Chapter 3 Key Concepts

E-Commerce – Week 3 Revision Notes

Chapter 3 – Selling on the web: Revenue Models & Building a Web Presence:

Revenue Models:

Not all e-commerce initiatives have the goal of providing revenue; some are undertaken to reduce costs or improve customer service.
Various models for generating revenue: web catalog, digital content, advertising-supported, advertising-subscription mixed, and fee based.
Most companies use the same revenue model for B2C and B2B.

Creating an Effective Web Presence:
Many customers and stakeholders of a web business know the company only through its web presence.
Creating an effective web presence can be critical even for the smallest and newest firms operating on the web.

Identifying Web Presence Goals:

Web based businesses and organizations have the luxury of building their web sites intentionally to create distinctive presences.
A good website design can provide many image-creating and image-enhancing features very effectively—it can serve as a sales brochure, a product showroom, a financial report, an employment ad, and a customer contact point.

Achieving Web Presence Goals:

An effective web site is one that creates an attractive presence that meets the objectives of the business or organization. The objectives include:

Attracting visitors to the web site.
Making the site interesting enough that visitors stay and explore.
Convincing visitors to follow the site’s links to obtain information.
Creating an impression consistent with the organization’s desired image.
Building a trusting relationship with visitors.
Reinforcing positive images that the visitor might already have about the organization.
Encouraging visitors to return to the site.

Web Site Usability:

Research indicates that few businesses accomplish all of their goals for their websites current web presence.
Most firms’ websites give the general impression that the firm is too important and its employees are too busy to respond to inquiries.