WELCOME good day

1. WELCOMEgood day Alexandru Doszlop alexandru.doszlop@netprotect.ro

2. IT tools for e-commerce and e-marketing • E-commerce: • This concept is based on the internet infrastructure and provides both producers and consumers with a simply and fast way to sell / buy products. • The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily since the spread of the Internet.

3. IT tools for e-commerce and e-marketing • E-commerce: • Originally, electronic commerce meant the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). • These technologies were both introduced in the late 1970s, allowing businesses to send commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically.

4. IT tools for e-commerce and e-marketing • The growth and acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s were also forms of electronic commerce. • When the Web first became well-known for the general public in 1994, many journalists forecast that e-commerce would soon become a major economic sector. • However, it took about four years for security protocols (like HTTPS) to become sufficiently developed and widely deployed.

5. IT tools for e-commerce and e-marketing • Subsequently, between 1998 and 2000, a substantial number of businesses in the United States and Western Europe developed rudimentary web sites. • In the dot com era, electronic commerce designates the purchase of goods and services over the World Wide Web, usually with secure connections with e-shopping carts and with electronic payment services such as credit card payment authorizations.

6. IT tools for e-commerce and e-marketing • The 5 largest Internet retailers are: • Amazon • Staples • Office Depot • Dell • Hewlett Packard • This indicates that the top categories of products sold on the Internet are books, music, office supplies, computers, and other consumer electronics.

7. IT tools for e-commerce and e-marketing • Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as Business-to-business or B2B. • B2B can be open to all interested parties or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market). • Applications used in E-commerce: • E-mail and messaging • Documents, databases • Accounting and finance systems • Orders and shipment information • Domestic and international payment systems

8. IT tools for e-commerce and e-marketing • At consumer level: • conducted via World Wide Web • purchase anything from grocery to expensive things • online banking • bill payments • buying stocks • transferring founds from one account to another • At institutional level: • Exchange very sensitive information like financial data • As a consequence, data integrity and security are very hot and pressing issues for electronic commerce these days.

9. IT tools for e-commerce and e-marketing • Practice: • Visit www.amazon.com and check products and the procedure you have to follow to buy one. • Visit www.ebay.com • Visit www.emag.ro and check the procedure for Romania

10. IT tools for e-commerce and e-marketing • E-marketing: • Advertise your business on world wide web. • Usually this is done via a web site. • The web site must fulfill several requirements in order to advertise the business in a adequate manner. • Choose Web hosting company: • It is very important to use a reliable service. • The success of an Internet business is critically dependent on its Web site (no lost connections). • Unfortunately, it is difficult to verify which hosting companies are truly reliable. • Check www.webhostingrebates.com

11. IT tools for e-commerce and e-marketing • Web site must: • Provide an easy and intuitive navigation method. • It must provide an easy and faster way to reach the desired information. • It must keep a balance between the text and multimedia content. • It must load fast in the browser. • Usage of Web-Forum (advantages): • A forum can be very useful to see the others opinion (e.g. about the site itself, about the products you sale, etc.) • It helps you to adjust your business to the customer needs. • It brings you closer to the customers

12. IT tools for e-commerce and e-marketing • Advertise web site using Banners (advantages): • Banner advertising is one of the most economical and cost effective methods of exposing your business products and services to thousands of potential customers. • It allows you to increase traffic to your Web site. • Change your banner ads frequently (banner not effective after third time seeing it). • Optimize website for search engines: • Determine the key words for which your site you want to be found by the search engine (most important step) • Submit your site to the search engines • Improve the link popularity of your site by getting other sites on the Internet to link to your site.

13. IT tools for e-commerce and e-marketing • E-mails: • You can get the customer's e-mail addresses first of all, by using forms on your company website. • Allow the visitors the possibility to sing-up for news-letter (periodic news). Benefits are: • You'll save money • Your email is being read • Your e-mail is wanted • Website Credibility: • The more user-friendly your site is, the more trust will be developed with your viewers. • Having good credibility is the one of the most important element you want from your visitors.

14. IT tools for e-commerce and e-marketing • Tips for making a website credible: • Purchase an appropriate domain name for your business. • Use domain name email address. • Include contact information (phone numbers, hours of operation, time zones, business mailing address, and email addresses). • Have contact links on your site. • Keep your content updated. • Include a personal touch. • Design it for quick downloads. • No spelling and grammatical errors.

15. IT tools for e-commerce and e-marketing • Tips for making the website memorable: • People tend to remember the first and the last item that they see in a sequence better than the content they see in the middle. • Tip: make your home page fun, interesting and memorable. • People remember things better when they are represented as pictures. • So use pictures wherever you can. • But more importantly, try to say important things using both pictures and words. This is called "dual coding," and gives consumers two ways to remember.

16. IT tools for e-commerce and e-marketing • Practice • Visit www.microsoft.com • Visit www.yahoo.com

17. II. Introduction to IT: elements of websites • Choose the right technology for a complete web solution • Website a few years ago = webpages • Website today = web solution • If you don’t have the experience and technical resources in-house, work with a professional web solutions provider, preferably

18. II. Introduction to IT: elements of websites • Technology used: • HTML / Flash • PHP / ASP / JSP • MySql / Microsoft SQL • Hosting / in-house server • Blogs, webcasts & podcasts • Web 2.0

19. II. Introduction to IT: elements of websites • The Elements of a Web Solution • Domain names Choosing the right domain name is an important branding decision which impacts how your organization is perceived and also how it is found in the search engines.

20. II. Introduction to IT: elements of websites • The Elements of a Web Solution 2. Website Design & Development Services Find a provider that specializes in small business web design and development. An organization that offers a solutions-based approach can assist your company in doing thorough needs analysis and in designing all of the elements to work well together.

21. II. Introduction to IT: elements of websites • The Elements of a Web Solution 3. E-mail Management E-mail is a key communication tool for your business. The right system will help you maximize communications within the company, on the road and with your customers

22. II. Introduction to IT: elements of websites • The Elements of a Web Solution 4. Social Media Social media such as blogging, Podcasting and other web 2.0 tools can greatly enhance customer communications

23. II. Introduction to IT: elements of websites • The Elements of a Web Solution 5. Small Business Website Hosting Services Look for a managed hosting provider who can help you select the right plan for your web solution goals, get your website up and running and support you as it grows and evolves.

24. II. Introduction to IT: elements of websites • The Elements of a Web Solution 6. Website Maintenance How will your site be maintained and updated? Having both small business web development and managed web site hosting as a package is immensely helpful for maximizing web server resources, identifying problems and keeping the site maintained and updated.

25. II. Introduction to IT: elements of websites • The Elements of a Web Solution 7. E-Commerce Will you be actually selling on your site or using it for lead generation or information dissemination? If you are selling products, who will create and maintain your product database. How will transactions be handled? What about web server requirements?

26. II. Introduction to IT: elements of websites • The Elements of a Web Solution 8. Business Process Interaction A website needs to be more than just an ad on the Internet to be effective as a business tool. There are many ways the web can be used to improve your business processes and integrate with your existing systems such as accounting or contact management.

27. II. Introduction to IT: elements of websites • The Elements of a Web Solution 9. Website Marketing How will people find you on the web? Will you optimize your site for organic search or employ paid marketing techniques or a combination? What directories should you list your site in?

28. II. Introduction to IT: elements of websites • The Elements of a Web Solution 10. Website Analytics and Conversion Having a great site isn’t enough if your visitors aren’t doing what you intended; buying something, contacting your company or using your site for an information source. Does your site have usability issues? What kind of reporting will you use to track site visitors? What do you need to know and do to convert your visitors into action-takers?

29. III. Online communication and netiquette • Net Etiquette: a set of rules needed to interact in the online environment (e.g. when doing e-mail communication) • Just as one needs to show courtesy and respect in the face-to-face classroom, so does one in the online arena. • The others will understand you only by means of the words (usually no body language or voice is available)

30. III. Online communication and netiquette • Guidelines for online communication: • Clearly signal the subject of your message in the appropriate text box in the message window. • Create single subject messages wherever possible, not messages with multiple subjects. • Be polite – do address each other by name, as appropriate. • Make you messages easily read: • Keep your messages as succinct as possible – use short paragraphs, and short sentences (no more than 20 words). • Structure you message if necessary with bullet points, numbered lists, and/or use sub headings to break the text up into easily read chunks.

31. III. Online communication and netiquette • Guidelines for online communication: • Don't make any hurtful, sexist, racist or other disparaging comments • Respect other's ideas and perspectives – although feel free to share differences in opinion. • Don't copy or forward a message or attachments (or parts within) without first getting the permission of its author • Beware CAPITALISING or highlighting whole words or phrases – this seems like shouting to the reader. • Beware using humor, irony and sarcasm – it can be misinterpreted without usual voice tone and body language.

32. III. Online communication and netiquette • Before you hit the Send/Post button, think: • Is this really what I want to say? • How will this be interpreted by my reader(s)? • Is this the best medium to send the message (e.g. use email for private/personal communication; Discussions and Chat are public forums)? • Am I comfortable that this will be a permanent electronic record? • Take the time to review your message and correct any errors in grammar or spelling that could mislead the reader.

33. DAY 1 PRACTICE • Installing an e-commerce website. • Managing this website. • Identify payment methods specific for your country.