Chapter 4

1.      Name the six main pieces of the e-commerce site puzzle.

The six main pieces of the e-commerce site puzzle are human resources, site design, organizational capabilities, hardware architecture, software, and telecommunications.

2.      Define the systems development life cycle and discuss the various steps involved in creating an e-commerce site.

The systems development life cycle are system analysis/planning, systems design which is a description of the main components in a system and their relationship to one another, building the system which is outsourcing, testing which contain unit testing, system testing, and acceptance testing  and implementation is the last step in the cycle which is putting it to work.

3.      What are the three main factors to consider when choosing the best platform for your Web site?

The three main factors to consider when choosing the best platform for your Web site are Page deliver, page generation and page content.

4.      Why is Web server bandwidth an important issue for e-commerce sites?

Web server bandwidth is an issue for e-commerce sites because you have to make sure that you have enough room for all of your customers to hit your site at the same time.

5.      Compare and contrast the various scaling methods. Explain why scalability is a key business issue for Web sites.

Horizontal scaling is when you are employing multiple computers to share the workload.  Vertical scaling is increasing the processing power of individual components.  Scalability is a key business issue because it refers to the ability of a site to increase in size as demand warrants.

6.      What are the eight most important factors impacting Web site design, and how do they affect a site’s operation?

Eight most important factors impacting Web site design is functionality (pages that work, load quickly, and point the customer toward your product offerings), informational (links that customers can easily find to discover more about you and your products), ease of use (simple fool-proof navigation), redundant navigation (alternative navigation to the same content), ease of purchase (one or two clicks to purchase), multi-browser functionality (site works with the most popular browsers), simple graphics (avoids distracting, obnoxious graphics and sounds that the user cannot control), and legible text (avoid backgrounds that distort text or make it illegible)

7.      Name and describe three tools used to treat customers individually. Why are they significant to e-commerce?

Three tools used to treat customers individually are personalization which is the ability to treat people based on their personal qualities and prior history with your site, customization which is the ability to change the product to better fit the needs of the customer and speaking directly to the customer on a one-to-one basis.

8.      What are some of the policies e-commerce businesses must develop before launching a site and why?

A few policies e-commerce businesses must develop before launching a site are a privacy policy which is a set of public statements declaring to your customers how you treat their personal information that you gather on the site and accessibility rules which are a set of design objectives that ensure disabled users can effectively access your site.