E-Commerce BIT100

Course Structure: E-Commerce BIT100

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: E-Commerce BIT100

• 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.

What you will be doing during 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 a cash 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

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the Academy, marked by the Academy's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.