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TECHNICAL REPORT No. TR 2000/04/02
Electronic Shops’ Engineering Methodology
Penellope Markellou, Maria Rigou, Spiros Sirmakessis,
Athanasios Tsakalidis
04 April 2000
Abstract
In this paper we present an engineering methodology for electronic commerce
applications. The methodology focuses on the usability aspect of any electronic shop.
It points out the users’ perspective regarding the interaction with a cyber mall. An
evaluation is performed based on the human-computer interaction parameters and the
services provided by the shop. Our approach aims to develop a general technique for
evaluating the usability of e-commerce web sites. The paper provides insight to
businesses, which want to take advantage of electronic commerce opportunities, by
helping them design and implement efficient web strategies.
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1 Introduction
Nowadays, the evolution of new technologies and especially the Internet have changed the business world. A
new way of commerce has been introduced; electronic commerce or e-commerce. There are several notions of ecommerce. According to the Electronic Commerce Association (ECA) [1]:
"E-commerce is defined as any form of business or administrative transaction or information exchange that is
executed using any information and communications technology (ICT)".
E-commerce over the Internet is expected to grow increasingly in the next few years ([2]). Companies around the
world have already reached the point of realising the potential of the new business practices introduced by this
medium. E-commerce currently present in the web, aim to upgrade commercial factors ([4]) such as:





promotion,
advertisement,
marketing,
sales turnover and market share,
the interaction with external partners (customers, suppliers) and within the company (processes, organisation).
Many companies in entertainment, creative content, news distribution, communications, computing, financial
services are seizing the opportunity of digital interactive services (DIS) ([13]). Success in DIS requires input
from diverse industries that have only been indirectly related in the past. Schlueter and Shaw in [9] provide a
detailed representation of the value chain of digital interactive services. As shown in Figure 1, the model consists
of six core processes (1) content direction, (2) content packaging, (3) market making, (4) transport, (5) delivery
service and (6) interface and systems.
Fig. 1. The strategic framework for digital interactive services (figure adapted from [9])
The web business environment is evolving so rapidly that it is very difficult to identify the best business
practices ([6]). An electronic store is not necessary a substitute to the conventional store. In most cases, it works
as a complementary to a physical store. The core component of an electronic shop is the electronic catalogue
(e-catalogue) which is used for the presentation of the items to be sold by the company. E-catalogues form an
effective way for buyers to access the products that they prefer.
Five categories of Internet Retail Stores have been identified in the survey of Spiller and Lohse ([14]). Their
approach is empirical and it is based on features such as store size, provided services and interface quality. Table
1 summarises the classification of Internet Retail Stores.
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Table 1. Classification of Internet Retail Stores.
Main categories of retail stores
Super stores
Promotional stores
Plain sales stores
One page stores
Product listings
Main features
Large catalogue size
Navigation tools
Extensive information
Limited product range
Extensive company information
Medium size or large catalogue
Large images and thumbnails
Limited catalogue size
Few hierarchical levels
Product browse function
Medium size catalogue
Small product images
Few hierarchical levels
It is easily conceivable that a new approach is needed for the design of business in the electronic age ([3], [15],
[16]). This process should cover a different approach in the design phase. The classic engineering process does
not completely cover electronic shop design phases. In this paper we present, in brief, the basic steps in the
engineering methodology of an electronic shop (section 2). The characteristics that a cyber shop should have, are
also presented in section 3. These characteristics focus on the usability evaluation of an e-commerce site. Based
on these characteristics, we present a case study on existing electronic shops in section 4. Since cultural
differences can also influence the usability, we focused on Greek sites and the usability evaluation results are
presented in the same section. We have applied this study to sites with the same content (bookstores), since this
type of sites is most popular1 in Greece.
2 Electronic Shops Engineering Methodology
The design of a usable electronic shop is not a complicated procedure, despite the fact that it involves several
discrete phases, that the e-commerce engineer should take proper care of in order to achieve usability. Lack of
efficiency in any one of these phases can result in a general electronic shop marketing failure.
The process begins with the identification of the content and the functional specifications, continues with the
presentation design and the definition of navigation facilities and finally covers advanced user interface features
and usability issues. Figure 2 shows the sequence of the phases to be curried out by a company, realising a
certain strategic plan, in order to reach an effective and usable web presence. In the following sections, the basic
steps of the electronic shops engineering methodology are briefly described. Emphasis is placed on the essential
characteristics and features that a usable electronic shop should provide.
Identification
of
Content Design
Functional
Design
Presentation
Design
Navigation
Layout
Strategy
Advanced
Features Design
and
Functionality
Usability Principles
Electronic Shops Engineering Methodology
1
Popular in terms of visitors count for commercial use.
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Fig. 2. Phases of the Electronic Shop Engineering Methodology.
2.1 Identification of Content Design
The first phase is to define the purpose and the target audience of the electronic shop. The basic purpose of
electronic shop is to contribute to the transformation of web users/visitors to frequent cyber customers. The
identification of the information content should be clear and specific. The company must determine and point out
the proper information that the target audience will find most interesting. Also, the structuring and the correct
organisation of the provided information have a great influence on the web site success.
2.2 Functional Design
The next phase is to decide about the provided functionalities. Within the context of an electronic shop this
means significant facilities that increase users efficiency and satisfaction. Information and operations should be
grouped and represented properly along successive webpages. Support for novice and expert users should also
take under serious consideration. A set of first-class e-commerce features providing quality of service to
customers and serving this way a company’s goals presented in the section 2.6.
2.3 Presentation Design
This phase should establish the electronic shop's identity and give a clear overview of its content. The designers
should follow presentation standards and guidelines ([2], [11], [12]) in order to take advantage of good practices
and also increase the probability of users’ satisfaction during the purchase process. The content should be
presented in a natural way. The aim of a professional presence in the web is to guide and not to disorientate. The
users must assimilate easily the shop's behaviour. This means that some basic presentation rules should be
adopted, such as:






careful usage of colours,
consistent sharing of graphics and text,
proper selection of buttons and menus,
correct placement of titles, text, images, buttons, etc.
appropriate choice of fonts and styles,
unified and consistent format.
2.4 Navigation Layout Strategy
The navigation between pages is an important component for the success of an electronic shop. If a user has
trouble navigating from one page to another or cannot reach fast the desired information, he/she will choose a
different electronic shop to acquire the same item. Consumers need to find everything they look for quickly and
easily. They should feel comfortable while navigating through pages or scrolling down a page.
2.5 Advanced Features Design and Functionality
This phase is related to the observation of the customer behaviour. The electronic shop adapts its presentation
and functionalities to the identified user profile. The customer preferences can be partly derived from his/her
behaviour throughout his/her interaction with the e-shop (sequence of webpages accessed, etc.) Sometimes for
this reason, a special purpose questionnaire or a test is used in order to get a better view of the customer’s
purchase preferences.
2.6 Usability Principles
The achievement of usability is essential for any competitive electronic shop. Usability focuses on the user
interface of the shop and refers to the elements that the end user directly interacts with e.g. screens, menus,
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navigation controls, etc. Furthermore, usability is a measure of how the electronic shop has succeeded its goals.
Fundamental user interface design principles ([7], [8], [11], [12]) can be applied, the degree at which the
electronic shop lived up to its initial expectations, such as:







Learnability
Memorability
Simplicity
Efficiency
Consistency
User satisfaction
Low error frequency
3 Electronic Shops’ Basic Characteristics
A full-functioning electronic shop should provide certain characteristics. The below mentioned list contains the
basic features required by a typical electronic shop:
 Registration: offering customer's information on a one-to-one basis. In this way the electronic shop continues to
keep customers informed with the information they need. By completing a quick registration process, they can be
given access to advanced features such as enterprise product catalogue, personalised web pages, custom news
emails, enterprise service and support, etc. Also, the customer can receive information about new products,
software updates, training, etc. The customer usually gets a personal ID account information by e-mail. It is
important to provide assistance in the cases that users forget their passwords.
 On-line catalogue: almost all electronic shops provide this service. The products are categorised for convenience. It
should provide detailed information about the different products, thumbnail and large pictures, prices, product's
availability, warranties, etc. It is strongly recommended that companies offer their complete catalogue of products
on-line.
 Search engine: this service allows buyers to search for the products that they prefer, to find specific information
about them and to be guided through their purchase decisions.
 Advanced search engine: this feature services users that wish to enter more than one keyword or a specific
combination of words and phrases.
 Shopping cart or order list: one of the core features of an electronic shop. Its usage relates to the collection of
products that attracted the customer’s attention. It is required for any purchase and relates directly to the two
fundamental business procedures, ordering and payment. The shopping cart is always available to the customer for
checking the selected products (adding new items, removing items, changing the quantities, etc.). Also, it provides
the following information: product names, quantities, total cost, item cost, taxes, shipping cost, other charges, etc.
 Order information: the electronic shop must provide a mechanism for gathering the necessary customer
information for accomplishing an order. Such data typically include the full name of the customer, credit card
information for the payment, an address for the delivery of goods, etc. The order form should be as simple and brief
as possible and should give the customer the freedom to change or even cancel his/her order at any point prior to
submitting them.
 Confirmation report: it is used for informing the customers that their order has been received (typically by e-mail).
The report should include a list of the items ordered a confirmation number so the customer can track and possibly
cancel the order, and information about the date of delivery.
 Previous orders: this option allows customers to see their previous purchases.
 Shipping information: the shop should provide shipping information that includes the following: alternative options
of shipping, cost and delivery time for each shipping option, international options (if applicable), etc.
 Secure payment mechanisms: the aim of the electronic payment is the efficient flow of money compared to the
traditional payment procedure. The customers should be convinced that confidential information such as credit card
numbers is protected safely against unauthorised access. Moreover, alternative ways of payment (e.g. postal orders)
are usually appreciated.
 Certification: a very important factor for the customer is the reliability of the electronic shop. Ownerships of "Seals
of Approval" from respectable organisations such as VeriSign 2, CyberTrust3, GlobalSign4 is something that the vast
majority of users appreciate. These seals indicate that the company executes all transactions based on specific
acceptable rules.
 Return policy: the electronic shop must inform the customers about its return policy.
2
http://www.verisign.com
http://www.cybertrust.com
4 http://globalsign.com
3
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 Customer profile: according to its customer’s preferences the electronic shop creates his/her profile and propose the
product(s) that best meet(s) their individual needs. In most cases this is achieved with the use of specific
questionnaires or tests that the users are asked to fill in.
 Suggestions: with this option the electronic shop recommends products to the customers. The recommendations can
be general and appeal to all customers or can be based on customer profiles, as previously described.
 Special offers: this feature informs customers about price reductions, rebate offers, special opportunities, etc. It is
important though to ensure that this promotion information does not disturb the users.
 Cross selling: this selling technique provides customers with an easy and effective way to buy additional products
that they need or want. When the customer selects one product and puts it in his/her shopping cart then the system
can suggest other related products. It must be ensured that this option does not cause confusion to the user and does
not get in the way of completing his/her current purchase.
 Up selling: this selling tactic can help customers to understand what are the product options in the electronic shop.
The system can suggest product update so that the customer finally chooses a product of better quality and quote.
This service depends on the nature of products and it is obvious that is not applicable to all types of products.
 Company profile: the company history, brief mission statement and the business activities with emphasis to
important co-operations should be presented. Such information helps to establish credibility between the company
and its customers. Without this sense of trust the e-commerce evolution can not reach its potential.
 Contact information: it is necessary to provided in salience all the contact information such as telephone numbers,
fax numbers, e-mail, addresses, contact persons, etc.
 Feedback form: it is used for the submission of non-technical comments, suggestions, compliments, or complaints
to the electronic shop team.
 News and events: in this page the customer can find information for forthcoming events in the local area (or
nationally) and abroad, as well as the proceedings of such recent events.
 Newsletters: the users can receive free newsletters by e-mail where they can find detailed electronic shop news.
Information about new products, special offers, advice and useful instructions can also be provided.
 On-line help: the electronic shop should be designed in a way that makes it easier for the customers to locate what
they need fast, and to enhance this way their overall experience when visiting the web site.
 FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions): is an extremely popular characteristic of almost all web sites. The users are
familiarised with this particular way of communication. The questions cover the user's needs for information on
electronic shopping, electronic payment, security, legal matters, product guarantees and other significant issues.
Direct access to FAQs should be available in all shopping pages.
 Error messages: the electronic shop should provide clear and informative error messages. The users appreciate
unambiguous and detailed instructions for resolving all the possible problems quickly.
 Chat rooms: are places for conversation. The customers can talk about the experience of navigating through the
electronic shop, criticise the product quality, express their satisfaction or displeasure for the provided services, etc.
 Site map: the guests use this service when they want to get an overview of what's on in the e-commerce site.
 Useful links: Links in other web sites and co-operating electronic shops that can help the customer have a better
view of the electronic market.
 Index: It should be provided in any page of the electronic shop and help customers find easily the products or the
information they want.
 Language: it is preferable to support more than one language especially when the company addresses to the
international market.
4 Evaluation of Electronic Shops
Books and music CDs are products that consumers usually purchase on-line. The most known bookstore on the
web is Amazon (http://www.amazon.com). In Greece a number of electronic stores are available to consumers to
buy products ranging from books and music CDs to computers and peripherals. The following are popular
examples of products and services that are available through Greek electronic market. In the following section
there are short descriptions followed by an evaluation regarding four Greek electronic shops specialized
primarily in books.
4.1 Papasotiriou bookstore - http://www.papasotiriou.gr
Papasotiriou bookstore is one of the most reliable attempts in the area of e-commerce in Greece. It presents some
similarities with the Amazon. It offers a big variety of book titles for on-line purchase. The store also provides
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information about best-sellers books, book reviews and other useful information. The site does not support
English. The homepage of Papasotiriou electronic shop is presented in Figure 3.
4.2 Ianos bookstore - http://www.ianos.gr
The web site of IANOS bookstore and publishing house is a well-built and easy-to-use on-line store. It offers a big
variety of CD-ROMS and book-related issues such as new circulations, best sellers, awarded books, reviews, books of
local writers, and news regarding books in general. The visitors of this site can also get gift proposals for books (books
for kids, historical, literature, studies, etc). There is no help utility available on-line but this can be overlooked as the
purchase procedure is straightforward and the small amount of information presented in each page limits confusion.
The site does not support English. Figure 4 shows a snapshot of the site's homepage.
4.3 Kostarakis bookstore - http://www.kostarakis.gr
Kostarakis publishing house and bookstore specializes in scientific books and CD-ROMs and has recently put its
electronic store online. It is a site with many of its functionalities currently under construction (such as the help
utility). While the site design seems to have taken into consideration functions such as special offers, advanced search
and extended cataloging of purchase items, their operation is rather sketchy, which makes any serious evaluation a
premature attempt. This site also offers no support for the English language. Figure 5 presents the site’s homepage.
4.4 Books-in-Greek - http://www.books-in-greek.gr
Books-In-Greek has built an electronic shop, which is the only one among the electronic shops used as sample for our
evaluation that supports the English language. All menus are available in English but surprisingly enough, there is no
English version of the catalogue items. The electronic shop offers a wide variety of books and has a quite extensive
catalogue. The site does not support an advanced search function and the search tool available is rather modest. This
site at its current state cannot be characterized neither as one of the best nor as one of the worst cases of our evaluation
sample. Its homepage is available in Figure 6.
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Fig. 3. Papasotiriou homepage design.
Fig. 4. Ianos homepage design.
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Fig. 5. Kostarakis homepage design.
Fig. 6. Books-in-Greek homepage design.
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4.5 Evaluation results
The evaluation results of the above Greek electronic shops are shown in Table 2. The evaluation was based on
the list of features and attributes presented in the section 3.
Table 2. Evaluation results.
Greek On-line Bookstores
Characteristics
Registration
On-line catalog
Search engine
Advanced search engine
Shopping cart or order list
Order information
Confirmation report
Previous orders
Shipping information
Secure payment mechanisms
Certification
Return policy
Customer profile
Special offers
Suggestions
Cross selling
Up selling
Company profile
Contact information
Feedback form
News and events
Newsletter
On-line help
FAQ
Error messages
Chat rooms
Site map
Useful links
Index
Language
Papasotiriou






 (By e-mail)























Ianos






 (By e-mail)























Kostarakis
Books-in-Greek












 (By telephone)
 (By e-mail)




















 (Not detailed)























 (The electronic shop supports

two languages Greek and
English except the product
catalog, which is presented only
in Greek)
5 Conclusions and Future Work
Designing and implementing an electronic store is not a complicated job. Companies that want to have an
effective web presence need guidance and information. This paper provides valued knowledge about the best ecommerce practices. We have discussed the main requirements for an electronic store. Guidelines that will be
extremely useful for building a store were pointed. Also, examples from the Greek reality (good and bad
practices) were presented. Finally, we can say that our main future direction is to phase a systematic
methodology that will facilitate and guide the design and the development phases of usable electronic shops.
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