E-Commerce

This is my research on E-Commerce:


E-Commerce In Business

E-commerce business is a rapidly growing industry. The purpose of e-commerce business is to sell products of all types of nature over the web. An example of this, is the store ‘HMV’. HMV sell a range of goods from CD’s to DVDs on the high street, but they also sell these products online for a cheaper price. The target audience for this website is for all age ranges, who interested by music and film. However, the majority of its buyers are young adults. HMV fulfils it’s purpose by selling a wide range of products for a cheaper price than in the store as for many they contain no tax or vat. It also makes it easy for people to buy products by having simple screens and instructions, another way it sells products is by keeping people interested, as each product has a description as to what it is.
Another e-commerce store is play.com. Their aim is to sell games consoles and games at discount prices. It’s target audience is anyone interested in computer games and games console, however, most of these are older children. It fulfils it’s purpose by being easy to navigate with simple links and text which is easy to read. The stages to buying are well set out so that getting to the buying stage is easy.
Finally, JD sports sells not only on the high-street but also the web. Their aim is to sell famous brands of clothes. Their target audience consists of mainly teenagers and young adults, or anyone interested in fashion. It fulfils it’s purpose by having easy to navigate screens with good links. A good idea it has I previews so you know what you are buying, these show it from different angles.
The advantages of e-commerce to the customer are that they don’t have to leave their house as items bought are delivered to their house, this can be good because web sites show how many are in store so you don’t have to go to the shop to find they’ve sold out. However, when buying with a credit card, it is easy for people to get your credit card number and duplicate your card and use it for their own good.
The advantages of e-commerce to the business is that they don’t have to spend loads of money buying a shop in town when they can just buy a warehouse and distribute their products from there. However, not everyone can use or has access to the internet so they lose out on money from people who cannot use the internet.



On-Line Banking
The purpose of on-line banking is for customers to do all their banking form their house without having to go to the high street. An example, of this is virgin bank, which operates only on the internet. It’s target audience are for people who do have a bank near them or cannot leave their house for a particular reason, or for people who don’t want to go into town for banking. It fulfils it’s purpose by having easily navigated links and vital information at places where it’s easy to read. Accessing the right areas is easy to do because it is well signposted. Another example is, Lloyds TSB, it’s target audience is for people who are joined with them and don’t want to go to town to do their banking. It fulfils this by making it easy for customers to find what hey want to do. It is made very safe and secure and important text is highlighted. The advantages of on-line banking is that the customer doesn’t have to go to the often busy towns and high streets to do their banking. Another major advantage is there is no waiting in line and all the paper work goes through quickly. However, your bank details can be stolen and used in fraud. Also, if you make a mistake you cannot change it and you can’t withdraw money.