Role of E-commerce

Question: Write a report about the role of E-commerce in a business. Answer: 1. Introduction 1.1 Overview: As discussed by Githinji (2014), E-commerce is quick putting on ground as acknowledged whats more utilized benefits of the business standard. Most of the business houses are actualizing websites to improve the business and enhance the transaction process under one place. An online solution provider of online services can look at the catalog of service provided by the website and use the required service by contacting the administrator (Agarwal, 2015). The customer can make the payment for the selected service by the payment gateway used in the site with their debit or credit cards. A notification email is sent to the customer on confirmation of the payment on the selected service. 2. Overview of the website GreyTeak is good e-commerce site and it follows some factors for the customer reliability and customer satisfaction. The main feature of the GreyTeak website is that the navigation of the website is simpler, the customer can look at all the service provided by the website at a once. The services are shown in the very first layer of the site. The visitor of the site would need much less time to explore the website and thus saving the time and they can take their decision much faster than the other competiting websites (Patterson et al., 2013). The consumer can call on the provided number on the website if they face any problem in choosing the service provided by GreyTeak. The project is discussed briefly between customer service expert and the customer that helps the customer to choose the right service suitable for his project. 2.1 Positive and Negative aspects of the website: The positive aspect of GreyTeak website is that provides all the details of the company and the services they provide to the customer. The customer can have a deep review about the company and the informations regarding the company are given in the website in details (Brin, and Page, 2012). The customer can also contact the administrator by posting a query to the companys mail id or directly talk with the customer service expert and discuss about their project. The negative aspect of the website is that the website is too simple to attract the customer. The designer of the website has not understood the goal of the company, the important features of the store should separate the designs look and feelings but the website lacks in it (Morais et al., 2012). The administrator could be given more rights in the website but it misses those functionalities. 3. Stage of the website at present: GreyTeak is in e-business stage because according to e-business if the company uses all the opportunities provided by the internet to increase the business it is known to be in this stage (Tsiotsou and Wirtz, 2015). In this stage the internet acts as a channel between the client and the customer, the integration of ecommerce and e-business with the business strategy of the company is much important in the e business stage. 4. Hardware and software requirements for the website: ITEMS WEB SERVER (suggested) WEB SERVER (least) COMBINED WEB AND DATABASE SERVER (suggested) COMBINED WEB AND DATABASE SERVER (least) Processor 2 x 1.6 GHz CPU 1.6 GHz CPU 4 x 1.6 GHz CPU 2 x 1.6 GHz CPU HDD 1 x 360 GB of free space is suggested for the website. 1 x 360 GB of free space is suggested for the software used for the website. Ram 4 GB Ram 2 GB Ram 8 GB Ram 4 GB Ram Recommended Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine Configuration Medium Basic VM Small Basic VM Large Basic VM Medium Basic VM Table 1: Hardware Requirements for Web and Database Servers (Source: Patterson and Hennessy, 2013) COMPONENTS NOTES Microsoft.Net Framework 4.5 It can be downloaded from the Microsoft official site Table 2: Software Requirements for All Servers (Source: Patterson and Hennessy, 2013) Components Notes Windows server 2012 R2 Windows server 2012 Windows server 2008 R2 Windows server 2008 Small Business server 2008 Windows Essential Business Server 2008 Windows Server 2003 R2 with service pack 2 or later Windows server 2003 service tools must be installed Windows server 2003 with service pack 2 or later Small business server 2003 R2 with Service Pack 2 or later Table 3: Supported operating system (Source: Patterson and Hennessy, 2013) 5. Formulation of an e-commerce implementation strategy: 5.1 Content strategy for e-commerce implementation: The analysis of the current appearance and contents of the website (Greyteak.com.au 2016), reveals the fact the organization is in need of a content strategy for an e-commerce implementation. As discussed by Chauhan and Pillai (2013), Content Strategy collectively addresses the management of the contents of a particular media including its planning and the continual development. 5.2 Need for content strategy implementation: The strategy is essential to provide a more lucrative experience for the clients or the visitors and for an extensive brochure for the services provided by Greyteak. The software development industry has just extended beyond the services to the overall management of the marketing strategies for the specific organization. The purpose of a website is to provide the relevant information of the services to the stakeholders and the visitors in an attractive manner. Therefore, the websites should first formulate the extent and design of the service information to be imparted to the visitors. According to Maity and Dass (2014), the content strategy directly benefits the website design of the organization. The effective strategy outlines the following- Analyze the visitor and the clients interest The content administered by the Quality Analytics Product reviews Distribution of information through multimedia 5.3 Content strategy in Greyteak: The primary strategy that Greyteak requires at this moment is to provide the visitors multiple interactive facets in their website. The website presents the information of all the services in an unattractive detailed manner. As argued by Tsai et al. (2012), the content severely lacks the multimedia that was necessary for the lucrative presentation of the information about the various services. Figure 1: Applications and systems management of Greyteak Source: (Greyteak.com.au 2016) 5.4 The strategy framework for Content management: Figure: Vital factors of Content management for a website in e-commerce Source: (Tips for Developing a Content Marketing Strategy 2015) 5.5 Key aspects of the Content management strategy: Figure 2: Key aspects of Interaction design for the content strategy management Source: (Halvorson and Rach 2012) User analysis: It is the study of the visitor demographics and knowing the point of navigation of the clients. It will strategize a better website design for Greyteak. Branding: It is necessary for creating a stand-alone experience for the customer in the competitive e-commerce market for the websites and development companies. Ergonomics: The evaluation of the human interactions with the machines or the website in this case is ergonomics, which will prove useful in this case. Content strategy: The elaborateness yet the compact nature of the information of the services will be a driving aspect of the Content management strategy. Visual attractiveness: The perfect blend of the text, color, design, spacing, with the appropriate use of multimedia creates better visitor experiences. Architecture of Information: The organization of the information and the navigation facilitates drive the content management. Market analysis: The evaluation of the competitors and the market value of the organization both for brick and mortar is a vital aspect. Requirement analysis: A lucrative design along with the most effective information is key element for the content strategy. Technology: A feasibility study for the ecommerce will maintain a scalable and customer oriented content management. 6. Hardware and software requirements for the Content Management Strategy for ecommerce: The software required for the Content Management implementation is IBM Content Manager Enterprise Edition 8.5 for the Linux Operating system. The Content Management software stores the content in then XML format for the management and reuse of the data to facilitate a flexible presentation for the website in the e-commerce. Operating system OS Minimum Hardware Bitness Red Hat Enterprise for Linux Advanced Platform Base IBM systems (Z) / x-86 64 bits Exploit and Tolerate Red Hat Enterprise for Linux Advanced Server Base IBM systems (Z) / x-86 64 bits Exploit and Tolerate Red Hat Enterprise for Linux Advanced Server 6 Base IBM systems (Z) / x-86 64 bits Exploit and Tolerate SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Base IBM systems (Z) / x-86 64 bits Exploit and Tolerate Table 4: Software and hardware requirements for the selected Content Management Software Source: (Www-969.ibm.com 2016) 7. Conclusion: In the modern era of business internet plays an important role, and thus the ecommerce websites have gained significant importance for the entrepreneur and the customers. The customers can avail a service from home or any other geographical location with the help of this ecommerce website. The consumers of most of the ecommerce websites make quick decision and thus the website design must be simple and attractive to convince the customer to take the service from the website. The design should be made in such a way that the products and the service are accessed easily by the customer. In this project the user has tried to keep the design of the website simple and to build the website various tools like Asp.Net, VB.Net, J# etc. are used. The information regarding the customer requirement and the other services are stored in the database. The report gives a clear view of the website and the technologies and tools used to design the website. The building of the project has helped in incr easing knowledge about Asp.Net and other tools required to develop an ecommerce website. References: Agarwal, D., 2015. WEB PERSONALIZATION AND RECOMMENDATION MODEL FOR TRUST IN ECOMMERCE WEBSITES FROM AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE. Brin, S. and Page, L., 2012. Reprint of: The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual web search engine.Computer networks,56(18), pp.3825-3833. Chauhan, K. and Pillai, A., 2013. Role of content strategy in social media brand communities: a case of higher education institutes in India.Journal of Product Brand Management,22(1), pp.40-51. Githinji, S.W., 2014.Empowerment of small and medium enterprises through e-commerce and mobile technology in developing countries: a case study of Kenya(Doctoral dissertation, University of Nairobi). Greyteak.com.au. (2016). GreyTeak Services. Halvorson, K. and Rach, M., 2012.Content strategy for the web. New Riders. Maity, M. and Dass, M., 2014. Consumer decision-making across modern and traditional channels: E-commerce, m-commerce, in-store.Decision Support Systems,61, pp.34-46. Morais, E.P., Pires, J.A. and Gonalves, R.M., 2012. e-Business Maturity: Constraints associated with their evolution.Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce,22(3), pp.280-300. Patterson, D.A. and Hennessy, J.L., 2013.Computer organization and design: the hardware/software interface. Newnes. Tips for Developing a Content Marketing Strategy. (2015). Nonprofit Communications Report, 13(6), pp.6-6. Tsai, J., Miller, M. and Strong, D., 2012.Systems and methods for managing interactive features associated with multimedia content. U.S. Patent Application 12/890,741.