Exercise 1

1.Visit http://yahoo.com/ and http://facebook.com/ as examples of online communities.

       

a. What is meant by an online community and how is it important for e-commerce?

Online community refers to a group of people which have same kind of interest, regardless of the geographical, race, national and time constrained to communicate/exchange information/ideas in the cyberspace (such as yahoo.com or facebook.com). The members may not know each other's even they have communicate for a long period of time.

It is very important to the E-commerce world because of the following points:-

1. Users have computer skills, they will more eager to use e-commerce tools

2. Each online community has its own interest (e.g. golf, car, photo, travel), a concentrated user group for a particular product or service. Easy to advertise them and gain efficiency.

3. It is easier for small E-commerce Company to compete with national and multinational companies as online community is more globalize.

4. E-commerce marketing strategy can be more flexible in the online community as it is easier to get the market trend from the online users.

5. Of course, the E-commerce shop is open 24 X 7 which is convenience for the online users and makes it more competitive with the traditional shops.

b.  Is there a common thread and a local community sense in action?

From my point of view, the only common thread for the online and local community is that they are a group of people which share the same kind of interest in a particular place. (Cyber or local)  For example a Photo group, no matter it is online or local, will only interest in photo related things. Such as camera, lens, etc.

2. Visit the famous online store front at http://www.amazon.com/

a. Why has it been a successful site? How does the purchase of a book work?

First of all, the site is very user friendly. It is a very clear setup site,even a first time user will know where to go and find the required products. Secondly, it provides a wide range of products (books, tools, electronics, etc.) which almost anyone can find something to buy in this site. Thirdly, this site providing a recent history section, so you can always go back to your favorite area by a simple mouse click and therefore you can never miss any items. Fourthly, the site is full of photos but not words, less boring and more interactive. Fifthly, Amazon provides a platform for the user to sell the product in this site. In conclusion, it is very easy to get information out from this site and make the shopping more easily and faster.

You need to be a member in order to do any transaction in the Amazon site. When you want to purchase a book, log in and go to book department and select the corresponding section (books, kindle books, textbook or magazine). Afterward, search the book by title, author or ISBNs and click go button. The search result will show up, the user can choose which item he wants depending on the condition of the book (new, second hand). Add the required book in the shopping cart and you can continue to shop if you wish or you can hit the "proceed to check out" button to check out the book. Select the shipping address and payment method and then you are done.

b. Are there any secure transactions not involving money?

Yes, the sign-in operation is involving the secure server transactions. It may due to the fact that all the credit card information is store inside the Amazon server under the customer's profile and therefore it is safer to go through the secure server transaction.

3. What happens with new models emerging such as price comparison sites?

It is always welcome to have new models for E-commerce as it will make the customer has more information before they make their shopping decision. But the new models should be a fair model, not only driven by the commerical side (advertisement). Moreover, a price comparison site model should not only concentrate on the price comparison details but also need to provide the creditbility, reliability, shipping price and cycle time of the compared shopping sites.