The Evolution of E-Commerce
E to stand for electronic, eCommerce has been on a journey of development and growth since the 70′s. Electronic Data Interchange, or in short EDI is the term that has taken the place of the eCommerce of yesteryears. Back then it meant eBanking but not any more. Now it means having ATMs and a more advanced system of data exchange where credit card details can be passed over the internet.
In the 1990s, saw the first e-commerce purchase which was cars take place online. At some point e-commerce was adopting the name of online trading; something that has not changed so much today. At around this time the internet was not everyone’s cup of tea as it was just referred to as another development in technology that people were oblivious about. They only took it seriously at around 1994. Having in mind some had already started purchasing cars online long before that, such people were referred to as technologically savvy.
This delayed period may be attributed to a number of factors. One of them is the fact that the governments lacked the enthusiasm to support such kind of transactions over the internet. Faith was lacking and that meant there was little support. As the years advanced into the 1994 and 1995, it was established that there was security in those types of transactions and that it was generally safe. In essence, there was nothing wrong with using credit cards to shop online.
A few e-Commerce strategy landmarks occurred in 1994 when Pizza Hut offered online ordering via its webpage and Netscape released Mozilla. A year later in 1995, Jeff Bezos launched Amazon. Additionally in 1995, the first 24-hour radio stations started broadcasting and the well-known eBay was introduced to the Internet under the name Auction Web.
Gradually over the years, e-Commerce strategy has gone from being known only by the Internet savvy to being fully recognized by the average person. When one heard ‘B2B’ they eventually recognized that to mean business-to-business and could assume it was referring to the concept of e-Commerce. Retailers became e-tailers and receipts from the purchase of products or services were widely accepted via emails from the seller or provider. Email (Electronic Mail), instant messaging, online shopping and order tracking, domestic and international payment systems, shopping carts, and electronic tickets have all become part of our daily vocabulary. In today’s business world, there really is no option to have an internet presence, this is how fully evolved e-commerce has become.
In the recent times the government has gotten involved in the e-commerce, thus making the consumer not only comfortable, but also willing to share private information, financial, personal, and banking information over the internet. Most businesses have resulted in going online in transacting their businesses. The e-commerce strategy has really helped people to start their own business entity without any much expense. Since there is no overhead charges, for example, rent, leasing of studio, fax machine and printers. If one got the right e-commerce strategy one can successful run his business proficiently online.
10 Tips for Effective Web Design
For one to actually thrive in today’s global market one has to not only have a physical presences but also have an online internet presences. Having an online website service is an added advantage to the business proprietor as it provide with a more customer base, in addition to this it also possible to create a distinct presences in your relevant business field.
The web design really matters in once business or company, as most potential customers would prefer dealing with a company offering high grade website to one with a low grade website. From ones website, a lucid customer can automatically judge its professionalism. Thus it should be the companies’ objective to cautiously evaluate the type of website the have to come up with, as it makes either their downfall or their success.
Stated below are 10 important tips for the effective web design. Have a look on them and provide a distinct look to your website wherever necessary:
1. The audience you target to capture: First of all there must be an available audience so has to identify the target audience. One should always make out the audience requirement so as to create a website mainly for the audience requirement and not individual requirement. To actually understand the audience one should evaluate its Demography, so as to know under which bracket of age do most o the people fall in, their living standards and their income, so as to create a site that will get them glued to.
2. Make anticipations that your visitors might: The site should be able to meet ones needs, this is best done after having to know the audience psychology well, so as to provide what they anxiously need
3. Gather adequate information: Do some homework to understand the taste of your target users. First visit the websites that your target users prefer to go, try to find what is unique in those sites, read down the magazines that your target users like to subscribe and pay special attention to the online advertisements.
4. What is the main aim of your content?: Just try to create a center of attention in any site you decade to create, these is achieved by trying to include some flavor in the site.
5. Avert unhelpful users: Some people visit some website without any intention of doing anything worthwhile, and by so doing they create needless traffic thus preventing passage for those who purposely visit the site from doing it.
6. It is important to keep the site regularly updated constantly. Don’t mix your personal interests in the site and keep all the rules of content writing in place, like having lists instead of paragraphs and things like that. All the pages should be fast in opening. If its slow, then your visitors will only be one timers.
7. Make sure that your web designers throw in the must have tools as these are important for web masters.
8. Scrolling: To aid an online user navigation of the website is of much importance thus every website should have a site map.
9. Build a foundation of trust with all your visitors. Inquire for their opinions and add customer support. It will help in the building process.
10. Keep all your content accurate. Any information that affects the user should be highlighted without concealing it.
How To Create A Basic Web Site With Adobe Dreamweaver
Adobe Dreamweaver is a great piece of software which demystifies the business of creating a web site. However, it is also packed with a whole host of features which can seem a little daunting when you first start using the program. This article aims to explain how create a basic web site, where to start and which tools to use.
It’s always a good idea to sketch out a plan of how the site will work and what kind of user experience it will offer. Dreamweaver will not give you any assistance at this stage, so just use pen and paper. Start by building a basic site, one that you know you can complete without getting bogged down in technologies that you do not understand.
Next, create a folder somewhere on your hard disk or desktop which will contain all of the files which will make up your site. Dreamweaver refers to this folder as the “local root folder”. It should contain nothing but the files pertaining to your web site and will become a mirror image of your actual site when the site goes live.
You should also add an images folder inside the “local root folder”. It can have any name you like but later, when you set up the Dreamweaver site, it will be designated as the default images folder and will help to ensure that your visitors don’t see any blank image icons on your pages.
Now we can open up Dreamweaver and create a new web site. To do this, find the Site menu and choose New Site. When the New Site window appears, be sure to click on the Advanced tab at the top of the screen. Ironically Advanced mode makes it easier to select only the key options you need to enter. Of the categories displayed on the left, we will need to enter Local Info and Remote Info.
Local Info relates to your version of the site. In this window, first enter a name for the new site. Next, click on the yellow folder icon next to the box marked “Local Root Folder” and browse for the folder you created earlier. Repeat this step to identify the “Default Image Folder”.
Next you need to click on the Remote Info category on the left of your screen. This is where you tell Dreamweaver how to connect to the server that contains your web pages. For a public website, choose FTP as the access method and ask your web hosting company for the other details required. For an intranet, choose Local/Network as the access method and navigate to the server and sub-directory containing your company intranet.
Before you start entering content in your pages, it is useful to create and save all the sub-directories and pages your site will need. Create each page (leave it blank) and save it in the appropriate folder with the appropriate name. Creating and naming every page in your site offers the benefit that you will now be less likely to have problems with links since, whenever you want to link to a file, the file will already be there; you can just browse for the file and Dreamweaver will automatically create the link for you.
Before you start work on the page content proper, you should consider creating one or more templates to achieve a consistent layout across all your pages. You create the basic design with all the elements that will repeat on every page (fixed regions) and then click in each area which needs to have unique content on each page and choose Insert – Template Objects – Editable Region. You can even have a hierarchy of master templates and sub templates.
When you have finished your template, you can finally begin entering content into your web pages. When you open each page, begin by applying the template to the page. Then enter the page content into the editable regions. If you spot an error on the main layout, just go back to the template to correct it.
