In this report I will discuss e-commerce, exploring what is e-Commerce, including such topics as the design and monitoring of websites along with how to make sure you are providing what the customer requires with regard to service and identifying and meeting the customer needs.
E-commerce is the buying/selling of goods or the conveying of funds or data, over the Internet. The terms e-commerce and e-business are often used when discussing any transactions over the Internet. E-commerce is conducted using email, fax, and online catalogs and shopping carts. (Electronic Data Interchange), EDI is a way for businesses to safely and securely transfer important information such as invoices and purchase orders, via the Internet. The benefits of e-commerce are its around-the-clock accessibility, the speed of access, a wider selection of goods and services, accessibility, and world-wide reach. Its recognised weaknesses can be sometimes limited access to a service agent, not being able to examine the item before you commit to purchase, and the imposed delay time for product to arrive at destination. To ensure the security, privacy and success of e-commerce, businesses should verify business transactions, control access to sources such as webpages for registered or designated users, encode communications and apply strong security tools.
In today’s online marketing world customers expect an individualized web experience. The technology is available to enable your customer to shop based on personal choice. Therefore it should be used.
When designing a website the following criteria need to be adhered to:
Website monitoring is the method of testing and validating that customers/clients can interact with a website or web application. It’s often used by businesses to ensure website uptime, (up. Time is a highly scalable IT monitoring solution that enables you to gain visibility and direction over the performance availability and capacity of their IT environment; whether on premise remotely or in the cloud), performance, and functionality are working as intended. Monitoring is essential to ensure that a website is available to users, that any downtime is kept to a minimum, and that performance is enhanced as much as possible. Monitoring can also help to see how your website is performing against your competitors.
The rules which you should adhere to, to avoid attacks on your website Keep your software up to date: Keeping all software up to date is vital in keeping your site secure. When website security errors are found in software; hackers are quick to attempt to abuse them. Error messages: Be careful with how much information you disclose in your error messages. For example if you have a login procedure on your website you need to think about the language used to communicate failure when attempting logins. Non-specific messages like “Incorrect username or password” as not to detail when a user gets half of the query right. If a hacker tries to strike to get a username and password and the error message gives away when one of the fields are correct then the hacker knows he has one of the fields and can concentrate on the other field.
Paswords: We all know that we should use complex passwords, but that doesn’t mean we always do. It is imperative to use strong passwords to your server and website admin area, but equally important to insist on good password practices for your users to protect the security of their accounts. As much as users may not like it, enforcing password requirements such as a minimum of around eight characters, including an uppercase letter and number will help to protect their information in the long run. Passwords should always be kept encrypted, if possible using a one way hashing algorithm such as SHA. (logical arithmetical or computational procedure that if correctly applied ensures the solution of a problem) (Collins English Dictionary, 2014) Using this method means when you are validating users you are only ever comparing encrypted values. For extra website security it is a good idea to salt the passwords, using a new salt per password. Salt is a method which makes it impracticable to crack a hash. In the event of someone hacking in and stealing your passwords, using hashed passwords could help damage limitation, as decrypting them is not possible. When using salted passwords which is the process of cracking a large number of passwords it is very slow as every guess has to be hashed separately for every salt + password which is monetary/computationally an expensive option. Customers’ personal protection: For a customer to feel safe and secure using a website there are protections available such as Verified by Visa that can be used. This has become very popular in recent times. The major banks all offer this facility. Once you’ve signed up to the Verified by Visa system, your card will be protected against any unauthorised online use leaving the customer free to shop securely on web sites across Europe. It also means you can have confidence in the online retailer you’re buying from.
Excellent customer service is essential in these challenging times, whether you are selling on-line or in the High Street.
The E-Commerce Act 2000, the Irish Act instigated the EU instruction on Electronic Signatures twelve months ahead of the deadline set by the European Commission. The Act now gives confidence to users around any fears with e-documents as they are now on the same footing as physical documents. The act provides the following safe guards:- Ability of E-Communications to Communicate Agreement
There will always be a conflict between online shopping versus shopping on the high Street. The split between customers who prefer shopping online, and those that prefer offline, is more or less even, with a slight preference 55% for the High Street. Women are more likely to research online and buy offline, with 71% of women doig this, compared to 52% of men. The reason women shop offline is they don’t want to wait for the product to arrive. The second most compelling reason for shopping offline is they want to see/feel the product in person that they are purchasing. (Grazia, 2014) Conclusion: Following my research on the potential risks to organisations committing to an e-commerce system my conclusions are:-
Potential Risks to Organisations Committing to an Ecommerce System. (2017, Jun 26).
Retrieved October 13, 2024 , from
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