Chapter 9

1. Why were so many entrepreneurs drawn to start businesses in the online retail sector initially?
In the early years of e-commerce, literally thousands of entrepreneurial Web-based retailers were drawn to the marketplace for retail goods, simply because it was one of the largest market opportunities in the U.S. economy. Many entrepreneurs initially believed it was easy to enter the retail market but its not.
2. What frequently makes the difference between profitable and unprofitable online businesses today?The path to success in any form of retail involves having a central location in order to attract a larger number if shoppers, charging high enough prices to cover the costs of goods as well as marketing, and developing highly efficient inventory and fulfillment systems so that the company can offer goods at lower costs than competitors and still make a profit.
3. Which segment of the offline retail business is most like online retailing? Why?
4. Name the largest segment of U.S. retail sales. Explain why businesses in this segment have achieved and continue to dominate online retailing.The largest segment of U.S. retail sales is service sector. Service employ about 108 million people and account for about $7.7 trillion of the U.S.’s gross domestic product.
5. Name two assumptions e-commerce analysts made early on about consumers and their buying behavior that turned out to be false.Industry consolidation and the movement toward integrated financial services.
6. Why were customer acquisition costs assumed early on to be lower on the Web? What was supposed to reduce those costs?
Because people thought it would be harder than what it actually is to develop a business online.
7. Explain the distinction between disintermediation and hypermediation as it relates to online retailing.
8. Compare and contrast virtual merchants and bricks-and-clicks firms. What other type of online retailer is most like the virtual merchant?
Disintermediation is the displacement of market middlemen who traditionally are intermediaries between producers and consumers by a new direct relationship between manufacturers and content originators with their customers. Hypermediation is when it is much higher than intended.
Virtual merchants are a single-channel Web firm that generates almost all of their revenue from online sales. Bricks-and-clicks are companies that have a network of physical stores as their primary retail channel, but also have introduced online offerings.
A supply-push sales model is when products are made prior to orders received based on estimated demand. A demand-pull sales model is when products are not built until an order is received. 9. What is the difference between a supply-push and a demand-pull sales model? Why do most manufacturer-direct firms have difficulty switching to one of these?
10. What are five strategic issues specifically related to a firm’s capabilities? How are they different from industry-related strategic issues?
11. What are some of the difficulties in providing services in an online environment? What factors differentiate the services sector from the retail sector, for example?
12. Compare and contrast the two major types of online service industries. What two major features differentiate services from other industries?
The two major types of online service industries are financial services and travel services.
Consolidation, diversification, localization, job search engines/aggregators and social networking.
The service sector is the segment of the offline retail business is most like online retailing because the service sector offers extraordinary opportunities insofar as e-commerce sites can deliver information, knowledge, and transaction efficiencies.

chapter 8

Chapter 8

1.    What basic assumptions does the study of ethics make about individuals?
      The study of ethics make about individuals are free moral agents who are in a position to make choices.

2.    What are the three basic principles of ethics? How does due process factor in?
     The three basic principles of ethics are Responsibility, Accountability, liability. Due process is a frature og law-giverned societies and refers to a process in which laws are known and understood and there is an ability to appeal to higher authorities to ensure that the laws have been applied correctly.

3.    Explain Google’s position that YouTube does not violate the intellectual property rights of copyright owners.
     Google's position that Youtube does not violate the intellectual property rights of copyright owners is Youtube does not copying and posting the videos, the others are posting the videos on their site.

4.    Define universalism, slippery slope, the New York Times test, and the social contract rule as they apply to ethics.
    Universalism: If an action is not right for all situations, then it is not right for any specific situation. Slippery slope: If an action connot be taken repeatedly, then it is not right to take at all. The New York Times test: Assume that the results of your decision on a matter will be the subject of the lead article in the New York Times the next day. Would your family and friends be proud of your decision? The social contract tule: Would you like to live in a society where the principle you are supporting would become an organizing principle of the entire society?

5.    Name some of the personal information collected by Web sites about their visitors.
     the personal information collected by Web wites about their visitors are name,address, phone number, e-mail address, social security number, etc..

6.    How does information collected through online forms differ from site transaction logs? Which potentially provides a more complete consumer profile?
     Site transaction logs can be used to collect and analyze detailed information on page content viewed by users.

7.    Name three ways online advertising networks have improved on, or added to, traditional offline marketing techniques.
     The three ways online advertising networks have improved on, or added to, traditional offline marketing techniques are First, they have the ability to precisely track not just consumer pruchases, but all browsing behavior on the Web at thousands of the mose popular member sites, including browsing book lists, filling out preference forms, and viewing content pages. Second, they can dynamically adjust what the shopper sees on screen- including prices. Third, they can build and continually refresh high-resolution data images or behavioral profiles of consumers.

8.    Explain how Web profiling is supposed to benefit both consumers and businesses.
     Web profiling is the creation of digital images that characterize online individual and group behavior.

9.    How could the Internet potentially change protection given to intellectual property?
      The Internet could potentially change protection given to intellectual property by once intellectual works become digital, it becomes difficult to control access, use, distribution, and copying.

10.  What capabilities make it more difficult to enforce intellectual property law?
11.  What are some of the tactics illegal businesses, such as betting parlors and casinos, successfully use to operate outside the law on the Internet?

   Some of the tactics illegal businesses successfully use to operate outside the law on the internet are using checks and money orders as payments and the postal system as logistics partner. For Internet gambling they use credit cards and online payment systems.

chapter 7

Chapter 7

1.    Explain the difference between marketing and marketing communications.
      Marketing communication have a dual purpose: branding and sales. One purpose of marketing communication is to develop and strengthen a firms brands by information consumers about the differentiating fratures of the firms products and services.
2.    What are some reasons why online advertising constitutes only about 9 percent of the total advertising market?
      Some reasons why online advertising constitutes only about 9 percent of the total advertising market are consumer, financial services, computers, telecommunications and media account for 80% of all online advertising.

3.    What kinds of products are most suited to being advertised online?
       Display ads, video ads, rich media, lead generation.

4.    What is the difference between an interstitial ad and a superstitial ad?
       Interstitial ad is a way of placing a full-page message between the current and destination pages of a user. Superstitial ad is a rich media ad that can be any screen display size up to full screen 900x500, and with a file size of up to 600 kb.

5.    What are some of the reasons for the decline in click-through rates on banner ads today? How can banner ads be made more effective?
      Banner ads display different images in relatively quick succession, creating an animated effect.

6.    Why are some affiliate relationships called “tenancy” deals? How do they differ from pure affiliate relationships?
     Among large firms, affiliate relationships are sometimes called "tenancy deals" because they allow a firm to become a long-term "tenant" on another site.

7.    There is some controversy surrounding paid placements on search engines. What are some of the issues surrounding paid placement search engines? Why might consumers object to this practice?
     The Achilles' heel of search engine marketing  is "click fraud". Just as spam has greatly reduced the untility of e-mail  marketing, so has click fraud raised the costs and reduced the arttractiveness of serch engine marketing to merchants.

8.    What are some of the advantages of direct e-mail marketing?
      Some of the advantages of direct e-mail marketing are sending e-mail to an opt-in audience, advertisers were targeting interested consumers.

9.    What is the difference between hits and page views? Why are these not the best measurements of Web traffic? Which is the preferred metric for traffic counts?
      Hits are number of http requests received by a firm's server and page views are the number of pages requested by visitors.

10.  Define CTR, CPM, CPC, and CPA.
      CTR is the percentage of people exposed tp an online advertisement who actually click on the banner. CPM is the advertiser pays for impressions in 1000 unit lots. CPC is the advertiser pays prenegotiated fee for each click an ad receives. CPA is the advertiser pays only for those users who perform a specific action.  

11.  What are the key attributes of a good domain name?
      A good domain name should be short, memorable, not easily confused with others, and difficult to misspell.

12.  What are some of the steps a firm can take to optimize its search engine rankings?
    

13.  List and describe some Web site design features that impact online purchasing?
       one click purchase capability, product list navigation and choice features that save consumers time.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

1.    Other than search engines, what are some of the most popular uses of the Internet?
       37% of comsumers use search engine, 33% go directly to the company Web site, comparison shopping sites 17% and product rating sites 15%.

2.    Would you say that the Internet fosters or impedes social activity? Explain your position.
      We can use the internet to talk to the person from the other side of the world, video chatting, shopping and a lot other thing can be finished online so that i think the internet helps social activity.

3.    Why would the amount of experience someone has using the Internet likely increase future Internet usage?
       The amount of experience someone has using the internet likely increase future internet usage because the internet is always changing and if someone who does not use internet often will have hard time to keep up with the everyday changing on the internet.

4.    Research has shown that many consumers use the Internet to investigate purchases before actually buying, which is often done in a physical storefront. What implication does this have for online merchants? What can they do to entice more online buying, rather than pure research?Name four improvements Web merchants could make to encourage more browsers to become buyers.
     The many consumer use the internet to investigate purchases before actually buying because they go to the different sites and different online stores to compare the product's price, quality, shipping cost and etc... Four improvements Web merchants could make to encourage more browsers to become buyers are online news, health informations, hobby related informations and financial informations.  

5.    Name the five stages in the buyer decision process, and briefly describe the online and offline marketing activities used to influence each.
       The five stages in the buyer decision process are Awareness need recigniton, search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and post-purchase behavior loyalty. Offline awareness need recognition are Mass media, TV, radio, print media. Online awareness need recognition are targeted banner, ads, interstitials, targeted event promotions. Offline Search are Catalogs, print ads, mass media, salespeople, product raters, store visits. Online search are Search engines, online catalogs, site visits, targeted e-mail. Offline Evaluation of alternatives are Reference groups, opinions leaders, mass media, product raters, store visits. Online evaluation of alternatives are Search engines, online catalogs, site visits, product reviews ans user evaluatioins. Offline Purchases are promotions, direct mail, mass media, print media. Online purchase are online promotions, lotteries, discounts and targeted email. Offline post-purchase behavior loyalty are warranties, service calls, parts and repair, consumer groups. Online post-purchase behavior loyalty are Communities of consumption, newsletters, customer e-mail, online updates.

6.    What are the components of the core product, actual product, and augmented product in a feature set?
     The components of the core product are the core benefit the coustomer receives from the product. Actual product are the set of characteristics designed to deliver the product's core benefits. Augmented product are a product with additional benefits to customers beyond the core benefits embodied in the actual product.

7.    Name some of the drawbacks to the four data mining techniques used in Internet marketing.
       There are many drawbacks to all these techniques, not least of which is that there may be millions of rules, many of them nonsensical, and many others of short-term duration. the rules need extensive validation and culling. Also, there can be millions of affinity groups and other patterns in the data that are temporal and meaningless. The difficulty is isolating the valid, powerful patterns in the data and then acting on the ovserved pattern fast enough to make a sale you would otherwise not have made.

8.    Which of the four market entry strategies is most lucrative?
       The most common strategy existing firms is ti extend their businesses and brands by using a mixed bricks-and-clicks strategy in which online marketing is closely integrated with offline physical stores.

9.    Compare and contrast the four marketing strategies used in mass marketing, direct marketing, micromarketing, and one-to-one marketing.
      One-to-one marketing is the ultimate form of market segmentation, targeting, and positioning-where the segments are individuals. Mass marketing based on national media messages aimed at a single national audience and with a single national price, is appropiate for products that are relatively simple and attractive to all customers in a single form. Direct marketing is based on direct mail or phone messages and ained at segments of the market likely to purchase and which has little variation in price. Micromarketing is aimed at geographical units or specialized market segments is the firm form of true database marketing.

10.  What are some of the reasons that freebies, such as free Internet service and giveaways, don’t work to generate sales on a Web site?
     The reasons that freebies and giveaways are knocking out competitors, taking consumer's attentions, advertising but most of the freebies are basic stuff and if you willing to upgrade to better quality on you would have to pay. For example, the free movie sites offering the HD version for $10 per month.

11.    Why do companies that bundle products and services have an advantage over those that don’t or can’t offer this option?
    Bundling offers consumers two or more goods for one price. The key idea behind the concept of bundling is that although consumers typically have very diverse ideas about the value of a single product, they tend to agree much more on the value of the bundle if products offered at a fixed price.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

1.    Why is it less risky to steal online? Explain some of the ways criminals deceive consumers and merchants.
       The internet makes it possible to rob people remotely and alomst anonymously. Downloading free music from online is stealing but it is easier than stealing original CD from store so that stealing online is a lot less risky.

2.    Give an example of security breaches as they relate to each of the six dimensions of
e-commerce security. For instance, what would be a privacy incident?
       Integrity- Redirecting a bank wire transfer, Nonrepudiation- Ordering items online and deny, Identifying the real person whom they dealing with on the Internet, Confidentiality- Only the authorized person can view the messages and data, Privacy- protecting the informations from the illegitimate or unauthorized users, Availability- ensure that an e-commerce site continues to function as intended.

3.    How would you protect your firm against a Denial of Service attack?
       I would have some sort of security system or censor that can watch hacker like that and block them before they start attacking the web site.

4.    How does spoofing threaten a Web site’s operations?
       Spoofing threaten the intergrity of a site such as redirect customers to a fake website to steal the payment from true site, changing orders and send them to true web site so that the company will ship the wrong order to customers.

5.    What are some of the steps a company can take to curtail cybercriminal activity from within a business?
       An Encryption can protect all the messeges and text from cybercriminal, only sender and receiver can read the messages.     

6.    Identify and discuss the five steps in developing an e-commerce security plan.
        A security plan begins with risk assessment- an assessment of the risks and points of vulnerability, security policy- a set of statements prioritizing the information risks, identifying acceptable risk targets, and identifying the mechanisms for achieving these targets, implementation plan- the steps you will take to achieve the security plan goals, security organization- educates and trains users; keeps management aware of security threats and breakdowns, Access controls determine which outsiders and insiders can gain legitimate access to the networks, Security audit involves the routine review of access logs.

7.    What are tiger teams, who uses them, and what are some of the tactics they use in their work?
      Tiger teams are the hacker teams that corporate security departments used to test their own security measures. White hats are helping organizations locate and fix security flaws. Black hats are hackers who engage in the same kinds of activities but without pay or any buy-in from the targeted organization, and with the intention of causing harm. Gray hats are hackers who believe they are pursuing some grater good by breaking in and revealing system flaws.

8.    How do the interests of the four major payment systems stakeholders impact each other?
     

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

1.    Name the six main pieces of the e-commerce site puzzle.
        Human Resource, Site's design, Organizational capability, telecommunication, Hardware, Software.

2.    Define the systems development life cycle and discuss the various steps involved in creating an e-commerce site.
      System development life cycle is a methodology for understanding the business objectives of any system and designing an appropriate solution. A life cycle methodology does not guarantee success, but it helps in creating documents that communicate to senior management that objectives of the site, important milestones and the uses of resources so that adopting the life cycle is way better than having no plan at all.

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

4.    Why is Web server bandwidth an important issue for e-commerce sites?
        To make sure there is enough room for all the customer to hit at the same time.

5.    Compare and contrast the various scaling methods. Explain why scalability is a key business issue for Web sites.
      Scalability refers to the ability of a site to increase in size as demand warrants. Vertical scaling increase the processing power of individual components and Horizontal scaling use to employing multuple computers to share the workload and increase the footprint of the installation.

6.    What are the eight most important factors impacting Web site design, and how do they affect a site’s operation?
       Functionality, Informational, Ease of use, Redundant navigation, Ease of purchase, Multi-browser functionality, Simple graphics, Legible text.

7.    Name and describe three tools used to treat customers individually. Why are they significant to e-commerce?
       Widget are pre-built chunk of code that executes automatically in your HTML and allow wide variety of tasks. CGI is the interaction between browser and server. ASP allow for dynamic pages. 

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

Okkar's chapter 3 homework

Chapter 3






1. Why isn’t the Internet overloaded? Will it ever be at capacity?
Internet is the two or more computers networking together and the more computer join the more capacity added.
2. Compare and contrast intranets, extranets, and the Internet as a whole.Intranets is a TCP/IP network located within a single origanizational for purposes of communications and information processing. Extranets are formed when firms permit outsiders to access their internal TCP/IP network.
3. What are some of the challenges of policing the Internet? Who has the final say when it comes to content?Since no one Governs the internet and controling any activities on the internet. The service provider has final say when it comes to content.
4. Why was the development of the browser so significant for the growth of the Web?The browser helps you find any website on the WWW that you want to visit.
5. Name and describe five services currently available through the Web.
Blogs, Internet TV, Internet Radios, podcast, wikis.
6. What are at least three new services that will be available through the next generation of the Internet?  M-commerce (Mobile Commerce)