Transcript WHAT ARE THE THREE 'CORE/KEY SKILLS'?

COMP2113
Electronic Commerce
Richard Henson
University of Worcester
April 2008
Week 6: On-line Shopping

Objectives:
Explain the features of B2C systems for
handling on-line ordering and payment
Describe the stages required to achieve an
on-line order
Identify these stages in a pre-prepared
simple but effective on-line shopping
system
Explain important considerations when
planning to receive payment on-line
Three stages of buying

Whether happening face-face, by mail
order, or through the web, the following
three stages usually occur:
customer (usually) looks at goods
vendor lets customer know total price of
goods chosen
customer pays for goods (or leaves without
making a purchase)
Buying on-line from a website
All about the website…
 Functionally (and legally) MUST
include:

web pages showing details of products
(product pages)
web pages and system giving cost detail
and total cost of order (shopping cart)
web pages for managing on-line payment
The Home Page


Equivalent of a shop window
Needs to:
 be attractive to users – potential customers
(marketing!)
 provide a balanced colour scheme & text font
which will be replicated throughout the site…
 provide links to all features of the site, including
product pages
Product Pages

As an absolute minimum, a product
page should include:
picture of product
price
drop-down menu for quantity
at least one mouse-click option to buy
» preferable also for customer to click on product
image to make a purchase
On-line Ordering

Can be achieved via the www in a number of
ways:
 data noted by customer and sent manually via
email
» requires effort on the part of the customer…
 HTML or Web forms on the shopping pages linked
to an on-line product database capture data and
send it via email
 A more sophisticated forms system creates the online order
» captures customer’s personal data securely
» links to a secure payment system
Order via e-mail

Now considered as primitive…
 but better than nothing
 provided that emails are checked regularly!


Two possibilities:
 customer creates email from scratch using email
address given on home page
 using a HTML mailto command, which allows the
email message header to be generated
automatically
In either case, this is a manual system requiring the
vendor to physically read the message and send a
reply...
Process of ordering via e-mail

Customer:
 initiates communication by sending an
unstructured message requesting product(s)
displayed on website

Vendor:
 replies with an emailed order
» may have be inputted by hand
 requests an address for sending the request for
payment

Payment needs to be manual:
 shouldn’t send credit card details by email
Order via a Simple HTML form


Customer presented with product list as a
form on the web page
Just needs to select qty of each product
required and submit the completed form to
either the vendor’s email address or direct to
the vendor’s own server
 because the information is structured, it can be
read, processed, and stored automatically by
software at the server end
 vendor system can also automatically get back to
the customer to continue the buying process…
Order via real-time on-line
forms system (Shopping Cart)

The cart….
 Collects the order based on mouse clicks on
shopping pages
 Stores, processes, displays the order
 Captures customer details
 Displays on-line invoice for customer, including tax
and any other extra costs
 Provides payment options for the customer to
complete their order
 Emails a copy of the online invoice to the
customer
More about
Shopping Cart software

Written in a combination of:
HTML
a client-side scripting language
» E.g. Javascript
» VBScript
Scripts running on the vendor’s web server
(server-side)
» interaction with server each time new data is
entered
Further requirements of a full
B2C e-commerce system

B2C e-commerce sites also seek to provide
customers with up to date information
 e.g. price changes
 new products in stock
 changes to existing products

Can only be achieved by linking the web site
to a product database on a web server
 database records for products should themselves
be easily updated from an online form
Server side web programming
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Already cover “web scripting” (client side)
Shopping Cart implementation requires
“server scripts” running on web servers
Current popular types of script:
 php (PHP Hypertext Preprocessor) often on a
breed of Unix
 asp.net (Active Server Pages) often on Windows
2000, XP, or 2003 Server systems

More this in the practical, and next week...
Typical Implementation of
Server-side Shopping Cart

Most commonly used (and most successful)
B2C e-commerce implementation:
 Web page displays live data from organisational
web server
 Customer selects product(s) and qty from on-line
form
 Costs, including VAT and any extras automatically
included on on-line invoice
 Customer can choose to buy (or not!) directly by
simply clicking a screen button
 System requests customer details and means of
payment before continuing…
Capture of Customer Details


Essential to deliver the goods…
Needs to include email address to inform
customer of progress of order
 details need to be stored so as not to infringe the
1998 Data protection Act

Customer data capture could be combined
with choice of username/password for future
login site authentication purposes
 should not be used for bank details authentication
 a fraudster could guess username/password…
On-line Payment Systems
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Require a reliable means of authentication of
the user, to establish TRUST
Most effectively done through an on-line link
to the International banking system
Authentication requires confirmation of:
 Name
 type of account
 account number
 other information, depending on the type of
account
B2B Payment Systems

B2B systems around for some time…
 made use of EFT (Electronic funds Transfer) from
the outset

Both buyer and seller need to contact
relevant bank computer:
 for authentication purposes
 to transfer funds
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On-line banking system highly secure:
 512 bit encryption
 virtual private network (VPN)
B2C Payment Systems

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Websites and http are NOT secure
Payment data may take place FROM the web
site, if made secure
 no easy matter requires secure protocols:
» http-s (secure)
» SSL
 safer to transfer to a secure site for data capture

Most popular method of authentication and
payment is credit/debit card
 relevant bank computer needs to be contacted
 similar authentication and funds transfer systems
as for B2B
Security on B2C Payment
Systems
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Lot of concern about security of B2C
authentication and transactions
Use of VPNs, encryption and secure
protocols make it extremely unlikely that data
will be intercepted en route
Some concern about the “secure servers” of
merchant service providers
Such servers hold e.g. credit card numbers
stored in an encrypted format
Secure Merchant Servers

Server security a a matter of:
 configuration and management of the server
software
 setting appropriate user privileges and file security
 auditing of all access to confidential data
 appropriate monitoring of attempted entry to the
system by “invalid” users

Probably a lot safer to have credit details here
than written down by a stranger at the other
end of the telephone line…
Keeping the Customer Informed!

Relatively easy to produce a system that will
keep the customer informed by email about
the processing of their order
 especially important, bearing in mind that
customers may be from overseas

Can program the system to send messages
at various trigger points:
 credit details are authenticated
 order is paid for
 order is “picked”
» from the database
» physically from stores
 order is dispatched
Completing the customer
shopping experience…
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Important to have:
A means of giving the customer a record of
their order:
» by web page as well by email… (“fail-safe”)
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A corporate “thank you” page
equivalent to the polite “goodbye” when a
customer leaves the shop – especially if
they have made a purchase…
Producing web pages for ecommerce
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By now, you should be able to use HTML (or
an Authoring package) to produce simple web
pages
You should also be able to implement mailto,
simple forms, and frames
You should be at the point of using small
JavaScript applets in HTML programs to
provide processing ability or special effects
You should be becoming aware that using
JavaScript makes the whole thing much more
complicated!
Who can create
e-commerce websites?

Producing an e-commerce site from scratch
requires:
 Good communication and analysis skills
 Web page design skills
 Some programming skills
 Database knowledge
 Client-server networking skills
Shop@ssistant (example of
how to design shopping pages)
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A variety of page items
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e.g. buttons, text, pictures etc. that can be
changed
“Instant” shopping cart system:
 automatically displays “shopping basket” whenever
forms data is added
 handles tax and shipping
 links with third party payment handling system
(merchant services provider)
» security handled by a “trusted” third party
Shop@ssistant Demo Sites

Page designs can be used as templates
 also contain embedded client-side JavaScript to
interface with the shopping cart system…
 manipulation may need programming knowledge…
 should be noted that the shopping system on most
systems uses server-side scripting, and not
necessarily written in JavaScript

To access demonstration sites:
 locate Shop@ssistant demos share on relevant
server
 double click on index.html in the shop assistant
demos folder (itself within the program files folder)
Bookshop Demo Site
(example)
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Navigation:
forward (buttons at the bottom of the page)
back (hyperlinks at top and bottom)
Further forward navigation enables the customer
to order the book in at least two ways
 “hot” image of the book (i.e. you can click on it)

Buttons bunched together - bottom of all product
pages:
 Order this Book
 3 Copies for 2 Offer
 Review Basket
Bookshop Demo Site
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Each page is customizable for those with
JavaScript expertise...
Other features to note:
 heading – to reflect corporate image, etc.
 product pages all have hyperlink to a pop up “more
detail” page
 the cart display
» terms & conditions & “remove item” check box
 option to go to payment page - cashier
» brings up form for customer data
 on-line invoice
 bullet pointed help
Demo Site - Handling
Payment

Online invoice appears AFTER
customer details completed
includes shipping and VAT charges
TOTAL is what the customer will actually
pay

If name, address, email address fields
not satisfactorily completed (validated)
payment method section is blocked…
Where shop@ssistant fails
miserably…

Product details are stored “client-side”
 each product page has its own data
 no option for updating data remotely
 any updating requires reprogramming of the
page…

This is why SERVER SCRIPTING is usually
used for shopping sites…
 product data held on an easily
readable/updateable database
 connected via scripts with embedded SQL
statements
For next week… More
Shopping sites to look at
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Woosh! (www.wooosh.com) “The World of
Online Shopping”
 over 1,000 UK shopping sites
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www.childrens-warehouse.com
www.webelectricals.co.uk
 sites using freecom.net services
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www.wineonlinenorth.com
www.funerals.co-op.co.uk
And… More URL’s to look at
Continental Research.com - profiles of
consumers using E-Commerce
 Zendor.com - logistics firm - back end
E-Commerce
 TPS - Telephone Preference Service
 MPS - Mail Preference Service
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Finally… Investigate
Server-side scripting
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Course practicals will use asp.net
 different from asp, which is being phased out…
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Needs an Internet Information Service
 provided with any XP Professional machine
 and any Vista Premium machine…
 in each case, not a default installation & needs to
be installed
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Each of the above is FREE to Worcester
Business School students via MSDN