Planning for e-commerce
Created by Business Link on 01 June 2006 14:06 © Crown
copyright 2005
Introduction
E-commerce plays an increasingly imp role in the way in which products
and services are purchased. The business relationships supported
be-commerce can be split into two main
categories:
-
open relationships, often referred to as
"business-to-consumer", where there is no formal relationship between
you and your trading partners, as with the conventional
customer-supplier relationship.
-
closed relationships, often referred to as
"business-to-business", where your business is part of a common
trading group with agreed commercial and often technical trading
rules.
Identifying e-commerce opportunities
There are a wide range of existing e-commerce models and new
opportunities are constantly evolving. By understanding the more common
models, you will be in a better position to identify possible
opportunities within your own business.
Making an e-commerce site easy to use
The ease with which a customer is able to use an e-commerce site is an
important part of its success. It's also an important part of your
online brand image.
There are three elements of the shopping process that
influence how easy and enjoyable the customer finds it to shop on an
e-commerce site - the shop front, shopping cart and payment software.
Shop
front
The shop front is the interface presented to the customer. This often
incorporates an online catalogue that enables them to browse for
products and identify those they wish to purchase. The intention of the
shop front is to make sales, and in order to do this it should have
certain attributes. Customers should be able to find the product
quickly. An eight-second guideline is frequently cited, whereby if they
are unable to find the product within that time, they are likely to go
to an alternative site. It should process the order speedily and, if
necessary, send details for it be packed and shipped. There should be a
summary of the order generated, together with a printable receipt and a
mechanism to send a confirmation email to the customer. The design of
the shop front should make shopping intuitive, with the customer knowing
at all times what stage of the buying process they are at.
Shopping cart
This is the software that facilitates easy selection and payment for
products purchased by a customer from an e-commerce website. Once the
goods have been selected, the customer should find the checkout clearly
signposted, so that they can proceed to pay for the goods.
Payment software
Most customers will wish to pay for their purchases with credit or debit
cards. There are three options for accepting such payments - you can:
You can find this guide on
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk by navigating to:
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