E-commerce

E-commerce

E-commerce is becoming a big hit in today’s way of life. People are using the internet to shop online more and more. This is has both positive and negative effects for both the customer and the business.

One of the main things that help a business when they are trying to get more customers from the web is the businesses web presence.

-          Adverts: advertisement can really help to attract people to the business and it also helps to make people aware of the business. Advertisement can come in many forms and now via the internet that variety has become a lot wider. Some company’s use a virtual banner on a website to redirect you to their own website or even just to make you aware that they are there. Advertisement is becoming a rapidly evolving advantage to online businesses and offline business.

-          Online catalogue: can be a great advantage or a great mistake. An online catalogue allows a company to catalogue all their products and display them on their website. If the catalogue is easy to use and is user friendly then the customer would automatically start to like this website or company. The company could achieve this by creating a search engine and sorting them out into alphabetical order. If a company’s online catalogue is unorganised and messy then it would takes ages for a customer to find what they were looking for this would make the customer dislike the website and the company.

-          Transactional website: a transactional website is an online shop. This it a company’s main source for advertisement because they directly own the website and can advertise anything they want on it. A transactional website is highly likely to have an online catalogue so that the company can display what products they have in stock and how many of that item in stock. Transactional websites include a whole range of websites from banking to gambling or shopping to donating, any website that you can buy/ sell products or services on is classified as a transactional website.

-          Brick vs. click: brick vs. click is an abbreviation. The click means online shopping and the brick means the actual shop made out of bricks and not pixels. There is a constant on going fight between brick and click both are fighting for control but it is still considered that everyday shopping beats online shopping by a long shot. Bricks and clicks is where an online shop also has an actual shop this is usually when a big company e.g. Tesco’s or HMV, have enough money to fund both shops.

What advantages or disadvantages are there to the customers and the business on an online website?

·         Advantages for customer

-          Easier to search: if a customer is specifically looking for one item, all he/she has to do on an online is type in the product he/she is looking for in a search engine and then click on the right product he/she wants. This is a much easier and time efficient method than walking around a shop looking for just one item.

-          Wider choice: on an online website the stock of any product is not limited to what they have in that specific building like a shop is but an online website can store products in warehouses all over the country and dispatch them when a customer purchases that product.

-          Saves time: an online website saves time because you don’t have to take time to walk or drive down to the shops all you need to do is sit down grab your laptop and go online and you can even get your shopping delivered straight to your door.

-          Saves money: also you can save money on your petrol because you do have to leave the comfort of your own living room all you need is a computer and that’s your weekly shop done.

-          Preferences: some websites will remember what you have bought previously and recommend certain items that you might like they achieve this by looking at other people who have bought the same items to you and see what else they bought and then show you what they think you might like.

-          Reviews/ comments/ recommendations of both the product and of the shop: one off the best things about online shopping in my personal opinion is that other customers who have bought a product can comment on what they think about the quality of the product and give you an accurate idea of the positive and negative features of that particular product.

·         Advantages for business

-          Target advertising: a business can specifically advertise a certain product or feature on the website because they own the website they can advertise what they want and they usually advertise products or big events that the business will benefit from.

-          Wider customer base: an online website can help increase how many customers shop at that business. The web can be accessed by almost anyone all over the world; this makes a lot more people available to become customers of that particular business, whereas high street shops are limited to a particular area and certain customers.

-          Fewer workers: the business can employ fewer workers because they don’t need to higher certain people for certain jobs that you would need to do in a shop e.g. checkout, isle maintenance. This saves the company money because they don’t have to pay the workers.

-           Less rent: the company would not have to pay rent on the shop each month/year all they would have to do is buy a warehouse and keep their stock there.

-          Storage space: the business would have a lot more storage space for their products.

-          Increase in customer satisfaction: the business could directly improve customer satisfaction by creating a comments page so that they can find out what problems customers are having and try to fix them.

·         Disadvantages to the customer

-          You can’t try the goods: the customers cannot test the goods and see if they are damaged or if it’s the right size i.e. clothes might not fit the customer or food might have gone bad.

-          Waiting for delivery: the customer may be given a time to stay in so that they can collect the delivery or if they urgently need the products and the delivery might be delayed.

-          Items are harder to return/ more effort: it takes more effort to return an online product because you have to post it back to a certain place and also the cost to post it back might be expensive. Another thing is that is takes a lot of time to return an online product whereas all you have to do is take back a product to the shop you bought it from with the receipt.

-          Cost of shipping: in some cases the company makes you have to pay for shipping/ delivery charges.

-          Fraud: if a customers credit card is stolen then the thief can commit online credit card fraud and charge the customer for buying the products which they never actually own.

-          Security- https://: the customer might not know if the website is reliable and is safe to use. If a website has ‘https://’ the s means that the website is safe and can be trusted on some internet browsers the URL at the top of the screen changes colour to green.

·         Disadvantages to the business

-          Bad comments/ feedback: previous customers could leave negative feed back on a certain product that would discourage other customers. These comments could include faulty or broken products, late delivery or if it was food related ‘gone off’ or ‘mouldy’.

-          Security: some customer might try and hack their system and steal certain products or steal the money from the online transactions.

Education

Education

Online service education

Bitesize:

On BBC Bitesize you can pick what level of work and what type of work you want to learn about. The BBC Bitesize website provides for a huge variety of students from Key Stage 1 to GCSE and higher education, also including Scottish stages of education. BBC Bitesize offers educational games these games helps students to learn in a way that they find enjoyable and also challenging. BBC Bitesize offers a range of subjects, the core subjects taught in primary and secondary school and some most GCSE options. I think that BBC Bitesize is a really good website and I used it a lot while I was in my GCSE years.

Testing online and instant feedback:

Some educational websites offer test that pupils can download, print out or do right there and then. This helps students to find out what areas they struggle on if they can’t answer some of the question. Another great advantage about online test is that you can have instant feedback if you got a question wrong and you can be redirected or given links to a webpage that gives you information to read about that certain topic this helps you to learn so the next time you have a question on that particular topic you will be able to answer it with ease.

My maths:

My maths is an educational website dedicated to mathematics. It teaches years 7-9 on the normal curriculum and then has sections for GCSE and A-level maths, also has a Statistics section for GCSE and A-level. My maths is a really good website because you can create a teacher account and add student accounts to that specific teacher. My maths provides class work and home works that the teacher can assign to certain students and different difficulty. My maths also provides mathematical games with show students that maths can be fun and also can be used in everyday life.

Exam boards

Online assessments:

Assessments can be set online, this gives time to research the assessments and go into detail on the assessment topic. This also gives the students time to go talk to their teacher about the work and ask for help on that topic. A disadvantage of this is that students can copy and paste answers for some questions.

Online exam:

Online exams can be downloaded and printed off. Teachers can use this for homework tasks or class work. Online exams are very useful because they are quick and easy to obtain and takes a short amount of time to go through. Although online exams questions can change depending on what type of exam board the teacher bases the exams on, most topics cover the same type of work.

Wikipedia:

Wikipedia is a free website that anyone can sign up to and post information on. There are millions and millions of pages on almost anything you can think of. This can be a good thing but it can also be a bad thing. Wikipedia can give you lots of information and tips to help you to study. Wikipedia can be used by anyone and they might not know what some of the thinks they are typing are real of not or they might make a mistake and type something completely different to what actually is the truth. You cannot rely on Wikipedia because some of the information on that website might not be true. Some of the people on Wikipedia may have copied some of their information from other people and other websites, this is called plagiarism.

You tube

You tube is a website that anyone can sign up to. It is a website that allows you to post videos for the entire world to see. Some of these videos can be absolutely rubbish and pointless but some of the videos can be educational and actually teach you about something. I would classify you tube as an education website and I have used it many times when I need a practical demonstration of a particular subject i.e. science experiment.

Access

Some safety software can block websites because they are harmful or if they look suspicious. Some schools systems can block websites if they contain key words even if they are educational website I have had this many times while at school I have tried to look up a topic but I have not been able to gain access to some websites because they have been thought to be inappropriate or unsuitable for school.

Pod casts

Pod casts are very similar to videos on you tube, some pod casts can be on random topics that quite frankly have no relevance to anybody, but some pod casts can greatly help students to learn a certain topic. You have to be careful when using a pod cast for educational purposes because the source might not be reliable so the information that the pod cast provides might be incorrect or misleading.

Forums

Some Forums are designed to help students. There are many forums aimed at students to help teach them if they are not getting a certain topic. You can ask questions and get instant responses if someone is online and know the answer to your question. Some student forums supply their members with help tests these are little tests that ask the students certain questions this helps to find out their strengths and weaknesses so that the student can ask their teacher for help or even look on the forum for help on that topic. An example of a student forum is 'the student room'.

Real time information

News updates

The news used to not be classed as real time information but now more and more people are thinking of it as real time information. This is because of the internet.  Before we had internet you would have to buy a newspaper to read the news and find out what is happening or you would have to read a watch a news programme, this has all changed now that the internet has come along. The internet gives access to the news as soon as it has been uploaded. This means that you can learn what is going on where and when in the world. News feeds have also become very popular. News feeds are there to instantly notify you when a new News article is uploaded. This means that you are kept up to date with everything going on around the world.

Traffic news

Traffic news has also become a bog thing now that we are using the internet. We used to only be able to find out traffic details by listening to the radio or by watching the traffic channel on TV, and in some cases even by word of mouth. This has all changed now that the internet is being used to give traffic news. The most commonly used device in 2012 that uses Traffic News is the Sat Nav. The Sat Nav uses information from the internet to tell you where there is traffic on the road. It also starts to plot the quickest route to your destination; this includes how long you will be in traffic.

Air traffic information

There are now websites that you can use to track where a plane is, it can be on the ground or it can be high in the sky and these websites will tell you where the plane is, how long has it been in the air, how long does it have left and are there any problems. Flight radar is a really good site for looking for this type of information.  It gives you an accurate real time location of where the plane is.

Weather

Weather is increasingly becoming an internet activity. You can now type in where you want to know what the weather forecast is and all you have to do is search and the information for that destination pops up right there in front of you. You can also get weather feeds to tell you what the weather will be like each day. You can also use webcams to have a look at the weather in different parts of the world this is less accurate because you have to look at a live video feed if the sky and use your own knowledge to determine what the weather is going to be like.

Parcel tracking

You can now use parcel tracking to find out where your parcel or envelope is. This is very useful because you can find out exactly where your parcel is. If the parcel is delayed you can track it and see how far away it is for you this will help you to find an estimate time it will take it to arrive.

Bookings

When you book something online it automatically reserves that item/ product for you so it doesn’t re sell it. This is real time information because it automatically changes to what information you have put into it.

Rail information

Rail information has now become available via the internet. You can now log on to the rail website and type in the train details. This will show you if the train is delayed, cancelled, early or anything like that.

London transport

In London they have now implemented each bus with a tracking signal this allows the public to find out how far away a bus is and how long it will take to get to you. You can look this up on your smart phone by downloading an app which will tell you all the information you will need to know about London transport and more.

Online banking

Online banking is becoming a fast and efficient way of banking. If you transfer money into your account via the internet it is in your account ready to use instantly. You can transfer money via the internet into yours or other people’s accounts.

My opinion

I think that real time information is a becoming a big hit in today's way of life. It gives us information when it happens, as it happens. People have come to rely on the fact that everything is there whenever they want it or whenever they need it.