ECT 250: Survey of e-commerce technology
E-commerce hardware and software
The midterm
• The midterm statistics:
– Average: 85.26
– Breakdown of scores:
90-100+: 17
80-89: 19
70-79: 4
60-69: 2
• Midterm course grades will be posted.
• Discussion of answers to midterm.
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Web servers
• The components of a web server are:
– Hardware
– Software
• When determining what sort of server hardware
and software to use you have to consider:
– Size of the site
– Purpose of the site
– Traffic on the site
• A small, noncommercial Web site will require
less resources than a large, commercial site.
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The role of a web server
• Facilitates business
– Business to business transactions
– Business to customer transactions
• Hosts company applications
• Part of the communications infrastructure
Poor decisions about web server platforms can
have a negative impact on a company. This is
particularly true for purely online (“click and
mortar”) companies.
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Hosting considerations
One of the decisions to make is whether the site
will be hosted by the organization or by a provider.
Factors to consider:
• The bandwidth and availability needed for the
expected size, traffic, and sales of the site
• Scalability: If the Web site needs to grow or has a
sudden increase in traffic, can the provider still
handle it?
• Personnel requirements or restraints
• Budget and cost effectiveness of the solution
• Target audience: B2C or B2B?
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Budget
• Small budgets initially need low-cost solutions
until revenue flow begins.
• Larger budgets can invest in more elaborate
solutions before revenue is generated.
• In either case, e-commerce has smaller start-up
costs than traditional “brick and mortar”
businesses.
– Leasing or buying physical location
– Employees
– Utility payments
– Maintenance
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Target audience
Know your target audience before making decisions
about the site.
• Business-to-consumer software
– Look up sales tax rates for different states
– Credit card processing
• Business-to-business software
– Wholesale
– Use existing extranet connections
– No sales tax
– Electronic data transfers: invoices, purchase
orders, etc.
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B2C e-commerce requirements
Requirements:
• A catalog display
• Shopping cart capabilities
• Transaction processing
• Tools to populate the store catalog and to
facilitate storefront display choices
Any e-commerce software must be integrated
with existing systems:
– Database
– Transaction processing software
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Catalog display
• Small storefront (fewer than 35 items)
– Simple listing of products
– No particular organization
– Example: Quebec maple syrup
• Larger catalog
– Store product information in database
– More sophisticated navigation aids
– Better product organization
– Search engine
– Example: LL Bean
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Shopping carts
• Early e-commerce shopping used forms-based
check out methods. Required writing down
product codes, unit prices, etc.
• A shopping cart:
– Keeps track of items selected
– Allows you to view the items in a cart
– Allows you to change quantities of items
• Because the Web is stateless, information must
be stored for retrieval. One way to do this is
to use cookies, bits of information stored on
the client’s computer.
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Transaction processing
• Usually performed with a secure connection.
• May require the calculation of:
– Sales tax
– Shipping costs
– Volume discounts
– Tax-free sales
– Special promotions
– Time sensitive offers
• Details about transactions must be tracked for
accounting, sales reports.
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What is Web hosting?
Web hosts are Internet service providers who also
allow access to:
• E-commerce software
• Storage space
• E-commerce expertise
Web hosts keep fees low by distributing the costs
of hardware, software, and personnel over a large
number of “tenants”.
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Benefits
• Cost effective for small Web sites or those with a
limited number of items available.
• Requires no investment in hardware or software.
• Eliminates the need to hire and oversee technical
personnel.
• Make sure that the site is scalable.
• If you need help in choosing a Web host, contact
the Web Host Guild. Formed in 1998, it is a sort
of Better Business Bureau of the Internet.
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Services provided
• Access to hardware, software, personnel
• Domain name, IP address
• Disk storage (25-60 MB, more for higher fees)
• Template pages to use for designing the site
• E-mail service
• Use of FTP to upload and download information
• Shopping cart software
• Multimedia extensions (sound, animation, movies)
• Secure credit card processing
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Advantages
• Reliable server
• Reasonable cost ($25 - $100+ /month)
• Good functionality
• Full-time technical support
• No fixed-length contract
• Help integrating databases
Make sure that the Web host is reliable. Reputable
hosts guarantee availability time. Choose one with
99+% reliability. (Even a 95% reliability rate means
your site is down over eight hours a week).
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B2B e-commerce
Business-to-business e-commerce requires tools and
capabilities different from those required for businessto-customer systems.
• Encryption
• Authentication
• Digital signatures
• Signed receipt notices
• The ability to connect to existing legacy systems,
including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
software. ERP integrates all facets of a business
including planning, sales, and marketing.
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Levels of packages
Three levels of e-commerce packages:
• Basic: Requires a few hundred dollars in fees
and less than an hour to set up. Typically
hosted by an ISP.
• Middle-tier: Ranges in price from $1K to $5K+,
and can take from one day to several days to
set up. Can connect with a database server.
May require hardware purchase.
• Enterprise-class: For large companies with high
traffic and transaction volumes. Hardware and
talent needed.
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Basic packages
Basic packages are free or low-cost e-commerce
software supplied by a Web host for building sites
to be placed on the Web host’s system.
• Fundamental services
• Banner advertising exchanges
• Full-service mall-style hosting
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Fundamental services
Available for businesses selling less than 50 items with
a low rate of transactions.
• These services offer:
– Space for the store
– Forms-based shopping
• The Web host makes money from advertising banners
placed on the site. Each business has some control
over which banners are placed on its site.
• Examples: B-City, Bizland.com, HyperMart
• Drawbacks: E-mail transaction processing, banners.
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Banner exchange sites
• Banner exchange sites aid online store promotion.
• Banner exchange agreements are made between
sites that sign up for the service.
• The BES organizes the exchanges, enforces banner
exchange rules, collects statistics about customers,
and rotates ads on the sites.
• A click through count is the number of visitors that
a banner produces at a site.
• Examples: Banner Exchange, Exchange-it,
Smartclicks
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Full-service mall-style hosting
Full-service hosting sites provide:
• High-quality tools
• Storefront templates
• An easy-to-use interface
• Quick Web page creation and maintenance
• No required banner advertising
In exchange these sites may charge:
• One-time set up fees
• Monthly fees
• A percentage of each transaction
• A fixed amount per each transaction
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Differences from basic services
• Shopping cart software
• Comprehensive customer transaction processing
– Choice of purchase options (credit card,
electronic cash or other forms)
– Acceptance and authorization of credit cards
• No required (and distracting) Web banner ads
• Higher quality Web store building/maintenance
tools (saving time and energy)
• Examples: Yahoo!Store, ShopBuilder
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Estimated operating expenses
Operating costs
Cost estimate
Initial set-up
$ 200
Annual maintenance fee
1,200
InterNIC domain name registration
70
Scanner for photo conversion
250
Photo touch-up software
100
HTML and design help
300
Merchant credit card set-up fee
200
Total first-year cost
$2,320
Transaction fees can be 3% of gross sales.
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Midrange packages
Distinction from basic e-commerce packages:
• The merchant has explicit control over
– Merchandising choices
– Site layout
– Internal architecture
– Remote and local management options
• Other differences include price, capability,
database connectivity, software portability,
software customization tools, computer
expertise required of the merchant.
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Features
• Prices range from $2000 to $9000.
• Hosted on the merchant’s server.
• Typically has connectivity with complex database
systems and stores catalog information.
• Several provide connections (“hooks”) into existing
inventory and ERP systems.
• Highly customizable
• Requires part-time or full-time programming talent.
• Examples: INTERSHOP Merchant Edition, Site Server
Commerce Edition, WebSphere Commerce Suite
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Enterprise solutions
Distinguishing features:
• Price ($25,000 - $1 million)
• Extensive support for B2B e-commerce
• Interacts with a variety of back office systems,
such as database, accounting, and ERP.
• Requires one or more dedicated computers, a
Web front-end, firewall(s), a DNS server, an
SMTP system, an HTTP server, an FTP server,
and a database server.
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Features
• Good tools for linking supply and purchasing.
• Can interact with the inventory system to make
the proper adjustments to stock, issue purchase
orders, and generate accounting entries.
• Example: Wal-Mart
– Allows several suppliers to make decisions
about resupplying
– Results in cost savings in inventory
• Examples: WebSphere Commerce Suite, InterWorld
Commerce Suite, Netscape CommerceXpert
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Web platform choices
• Hardware, operating system, and application server
software must be considered together since each
affects the other.
• Whatever your choice you must ensure that the
server hardware is scalable, meaning that it can be
upgraded or a new server added as necessary.
• Other needs, such as a database server, should be
handled by separate hardware. Database products
have large processing needs.
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Factors in performance
• Hardware and operating system choice
• Speed of connection to the Internet
• User capacity
– Throughput: The number of HTTP requests
that can be processed in a given time period.
– Response time: The amount of time a server
requires to process one request.
• The mix and type of Web pages
– Static pages
– Dynamic pages: Shaped in response to users.
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Benchmarking
• Benchmarking is testing used to compare the
performance of hardware and software.
• Results measure the performance of aspects such
as the OS, software, network speed, CPU speed.
• There are several Web benchmarking programs.
For a list see Figure 3-4 on page 80.
• Anyone considering buying a server for a heavy
traffic situation or wanting to make changes to
an existing system should consider benchmarks.
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Web server features
• Web server features range from basic to extensive
depending on the software package being used.
• Web server features fall into groups based on their
purpose:
– Core capabilities
– Site management
– Application construction
– Dynamic content
– Electronic commerce
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Core capabilities
• Process and respond to Web client requests
Static pages, dynamic pages, domain name
translation.
• Security
Name/passwords, processing certificates and
public/private key pairs.
• FTP, Gopher
• Searching, indexing
• Data analysis
Who, what, when, how long? May involve the
use of Web log analysis software.
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Site management
Features found in site management tools:
• Link checking
• Script checking
• HTML validation
• Web server log file analysis
• Remote server administration
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Application construction
• Uses Web editors and extensions to produce Web
pages, both static and dynamic.
• Like HTML editors, application editors allow the
creation dynamic features without knowledge of
CGI (Common Gateway Interface) or API
(Application Program Interface) programming.
• Also detects HTML code that differs from the
standard or is browser specific.
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Dynamic content
• Nonstatic information constructed in response to
to a Web client’s request.
• Assembled from backend databases and internal
data on the Web site, a successful dynamic page
is tailored to the query that generated it.
• Active Server Pages (ASP) is a server-side scripting
mechanism to build dynamic sites and Web
applications. It uses a variety of languages such
as VBScript, Jscript, and Perl.
More information? Take ECT 353!
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Electronic commerce
• An Web server handles Web pages whereas an
e-commerce server deals with the buying and
selling of goods and services.
• A Web server should handle e-commerce software
since this simplifies adding e-commerce features
to existing sites.
• Features: Creation of graphics, product information,
addition of new products, shopping carts, credit
card processing.
• Other features: Sales report generation, Web ad
rotation and weighting.
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Web server software
• There is no best package for all cases.
• The market is divided into intranet servers and
public Web servers.
• Four of the most popular Web server programs:
– Apache HTTP Server
– Microsoft Internet Information Server
– Netscape Enterprise Server
• See Figure 3-8 for the market share graph.
A more recent market share analysis.
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Apache HTTP Server
• Developed by Rob McCool while at UI in the
NCSA in 1994.
• The software is available free of charge and is
quite efficient.
• Can be used for intranets and public Web sites.
• Originally written for Unix, it is now available
for many operating systems.
• For a discussion of its features see the Apache
Software Foundation page.
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Microsoft IIS
• Microsoft’s Internet Information Server comes
bundled with Microsoft’s Windows NT.
• Can be used for intranets and public Web sites.
• It is suitable for everything from small sites to
large enterprise-class sites with high volumes.
• Currently only runs on Windows NT.
• See Microsoft’s Web Services page.
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Netscape Enterprise Server
• Costs between $1,300 and $2,000 and has a 60-day
trial period.
• Can be run on the Internet, intranets and extranets.
• Some of the busiest sites on the Internet use NES
including E*Trade, Excite, and Lycos.
• Runs on many different operating systems.
• See Netscape Server Products.
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Further information
• What Web software is running on a site?
• Web server side-by-side comparisons
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