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B2C. How to Make Your Own E-Commerce Site: Step by Step. Marjan Mihanovic, marjanm@eunet.yu Dusan Dingarac, dingo@sk.co.yu Zoran Horvat, zoranh@eunet.yu Miodrag Stefanovic, mik42@yahoo.com Ivana Vujovic, ile@eunet.yu Prof. Dr. Veljko Milutinovic, vm@etf.bg.ac.yu. Authors:.
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B2C How to Make Your Own E-Commerce Site: Step by Step Marjan Mihanovic, marjanm@eunet.yu Dusan Dingarac, dingo@sk.co.yu Zoran Horvat, zoranh@eunet.yu Miodrag Stefanovic, mik42@yahoo.com Ivana Vujovic, ile@eunet.yu Prof. Dr. Veljko Milutinovic, vm@etf.bg.ac.yu Authors:
What will you learn from this tutorial? This Tutorial will guide you through the following sections: • INTRODUCTION • You will become familiar with some basic techniques and terminology. • YAHOO! Store • The easiest way to make your business Internet-enabled • ecBuilder • Software package, intended for creating more advanced eCommerce solutions, still very easy to use. • Microsoft Site Server Commerce Edition • The most powerful tool, for the large and most advanced e-commerce solutions. • MBA for B2C
Introduction to E-Commerce E-Business - The shape of things to come
Introduction • The most interesting part of E-business over the Internet (also called I-business)is E-commerce over the Internet (I-commerce) • Over 170 000 000 people, that were using Internet on 1.1.2000.,can be potential customers • Number of Internet users doubles every three years • The most important thing for I-commerce is web store;a place where you can show and sellyour goods to Internet users.
Web store • Your store is working non-stop: • 24 hours per day • 7 day per week • 365 (366) days per year • Your customers from all over the worldcan spend their money without any time-zone limits.
Web store • Let us see what is needed to open a new web store: • 1. Getting an Internet Merchant Bank Account (account that enables credit card transactions over the Internet) • 2. Web Hosting (getting WWW space with some Internet provider) • 3. Obtaining a Digital Certificate (obtaining initial keys for encryption, etc…) • 4. Finding a Provider of Online Transactions (middleman between your customer and your bank) • 5. Creating or Purchasing a Shopping Cart Software (getting hold of the web store infrastructure: sw-shelves, etc…)
Internet Merchant Bank Account • In order to be able to acceptcredit cards over the Internet,you must apply to your bankfor an Internet Merchant Bank Account • Depending on which country you live inand what bank you are with,this can be relatively easy or somewhat difficult.
Web Hosting • Web hosting is a very important step in this process • This is how you gain a presence on the Internetin the first place • It is important that the web hosting companyis capable of providing you with the level of servicethat you need to maintain your Web store • A few things to look for are: • Good uptime (over 99,5% guarantied) • Good technical support (your store is working non-stop) • Fast connection to the Internet • Staff that is knowledgeable about E-commerce • Compatibility with major E-commerce providers • Classified statistics of access to your Web site
Obtaining a Digital Certificate • If you are a larger company, however,you may want to get your own digital certificate(for CC processing and/or for processing of sensitive data) • A certificate costs about $150.00 per yearand can be obtained from • Verisign (http://www.verisign.com)or • Thawte (http://www.thawte.com)
Provider of Online Transactions • There are a lot of online transaction providers • They offer all kinds of packages • Decide on a provider's package that fits your needs • This is perhaps the most important aspectin creating an E-commerce Web site.
Shopping Cart Software • Generally it is possible to find three different types of Web store • Three types of Web store creating and shopping cart software are best represented with three examplesdiscussed later in this tutorial: • 1) Yahoo! Store • 2) EcBuilder • 3) Microsoft Site Server Commerce Edition
Credit Card • The most widely used way of purchasingover the Internet is Credit Card • The consumer surfs the Internet to the merchants Web site, where he/she decides he/she wants to buy something. • The consumer is moved to the online transaction server, which ensures security. • Transaction (credit card billing) is passed through private gateway to a CC Processing Network, where it is completed (or denied).
Credit Card • System of validating card dataand making a transaction is shown on this picture Other Merchant Sites Bank Internet Bank Consumer Merchant Site Online Transaction Server Bank Bank Consumer Other Merchant Sites issuing and acquiring banks Consumer Private Gateway
Electronic Cash • Contrary to Credit Card, Electronic Cash is informational equivalent of physical banknotes and coins. • It is perfect for so-called micropayments(such as paying $0.10 for the one-time use of softwareor $0.19 for reading a literary essay) • Electronic Cash can offer such benefits as • anonymity of the buyer • global acceptance... but Credit Card will be dominant for at least the next few years.
Introduction to Yahoo! Store • Basic disadvantages • Cannot create original look of the e-Commerce site; sites on Yahoo! Store look similar to each other no matter what effort was taken for visual design. That is because all sites are forced to have the same structure, and only graphical elements and their arrangement on the screen may be partially different • Company still needs its own server in order to use most advanced capabilities of Yahoo! Store (e.g. custom functions for tax and shipment calculation). If company owes a server (virtual or real), it can use other tools (such as ecBuilder) to create more flexible e-Commerce site. • Yahoo! Store certainly cannot fulfill all e-Business demands asked by big companies
Creating the Store • Suppose at this moment that we are featuring a company named Raspberries, Inc., which offers ecological fruit: raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries. • Each fruit is offered in a number of forms: fresh, frozen, juice, etc. • First we want to create the store for our company: we may type rasp in the ID field, and Raspberries, Inc. in the name field. • Thus, our WWW address will be: http://store.yahoo.com/rasp, and heading on our front page will read Raspberries, Inc.
Preparing to Edit the Store • After signing with Yahoo!, the screen with options will be shown. • The key page;each one of the 8 sections contains links to vital activities • Only manager can access this page; not the shopper.
Page Variables • If we click the Edit button at the front page, another page with properties of the front page will load. • Properties are referred as Variables. • Each page contains a number of variables that describe all relevant details of its look and structure. • The site creation activity boils down to the changing of the values of relevant Variables!
Changing Some Variables • At this step, we will enter the page title and the logo message. • Let page title be: Green food from Serbia. • If no page title is entered, store title will be used instead (in our case, Raspberries, Inc.). • Message might be assumed as company motto, e.g. Our fruit knows of no chemistry. • We also may upload a title image by pressing the Upload File button at the appropriate row. If this image is loaded, it will be used instead of the store title, i.e. instead of Raspberries, Inc. • Note that page loading time will be longer when the uploaded image is bigger. It is highly recommended to upload images smaller than 20kB, in order to keep high performance.
Creating New Section • Now we may create sections on our front page. • We will make three sections: • Fresh Fruits • Frozen Fruits • Finished Products • In order to create a section, you should click onto the New Section button on the menu bar. • Then, you will be prompted for name and caption of the new section.
Creating New Section • To finish section creating, click the Update button. • In the same manner, another two sections can be created. • After each section is created, appropriate section page is loaded. • In order to return to the front page, click Home button at the left margin on the section page.
Selecting General Look of the Page • Figure shows one possible look of our front page (style Soft on the menu bar). It is important to know that all pages (currently our three section pages) will share the same look. • Note that the menu on the left margin contains three buttons, each of them leading to one of our sections. • It is highly recommended that all pages on the site have the same general visual properties, in order to set impression of stability and consistency to the customer.
Adding an Item to the Section • Now, we may try to add items into our store. Menu bar on section pages contains New Item option. • After clicking to New Item option (say, on the Fresh Fruits section page), a form will be loaded. • Four properties of the new item are asked for: name, caption, code (this is internal code of the item), price in US Dollars. • After clicking to the Update button, our item will be added to the Fresh Fruits section.
Full Look of the Item • After an image is uploaded, it will be shown both on theitem (upper figure) and the section pages (lower figure). • Note that image is shown in full size on the item page, and as a thumbnail at the section page. • Also, there is an Order button at the item page. User will be able to order our product by clicking on that button.
Final Look of Fresh Fruits Section • In the same manner, we can add other items to our Fresh Fruits page. • Figure shows possible look of the Fresh Fruits page after four items were added. • By clicking either on the name or the image of any item, appropriate item page will be loaded: then, the user can order the wanted amount of the product.
Product Name: ecBuilder Manufacturer: MultiActive Software inc. System requirements: Desktop PC with Microsoft Windows operating system and Microsoft IE 4.0or Netscape 4.0 ecBuilder Product URL: http://www.ecbuilder.com
Payment processing • ecBuilder provides full support for online credit card processing • Credit card paying process is security sensitive • The merchant (you) takes care of delivering the bought goods • ecPlace takes care of CC payment processing (3) Customer enters Credit card number SSL (2) Shopping List encrypted with Public Key Technology (4) Payment request submitted via secure connection Customer (1) Makes Shopping List YourSite ecPlace Server Payment Processor (5) Transaction result (6) Encrypted eMail with results (7) eMail with results
ecBuilder First step : Site Structure • ecBuilder will generate several HTML pages,and will correctly hyperlink them • In this step you should choosewhich additional pages your site will contain • The choices are: • Content Pages • Your Products or Services Catalog • Feedback Form • Contact Information Page
ecBuilder Seventh step - Web Site Content • By checking the 'Content Pages' checkbox in Step One,you caused ecBuilder to generate a pagewith the default title 'background' • A link to that page can be foundon the main page of the site • This 'background' page containsup to 100 links to other pagesof your choice and content,which are also generated by ecBuilder • You may use this option to add anythingyou find relevant to your eBusiness,or the site in general.
ecBuilder Ninth step - Online Processing Other Merchant Sites • The ecBuilder adds one more stage into the generalized e-Business pipeline: The ecPlace • It is a ready-to-use interface to OTP; you do not have to create your own one inside the Merchant Site • Private Gateway = SSL or VPN or anything else to provide security Bank Internet Bank Consumer Merchant Site ecPlace Online Transaction Server Bank Bank Consumer issuing and acquiring banks Consumer Other Merchant Sites Private Gateway
ecBuilder Ninth step - Online Processing • Here you must select the third partyonline transaction processing (OTP) company you intend to use • As of this moment,ecBuilder supports E-xact and InternetSecuretransaction processing companies;the ecPlace is nothing else but software to interact with the OTP • After you have obtained a merchant account, you must obtain a separate account with one of the supported OTP companies • Go to http://www.ecbuilder.com/client/merchantaccountfor more info on obtaining an accountwith an online transaction processing company • Remember: OTP = TGP (transaction gateway provider)
ecBuilder Eleventh step - Advertising & Statistics • This Step gives you three options to select: • Top Page Banner • Bottom Page Banner • Hit Counter • Banners are used primarily for link exchangebetween sites of similar interestin order to boost up hit ratios,and for some additional cash source(pay per clickthrough banners, for example): e.g., 1cent/click • Hit counters are used for trackingvisitor statistics for your site,which can be useful when planningyour future market strategy
ecBuilder Fifteenth step - Search Engines • ecBuilder can submit your new siteto eight (as of ‘this’ moment) search engines,to make sure your E-business site is easy to be found • The data and keywords you entered in previous stepswill be used in the submit process • You may visit an independent Submit-It service provider at: http://www.submit-it.com • For a small fee they will submit your site to hundreds of search engines