Assignment 2 - Second Submission

Assessment Front Sheet
Course:
Edexcel BTEC L4 National Certificatein Computing and System
Development (QCF)
Unit:
Unit 1 Assignment 2 – Business Skills for e-Commerce
Designing e-Commerce
Subject Lecturer:
Kalpesh Sagar
Issue
Date:
13/01/2016 Due Date: 11/03/2016
Grading criteria attainable within this
assignment Grading criteria met in this assignment (A/NA)
3.1 3.2 3.3
Name: Alex
Christoudias
Submitted
on:10/03/16
Received By:
Kalpesh Sagar
Referral Date:
Additional Information:
Learning Outcomes Assessment Criteria for Pass Grade A/NA
Be able to design e-Commerce
solutions
3.1 Investigate market potential for an e-Commerce
opportunity
NA
solutions
3.2 Evaluate current e-Commerce systems in use by
organisations.
NA
solutions
3.3 Discuss the financial implications of an e-
Commerce solution
NA
Student Declaration: I confirm that the w ork I have submitted accompanying this sheet is
w holly my ow n work and that any quotations or section of text from published or unpublished
w ork of any other person is duly acknow ledged.
Signed:A.Christoudias
Date:10/03/16

Assessor Signature: Kalpesh Sagar ________________ Date: 1/4/2016 ___________________
Internal Verifier Signature: ____________________________ Date: __________________________
(If appropriate)
Assessment Criteria Feedback
You have not achieved a pass for the first submission. Please pay attention to your spelling, grammar and
referencing both in-text and the bibliography using Harvard style referencing. You have produced a good 1st
submission but need to relate more examples with in-text referencing.
DISTINCTION
DESCRIPTORS
Indicative characteristics Suggestionsfor evidence toachieve the
descriptor
(D3)
Demonstrate
convergent/lateral
creative thinking
 Innovationandcreative thoughthas
beenapplied
 Ideashave beengeneratedand
decisionstaken
 Self-evaluationhastakenplace
 Examplesof differenttypesof e-commerce
systems have beenevaluated. (Task2)
 Solutions to setting up an e-commerce
systems show new ideas have been thought
about. (Task 1)
 Evaluation shows a comparison of different
solutions and if right decisions have been
made. (Task 3)
Feedback:
You have not achievedD3. You needprovide evidence of evaluationgivingexamplesof prosandconsof the
differenttypesof ecommerce systemsinTask2. You needto indicate more solutionsinTask1 whenwriting
aboutsettingupe-commerce systems. Youmay wantto extendthistoTask 3 whentalkingaboutthe costs
involved. Your evaluationlack examplesof comparisonsof solutionsandjustificationof whetheryouhave
providedthe rightsolutioninTask3.

Assignment #1. In this assignment you have opportunity to achieve the following
criteria: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1 and 2.2.
You will also have to complete assignment two to achieve pass/merit/distinction in this
unit.Assessors comments will be inserted into your work as well as using the comments box on
MOODLE. Please use these comments to make improvements to your work where necessary.
Colour-Coded Feedback for Electronically-Submitted Coursework
Lecturers will use different colours to highlight text that needs improvement inside the
electronically-submitted assignments. Here are the colours and their meaning:
Pink - English error (i.e. grammar or spelling mistake)
Green - Knowledge error (i.e. wrong subject-related statements)
Blue - Irrelevant entry (i.e. not relevant to the assessment criteria)
Yellow – Low-quality entry (i.e. lack of detail, unclear, inaccurate, outdated or incomplete)
Red - Plagiarism(i.e. use of others work as your own)

Scenario
E-Commerce is playing very essential role in the online business. Although it is one of
the best & cheapest intermediate for reaching out to new customers in the online market,
if e-commerce implemented effectively, it also offers a smart way of doing online
business & expanding it more.
You are working as an IT advisor and you have been asked to carry out research about the
values of business skills by exploring current e-Commerce examples. You have to think
about how to design an e-commerce solution to the best advantage of the organisation and
its stakeholders. You will also have to give advice about the legislation concerning e-
commerce.

Task 1 – E-commerce Solutions
a) Using the company in assignment1, write a report to discuss the business
solutions:
 Unique Selling Proposition
 Business to business opportunities
 Business to consumer markets
 Domain Name
I will be talking about the solutions and ideas of starting up a website and the
important factors you need for launching and beginning a website.
 Unique Selling Proposition
Firstly, a USP Short for Unique Selling Proposition is what allows a business or
a seller to provide a product which represents why they believe or consider that
a service or product is to be more competitive and enhanced than its own
competition. This gives the customers (buyers) an understanding and reasons to
buy it or look into it in further depth rather than other services or products.
USP is also seen as a profile-raising and promotional subject built over an
advertising movement.
The Business organization which I spoke about in my first assignment was Amazon
which I will extend on in the second assignment. I will be talking about
Amazon’s USP and more. Amazon clearly is by far one of if not the biggest online
retailer’s in the world and must ensure that it provides a USP to its customers.
One of Amazons USP is that it provides the widest and most inclusive range of
books online which is a bookstore online. It has a USP of Supplying and selling
uncommon and common books. Amazon and normal book stores are different from each
other as Amazon is an online book store as well as providing other services
whereas normal book stores only provide books in stores which customers go to buy
these books. The problem here is clearly that not every book store will have the
books which customers require whereas Amazon has a much higher chance of being
able to have the availability of the book online as its always being supplied.
The Amazon service knows this from customers who buy books and they can see it
through their online database which allows them to stock more when they run out.
Whereas the book store still will know what has sold but takes longer as they
have to have it delivered to their store which could take a couple of days.
Customers are more likely to go to an online webstore like Amazon rather than go
to a normal bookstore because its quicker and more convenient as the you only
have to turn the computer on and search for the book you want to buy where as a
bookstore you would have to travel to get there depending on where the book store
is and if they even have it. The only downside to going on the Amazon website are
to those who are not familiar with using a computer or the internet. The
marketability of Amazon is a drawback because the marketplace charges commission
on each sale. This is why it is important to understand what the marketplace is
pricing is before selling your product on the Amazon. A seller for example who
wants to market themselves on the Amazon website can benefit from that by
increasing the sales of their product they are selling, however a seller will

then be exposed to other costs which can cause restriction to the degree in which
they can brand their product. The seller is more at disadvantage then the product
because the seller is providing the product for sale, Amazon focuses purely on
the popularity of the product and if they see that the product is selling then
Amazon instantly knows that it’s important to stock more of this item and inform
the seller. So this does help the seller however there are costs which the seller
has to pay upfront to market their product. So it a big downside for the Seller
especially if the product is not selling. Other downsides of Amazon are that it
has cluttered pages which makes the features and layout looks unpresentable to
many customers. For example, a single book page in Amazon can contain over 200
links and buttons which can make the page look so messy that the product
information would be hard to look at. This does not make the Amazon website very
useable as pages are cluttered. Other usability issues which occur are when
customers are interested in a business which outsources E-commerce websites to
Amazon such as Toys R Us being part of a part of a click and mortar of store
finders and locators, this is because Amazon manages the business online such as
Toy Sales which customers would then have issues finding the address of a real
world toy store on the website. Some other features of Amazon such as the gold
box at the top which overlaps the wish list spree makes It the layout and
structure uneasy to read for customers and unpleasant. Amazon which also offers a
feature called A9 which is a search engine was not a good feature because in the
past customers would search for stores in Croydon but the search engine would get
confused and actually find you stores in Croxley, that why the A9 search engine
was not really any good. The other disadvantage Amazon has is that there is not
integration on international sites, for example if a Greek customer is looking at
a book on the American Amazon site but there is no indication that you can order
that same book on Amazon.gr then that would be an issue for Greek users as they
would want that same book but to be translated in a Greek language.
Apart from Amazon having a USP of a Book store online they also provide customer
with full protection of security such as SSL and PayPal. SSL which is a Secure
Socket Layer which provides a secure encrypted connection between a customer
browsers and the amazon service which protects any personal/private data such
Name, Number, Bank details and keeps all these details protected. PayPal is
another Great USP which Amazon offers as PayPal who are now partners with Amazon
allow customers to know that purchasing an Amazon gift online using the PayPal
Service only if the customers have an account with PayPal. Once they have bought
the products they will receive their gift card through the One-Day shipping
procedure which can be exchanged immediately if necessary. Using PayPal gives the
opportunity for customers to win free meals a Pizza Hut or Dominos depending on
what service or product is used and bought. Amazon offers Better and faster
delivery than most of its brick and mortal competitor retailers with original
products which are something which customers look deeply into.
I would say that Amazon biggest competitors are eBay as they are two of the most
identical and similar online retailers being used out there. I personally believe
from all the information I have gathered and researched that Amazon is a better
and bigger competitor than eBay not by much but still wins in terms of the layout

and simplicity Amazon is much easier to understand and laid out in a much more
presentable way, whereas eBay’s platform is slightly messier and parts of the
webpage are all over which makes it difficult for certain customers to use.
Other reasons why I believe Amazon is better and customer tend choose amazon over
eBay more is because there are no upfront fees with Amazon whereas eBay charges
for its services and products. The shipping of Amazon allows customer to have
“shipping credit” which is what allows customers to have control over their
delivery, this is a big advantage to Amazon customers as they can say when they
want their items to arrive on what day. eBay is at big disadvantage here as it
would say next to the product when the product will arrive which is something a
customer doesn’t necessarily want to have when they control their own shipping
delivery. Amazon offers good quality products straight from the Amazon warehouse
where it guarantees to be packaged and brand new sealed. The products which are
being serviced and delivered to customer doorsteps and always brand new and class
quality. Before the products go out to be delivered they have to go through
checks so its assured that there is nothing wrong with the product. If there was
something wrong with the product, then Amazon offers warrantee and refund
depending on what the reasons are. In order for Amazon to make this an even
greater service they have to note and observe customer needs in other words they
see the trend of sells which have been made by a customer and what products have
been sold how many times from a click of a customer. This is what allows Amazon
workers to supply and understand what they need to order more stock and better
their service.
(Entrepreneur, 2016)
(Eric Graham, 2006)
(SEJ, 2006).
 Business to Business opportunities
A Business to Business is when one business is partners or associated with
another business. It is also to do with the transaction of one business which
makes a transaction with another. For instance, a business such as Amazon will
look to sell it products and services to another business so it can create more
consumptions and sales. This is how businesses which are associating with each
other value massively.
Amazon is a big online business which can help many other businesses as well
being helped from other business. For example, all of Amazon products are unique
and come from many different big brand suppliers such as Sony which is a Japanese
corporation which sell many electronical products such as Cameras, Televisions,
Phones, Game Console just from these branded products Amazon is already showing
us that it has Sony as a business partner who are both doing business together
through E-commerce. Both benefit because Sony has its branded products on Amazons
website which helps make sales from these products being bought, and this helps
Amazon by allow them to attract more and more customers to their advantage and
making profit and commission through the purchase of these products which are
being sold to customers. This doesn’t just go for Sony but it goes for every
single service, brand, make of business there is out there which could be Apple,
Samsung, Toys R Us, Retails businesses and many more who have an intention to do

business with Amazon. Companies such as Samsung and Apple who do business with
Amazon have the right and permission to advertise on Amazon website as Amazon
allows products from Apple and Amazon to be sold from their website.
Payments need to be handled in a secure and protected way where no sensitive
information can be accessed easily. Companies such as PayPal which is an online
payment system used to transmit money through an electronic medium and used by
Amazon have an important duty to make sure that all payments are kept secure and
bank details cannot be accessed from any gateway. PayPal is a business which
associates with Amazon on a daily basis and are very much in touch with each
other associates as customers always use and have to go through this process in
order to purchase products. As well as Amazon using a secure payment system the
security also has to be hard to get past. Hackers and viruses can interrupt or
damage a system by a single threat, so it’s important that all grounds are
covered such as using SSL which is a securitized certificate which allows the
browsers of customers to be protected at all times.
When customers purchase products from Amazon they always need to use PayPal and
insert bank details to buy these products, so banks agree and work with the money
which is going in and coming out, so they already know what transaction has been
made, how much the product was and where it is coming from and going to. This is
important for banks to look at closely as there is always fraud in these
situations. If anything untrustworthy did occur, they would need to contact the
bank holders account.
Amazon is such a big online company with its own workers, warehouses and
headquarters that it does not need another company to design its website as they
have their own experts web developers and programmers who deal with that side of
the work.
(Charlotte Mceleny, 2016)
(Information-Age, 2016)
 Business to Consumer markets
Business to Consumer is when a business sells its products or services to the
consumer/customer. For example, Online stores such as Amazon and eBay has a
purpose to give customers a bigger variety and cheaper option of buying products
online.
Amazon has different way of communicating with its customers online to show their
cooperation and support in trying to get the best out of their customers and
helping with any needs. Amazon has an E-mailing system which allows customers to
E-mail Amazon about any product which they have any enquiries such as details
about the item, there could also be complaints about the product which can be
communicated through E-mail. Contacting the Seller through or through a contact
number. Other ways Amazon has of communicating with its customers is through
marketing and advertisement which is very widely used. Amazons web pages have
different pictures, advertisements and billboards which are shown every day but
most importantly are changed from a day to day basis and not kept the same, this
is one of Amazons ways to attract and communicate with customers online. For

example, black Friday is such a big day of the year for electronic sales. On the
black Friday the Amazon webpage will shows pictures, billboards and videos of
electronic products which will attract customer to Amazon and generate millions
of sales on that day.
Amazon uses a Cost-Per-Click which is when you pay for each click of an item or
price. The customer sets a bid for the cost which could be the maximum cost the
customer may be willing to pay for. When the customer clicks an add, if that add
wins the auction the customer will click on the add and will be charged 1 penny
more than the next bidder.
Online chat is a common thing for customers to use when needing to contact a
buyer or service when there are enquiries or if there is something wrong with a
product purchased. Using this system of an online chat allows the customer to
talk to an assistant through an online chat system which they can ask questions
about the product or enquire for product or any other issues they may want to ask
or enquire about.
Amazon has a Rich Site summary page which allows customers to keep up to date
with any products which have just come out or any sales or best buys which are
going on currently. This page of Amazon allows customers to keep updates with the
latest products and news which are happening right now at the minute when logging
in. Blogs, Forums and newsgroups are also similar but are only used for
customers who have been using Amazon for a long time but also to do with
customers being able to ask and discuss about products and services.
(Smallbusiness, 2016).
(Marketing Schools, 2012)
 Domain Name
Domain name is one of most vital finishing points to an E-commerce business as
the Domain Name which could also be known as the business name is what needs to
stand out from other business. Before registering a domain name it’s very
important that the name is easy to be recollected and easy to remember. The
reason why the name has to be well known and likeable is because this is what
could attract a customer or a business to click on to the domain name of the
website. Once a business has reached an agreement of what they would like to call
the Businesses Domain Name they would need to find the space to host their
website so it could be available to other business and customers over the
internet which also implements more costs.
Amazon.com is a worldwide online business webstore, the Domain Amazon.com is very
reliable and appealing to customers and businesses. Amazon is a business created
from a bookstore, it was always called Amazon before the website and generation
of products and the business being implemented. Amazon has such a good Domain
Name that it took after the store and from this it can never stop customers from
growing into the business as customers will always know Amazon.com as the Amazon
store. Amazon doesn’t need to worry about looking after its domain name as its
from one of its own companies who are registered under Amazon.com. Amazon is like

an organization that has its own group of team with professionals. It does not
need to go to the extent off hiring out the domain name when Amazon has its own
expert web developers working for them.
(Allbusiness, 2016)
(Spencer Yao, 2016)
Further More E-Commerce Solutions
 Consumer-to-Business
C2B is when individual consumer offers to sell products and services to
businesses which leads to the purchase of those products and services if the
business is prepared to business with the consumer offering those products and
services. C2B is a solution which allows a business idea from a consumer who
makes the product or service deliver that product or service to the business to
use it in order to complete a business process or gain competitive advantage.
The C2B methodology is about the growth of consumer generated media and content
across different consumer sectors especially E-commerce.
The consumer will deliver a business with a price based opportunity to the
business, market or product on the consumer’s website. The website owner will
have to review the service or product which is being offered through the use of
blog post or podcast. An example is the Contrast of interest rates of car loans
or personal loans which are provided through various banks on the website. The
business will justify the consumer’s conditions within the required budget
method that the consumer has provided through the services. The consumer
approaches the website by giving and showing many businesses a particular service
or product and as mentioned the consumer will have an approximation of the price
on the product or service which the consumer is offering. eBay is an example of
how C2B is implemented because consumers tend to sell their products and services
on eBay to promote their business or product to enable more sales and profit.
 C2C Consumer-to-Consumer
C2C is the business which enables the transaction of products and service between
customers. The purpose of C2C is to allow a relationship to occur between two or
more customers which helps buyers and sellers locate each other when wanting to
do business together. The advantage of this it that customer can benefit from the
benefit of being able to view products and find products why may be difficult to
locate through the use of other ways such as business websites. Craigslist is an
example of a website which consumer can buy, sell and trade items and products
buy also conduct other communications and transactions through the use of job
searches and browsing for houses. Craigslist permits consumers to sign up and
register a particular product for sale. Another example is gumtree which allows
consumer to look for jobs or buy items from another consumer from the use of
signing up and supporting your product or service. eBay is also another example
of C2C which entails sellers to sell items which could even be second hand which

other consumers may want to buy off the consumer because of the cost of the item
and the flexibility to buy the item.
(Study, 2016).
[3.1]
Task 2 – Current e-Commerce Systems
a) Write a report to evaluate current e-Commerce systems in use by
organisations. Within your evaluation link them to organisations as
examples.
Introduction
Firstly, E-commerce is a service which is been used for around 15 years now, and
it is where all the commercial activity is conducted via the internet. E-commerce
systems have the capability and proficiency to provide customers with not only
being able to purchase sale of goods and make payment orders but to also to use
E-commerce for service maintenance and paying bills. There is nearly an unlimited
amount of things you could do on an E-commerce system.
Link: (America, 2016)
One of the main types of systems which is used by most E-commerce organizations
is the different types of payment systems for customers to be able to buy goods,
pay for bills or even transfer money to a bank.
Market Analysis

The market analysis is important to an E-commerce business because it determines
the process of the dynamics, settings and characteristics of the E-commerce
market which the business is in. Market analysis is supported by businesses which
understand who their target market is. The target market is also crucial to an E-
commerce business for example Footlocker which is a store which sells particular
trendy trainers focuses on the customers’ needs and what type of trainers they
would like to buy in the future. Footlocker is main competitor of JD Sports so
they would always look at their store and see how they can improve sales and
profit in order to make them succeed better in their market looking at the
potential customers which are buying from them and services which they use and
what the targeted customers are so it’s important that a business looks at the
size of the market because potential buyers and sellers of a service or product
are always demanding to know how the market size is such as amount of employees
working, how many stores are open in the region before beginning a new service
with that organization. The characteristics and features of an E-Commerce
business matters because customers which are potentially interested in buying
from an E-commerce website or using your service or creating a user login with an
E-commerce business. Using eBay as an example, customers need to be assured that
their needs are being met at all times such as delivery date assurances, product
quality, customer service and more. There is also the fact that eBay has to
consider what customers want such as cheaper goods than buying them from stores
and offering them a quick and easy service for them to receive their goods. E-
commerce businesses will always have competitors and will always be looking to
strengthen their business, eBay for instance is biggest competitor behind Amazon
and both online business will always be looking to expand and make their business
better than each other’s. eBay and Amazon will always look at each other market
share and see how much they made in the market from customers buying their goods
and using their services. One of the biggest segments of E-commerce is the online
marketing sector which is dominated by consumer goods such as electronics,
accessories, home, entertainment and more.
Market Research
Market research is a system where information is gathered about customers’
requirements and preferences. Whenever an E-commerce business launches it has to
always make sure that the most important factors are covers such as the service
and products will be liked by the customers because if their service or products
they sell are not pleasing enough for the customer then there would be no point
in launching the E-commerce business. In order for an E-commerce business to be
successful, employees need to find out and gather information about what
customers like to do in their spare time, buying products and seeing what their
preferences are. This happens through handing out leaflets, surveys online,
asking the public questions. The business can only allow this to go on only if
the research was successful. Looking through the current and most up to date
services and products there out there is important because it identifies which
current customers would look on a website or buy a particular product. This shows
what they are interested in and what their necessities are. I believe both online

and offline research are both significant ways to collect information. Online
data is always quicker to collect information as it avoids phone calls and asking
public questions or surveys to do. When a business does online market research it
gives the business a chance to see what particular type of products or services
customers browse and what their likings are. However, employees working for that
particular business can do offline research such as asking people questions, cold
calling, giving out leaflets and filling out surveys. By doing this it gives the
business or more precise and correct understanding of the information received.
There is different type of research that the business carries out but it is
categories in too two groups primary and secondary research. The primary research
is when the business carries out exploration from the very beginning which means
that it will investigate the answer, question and opinions of other people and
this is done through interviews, questionnaires and discussions. Secondary
Research which is when business look at reports and see where the data is
collected from such as experiments and investigations, the reports may be issues
by different companies, administration. Testing is also another important way in
which businesses use market research because this will if the service or product
Is successful it will prove or disapprove whether the testing of the service of
product is achievable and successful this is done through Ad-hoc which indicated
a solution created to resolve a task or problem and not planned to adapt for
other purposes.
(Plunkettresearch, 2016).
Further Example in Detail
Focus Groups
Focus groups are for the management of a business to be able to listen and
understand customer feedback on how they feel about the business products and
services, this is important because a particular person in the management of the
business will take note of each individual person’s feedback whether it is good
or bad and assess further on how they can improve. Questions are asked and raised
about the service and product in order to be able to help the business become
more relevant and significant for customers
Interviews
Interviews which are also mentioned at the top are also piloted in a similar way
to focus groups, but this is usually for one person as it is a one-to-one
interview. Interviews are held for the same typical reason as a focus group but
allows a manger to interview a customer about the product or service they offer.
It also gives the manager a chance to see how a customer uses the product or
service. An example is a software application on a computer, a manager may like
to see how a customer uses this program to see how easy or hard it is. From this
research and study the manager can make further improvements or tweaks on how
they may be able to improve the product or service to make it more suitable to
customers using the software.

Phone Surveys
Phone survey are used in order for companies to make further research on how
customers and consumers find the service or product. Through the use of phone
surveys, it allows a business to gather many different types of opinions and
answers of customers through the use of questions and assessments. Phone survey
usually consist of questions and assessment through calling. The interviewer will
have mixed opinions and answers which will then leave the interviewer with an
evaluation of how they can further improve or assist a customer in using a
product of service within the business
(Rick Suttle, 2016).
Additional Examples of market research
The size and competitive organization of the market
• Examples of Investigation of the market potential for existing products (e.g.
market size, growth, changing sales trends)
• Estimating upcoming requests for existing products
• Evaluating the prospective of new products
• Learning of market trends
• Investigation of competitor performance
Product Information
• Likely customer acceptance (or rejection) of new products
• Contrast of existing products in the market such as features, prices,
distribution
• Predicting new uses for existing products
• Technologies that may threaten existing products
• New product development
Pricing in the Market
• Estimates and testing of price flexibility
• The Developments in pricing over recent years
• Breakdown of revenues, margins and profits
• Competitor pricing approaches
Elevation in the Market
• Efficiency of advertising and promotion
• Magnitude and effectiveness of sales promotional events
• Competitor promotional policies
Businesses which used market research

In 2005 Twitter was designed to form, browse and share podcasts. Market research
was used to see if podcasting would eventually become a mainstream medium for
sharing news and broadcasting news events and people opinions. The way twitter
business used market research is by monitoring customer open the twitter app on
their mobile and asking questions to their followers and possibly within minutes
there would be feedback which would be received by people. There are usually over
a 100 million tweets which are sent daily and the data warehouse which is a large
database system which stores big amounts of data so that its easily retrievable
and reliable allows customers to inform the qualitative analysis towards product
equity. The whole world nowadays is using social media which is increasing the
rate of people communicating through the internet. Social bankers believe that
generated tweets mentioning brands are done through the use of mobile devices.
This is why customers are always discussing twitter all the time, this is why it
is important for market researchers to listen to the customers who use twitter.
It was important that market research in many ways is used to see how consumers
understanding and perceptions are of twitter, discovering customer’s social
media language and monitoring of the behavior.
Twitter
Twitter looked at other competitors such as Facebook and skype and saw that there
was customer unhappiness because of other features and services which Facebook
and Skype offered such as photo sharing and communicating with people through
camera. In the end Twitter achieved a successful pivot through the use of market
research which allowed Twitter to see what customers really wanted in the end.
This was done through Phone surveys, Focus groups and Testing.
Instagram
Instagram is another way people use social media to communicate, share pictures
and broadcast news events. The team of Instagram decided to Re-look into the
market to see how people felt about the use of Instagram. They removed certain
features which left only photos, commenting and the liking of photos because of
some users who didn’t feel all the features of Instagram were appropriate.
Instagram looked deep into the market and saw that they had to implement new
features and removed old featured to make Instagram Unique and different to other
social media businesses. They done this through the use of Questionnaires,
testing and researching through other competitors.
(Richard Washington, 2013).
Examples of payment system ways
Electronic Cheque
An Electronic Cheque is a payment method which is specially designed to pay for
orders and utility bills online. The Electronic however offers much greater
security features such as being able to use authentication, digital signatures an

encryption. The electronic cheques have been established in order to take
transactions over the world wide web. Electronic cheques are used in banks for
customers to pay off bills through the computerized system which is set of
specifically for customer to pay their bills of course that is not the only way
to pay for your bills but customers who only have electronic cheques can use
through the system which accepts electronic cheques. I personally believe that
they are very useful to the society we live in because there are not check
deposit slips which are usually needed to complete and it reduces any checks
being lost or stolen when they are deposited.
(Translist, 2006)
Organization which use E-cheque
The organization which are most use electronic cheques most are banks. All banks
use electronic cheques to process payments into customer and business banks
account. The typical banks are RBS (Royal of Scotland,), Santander, Barclays,
Nationwide, Banks of Scotland, Metro and other banks. Using RBS is an example
which uses an electronic cheque instead of a normal written cheque to avoid any
typical signature fraud. This makes RBS more organized and secure in many ways
because signatures are not forged.
Automated Clearing House
The ACU uses electronic cheques too save time and money and also is significant
because of the security which it offers. It is more secure and protects customers
and business money. For example, a customer may pay bills through entering their
banks details electronically which is somewhat safer than handwriting it as
people can view and memorize the way you write. The ACU which is a funds
distribution organization has the capabilities of transferring funds
electronically from one individual to another. The ACU is quicker and more a more
efficient way to process payments and is transferred straight away. ACU also
manages debit card and direct deposits of payroll, national insurance number and
business to business payments.
(Quick Books, 2016).
PayPal
PayPal is an application which is used by quite a few E-commerce businesses such
as eBay, JD Sports, Viking Direct and many more. Businesses like this which are
very big in the market trust PayPal as it is a very secure to make transactions.
It allows customers to transfer funds between accounts which have been created by
users. PayPal is free to join but there is a free depending on the business
policies. PayPal stores the customer’s account details on their secured
database. Personal information is never shared with the person the customers is
selling too, this is completely confidential and encrypted. The purpose of PayPal
is for customers to have an easier and fast payment method. In my personal
opinion I believe PayPal is one of the safest and simplest way to share your

details online, obviously it’s never 100% secured but because of the amount of
business which invest into implementing PayPal into their services, it shows that
it is secure, simple and used world-wide. Customer don’t need to share any
important details online such as bank number, all PayPal required is Email
address and password. Looking at the statistics of payment methods and approaches
PayPal seems to be one of the most used and applied in most businesses, it is the
leading payment network for online websites.
NoChex
NoChex which is competitors of PayPal is also a payment method which requires no
fee to sign up to make transactions. However, it only provides services to
businesses which have different requirements, certain limitations such as less
employees and smaller budget.
Credit or Debit Cards
Credit or Debit card are always used for payment methods online. The money is
transacted from the user account in order to go through. Without a credit or
debit card you cannot really use any of the above payment methods unless you have
a banks statement or your details written down somewhere. Contactless payment
cards are also issues now which allows customer to only tap their card on the
card reader for a transaction to be processed. Most business organization use
Credit or Debit card or process transaction, pay for bills and transfer money
from one bank to another using a credit/debit card.
Organization which use Credit and Debit Cards
Firstly, Banks use credit and debit cards to process customer transactions, pay
for bills and banks are the organization which release credit and debit cards to
customers in order for customers to use.
(Tracey Sandilands, 2016)
The typical business which use credit and debit card are Aldi, AMT Coffee, Boots,
Cafe Nero, Cost cutter, Marks and Spencer, McDonalds, Waitrose and there are of
course hundreds more. all of these franchises, supermarkets, coffee shops and
pharmacies use credit and debit cards for near enough the same reasons and in
some business could vary. McDonalds for example which is a franchise used
credit/debit card payments to process food meals for customer through either
paying on the card reader at the till or going to a machine which allows you to
select your meals and pay through the machine system.

Automated Online Assistant
This is important system which is provided to E-commerce businesses in order to
offer support to customers who need help on certain problems or need enquiring.
The automated online assistant is a program which is specifically designed for
certain E-commerce business such as PC World, Apple, eBay, Banks and many more.
These websites use an automated online assistant for customer to require
important assistance when needed. The automated online assistant has the ability
to offer customer service to customer 24 hours a day 7 days a week which means
that customers can contact these business through their website whenever they
need an enquiry or issue that would like to have it dealt with. For example, eBay
has to have an automated online assistant because of the amount of customers that
buy from their website. Without an automated online assistant if a customer buys
a product and it has not come on the day that it should have then there would be
problems with the eBay service because customer would not be able to get in
contact with not only their seller but also the actual service.
Tracking and Tracing
Tracking and tracking are similar but very different, tracing is when the
customer is following where the product they bought currently is from where it
first got dispatched from. Tracking is where the product was from the starting
point and where the product is currently. E-commerce uses this particular system
to be able to determine the past and current locations of the product from a
unique item or property. This is an important method which is used by many E-
commerce businesses as customer would entail and want to be involved in where the
product was and currently is. It is not only to do with goods purchased from the
internet but also parcels, letters and other packages which could be delivered
from across the country and the world. Customer need to track items in order to
know where it presently is, how long it will be and what could be taken this
amount of time for the item to come. For example, FedEx which is a shipping
company delivers important parcels and goods across the world. eBay for example
always has to deliver good from all around the world, so the seller would firstly
have to dispatch the item through the post office or Royal Mail depending on
which country the item Is being delivered, then once it has been received to the
post office or royal mail closest to the buyer’s destination, then a delivery
driver would have to then deliver the goods to the buyer’s address which is
convenient for the customers apart from waiting for the good to come. E-commerce
is used in many different kind and types of business organizations and commercial
activity. It could be split into categories of which E-commerce platforms are
used for different business purposes such as Online only, mail order, big bricks
and clicks, mainstream piggyback, full multichannel and social media. Each and
every one of those different types of E-commerce system have different
functionalities and purposes towards their business and customers use. Amazon
and eBay use the tracking and tracing system where once an order has been
dispatched the parcel can be tracked on the Amazon or eBay website to find out

the information on the product order details such as arrival of day/date, where
it currently is, when it should be moving.
Online Shopping
Online shopping is service which is widely populated in many different
businesses. it allows customers to buy goods and sell goods or services all over
the world wide web. I believe that online shopping will soon become customers
best form of shopping out of choice, and clearly that is what the trend is
telling us. It’s easier, quicker, more convenient and more choice of good and
services. When a customer uses the internet for browsing, buying or selling good
an internet connection is clearly required, otherwise customer would clearly not
be able to go on their favorite websites to shop. There are hundreds probably
thousands of different websites where customers look for their favorite items,
general browsing, looking at different services that customers explore into,
buying products which can vary from big products to small products and selling
products. An example of a website that does most of these services is Amazon or
eBay. These two particular websites have customers shopping on demand, they are
so huge that they near enough sell every possible item there in a shop. In other
words, it’s an online shopping phenomenon. It can contain JD Sports, Sony,
Samsung, Homebase and many more combined into one big shopping store online.
Other examples of online shopping webstore websites are Blue-Inc, Sports Direct,
JD-Sports, Asos, Harvey Nickels and many more who have made websites for their
store to deliver a service to customers who are not always able to reach the
store. The functionality of a customer using these websites is very effective,
for example Blue Inc and other clothes shops allows customers to choose their
sizes of clothes or trainers before purchasing. Also being able to browse through
what type and kind of trousers or tops they would like to buy such as colour and
style.
Amazon for example is an E-commerce business which I spoke about in my first
assignment. Amazon which main features are too use new bought goods from
companies who are accompanying and related to Amazon, Amazon use their own brands
as well for customers who shop online. Amazon run their business through an
online service which customers would not be able to find products elsewhere
unless they browse through the stores and places. Amazon offer alternative goods
to a customer if they customers cannot find a particular product that are looking
for. Amazon offer discounts to regular customer such as promo codes and vouchers
codes which are coupon which involves of numbers and letter that customer enter
too when processing a transaction to get a discount. The coupon for example
includes percentage of the purchase of the product they are buying. The voucher
which Amazon offers can vary as it can be a voucher for a phone or necklace and
many more and this allows customers to exchange the product for another product
or service. Amazon also provides a refunds and return policy which allows
customer to get their full refund of that product money back
Social Media

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Skype and three of the most used and current E-
commerce websites which for people and customers to be able to produce, share and
exchange information between each other. Twitter for insurance is used by
millions of people including celebrities as well. Twitter is used to post
information about themselves and speak to friends, family or people they would
like to add. Twitter uses a system where it has to approve social connection so
people don’t abuse the website by adding lots of different people and begin to
manipulate the system. Twitter also has a “Buy” button which is when a member
of twitter will receive addition product details and be prompted to enter
delivery and payment details. This if for twitter user to purchase services or
special deals on festivals and shows.
Facebook on the other hand is a social networking website which allows user to
create profiles about themselves and be able to add friends, family or others and
send messages in order to interact. Facebook is uses to post events which are
happening across the worlds or near your town or city, allows business or people
to market them ideas and business to friends, family and other through posting
ads. Facebook is allowed to be used in 37 different languages which allow foreign
and overseas countries to be able to interact network with beloved ones and
friends.
LinkedIn which is a professional social networking website is to help people find
work and network in a professional manner. The purpose of LinkedIn is to
highlight a registered user employment history, education and profile of
themselves which connects them to other people who can search for these
candidates in order to assist them in finding work or helping them in a companion
way.
Online Retailers and Shops
E-commerce business such as Amazon and eBay which don’t have stores which
customers can visit and other retailer which have both such as Argos, apple, B &
Q have all succeeded from E-commerce by creating and establishing their own
website. Each Retail business uses near enough the same type of systems some may
be different for instance; one of the system that many businesses may use is the
store locator option. This allows customers to search and find stores which are
near their postcode or location for them to be able to locate that store and see
whether or not the product or goods that they want to buy from that store is
available and if not they could try other stores near them. This is very
beneficial for customer because not only does it help them get their goods
delivered to them but too also see the availability of it in many different
stores.

(Argos, 2016)
Using Argos as an example it has many different system functionalities as the one
mentioned, another system which it uses is having different set of categories
that customer need in order to browse through products and goods they want
through an easy and more efficient way. For instance, if a customer wanted to buy
a pushchair for the baby, the categories on the front page of the Argos webpage
will shows Technology, Home and Garden, Sport and Leisure, Technology, Baby and
Nursery. In this case the customer would go to the Baby and Nursery category as
the pushchair is most definitely likely to be in that section.
Web Link to E-Commerce Used and mentioned
(Advameg, 2016)
(The Marketing Donut, 2009)
(Wikipedia, 2008)
Evaluation of E-commerce systems (D3)
I believe that without all the E-commerce systems I mentioned at the top of task
2, there could be severe consequences and failure for an E-commerce system to
work and function. These E-commerce systems need to be put into place so that E-
commerce websites can run smoothly and freely without any issues or problems. For
example, payment systems such as PayPal are important to an E-commerce system
because it gives customers credit card security when signing up to use a PayPal
account once the customer has entered personal details you would never need to do
this again which ensures that customer would never need to enter this information
again when using PayPal for any E-commerce platform. It is also flexible in the
sense where customer can set up many different banks accounts or debit/credit
cards to fund your PayPal account in case the Credit/Debit card id declined. The
other benefits of using PayPal apart from the fact that it is really fast when
paying for products and services it has no extra cost when shopping in different
countries.
The downside to using PayPal is that when purchasing or using PayPal the system
can freeze which can be concerning for the customer as they may have just paid
for that transaction. Although transactions and payment are fast, user do not
always have immediate access to those funds which can be very frustrating when a
person really want their money. PayPal can hold payment for weeks but this is of
course if there is a problem with the transaction. This tends to happen very
little.

I believe that PayPal is an important system which is needed for people to pay
for products and services a lot easier and quicker. This gives user and customers
the chance to be able to use it 24 hours a days and as much as they want because
of the 24 hours service.
E-commerce security is also an important system which is needed and significantly
important to a website because, particular websites such as Amazon and eBay deal
with millions of people personal details and it’s important for there to be high
end security. This is beneficial to E-commerce because Firewalls, Anti-Viruses,
passwords, encryption, SSL any other keep E-commerce websites secure. There are
downsides as well if criminal manages to get past E-commerce security such as all
of the above mentioned, then websites such as Amazon and eBay would have not only
have breached the Data Protection Act but also have put the customer
personal/private details at risk by not complying full security to their website.
(Science, 2016)
SSL (Secure Socket Layer) for example is another important E-commerce security
system which is highly used in E-commerce used to protect customer confidential
information from any threats which are likely to come from criminal with the
wrong purposes on the internet. I believe has many benefits but also drawbacks
too. Firstly, the benefits which I believe SSL has is that it encrypts sensitive
information in order for it to only be read and received by the proposed
people/businesses. The data which is sent on the internet are passed through more
than one computer which reached the main point of destination and the more stops
it makes the more chance that a third art could gain access to it. This is why
SSL Certification helps supply unknown randomized characters into the information
which is encrypted has less of a chance or no chance at all to be understood what
was sent. SSL is also beneficial because it has a good verification method which
gives visitors and customers assurance of who you really are, knowing that you
are safe when sending or receiving information.
The downsides of SSL are that it can slow own the browser when people decide to
view the SSL, it has latency problems which cause the connection of the server to
slow down. There are also warning messages which occur and this is a problem only
if you don’t know how to set-up SSL properly. So if a user ends up setting the
SSL Certificate up wrong then there will messages occurring which would mean that
the SSL Certificate was not properly installed. The other downsides of SSL are
that it can be costly if not installed with a trusted server, this also mean that
the identity of the user must be validated this costs money to install and the
server must be good to do so.
Overall the drawbacks are not too bad compared to the strengths and benefits of
what SSL can do for a user website. It can provide safe and secure security in
order to help keeps people personal information safe.
(Smallbusiness, 2016)

b) Extend the report to explain the security issues e-commerce businesses
have to be aware of and how they can be prevented.
Introduction
E-Commerce systems are built through the use of internet which allows customer,
businesses and other services to communicate on a global scale. However, there
are always unmanaged and uncontrolled deceptions of risks which occur to the
systems which are operating.
Threats to Businesses
Denial of Service
A DoS attack is an outbreak which is designed to cause a network to not work or
function for a period of time. Hackers are the people who use DoS attacks to stop
people using computer resources from a particular network which is being
prohibited from being used because of a DoS attack being applied from a hacker.
Hackers usually tend to create DoS attacks from manipulating the limitation of
TCP/IP Protocols in order to bring down the network a lot easier. For instance,
a website will not work or be partially inactive due to the DoS attack which
means that the system will not be able to communicate effectively at all. A DoS
attack usually effects the network bandwidth, server memory, CPU Usage or
database connection pool. For Example, if eBay goes down due to a DoS attack it
will not only cause disaster but it could also bring eBay to a collapse because
of all the customers information that is stored on there. eBay would probably
have to close their whole service if a DoS attack frequently happened.
How to Prevent DoS Attacks
DoS attacks can be prevented from using software which can help defend against
hackers trying to bring down your network. For example, dotDefender which is an
application firewall is used to examine any unusual behavior such as traffic
checking and IP addresses to be able to stop protocols, ports or any web
application being exploited. It has extra strong security against hackers who are
trying to access your network system.
(Applicure, 2016)
Hacking
E-commerce have to be aware of Hackers as they are the people behind a computer
screen who tend to gain access to all types and kind information. Once they have

gained access to the information they desire to access they can manipulate by
altering it, destroying or copying it. Computer hackers gain access illegally by
trying and managing to break into computer system in order to change, delete or
copy information. Hackers use malware without people realizing to be able to
assist them in gaining sensitive data such as price lists, catalogues, valuable
intellectual property, bank details, e-mails and many more. Apart from gaining
access to someone’s information they can also, hack user names and passwords,
stealing money and opening credit cards and bank account in your name, make
purchases and many more. For example, If Santander online banking got hacked
through a person this could cause serious concern and worry not only for being
threatened through the use of hacking but more importantly for customers as they
have money in the bank which they could lose due to hackers gaining access to
their account.
How to prevent Hacking
The safest way to prevent your system and business from being hacked into is by
ensuring that you have the latest and most up to date Anti-virus and security,
without an Anti-virus or security installed your computer is easily open and
exposed to many threats especially hackers who would find it a lot easier to hack
into someone’s website or computer system without the use of that business suing
some sort of anti-virus or security. Apart from ensuring that your Anti-virus is
installed and up to date, it is necessary that a password should contain number,
letters and also a capital letter which ensures that it would be a lot harder for
a hacker to predict what your password may be. For E-commerce businesses who deal
with customers and money have to be extra cautious and safe because of the smart
hackers that there out there operating, it important that the correct E-commerce
platform is chosen for secure connection and it should have object orientated
programming language which makes it extra harder for a hacker to gain access to
that website. E-commerce businesses must use a secure connection for online
purchases and orders. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) which is used by most online
webstores has to use SSL because of the amount of transactions that occurs it’s
important that there is a payment gateway which uses live address and
verification service to prevent and fraud which may occur. It compares the
address entered online with the address that they have on the system with the
credit card company, this helps the business identify who is purchasing what.
Intellectual property must always ensure that products, design, music, art, work
is all protected through copyright protection policies.
Phishing

Phishing is usually caused by a third party being able to solicit confidential
information from a business or a group by representing a detailed well known
business or brand and this is done to gain financial advantage. Phishers like
hackers attempt to access or lure users into revealing personal data such as bank
accounts, e-mail’s, address, passwords and other confidential information. Once
they have gained access to that information they can use it to their own benefit
and constrain fraudulent attacks. Phishing typically occurs when a message is
sent to a user who is being convinced into buying that E-mail so then the user
would click onto that E-mail open the attachment and the user will be redirected
to a website which may look similar to the original website only it’s not. Once
the user has entered details of the username and password, the phisher will then
see the details of the user which puts them at risk. Phishing is found on
websites which are designed to clone another website in order to capture the
business or victim authentication information for that website to commit fraud.
How to Prevent Phishing
One of the most basic ways to not get drawn into anyone illegal activates is to
just not comply or submit any personal information about yourself. User must
always be suspicious of emails they receive regardless if they recognize the
sender, they must always ensure that they are 100% sure they want to open that
email. One of the most important ways to realize if an email is fully legitimate
is if it contains the “https://” at the beginning or the security lock which
shows what type of email it could be.
Identify Theft
Identify theft which is similar to E-commerce is more when the customer and
business are at risk. This is why at all times E-commerce websites such as amazon
and eBay have to use SSL (Secure Socket Layer) which keeps secure payments safe
and protected. It is vital to have the customer minds at ease because it promises
the customer that the payment details would not be compromised
Viruses and Trojans
Viruses are one of the most common threats to an ICT system and business
because user who are on the computer may go on to their email and open an
attachment, and on that, attachment there may be an infection in that
email. From that email it will spread which causes work to be deleted,
hardware could be destroyed if the virus is very harmful. This is just one
of the many ways a business or user can come across a virus. However,
viruses have an effect in many ways. Viruses can destroy and manipulate
business data which can be very worrying for businesses as they may have
to deal with the loss of customer confidence, online credibility
collapsing and even the business being charged or closed for poor measures
on securing on an E-commerce gateway. A Trojan is a program, which runs

through your computer and could be very malicious. A Trojan can destroy and
delete work on the computer system, corrupt business data, and even destroy
computer hardware on the system, which can be extremely harmful to the computer
system and to the business credentials. Viruses and Trojans can spread through
too many different parts of the E-commerce platform and causes sabotage of
communication by viruses increasing through emails.
How to prevent Viruses and Trojans
Most important way to stop your E-commerce business from having a virus is to
ensure that it is fully secure with up to date anti-virus and making sure that it
is regularly scanned and updated. To remove a virus, you would need an anti-
virus protection. This would help remove the virus and clear any
unnecessary infection to the computer from spreading even more. Also using a
virus checker on the internet connection will help trap viruses from entering and
leaving the business IT System. To get rid of a Trojan you need to do follow
which are exactly the same steps as removing a virus which is too scan the
computer system and once it is completed, just remove the Trojan which is still
on the system.
Intellectual Property Theft
Intellectual property theft is the process of disclosing information such as
business plans, proposing new ideas, producing music lyrics, making videos and
many more and then having the risk of intellectual property infringements. Which
is when someone copyrights your efforts and work and uses it to their advantage
and benefit. The most important way to prevent this from happening is to sign a
declaration form saying that this work or data is all yours and this declaration
will most likely come from a copyright act. For example, downloading music,
movies, people work, software pirating, copying domain names. Other ways to
prevent yourself from having your work taken from you is by using secure login,
passwords and firewalls in order for people to stop gaining access.
E-Commerce Solutions
I will be talking about further E-commerce solutions which help prevent and stop
threats from occurring on computer systems and more importantly E-commerce
platforms.
Firewall
A firewall firstly is a network security system which prevents any unauthorized
access from or onto a private network, the firewall blocks out any traffic which
may come into the network or out of the network computers user. Firewall are also

used to keep the network segments secure for instance the human resources network
in a business may be vulnerable to interfering within an enterprise.
I believe that in an E-commerce business organization firewalls are significantly
important as there are lots of data sent and received in between networks, and
the firewall plays a big role in protecting the network. Large corporation have
to have firewalls configured in order to prevent employees or any outsiders from
sending emails or transferring sensitive information outside the network. But
inside an E-commerce business organization firewalls can be programmed to be able
to restrict access to certain websites such social networking websites or illegal
websites such as torrents. For instance, colleges have certain boundaries for
students and staff to use certain websites and restrict other. Principals and
technicians believe that it is either be inappropriate or unsuitable. But more
importantly firewalls prevent any access coming from outside the network such as
intruders and trespassers who try to access the network.
(Comodo, 2016)
SSL (Secure Socket Layer)
The secure socket layer is a security method which is used to encrypt a
connection between a server and a client. For example, a web server and a
browser. This allows personal and private information such as address, bank
accounts, credit cards, national insurance number to be transmitted securely. Any
information which is being transferred has to be sent through a secure
connection. For example, amazon which is such a large E-commerce business
organization has to make sure that the secure socket layer that it is working
accordingly because it deals with millions of customer sensitive information like
the ones mentioned above and if an attacker is able to intercept that information
which is being sent between the browser and the web server, they will be able to
gain access to that information and use that data.
(DigiCert, 2003)
Secure HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure)
HTTPS is an internet connection protocol which defends and shields the
confidentiality of business or user data which is transferred between a person or
a website. Similar to secure socket layer but different in the sense where HTTPS
is the protocol which will clarify how the client and server will come to terms
over a secure network and the SSL Certificate is more to do with agreeing which
server they will use through authentication. For example, when a regular customer
order good from amazon HTTPS which is used by amazon has to protect that customer
private information between the user and the website, ensuring a secure
connection which will encrypt any personal information. HTTPS is most vitally

used when dealing with online transactions such as online banking and Online
shopping.
(Comodo, 2016)
Digital Certificates
Digital certificated are used because it shows he verification of someone who
they claim to be. Digital certificate allow business to be able to identify the
entity of someone, because this way business and people would be able to single
out someone who is faking somebody else identity. Digital certificated can be
used as fingerprints, scans. Some work organizations use the fingerprints system,
which automatically identify who you are, what work you, do and personal details.
If it is someone else who does not work there, that will identify the person as
an intruder.
(Comodo, 2016)
Encryption
Encryption is a process of being able transmit information using an algorithm to
make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually
referred to as a key. An example is when militaries and governments use
encryption to facilitate secret communication and information.
There are data encryption techniques which are when Each algorithm has unique
benefit and usage pattern based on the type of data and the level of protection
desired. A good and very important quality of a good encryption pattern is to
have the capability to be able to identify a key or password of some type, and
have the encryption method to adjust itself so that each 'key' or 'password'
produces a unique encrypted output, one that also requires a unique 'key' or
'password' to decrypt. This can either be a symmetric or asymmetric key. PGP
(pretty good privacy)
Used for being able to transfer data through the internet. It’s a secure way and
moderately easy to use. The only struggle business would have with the public-key
systems is that you would have to have the recipient's public key to encode some
sort of communication. Encryption is one of the most important security measure
an E-commerce organization would need to implement because customer information,
business data are all stored through the network and encryption has to be
implemented because it has to protect the system where it does deal with
customer’s information and other sensitive data. Encryption allows data
information to be hidden so no one can gain access to it. For example, amazon
customer bank details. When a customer purchases a product the data is
transferred to that destination which is then decrypted to be able to reveal the
information which was transferred.
(MediaWiki, 2013)
Passwords

Passwords are extremely important when creating them because not only user but
business administrators have to design a password which would be significantly
hard to guess. If someone gain access to that account and password more
importantly it could be very disastrous as they could have full access to your
account being able to use it at their own advantage. Passwords should always
contain at least 8 or more characters. I personally believe over 10 is sufficient
enough as its harder for the person to get 10 characters. With those 10
characters there should be a capital and numbers. This makes the password even
more difficult to guess as there are different characters’ keys involved.
Other Authentication Security Measures
Card Reader
A card reader is what allows a user to be able to read or write data information
on a memory card. The card reader Is inserted into a slot which allows the user
to be able to access through the computer, only with his/her identification
credentials.
Locked Door
A simple way of protecting a computer system is by keeping the door shut in any
room where there is a computer. A locked door means not only keeping it close but
also locking it and securing it with a lock. By doing this, you are preventing
anyone from accessing the room where there is a computer.
CCTV
Having surveillance set up around computer rooms and building is a good way of
seeing who goes in and who goes out, maybe someone could break in, or someone who
has access could misuse the authority. There is something called a logbook which
is used for signing in and out.
Solid Steel Guard
The PC Guard computer protection is made of steel. This is to protect your
computers against physical damage. It stops thieves from stealing computer and
accessing information physically.
Identification
Identification is probably one of the most important physical security measures
you need in computers. For example, under a system, each user has a unique card
that authenticates the user. Once the card accesses the system, it would identify
who the person is.
Impact on site performance
Security issues and the prevention of the threats which occur in an E-commerce
organization can have a massive effect on the website performance for a number of

reasons. For instance, if Amazon had a virus outbreak and the website was down
for a few days, that would major disruption and concern not only for the business
but for the customers. Firstly, customers who have recently bought good from
Amazon who have just found out about the virus outbreak do not know when their
product is coming or if it is coming anymore because all they know is that there
has been a major virus outbreak. Apart from this issue, the other issues that
would occur with this particular threat would be that customers would begin to
lose interest in Amazon because of the insecurity and concern they would have if
this incident happened again knowing that they are regular customer they would
not feel safe to be a part of this. So in other words the reputation of Amazon
would be ruined There is also the fact that the business would lose sales if
something like this happened. The finance would rise down and lost stakeholders
and investors due to the loss of customers which means the finance department
will be dejected. Also loss of customer too. I believe other issues that would
affect the performance of Amazon’s website would be the speed and capability of
how that website used to perform.
If there was Less Security in any E-commerce organization, there is likely to be
threats and more than one I believe. An E-commerce business would be open to the
choice of Trojan horse, viruses, Denial of service, server threats, spamming and
many more. this would make the website insecure and have less privileges to be
safe
On the other hand, if there was More Security there less chance there will be any
threats. Having Anti-Virus, Firewall installed, Encryption being used, SSL being
implemented and many more these would prevent any threat from occurring into an
E-commerce business.
(uky.edu, (2002)

c) Extend the report to answer the question:
What laws are involved when starting an e-commerce business?
Introduction
There are laws and regulations which need to be obeyed and followed by E-commerce
businesses and also the people who have relationship with those E-commerce
businesses. if there are no laws in place there could be violation, disruption
and threats to an E-commerce business. Laws need to be taken very carefully in E-
commerce because a lot of data including business ideas, customer information,
private and personal data and many more are all involved in E-commerce
businesses. The laws are taken in to place for understanding the rules and
regulations of a particular E-commerce business in this case goes for most E-
commerce business because they have to all go by the same laws, this is also to
have the security and the protections of the businesses and the customers.
Laws and Legislation
Data Protection Act
The Data Protection Act has been a long serving act which has been running for
nearly 20 years and is possibly one of the most important acts which have to be
followed especially by E-commerce businesses. The reasons why it has to be
rightly followed is because E-commerce businesses hold and store people’s
information such as bank account details, credit card details, national insurance
numbers, address, social security number, employment history, convictions and
many more private and personal data. With all these details being stored into the
E-commerce business, the data protection act has to be fully complied with by
being able to control and make sure that all people information is processed
lawfully and handled safely. Online privacy is a huge problem in many E-commerce
web sites as people collect and use personal information about customers. E-
commerce Web sites therefore have to make sure that personal customers
information is protected. E-commerce provide a privacy policy which identifies
and promises to customers that personal and private information will be protected
and not be shared with any one.
Business which suffered from the Data Protection Act
An example of how the Data Protection Act was breached was when Sony was hacked
into by a particular group of hackers who managed to bypass the online store and
retrieve lots of customers personal and private details such as names, address,
credit/debit card details and lots of other sensitive information. The database
was targeted by a group of criminals who managed to get past the security
procedures which meant that Sony did not keep customers personal information
secure and it was Sonny’s priority to do so. Sony knew that the consequences
were concerning and knew that despite knowing that this was a breach of the Data
Protection Act that they had to start from the beginning to make the security
more secure and to gain customers trust.
Nationwide is another example of the Data Protection Act which was which was
breached because of a laptop that was stolen from the company from an employee
who put the risk of over 10 million customer’s personal data at risk. This is

one of the most threating breaches of the Data Protection Act because it made
regulations very difficult for outsiders to get hold of information on what had
happened. Nationwide was fined nearly a million pounds because of the data loss.
There are 8 important principles which must always be followed
1. Personal data should be processed fairly a lawfully
2. Personal data should only be accessed or obtained if there is a lawful
purpose
any personal or private data which is adequate, relevant or not excessive
in relation to the purposes for which they are processed
3. Personal data should be kept adequate, relevant and not excessive in
relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are administered
4. Personal data should only be accessed when it necessary to keep it up to
data and accurate
5. Personal data which is processed for any reasons(s) should not be kept for
a long period of time if not necessary.
6. Personal/private data shall be processed in agreement with the right of
data subjects
7. Technical and organizational procedure must be taken against any
unauthorized or unlawful action of processing personal data against
accidental loss of personal data
8. Personal/private data must not be transferred to another country or area in
the EEC unless the country is in agreement of a good level of security.
(OGL, 2015)
If an E-commerce organization follows these principals, they are more than likely
going to be guarded against any threats and be secure to the business and the
people that they deliver a service too. It’s important to follow these
principals because it ensures that you are doing the right and correct action to
help benefit and keep an E-commerce business at safe grounds.
In the 7th
principle it speaks about data controllers and the duties they must
deliver to ensure the protection of personal data against any unauthorized
access. Data controller have one of the most important jobs in the world. The job
of a data controller is to control, regulate and normalize the manner in which
personal data should or should not be processed. The data controller has to audit
the data if he/she believes it needs to be inspected and this could be done at
any time.
Computer Misuse Act 1990
The Computer Misuse act is aimed to protect E-commerce businesses from threats
against theft of any data information. This includes hackers, unauthorized access
and any malicious or mischievous use of being able to damage software through
malware and viruses. Hackers being able to access and modify websites or people
information through changing password, adjusting or changing settings and gaining
access to peoples or business private/personal information. The purpose of the
computer misuse act is too stop any unauthorized access and be able to prevent

any unlawful action against people and businesses. So for example if a hacker
tries to access a business website they will be unsuccessful as they can be
prosecuted or found out. The Computer Misuse act can contain Copies of music
tracks from music CD’s which could be distributed on the Internet using computer
equipment. The misuse of computers and the Internet breaks copyright regulations.
Spam is another abuse with millions of e-mails being sent to advertise both legal
and illegal products. Viruses are also being made which are designed to cause
damage to other E-commerce business organizations.
The four offences which the computer misuse act must comply with our:
1. Any Unauthorised access to computer material
2. Any Illegal access with to commit or enable a crime
3. Unlawful alteration or change of computer material.
4. Making, supplying or obtaining anything which can be used in computer
misuse wrongdoings.
Other types of computer misuse act are misconduct such as transfer or copying any
data which is copyrighting must not be permitted as its not without the copyright
holders consent. This is illegal because this can cause infringement and breach
of someone else is work or details. Copyright of software such as music and films
is illegal because without the copyright holder’s permission they are misusing
and abusing the internet copyright regulations. Email and chat room manipulations
and exploitations are a criminal offense as this can cause alarm and distress to
people who are impersonating and misleading someone online. Pretending to be
someone or talking to someone without their permission could cause that person to
a prison sentence or fine.
The computer misuse must be applied at all times within an E-commerce business
because it assists in regulating people personal data and any violation of
personal information. It protects the owners and business workers of any
copyright infringement. The computer misuse act also tracks down on file sharing
and people who are downloading illegally to prevent any repetition or copying of
people and E-commerce material.
The computer misuse act has also introduced the closure of certain chat rooms
which have been terminated because of abuse and exploitation of peoples personal
Information and especially children who are vulnerable to meeting with unknown
and unidentified people. Email spamming has been talked about to people who are
told not to reply to anonymous emails and filter the email accounts to be able to
have a more secure email account. Lastly having strong passwords and backups help
with any illegal activity keeping data safe.
(SQA, 2008)
Consumer Credit Act 1974
The Consumer Credit Act is the act which gives consumers a variety of rights
against companies who provide credit, it is in need for the consumer’s
protection which sets out how credit should be marketed and handled. These

contracts, arrangements and agreements can include loans, credit card, hiring
purchase agreements and more which regulates the matters, procedure and
enforcements of agreements and deliver the right and obligation for both the
consumers and traders. The consumer credit act regulates credit card purchases
which gives consumers the protection when coming to a loan agreement which also
give a cooling off period which is when a break on both sides occur due to a
disagreement which try to settle their business alteration before taking any
further procedures.
The Consumer Credit Act assures that:
1. The content and arrangement of credit agreements
2. The process it takes in calculating the yearly percentage rate
3. Credit advertisement
4. The nature and the people of the agreement
5. the total amount of credit and the credit boundary
6. the duration of your agreement and the timings and repayments
The purpose and importance of this act is too be able to make power rules for
courts to address the balance of any unfair relations between debtors and
creditors by making it easier for people to obtain some help from the courts when
they have any consequences.
(Which, 2016)
Freedom of Information Act 2000
The Freedom of information Act Is what gives the people right to access any
information which is recorded by public sector organizations. Any customer or
business can request information depending on what type of information a customer
or business would ask for. Age, nationality, address is all information that can
be requested. Records such as mobile, health history, convictions will not be
able to give out as that is more personal and private data. Public sector
organization include NHS, Schools, Police forces and certain government
departments. The types of recorded information an E-commerce business can receive
are documents, Computer files, emails, videos or photographs. For example, if an
E-commerce business such as Amazon wanted to request information about eBay about
their customer’s addresses to find out if they are selling to the same customers
as them, they would be able to gain access to that because it’s not illegal and
they are doing it for data mining purposes.
(NI Direct, 2012)
Copyright Legislation
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act gives the creators of literary, musicians
and artistic people works the right to control the ways in which their material
is used. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act rights is about Recording and
public performance, copying, renting and lending copies to the public. For

example, the creator will also have the right to be identified as the author and
to object to distortions of his/her work. For example, someone’s idea about a
domain name which is unique would not itself be protected, but the actual content
of a website you host and patent would be. In other words, someone else is still
entitled to design their own website around the same idea, provided they do not
directly copy or design the same one as the creators.
The way to ensure that your E-commerce website is protected is to buy a software
which is specially designed for checking if contents or material from that
website is being unlawfully and illegally used by another website. A good
advantage of this software is that a website logo or image has a digital track on
the image or logo, so when someone tries to copy that image, the person of that
website can track and identify who has copyrighted that image.
(Practical E-Commerce, 2008)
Trading Standards are specialised workers who work on behalf of the customers and
businesses. They help and advice any laws about selling, buying, renting and
services. For instance, Amazon has Trading standards departments, if customers
need help with a particular crime they think has happened such as fraud the
Amazon Trading Standards will be able to advise what customers on what to do.
Trading standard in general cover a wide range of area such as consumer goods,
counterfeited goods, underage selling, thefts and animal welfare. The Trading
Standard help with investigating complaints and further on could prosecuting
traders who fail to comply or break the law.
(CTSI, 2016)
[3.2]
Task 3 – Financial Implications
a) Write a report to identify the costs for a non-established organisation
to become e-commerce.
Find the cheapest and most expensive solution and what the implications
are. You can include a table as evidence within your written report.
Introduction
E-commerce the service and sale of products over the internet, it allows even the
smallest businesses to reach to a worldwide audience with the service and
products it distributes and brings. I will be explaining the background, costs
and implementation of how to set up an E-commerce website.
The first thing that needs to be considered is the nature and background of what
type of business a company or person would be looking to promote and implement an
E-commerce website. For example, Amazon.com is a recognized and well known E-
commerce business which is worldwide and holds a big part in the global retail

market. The reason is being of the domain name which is popular and catchy to
customers, the sales they make every day let alone every week and year. The
acknowledgment and relationship they have with trusted companies and consumers.
The customers who trust in them and the pricing of products.
The Non-Established Organization
Store Name – Quarter
Location – Camden Town
Contact – 020 7485 0187
Scenario
The Non-Established Organization which I have decided to write up about and set
up an E-commerce platform for is a local Shoe shop called Quarter based in
Camden. To create and design this E-commerce website I had reach customers who
would by delivering messages and notices to customers through email, flyers,
billboard and many more. This Quarter shoe shop is a store which has only one
particular store in North West London and wants to be a more established and
widespread business in order to deliver more sales and bring in more customers.
If this shoe shop did eventually create an E-commerce website, it would be
competing with more shoe and trainer shops around more established businesses in
this market.
In order to build, implement and establish this E-commerce plan there has to be a
structure such as the customer interface, image and style. The hosting of the
website, promotion which will help nurture and promote the business in too
development and further progress. The costs of building the Website and the
security which needs to be applied.
The Interface Design
Before beginning the actual design and implementation of the website, the
business manager of Quarter will have to have a meeting with the web developer to
discuss ideas and the design which will help both the business and the web
developer envision what the interface design will look like once they have
discussed Thorold though how they would like it too look, there would of course
be trials and examinations of how the website interface will appear too look
like. This is one of the most important steps before designing a website because
it allows both the business to develop a clear, collective and understood vision
of the website interface design. The interface design of the website is what will

attract the customers to the website. The design of the website has to ensure
that it is easy for the customer to use and navigate through which of course is
up to the web developer’s duties. If the website is difficult to use and
customers struggle to browse and navigate through the website, they are likely to
use an easier website platform for user to use. The fact is there are all kinds
of customers which use this the internet varying from all ages and it’s
important that the interface is feasible and ideal for everyone to use. The users
who are using the newly designed website will be customers who shop online and
are regular internet users but also have to have some sort of background in using
the internet as it is an E-commerce shopping web site. The customer would want to
know what type of service the website offers and what it sells. The interface
design of Quarter Shoes will need a layout consisting of an outline of the
different types and kind of shoes that it will show across most of the page, this
will probably be on the home page to catch the attention of customers.
The interface design is important because it will show the design and the
functionalities of how the users can navigate through the web page. This
includes having a logo and colors of the website. The logo will preferably be of
a Shoe Emblem which can show customers that the store is a shoe shop.
Image and Style
When setting up the website it’s important to have an idea of what the imaging
and styling of Quarter’s website will have as it is crucial to how the business
reputation and status will stand in front of customers, potential customers and
business investors. Images such as how the background will look and the images
which are placed on the website is important to how a customer views or perceives
and how the website looks, and of course the style is important as well because
the writing, lettering, colors used, Fonts are important because that shows the
presentation of how the production and form of the website will appear to
customers. Using a Logo is also just important because this represents and shows
the symbol, emblem and design of the website, which what makes the website their
own.
Hosting
Hosting is the service which allows businesses to post and put their website on
the internet server to make it public to the audience. The hosting will provide
the service, functionalities and web pages to other websites and customers. There
are some important factors which need to be considered when hosting a website
such as where and who will host it and which Internet service provider will be
used. These are important factors because the website can be hosted within the
house you work in or by a third party which is from another organization which
you will pay extra charges for. Factors which have to be considered here is the
fact that hosting the website in house is a lot cheaper and there are not many
expensive costs such as employing web developers as you are doing it yourself.
But the downside to this is that there are a lot of accountabilities and duties
which must be taken care off this could be very demanding as you are in charge of
hosting a business website to hundreds possibly thousands of customers. The other
issue is employing technicians who do not have the required skills to take on and

run a competent E-commerce website because of their abilities and experience.
Whereas third party hosting which is the easier and the safer option but of
course requires a lot of expensive costs such as employing technicians and
developers. When it comes to hosting the location of where the web server will be
is important in terms of the security, the costs and if the efficiency of the
network connecting to customers is frequent and consist enough.
The ISP (internet service provider) has to be agreed upon in order to view the
website online. The ISP is important to a business’s website because it is
responsible for providing the internet connectivity to maintain the network.
It’s important to for a business website to have a good ISP because it delivers
the speed of the connection which is critical to the business website.
The Domain Name is usually ideal and important to customers who are looking to
find a website for shoes. So the website domain name which I have decided to set
would be called www.Quartershoescamden.com, this website has not been implemented
yet as it is a non-established organization. The organization will need to know
what kind of name the website will be named before hosting the website and of
course needs to be according to the organization store name so it can link
customers to the website. The business manager of Quarter can pay for the domain
name from the hosting service. The Domain name is important to Quarter because it
is what will be used by customers in order to locate and browse through and for
the website.
Promotion
The Website promotion is important as it is a method(s)to increase the publicity
and exposure in order to bring more customers and visitors to view the newly
designed E-commerce website. Promotion is the way in which it raises awareness
and the attention of customers and potential visitors. There is different way in
publicising and promoting a website such as making leaflets about the new
promoted website, calling up radio stations to advertise the website, billboards
on the streets which will increase awareness, creating chat rooms and forums
which will give customers ideas and views on a how the website looks and what it
is all about. Social media is another way in which a newly designed website can
be promoted because using Twitter, Facebook and Instagram increases the
popularity and the attractiveness of the website because millions use social
media for sharing information through social media which automatically spreads
the attention to people. Using search engines is another important way to
promote a business website through internet marketing as it produces more results
through customers as they search through results and findings. This can include
information researching, image searching, video searching and more. This
increases the visibility in search engine results. Pay-Per Click for example is
another method which is used in order to attract advertisers to pay a fee once
they click on an advert each time, this is a necessary way too not only buy but
too also appeal more visits to a newly formed website. Quarter shoes will need to
promote their business and newly formed website if there is to be a success and
bringing in new customers through the use of the website. This way it will not
only bring more customers but it will make the business a more established
organisation through the use of the website.

Costs
When designing the Quarter Shoe E-commerce website, the costs are always going to
be a big factor. The costs of setting the website up, the maintenance, security,
advertisement of the website and the delivery strategy. The web server for
instance is the hardware and software which will be used to deliver the content
of the Quarter Shoe E-Commerce website which can be accessed through the
internet.
Setting the website up requires the hardware, software and other technologies
which will used. Some examples of the type of server software which can be used
are Free-Nas, Ubuntu or apache they are needed in order for the server to run
properly as it handles the connection and the server. Setting up the website
especially if it is a website where customers buy goods and services from the
need to have a payment gateway provider which is a system where it charges
customers for payments and transaction being made. Maintenance is another major
cost which is needed in case of updating the products, services and design of the
website. So in this case Quarter will need to update the range and types of shoe
on the website each time a new pair of shoes come in which are new. This needs to
be enforced in any website because of the preservation and consistency of being
able to run the website. The website will always have work to do such as
upgrading and updating any information needed from pictures, to products to the
interface. The maintenance can be paid for through outside agencies which can run
the website. The costs will be more expensive as it is coming from professionals
who are skilled. Whereas if you are doing it yourself, it will be more effort and
more hard work but of course is much less costly.
Security
Security is probably one of the most important costs which is needed in order to
build on a customer’s trust, the investment in security must be thought of
carefully as there are a lot of threats out there in the internet world. The
types of security measure which need to be implemented are the SSL Certificate
which is encrypting all kinds and types of data information between customers and
the server in order to protect information such as personal and private
information. There is also firewalls which need to implemented to stop any
unusual accessing behaviour.
The software which is running the security on the website has to always be
checked and up to date, which means there will always be upgrading to do which
also incurs more costs. Advertisement of the security also has to be considered
because it has to build in customer confidence, this will let customers know how
their financial information will be safe and protected. A small example of the
security which is implemented in to a website is the validation, this helps the
browser see the little failure of mandatory fields which are empty or not such as
data not entered correctly. PayPal should be implemented when the design of
Quarter is finished because if customers want to buy a pair of shoes, they should
be able to do it through the system of PayPal, the reason for this is because it
is secure, the payment goes through straight away and there is no sign up fee.
The downsides to PayPal is that is can sometimes freeze which can be concerning

Assignment 2 - Second Submission

Assignment 2 - Second Submission

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