Online Course in E Commerce

• Learn to manage commercial transactions electronically, particularly via the internet.
• Explore ways to run a virtual business
• Start a business, Improve a Business, Find a Job, Discover ways to save on traditional business expenditures

While the course is concerned with marketing, management and processing; the primary concern is marketing. E commerce is short for “electronic commerce”. It is anything concerned with doing business electronically. Ecommerce includes commerce conducted over the internet, but also other forms of electronic commerce such as telephone banking, using a fax, or generating and managing accounting systems on a computer (without use of the internet). This course focuses on the internet; but covers other aspects of e commerce as well.

CONTENTS

There are eight lessons in this module as follows: 

1. Introduction:  What is e-commerce, scope of e commerce. E commerce problems & advantages, security,  using the internet, contract law, How different electronic payment systems work (eg. credit card, bank transfer etc)
2. Success & Failure:  What makes a web site commercially successful? Relaxing with technology, what can go wrong, site visibility, interactivity of a site, etc
3. Promotional Strategies:  Internet differences; Internet code of conduct, marketing management, target marketing, categories of url’s (search engines, ffa’s, directories etc)
4. Optimizing Web Site Potential:  Monitoring visitors, Ground rules keep changing,   Meta tags, Evaluation services, Submission services, etc
5. Increasing Web Site Exposure: Developing a marketing plan, Promoting a site, Forms of advertising, Types of Marketing (Affiliate marketing; Free Content Marketing; Drive in Marketing, Buzz Marketing and User Group Marketing.)
6. Automating Supply of Goods, Services and Cash flow:  Ways to process payment; Ways to supply goods or services.
7. Managing Constant Change:  Ways to keep information up to date, Resource Planning, Information Currency vs Cash Currency, etc.
8. Dealing with E Commerce Problems:  Learning from mistakes (others & yours)

Aims

• Recognise the nature and scope of e commerce
• Differentiate between successful and unsuccessful e commerce operations, and identify key factors in their success or failure
• Develop strategies for promotion of business activity using broad e commerce tools.
• Monitor and adjust e commerce strategies on a web site in order to improve performance with respect to stated goals.
• Develop strategies that will cause growth in Web Site exposure.
• Distinguish between alternative e commerce tools for managing the supply of goods and services, and the flow of cash.
• Develop methods for managing change within the e commerce context.
• Manage risk within the e commerce context in order to minimise the impact of problems that emerge.

EXAMPLES OF WHAT YOU MAY DO IN THIS COURSE

• Research demographic information in a specific locality that may be relevant in profiling a particular market sector (You are free to select any market sector that is relevant, or of interest to yourself
• Investigate how credit cards work for a business. As a business operator, how do you process a payment; how do you get paid, and what costs are involved. How does an Eftpos machine work, and why would a business use this rather than other methods of processing credit cards?
• Go to http://www.dmoz.com and work out how to submit a website. Go through the process but do not do the actual submission. Explain the steps taken to submit the site
• Consider ways an e marketing strategy could be used for selling motor cars need to be different to an e marketing strategy for selling books?
• Present a plan for marketing a service or product using e commerce
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a PR firm to promote a web site rather than doing it yourself?
• How would you decide on the value of listings on different Search Engines and Directories?
• Surf the net to identify different sites, each using one of the following marketing types:
  Affiliate marketing; Free Content Marketing; Buzz Marketing and User Group Marketing. Compare these 4 different sites, and make notes about how well you feel each is marketing itself and why.
• Develop a Marketing plan for a web site that includes both on line and off line promotions.
  Using a budget of $5000, outline how and on what you would spend the money, using at least3 types of paid advertising and 3 types of free advertising
• How can a potential buyer determine whether it is safe to use their credit card number over the internet?
• How would you respond if a potential customer in another country says they want to purchase from you; but insists they pay you in their countries currency; and not yours?
• What is the fastest way of getting a payment made by a customer to appear in your own bank account?
• Banking on-line is becoming an accepted norm by society.List the different on-line services being offered by banks today.
• Consider three different products offered electronically.Name them and then explain how you would arrange delivery of these products.Give reasons why you chose those particular modes of delivery.

Learn the Advantages of Doing Business Electronically

• The seller has lower costs
• Quicker and easier communication
• The seller can change electronic details easier than details printed on paper (eg. if the cost of a service needs to be changed; you can do it easily and immediately on a web site: but cannot on a printed brochure)
• The seller can reach the whole world as a market, through the internet
• Immediate payment can be achieved at a distance electronically (with credit card or direct bank transfer, etc)
• The buyer has greater bargaining power to purchase at a better price.
• It becomes viable for smaller businesses to enter the market place; and that can result in some services or products becoming available, which might not normally be available through, for example, a traditional shop front.
• The buyer can access a greater variety of suppliers easier
• The buyer has the convenience of shopping from home 24/7
• The buyer can shop around to get the best bargain in a fraction of the time than in the traditional way of shopping.
• There is less stress involved in shopping online because there is no traffic to beat, no parking problems.
• Online shopping offers a whole new world of shopping for people with disabilities, elderly and people with less mobility.
• Establishing an e commerce business requires a fraction of investment in comparison to a traditional brick and mortar business therefore enables many more individuals to establish their own business.

WHO CAN THIS COURSE BENEFIT?

• Business owners, entrepreneurs, marketing professionals
• Anyone working in retailing - with shopfront sales in decline and e learning on the increase; this may be a way to reduce your risks for future employment
• Students of commerce or IT