Tuesday 8 November 2011

E-commerce Task 1 Notes


E-commerce
Ideas!
There are 5 main factors in E-commerce:
¨  Promotion of the products or services
¨  Getting paid
¨  Delivery
¨  Customer service
¨  Complying with the law
The principal place that a customer will encounter an E-commerce business will be the organisation’s web site. This has to cover those key factors.

Promotion

The site itself needs to be accessible – not only in terms of how easy it is to read or find one’s way around but also getting found in the first place! A key to this would be a web address that is easy to remember or type.
The products need to be seen so good quality images and descriptions are vital in most instances.
Prices have to be clearly stated (not just for legal reasons as above but because that’s what customers want to know!)

Processing e-commerce payments

The online shop needs to be able to process payments so people can actually buy from them online. If they buy a ready hosted package, payment processing will probably be included. If not, they’ll need to find a payment service provider (PSP).
These include services like PayPalActinic Payments and WorldPay. Google also have a service called GooglePay.

Delivery

You need details of how products will get to customers – there are many services that will take care of this or the company may wish to do the packing and postage themselves.

Customer Service

Who will deal with queries, complaints etc.? You’ll need a name and an address, ideally an e-mail address and on-line form that people can complete.

Legal matters

To comply with the general information requirements of the E-commerce Regulations 2002 they must give recipients of their online services:
  • the business' name, geographic address and other contact details including their email address
  • details of any publicly available register in which they are entered, together with the registration number or equivalent
  • details of any professional body with which they are registered
  • their VAT registration number

If the website refers to prices, these must be clear and indicate whether they include tax and delivery costs.
You must also ensure the website complies with the Companies Act 2006. All companies in the UK must clearly state the company registration number, place of registration, registered office address and, if the company is being wound up, that fact, on all of their websites. A common place to put this information is in the 'About us' or 'Legal info' page of the site - it does not have to appear on every page. This rule also applies to any electronic communications sent out by the company, such as emails.
There are more requirements but these are the essential ones to start with!

No comments:

Post a Comment