP, JSP, ODBC

Management challenges

Developing a clear understanding of business objectives Knowing how to choose the right technology to achieve those objectives

Business objectives

List of capabilities you want your site to have

system functionalities

List of information system capabilities needed to achieve business objectives

Vision

Mission statement target audience intended market space strategic analysis internet marketing matrix development timeline preliminary budget

customer demand

Most important factor affecting speed of site

Static ad study

Pop-ups were 24% more intrusive than in-line ads Pop-unders were 33% more intrusive

TOWS

SO: Turns strengths into opportunities ST: Use strengths to battle threats WO: Use opportunities to minimize weaknesses WT: Learn how weaknesses lead to threats

Physical design

Specifies actual physical, software components, models, and so on

hardware platform

Underlying computing equipment needed for e-commerce functionality Enough platform capacity to meet peak demand without wasting money

multi-tier

Web application servers Backend, legacy databases

two-tier

Web server and database server

accessibility rules

a set of design objectives that ensure disabled users can effectively access your site

privacy policy

a set of public statements declaring to your customers how you treat their personal information that you gather on the site

scalability

ability of a site to increase in size as demand warrants

build own vs. outsourcing

building your own requires team with diverse skill set; choice of software tools; both risks and possible benefits

page delivery

content delivery networks edge catching bandwidth

dynamic page generation

contents stored in databases and fetched when needed

logical design

data flow diagrams, processing functions, databases

system design specification

description of the main components in a system and their relationship to one another

features taken into account for a mobile presence

hardware connectivity displays interface

Outsourcing

hiring vendors to provide services involved in building site

host own vs. outsourcing

hosting: hosting company responsible for ensuring site is accessible 24/7, for monthly fee co-location

planing and building a mobile presence

identify business objectives, system functionality, and info requirements choice: mobile web site or mobile web app or native app

Two components of system design

logical design and physical design

Advantages of dynamic page generation

lowers page design costs permits easy online market segmentation enables cost-free price discrimination enables content management system

tools for website optimization

metatags, titles, content identify market niches, localize site offer expertise links search engine ads local e-commerce

types of m-commerce software

mobile website mobile web app native app hybrid app

e-commerce merchant server software

online catalog, shopping cart, credit card processing

page content

optimize html & images site architecture efficient page style

factors in website optimization

page generation, page delivery, page content

mobile presence design considerations

platform constraints (graphics, file sizes) mobile first design (desktop web site design after mobile design) responsive web design (layout of site adjusts smoothly to device screen resolution/size adaptive web design (layout of site adjusts to a small number of sizes)

cookies

primary method to achieve personalization

web application servers

provide specific business functionality required for a web site

page generation

server response time device based accelerators efficient resource allocation resource utilization thresholds monitoring site performance

multivariate testing

testing multiple items at the same time but in various combinations

system architecture

the arrangement of software, machinery, and tasks in an information system needed to achieve a specific functionality

information requirements

the information elements that the system must produce in order to achieve the business objectives

Co-location

when a firm purchases or leases a Web server (and has total control over its operation) but locates the server in a vendor's physical facility.