01-02-2013, 01:01 PM
Building an Ecommerce Website
Building an Ecommerce.pptx (Size: 350.41 KB / Downloads: 29)
Building an E-commerce Site: A Systematic Approach
The two most important management challenges in building a successful e-commerce site are
Develop a clear understanding of your business objectives
Choosing the right technologies to achieve those objectives
Thus, effective plan and knowledge base of the above factors will help in making sound management decisions.
Building A System: In-house versus Outsourcing
In-house is developing and building a website on your own.
Outsourcing is hiring an outside vendor to provide the services which cannot be performed with in-house personnel
Build versus outsourcing
In-house building includes:
High number of risks.
High skilled set required
Use of pre-built template (optional)
High cost
Host your own versus outsourcing
The hosting company ensures that website is accessible 24/7
Co-location : A firm has control over the operations of its web server but is placed in at the vendors’ physical facility.
System Architecture
System architecture: refers to the arrangement of software, machinery, and tasks in an information system needed to achieve a specific functionality
Types of system architecture:
Two-Tier Architecture: Web server responds to requests for Web pages and a database server provides backend data storage
Multi-Tier Architecture: Web server is linked to a middle-tier layer that typically includes a series of application servers that perform specific tasks, as well as to a backend layer of existing corporate systems
Web Server Software
All e-commerce sites require basic Web server software to answer requests from customers for HTML and XML pages. It thus answers HTTP requests from customers.
The choice of Web server software depends on the operating system.
Apache , the leading Web server software; only works with UNIX operating system.
Microsoft’s Internet Information Server (IIS) is the second major Web server software.
Dynamic Page Generation Tools
It is one of the most important innovations in Web site operation.
Dynamic page generation: contents of Web page are stored as objects in a database rather than being hard-coded in HTML, and are fetched when needed from database.
Tools used for retrieving the objects :
CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
ASP (Active Server Pages)
JSP (Java Server Pages)
Application Servers
Web application servers are software programs that provide specific business functionality required for a Web site.
Servers which provides software applications with services such as security, data services, transaction support, load balancing, and management of large distributed systems.
They are an example of middleware software.
E-commerce Merchant Server Software Functionality
E-commerce Merchant Server Software Functionality
Online catalog : List of products available on web site.
Shopping cart : allows shoppers to set aside desired purchases , to review what they have selected , edit their selections as necessary and then actually make the purchase.
Right Sizing the Hardware Platform-The Demand Side
The most important factor that affects the speed is the ‘demand’ put up by the customers.
Factors involved in demand include:
Number of simultaneous users in peak periods which can increase traffic and thus speed.
Nature of customer requests (user profile)
Type of content matters a lot.
Security.
Number of items in inventory
Number of page requests
Speed of legacy applications