E-commerce Business Models

1. Introduction
2. Evolution of Internet Business Models
3. Business Models in Practice
4. Business Model: The Six Components

1. Introduction

In the previous units, you have learned that e-commerce is a business transaction
that is performed using an electronic medium. This unit discusses the types of
transactions in an e-commerce. A transaction in an electronic market describes
the number of interactions between parties, for example, ordering, making
payment, supporting delivery and of course marketing.
One must therefore have a marketing strategy for transacting commerce
through which a corporation maintains itself and generates revenue. Business
models are created for the purpose of trying to answer the following questions:

(i) How can you get competitive advantage?

(ii) Which product-market strategy should be followed?

(iii) What should be the marketing mix?

Business models are defined as, ‘A set of shared common characteristics,
behaviour and methods of doing business that enables a firm to generate profits
through increasing revenues and reducing cost.’

Thus, in this unit, you will learn about the evolution of the Internet business
models and the business models that are currently in vogue. The latter is of
three types, namely business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C)
and consumer-to-consumer (C2C). It will also familiarize you with the six
components of a business model. This will help you to differentiate between a
business model and a revenue model. This unit will also elaborate on the role of
business models. To get value from a new product, a firm needs a proper
business model. You will learn how business models differ from business strategy,
and about entrepreneurial advantage.

2. Evolution of Internet Business Models

In the past few years, e-commerce has pervaded every aspect of daily life. In a
very short time since its evolution, both people and institutions have used Internet
technologies to increase production, increase convenience and enhance
communications worldwide. The Internet has become integral to daily activities
from banking to shopping and entertainment. For example, just a few years
ago, many people went into a bank and interacted with other people to conductregular banking. Today, people have embraced the automated teller machine
(ATM) that has made banking easy. Today, millions of people rely on the Internet
banking services for their banking needs.
The fast expansion and general acceptance of online business has people
wondering as to why this e-commerce did not happen earlier. The answer is
quite simple; the technology and infrastructure needed were not there to support
e-commerce. Consider, the example of computers—many business enterprises
used large mainframe computers with private data formats. These were not
easy to share with home or office users. The ubiquitous personal computers
(PCs) were not generally available. Thus, only a few computers outside the
business circle could get that information. Even when PCs became popular,
both in offices and at homes, the ability to process business was restricted.
This was because the infrastructure needed was not available.
At the same time, to set up an online or e-commerce earlier, it required
the individual company to develop the whole technology infrastructure. It was
required to develop its own business and marketing planning. However, these
days this is not the case. Now the only problem of an e-commerce is how to
integrate its business, because now many companies have resolved the complex
work of (i) developing individual Internet-based products and (ii) services that
take care of the problems of customer and supply interactions. Nevertheless,
the real challenge is the ability to combine these technologies and services
based on solid business and marketing plans, working on a real-time basis.
Today, the growth of e-commerce is at a fast pace as both organizations
and consumers have access to the Internet, either from their homes or offices.
Thus, there is excitement and the potential for success has also grown. At the
same time, the tremendous growth of the Internet has led to challenges of
increased integration of e-commerce of all capability and capacity.
The growth of e-commerce can be studied at two phases. Companies in
the first phase set up e-commerce, when e-commerce technology was new to
the market.
The trend of companies that set up e-commerce in the first phase are as
follows:

• Business organizations rushed to get an e-commerce website up.

• Little or no regard was given to check how scalable or reliable the site
   needed to be.

• It was a matter of beating competition.

Another drawback of these first-to-market consumer sites was that there
was no or little integration with the production side of the business. The production
part of the business tried to establish its own online-based relationship with
suppliers. Thus, the lack of integration proved to be a major obstacle for many
business organizations. This was due to:

• Growth of customer base

• Request for real-time order status

• Return of products

Today, in the second phase of establishing an e-commerce, owning a
website is not considered to be a way to distinguish a business. The expectations
of customers and suppliers have increased manifold. Organizations are forced
to start planning about integrating the back-end and real-time transaction
processing. Business organizations should maintain a complete customer–
supplier relationship with the help of Internet-based technologies and join those
systems to the interpersonal aspects of the business transaction when needed.
Many businesses have realized the prospects of e-commerce and are addressing
the whole business cycle and controlling the Internet technologies.
It can be concluded that these days, online business has the power to
change the business scene. Previously, the business model of a company was
considered to be the basic determination of its value. Nowadays, the value of a
company is based on its strategy, business model and its ability to sell.
Technology has started a new competition. Businesses using Internet
technologies and integrating their systems and processes more efficiently now
break the barriers and make it to the Fortune 500 stalwart. These start-ups are
able to vastly reduce the obstacle to entry while significantly increasing their
own market reach. This has been possible due to the following:

(i) Capitalizing on a continuous business proposal

(ii) Rightly applying technology.

In e-commerce, the motto is ‘first to market equals first to success.’
Nevertheless, a sound foundation has to be made. Using Internet technologies
is important to be successful in this business.

3. Business Models in Practice

There are three fundamental types of business models in practice. These are:

1. Business-to-Business (B2B)

2. Business-to-Consumer (B2C)

3. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)

                                          Summary of E-Commerce Model

1. Business-to-Business Model

The business-to-business (B2B) model needs two or more business
organizations that do business with each other. It entails commercial activity
among companies through the Internet as a medium. At present, there are
many types of e-commercees. The B2B e-commerce is of the following types:

(a) Supplier oriented

In this type of B2B e-commerce, a supplier establishes the electronic market
where a number of customers or buyers transact with suppliers. Generally, it is
done by a supplier which has monopoly over products that it supplies.

(b) Buyer oriented

In this type of B2B electronic commerce, big business organizations with high
volume purchase capacity creates an e-commerce marketplace for purchases
and gains by starting a site of their own. The online e-commerce marketplace is
used by buyers for placing requests for quotations and carrying out the entire
purchase process.

(c) Intermediary oriented

In this type of B2B e-commerce, a third party establishes the e-commerce
marketplace and attracts both buyers and sellers to interact with each other.
Application of B2B model
Some of the applications of B2B model are, inventory management, channel
management, distribution management, order fulfilment and delivery payment
and payment management.

2. Business-to-Consumer Model

The business to consumer model clearly concentrates on individual buyers and
is thus known as Business-to-Consumer (B2C) model. The B2C model offers
consumers the capabilities to browse, select and merchandise online from a
wider variety of sellers and at better prices. The B2C e-commerce interaction is
most appropriate for the following types of transactions:

(i) Easily transformable goods, i.e., products that are easily transformable
into digital format, such as videos, software packages, music books, and
so on

(ii) Highly rated branded items or items with return security

(iii) Items sold in packets that are not possible to open in physical stores

(iv) Items that follow standard specification

The following steps summarizes the working of B2C:

(i) The customer identifies his/her need.

(ii) Then, the customer looks for the product or service that suit his/her needs.

(iii) The customer selects a vendor and negotiates a price.

(iv) The customer then receives the product or service.

(v) The customer makes the payment for the received product service.

(vi) The customer gets the services and warranty claims that are associated
with the product.

3. Consumer-to-Consumer Model

In a consumer-to-consumer (C2C) model, consumers sell directly to other
consumers via online classified advertisements and auctions or by selling
personal services or expertise online. The C2C model involves the growing
popularity of peer-to-peer (P2P) software that facilities the exchange of data
directly between individuals over the Internet.

                                                  Summary of Business Models

4. Business Model: The Six Components

According to Henry Chesbrough and Richard S. Rosenbloom there are six
components of a business model, namely :

(i) Value proposition

(ii) Market segment

(iii) Value chain structure

(iv) Revenue generation and margins

(v) Position in the value network

(vi) Competitive strategy.

(i) Value proposition: 

 It has three components as follows:

(a) It is an explanation of any problem faced by a customer.

(b) It is about the resolution of that problem

(c) It is the value of this resolution from the customer’s point of view.

(ii) Market segment: 

 Since diverse market segments have different
requirements, it boils down to which group to target. At times, the full
benefit of a new product development is realized only when a new market
segment is focused.

(iii) Value chain structure: 

The concept of value chain structure demonstrates
the company's place and the value addition tasks done by it in the value
chain. It also shows in what ways the company captures part of the value,
which it has helped to add in the chain.

(iv) Creation of revenue and profits: 

 It means how income is created in the
business, such as rental, sales, subscription, and so on. It also includes
revenue made from the target profit margins and the cost structure.

(v) Place in the value network: 

 It identifies competitors and sellers whose
products, services or relationships create more demand for your product.
It also looks for other effects in the business network that might be used
to give more value to the customer.

(vi) Competitive strategy: 

It refers to the ways in which a business
organization tries to expand a permanent competitive benefit and utilize it
to advance the competitive situation of the company in the market.

4.1 Business Model vs Revenue Model

The term ‘business model’ is a broad term that explains things, such as the
place of a business organization in the value chain, the choice of the customers,
products and the cost of doing business. The business model plans the course
through which the company would in fact make profit. It states clearly the price
it would charge the customers.
The old model corporations have been discredited as overmanaged,
overcontrolled and overstructured but underlet. Thus, today’s top managers
should focus on their real managerial skills that would bring success to the firm
in the future. Today, a brand latest business model has come up. Here many of
the important tasks of the company are delegated to the different individual
parts, but synergy results from the vigour of the employees and unrestricted
flow of information.

4.2 Role of a Business Model

To profit from an innovation in a product or a service, a new firm or a start-up
needs an appropriate business model so that it is able to exploit its innovation
and be the market leader. Business models are needed to bring in new
technology that will yield an economic value. As the old and familiar business
models cannot be used for all new firms, new business models are planned.
The importance of the business model cannot be denied, because in many
cases the profitability of the innovation rests more on the business model itself
than on the product or service provided by the innovation. In their paper, ‘The
Role of the Business Model in Capturing Value from Innovation’, Henry
Chesbrough and Richard S. Rosenbloom provide a crucial structure explaining
the basics of a business model. As there is a complex inter-play of markets,
products and the environment in which a business organization runs, it is very
difficult to understand the organization’s responsibility in its totality. While
business experts are acquainted in their area, technical experts understand
theirs. Bellow Figure  makes it clear how the business model serves to connect
these two domains.

                                              Role of a Business Model

Many business subjects including finance, economics, entrepreneurship,
marketing operations and strategy are used to finalize a business model. The
business model itself is an essential determinant of the profits to be generated
from an innovation. A below average innovation with a great business model
could be more profitable than a good innovation with a below average business
model.

4.3 Business Model vs Business Strategy

You have read earlier in this unit about the six components of business models
by Chesbrough and Rosenbloom. They further strike a comparison between
the concept of the business model to that of strategy, identifying the following
three differences:

(i) Creating value vs capturing value: 

The focus of the business model is
on the creation of value. Though the business model only addresses how
that value would be captured by the organization, strategy focusses on
building a sustainable competitive advantage.

(ii) Business value vs shareholder value: 

 The business model helps in
the conversion of innovation to yield economic value for the businesses,
but it does not focus on delivering business value to the shareholders.
For instance, though the business model does not consider the financing
methods, nonetheless, it impacts shareholder value.

(iii) Assumed knowledge levels: 

Business model assumes a limited
environmental knowledge, even though strategy is dependent on a more
intricate examination that needs more conviction about the environment.

4.4 Advantages of Entrepreneurship

According to Chesbrough and Rosenbloom, a good business model like Xerox
has a tendency to establish thrust, but the company remains constrained to its
thriving model. At the same time, the coming up of new technologies forces
business organizations to evolve new business models. This gives new
companies or start-ups a freehand to make a choice or even develop a new
business model themselves. Otherwise, in adddtion to the risk taken up in the
technology and economic areas, an unproven business model increases the
risk further. Business ventures, generally, are more prepared to acknowledge
this risk.
On the other hand, many venture capitalists fancy themselves as investors
in business models. Thus, when it becomes obvious that the previous model is
not working, the venture capitalists often try and push for a change in the business
model.

E-Commerce Infrastructure

1. Introduction

2. Need for an Intelligent Website

3. Technology Infrastructure Required

4. Basic Web Languages for Web Designing

5. Corporate Strategic Infrastructure Required

6. Miscellaneous Website Design Tips

 

1. Introduction

In the previous unit, you read about the requirements of e-commerce and the

significance and components of I-Way. The fact remains that for any e-commerce

to be successfull, the website should be very user-friendly and attractive.

Therefore, web design is very important for company status and e-marketing

because a website works as a representative of its respective company. An

attractive website motivates the consumer to explore it further. One should keep

the following points in mind when assessing a website:

• A website should be easily accessible to a consumer and its structure

should not be difficult. It should be customer-oriented.

• It should be up to date on company’s policies, schemes and offers

about new products.

• The content of a website should be made attractive with the use of

text, pictures, animation, sound, video, etc.

• It should be designed in a manner that it can be downloaded quickly

because a consumer will not wait if a website is slow.

• The website should provide detailed and complete information
regarding its products and services; else, the consumer will not
understand the product’s value.

• Ideally, a good website explains how and what its organization offers
by pointing out how it differs from its competitors, and how it can
make a difference to the customer’s life.

• Since a vast amount of information is displayed on a website, the
website should be coherent. The customer should be able to easily
navigate the website.

• A good website should have subsections.

• A linking structure is mandatory. It describes the way in which the
alternative sections of the site are linked. This linking structure enables
users to easily move back and forth between the site’s subsections.

• Navigation tools should be present. These refer to the site tools that
facilitate the user’s movement throughout the site.

To attract and retain users, some sites provide a number of features.
Some such features are as follows:

(i) The user returns and enters the requisite information through the login
registration. The site recognizes the returning user and configures itself
as per the user’s preset preferences.

(ii) In order to identify the visitors, most sites try to track and collect data on
the returning user’s behaviour by saving, identifying and tracking
information on the user’s local disk storage in temporary files called
cookies.

(iii) Many sites provide free e-mail accounts to send and receive e-mails from
the site using a unique e-mail ID.

(iv) Users can select screen layouts and content sources based on their
interests.

                                   Figure 1 Basics of a Commercial Website

2. Need for an Intelligent Website

One cannot build an intelligent website that optimally has all sources of
information for an online company, overnight. Actually, it is a long process that
requires significant investment in technology, and an accumulation of knowledge
that can come only with experimentation and trial and error. Website intelligence
leverages four types of information.

(i) Demographics: This explains such basic elements of the customers as:

• Who they are
• What their income is
• Their marital status

(ii) Expressed Preferences: This explains what topics customers have
expressed an interest in; for example, types of music, choice of books,
and the stocks they track. The preferences are generally stored through
form-based questionnaires provided when the customer registers for a
site or a service.

(iii) Past Transactions: These are records of past transactions that the
consumers have had with a company. They are recorded when a customer
actually makes a purchase.

(iv) Observed Behaviour: This type of information is derived by observing the
manner in which the customer navigates when using the website. It also
tracks the sites he visited previous to and after visiting the said site.
Consider the following steps that e-commerce companies typically follow
in leveraging their information.

Step 1: Basic Web traffic analysis

Before starting any Web activity, one first needs to analyse the Web traffic. This
type of data provides a record of the entry and exit points into a website, pages
that were visited, links that were followed, the duration for which a person viewed
a particular page, the precise day and time of visit, the browser type, visitor’s IP
address and other information.

Step 2: Customer interaction analysis

This step is used to collect more information about the customer’s interactions
with the website. The registered users are people who have had to register for
site usage, generally by filling out a survey form. As you know, in any site (even
a free site) the user has to fill a registration form in which there are various
types of questions related to profession, education, age, gender, leisure activities,
merchandise purchasing, etc. Through this registration process, the site is able
to get information related to both the demographics and preference. This type
of data is used to help inform personalization engines to serve the contents
according to the visitor’s interests.

Step 3: Real-time personalization

Personalization is the ultimate realization of the one-to-one marketing dream.
Customers are recognized when they come in; they can tailor the way they
interact with the merchant; and receive promotions and marketing pogrammes
that perfectly fit their personal requirements and preferences.
The following are four ways of personalization:

(a) Greetings: This is a more general way of personalization. The customer
is greeted by name and welcomed back whenever he or she visits the
site.

(b) Customization: It allows a customer to tailor the service he or she receives
from an e-commerce site. For example, any Hotmail user can customize
his use of the popular search engine by creating a ‘My Hotmail’ environment
which is more adapted to his needs.

(c) Narrowcasting: This relates to the delivery of time-sensitive information,
personalized to each customer. These types of personalized messages
can be sent through e-mails, phone calls or pagers which enable the
customer to receive information without having to connect to the site.

(d) Recommendation: Recommendation technology has evolved dramatically
in the past few years. Earlier, it was based only on the preferences that a
customer would have explicitly expressed during registration. Now, it can
be done in real time and predicted automatically by the personalization
engine using different types of information such as observed real-time
behaviour, purchase histories and expressed preferences.

Step 4: Getting to fine-grained segmentation

Fine-grained segmentation is used to enhance the site’s marketing power by
using an e-commerce intelligence system performing customer segmentation.
You can start with products that are at hand’s reach through coarse segmentation,
and then continue to fine-grained segmentation. This step also uses artificial
intelligence to conduct knowledge discovery. That is, it can look for patterns in
large data sets and identify common elements.

Step 5: Going through the streams of clicks

The click-stream data contains details on customer behaviour that are richer
than what can be achieved in traditional channels. Click-stream information is
the recording of every page request from every visitor by the website owners.
This information is stored into massive log files.

Step 6: Enrich content with external data

Once a customer performs a number of purchases, the website is able to further
enhance the customer’s profile. Demographic data from third party providers
may be added to the profile to provide a richer view of the customer base.
Analysing the enriched data might show, for instance, that a customer who
buys history books falls into a demographic segment which is also inclined to
buy classical music.

Step 7: Reaching optimal intelligence

A company can reach optimal intelligence once it is able to combine historical
transaction records, observed behaviour via click-stream data and preferences
expressed in online surveys.

2.1 Website: Goals, Objectives and Manpower Required

Before creating a web page, it is important to decide the goals, objectives, and
overall purpose of the e-commerce website. Without these, the website may
not have the focus it needs to be successful. To help determine the goals and
objectives, you have to ask and answer questions such as the following:

• Will the website collect information about current and potential customers?
• Will the website allow the customers to make online orders for products
and services?
• Will the website advertise products and services?
• Will the website provide links to the related web pages?
• Will the website provide general information or industry-related
information?
• Will the website recruit employees?
• Will the website act as a virtual salesperson that will perform online
transactions?
• How many web pages are planned for design?
• Should the site be structured such that it helps in gathering data for the
purpose of marketing?
• Is there a requirement for development of special tools to help users
when they visit the site?
Based on the answers to the aforementioned questions, you will either
require a one-stop shop or separate contractors that will look into each part of

the site. The simplicity or complexity of the act of designing a website largely
depends on your imagination and/or budget constraints.

2.2 Design vs Development

Often, the terms ‘Web designing’ and ‘Web development’ are used
interchangeably. This, however, is not an accurate usage. Designing a website
and developing one are two very different activities. Designing a website has
two components, the ‘front end’ and the ‘back end.’ While these have been
used interchangeably, usually design means the front-end whereas development
means the back-end.

Front-end design

When a customer visits a site, what he sees is the front end. These are the
‘pages’ that display the graphics, images, and text on your site. Those that
design a website focus on this end. They select appropriate images and fonts
and even decide text and image arrangement. Appreciation of aesthetics is a
Web designer’s strength. He need not be tech savvy. Nonetheless, apart from
understanding what will be visually appealing on screen, designers need to
know the technical limitations while designing for the Web. An experienced
Web designer should also be able to collaborate with a Web developer.

Back-end development

Web developers help you build your website. They work on the back end, the
side not visible to the surfer, to make a site work. Although not seen by visitors,
this site is required to enhance the visitor’s experience.
Back-end functions are all about making provisions so that visitors can
view different pages and even enter data, execute sales transactions, and allow
images to alter or move. It is important for the Web developer to be adept at
various/languages such as Javascript.
Thus, it is important to ensure that the resumes of potential employees
reflect the following skills:

• HTML (is used to create text and the layout framework of the page)
• Web imaging (it creates and compresses images)
• Javascript (it writes programs which run as part of web pages)
• ASP (customizes web pages for users)
• Java/C++ (writes programs that are embedded in a web page)

2.3 Advantages of a Website

What is novel about the Internet is that it not only is a mine of information, but is
also available at the click of a button. The Internet is undoubtedly a huge source
of knowledge. All that a person requires is a website and a resource-generous
Web hosting company. Most people feel that designing a website is an expensive
project. This, however, is not true. All that you need to do is to find the right Web
host. The benefits of a website will certainly override the costs.
Whether for personal use, or to aid a business venture, the advantages
of a website are tremendous. Many who have their own websites use them to
further a hobby or an interest since a personal website too can be an excellent
avenue for the exchange of knowledge with others. On the other hand, firms
use websites such that their goods and services are marketed and promoted.
For them, the attractive advantage is that they are able to cut costs involving
postage, couriers and advertising, etc. For them, cutting back on such expenses
as postage, couriers and advertising, etc., becomes the attractive advantage.
The following are the key benefits of having a website.

Increased awareness of products and services

The Internet allows a business to expand its markets tremendously. Businesses
no longer need to limit their focus only to the local scene. Through the use of the
Internet, businesses can effortlessly explore international and regional markets.
This introduces dynamic changes in participating businesses. This is because,
their nature and marketing activities alter and many find encouragement to enter
new markets by diversifying their products and services. Trading hours too find
extension since numerous items can be viewed on a website round the clock.

Freedom

The Internet provides great freedom to its users. Therefore, not only do those
that are otherwise introverts, frequent the Net, but even the smallest of
businesses are tempted to join. In fact, such is its growth rate that users are
alarmingly increasing at a rate of approximately 50,000 per day. Since information
can be freely posted on the website, and hence the Net, businesses profit in a
huge way. Not only has the Net become a huge customer marketplace, but
businesses have found a medium that enables them to compete with the largest
of organizations, on an even field.

Cost advantage

Web businesses are keenly aware of their profit potential simply by being on
the Internet. The advantages are very obvious. They can advertise their products
and services and yet avoid the costs and delays caused by such activities as
printing, publishing and distribution. Since the Internet offers a global
marketplace, greater value is added to the costs outlaid for promotion and
marketing. Thus, compared to the offline market, the benefits are many more.
Websites incorporate e-commerce facilities that transform 2D screen visuals
into user-reactive models. For instance, consumers can place online orders for
products and services. This greatly reduces their administration costs. Some of
the ways to reduce costs are—follow-ups through e-mails thereby reducing
costs incurred by making phone calls, electronically generated and distributed
newsletters that reduce printing and distribution costs, and most importantly,
extended trading hours.
It is now felt that if any business does not exist on the Internet, then it is
not only losing out on the benefits of a dynamic industry, but is also increasing
its chances of being forgotten.

3. Technology Infrastructure Required

A great deal of planning and preparation goes into the development of a
successful website. Acquiring the vital tools of the Internet is a significant part
of that preparation.

HTML Editor

An HTML editor is a software program used to edit and create HTML documents.
This is a tedious process which is why most Internet marketers prefer using an
HTML editor. There are some that prefer writing their own HTML code.
Nonetheless, HTML editor is an advantageous tool to use, as there are editors
that tend to add unnecessary codes which may not support the latest technology.
As a potential Web developer, whether you write your own HTML or use an
editor, learning HTML is very essential. Its knowledge not only provides
independence, but it also enables one to add special effects a feature that not
many HTML editors support.

Text Editor

A text editor is a software program used to edit text which does not involve any
special formatting. Those who write their own HTML code, need an adequate
text editor. Although using a text editor can be a time-consuming activity, its use
ensures that the code is clean, free from errors and that the file size is not very
large. Moreover, a text editor is also useful in writing articles and in editing
scripts. Those who have a Windows operating system use the Note Pad as
their preferred text editor.

FTP

File Transfer Protocol, or FTP, is a system that is used to upload files to a Web
server and download files from a Web server. It provides you a way to control files
on the server. This makes it an important tool. An FTP program enables operators
upload scripts, set file permissions, create folders and transfer files to and from a
server. To use FTP, a software program that supports it has to be downloaded
and installed in the computer; the most popularly used being WS FTP Pro.

Graphics Editor

A graphics editor is a software program used to edit as well as to design graphics.
Most Internet entrepreneurs find graphic designing intimidating. However,
since hiring a professional graphics designer can be expensive, most
entrepreneurs learn some basic design techniques. The program that Internet
marketers use the most is Paint Shop Pro. It is a powerful program and alone
can design graphics professionally.

Zip/Unzip Software

A Zip file is an ‘archive’ of one or more files compressed into one file for easy
distribution. These are used to compress and transport file archives over the
Internet. Since downloading one Zip file is more convenient than downloading
several different files ZIP file is the popular method for distributing files
electronically. Moreover, the files in the Zip archive are compressed. Therefore,
download time gets minimized.
You can effortlessly extract or unzip a Zip file using a Zip/Unzip software
program. WinZip is the most popular Zip program because it makes the use of
file archives easy and uncomplicated. WINZIP has certain easy features that
allow files to be conveniently viewed, extracted, added, deleted and tested.
These features include point-and-click and drop-and-drag.

E-mail

Most Internet service providers also feature and provide e-mail accounts to their
clients. Nonetheless, these accounts are inadequate to conduct business over
the Internet. This is more true for those businesses that receive large numbers of
e-mails every day. The disadvantage of an e-mail is that it contains the ISP’s
name and is also very limited when it comes to features and options. Outlook and
Eudora are the most popular e-mail clients. Outlook and Eudora enable you to
download e-mails from a server. In addition, it offers such features as sorting and
filtering. You can easily organize e-mail messages. The most important feature is
that your e-mail address remains your own domain and not another’s. Therefore,
a webmaster toolbox always has a significant role in your success.

4. Basic Web Languages for Web Designing

HTML

HTML is a method which converts ordinary text into hypertext. Technically
speaking, HTML is not a programming language, but a set of special codes that
controls a text’s layout and appearance. The instructions are within a data. This
data informs the browser, which is a display program, how to render the data
that is contained in the document.

JavaScript

Originally called LiveScript, JavaScript was developed by Netscape. An
agreement with Sun Microsystems changed the original name. The intention
was to benefit from the growing popularity of Java Programming language.
JavaScript is a language that can be executed on the web browser. Java script
programs do not require any software and can run on Internet Explorer or
Netscape Navigator. It is a client side scripting language, and is basically used
to validate and edit an image, text colours and other things. JavaScript is casesensitive.

VBScript

Developed by Microsoft, VBScript is a subset of the Visual Basic for Application
language used in Microsoft Office suite. Just like the JavaScript, VBScript is
also a client-based language. Again, like Java, VBScript is also run on Internet
Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. The most pertinent difference between them is
that while VB can be compiled, a VBScript cannot be compiled. VBScript is the
default ASP scripting language.

Perl Script

Perl is a powerful text processing language. Prior to the development of Active
Server Page (ASP), it was extensively used in Common Gateway Interface
(CGI) scripting. Perl Script is a subset of Perl and retains most of its functionality.
Microsoft does not ship Perl Script with ASP, but it can be downloaded from the
Internet.

Active Server Page

Active Server Page (ASP) allows users to be treated as unique entities. This, in
spite of the fact that all the users may be running the same program on the
same machine, i.e.,your Web server. Needless to say, running a complex
program for multiple users on one computer requires many resources.
Fortunately, Microsoft makes sure that those resources are at the users’s
disposal. ASP provides:

• A means by which individualized data can be saved for each other
• Access to the various file systems
• Access to the various databases
• A way by which Control Object Model (COM) can be launched and
controlled
In other words, ASP can be used to create multi-user application. This
implies that one can obtain application scalability by leveraging ASP.

XML

XML is not just another mark-up language, it is a Meta language. In programming
parlance, ‘meta’ means description. In other words, it is used to provide
descriptive information about a document. It is very different from HTML. The
main difference is that while HTML is a ‘fixed’ language, XML is not. HTML has
a set, pre-decided structure that has to be followed to make pages workable.
XML, on the other hand, is flexible enough to allow users to create their own
tags. It can even be extended by creating other mark-up languages with it. XML
can be used to write mark-up languages for many kinds of applications. They
can be used for ATM machines, databases, etc. It is not only a powerful tool for
creating other languages but it also works much like its parent language, SGML.
At the same time, the advantage that XML has over SGML is that SGML is
extremely complicated while XML is relatively easy to learn and use.

5. Corporate Strategic Infrastructure Required

Initially, when companies were beginning to establish themselves on the Web,
their websites was in their infancy. They were more like static brochures, were
not updated frequently with new or additional information and did not possess
the ability to help the company’s customer or vendor transact business. As Web
technology transformed fairly rapidly, only a few businesses were able to catch
up with these changes in terms of website development and management.
Internal Development vs Outsourcing: There are a fair number of companies
that tend to avoid the problems of e-commerce site development by outsourcing
the project. However, this is not advisable. An e-commerce website can be
successful only if it integrates and supports those activities which the business
is engaging in. Nonetheless there are, companies that are large and technically
self-sufficient enough to launch their own e-commerce projects without requiring
external help. The key to the success of any project is that a balance is struck
between the support from inside and outside for each project.

Internal Team: To begin with, a company needs to decide the parts of its ecommerce
project that require to be outsourced. This is achieved by creating
an internal team that assumes responsibility for the entire project. Such a team
should include professionals who have sufficient knowledge about the Internet
and the Web. They also need to be creative and interested in taking their
company beyond its existing boundaries. Including a technical professional is
not sufficient. The person should be knowledgeable about the company’s
business. In order to create a successful e-commerce project, it is very essential
that the appointed people have sound business knowledge, creativity, and are
well respected by the company’s line managers.
The internal team takes full responsibility for the e-commerce project.
This means that from deciding the objectives of the site to their final
implementation and operation, the team is ultimately responsible for the initiative.
This team also has the responsibility of deciding the sections of the project that
need to be outsourced.

Early Outsourcing: Many companies choose to outsource the initial designing
and development of their e-commerce projects. This is usually done for an
early launch of the project. The outsourced team develops the site, and trains
professionals from the concerned company before handing them charge of the
site. This mechanism is known as early outsourcing.

 Late Outsourcing: This type of outsourcing works in the reverse pattern. The
initial site design and development is done by the professionals of the concerned
company. They even implement the system and operate it so that it becomes a
stable and integral part of the company. After the company gains the competitive
edge that the system was meant to provide, its maintenance is outsourced. In
this way, professionals can channelize their energies to further develop new
technologies. This mechanism is known as late outsourcing.

Partial Outsourcing: In this type of outsourcing, only specific functions of a
project are outsourced. A company that specializes in designing, developing,
implementing and operating a website is hired for this purpose. The electronic
payment system is a case in point. Most vendors willingly provide complete
customer payment processing. These vendors provide a site that takesover
when customers are ready to pay, and returns the customers to the original site
after processing the payment transaction. Handling the e-mail and response
function of numerous small websites is another example of partial outsourcing.
Many companies also like to send an automatic order confirmation via e-mail
as soon as the order or credit card payment is accepted.

6. Miscellaneous Website Design Tips

Keep it Simple

The type of website one chooses to create depends on the market one wishes
to target. Unless the market that you are trying to reach consists of teenager or
such groups that appreciate a dressy website, it is recommended to keep the
website simple. This rule is particularly applicable if yours is a professional
company.

Navigation

Also ensures that the navigation is simple. This can be done by making available
a menu, textual or graphical, on each page. If the site is large, care should be
taken that visitors always know the section they are visiting. The site should
also be such that simple easy ways are available that help locate links which
will redirect visitors to the main page or any other section.

Font Size

It is advisable not to fix the font size as there are surfers who face problems
reading text that is in a small font size. They like to set their own font size. If the
font size is fixed, it discourages many such people from visiting the site.

Load Time

Not all surfers have a DSL cable modem connection. There are many who
browse with 14.4K modems. The need for speed is the key factor on the Internet.
Whether users are on high-speed connection or dial-up modem, speed is of
great value. Recent studies have shown that if your page does not load in the
first 8 seconds, the user is likely to move away from the page. People are
switching to high speed internet connections, more so in the case of mobile
users who are on the move. The web page should load rapidly. The size should
be about 50kb including images, content and other media elements.

Screen Resolution

There are three major screen resolutions: 640 × 480, 800 × 600 and 1024 ×
768. Since mobile devices have different width, you have to provide for pages
working well on smart phones and iPad as well. You should use device emulators
to test the site on as many devices as possible. Also, since today, most users
have a screen resolution higher than 1024 × 760 pixels. The smart phone screen
also has to be taken into consideration, and the use of emulator will be most
helpful. It is erroneous to assume that all monitors are set for the same resolution.
The difference in dimension and proportion can cause unexpected issues
when zooming in mobile browsers. The close up view of the product is essential
on an e-commerce site, for e.g. Apple doubled the pixel density of its display in
iPhone 4, essentially to circumvent the zoom-in issues.

 In Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7
Right click on your desktop
Click on properties
Click on the settings tab
You can change your monitor’s resolution by sliding the bar for Screen Area.

On a MAC
Apple Menu > Control Panels > Monitors > Choose Setting

Frames

Why is it that frames do not work? This is because they increase the load time.
Loading two pages simultaneously is a problem for people with a slow connection.
Moreover, frames also take up space, more so if there are more than two frames.
If the screen’s resolution is 640x480, it can have a bad effect. Of course, you
can add a scroll but again screen resolution will pose a problem. Creating the
perfect layout can be difficult especially if it has to be created using frames that
work at all resolutions.

Animation

Animation should be kept at a minimum unless the site is meant either for
children or for teenagers. It takes away from the main focus of the site which
ideally should be its content.

Links

Links should be created that direct the visitor out of the site. This allows flexibility
to the visitor who can then browse new links while staying on your site.

Banner Exchange

Banners should never be on the front page because the visitor might get
dissuaded before he has even explored the site. Banners should be located in
the inner pages of the site. Even then these should be limited to the bottom of
the page.

Top of Page

When pages are long, links to the top of the page should be provided at the
bottom. Giving text links at the bottom is another alternative. This way, the
visitor will not have to scroll to the top for the menu.

Table Tricks

Playing around with tables can yield good results. You can place tables inside of
each other, and can differentiate by using different colours for each.

Website Image

Also ensure that your website projects the image you want it to. This image can
be projected with a simple manipulation of colours, layout and design. Fonts
too can be experimented with. A judicious use of all such elements can go a
long way to create the desired look.