casestudybuy.com

=E-Commerce Case Study= by Atif Sattar toc

//What is Ecommerce?//
[|Ecommerce] Electric commerce: the conducting of business communication and transactions over networks and through computers. Specifically, e-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services, and the transfer of funds, through digital communications



Slogan :-
 * "The Internet Superstore"**


 * Identify a business already using e-commerce and investigate the what, who, how etc. For example, Amazon.com, what do they sell, how do they do it?**


 * **Buy.com, Incorporated** ||
 * [|Type] || [|Private] ||
 * Founded || [|1997] ([|Aliso Viejo, California]) ||
 * Headquarters || [|Aliso Viejo, California] ||
 * Key people || [|Neel Grover], CEO ||
 * [|Products] || [|Retail]-Computers, Electronics, Books, Videos, Music, etc. ||
 * [|Slogan] || The Internet Superstore ||
 * [|Website] || [|www.Buy.com] ||
 * [|Website] || [|www.Buy.com] ||

[|Buy.com] is one of the biggest online retailers in the United States of America. The company started in 1997 and they started off by selling computers and other electronics. They also sell other things and have made their categories widespread by selling movies, books, software, games, toys, camera, magazines, phones, etc. Buy.com grew to be a large company by selling products below the cost and it has gradually increased the costs now, although they still try to match any qualified competitor prices. The company also has a big magazine brand under them known as [|BuyMagazine]. This magazine is published once a month and has over 3.5 million subscribers.

Buy.com was a private company until 1999 when the founder [|Scott Blum] left, the company became public and the stock values dropped significantly and then [|Scott Blum] bought the company again in the year 2001 and has been private ever since.


 * Identify and describe the IT systems needed for e-commerce to be successful and use your case study company as an example.**

//This diagram above is original all pictures used are referenced in the bottom.//

The diagram above explains what the IT systems are required for e-commerce and how the process takes place. First a user basically browses the buy.com website which has over 2 million products. Then once the user picks a few items they add it to a shopping cart (look below) and then they checkout which then verifies credit card information with the banks for authentication via a 128 bit encrypted [|SSL] connection. Once the bank verifies the credit card information and then the company inventory server sends the request to the warehouse for the placement of the ordered goods. Then the shipping company delivers the goods.



//Shopping cart preview from buy.com//

Shipment/return policies
Recently, Buy.com started a practice of changing the order status to sent/shipped to avoid order cancellation, then shipping a few days later - specifically for free-shipping items. This is particularly problematic in combination with their return policy (as of December 2006): RMA numbers must be obtained and defective items returned to the company within 14 days of "shipment" from buy.com -- regardless of when the product arrives at the customer's locations, or indeed whether the item has been received at all.

Customer service
Buy.com has outsourced all customer support functions to [|VCustomer], a [|New Delhi], [|India] company. The toll-free customer service number is 877-780-2464. Despite being among the largest Internet retailers, as of December 2006, they have fallen to a position among the very lowest rated, number 22 from the bottom among over 11,000 at [|ResellerRatings.com].

Underpriced monitor fiasco
In the summer of 1999, Buy.com "mistakenly" posted a deal for a very underpriced 19" monitor. They advertised a price of $169, when the retail price at similar retailers was $500. Several thousand people, including many members of the [|AnandTech] web forums, immediately ordered the monitor through buy.com. At that time, Buy.com's business practice was to charge credit cards before the item was shipped. When Buy.com discovered the price mistake, it immediately pulled the deal and made additional charges on the credit cards of the buyers. This angered many people and a lot of members of the Anandtech web forums were enraged. In the end, a settlement was made, but only some people were compensated.


 * Identify and discuss the ethical and social issues to do with e-commerce and online shopping. Explore the advantages and disadvantages.**

The social and ethical issues related to the development of E-commerce are //People and Machines//, Authenticity and Security. This IT Development emerged after the dot-com boom in the year 2000. This rapidly increased the number of internet users worldwide.


 * Stakeholders**, the major stakeholders are the individuals/clients and the companies which provide online e commerce.

__**Individuals/Clients:**__


 * __Advantages__ || __Disadvantages__ ||
 * Have to spend less time shopping
 * Easier to find certain things.
 * More sites to choose from without spending gas money going to different malls ||
 * Less human interaction
 * Less physical Exercise
 * Makes people more lazy.
 * Risk of privacy and credit or personal identity security. ||
 * Risk of privacy and credit or personal identity security. ||

__**Companies:**__


 * __Advantages__ || __Disadvantages__ ||
 * Very Easy to run and manage
 * Less Variable and Fixed costs as they do not have to rent store space or hire extra employees
 * Easy to add new items and have a huge variety in one warehouse and not to have to have so many items in all their retail outlets
 * Cheaper to expand and implement ||
 * Security of clients as the companies have to take responsibility for their personal information. ||
 * Security of clients as the companies have to take responsibility for their personal information. ||

Feasible solutions such as providing more security in their websites by adding encryption and other methods of payment, maybe [|biometric] or [|iris identification]. The social impact might be that buying things online can reduce physical human interaction. This relates to People and Machines, but still people can interact via web chat and audio conferences while they shop online. Companies also could make a software so that more than one person could be viewing the same browser screen and shopping with their own shopping carts on the side which would let them talk about similar products together. Online shopping also plays a big role in the country's economy, it may cause health problems because people would be lazy and would not want to go out as much or do any physical exercise. It may also cause psychological health problems as people get less human contact or interaction.

The social impacts on local communities would be less human interaction and more efficiency for all the people. The social impacts on the global communities would create more legal laws and health issues worldwide. Companies would also start developing more ergonomic computer hardware and well as chairs and tables.

The companies developing online commerce are responsible. The retailers and the governments are accountable. [|Privacy Policies], certain [|data laws] and many rules apply to this situation as personal information is kept on company servers and they have to be responsible for the loss or theft of data.


 * Describe and evaluate the main problems to do with e-commerce. What are some solutions to these problems?**


 * Problems:**


 * Concerns about [|security]. Many people will not use [|credit cards] over the Internet due to concerns about theft and [|credit card fraud].
 * The problem of access to web commerce, mainly for poor households and for developing countries. Low [|penetration rates] of Internet access in some [|sectors] greatly reduces the potential for e-commerce.
 * Inconsistent return policies among e-tailers or difficulties in exchange/return.
 * Poorly designed, bug-infested e-Commerce web sites that frustrate online shoppers and drive them away.
 * The social aspect of shopping. Some people enjoy talking to sales staff, to other shoppers, or to their cohorts: this social reward side of [|retail therapy] does not exist to the same extent in [|online shopping].


 * Solutions:**


 * Using more security in their websites and data
 * Work with other companies or develop more security
 * Alternate methods of security such as biometric or iris identification.
 * Creating software or interactive methods to communicate with staff while purchasing an item.
 * Creating a collaborative or a browser so more than one person can shop with friends.



//This is a screenshot of buy.com's homepage//

Buying Methods/ 3rd Party Company's



 * PayPal** is an [|e-commerce] business allowing payments and [|money] transfers to be made through the [|Internet]. It serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as [|checks] and [|money orders]. PayPal performs payment processing for online vendors, [|auction] sites, and other [|corporate] users, for which it charges a fee. In October 2002, PayPal became a wholly owned [|subsidiary] of [|eBay]


 * VeriSign, Inc.** is an [|American] company based in [|Mountain View, California] that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the [|Internet]'s thirteen [|root nameservers], the generic [|top-level domains] for [|.com] and [|.net], one of the largest [|SS7] signaling networks in North America, and the [|RFID] directory for [|EPCGlobal].

The service charges merchants 2.0% plus $0.20 per transaction. Though, Google has decided to charge $0 for processing till December 31, 2007
 * Google Checkout** is an online payment processing service provided by [|Google] aimed at simplifying the process of paying for online purchases. Users store their credit card and shipping information in their Google Account, so that they can purchase at participating stores at the click of a button. Google Checkout also offers fraud protection, as well a unified page for tracking purchases and their status.

Extra Multimedia
media type="youtube" key="xjAbXmcJc54" Christmas Ad

media type="youtube" key="XRBdtZ8ctoY" The video illustrates a form of social proof that Buy.com employs to convince consumers to purchase their products.

media type="youtube" key="Ih9tkdot6ew" Buy.com's Spring 2006 Commercial

RSS Feeds
rss url="http://blog.solidcactus.com/atom.xml" title="Solid Cactus Ecommerce Blog" number="5" description="true" date="true" length="80"

rss url="http://blog.neoverve.com/feed/" title="ProStores Ecommerce Blog" number="5" description="true" date="true" length="80"

Resources
Works Cited:

Brain, Marshall. “How E-commerce Works.” __How Stuff Works__. 23 Feb. 2007 <[|http://computer.howstuffworks.com/‌ecommerce.htm>.] __Buy.com__. 2007. 25 Feb. 2007 <[|http://www.buy.com>.] “Dot-com Boom.” __WikiPedia__. 25 Feb. 2007. 26 Feb. 2007 <[|http://en.wikipedia.org/‌wiki/‌Dot-com_boom>.] “Electronic commerce.” __Wikipedia__. 23 Feb. 2007 <[|http://en.wikipedia.org/‌wiki/‌E-commerce>.] “Electronic Commerce.” __Wikipedia__. 27 Feb. 2007. 27 Feb. 2007 <[|http://en.wikipedia.org/‌wiki/‌E-commerce>.] “Glossary.” __WDA.org__. 2007. 24 Feb. 2007 <[|http://www.wda.org/‌Public/‌help/‌glossary.htm>.] “Homepage.” __YouTube__. 2007. 25 Feb. 2007 <[|http://www.youtube.com>.]

http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/cda0017l.jpg http://www.apply-for-credit-card.co.uk/images/capitalone.gif http://www.megalab.it/immagini/articoli/internet_explorer_7/1_setup_wizard.gif http://www.keyon.ch/de/Produkte/ValidationServer/OCSPOverview.png http://www.moneta.si/files/placilna_mesta/184/slika_dhl_packaging_2.jpg http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/news/2005/oct/images/website-screenshot-370_7004_1.jpg

Presentation On E-commerce
media type="google" key="-8227848532870615821&hl=en"