Websites & e-Commerce part 1

By: Damien Nangle

When we first go on the web we are in a sort of search mode, we are looking for information, seeking out items that interest us, and ignoring items that don't. This behaviour forms the basis of our actions when we log onto the web each time we look for something. Bearing this in mind we can have a look at the various types of website, and examine E-commerce in some detail.

Websites are common these days, most businesses have a website of some sort or another. Loosely speaking though websites fall into different categories. Firstly, you have the typical basic website presence which merely points people towards using traditional methods of contact such as phone, fax, mobile. There is little information on the site, this may be all that is required, but often much more is possible.

The second type of website that you will notice is the one which provides some information, some useful information about the business or the products on offer. This type of information can be static (same information all the time) or dynamic (content changes based on who is looking at it, or based on information regularly uploaded). Dynamic sites would traditionally receive more traffic due to the fact that people keep going back with an expectation that the content may have changed, and fearing they may have missed some important updates. Look back toward the first point I made with regards to why we look for something on the www (world wide web). Based on the fact that we can provide information on the web the next logical side for the web site owner is to try and sell the products or services described on the web site.

Clearly this doesn't apply to all products or services, but for those that it does apply to, it should be taken advantage of. Out of this we then have the concept of an E-Commerce website. A website that not only provides you with static/dynamic information, but also provides you with a means to carry out a transaction to purchase it.
So what is an e-commerce website?

This is any website that partakes in the transaction of selling or organising for the payment from one party to another with respect to goods or services. At a stretch e-commerce could be considered as any transaction, which started as a result of contact on the web, albeit continued through traditional means.

An e-commerce website is any website that enables people to view information about products and or services. Often it also provides multiple ways to establish contact with the company; email, phone, fax, snail mail. Primarily it provides the company with a way to store the information about the goods they are selling, and a way to record and process the transactions between customers and the company.
The constituent parts of an e-commerce website are as follows:

* Domain Name
* Web server space / Hosting package
* Database facility
* Payment Processor
* Bank facility / Merchant account

Next week we will examine the relationship between these key parts of an e-commerce website, and see what you need to consider if you are thinking of implementing one.