(PDF) E-commerce Retailing Services

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E-COMMERCE RETAILING AND SERVICES
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Building an E-commerce Presence
According to Kim and Peterson (2017), an e-commerce is a type of business, which enables
people to conduct business operations without using physical means rather over the internet.
Business activities are dynamic in nature, therefore, susceptible to changes from time to time.
Initially, people conducted business activities by exchanging goods and services especially
before introduction of monetary system (Oliveira et al 2017). Currently, many companies have
incorporated websites into their operations, thus e-commerce industry has enormously grown.
Steps of Building an E-commerce Presence
According to Shi, Li, X. and Li, H. (2017), the first step of building an e-commerce involves
conducting a research regarding recent technologies in e-business, for example:
 Introduction of mobile applications. Initially, customers accessed products of the
companies through links, which are referred to as Uniform Resource Locater (URL).
Through android programming, many companies have designed and developed mobile
applications in relation to e-commerce, thus making it easy for customer to view and
purchase products using their mobile phone by downloading and installing mobile
application. For instance, Amazon is one of the organizations that has developed a mobile
application for its services, therefore, enhancing smooth running of business operations
(Isaksson and Wennberg 2016).
 Introduction of Virtual Assistant. Initially, companies experienced low sales because
many people didn’t apprehend the entire process of buying or selling goods online.
However, introduction of virtual assistant has enhanced interaction between the company

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and its customers. Virtual assistant has enabled customers to give their suggestions and
ask questions about business activities or services offered by the company. Similarly, it
has enabled the company to respond to the questions asked in real-time basis (Hernandez
2016).
 Improved shipping activities. Shipping is one of the essential features of an e-commerce.
Initially, it took a long time for a company to deliver goods and services to customers.
However, shipping services have been improved, thus ensuring timely deliveries (Shi, Li,
X. and Li, H. 2017).
 E-business messenger applications. Many businesses are expected to be sending their
information about promotions and products through messaging applications, for example,
WhatsApp and Messenger. Currently, many e-businesses are using email to update its
customers regarding change in products and services offered by the company. The
change is expected to take effect in future since many people are using messaging
applications as compared to email (Allison 2017).
Other Steps involved:
 Writing a plan of an e-business. A plan may include the following; objectives of an e-
commerce, targeted customers and their needs. A good plan should put into consideration
future needs of the customers other than current needs. The plan forms a basis of
determining overall costs of an e-commerce. Besides, it can also determine maintenance
costs. Therefore, it is an important step in building of an e-commerce (Allison 2017).
 Identify products and services that will be offered to customers.
 Develop e-commerce promotional strategies, therefore, creating awareness of its
existence (Allison 2017).

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 Choose an e-commerce website domain name.
 Building an e-commerce website (Shi, Li, X. and Li, H. 2017).
References
Allison, J. (2017). E-COMMERCE AND THE NEWPAPER INDUSTRY: DETERMINANTS
TO FIRST-MOVERSHIP. Academy of Strategic Management Journal [online]. 16(1), pp.225-
243. Available from: http://www.mywebtools.us/Allison/Research.htm. [Accessed 22 August
2018].
Hernandez, S. (2016). A management research paper for Philippine Seven
Corporation (Doctoral dissertation, De La Salle University-Dasmariñas) [online]. Available
from: https://thesis.dlsud.edu.ph/4308/. [Accessed 22 August 2018]
Isaksson, D. and Wennberg, K. (2016). Digitalization and collective value creation.
In Bergström, A., & Wennberg, K. Machines, Jobs and equality. Technological Change and
Labor Markets in Europe. European Liberal Forum, Brussels, Belgium [online]. Available from:
http://fores.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/machines-jobs-and-equality.pdf [Accessed 22 August
2018].
Kim, Y. and Peterson, R. (2017). A Meta-analysis of Online Trust Relationships in E-
commerce. Journal of Interactive Marketing [online]. 38, pp.44-54. Available from:
http://iranarze.ir/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/E5575-IranArze.pdf. [Accessed 22 August 2018].
Oliveira, T., Alhinho, M., Rita, P. and Dhillon, G. (2017). Modelling and testing consumer trust
dimensions in e-commerce. Computers in Human Behavior [online]. 71, pp.153-164. Available
from: https://research.unl.pt/en/publications/modelling-and-testing-consumer-trust-dimensions-

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in-ecommerce(a7e6f7ad-285e-43b8-b82a-55393762e249)/export.html. [Accessed 22 August
2018].
Shi, Y., Li, X. and Li, H. (2017). A new method to assess infiltration rates in large shopping
centers. Building and Environment, 119, pp.140-152.
E-commerce Security and Payment System
E-business Infrastructure
According to Turban et al. (2017), it’s important to understand e-business infrastructure before
defining its security measures. E-commerce infrastructure is related to overall architecture of an
e-commerce platform such as software and hardware. It is essential as it determines
responsiveness of an e-commerce application. There are different e-business infrastructure
technologies, for example, Information display, transition and processing technologies (Rahman
2018). Display technologies consists of XML and web, while, transition technologies comprise
WAP and TCP. Finally, processing technologies includes IDSS and GPS. Therefore, better
security mechanisms should be deployed, thus ensuring security of e-commerce infrastructures
has been enhanced (Rahman 2018).
Payment and Security Systems
E-commerce security is associated with the process of protecting an e-commerce platform.
Security is the most essential element of an e-commerce website, for instance, poorly secured
website can scare away customers from purchasing products (Qiu and Li 2017). Besides,
customer’s credentials or information are very important, thus companies have deployed
different security techniques in their e-commerce websites. There are different security policies
underlying e-commerce websites such as privacy, which is concerned about ways on which

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customer’s data is used and secured against unauthorized access and cryptography, which is
associated with secret and public keys (Zhang, Liu and Wen 2018). Furthermore, some concepts
related to confidentiality and authentication are used in privacy. The following are some of the
ways on which companies protect their e-commerce websites: deployment of security protection
techniques such as firewall and VPN. A firewall is a firmware, which blocks some files and
documents from entering in an e-commerce website. Besides, it determines some traffics that can
enter in organization’s network, therefore, preventing virus and other malicious files from
entering in a network, thus enhancing smooth running of the website. On the other hand, VPN
enables a customer to access an e-commerce website from anywhere and with a lot of ease
(Zhang, Liu and Wen 2018).
Apart from security systems, there exists different payment methods in e-commerce. Payment is
not an independent entity rather dependent because it relies much on security (Kazan et al 2018).
Payment options are also vital since an e-commerce website cannot exist without payment
methods. Currently, the following are some common payment options: PayPal, Skrill and bank
transfers. PayPal is the most acceptable payment option, thus incorporated by many companies.
It’s used in many countries. Besides, it is also very secured. Basically, it requires an individual to
have an email account (Kazan et al 2018). Apart from an email account, it also requires one to
have a bank account. Customers can link their bank accounts to their PayPal accounts. Similarly,
opening a Skrill account also requires one to have an email account. Also, it is a common online
payment option but not widely used because it is insecure, thus not incorporated in many e-
commerce websites. The other method is bank transfer, which is also not commonly used. In this
payment option, a company or a customer must provide their account numbers on their e-
commerce websites (Kemper and Deufel 2018).