E-COMMERCE TASK - Student Blogblog.ub.ac.id/aruwmmy/files/2012/04/E-COMMERCE.pdf · Arum Prasasti |...

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E-COMMERCE TASK ARUM PRASASTI 0910223028 Faculty of Economics and Business Management Department 2012

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Page 1: E-COMMERCE TASK - Student Blogblog.ub.ac.id/aruwmmy/files/2012/04/E-COMMERCE.pdf · Arum Prasasti | 0910223028 Review Perbandingan 5 E-commerce Dalam Negeri dan Perbandingan 5 E-commerce

E-COMMERCE TASK

ARUM PRASASTI

0910223028

Faculty of Economics and Business

Management Department

2012

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Review

Perbandingan 5 E-commerce Dalam Negeri dan Perbandingan 5 E-commerce Luar

Negeri

E-commerce di Indonesia saat ini semakin maju dan berkembang. Saya membandingkan 5

situs web E-commerce dalam negeri di bawah ini :

1. www.tokobagus.com

2. www.hijup.com

3. www.shopatvelvet.com

4. www.berniaga.com

5. www.rokuten.co.id

Kelima situs E-commerce diatas bergerak di bidang penjualan yang bisa dikatakan hampir

sama. Di tokobagus.com anda akan menemukan segala hal dijual mulai dari sepatu sampai

dengan peralatan rumah tangga. Dengan akses berbahasa Indonesia yang sangat mudah

dipahami dan terstuktur. Mereka juga memiliki fitur pasang iklan gratis di websitenya.

Sedangkan di hijup.com , mereka khusu menjual muslim wear , atau kata modernya hijaber

wear untuk wanita berjilbab yang ingin tampil modis, cantik , modern tapi tetap muslimah. Di

website ini tidak tersedia fitur pasang iklan , namun kemudahan berbelanja online mereka

utamakan. Pada shopatvelvet.com , mereka menjual women apparel mulai dari blus hingga

bawahan untuk wanita muda menengah ke atas dengan harga yang juga di segmentasikan

untuk kalangan menengah ke atas. Barang yang dijual disini semuanya limited stock sehingga

siapa cepat dia dapat. Kelebihannya jika kita tertarik pada suatu barang di situs ini namun

barangnya out of stock, kita dapat meminta email jika ada re-stock atas barang yang kita

sukai. Di berniaga.com dan rokuten.co.id , barang yang dijual hampir sama. Mereka menjual

segala macam barang dan memudahkan pembelinya untuk mengakses barang dijual di lokasi

terdekat dari kota masing-masing customer.

Sedangkan untuk situs e-commerce luar negeri :

1. www.magnoliabakery.com

2. www.amazon.com

3. www.shopbop.com

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4. www.butyk.co.uk

5. www.asos.com

Kelimanya memeiliki fitur yang hampir sama. Memiliki fitur member sign up , fitur cart atau

keranjang belanja , dan dengan variasi barang yang bermacam-macam. Magnoliabakery.com

menjual berbagai macam kue yang dibuat berdasarkan pesanan dan sesuia selera, melayani

delivery di wilayah New York city. Amazon.com kini mulai menjual berbagia macam barang

, namun keunggulannya adalah pada buku-buku textbook yang dijual dengan harga lebih

murah.Lalu, ada shopbop.com yg menjual berbagi macam apparel wanita mulai sepatu

hingga tas dengan merk dari desainer-desainer terkenal. Sedangkan di butyk.co.uk, tampilan

dari situs nya kurang menarik dan cenderung kurang informatif jika dibandingkan dengan

shopbp.com . yang paling saya sukai adalah asos.com , dia menjual berbagi macam pakaian

dari kepala hingga kaki dengan harga yang bervariasi pula untuk wanita maupun laki-laki.

Fasilitas delivery yang terjangkau sehingga bisa diambil di toko cabang asos yang tersebar di

seluruh penjuru Inggris.

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ARTIKEL REVIEW

1. INTRODUCTION OF E-COMMERCE

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or e-comm, refers to the buying

and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and

othercomputer networks. Electronic commerce draws on such technologies as electronic

funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction

processing,electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated

data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at

least at one point in the transaction's life-cycle, although it may encompass a wider range of

technologies such as e-mail, mobile devices and telephones as well.

Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also

consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of business

transactions.

E-commerce can be divided into:

E-tailing or "virtual storefronts" on Web sites with online catalogs, sometimes

gathered into a "virtual mall"

The gathering and use of demographic data through Web contacts

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the business-to-business exchange of data

E-mail and fax and their use as media for reaching prospects and established

customers (for example, with newsletters)

Business-to-business buying and selling

The security of business transactions

Economists have theorized that e-commerce ought to lead to intensified price competition, as

it increases consumers' ability to gather information about products and prices. Research by

four economists at the University of Chicago has found that the growth of online shopping

has also affected industry structure in two areas that have seen significant growth in e-

commerce, bookshops and travel agencies. Generally, larger firms have grown at the expense

of smaller ones, as they are able to use economies of scale and offer lower prices. The lone

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exception to this pattern has been the very smallest category of bookseller, shops with

between one and four employees, which appear to have withstood the trend

2. MOBILE COMMERCE RESEARCH FOR ONLINE RETAILERS

Keeping track of mobile trends, research and statistics gives small business ecommerce site

owners a solid foundation to plan a mobile commerce strategy. The following mobile

commerce research and statistics are from trusted industry sources and experts in the field of

mobile devices and electronic commerce.

Mobile Commerce Shopping Research & Statistics (2010 - 2011)

Mobile shopping research and statistics offers an in-depth look at mobile devices; including

smartphones, iPads and tablets. With these facts and figures you can learn how consumers are

using these mobile devices for online shopping-related activities.

The most common mobile shopping activity is researching products and comparing

prices, which 15 percent of mobile phone owners now do every month. (Source:

Experian Simmons; 2011 Mobile Consumer Report)

48 percent of mobile owners surveyed had made a purchase via their mobile phone.

Although mobile shopping was most popular with 18-34 year olds, more than one third

of respondents aged 55+ also made a purchase via mobile. (Source: Lightspeed

Research; Mobile Shopping Revolution)

Males 30-49 years-old tend to be the most active content consumers and mobile

purchasers; men outspend women, with 31 percent having spent $499 or more through

their mobile device in the last 12 months, versus 23 percent of women who did so.

(Source: Adobe Systems, Omniture; The Adobe Mobile Experience Survey: What Users

Want)

30 percent of tablet owners have used their device to shop online, while currently

only 25 percent of smartphone owners have used their phone to do the same. (Source:

eDigitalResearch; eCustomerServiceIndex)

In 2015, shoppers around the world are expected to spend about $119 billion on

goods and services purchased via mobile phones. That number represents about 8

percent of the total ecommerce market. (Source: ABI Research; Mobile Commerce

Study)

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In the United States, purchases attributed to mobile online shopping -- excluding

travel -- grew from $396.3 million in 2008 to an impressive $1.4 billion in 2009. In

2010, mobile online shopping excluding travel in the U.S. had more than doubled again,

to total more than $3.4 billion by year’s end. (Source: ABI Research; Mobile Commerce

Study)

Apps and music are the most common purchases, followed by clothes and

electronic books. (Source: Lightspeed Research UK; m-commerce prepared for Figaro

Digital)

Consumer usage of mobile coupons will see users exceed 300 million globally by

2014. (Source: Juniper Research; Mobile Coupons & NFC Smart Posters)

The study of more than 1,400 consumers shows more than half of consumers use

their smartphones to enhance their shopping experience, especially people under age 35.

(Source: Chadwick Martin Bailey; How SmartphonesAre Changing the Retail Shopping

Experience)

Retailers report that 21 percent of all mobile traffic comes from tablets; amazing

considering the iPad was launched barely a year ago. (Source: Forrester Research; The

State Of Retailing Online 2011: Marketing, Social, And Mobile)

Mobile Commerce Payments Research & Statistics (2010 - 2011)

Mobile payments (m-payments) are when consumers make a purchase using a mobile phone

instead of using cash, credit card or debit. Types of mobile payments include direct billing,

SMS transactions and mobile Web payments. These mobile commerce research and statistics

will help you understand what’s happening in the mobile payment industry.

Worldwide mobile payment volume is forecast to total $86.1 billion, up 75.9

percent from a 2010 volume of $48.9 billion. (Source: Gartner Inc.; Market Trends:

Mobile Payments Worldwide, 2011)

PayPal raised its 2011 Mobile Total Payments Volume (TPV) projections to $3

billion. (Source: PayPal Blog;PayPal Doubles Mobile Payments Predictions to $3 billion

in 2011 by Laura Chambers)

Overall, mobile payment services are expected to reach $245b in value worldwide

by 2014. At the same time, mobile money users are expected to total $340m, equivalent

to 5 percent of global mobile subscribers. (Source: Ernst & Young; Opportunities for

telcos in mobile money: 2011)

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E-payments and m-payments collectively accounted for an estimated 22.5 billion

transactions in 2010. E-payments (online payments for e-commerce activities) are

expected to grow globally to 30.3 billion transactions from 17.9 (in 2010-13), while m-

payments are expected to grow globally to 15.3 billion transactions from 4.6 billion in

the same period. (Source: Capgemini; World Payments Report 2011)

It is anticipated that this will begin to change in 2011 as the number of mobile

payment users starts a significant run up from 116 million to over 375 million in 2015.

(Source: In-Stat; Mobile Payments: Is the Market Ready?)

The potential for mobile payments is huge. Estimates for the volume of those

transactions vary widely but share a consensus that mobile payments will see sizable

growth this year and accelerate rapidly in 201

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3. Ecommerce Solutions: 5 Ways to Sell Digital Goods Online

Digital goods is the term used to describe "non-tangible products" such as computer games

and other software, custom-designed sewing or craft patterns, e-books, digital images, music,

ringtones, website templates -- basically any product that can be provided to consumers in an

electronic, or digital, format.

How Do Digital Goods Ecommerce Solutions Work?

For artists on a budget, the good news is that you don't need a fat wallet to set up an

ecommerce store for selling digital goods. Many digital goods ecommerce solutions are free

to use until you make a sale, at which time you'll pay a commission fee for the delivery

service. Other services charge a modest monthly fee, with no additional transaction fees.

If you already have your own website or blog, there are a number of digital goods shopping

carts that you can use to sell from your own site. If you don't have a website of your own --

and you should -- you can still take advantage of online shops and affiliate referral programs

offered by digital goods ecommerce providers to boost traffic and sales of your own work.

The best news is that you can still spend most of your time in the studio recording or

blogging to your fans, as digital goods ecommerce solutions tend to handle all or most of the

transactions for you, taking a percentage of the transaction fee. These delivery and payment

systems are simple to use. It is as easy as uploading the files, providing contact and payment

details and a description of each item you have for sale.

5 Ecommerce Solutions for Selling Digital Goods

Here are five easy-to-use and cost-effective digital goods ecommerce solutions that you can

further investigate to sell your digital products online. When researching available

ecommerce solutions for selling digital goods, be sure to compare features of each service,

including the number of products you can list, the transaction and per sale fee, and also if

payments are made after each transaction or if the solution provider pays out on a minimum

account balance.

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1. DigitalGoodsDelivery: For All Types of Digital and Tangible Products

Digital goods publishers can use DigitalGoodsDelivery.com's delivery system for virtually

any product that can be delivered to the consumer over the Internet, including standard movie

and audio files, plus zip files, Word documents, PDF files and more.

DigitalGoodsDelivery.com is intended for people who sell from their own website, and it is a

PayPal payments-based system.

After you upload the digital files, which remain hosted on and served by

DigitalGoodsDelivery.com, you can use the provided HTML code on your own site to create

PayPal button links for downloads. When someone buys an item on your website, the

customer pays you directly through PayPal. You can also use this interface to sell tangible

goods on your website. This lets you sell related products, for instance a t-shirt or mouse pad,

that features your images and so on, on your site alongside the digital products you have for

sale.

Pricing for DigitalGoodsDelivery.com starts at $9.95 per month. This provides all features

including unlimited sales volume, automatic file delivery, customizable buyer interface, and

custom emails with 50 MB of file storage. Additional plans for more storage are available

(see pricing plans).

2. E-Junkie: A Digital & Tangible Goods Cart

E-junkie is a shopping cart and digital delivery system for publishers who have their own

website and are looking for a way to include "buy now" buttons to sell downloads. Using E-

junkie, you can store your files on their servers, and buyers of your work receive an email

(customized by you) to download the product after a successful purchase. Cart buttons are

available for a number of payment systems including PayPal, Google Checkout,

Authorize.Net, TrialPay, ClickBank and 2CheckOut.

E-junkie can also be used to sell tangible products on your site. For tangible products, E-

junkie lets you include details such as shipping and packaging, sales tax, color and size

options, and more. E-Junkie pricing starts at $5 per month. This account gives you the

capability to list up to 10 products within a 50 MB space limit.

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3. PayLoadz: Sell Anything that Can be Downloaded

PayLoadz is a fully-featured digital goods platform that lets you sell just about any type of

digital product. It takes care of hosting and delivering the files to buyers, and other features

such as product key registrations for selling software. Sellers can define the file format,

delivery format and price for uploaded items. PayLoadz also lets you conduct transactions on

your own site. The code for digital goods shopping cart buttons code that you need for your

own site is automatically generated for you. You can also upload digital items and sell from a

PayLoadz store, or use their digital content delivery system for purchases on different online

auction sites.

The free PayLoadz account lets you use up to 1GB of file storage, and you don't pay fees to

PayLoadz unless your total sales for a 30-day period exceeds $50. Once you sell $50 worth of

digital goods, you will need to upgrade to a paying account, which starts at $14.95 per month

for unlimited transactions; a per-transaction fee also applies . PayLoadz also offers an

affiliate program via an ad syndication code that features specific products for sale at

PayLoadz.

4. Tradebit: Best for Music, Photos, eBooks, Software

Tradebit is an online marketplace for self-publishers to upload and sell their music, audio

files, photos, software and ebooks. With a Tradebit eShop you can upload files (up to 2GB in

size) and edit specific details including thumbnail views, price, description, tags, and so on.

After you finish with the details, you can link the digital product to PayPal, Google checkout,

or Clickbank and put the purchase code on your own Web space, with a 20-percent

commission going to TradeBit for sellers with a monthly sales volume of $1,500 per month.

If sales exceed that amount you'll need to upgrade to the Pro plan which is offered at a 15-

percent commission going to TradeBit. Tradebit also offers an affiliate program and

allows anyone selling digital goods on Tradebit to promote them with their ID to get

additional sale commissions.

5. Cleverbridge: Ecommerce Solutions for Digital Product Companies

The Cleverbridge digital goods ecommerce solution provides a full, customized checkout for

selling digital goods. The service offers faud protection, reporting and statistics, and support

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for multiple currencies and languages. Cleverbridge also offers payment s for all major credit

cards, PayPal, direct debit, WebMoney check / money order, wire transfers and more. For

software producers, Cleverbridge will handle generating receipts and delivers the license

keys, order confirmations and the product.

Cleverbridge does not make its pricing plan available on its website, however it derives its

revenues from a percentage of each transaction processed through its platform. Fees are based

on a client's average cart value, monthly revenue and the highest and lowest product pricing.

4. How-To Guide: E-Commerce Marketing on Facebook

Facebook How-To Guide: Create Business Pages and Ad Campaigns

Social networking site, Facebook, is used by more than 150 million people to share personal

information with friends online. The site celebrated its fifth-year anniversary yesterday and is

continuing to attract members with demographics that could serve e-tailers well in terms of

extending market reach and increasing branding.

The Web research firm Hitwise reports that, overall, Facebook was the fifth-ranked Web site

in terms of total market share of visits in January 2009. Furthermore, the time spent on

Facebook has continued to increase and reached an average visit time of just over 21 minutes

in January 2009.

More good news: When compared to 2008, there has been a pronounced shift in the age of

the Facebook audience. According to Hitwise, visitors aged 18 to 24 represented a 42 percent

share of visits for the four weeks ending Jan. 26, 2008, but have now dropped to 24 percent

for the four weeks ending Jan. 24, 2009. Now visitors aged 25 to 34 make up the largest share

of visits with 27 percent, with 18 to 24 and 35 to 44 closely following with respective shares

of 24 percent and 23 percent.

Facebook is aware that e-commerce site owners may want to capitalize on Facebook traffic,

so they allow members to create free Facebook Business pages or pay-per-click advertising

campaigns.

Leveraging Facebook business options can provide a new channel for your customers to

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interact, and at the same time help you acquire new customers as your Facebook fans spread

the word about your business to their friends.

In this Facebook how-to guide, we will show you how to use two of the business solutions

offered by Facebook. First, we'll walk through the steps you need to take to create your own

Facebook Business Page (also called a fan page) and then discuss the tasks involved in

creating a Facebook Ad campaign, which can be used to send visitors to your Web site or

new Facebook Business Page.

Getting Started: Get your Business on Facebook

To get started you will need to visit the Facebook Advertising page. Here you will find tabs

to access the following business options:

Advertising: Businesses use this tab to create adverts that will run on Facebook

pages

Pages: Businesses use Pages to create a presence on Facebook that will let others

join your page as a fan

Connect: Facebook connect lets users seamlessly connect their Facebook account

and information to your site.

Facebook Share: Design a button for your site to make joining your Facebook Page

easy for your customers

How to Publish a Facebook Business Page

The best way to start is with creating a Page for your business. Those who have created a

personal Facebook profile will find the process pretty simple, but the step-by-step form pages

will also make creating a Business Page painless for those new to Facebook.

You will need to have basic business information ready before creating the Page — decide on

a page name and find any images you want to upload. Remember that your company logo is

best for the profile picture. When you create the page you will need to include a description

of your Web site, product, brand, or company.

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With this information handy, simply choose one of three categories for your Business: Local

Business (and the industry), Brand or Product, or choose if this will be a Page for a public

band, artist or other public figure. Once you select a category, you are required to enter the

business name. When you submit this information, you will then see a Business Page that

shares some resemblance to personal profile pages on Facebook.

In step two, you will want to upload your business logo, provide information about your

business, contact information, hour of operation (if you have a retail or local office), and a

general description that describes your business. As you add more details about your business

you can view the changes live on the page you are creating. This is all you need to publish a

basic Business Page on Facebook.

Customize Applications and Business Details

On your Facebook business page you will see applications that you can include on the page

you have just created. When viewing your Business Page, there is an Edit Page link on the

top right. Here you can customize all options from a single admin screen.

In the previous step we took care of the profile picture, basic and detailed information boxes.

Now, you will need to customize the applications that you want to use. Each Application has

a small edit option by the title, letting you remove any of the available applications or

customize the application to your liking.

Here are the basic Facebook Applications for Business pages:

Discussion Boards: Enable your fans to get their ideas out into the open. Discussion

boards let you know exactly what your fans and customers think and want.

Events: Organize gatherings or let people know about your upcoming business

events.

Information: Manage settings for the Information application.

Notes: Share your business news, or engage your fans through written entries.

Photos: Upload photos to your page and allow your fans to share photos on your

page also.

Reviews: Fans and customers can leave honest opinions about your business.

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Video: A high-quality video platform for pages on Facebook.

Wall: The Wall is an open forum for your fans or friends to leave comments,

thoughts, and ideas about you on your Page or Profile.

The last option you will need to use is the Settings area. This is where you edit country

restrictions, place age restrictions and change the published status of your business page.

When you are happy with the way your Business page looks, you click the Publish this page

link.

Tracking and Gathering Business Page Fans

Within 48 hours of publishing your page, you will be able to access 'Insights,' which is

Facebook collected data about how your business page is being used. Here you can track

page views, number of fans, removed fans, wall posts, discussion topics, reviews, photo

views and more.

After you have successfully created a Business Page, you can link to it from your own Web

site, e-mail campaigns, or encourage your own personal Facebook friends to become a fan of

your page. Remember, when a personal friend becomes a new fan, that message is displayed

as a notification to all of your friend's friends. Similar to word-of-mouth marketing, this is a

great way to bring Facebook users to your new Business page.

5. Social Commerce Strategies for Small Online Businesses

Shopping, in many ways, has always been a social activity. Before the rise of the Internet and

online shopping, women would often shop for clothes or go to the mall with friends — and,

in the more distant past, were often on a first- or last-name basis with their service providers

(their dry cleaner, the grocer, their doctor, etc.)

Similarly, men have long been known to consult or compare opinions with other men when it

came to, say, cars and/or farm or yard equipment and/or electronics, and likewise had "their

guy" at the stores they frequented.

That social aspect of the shopping or commerce experience is in large part what instilled and

maintained customer and brand loyalty. Then along came the Internet, which, to a large

degree, changed shopping from a personal to an impersonal experience. Out went the social

aspect of shopping, the leisurely browsing and discussions around what to get, and in came

how quickly can we get shoppers to the product(s) they are looking for and to checkout.

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Yet according to new research from Guidance, an e-commerce solution provider based in

California, many shoppers miss that social interaction. And, especially now, when market

share is more important than ever, including some social activity or interactivity on your site

— things like customer-generated reviews and product rankings, and chat or message boards

— can help improve your bottom line.

Over the past few years, larger e-tailers have been adding social features to their e-commerce

sites, à la the Amazon model. However, smaller e-tailers have been more hesitant to do so,

typically because of the perceived cost and uncertainty regarding the return on their

investment. But according to research conducted by Guidance (and others) "every business

can benefit from having at least some social commerce, or social activities, on their Web

site," said Guidance CEO Jason Meugniot. And they are often more inexpensive and easier to

implement than you think.

Customer Testimonials

The simplest, and least expensive, form of social commerce is customer testimonials —

quotes from customers who have used and are happy with your product or service.

"Customer testimonials are amazingly helpful to retailers and service providers," said

Meugniot. And the more in-depth or detailed the testimonial, i.e., the more information about

a particular product or service the customer gives (as opposed to "I love you guys!" or "Great

hat!"), the better.

To maximize their effectiveness, strategically place customer testimonials near the product(s)

or service(s) the customer is raving about. Also, update your testimonials regularly (adding or

replacing comments every couple of months, if possible, or more often). And don't be shy

about soliciting customer feedback. Either directly on your home page or in your e-mail

marketing, ask customers to send you their comments — and offer some kind of incentive,

say 10 percent off their next purchase or free shipping, if you use their comment on your e-

commerce site.

Customer-Generated Product Reviews and Ratings

Of all the social commerce features or tools available to e-tailers, customer-generated product

reviews and ratings may be the most effective, in terms of impact on the bottom line. Not

only do user-generated product reviews add credibility to a site, but, according to research

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conducted by Bazaarvoice, conversion rates are higher on sites that feature customer-

generated product reviews (even if there are a few mediocre or bad ones) than on those sites

that do not feature reviews.

6. The Good News About Bad Reviews

Many small e-tailers worry bad reviews posted online by unhappy customers will seriously

hurt their business. The truth is, negative reviews don't happen that often. And even when

they do, they can actually be a good thing for e-tailers — and their customers alike.

Only 25 percent of online retailers have incorporated customer reviews on their e-commerce

sites, according to a January 2007 Forrester Research report. The low adoption is because

many e-tailers fear losing control over their marketing messages, said Sucharita Mulpuru,

senior analyst with Forrester Research. E-tailers are concerned negative reviews of one

product will hurt sales of other products they offer, damage their brand and reputation, or

both.

In reality, bad reviews are infrequent, said Andy Chen, founder and chief executive officer

of PowerReviews Inc., which provides customer review services to its e-tailer clients. The

average star rating among PowerReviews clients is 4.2 stars out of five, Chen said, with 5

being the best. Eighty-eight percent of all customer reviews are 4 or 5 stars.

Similarly, at Bazaarvoice, which also provides a customer review system for e-tailers, the

average customer review is 4.3 stars out of 5, said Brett Hurt, founder and CEO.

And in the Forrester Research survey, in which 4,368 customer reviews were evaluated, only

16 percent were negative, said Mulpuru. Even then, the negative reviews were generally

considered helpful to consumers.

At the same time, consumers increasingly rely on reviews posted by other buyers. According

to an August 2006Jupiter Research study, 77 percent of online shoppers use reviews when

making purchasing decisions. As a result, consumers have grown to expect reviews on e-tail

sites.

The bottom line: E-tailers who don't encourage customer reviews because they fear negative

comments are missing out on a number of potential benefits. They include:

Useful feedback. "Reviews can provide valuable feedback that e-tailers should

listen to," said Mulpuru. Reviews are an easy, affordable way to find out what your

customers really think, which can enable you to spot problems with products, shipping,

or customer service before they get out of hand.

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Increase sales. Online shoppers are notorious for returning products, noted Hurt.

The reason: Shopping online doesn't provide the same tactile experience consumers get

in brick-and-mortar stores. Sophisticated tools such as 3D product views help enhance

online shopping, but customer reviews help close the gap too. "There is nothing more

powerful than being able to learn about a product through someone else's experience

with it," said Hurt. In turn, this helps e-tailers increase sales.

Decrease returns. Reviews can help set customer expectations properly, which

results in fewer returns. For example, a client of PowerReviews sells a compact, portable

air conditioner on its site, said Chen. Initially, the air conditioner earned positive

reviews. But soon, negative reviews began appearing, in which customers complained

the air conditioner couldn't cool a room below 63 degrees. Another reviewer responded

that the air conditioners ship from the factory in safety mode, which prevents cooling

below 63 degrees — a fact that wasn't clearly mentioned in the product's manual.

The reviewer told others how to turn off the safety mode. "After that, the air conditioner

received only positive reviews," Chen said. "If that negative review and the response to

it hadn't appeared, the e-tailer would have faced a lot of returns from unhappy customers

and wouldn't have sold as many of those air conditioners."

Increase credibility and customer loyalty. Having negative reviews sprinkled

among positive ones gives your company credibility among consumers. "If all your

reviews are positive, consumers will think they're fake or biased," said Chen.

The ability to read positive and negative reviews from other consumers helps customers make

more informed buying decisions, and that, in turn, will help keep shoppers returning to your

site, Chen added.

7. How to Choose Tools That Customize Online Shopping

A recent study by Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru explores the concept of e-tail

"personalization," or the capability to provide customers with customized products and

offers. The report, "Which Personalization Tools work for E-Commerce and Why," outlines

this growing trend, citing relative newcomers in the field who now offer such services at

more affordable prices, even for small businesses. (Some of these players, such as Aggregate

Knowledge, CleverSet, Baynote and Mercado, have been covered here at ECommerce-Guide.

See our "Related Stories.")

Since shoppers generally embrace personalized buying experiences, Mulpuru explains how

Web shop owners can decide which tools will help them customize their transaction process.

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First, however, she provides a comprehensive overview of the trend, outlining exactly what

personalization encompasses, why e-tailers should be aware of it, the factors boosting its

popularity and what types of goals it accomplishes.

To start, she defines the term personalization. This can mean one-on-one interactions, such as

greeting return customers by name or letting them save a shopping cart, or accomplished on a

"one-to-many" basis, for instance, by creating different versions of your site for different

demographics. For the purpose of the study, she says personalization is "creating experiences

on Web sites or through interactive media that are unique to individuals or segments of

customers."

Mulpuru says e-tailers should be interested in providing personalized shopping transactions

because they increase customer engagement and loyalty through increased relevance.

"Enabled by external tools sometimes called personalization engines, recommendation

engines, discovery engines, or behavioral targeting tools, personalization allows retailers to

increase relevance through activities like matching cross-sells to customers based on interests

or customizing click-stream paths based on previous purchase or visit histories."

Specifically, this type of customer interaction is important because shoppers value

recommendations. "Seventy-seven percent of customers say that they find recommendations

in general somewhat to extremely useful, and roughly one-third of consumers who notice

recommendations on e-commerce sites report purchasing a product based on such

recommendations," according to the study.

What Took So Long?

So, the question is why have e-tailers been relatively slow to adopt personalization? Mulpuru

says the answer is simple: During the past 10 years it was too complex and expensive to set

up. Now, though, she cites a "renaissance" in the industry and says the following factors are

making it easier for online sellers to use personalization:

Cheaper deployment costs. There are are now tools based on a revenue share of

incremental revenue generated through the recommendation engine, eliminating any

upfront costs, which is naturally appealing to smaller e-businesses.

Flexibility within the tools. One of the most common critiques of personalization

tools used to be that they weren't flexible or adaptable on-the-fly. Given this well-known

shortcoming, developers of the new generation of tools have addressed this issue, either

work closely with clients to alter algorithms or to provide user interfaces where clients

can affect rules independently. E-business executives report that companies such as

Aggregate Knowledge and Certona respond very rapidly to client requests for change.

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Additionally, the fact that many of these solutions are software-as-a-service models

enables them to offer flexibility.

Time to focus on the "nice-to-haves." For years, e-tailers focused on basics such

as zoom functionality or on-site search tools or even site analytics. The majority have

now mastered these "must-have" tools and are now making forays into the next tier of

products that employ more quantitative approaches, and personalization is one of these.

In the past, companies matched product cross-sells on their sites manually. In fact, a

Shop.org survey of nearly 200 online retailers executed by Forrester found that 77

percent of retailers executed cross-sells by hand. Thirty-seven percent of retailers,

however, say that they will focus on automated product recommendations in 2008.

The Current Landscape

Next, the report does a good job of providing an overview of the current e-commerce

personalization industry, which is complex due to the many different ways it can be

accomplished. For instance, while some companies claim to simply help create cross-sells,

others promise to make a homepage more effective. According to the study, despite the

nuanced differences in all their approaches, there are "four key buckets" that e-commerce

personalization tools fall into as outlined here in the report:

Versioning tools. These tools typically personalize an experience by first defining

segments of consumers and then serving up different iterations of key pages of Web

sites (e.g., a homepage, checkout page or offer page). An example of such an execution

would be showcasing different versions of a homepage to different visitors (e.g., new

versus repeat) or different offers to different segments of consumers. In some unique

situations, the data that informs the outputs can also be used across channels to create

unique e-mail programs or even differentiated print campaigns for individual customers.

As a result of their approach, these programs typically require extensive creative

resources to support the various "versions" of an optimization campaign. For companies

that want to slowly test what works first or want to carefully control their messaging,

these tools can be extremely effective.

Simple cross-sells. These tools take implicit and sometimes explicit data and

simply place what they believe to be the most relevant "adjacencies" in a predefined box

on a Web page. These are often low-complexity, inexpensive, easy-to-integrate and

simple solutions that help to automate the tedious processes of Web site merchandising

or cross-selling. Small to midsize e-tailers typically are the most active customers of

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these tools, and companies such as Avail Intelligence, Baynote, CleverSet and Loomia

are solid providers of such solutions.

Advanced cross-sells. These tools incorporate all of the features of simple cross-

sells but also have the capability to push suggestions to other parts of a site (e.g., a

homepage or outgoing e-mail programs). Advanced cross-sell solutions run the gamut

from souped-up single-cross-sell solutions that can operate seamlessly in different areas

of a Web site to more sophisticated solutions that create completely different navigation

experiences for different customers. The key element that distinguishes advanced cross-

sells is that they take outputs and feature them dynamically in a manner that is more than

just "a box on a page."

Interactive filtering solutions. Given the vast assortment of products available

online, consumers are often overwhelmed by the process of finding an appropriate

match for their needs. Interactive filtering tools ask consumers for specific inputs,

usually by posing a series of questions and then matching responses based on their

preferences. The key factor that differentiates these tools from the other e-commerce

personalization tools is that consumers essentially "raise their hand" and say what sort of

information they want, and companies work to provide specific data or products that

meets those needs. Companies such as Zafu.com and Karmaloop.com employ

interactive filtering tools particularly well.

How to Find the Right Fit

The report goes on to match which types of Web shops would perform best with what

personalization tools. If you have lots of resources and a budget to dedicate to personalization

engines, versioning tools and advanced cross-sell tools are recommended; if you have an

extremely broad and complex inventory of products, simple cross-sell tools, advanced cross-

sell and interactive filtering are recommended; and if you have the need to have close

control/input of the content at your site, versioning tools, advanced cross-sell and interactive

filtering models are best.

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8. iStorez Ties E-Mail Marketing to Social Shopping

Over the past year we have seen a huge spike in new shopping portals and comparison-

shopping engines. Each offers a different idea on how to make online shopping more

interactive and intriguing for the consumer. From sharing interactive wish lists with friends to

comparison shopping with coupons and even building entire communities of like-minded

consumers, there is seemingly no end to the options. For e-tailers, this means you have more

choices when it comes to affiliate programs and how your products and brand are presented

to online buyers. For instance, one popular way to boost sales is to use affiliate programs in

which you pay a small commission on sales when a third-party sends consumers to your page

and they make a purchase. And, in terms of increased exposure, listing on many of these

social shopping sites and specialized search engines is either free or very affordable for the

small Web shop owner, and often can be done by completing a few simple steps.

iStorez Offers Shoppers Plenty of Features

Given our coverage of this trend (see related articles box), we thought we'd seen it all, and

then comes along iStorez.com. This new site provides consumers with an online experience

that mirrors shopping at a mall, with the chance to window shop, discover hot trends and hunt

for bargains.

Anand Jagannathan, CEO of Kriyari, the company that owns the site, said that iStorez stands

out from other shopping portals because it lets browsers see different storefronts from the

user interface.

Once a consumer registers on the site, he or she can go beyond basic searching and create a

personal shopping mall and file it under a "My Mall" heading. This lets shoppers add their

favorite stores to a quick access list that can be published, with a unique URL, on their own

Web spaces. Shoppers can also browse storefronts that have been tagged by other users to

keep lists of storefronts of interest, to find storefronts that other consumers find interesting,

and also to share lists with other members. IStorez also offers its shoppers a refined search

feature that drills down into sub categories.

What's In It for Merchants?

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While price comparison engines work well for consumer electronics, Jagannathan says that

the iStorez approach is better for those merchants offering so-called "soft goods," such as

apparel. Shopping comparison engines generally work best when a consumer has already

decided on a product and is ready to find it at the best price online. By using storefronts that

promote your store, brand and specials, Jagannathan said you get the promotional information

to consumers at just the right time; when they are browsing to buy soft goods.

For example, shoppers who are getting their wardrobe ready for Spring may search iStorez

for "Spring Fashions" and have access to multiple storefronts, all focused on presenting

new spring fashions, accessories and similar items. Additionally, consumers will have

immediate access to spring fashion deals and related promotions and they can always create

their own personal profile to be notified of new arrivals or deals matching this search criteria.

Behind the scenes is where this shopping portal really gets interesting. What iStorez is doing

is taking the current seasonal promotions, products and deals from the merchant's e-mail

newsletters to organize and collect the products and present the information as individual,

interactive storefronts that the consumer can browse. Using automated engines, a merchant's

newsletter is scanned for keywords, promotions and product links. So, basically, the

information and new products that you are already presenting to consumers is fed to iStorez

which then creates create custom storefronts highlighting these new offers and products.

Storefronts on iStorez are updated frequently so shoppers are always viewing fresh displays

and current promotions. Merchants are also not limited to a single store interface either. You

can have 10 different storefronts on iStorez at any one time, each highlighting different

products and promotions to best match the consumer's search criteria. When a sale is made

through iStorez, the shopping site receives a commission, either by way of an existing

affiliate program or a custom program and rate for merchants not already using affiliate

networking.

Setting Up an iStorez Storefront

IStorez, despite displaying a beta tag on the logo, is a fully functional Web site that is going

into its third month since launch. Jagannathan said that it is a fully live site but there may be

some small upcoming interface changes as they garner feedback from both shoppers and their

merchants.

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Merchants interested in iStorez' shopping mall storefront approach may find that if they use

an affiliate network, such as Commission Junction for example, they may already have

storefronts showing on the iStorez Web site. For newer merchants or those not already using

affiliate networks, you can provide iStorez with details about your store and provide them

with access to your e-mail newsletters to stack your storefronts. For those without a

newsletter the iStorez program can still provide an interface to upload a storefront, on a

commission basis. Merchants can contact iStorez through its Web site to find out more about

turning their e-mail campaigns into attractive and timely storefronts.

9. Ecommerce Website Design Tips: The Product Page

Product pages on an ecommerce website are the pages that spotlight products and offer

shoppers a "Buy" button. Think of your ecommerce product pages as your site's "payoff"

pages. It all comes down to that moment when a shopper lands on the product page and

considers entering his or her credit card number.

A well-designed product page is absolutely critical to an online retailer's business. With this

in mind, Ecommerce-Guide spoke with Jakob Nielsen, a leading Internet usability guru,

about the essential principles of product page design.

Product Page Design: Step One is Simplicity

Because online merchants spend so much money driving shoppers to their product pages,

they want to make sure to make a sale from these pages. Consequently, many e-tailers crowd

their product pages with a plethora of items -- they figure that if one item doesn't clinch the

deal, then the item right next to it will.

But these crowded product pages are counterproductive. Simplicity is key in a product page,

Nielsen says. "Simplicity in the sense that it's about one product, because when you have

multiple products that's when you add complexity, and it just becomes overwhelming."

Focusing each product page on a single product has become the norm among successful

online merchants.

Clarity, too, is important. "The main thing should be extremely clear, like 'what is this

product?' Here's a picture of it, here's the price, and here's the shopping cart."

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But there are exceptions, he notes. All of a single product's options should be offered on a

single page. "There can be variants of a product, let's say, a shirt comes in multiple colors and

sizes — I would view that as one product." But in the case of two truly different shirts, they

are best placed on two different product pages.

In the case of items that are similar yet different -- for example, various types of camera with

different lenses -- links to them should be displayed not on a product page but on a category

page. (A category page is one level up from a product page, and it offers links to a broad

array of products).

In this case, these similar cameras should be presented on the category page with short

descriptions, such as: "Here's one for the professional photographer, here's one that's more

point-and-shoot, here's a more feature-rich camera." The key point: each link on the category

page should link to separate, individual product pages.

Product Page 'Dimensional Navigation'

Imagine a shopper on your product page who has found almost exactly what she was looking

for. However, she wants just one more attribute. If the product had this one last feature, she'd

plunk down her cash.

But that hypothetical shopper is stuck. Because, for example, the DVD player she's looking at

longingly fits all the specs she wants, except for one -- but your product page doesn't

show her how to navigate to find a DVD player that has that one additional feature.

The shopper "is typically lost in that situation; she has to go back up and visit all

products," Nielsen says. "And that's awfully difficult for people to do." To solve this

problem, Nielsen recommends what he refers to as "dimensional navigation." This navigation

style enables the shopper to move from one product to the other according to highly specific

criteria -- often just one more thing.

Building a page with dimensional navigation means "product pages should actually be linked

together," according to different dimensions or attributes that make sense to the customer.

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In other words, "If you know from market analysis that there are certain criteria that people

use to buy, build it into your navigation."

Product Pages Must Be Information Rich

Product pages should be simple, but they shouldn't lack ready access to a complete source of

information.

"Quite often people need to know some specifics to decide whether they want it or not,"

Nielsen says. "And this is one of the reasons people give up on buying, because they're

uncertain about some of its attributes -- like, 'Will it work with what I already have?'"

If you don't make it clear, "People aren't going to gamble and order it just in case it might

work," he says.

Providing information, however, should be done with care. While a classic mistake is not

giving enough information, "there's a dual problem of giving too complicated information."

Dumping a load of product specs can create the "deer in the headlights" effect in your

shoppers, which doesn't help sales.

The best strategy for providing information is layering. Layering is when all the information

is available, yet it's one click away -- but just one click. "It can't require another fishing

expedition to go and find it -- it's got to be a clear link that says 'technical specs' -- you click

that and then you get it."

That way, product information is readily available for those who want it, but won't confuse

those who don't need it.

Offer Expert Opinions on Product Pages

In some cases, presenting an array of expert opinions on the product page can be a seductive

sales tool. However, e-tailer beware: expert reviews must be used cautiously.

"They problem is, can people trust them to be independent reviews, or do they feel like it's

more and more sales information?" Nielsen says.

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Shoppers, of course, often visit other sites for research prior to purchase; so placing expert

opinions on your product page may be either redundant or actually distracting.

However, if a merchant has a truly accredited source to quote -- a well-known publication or

product guru -- "That's a big credibility booster," Nielsen says. "It's not just you saying it, but

there's actually someone else who's saying it as well." This is especially true if you can link to

an external site that is clearly independent of yours.

Ask 'Questions' Before Showing the Cart Page

Many product pages offer shoppers an array of product options; for example, 'what color do

you want that shirt in?' Or, 'how finely do you want that coffee ground?' A product page

should ask shoppers to select these options beforethey put that item in the shopping cart,

Nielsen recommends.

The reason: Once that item is in the cart, shoppers may proceed to check out without

realizing they haven't selected all their options. Also, customers often use the "Back" button

to exit the cart (instead of "Continue Shopping"), so any selections they've made to the item

in the cart could be undone.

He also cautions against presenting shoppers with multilevel menus on a product page to

select product options. If the user's mouse strays off the menu at this critical juncture, they

could become frustrated.

How to Build the Ideal Product Page

In Nielsen's view, a well-built product page must include certain key elements:

1. It has a clearly descriptive title and, if possible, a photo

Any search engine expert will tell you that a page's title is how it's found in search engines, so

a descriptive title is a must in a product page's title and text. As for the photo, it's best if a

shopper can click to enlarge it, and that this enlarged photo is significantly bigger, not just a

little bigger. (And to enlarge the photo, the shopper should be given the choice of clicking the

image itself or a "click to enlarge" link.) When the enlarged photo appears, it should be

accompanied by the same (or more) product information as the small photo -- don't ever leave

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the information behind. And the enlarged photo should definitely include a Buy button.

Ideally, the alternate photos should show different views, allowing the shopper to visually

"stroll around" the item. Nielsen describes the ideal product photo as "big, detailed and free

of visual distraction." (And if that picture doesn't reveal all the product's details,

accompanying text should fully describe it.)

2. It provides ALL the information a shopper will need

A product page should include not only a detailed list of product attributes (with a nearby link

to still more information) but also final cost, including, if feasible, shipping charges and tax.

In Nielsen's consumer research studies, 11 percent of "sales catastrophes" (a failure to make a

sale) were due to the product page not providing enough information. Also important: avoid

jargon or industry-specific lingo.

3. It states product availability and, when appropriate, delivery time

You've ruined a customer relationship when you force a customer to go through check out to

discover that the item won't ship for three weeks. On the other hand, letting them know the

item is "in-stock" and "usually ships same day" is an attractive offer. "The bottom line is that

the product page should clearly indicate whether an item is in stock, and if it is not, the page

should explain the situation," Nielsen notes. Lack of information about ship date and

availability "really lowers willingness to buy."

4. It links to your site's guarantee policy and, if possible, the manufacturer's warranty

Many experts have noted that a prominently displayed guarantee policy, with a money-back

offer, is a trust builder (and hence a sales builder). In fact, many design gurus say that

guarantees should be on every page of a site, not just the product pages.

5. The no-brainer: a prominently displayed 'Buy' button

If shoppers can't get it into the shopping cart -- easily -- they're not going to buy it.

Remarkably, in Nielsen's studies of consumer interactions with e-commerce sites, "We've had

cases where people haven't been able to find out how to buy, because it's so complicated."

His study found that six percent of sales catastrophes were created by a user's difficulty

getting the item into the cart.

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10. 4 E-commerce Need To Know Regulation

When starting a small business ecommerce site, retail is one type business that many people

lean toward. While it may seem that the requirements for conducting retail business online

are easier than those for a brick-and-mortar store, it's important to know you still have rules,

regulations and standards to comply with.

In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the primary agency that

regulates ecommerce activities. This includes regulations for a number of ecommerce

activities such as commercial email, online advertising and consumer privacy. Another

organization that ecommerce site owners should become familiar with is the PCI (Payment

Card Industry) Security Standards Council. This organization provides security standards and

regulations for handling and storing your customer’s financial data.

Some of the important regulations you will need to learn about before starting your online

retail business include protecting consumer privacy, handling customer data, collecting taxes

and complying with online advertising regulations. In this ecommerce regulations guide we

discuss these four issues and provide details that every ecommerce site owner should know to

comply with federal laws in the U.S.

Protecting Your Customer's Privacy Online

Online privacy is a big issue as many ecommerce sites collect and retain personal information

about customers. Some of the personal data you will likely obtain would include a customer's

name, address, email address, and possibly their credit card and other types of financial

information. As the ecommerce site owner it is your responsibility to ensure this personally

identifiable information is protected, and that when you collect such data you comply with

federal and state privacy laws.

Ecommerce site owners should provide a privacy policy and post it on the ecommerce

website. This policy should clearly identify what kinds of personal information you will

collect from users visiting your website, who you will share the information you collect with,

and how you will use and store that information.

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Most small business ecommerce site owners approach a privacy policy like any business

requirement. You could have a lawyer draft a privacy policy document for your business, or

secure a trusted service provider to manage and host your privacy policy. Once you have

privacy policy in place, be sure to remain in compliance with it -- if not your business can

face costly legal fees. For more tips on creating a privacy policy, see Ecommerce Content:

Writing a Good Privacy Policy.

Online Advertising Compliance

Ecommerce site owners must know about the applicable laws for online advertising. Like

traditional advertising for brick-and-mortar stores, online retailers must also comply with

regulations when advertising online. The FTCregulations for advertising are designed to

protect consumers and to prevent deceptive and unfair acts or practices.

One of the main forms of online advertising for a small business ecommerce owner is email.

For this reason, ecommerce business owners need to become familiar with federal advertising

laws to ensure the content of any emails is compliant, but also be familiar with the CAN-

SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) of

2003. This act establishes requirements that any business that engages in email marketing

must follow.

Under the CAN-SPAM Act, hefty penalties can be levied against email marketers who

violate the law -- each email sent that violates the act is subject to penalties of up to $16,000.

Additionally, any commercial email message you send must include notice that the message

is an advertisement, and it must also include opt-out information and your business postal

address. To comply with this law you must also honor opt-out requests promptly. The FTC

website defines the laws you need to know about email marketing.

How to Collect Taxes Online

When you shop at a store you pay tax on the purchase, and the Internet does not change this -

- but there are differences.

Have you ever noticed that some ecommerce websites charge you tax when you make an

online purchase, while others don’t? The reason is because if a business has a physical

presence in a state (e.g. a store or office), then it is required by law to collect state and local

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sales tax from customers. However, if the business doesn’t have a "physical presence,” then

collecting tax on purchases is not required.

This dates back to a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that said states cannot require mail-order

businesses, and by extension, online retailers to collect sales tax unless they have a physical

presence in the state.

For ecommerce site owners, the one thing you will have to research is how your state

classifies a physical presence. In legal terms, this is called a "nexus," and each state defines

nexus differently.

Navigating sales tax laws can be difficult. To ensure you are in compliance with tax laws, it's

always best to contact your state's revenue agency to ensure you have the correct information

on taxation before starting your ecommerce venture.

How to Handle Customer Financial Data

PCI compliance is a term familiar to many people researching ecommerce regulations. As an

ecommerce site owner, one of the standards you will need to know about is the PCI DSS

standard, which is short for Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS). All

organizations, including online retailers, must follow this standard when storing, processing

and transmitting credit card data.

The PCI Security Standards Council is the organization -- founded by a number of financial

institutions including JCB International, MasterCard and Visa -- that is responsible for the

development and implementation of security standards for account data protection. Through

its PCI Security Standards, the organization seeks to enhance payment account data security.

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DAFTAR PUSTAKA

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Design-Tips-The-Product-Page.htm, diakses pada tanggal 29/04/2012

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Bad-Reviews.htm, diakses pada tanggal 29/04/2012

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Strategies-for-Small-Online-Businesses.htm, diakses pada tanggal 29/04/2012

9. http://www.shopatvelvet.com

10. http://www.datamation.com