Chapter 4

Building an E-commerce Web Site

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Building an E-commerce Site: A Systematic
Approach
• Two most important management
challenges in building a successful e-
commerce site are:
 Developing a clear understanding of business
objectives
 Knowing how to choose the right technology to
achieve those objectives

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 Pieces of the Site-Building Puzzle

• Main areas where you will need to make decisions in building a

site include:
 Human resources and organizational capabilities—creating
a team that has the skill set to build and manage a
successful site
 Hardware
 Software
 Telecommunications
 Site design

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 The Systems Development Life Cycle
• Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a
methodology for understanding the business
objectives of a system and designing an appropriate
solution
• Five major steps in the SDLC are:
 Systems analysis/planning
 Systems design
 Building the system
 Testing
 Implementation

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 Web Site Systems Development Life Cycle
Figure 4.2, Page 195

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 System Analysis/Planning: Identifying Business
Objectives, System Functionality, and Information
Requirements
• Business objectives: a list of capabilities you
want your site to have
• System functionalities: a list of the types of
information system capabilities you will
need to achieve your business objectives
• Information requirements: the information
elements that the system must produce in
order to achieve the business objectives
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 Systems Analysis: Business Objectives, System
Functionality, and Information Requirements for a
Typical E-commerce Site
Table 4.1, Page 196

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Systems Design: Hardware and Software Platforms
• System design specification: a description
of the main components of a system and
their relationship to one another
• System design can be broken down into
two parts:
 Logical design
 Physical design

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 A Logical Design for a Simple Web Site
Figure 4.3 (a), Page 198

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 A Physical Design for a Simple Web Site
Figure 4.3 (b), Page 198

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 Building the System: In-House versus
Outsourcing
• Outsourcing: hiring an outside vendor to provide services
involved in building the site
• The build your own versus outsourcing decision:
 Build your own requires team with diverse skill set; choice
of software tools; both risks and possible benefits
• Host your own versus outsourcing
 Hosting: hosting company is responsible for ensuring site is
accessible 24/7, for monthly fee
 Co-location: firm purchases or leases a Web server (with
control over its operation), but server is located in at
vendor’s physical facility

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Testing, Implementation, and Maintenance

• Testing: Includes unit testing, system testing,

and acceptance testing
• Implementation and maintenance:
 Maintenance is ongoing
 Benchmarking: process by which site is
compared to those of competitors in terms of
response speed, quality of layout, and design

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 Simple versus Multi-tiered Web Site
Architecture
• System architecture: refers to the arrangement of
software, machinery, and tasks in an information system
needed to achieve a specific functionality
• Two-tier architecture: Web server responds to requests
for Web pages and a database server provides backend
data storage
• Multi-tier architecture: Web server is linked to a middle-
tier layer that typically includes a series of application
servers that perform specific tasks, as well as to a backend
layer of existing corporate systems

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 Two-Tier E-commerce Architecture
Figure 4.9(a), Page 207

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 Multi-tier E-commerce Architecture
Figure 4.9(b), Page 207

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 Basic Functionality Provided by Web Servers
Table 4.3, Page 209

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E-commerce Merchant Server Software
Functionality
• Provides the basic functionality needed for
online sales, including:
– Online catalog
– Shopping cart
– Credit card processing

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Web Site Design: Basic Business Considerations

• To achieve basic business functionality of a

Web site, need to be aware of design
guidelines and software tools that can build
active content and functionality
• Poorly designed Web sites drive customers
away

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 The Eight Most Important Factors in Successful E-
commerce Site Design
Table 4.10, Page 226

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 Tools for Interactivity and Active Content
• CGI (Common Gateway Interface): Set of standards for
communication between a browser and a program running on a
server that allows for interaction between the user and the server
• ASP (Active Server Pages): Enables programmers using
Microsoft’s IIS package to build dynamic pages
• Java: Allows programmers to create interactivity and active
content on the client computer
• JSP (Java Server Pages): Similar to CGI and ASP; allows developers
to use a combination of HTML, JSP scripts, and Java to
dynamically generate Web pages in response to user requests
• JavaScript: Programming language invented by Netscape that is
used to control objects on a Web page and handle interactions
with browser
• etc
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