Internet Marketing Assignment Essay

E-Commerce describes any descent to consumer transactions that take place dowerly or plainly when online and is not limited to the purchase of animal(prenominal) harvests from a weathervane point although that does make up a key comp unmatchablent of to a spectaculargonr extent or less e-commerce coursees. Some services or yields be sold purely online while early(a) companies whitethorn have sensual stores or headquarters in playition to their online presence.E-Business describes any business to business transactions that take place online. For modelling a Web Design go with often doesnt cope reapings leasely to consumers, but instead make waters web posts as a service for other companies, which allow for in turn be personad to carry on products or services to consumers.The internet has revolutionised the track companies do business. The shift in the way the great unwashed shop has had a big impact on both the micro environments the individual companies an d their direct stakeholders and the macro environment politics, economy and society as a whole. The death of the amply street has been an obvious effect of these changes with many stores shutting down.Those who fail to keep up with these changes exit be more than believably to odour the negative consequences as was the case with HMV and Blockbuster, who were forced into administration as competing online services took all over their tradeplace sh be.For those who do keep up how invariably, business is booming. iTunes, Amazon and Netflix be Blockbusters and HMVs online equivalents and e very(prenominal) three have billions of users from all around the globe.While the amount of jobs available in retail positions has been on a steady turn down over recent years the demand for skilled computeers in the IT sector is bigger than ever so much so that there is a dearth of slewdidates and many roles go unfilled. A report issued by the government regarding the UK cyber secur ity strategy mellowlighted that the current and future ICT and cyber security skills gap was a key altercate in implementing the strategy. (National Audit Office, 2013)To address this problem the education system needed to be changed, as of 2014 children as young as 5 volition be learning advanced computing as part of the curriculum. Higher Education institutes go out likewise app bent have to reassess their course material to keep back the new generation of students who will be leaving school with more in depth k straightwayledge of computer systems and package development.Consumers gain many benefits from e-commerce, they now have the choice of shop from an almost unlimited choice of companies from all around the world. Comparing harms and finding bulge what other clients thought of a product is withal made much easier by the internet.The change in peoples shopping habits has changed the way companies advertise, huge market bud pass aways for prime- mature TV commercia ls atomic number 18 no longer the sole(prenominal) way to pop off noticed and the potential audience is now global.Elements of mesh MarketingTraditional styles of publicise such as TV, newspapers, magazines, billboards etc are based on an interruption model. A denominate is interrupted by TV advert music is interrupted by a radio advert the flow of an word is interrupted by a magazine article, etc. This style of publicise persisted and close up exists today in many places but more and more companies are realising that demanding a clients attention in this way online does not yield good results. Some elements of internet marketing are examined below.Search Engines fundamental search results account for a signifi give the bounce buoyt percentage of internet traffic. (The actual number is hard to mea sure for reasons discussed in the Internet Marketing Tools section on page 11). Regardless of the specifics it is enormously accepted that organic search results are where a hu ge amount of a web turn ups visitors come from. Search Engine optimisation is therefore a vital part of a marketing strategy. gainful advertise through search engines may also be considered for extra image but is no substitute for a properly designed site structure and key word rich, timbre capacity for search engine robots to c in the rawl. much good practices for SEO also embody good practices for UX design and accessibility humans and robots alike prefer sites that are easy to navigate and have well-structured content that makes use of headings and sections to make it easy to read as well as alt tags on all images that give a clear description of what that image depicts with informal and external links within the content when the context is relevant.In the early days of search engines keywords were all that mattered, so it was easy to rank high on Google simply by stuffing as many keywords into the headers meta-tag as possible. Key word meta-tags are now obsolete and searc h engines have become much more sophisticated. (Google, 2011) As well ascrawling site structure and content to determine the quality of a page search-bots also judge the honor of a page. They do this by keeping track of how many external sources link to it at first, this encouraged link farms (a company would pay for a web traffic boosting service, which would churn expose their sites URL over a network of dummy sites set up purely for the purpose of creating links) as search engines evolved this method is no longer as effective.Google now has algorithms that also measure the integrity of the sites that the links come from to put up users with more relevant results. be high on Google for certain keywords is a long process, a new website has to build up a reputation, get their content shared and linked by others in an organic way by having an article shared on social media for typesetters case not through a link farm. Google strives for excellence by constantly improving its algorithms, they lack to offer their visitors relevant search results so people continue to use their service and marketing strategies have to adapt if they penury to keep up.Organic search results are a perfect example of marketing that doesnt feel like marketing to potential customers. They are development search engines to find something specific the hard work has been d unitary for you, they already want to buy something or have some sort of problem single- encephaloned and if good practices for SEO have been implemented theres no reason a website they find through Google would be irrelevant and not what theyre smell for for, Googles algorithms make sure of that and there are no shortcuts or cheats to trick them. A site filled with links and crammed with keywords for the sole purpose of get more people to visit your website achieves nothing, if they click on it and it isnt relevant to what theyre looking for they wint on the nose buy your product or service anyway, t hey will leave. The amount of time people spend on a website and the actions they take there (signing up for a newssheet, making a purchase, etc) is all tracked by Google and used as part of the algorithms to determine the quality and integrity of a website.Banner AdsBanner Advertisements are based on the unspotted interruption model and thevast majority of internet users dont like them and a huge percentage use software to block them completely. This has been resolute multiple times over the years by a number of different researchers. One cogitation conducted by the Norman Neilson Group, experts in Usability Heuristics, be that most users will completely ignore anything that looks like an advert even when its not and even when it provides them with the nurture they are looking for.In one study participants were asked to find the population of the United States using the U.S Census Bureau website which was presented in magnanimous red numbers on the make up hand side of th e kinfolk page. 86% of users ignored it because it looked like an advert, it was bold and placed in the location that adverts are traditionally placed so was disregarded, despite containing the exact information they were looking for. The pie chart shows an overall representation of the behaviour exhibited by users on the site.In a different study eye tracking software and real time observation was used to measure exactly where people look on a website and how they interact with its various elements. In summary the study found that Users rarely look at display advertisements on websites. Of the 4 design elements that do attract a few ad fixations, one is unethical and slenderizes the value of advertising networks. (Nielsen, 2007) The four design elements in question that users have been found to give their attention are text, faces, cleavage/other body parts (sex sells still rings true for internet marketing) and obnoxious, intruding banner advertisements.Banners that sit and do nothing are considered a more ethical way of advertising, unfortunately studies show that ones that make sounds, pop up into the users line of sight or are animated attract more attention. However, just because a person is more probable to look at an obnoxious ad, that doesnt mean they will click on it and be prepared to hand over payment details. I feel Banner Blindness should be taken more seriously than it currently is and companies need to find alternative methods of advertising, as this form has been proven to be ineffective for well over a decade now. (The same study with the same findings was first conducted by the NN groupin 1997.) Social MediaWebsites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc are no longer just the domain of a young tech-savvy audience. Data collected from a survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International found that Social Media usage has profitd by 800% since 2005. In contrast, TV viewership has decreased by 50% in the same time f rame. The graph below shows the findings, at sea down by ageSocial media marketing can connect businesses with millions of potential customers. Not further that, it can be done for free foreign television and other traditional methods of advertising that require a substantial investment up front with virtually no guarantee of a return. Paid advertising on Social Media can also be tailored to fag a specific audience. The ads can be set up to unaccompanied display to those who will be the most potential to click on it. A bar advertising for freshers week for example could target their ads at students who were over 18 and living in the local theatre.Strategic ContentThe use of strategic content ties in with SEO and Social Media marketing it involves creating content (as a blog for example) that is useful or interesting in some way (as well as relevant to the business) to encourage visitors to come to a website. From an SEO rack this will make the site rich with content, keywords and links which can result in higher rankings on search engines which means visitors are more likely to find your website. For example a company specialising in web design may have a design and technology blog providing expert information and up to date news on technology, or perhaps a section featuring tutorials and templates. Providing free content thats confusable to what youre assay to sell can calculate counter intuitive but it helps cultivate self-assurance, it provides evidence that the company knows what its talking more or less and gives potential customers an overview of how things are done. Content can be shared around social media, and if its interesting or informative people may share it with theirfriends which results in more exposure.PartnershipsForming mutually near deals with other companies and cross promoting each other can widen the audience they both reach. Youtube and Twitch for example are used as platforms for gamers and game publishers to work togethe r publishers provide high influence content creators with early access to games, which they broadcast to all their fans. The content creators gain more views and in return more people get to hear near the game and see how it plays making them more likely to buy it. This kind of promotion doesnt cost all party any money but is beneficial and profitable for everyone involved.All of these elements (and others) tailored to fit the needs of the company combine to create whats commonly referred to among marketing professionals as The Marketing Mix.The Marketing MixThe Marketing Mix a phrase first used by Neil Borden in his paper The pattern of the Marketing Mix has become a well-known term for describing the strategies formulated to advertise services and products. One of the most widely used marketing salmagundi paradigms is The Four Ps proposed by E J McCarthy in 1964. The Four Ps areProductWhether it be a tangible item or a service, first and foremost you need something to sell. What do customers want to buy? What features does your product or service need to fulfil the needs of your potential customers? step to the foreIn the past, brick and mortar stores and catalogues were the only two optionsto consider, the internet has made a global market much easier to reach but has also made the market much more competitive. Companies need to consider where customers might look for their product. Is a physical location required or can the business exist solely online? The pros and cons of each would need to be considered, for example a pure start-up clothing store would be competing with huge corporations such as Primark, Debenhams, etc while paying for pricy running costs of a brick store, stock storage and paying for staff wages.Online, that same start-up company would still be competing with those same corporations as on the high street, plus a huge other array of smaller or medium sized online outlets. However the running costs and risk of exposures of an on line-only start-up are minimal. A company can exist solely as a part of a larger organisation such as Ebay or Etsy many who start out this way and find success then film to invest in their own website for selling their products without the middle man. Some then may also go on to open high-street stores, for example Simple Be existed as a purely online business at first before investing in physical stores which have an advantage over online only clothing stores as customers can try things on and wont have to worry about complicated returns procedures.PriceFinding the near price for a product or service is a balancing act. Price too high for your target market and nobody will buy. Pricing too low not only means lower profit margins but can also label your product as cheap which may not be an image the company wants to convey. Apple are a perfect example of hitting the perfect price to quality ratio for their products target market. Apple products are hugely popular despite being co mparable in technical specifications to other, lower priced competing devices.Ken Segall, Apples source marketing executive, said himself that Apple doesnt do cheap stating in his blog that Apple makes products for people who care about design, simplicity, quality and a great experience and are willing to pay more for these things. For Apple to compromise in any of these areas would be a violation of the Prime Directive. (Segall, 2014) Apple products are desirable because theyre seen by their fans as the most prestigious and high quality brand, this image would be diminished if the products werecheaper as was demonstrated by the comparatively low sales of the iPhone 5C which was made of plastic and lower in price than other Apple devices (Though still much more expensive than competing brands).PromotionA great product wont sell if nobody knows about it, but similarly a terrible product wont sell well no matter how much time and money goes into advertising. The point of advertising is to convinced potential customers that your product or service will add value to their life in some way thats relative to the price they would pay for it.This model can be applied to a wide range of services and products as it is non-specific and can easily be tailored to fit the needs of the business using it. It all boils down to putting the right product in the right place at the right price.Several alternatives and additions have been suggested by marketing experts and academics alike in the interest of creating a marketing mix thats more relevant in an industry that has changed in ways nobody could have predicted. When the 4Ps were first introduced in the 60s the internet as we know it today did not exist so its reasonable to say new strategies and updated methodologies are required.Some additions that have been suggested admit people encouraging good customer service and a good working environment for employees. Process looking at ways to streamline and reduce costs in b oth producing the product and how the business is run. Physical Evidence Could be in the form of endorsements, customer testimonials and feedback or any awards the company may have achieved. Another popular paradigm that evolved from the original 4Ps is the Four Cs model proposed by R.F. Lauterborn in 1993.Customer/ClientsThe customers are the impetuous force behind any business, so an organisationshould ask themselves what they can do for their customers what needs and wants to they have and how can you help?CostHow much will it cost the customers, are they getting good value? If your product is more expensive than competitors, why? Does it offer superior quality? If its cheaper, again customers will want to know why, will they be compromising on quality? Or does the business create lower costs by streamlining internal processes and transit the savings on to the consumer?ConveniencePeople buy things that they believe will make their lives easier or enhance it in some way and w hen they want something they want it to be easy to find and guileless to purchase. For example a clean, uncluttered website that makes finding and buying products easy will tend to sell more than one with confusing navigation and a lengthy arrest process.CommunicationAll promotion and advertising is a way of communicating with customers, a way to get your message and brand out into the world and let people know what your product is and why people should buy it. Companies who stay engaged with their customers cultivate trust and loyalty which earns them repeat business and recommendations.This model is essentially the same as the original version but is designed to encourage organisations to look at things from the customers point of view.thither are merits to both sides of the debate over whether the 4Ps need revamping. On the one hand the original is broad bountiful for marketing executives to use as a very rough guide to shaping their own unique strategy. On the other hand in a n ever changing industry improvements on old practices is a good thing how can the world evolve if change is notembraced? Doing things simply because thats the way they have always been done may cause a company to stagnate and lose market share for not being innovative enough.I would like to propose my own take on the marketing mix, the 4Es modelExcellenceNo matter the product or service, striving to be the dress hat at what you do is a good goal to aim for. This is more easily achieved if a business focuses on one grouchy area rather becoming a jack of all trades and a master of none. Take for example the gaming company Mojang, who were recently purchased by Microsoft for $2.5billion. They developed one game Minecraft and they did it so well that it became more than just a innocent browser game. Its now an integral part of pop culture for this generations gamers with a huge diverse community thats still growing 5 years on.Similarly, Facebook bought Instagram for $1billion aft er it dominated the mobile photo sharing market and WhatsApp for a staggering $19billion a undecomposable messaging service that took off in popularity and quickly overtook market share from the big players like Microsoft and Google. (CNN Money, 2014) Facebook itself started as a simple project and is now one of the most powerful corporations in the world buying off any competitors is one way to keep that lead. A simple concept executed well can change the world.EngagementSocial media and the internet in general have made communicating with customers easier than ever before. The best way to figure out what consumers want is to ask them. A business selling intellectual nourishment products for example could engage with their customers by making a venture on social media asking what different flavours they would like to see. This not only gives the company a firm estimate of how popular a new product would be, it also generates buzz and makes the customers feel more involved in the process making them more likely to actually buy said product when its released.Creating quality, relevant content for a website perhaps in the form of a blog givescustomers a reason to regularly visit a website. Using a food company as an example again, they could have a recipe section on their website. Maybe even a community section where others could grade and share their own recipes. If these recipes are good quality it can lead to people thinking If the free recipes are this good, just imagine how great the food they sell will be turning casual visitors into paying customers.EaseAllow potential customers to make informed decisions by providing them with information about whats on offer in a way thats easy to belowstand and easy to access similarly ensure to make the process of handing over their money once theyve decided to buy quick and easy. With an uncountable number of websites in existence a potential customer can be disjointed very easily if they cant find what theyre looking for or find any part of the process difficult they will simply go elsewhere.EconomyFinding the right price for a product or service can still be as tricky today as its always been with one exception information on competitors and target markets is readily available. Even in a niche market there are likely to be some(prenominal) competitors operating at varying scales of price and quality. The goal is not necessarily to undercut everybody and become the cheapest but to find the right balance of cost and quality most people are happy to pay a little bit more for a higher quality product as long as they can justify that it will be worth the investment. Similarly there are many people who will buy the cheapest option available regardless of quality. Establishing a target market and researching purchasing habits can give a company a good idea of where to price themselves to be competitive and profitable. An expensive product can still be considered economical if its b enefits are proportionate to its cost.In the end, any model is only as good as the implementation. Knowing the concepts behind a good marketing strategy isnt the same as having theskills to plan, implement and maintain them. Internet marketing campaigns take time. It takes time to gain enough followers on social media to start fully engaging with a target market it takes time to create a catalogue of high quality strategic content and it takes time to build up consumer trust. Internet marketing isnt as simple as making a Facebook page and uploading the company logo the internet is an interactive medium. Its not a billboard, its more a large ongoing focus group.Internet Marketing ToolsOne of the biggest advantages internet marketing has over traditional marketing is the fact the effectiveness of a campaign can be more accurately measured and analysed. Television adverts are measured in terms of how many people have viewed it beyond that its loosely guesswork its very difficult to m easure how many people saw a television advert and then went on to perform the sought after action (such as go to a store and buy a product, or make a phone call to enquire about a service). With internet marketing everything that happens as the result of a campaign can be tracked every step of the way.An email marketing campaign for example can be tracked to see how many people opened the email, how many then visited the website (known as the click through rate) from there it can also track what the visitor did while they were on the website. How much time they spent there, which pages they visited, whether or not they purchased something or if they abandoned their cart in the process of trying to make a purchase. Other details such as which device the customer was using, their location, age and previous browsing habits may also be tracked.making use of tools such as Google Analytics can show at a glance the raw data related to any aspect of a visitors habits. There are many oth er tools on the market but Google Analytics is the most widely used and it integrates well with SEO Google have built up a whale network of partners and billions of websites have tracking codes. Individual companies can access their own data to analyse but Google has access to everything and have builtup a database of browsing habit data they use to improve their algorithms as well as sell to third parties (such as Facebook). This creates a constant feedback loop for everyone involved.This raw data however, is fairly useless if a company does not know how to analyse it and make use of the information. Some raw data has obvious implications for example if a company finds that the majority of visitors are using a mobile device and their site is not fully accessible on mobile, they should look into optimising their site for mobile users to accommodate the needs of their customers.Other times the data is only the starting point, it must be analysed before it becomes useful informati on that can be applied in a practical way. Tracking tools can give declarations to the questions how, when and where with a high degree of accuracy. Who? can be answered to a point, the approximate age of visitors can be tracked, as can their previous browsing habits which may give some insight into their likes and needs. The one question raw data cannot answer is Why? Why do visitors behave the way they do? Why do some e-commerce shoppers add items to a cart and then abandon it during the cheque process? Why was the click through rate low/high for a particular campaign?Surveys and social media can be used as tools for getting answers to these questions. Once the quantitative data from tracking tools have provided a starting point, specific questions can be posed to collect qualitative data. in concert they can give a company a lot of valuable information to help them improve future campaigns and the way they do business in general. Facebook has its own analytics tools called Fac ebook Insights it works in a similar way to Google Analytics but is more focused around Facebook pages and ads. Facebook insights shows how many people saw a particular invest (reach), how many responded to the post (engagement), and other information such as visitors ages and interests based on what other pages they have liked on Facebook.Facebook Insights can be used to determine which posts get the most likes andshares, which lets companies know what their audience is likely to respond to so they can tailor future posts accordingly. It can also provide information about when visitors engage with the page so future posts can be scheduled to post at a time when the highest reach is likely to be achieved.Combined with the data from Google analytics social media marketing campaigns and posts can be tracked down to the fine details. If these posts lead to strategic content tracking can be broken down into stages to measure the quality of a websites content.Many websites use this st rategy, Cracked being one of them. Cracked are an entertainment website who post funny/interesting articles, columns, videos and podcasts. When a new piece of content is posted, their social media team make posts to advertise it to followers. Facebook Insights will provide the tracking information about reach, likes and engagement and Google Analytics takes over once visitors have clicked through. Cracked split up their articles into several pages they could easily fit the content onto a single page so why split it up?One reason is usability, pages load quicker with less content on and readers are less likely to feel overwhelmed by a huge wall of text than they are several manageable chunks.Another reason is SEO the more pages and links robots have to crawl, the higher the site is likely to rank on search engine results. Instead of one page per article related to certain keywords there are 2-4 pages per article.Finally, splitting articles up into several pages allows tracking an alytics to be performed in stages. How many people got to the end of the first page and deemed the content interesting enough to click on the read more link? How many read the whole thing? How many dropped out and where did they tend to do it?This can help determine weak spots in content and the company can thenformulate a plan to improve the situation. It can also be used to further engage visitors who seem to be enjoying the content the final page of an article could for example act as a trigger for a pop-up box that prompts to visitor to sign up for a newsletter. If a visitor has enjoyed an article its relatively safe to assume they would like to see more the same is not true for a visitor who has only just landed on the home page. They havent read anything yet, why would they want to sign up for a newsletter?As mentioned in a previous section, tracking data does have its limitations that marketers have to be aware of to properly interpret the data their tools produce. Specific ally direct traffic can be difficult to differentiate from all other types of traffic. This makes analysing the effectiveness of marketing campaigns less straight forward than it seems. In a nutshell, whenever a referrer is not passed traffic is marked as direct.What this means is a glance at an analytics report may suggest that 50% of a sites traffic is direct, convey the visitor typed the URL directly into their browser. The report could for example state organic search accounted for 40% and advertisements 10%.If a company is putting significant resources into advertising and seeing those kinds of numbers they may decide it isnt worth it and seek to make changes. While in reality direct traffic may only account for 20% while ads account for 30%, making the cost per conversion rate much more favourable.There are a muckle of reasons a referrer may not be passed to the tracking software that results in traffic being incorrectly marked as direct. For example many people make use of ad blocking software that often have clauses that allow for non-intrusive advertising. While users of this software can see and click on non-intrusive ads, the software blocks the server response required to pass the referral to the tracking software. Many browsers now offer a do not track option to offer additive privacy to users, turning on this setting also blocks tracking requests. Some people may perform a search for something or click on an advertisement but not make a purchase right at that moment and instead choose to come back later bytyping in the URL directly so their visit and subsequent purchase is marked as direct when it was really the result of a campaign.As more users become increasingly concerned with privacy tracking and tailored advertising becomes more difficult. Making use of marketing tools makes the process easier but they are still only tools their usefulness is determined by the skill of the person utilising them.Interactive Order ProcessingOrder trea t is obviously an important part of e-commerce, an online catalogue isnt much use if people cant actually purchase anything. As mentioned in previous sections, the process of placing an order should be made as easy as possible for the customers.Once a customer has decided they would like to hand over some money a company should not distract them in any way. Some companies at this point might be tempted to upsell, cross promote or place advertising on the checkout pages but in almost all situations this is a mistake. If the customer gets annoyed at the ads they will leave. If they cant figure out how to continue with the checkout process because the design is cluttered or otherwise hard to use they will leave. If they dont feel confident about the legitimacy of the company or doubt the security of the checkout process they will leave.Upselling attempts should be handled carefully. Bombard customers will too many options and they may get distracted by browsing, decide not to check ou t and instead leave it for later they may not come back. Relevant promotions should be advertize at this point or ideally added to the cart automatically. For example if orders over a certain amount receive free shipping this should be prominently displayed within the cart and applied automatically when the threshold is reached customers like to feel like theyre getting good value so if they see it will only take them a small amount extra to receive free shipping they may decide to add a few more items.Argos successfully uses this technique every year during the build up to Christmas they offer a 5 voucher for anyone consumption over 50 and 10 for anyone spending over 100. This promotion is prominently displayed all over their website, catalogues and physical stores. Rather than offering a discount on the current purchase, they encourage repeat business by offering money off the next purchase. This has a twofold effect customers will buy a little more than they planned in ord er to get the voucher and then spend even more after that to use said voucher (not many items can be bought for under 5 or 10 and no change is issued to further encourage customers to use their voucher in full and pay a little extra on top rather than waste any of it).If adding additional items can be done without the customer leaving the checkout this will further increase the success of upselling attempts. Both Dominos and Asda integrate upselling into the checkout process. Dominos uses a sidebar next to the main checkout area displaying a selection of small items (sides, desserts, drinks) with a small discount applied visitors can click add to order and the total is updated on the page without taking them elsewhere. Asda displays a selection of items that the customer has previously ordered, but are not currently in the cart with the heading Have you forgotten anything? This can be helpful to the customer because they may have indeed forgotten something, and Asda in return make additional sales.Businesses can track the behaviour of their customers and analytics tools can be used to determine if a checkout design is working.The tale of The $300 Million Button published in Luke Wroblewskis book Web Form Design Filling in the Blanks contributed by Jared M. Spool is an excellent example of just how important the design of the checkout process is.The piece describes a company who decided to examine their checkout process which featured a login and registration screen after customers clickedcheckout. Their designers reasoned that making registration non-optional would encourage repeat business and customers wouldnt mind logging in to take advantage of quicker checkouts in the future.Spool was called in to analyse the checkout design his team put together a focus group, gave them all a budget and a shopping list and asked them to checkout from the site. Upon being presented with the login form many participants were not sure if they had used the site before and attempted many unsuccessful logins before clicking the Forgot Password? button. Many times this was unsuccessful as they couldnt remember which email address they used. Others who were sure they had not previously registered were reluctant to do so. One shopper is quoted as saying Im not here to enter into a relationship. I just want to buy something. Many stated that they felt the company just wanted to use their details for spam and others were concerned about privacy.Upon examining tracking analytics for the site the team discovered that 45% of users had multiple registrations and over 160,000 Lost Password requests were being sent every day. 75% of these never returned to the site to complete the lost password process and ergo did not complete the checkout process.Spools team suggested the design was changed to make registration optional. The register button was changed to Continue with the message You do not need to create an account to make purchases on our site. Simply click Continue to proceed to checkout. To make your future purchases even faster, you can create an account during checkout.This simple change resulted in the number of customers purchasing increasing by 45%. The extra purchases resulted in an extra $15 million in the first month and $300million after the first year.Businesses also need to take into consideration security when implementing an e-commerce system. A secure payment gateway must be used to make submitting customer financial and personal information safe. Similarly this data needsto be stored securely and kept up to date to follow with the Data Protection Act. Any company accepting card payments (not only online) must also comply with PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard).If a company does not comply with PCI and DPA standards they run the risk of customer details being leaked which could lead to fraud. This is obviously bad for the customers whose details get stolen but would also damage the reputation of th e company and destroy consumer trust as well as earn them huge fines from governing bodies.For small or start-up companies the cost, time and acquaintance required to set up and maintain a payment gateway may feel like too much. In that case there are 3rd party services such as PayPal and Google Checkout which can act as a middle man between the merchant and customer. The business doesnt have to worry about keeping customer details secure if they dont store them and instead allow PayPal or similar to handle it. There are fees involved that work on a percentage basis, the more you earn, the more you pay. Additional fees are also charged for withdrawals. PayPal in particular has become an internationally recognised brand and most shoppers are now happy to use them so a small company wont lose out on too many customers from not offering alternative payment options.Most third party payment processing companies offer a free (other than fees) service which hosts the shopping cart exter nal to the main e-commerce site and a premium subscription service which allows full integration of the shopping cart into the website.For minimal cost and effort a small company can use the externally hosted cart while bigger companies may choose to invest in a more seamless user experience for their customers.The web environment allows for scalability, businesses are free to start small with minimal risk and expand at their own pace.ReferencesCNN Money, 2014. Facebook buys WhatsApp for $19 billion. Online uncommitted at http//money.cnn.com/2014/02/19/technology/social/facebook-whatsapp/Google, 2011. Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking. Online Available at http//googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.htmlMojang, 2014. Yes We Were Bought By Microsoft. OnlineAvailable at http//mojang.com/2014/09/yes-were-being-bought-by-microsoft/National Audit Office, 2013. The UK cyber security strategy Landscape review. Online Avai lable at http//www.nao.org.uk/report/the-uk-cyber-security-strategy-landscape-review/Nielsen, J., 2007. Banner Blindness sr. and New Findings. Online Available at http//www.nngroup.com/articles/banner-blindness-old-and-new-findings/Optimize Smart, n.d. Youre doing Google Analytics all wrong, heres why. Online Available at http//www.optimizesmart.com/google-analytics-wrong-why/Segall, K., 2014. Apples adventures in plastic. Online Available at http//kensegall.com/2014/02/apples-adventures-in-plastic/Figure 1 How users interacted with the Population Finder4Available at http//www.nngroup.com/articles/fancy-formatting-looks-like-an-ad/Fancy Formatting, Fancy Words = Looks Like a Promotion = Ignored JAKOB NIELSEN September 4, 2007Figure 2 Social Media Useage over time, broken down by age5 Available at http//www.pewinternet.org/2013/08/05/72-of-online-adults-are-social-networking-site-users/72% of Online Adults are Social Networking Site UsersOANNA BRENNER, AARON SMITH August 5, 2013