Determinants And Consequences Of Website Loyalty - E-commerce Essay.

Discuss About The Determinants And Consequences On Website Loyalty.

E-Business Model

Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce) has become essential for the business organizations in the present times. It is because the web presence allows the organizations to reach to global markets and expand their customer base. There is a huge shift from traditional commerce to online shopping that has also been witnessed in the recent years. There are various e-business strategies and practices that an organization may adapt.

The report is written for FonAcc that works in the area of mobile accessories and is based out of Australia. The organization uses offline modes of commerce and has three stores in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. The increased demand of the products has led to the decision of the senior management to implement an e-commerce website for the organization. The report is an e-business report for the same.

There are primarily four types of e-business models that are present as Business to Business (B2B), Business to Consumer (B2C), Consumer to Consumer (C2C), and Consumer to Business (C2B).

The e-business website for the organization will be developed as per the B2C and B2B models. The primary model of the site will B2C model in which the website design will be done for the customers of the organization. The customers will be provided with the products on the website to select from and make payments to place their orders. There may also be scenarios wherein the business firms may look to purchase bulk orders from the site and in such cases B2B model will be involved (Johnson, Redlbacher and Schaltegger, 2018).  

The development of the website and e-business strategies will have positive implications on the organization.

• The reachability of the organization will increase in the local and global markets which will result in the expansion of customer base.
• The website will allow the organization to enhance its revenues and profits with the increase in sales (Nsairi and Khadraoui, 2013).
• The website will allow the organization to improve upon the engagement levels of the internal and external stakeholders.
• Market goodwill and market shares will improve which will provide the organization with competitive advantage.

There are various cloud-based web development platforms that are available in the market. The one that is recommended and proposed for the website is Wix.

The web development platform will allow easy and fast business development of the website with the use of drag and drop tools. Some of the features of the web development platform that will be used in this case will be:

• There are over 500 design templates to choose from which will allow the development of the website with complete design freedom.
• Mobile optimization will be automatic in the website and it will allow the users to access the site on any of the mobile devices without performance issues.
• Animation, video, and graphics will be supported by the platform and will be easy to be collaborated on the site (Wix, 2018).
• The personalized SEO plan will be integrated in the website.
• Wix ADI will allow the development and optimization of the color codes and fonts to be used on the site.
• Tailor-made content will be included on the site.
• Advanced code capability will be provided to the developers with the aid of Wix Code APIs and JavaScript. Server-less and hassle-free coding will be made possible.
• The design style will remain consistent all throughout and it will be possible to create dynamic pages.
• The users will be acknowledged on their actions which will enhance the customer interaction abilities.
• Professional mailbox and real-time analytics will be synced with the site.
• The website will be secured with SSL certificates.
• Wix chat and social tools will be included to enhance the level of customer interaction and communication.

The proposed cloud-based database for the site is MongoDB. It is a NoSQL database that will make sure that the website data is stored on the cloud platforms. There will be fully automated cloud services included in the database to allow the efficient storage, handling, and management of the website data. Some of the features that will allow the easy development of the site and efficient information management will include:

• Regular expression search and ad-hoc queries are supported by the database.
• It would be possible to index any field in the document.
• Master Slave replication is supported by the database.
• Automatic load balancing will ensure that the performance is not impacted at any instance (Mongodb, 2018).
• It makes use of JavaScript in the place of procedures which will allow faster processing of the operations.
• It will allow easy administration in case of an issue or failure.
• Build-in replication is supported by the database that will make sure that the data sets and services are always available.

Impact of E-Business Strategies

There are numerous functional aspects that are associated with the website and shall be covered for enhanced user experience.

• The users shall be allowed to log in to the website on the basis of the user type as individual customer, business customer, and admin. The mode of login shall be secured with multi-fold authentication and one time passwords.
• The new users shall be provided with the ability to register on the website by providing their name, contact details, and basic demographic information. The acknowledgement shall be sent on their emails and registered mobile number.
• The product catalogue shall be displayed to the users in the product categories as headphones, speakers, earphones, anti-virus packages, mobile covers & cases, screen guards, chargers, USB cables, and mobile pouches (Hider, 2016).
• The users shall be able to access every product and shall be able to view the product name, product description, product availability, product pricing, and product image.
• The users shall be provided with the recommended products on the basis of their browsing history.
• The expected date of delivery of the product shall be displayed after entering the zip code of the area in which the product has to be delivered.
• The users shall be able to add the products to their cart and the cart value shall be updated with the addition and deletion of the products (Dilworth and Kochhar, 2007).
• The total cart value shall be displayed.
• The users shall be able to apply the promotional codes to avail discounts on the cart value.
• The users shall be able to post and share the information on their social media accounts.
• Customer support services shall be integrated on the site to allow the customers to send feedback/query from the contact us page in the form of emails.
• The chat box shall also be integrated on the site to assist the customers with the execution of specific operations.
• Search functionality shall be included to allow the user to search for specific products on the basis of the keywords entered.
• Payment gateways must be integrated on the site to allow the users to pay via online modes of payment as credit cards, debit cards, net banking, or e-wallets (Pang et al., 2009).
• The website shall provide the option to pay by cash at the time of delivery.
• The order number shall be displayed after the submission of the payment details and a tracking id shall also be issued to track the order.
• The website shall allow the users to return the product received within 30 days of the delivery by using the return option on the orders page.
• The users shall be allowed to manage their profile details and information by making modifications in the same.  
• Logout and session management functions shall be included.

The functional requirements play a significant role for a website. However, the non-functional requirements play a key role as well. The proposed website must ensure that the system qualities are included in the site.

It is the system quality that will make sure that the proposed website for mobile accessories is able to gain enhanced customer experience and engagement levels. The functional aspects of the site shall be included and it must be ensured that the ease of usage is provided to the end-users. The simplicity of the website shall be maintained with enhanced visual appeal. The navigation and scrolling on the site shall be smooth to make sure that there are no issues with the accessibility for the users.

One of the most significant non-functional requirements for any of the e-commerce website is the availability and it is valid for the proposed website for mobile accessories as well. The website will be accessible to the users from all across the globe. The time-zones and the preferred time to access the site will vary from one user to the other. It will be essential that the website is available at all times and at any hour of the day. The user engagement levels will improve as a result (Gross and Yu, 2001).

Reliability is the system quality that will make sure that the proposed website for mobile accessories is able to gain enhanced customer experience and engagement levels. The website will include varied information and transactional details, such as order details, product availability, payment confirmation, and many more. These will be required to be updated on a real-time basis. It will also be essential that the reliability of the information is maintained by providing the users with the real-time and updated information at all times.

One of the most significant non-functional requirements for any of the e-commerce website is the performance and it is valid for the proposed website for mobile accessories as well. The performance of the site will include minimal response time and minimal throughput time to the user actions. It will be essential that the website maintains the same performance at all times irrespective of the user count or network traffic.

Security is the system quality that will make sure that the proposed website for mobile accessories is able to gain enhanced customer experience and engagement levels. There will be various security threats that the website will be exposed to. These will include malware attacks, data breaches, denial of service attacks, eavesdropping attacks, data leakage issues, data manipulation issues, man in the middle attacks, and many more. The occurrence of these attacks will lead to poor implications on the security and privacy of the data sets. There may also be legal obligations that may come up for the organization with the occurrence of a security event (Mansfield-Devine, 2009).

Cloud-based Web Development Platform

The use of security controls and measures will be required to maintain the security of the information and data sets.   

One of the most significant non-functional requirements for any of the e-commerce website is the maintainability and it is valid for the proposed website for mobile accessories as well. There will be several updates that will be required to be implemented on the site at regular intervals. For instance, the vendors may release security patches and updates for a specific security attack. It will be necessary to make sure that these updates can be installed with ease and the time spent in maintenance of the site is less. The maintenance costs shall also be low.

Supportability is the system quality that will make sure that the proposed website for mobile accessories is able to gain enhanced customer experience and engagement levels. There are several changes that the website may witness. For instance, the organization may release new line of products after regular gaps and the new products will be required to be integrated on the site. Similarly, the rate of accessing the site and the user count may also keep on changing. The website shall have the feature of scalability and supportability for easier incorporation of such changes. These qualities will ensure that the website is scaled up or down as per the requirement.

One of the most significant non-functional requirements for any of the e-commerce website is the inter-operability and it is valid for the proposed website for mobile accessories as well. Platform independence shall be included as the essential system quality. It will make sure that the website is developed once and is used across all the operating system platforms and mobile devices. Mobile optimization will be automatic in the website and it will allow the users to access the site on any of the mobile devices without performance issues.

There are a lot of benefits that the web presence in the form of a website or a mobile application offers to the enterprise. However, there are several risks to the security of the site and the information sets that may also come up. The proposed website for mobile accessories will also be exposed to numerous security risks.

Malware attacks are the most common forms of security attacks and the website may be brought down by the attack of malware codes as viruses, ransomware, adware, worms, and logic bombs. Ransomware attacks have become extremely common the recent times with the occurrence of large –scale attacks like WannaCry and Petya. In such cases, the access of the site will be blocked for the users and they will be asked to pay a ransom amount to receive the access again. There may also be cases of data breaches, leakage, and data loss that may come up. There will be various transactions that will be performed on the site. The transmission of the information over the network may result in the occurrence of security threats in which the breaching or leakage of data may take place. The networks may be used as the threat agents for the security issues like eavesdropping attacks, man in the middle attacks, and denial of service attacks. The occurrence of these network-based attacks will negatively impact the website information availability and confidentiality. The integrity of the data sets may also be impacted with the occurrence of the manipulation of the data sets. The message contents or media contents may be manipulated (Huang et al., 2017).

Cloud-Based Database

The members that will be involved in the project team may give shape to an operational error or mistake during the development of the site. The operational errors may also be carried out by the end-users of the website and the maintenance staff. It may not be possible to roll-back the actions every time. The repetitive occurrence may lead to deterioration of the performance and end-user experience.  

The cloud-based platforms, database, and other technical components involved in the development of the website and post deployment of the site may turn faulty. It may lead to the disturbance in the continuity and availability of the site.

The occurrence of the security attacks or operational/technical errors will lead to increased downtime and re-work. The cost of the processes will also go up as the team will be required to make constant changes on the site.

There will be various security threats that the website will be exposed to. These will include malware attacks, data breaches, denial of service attacks, eavesdropping attacks, data leakage issues, data manipulation issues, man in the middle attacks, and many more. The occurrence of these attacks will lead to poor implications on the security and privacy of the data sets. There may also be legal obligations that may come up for the organization with the occurrence of a security event (Sharma, 2016). The violation of the information properties and attributes may also result in the occurrence of ethical issues. For instance, if an employee of the organization passes the confidential details of the customer to a third-party then the information confidentiality will be compromised and may be misused. It will be an issue of ethical non-compliance as well. Similarly, if the financial or other critical data sets are captured by the malicious entities then the customers may file legal suite against the organization.

The content that is included on the site shall be in accordance with the social and cultural norms. The failure to do so may result in the occurrence of social/cultural issues.

Conclusion 

It is recommended that the website is developed as per the responsive web design methodology. This will ensure that the responsiveness and interaction of the website is high which in turn will have positive implications on the end-user satisfaction. SSL certificates will be used on the site to make sure that the site is secure. In addition to the same, there shall be use of security controls and packages, such as anti-malware tools, anti-denial tools, firewalls, intrusion detection system, intrusion prevention systems, advanced access control, multi-fold authentication, encryption of the data sets, and proxy servers that shall be done. There shall also be backup solutions integrated to make sure that the cloud data and information of the website is constantly backed up.

Functional Requirements of the Proposed Website

The primary model of the site will B2C model in which the website design will be done for the customers of the organization. The customers will be provided with the products on the website to select from and make payments to place their orders. There may also be scenarios wherein the business firms may look to purchase bulk orders from the site and in such cases B2B model will be involved. There are various cloud-based web development platforms that are available in the market. The one that is recommended and proposed for the website is Wix. The proposed cloud-based database for the site is MongoDB. It is a NoSQL database that will make sure that the website data is stored on the cloud platforms. There are numerous functional aspects that are associated with the website and shall be covered for enhanced user experience, such as login, registration, logout, product catalogue, order management, payment gateways, cart management, logout, search, contact us, social media integration, and many more. Similarly, there are system qualities as reliability, usability, performance, security, availability, inter-operability, maintainability, and supportability that shall be adhered to. There are a lot of benefits that the web presence in the form of a website or a mobile application offers to the enterprise. However, there are several risks as well. These may be security risks, operational risks, technical risks, costing issues, legal & ethical issues, social issues, and cultural issues.

References

Dilworth, J. and Kochhar, A. (2007). Creation of an eâ€Âbusiness requirements specification model. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 18(6), pp.659-677.

Gross, D. and Yu, E. (2001). From Non-Functional Requirements to Design through Patterns. Requirements Engineering, 6(1), pp.18-36.

Hider, P. (2016). The functional requirements for community information. Journal of Documentation, 72(1), pp.81-102.

Huang, H., Zhang, Z., Cheng, H. and Shieh, S. (2017). Web Application Security: Threats, Countermeasures, and Pitfalls. Computer, 50(6), pp.81-85.

Johnson, M., Redlbacher, F. and Schaltegger, S. (2018). Stakeholder Engagement for Corporate Sustainability: A Comparative Analysis of B2C and B2B Companies. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 25(4), pp.659-673.

Mansfield-Devine, S. (2009). Simple website footprinting. Network Security, 2009(4), pp.7-9.

Mongodb (2018). MongoDB Cloud Database Solutions. [online] MongoDB. Available at: https://www.mongodb.com/cloud [Accessed 3 Oct. 2018].

Nsairi, Z. and Khadraoui, M. (2013). Website Satisfaction: Determinants and Consequences on Website Loyalty. International Business Research, 6(9), 12(1), pp.10-15.

Pang, M., Suh, W., Kim, J. and Lee, H. (2009). A Benchmarking-Based Requirement Analysis Methodology for Improving Web Sites. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 13(3), pp.119-162.

Sharma, S. (2016). Building Social Media Collections: Legal and Ethical Issues. SSRN Electronic Journal, psychology.11-12.

Wix (2018). Wix.com. [online] Powerful Features for Your Website | Wix.com. Available at: https://www.wix.com/features/main [Accessed 3 Oct. 2018].