Amity School of Business

Amity School of Business

BBA, Semester IV
E-Commerce
Ms Bhawana Gupta

1
 Amity School of Business

MODULE-III

E-Strategies and Tactics

2
 Amity School of Business

Building E-Presence
• Web site as the interface between the E-merchant and the Web
consumer. E-commerce is a unique way of doing business. It
available 24 hours a days a week, anywhere, and it is accessible to
anyone.

• Building a Web Site is a major step toward doing business on the

Internet. A website is the gateway to the Internet. Deciding how to
design the site, what to include in it, how to organize its contents,
and what security measures to incorporate are critical aspects of
building an e-commerce infrastructure.

3
 Amity School of Business

Benefits of Web Site

• Reaching millions of customers quickly and reliably.
• Leverage advertising costs: Unlike radio, TV, or newspapers,
where limited time or space is available at high cost, advertising on
the Internet is cheaper, quicker, and limitless.
• Reduce the costs of serving customers: A Web site can offer a
variety of labor-saving services- application forms, information via
links or email, and order handling and shipment without human
intervention
• Promote Public relations: A Web site on the Internet is like
passing business cards to thousands of potential customers. It is like
sayings,” Here is what I do, What I am, and what I can do for you.
You can reach me anytime, from anywhere, and I ‘ll be available”.
The Web site also allows for the timely dissemination of 4
information about the new product or a special sale.
 Amity School of Business

Site Building Life Cycle

Site building is the science of figuring out what you as a site designer
want the site to do and then creating a blueprint for the building
process. Site Building Life Cycle is shown in figure below.

Define the audience

Planning the Site Build the Site
and Competition

i n g
pe n
O
r and
G Visual Design Define the Site Structure

5
 Amity School of Business

Site Building Life Cycle

1. Plan the Site: The planning phase of site building is the foundation
for great Web design. It is the blueprint for designing the form, function
navigation, and interface. Planning is defining the site’s goals in
advance.

The aim of the planning stage is to provide for quick application

development and deployment. Doing this means organizing the site-
creating an efficient structure for the files ad folders that make up the
site.

Another aspect of the planning phase is to decide on the site’s mission,

the short-and long term goals of the site, who the intended audience is,
and why people will want to visit the site.
6
 Amity School of Business

Site Building Life Cycle

2. Define the Audience and the Competition : Defining the audience
includes not just who the users are, but their goals and objectives, as
well. The first step is to generate a list of categories of intended
audiences.

The Goal is to enhance site visitor's experience by escorting them

quickly to the merchandise that best suits them. Speed and
responsiveness are crucial. In addition to defining the audience, you
need to create scenarios or design test cases of a customers accessing
the site for various reasons and see how well the site matches their
needs.
The second part of this step is competitive analysis. The idea is to be
aware of what other sites are doing. Make a list your competitors’ Web
Sites, evaluate them and see where your site needs work.
7
 Amity School of Business

Site Building Life Cycle

3. Build Site Content: The focus in this phase is on gathering the
pieces for creating and organizing the structure of the site. The pieces
represent the content. For example if I were building a Web Site for a
bank, the homepage would contain basic information about each
department (loans, customer service, trust, checking and savings) as
well as basic company information such as privacy policy, location,
banking hours and name of officers.

After this step is completed, the designer needs to determine the

feasibility of each function. For example, are technology and money
available to buy or build the function? If money is limited, you may
have to drop some functions in order to meet budget constraints and
deadlines.
8
 Amity School of Business

Site Building Life Cycle

4. Define the Site Structure : In this phase, the focus is on creating a
good site structure, exploring various metaphors to represent content
items, defining the architectural blueprint and deciding how the user
will navigate the site. Once a site structure is created, everything also
should fall into place. This step ensures easy site navigation and well
laid out pages and templates.
5. Develop the Visual Design: In final phase of a site-building life cycle
is developing the visual design. The goal is to give visitors a mental
map of the Web site. Where they are, whey they have been and how
to proceed. The first step is to use a layout grid to show well the icons
button, banners, and other elements fit together. Like the format of a
letter, a layout grid is a template that shows the focus of every page.
Another aspect of the design phase is establishing to look and feel of
the site via page mock ups. Once completed, the visual design also is
incorporated into the design document. The design document is now
complete. It shows how to construct the site, add content and review
the site after the site is up and running. 9
 Amity School of Business

E-Commerce Transaction Models

• Business to Consumer (B2C) - It is the model involving businesses and
consumers. This is the most common e-commerce segment. In this model,
online businesses sell to individual consumers. The basic concept behind this
type is that the online retailers and marketers can sell their products to the
online consumer by using crystal clear data which is made available via
various online marketing tools. E.g. An online pharmacy giving free medical
consultation and selling medicines to patients is following B2C model.
• Business to Business (B2B) - It is the largest form of e-commerce involving
business of trillions of dollars. In this form, the buyers and sellers are both
business entities and do not involve an individual consumer. It is like the
manufacturer supplying goods to the retailer or wholesaler. E.g. Dell sells
computers and other related accessories online but it is does not manufacture
all those products. So, in order to sell those products, it first purchases them
from different businesses i.e. the manufacturers of those products.
 Amity School of Business

E-Commerce Transaction Models

• Consumer to Consumer (C2C) - It facilitates the online transaction of goods
or services between two people. Though there is no visible intermediary
involved but the parties cannot carry out the transactions without the platform
which is provided by the online market maker such as eBay.

• Consumer to Busienss(C2B)- A consumer posts his project with a set budget

online and within hours companies review the consumer's requirements and
bid on the project. The consumer reviews the bids and selects the company
that will complete the project. It empowers consumers around the world by
providing the meeting ground and platform for such transactions.
 Amity School of Business

Integrating E-Commerce & Business

Activities
• Supply Chain Management
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
 Amity School of Business

Supply Chain Management

Supply chain refers to the flow of materials, information, payments, and
services from raw material suppliers, through factories and warehouses
(Value Chain), to the final consumer (Demand Chain). It includes tasks
such as purchasing, payment flow, materials handling, production
planning & control, logistics & warehousing, inventory control, and
distribution.
• Supply Chain Flows
– Materials flows are all physical products, new materials, and supplies
that flow along the chain.
– Information flows relates to all data associated with demand,
shipments, orders, returns and schedules.
– Financial flows include all transfers of money, payments, credit card
information, payment schedules, e-payments and credit-related data.
 Amity School of Business

Supply Chain Components

• The supply chain involves three segments:
– Upstream,
Upstream where sourcing or procurement from external suppliers
occur
– Internal,
Internal where packaging, assembly, or manufacturing take place
– Downstream,
Downstream where distribution or dispersal take place, frequently
by external distributors.
• It also includes the movement of information and money and the
procedures that support the movement of a product or a service.
• Organizations and individuals are also part of the chain.
 Amity School of Business

Supply Chain Problems

• Demand forecasts are a major source of uncertainties
• Competition
• Prices
• Weather conditions
• Technological development
• Customer confidence
• Uncertainties exist in delivery times
• Machine failures
• Road conditions
• Shipments
• Quality problems may also create production delays
 Amity School of Business

E-Commerce and Supply Chain

E-commerce is emerging as a super tool for providing solutions to
problems along the supply chain. Many supply chain activities from
taking customer’sorders to procurement, can be conducted
electronically.
• E-commerce
–can replace all paper documents
–can replace faxes and telephone calls with electronic messaging
–enhances collaboration and information sharing
–typically shortens the supply chain and minimizes inventories
–facilitates customer service
–introduces efficiencies into buying and selling
–enables faster, cheaper, and better communication, collaboration,
 Amity School of Business

E-Commerce and Supply Chain

A major role of EC is to facilitate buying and selling along all
segments of the supply chain.
• Upstream Activities improve the upstream supply chain through e-
procurement
• Internal Supply Activities from entering purchase orders, to
recording sales, to order fulfillment, to tracking shipments, are usually
conducted over a corporate intranet
• Downstream Activities enhance the activity downstream activities by
providing online ordering
• Vertical exchanges combine upstream and downstream EC supply
chain activities. These B2B exchanges, provide a medium where
buyers and sellers can meet.
 Amity School of Business

Supply Chains Benefits

There are many benefits to integrating functional systems.
Tangible benefits: It is a benefit to a person or organization
which can be felt and touched. It is a real benefit which is
straight forward. Ex: Saving money
– Inventory reduction
– Productivity improvement
– Order management improvement
– Financial-close cycle improvements
– IT cost reduction
– Procurement cost reduction
– Revenue/profit increases
– Maintenance reduction
 Amity School of Business

Supply Chains Benefits

• Intangible benefits: Intangible Benefit: - It is an indirect
benefit which can't be felt or touched. Ex: Saving time
– Information visibility
– New/improved processes
– Customer responsiveness
– Standardization
– Flexibility
– Globalization
– Business performance
– Reduction in duplication of entries
 Amity School of Business

Enterprise Resources Planning

• An enterprise is a group of people with a common goal, which has
certain resources at its disposal to achieve this goal. The enterprise
acts as a single entity.
• This view of a company or organization is drastically different
from the traditional approach where the organization is divided
into different units based on the functions they perform. So we
have a manufacturing or production department, production
planning department, sales department finance department and so
on…
• These department have their own goals and objectives. These
departments function in isolation and have their own systems of
data collection and analysis so the information that is created or
generated by the various departments , in most cases are available
only to the tip management and no to the other departments.
 Amity School of Business

Enterprise Resources Planning

• The result is that instead of taking the organization towards the
common goal the various departments tend to pull it in
different directions since one department does not know what
the other does. Also, departmental objectives can sometimes
be conflicting.

• In the enterprise way the entire organization is considered as

one system and all the department are its sub-system.
Information regarding all aspects of the organization is stored
centrally and is available to all departments. Each sub-system
knows what others are doing. Why they are doing it and what
should be done to move the company towards the common
goal
 Amity School of Business

Enterprise Resources Planning

• The ERP systems help to make this task easier by integrating
the information systems, enabling smooth and seamless flow
of information across departmental barriers, automating
business process and functions and this helping the
organization to work and move forward as a single entity.
 Amity School of Business

Integration of ERP

23
 Amity School of Business

Enterprise Resource Benefits

• Tangible benefits are those measured in monetary terms and intangible
benefits cannot be measured in monetary terms but they do have a very
significant business impact.
Tangible benefits:

 Improves the productivity of process and personnel

 Lowering the cost of products and services purchased
 Paper and postage cost reductions
 Inventory reduction
 Lead time reduction
 Reduced stock obsolescence
 Faster product / service look-up and ordering saving time and money
 Automated ordering and payment, lowering payment processing and paper
costs
 Amity School of Business

Enterprise Resource Benefits

• Intangible benefits:

 Increases organizational transparency and responsibility

 Accurate and faster access to data for timely decisions
 Can reach more vendors, producing more competitive bids
 Improved customer response
 Saves enormous time and effort in data entry ;
 More controls thereby lowering the risk of mis-utilization of
resources
 Facilitates strategic planning
 Amity School of Business

Web Site Evaluation

In evaluating Web sites, several criteria can be used:
1. Shape: Shape is an extremely powerful tool. It can motivate
consumers, inspire visitors and make a visit to the web site enjoyable.
2. Type: Type should be appropriate and used carefully. For example, a
time roman expresses organization and intelligence. It is also elegant
and conservative.
3. Content: Web sites should provide valuable, timely information- not
lots of text. Popular sites include updated information, interactivity
and fun. Well –organized, edited, and timely original content set in an
attractive and consistent format are traits of great web sites.
4. Services offered: What unique services does te site offer? Companies
new to the Web think that once they put up a site, people will flock to
visit it. enjoyable. A circle represent Color and general layout have a
definite
 Amity School of Business

Web Site Evaluation

5. Scalability : This criterion is related to how easily a site can be
updated. A site high on scalability has a simple structure, uses frames
ad Extensible Markup Language (XML), and has a design that lends
itself to easy maintenance.
6. Speed : The critical question here is how long its takes the visitor to
click from one page to the next.
7. Primary Focus: Every Web site should have a primary focus. For
example, The company’s main focus is making glasses, yet it also
produces shoes and watches.
8. Professionalism : this criterion considers how professional the site
looks to a visitor. It includes neatness, spelling and grammar
 Amity School of Business

Internet Marketing
• Internet marketing is the component of marketing that deals with the
planning, pricing , promotion, and distribution of your products and
services online.

• Good Internet marketing strategies clearly communicate a firm’s

unique selling proposition, or the unique collection of benefits that
creates value for its customers. Everything you do to promote your
business online is Internet marketing.

28
 Amity School of Business

The Benefits of Internet Marketing

• The Internet is the widest channel of communication available to small
businesses. It can help level the playing field for small businesses on a
limited budget that seek to compete in large markets. No other
communications medium enables you to operate a business from your
home, while giving a small business the appearance of a larger, more
established operation.

• Marketing your product or service online offers the opportunity for

increased communication with your target market through techniques
such as interactive websites, email newsletters, online surveys and forms,
blogs, and discussion groups. The Internet allows you to collect immediate
feedback from your client base with little out-of-pocket expense.

29
 Amity School of Business

The Benefits of Internet Marketing

• Print marketing materials and advertising strategies can be expensive
to produce and traditionally have a short shelf life. Internet marketing
techniques such as websites, banner ads and email newsletters, can be
produced at a reasonable cost, can contain more timely information
than print brochures, and can be immediately and cost-effectively
updated as your business changes.

30
 Amity School of Business

Pros and Cons of Internet Marketing

Pros:
1.Website is an online store: In the Internet market, it can stay
open twenty four hours a day. Customers are spread all over the world
and can make purchases as and when they want.

2. Save a lot of capital: If you email your subscription base, it will be

cheaper as compared to sending a letter through the physical mail.

3. Update your subscribers almost instantly: If you are planning to

start a sale, your customers will be able to start shopping as soon as they
check their mail.

4.Quick Comparison: Consumers can quickly compare products in

terms of price, quantity, shipping terms, and so on before making a final
31
choice.
 Amity School of Business

Pros and Cons of Internet Marketing

Cons:
1.Internet marketing is not free. You will have to spend on hardware,
software, designing your website and maintaining it, distribution costs
and time. All these things have to be considered while providing your
products and services.

2.Many people prefer live interaction while conducting transactions. A

small business with a single location will not succeed in compelling
customers to make purchases.

3.Timely updating your website is important at all costs. It is easy to

leave content unattended to, thereby resulting in outdated information.

32
 Amity School of Business

Pros and Cons of Internet Marketing

4.Your customers should know that you provide complete security.
Many of them are hesitant when it comes to online purchases. Credit
card frauds and other malpractices often deter customers from
conducting online businesses.

5.There is a lot of competition in the online market. Unless you can

provide what your customers need within a few clicks, they will be
far gone.

33
 Amity School of Business

Internet Marketing Techniques

• The Internet allows for a continuum of marketing techniques ranging
from strictly passive to aggressive.

• Passive Internet Marketing is called Pull Marketing, because it

requires the user to pull the information from the site. The user must
actively seek out the site. Currently, most people access web site
content by pulling. Each time a user clicks a link, the browser sends a
request to the Web server (a pull) asking for a specific page. The
browser downloads the page and displays it on the users screen.

• Aggressive Internet Marketing, the Web site seeks out potential

customers. This is called Push Technology, because the Web site
”pushes” the information at consumers, irrespective of their interest.
The Web server does not wait until the consumer requests a page.
34
 Amity School of Business

E-cycle of Internet Marketing

• The Business Plan is a written document that identifies a
merchant’s business goals and how to achieve them. The
content of a business plan includes:
– Mission
– Product
– Competition
– Target audience
– Marketing
– Sales plan
– Operation
– Technology 35
 Amity School of Business

E-cycle of Internet Marketing

• Mission: What is your business is trying to achieve? Missions are related to the vision (perception
or insight into what can happen or take place in the future) of the owners, which is also considered.
• Product: What are your selling? What make it unique?
• Competition: Who are your competitors? How well established are they? Analyze their Web sites
and review the unique features they offer customers.
• Target Audience: Are prospective customers likely to use the Internet at work or at home? Do
they use e-mail? New groups?
• Marketing: How do you plan to reach your customers? What advertising media do you plan to
use?
• Sales plan: What sales methods do your plan to employ? What about distribution channels,
pricing, and fulfillment process?

• The content of a business plan varies with the type and size of the business, but generally includes
the following elements.
36
 Amity School of Business

E-cycle of Internet Marketing

• Operation: What equipment, location, and size of facility are you
planning to start with? What about the size and quality of staff that
will support the operation? Who are your suppliers? How reliable are
they? How will customers reach you?

• Technology: What hardware/software and other technology do you

need? Which ISPs are available? How reliable are they? What are
their charges?

37
 Amity School of Business

E-cycle of Internet Marketing

38
 Amity School of Business

E-cycle of Internet Marketing

• Internet Marketing follows a life cycle that begins with planning,
followed by the four P's :

• Product
• Pricing
• Place and
• Promotion

39
 Amity School of Business

E-cycle of Internet Marketing

• The Product : When it comes to product, the emphasis is on
Viability, Quality, Reliability, Dependability, Integrity. It is more
important in Internet Marketing where customers look for reputable
merchants with quality products at competitive prices.

• Pricing : Once the product is identified, the next step is to decide how
much to charge. Web-based pricing strategies differ with the merchant,
the market, and the type of customer.

40
 Amity School of Business

E-cycle of Internet Marketing

• Place : E-Commerce facilities the exchange the information between
business and delivery companies to ensure prompt delivery of
physical goods to customers. The Internet itself can be viewed as a
delivery channel for digital products. Thousands of software packages
and applications can be ordered online and downloaded directly onto
the customer's PC.

• Promotion : Promotion of a product gets the attention of prospective

customers
– Banners (advertising with links to a merchant's Web site) are the
most popular type of Internet ads
– Create interest in the product (s) displayed
– Build a desire for action 41
 Amity School of Business

E-Core Values
• Ethical Issues
• Legal Issues
• Taxation Issues
• International Issues

42
 Amity School of Business

Ethical Issues
• Ethics can be described as Fairness, Justice, Equity, Honesty,
Trustworthiness, and equality.
• Stealing, cheating, lying or backing out of one’s words all describe
lack of Ethics.
• Code of Ethics: is a declaration of the principles and beliefs that
govern how employees of an organization are expected to behave.
• E-commerce & Ethics: Threats to Ethics are due to: faster computers
and advanced networks, massive distributed databases, ease of access
to information, transparency of software, and view that captured
information can be used as competitive weapon.
• Privacy factor: The concern relates to collection of electronic data
about consumers by businesses; security of data transmission; and
unauthorized access / reading of personal files.
43
 Amity School of Business

Legal Issues
• Every legitimate business operates in a legal environment. However,
many of the legal issues that arise in e-commerce environment are
not settled due to lack of specific laws and legal guidelines.

• When a product is bought over the Internet and found defective,

liability becomes an Issue. Who is liable and for what reasons? Each
party involved (e-merchant, vendor, shipper and manufacturer) is
potentially vulnerable to legal action.

• Legal issues revolve around: Fraud, Negligence, Mis-representation,

warranty, non-delivery, return, payment, damaged goods,
jurisdiction, etc.
44
 Amity School of Business

Taxation Issues
• Taxation issues are the most controversial issue facing e-
commerce & global taxation authorities.
• In an e-commerce environment, collection of tax is not
easy, due to, location of the merchant’s business,
location of buyer, the type of goods, etc.
• Each state and country has different sales taxes &
jurisdictions.
• For example, product A may be taxable in Country 1 &
not in Country 2 and even the taxation may differ in
different states of the same country.
45
 Amity School of Business

International Issues
• International issues primarily revolve around control of
web-site contents & related e-commerce transactions.
• Major concern on international level are:
- What right does any one country have to determine
the contents/material available on the Internet.
- Can a country regulate any entity in cyberspace &
not on the soil of that country.
• Since no common existing international laws apply to
internet & e-commerce, legislation is best left upto
individual countries and their ISPs.
46