CIS 451: eCommerce
Application Development
Dr. Ralph D. Westfall
January, 2009
CIS 451

primarily a technical course



ASP.NET
also HTML, JavaScript, SQL, XML
but also covers eCommerce issues




web site design for eCommerce
web site usability and accessibility
marketing issues
role of eCommerce in world economy
eCommerce Overview





what is eCommerce?
why do “techies” need to learn business
aspects of eCommerce?
eCommerce business issues
eCommerce tools
eCommerce applications


“shopping carts”
shopping cart exercises
What is eCommerce?


what do you think it is?
what do businesses do?


eCommerce definition
value chain
Pre-Internet eCommerce




airline reservation systems
EFT (electronic funds transfer)
ATMs (automated teller [cash]
machines)
EDI (electronic data interchange)
Advantages of Internet

very easy to use




compatible with all kinds of hardware
global
low cost delivery of content to large
numbers of users


web browser interface
like radio in the 1920s
multimedia capabilities
Web-Based eCommerce

business to consumer (shopping)


consumer to consumer (auction sites)


Amazon
eBay
business to business

EDI on the web
Business Aspects of
eCommerce for Technologists

field is continuing to develop

technical employees in large organizations


small businesses/consultants


need to communicate with business
people
less technical vs. non-technical
specialization
E-business (EBZ) major at Cal Poly
eCommerce Sequential Stages
Publish: static web pages
Interact: content updated regularly,
customers follow links, search site, etc.
Transact: orders, payments, shipping
Integrate: part of way business is done
Transform: organization restructured
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

from Informatics-Review, Vol. 3, No. 7
Benefits of eCommerce

customers (top line)


reach new customers (Hot!Hot!Hot!)
serve existing customers better


customer relationship management
(vendor of CRM services)
costs (bottom line)

potentially lower throughout value chain:
(intranet/extranet)
International eCommerce


potentially huge markets
need to deal with major difficulties






high shipping costs (postal codes [scroll])
legal issues: tariffs, documentation
translation
currency exchange
fraud
Norwegian base for E-C in Europe
eCommerce Business Issues

relation to business strategy?




competitive implications?


low cost (high volume)
product differentiation
niche (specialized product or limited region)
within & outside industry
short vs. long-term profitability?

Amazon just had first profit ever in 2002
eCommerce Issues - 2




timing? (first mover advantage)
costs? (how much to spend)
evaluation? (how measure success)
impact on existing relationships?

suppliers, partners, distributors, customers
eCommerce Tools - 1

tutorials for frequently used
programming technologies






HTML (3.2, 4.0)
JavaScript
JSP (Java Server Pages)
SQL
ASP.NET replacing Perl?
PHP
eCommerce Tools - 2

multimedia free trial downloads




image tools (e.g. Adobe PhotoShop, etc.)
sound tools (e.g. Adobe Audition [formerly
[Cool Edit])
video (+ audio) tools (e.g. Flash)
shareware and totally free software


Audacity (sound)
free multimedia Google search
Shopping Cart Applications

reviews





how to choose
order problems (75% abandoned)
Yahoo! Merchant Solutions: Starter
Yahoo! Merchant Solutions: Standard
Yahoo! Merchant Solutions: Professional
Exercise


from a customer perspective, evaluate one
of the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions carts
try the "tour" of Yahoo! Merchant Solutions




advantages, disadvantages, questions
understandability of instructions
ease of use to create site(?)
2 students per 3-person team need to
submit the above + international shipment
findings (slide 11) for Exercise 3