Classification of online retail trade models according to the degree of automation of trade and technological processes. Creation of an online storefront The plant is an online storefront

Course work

in the discipline "Information Technologies in Marketing"

TOPIC “Organization of trading systems on the Internet”

Is done by a student

day department

Moscow 2008

Introduction. 3

1. Classification of trading systems 5

2. Specifics of using the Internet in organizing commercial activities of trading companies 8

3. Electronic store - as a way to organize a trading system on the Internet 12

4. Structure of the online store 14

5. Organization of an Internet store 17

Conclusion 19

References 21

Introduction.

Since the mid-90s of the last century, with the widespread spread of global Internet networks A previously unknown form of commercial activity has rapidly developed: e-commerce. This is a truly unique form of business vision, because... it makes it possible to obtain huge profits with virtually no start-up capital at the lowest cost: for example, online stores can trade without the cost of renting retail space, publishing printed catalogs and expensive retail equipment, advertising, with a minimum staff, while having a huge number of customers . All you need for this is an easy to remember domain name, a well-designed and streamlined website, several webmasters and couriers who deliver goods to customers. An even more attractive area of ​​activity in e-commerce is the creation of Internet portals - catalogs of links to useful Internet resources, search engines and electronic media, which are much cheaper than traditional ones (television, radio and press). At first glance, it seems that this is really a way to “make money out of thin air” in the complete absence of barriers to entry into the market. Initially, this was indeed the case, and in the wake of the spread of the Internet, the youngest billionaires emerged who were among the richest people in the world, such as Jerry Yang and David Filo, who founded Yahoo in 1994. Another unique type of commercial activity that arose with the widespread adoption of personal computers is the sale of custom software. Its analogues can be called book publishing and trade in audio-video products, with the only difference being that in our case the part of the price that makes up the cost of making a copy can be tens, hundreds and thousands of times less than the part of the price that the buyer pays for purchasing a license for use of information recorded on it. For example, the cost of producing one CD is less than 20 cents, and a distribution of the Windows ME operating system costs more than $100. In fact, having manufactured a product once, a company can sell it as many times as it wants to any number of customers, and then, by slightly modernizing its product and changing the version number, sell it again to the same customers. Moreover, in this area, consumers are almost completely deprived of their rights: most software licenses stipulate previously unheard of conditions: the company denies responsibility for damage caused by its product and does not guarantee its consumer properties, stating that its software product is distributed “as There is". It also prohibits its customers from disposing of the copies they purchase at their own discretion: they cannot be transferred to another person, donated, sold, disassembled, modified or installed on more than one computer. If the same conditions applied to the book market, libraries would not exist, and the publisher could sue you for notes in the margins.

All this became possible with the widespread use of computers among organizations and individuals due to the reduction in their cost and the creation of a “friendly interface.”

1. Classification of trading systems

E-Commerce is any form of business process in which interaction between entities occurs electronically(using Internet technologies).

Electronic commerce systems (e-commerce, e-commerce) are applications of network information technology, the tasks of which include supporting business processes and offering goods and services. The birth of e-commerce dates back to 1993, when, as a result of a significant reduction in the cost and increase in the performance of hardware and software, the mass use of the Internet and the World Wide Web began. The emerging global information structure became the basis for the development of e-commerce systems.

The biggest strategic opportunity for e-commerce is in sales. By establishing strong electronic connections with the client, the manufacturer can accurately focus on the client's current activities and its intermediate and long-term strategic plans. E-commerce sales solutions that help a manufacturer manage its customer relationships must take into account the specific needs of the manufacturing industry.

The e-business application for manufacturing companies will provide support for sales, customer service and marketing professionals who need to quickly perform installations, maintenance and complex calculations of prices, discounts and other types of benefits for consumers and products. Such an application can be deployed for both internal and external personnel, and can also be provided to consumers via the Internet.

The use of the Internet provides firms with a radical change in the process of selling goods and the function of intermediaries and thereby reducing the cost of business transactions in the exchange of goods and services. Transaction costs include the costs of sourcing the product, developing a supply plan, negotiating and defending the terms of the deal, closing the deal, and enforcing the contract or resolving disputes.

Although e-commerce systems are still in their infancy, they promise to significantly change the structure and way of trade in the future. To compete in an information-rich, low-cost transaction infrastructure, enterprises will have to invent new business models with different approaches to scalability, differentiation, and branding.

To build an E-commerce system, a logical system of production and commercial relations is very important, when companies build a business in a healthy and “transparent” economy, striving for profit and stability. And this “transparent” offline business naturally becomes the basis for an online one. In Russia, industrial and commercial relations are quite often built “illogically” for various reasons. Therefore, the implementation of information systems (and then E-Commerce systems) in domestic companies is often “difficult”. Business processes need to be rebuilt so that they fit seamlessly into e-commerce. Information technology and the Internet, in this case, are a powerful stimulus for restructuring. 1

The most common types of trade organization using the Internet are B2B and B2C systems:

Business-to-Business(, business-to-business), business-to-business sales. B2B e-commerce has become a popular area of ​​online investment. E-commerce, which has become widespread on the Internet, is mainly “company-to-consumer” trade (B2C, Business-to-Consumer). Yahoo, Amazon and eBay have succeeded in this area. Meanwhile, the B2B market opens up much broader opportunities. The Internet is already having a significant impact on global business. Companies that have entered the B2B space, such as Ariba, VerticalNet and Chemdex, have already seen significant profits.

Reducing transaction costs is the main goal of B2B. For different industrial sectors this is 10-20% savings. B2B creates a digital agent between market participants, which is a level of optimization of specific business processes. The task of this virtual agent is to save money, primarily on processes such as searching for a buyer or supplier, synchronizing the work of the customer and supplier, carrying out transactions and other aspects necessary for the successful operation of the operational (non-production) side of the business. The resource itself exists due to the commission from the transaction.

The Internet offers opportunities to eliminate transaction inefficiencies for business supplies and services, to improve buyer-seller communications, and to provide new types of services. By creating networks of suppliers and business customers, usually within a specific industry, a B2B company can become a field for commercial activity on a massive scale. The essence of the situation is that B2B commerce is extremely massive, and the Internet is bringing monumental changes to the modern business process. The potential opportunities are enormous, but there are still only a small number of investment opportunities.

Competition between B2B systems is just beginning, and trends are already visible that will determine the development of relevant online resources. The key point in the development of the resource is the creation of a critical mass of buyers and sellers when reaching the level of a digital agent. This means that a site or information system must have a certain number of participants already at the time of launch, otherwise serious investments may simply be wrong.

A fairly important point is the possibility of creating a ready-made solution or product sold on the market based on the service. This is precisely the success of Ariba, CommerceOne, Scient, which combine the construction of business systems with the sale of ready-made solutions. Interactive trading platforms, which can be called B2B solutions, have existed in the IT industry for a long time. The very first computer trading platform on the Russian Internet can be called Price.ru. It was the first project to make the sales process faster and easier for companies, made by "geeks for geeks' sake." However, by this time, interactive non-computer trading platforms represented by exchanges already existed. From the very beginning, there was a fundamental difference between exchanges and Price.ru in approaches to conveying information to the user. The exchanges set the task of ensuring maximum efficiency of business processes using the most suitable tools for this (mainstream computers, remote terminals, PCs, local networks, X.25, Internet). IT projects from the very beginning were limited by the condition of promotion via the Internet.

The end users of exchanges were people for whom IT was just one of the tools that simplified the process of making a profit. The end users of IT projects were IT specialists for whom the computer was the main workplace and the main tool for earning money. Thus, from the very beginning, there were cardinal differences in the approach to conveying information: in the first case, the system interfaces were adjusted to the user, in the second, the users themselves adapted to the interfaces (also because for many of them the initial types of information display were familiar). As a result, in the case of exchanges, the professional market acts as a customer for IT and dictates its approaches to the required structure, while the IT market is its own customer, its own executor and is content with its own approaches. While electronic exchanges operate in a mode close to information, buyers and sellers simply get to know each other on the Internet, but do not go through all the stages of concluding a transaction online. Signing the contract offline is still necessary.

Business-to-Consumer (B2C)- business client, i.e. sale of goods and services to individuals.

Advantages of online retail trade: saving time (the order is made without leaving home); availability at any time of the day; a wide range of products (there is another store “one click away”); information services (availability of reference information about goods, the ability to compare goods and prices); individual service (the store management system can “remember” thousands of users and their preferences). 2

2. Specifics of using the Internet in organizing commercial activities of trading companies

So, we can distinguish four levels of relationships between participants in the trading process. They serve as the basis for creating an E-Commerce system:

1. Manufacturer - distributor

2. Distributor - dealer

3. Distributor - seller

4. Buyer

Any of these levels can be partially or completely transferred to the E-Commerce system. Let's look at some of the nuances of e-commerce at each of these levels.

Manufacturing company

For a manufacturing company, the best “start” option is to introduce the Internet Trading System (TIS) and E-Commerce methods into the work of the company’s sales departments.

For maximum economic effect from the implementation of an E-Commerce system, the sales information system must be “linked” with the production planning system and the supply organization system. In this way, many cost items can be minimized - TIS allows you to eliminate the costs of offline warehouse stocks of finished products, components, etc.

Electronic support of sales and supply channels is usually carried out using different methods. In order to “link” them, it is necessary to have an enterprise information system (ERP system or corporate information system).

When developing the Internet Trading System (TIS), its interfaces and information content, developers must proceed from the principle that any Internet resource should be aimed at a specific group. If, for example, a manufacturer is focused on working with a distribution and dealer network, then its TIS should primarily attract distributors and dealers. It would be a mistake to use the Internet as a place to “storage” information on the principle of “come in whoever you want, take what you need.” The Internet system should be as convenient and simple as possible for a specific consumer from outside to enter into it - the distributor, in this case.

The process of creating an Internet system differs from building a traditional information system. The Web interface and Web technologies will provide enormous opportunities, but one of the features is that they require the presence of a team in the development team, which is usually called " content". The work of this team is closest to editorial work - it is work with information (texts, data, graphics), systematization, editing and presentation of this information on the screen. TIS is part of the company's image, and often its face. The ability to personalize the information the user sees plays a big role. It is these factors that create a convenient, understandable and attractive environment for the consumer on the computer screen. 3

Does a manufacturer need to organize direct sales using E-Commerce? If a manufacturing company wants to operate actively using the Internet, it must also have channels for direct sales. However, not every manufacturer can afford direct sales. There are at least two problems in this area.

First: when switching to direct sales, you will have to resolve issues of interaction with traditional distribution and dealer sales channels. The larger the manufacturer, the easier it is for him to resolve this issue. But small manufacturing companies must think very carefully about their new relationship with traditional distribution channels.

The second problem when organizing direct sales is that it is difficult for small manufacturing companies to build relationships with courier services. The services of large courier systems (for example, UPS, DHL, TNT) are not cheap, but they guarantee a high level of service around the world. Small courier companies offer cheaper services, but at the same time the level of product delivery guarantees and regional coverage are reduced. This means that in the first case, the product of a small manufacturing enterprise may turn out to be uncompetitive in terms of delivery price (since delivery volumes are small), and in the second case, the company will have to negotiate with several courier services, which will also affect the final price of the product.

The manufacturer can limit the area of ​​its direct sales to the “local level” (for example, the Moscow region and 2-3 districts around the Moscow region) and enter into an agreement with one or two courier services - this is a possible option for organizing direct sales. At the same time, the manufacturer is entering a new business for itself - interaction with courier delivery systems (after all, previously it worked only with large distributors). This new business may turn out to be unprofitable for him due to the fact that everything is “local” - volumes are small, prices are high.

These questions are not easy, and only large companies decide to carry out direct sales using Internet technologies. They usually turn to the services of consulting companies that analyze the situation and help them make the right decision.

Distributor

The initiative to create an Internet Trading System at the “manufacturer-distributor” level can also come from the distributor. In this case, it will be the Distributor's Internet supply system. Many of the steps in building such a supply chain for the distributor are the same as for the manufacturer's distribution system. It is also important for a distribution company to create an Internet Trading System (TIS) to support sales.

When creating an E-Commerce system, the management of a distribution company faces the same question as a manufacturer: should it sell the product through direct sales to the end customer and “bypass” retailers or continue to work through dealers? The company itself makes decisions on this issue. This requires monitoring of the existing dealer network in order to identify the weakest areas. If there are such “failures”, then the company will be able to switch to direct deliveries in these regions.

The dealer part of the distributor's trading system must be flexible - it is important for the distributor to support not only large dealers, but also beginners. For them, the transition to an electronic-commerce system of relationships may be the most attractive and will provide an opportunity to reach a new level of business.

An e-commerce system that supports a dealer network opens up new opportunities for the distributor, for example, “bypassing” intermediate links on the way to selling goods to the final buyer.

It is possible to organize electronic-commercial interaction between regionally distributed distributors. In this case, the following functions are assigned to the E-Commerce system:

 transferring regionally distributed orders to each other;

 transfer of information about the condition of warehouses located in different places;

 presentation of information about the operation of the system to end customers.

These features are required for every system. Any distributor first needs to understand what its “distribution area” is. Is it located in one region or in several, can it organize normal logistics for one or all regions, etc. When monitoring is carried out (either independently or with the help of consultants), the creation of a proper Internet trading system will become possible. The dealer in the distributor-dealer chain can be a regional buyer, a small wholesaler, or maybe a retail store. All this needs to be clearly defined before the E-Commerce system begins to be built.

Retail sales

The organization of an e-commerce system “for” retail sales has its own characteristics. "Retail" already has a price for goods close to the maximum amounts. It is difficult for a retailer to start direct shipping to other regions. The greater the distance, the less promising it is to engage in global direct deliveries. The only exception is the retail chain. For example, "The Seventh Continent" or "Kopeika" - a system of discount stores.

If an existing retail chain is considering the issue of creating several discount stores, it definitely needs to use Internet commerce, which solves this issue remarkably well. Online stores are precisely discount stores. In a “discounter” the prices are lower than in a regular store, but the main thing is that in such a store everything is conveniently “packaged”, packaged according to certain weight categories, and there is a whole range of relatively cheap goods. And this technology is very convenient for an online store, so online stores should definitely be built as “discounters,” i.e. with low prices, standardized packaging.

Buyer (consumer)

If the consumer is a large organization, then with the help of E-Commerce technologies it, first of all, can solve the issues of regulating relationships between partners, contractors, as well as intra-corporate communications. Many holdings work with each other according to a scheme of mutual obligations. This is where E-Commerce can help significantly. Despite the fact that connections have been built, E-Commerce solutions will save operating costs to maintain the functioning of the holding in a convenient and fast manner.

Task number one is to streamline the relationships between the company’s entities - sales, delivery services, logistics systems, etc. The e-commerce base will make it possible to solve this difficult problem in the most in a fast way. Large corporations can be asked to begin by defining the relationships between the subjects of the structure and answering the question: “who supplies what, to whom, when.” Then it will become clear which departments need to switch to e-commerce first and for whom it is most necessary. Practice shows that you first need to register and define the functions of each subject separately, and only then work to combine them into a single system built on the basis of E-Commerce.

The company's adequacy of its plans in the field of e-commerce

The question of “where to start” also lies in being “adequate” to your offline functions in the online area. New distribution channels must fit within the existing business and cannot be created from scratch. Even if an online store is created, if it does not correspond to the offline business, it will not be successful 4.

And this is precisely the reason why experts usually recommend building an Internet business by moving from “offline” to “online”, and not by organizing absolutely everything from scratch. Examples of the meteoric rise of companies that emerged as “pure” Internet trading companies need to be treated with caution. Recently, there have been predictions that many such companies will have difficulties in development, since companies that traditionally held strong positions in the offline trading business are entering the Internet market today.

3. Electronic store - as a way to organize a trading system on the Internet

An online store or Web showcase is a form of working on the Internet, a form of effective presentation of your business on the Internet. An online store can be owned by a manufacturer, a distributor, or a Retailer. Almost any product can be presented on the Web showcase, distributed both by assortment and by region.

The form of how the buyer will choose a product, region, delivery method, payment method - this is a Web storefront, an online store.

A business that is brought to the Internet is a reflection of offline business. Thus, in the process of creating an online store, a company will have to solve not only the problems of simply transferring a price list, warehouse, and order system into a Web form, but also ensure an effective connection between the virtual world and the real world, with the internal life of the company. That is why experts prefer to call it an Internet Trading System, and not just a store.

If a company is going to seriously integrate offline business into online, it needs to be prepared for the fact that the requirements for its authority in business will increase. Information about a particular company on the Internet is clearly recorded and accumulated. Therefore, there should be no mistakes. The system will work efficiently and make a profit only if it has a detailed system of orders, purchases and supplies, which by definition must be very clear. The Internet reveals these shortcomings as a litmus test. Therefore, the requirements of the company's adequacy to its Internet aspirations thereby come to the fore.

Another, no less important aspect of working on the Internet is the significantly greater value of market share (marketshare) than in regular business. There is only one Russian Internet, and if a company has a share in this market, then we should talk about the country as a whole, and not about any particular region. Therefore, the importance of achieving a certain marketshare level for an Internet company is significantly higher than for offline companies.

An online retail store consists of many parts - technological, service and marketing. Costs for the technological part, design development and programming range from approximately 1.5 thousand to 10 thousand dollars. In online retail trade, the payment method is very important: cash upon receipt, prepayment to the account, payment by cards and electronic cash (electronic banking systems built using smart cards, or virtual payment systems specifically designed for online payments). In many ways, payment options are determined by the delivery method.

Convenience, cost and timely delivery are very important things for an online store. There are only two delivery methods: by post or courier service. Delivery by courier service is much more convenient, especially since within large cities its cost is low (for example, in Moscow the cost of delivery is approximately 1-2 dollars), however, there are regions where mail is the only option for receiving goods.

Marketing is the most important element in the life of an online store. Half of the turnover of online stores is generated by repeat customers. Accordingly, most sellers focus not on attracting new users, but on working with regular customers in order to encourage them to make more purchases. In Russia, the development of Internet commerce is limited to a relatively small number of users, about 2 million.

4. Structure of the online store

It was already mentioned above that there are different classes of e-commerce. Let's look at the principles of organizing some of them:

1) Business-to-Business (B2B) class systems.

2) Business-to-Customer (B2C) class systems.

Moreover, one of the subclasses of Business-Consumer systems is the actual trading systems, designed for organizing Internet commerce and implementing Seller-Buyer relationships.

It should be specially noted that an e-commerce system is a Business-to-Business system not because two organizations interact (organizations can also interact in Business-Consumer schemes), but because of how they interact.

B2B class systems appeared abroad about 30 years ago and became quite widespread. Solutions based on EDI standards were (and remain) very expensive, and only large corporations could afford to use them. In Russia there are currently no ready-made Business-to-Business solutions, but there are separate options for connecting departments (for example, the State Customs Committee) to external EDI networks.

An important feature of the developed system is that online trading is managed from the ERP system (albeit through 2 gateways and an online store). In this scheme, the online store is one of the remote retail outlets, which, although it is configured by the managers of the online store, in reality the entire flow of trade and financial transactions goes through gateways, i.e. from an external (relative to the online store) environment.

According to this scheme, a wide variety of online trading options can be organized. For example, Hewlett Packard organized the sale of cheap, previously used and upgraded computers.

For the Business-Consumer scheme the picture is somewhat different. In the first organization, the connection between the gateway and the management system is maintained, but in the second organization, the internal management system is in no way connected with external systems (the Internet), and, therefore, no automatic data exchange occurs with the first organization. However, the second organization can interact with the first, what is called “manually” - through its Managers.

These Managers may well communicate with the first organization through some interface - be it a browser or a thin/thick client (for example, a Java applet). Managers receive (for example, by e-mail) or themselves take (for example, through a browser) information from the first, parent organization, and then can enter some data into their management system and carry out their business process. Managers of the second organization in this scheme act as Consumers of the parent, first organization. As a result, connections characteristic of the B2C class are realized. Managers receive information not only about products. This can be informational, production, marketing materials. But, of course, the bulk of the exchange of information between the first business organization, and through the managers of the second consumer organization, concerns trade issues, that is, organization 1 acts as the Seller, and organization 2 acts as the Buyer.

It is clear that if this Manager is a private individual, then this will be a case of ordinary retail trade.

Three interesting features of the B2C scheme under consideration should be noted.

1) The first feature is that often the Seller himself (organization 1) trades not using an automatic trading system integrated with an Internet interface, but “manually” through his own Managers. Almost all 100% of online stores in Russia are built exactly according to this scheme.

2) Second feature. The fact that on the right there is either a private person or a legal entity is absolutely the same for this scheme; it is much more important that on the left there is no real, complete integration between the business process of a trading organization and the external interface of the online store.

3) The third feature is related to the business process. The fact is that not always (especially here in Russia) a business process is automated using some kind of management system; very often this concept (business process) represents a kind of “amorphous” mass of actions of individual managers of the organization. One manager acts according to one scheme, another - according to another, as a result, it is all very difficult to automate. Note that an automatic gateway can only be made to an automatic system, and not to an “amorphous” one, so the task of integrating a business process with an Internet interface becomes increasingly uncertain.

In all B2C class systems, an online store can be considered as a trading part of the business process of the parent organization, which is a Supplier (in a particular case, a Seller) of goods and services for the Consumer (Buyer)

So, an online store is a must:

1) Firstly, a system for conducting trading operations, integrated with the business process in the organization;

2) Secondly, the Internet showcase, which is an automatic gateway to the Internet and integrated with the trading operations system.

Unfortunately, this integration (between the Internet storefront and the trading business process) is most often absent, and instead all trading is done manually, i.e. The figure of the Manager appears again between the trading system and the Internet storefront. In this case, an online store most often refers to only a small part of the entire “economy” - what in a real online store is simply an online storefront.

Such an Internet showcase is located anywhere on the Internet, and a web catalog with a price list is placed on it. In the vast majority of cases, especially in Russia, this web showcase:

Allows you to place orders and send them by email to the Manager of the trading company.

Sometimes an automatic invoice is issued.

main feature The whole scheme of working with such a web-showcase is that all actions related to the connection with the internal business process are carried out manually by the Manager.

A web storefront is, of course, not an online store, it is a kind of tool for an online sales manager. That is, this is a kind of interface for interacting with the buyer. The same interface as telephone, fax, letter. This is a kind of additional, flexible and very beautiful tool in the hands of the Sales Manager. But this is not an online store. Just like the Sales Managers themselves are only part of the store’s staff, but not the entire store, and their activities are only part of the business process of the trading company.

5. Organization of an Internet store

There are several possibilities for creating an online store:

1. Install the web server in local network enterprises. This option is the most expensive and difficult to implement. To implement it, the following components are required:

server equipment

software for web server and internet store (trading system)

high-speed communication channel

service staff

development of store design and content (showcase)

Advantages this option– optimization for the business processes of a particular enterprise, greater flexibility and customizability.

2. Place the store on the server of the internet provider. The web server and internet store software are located on the provider's server (a separate server or server disk space is rented). This is a less expensive option, since in this case it does not require specialized server equipment and a high-speed channel, and also reduces the cost of maintaining the store.

3. Rent a store in an electronic shopping mall. The cheapest and simplest option, because... Most technical issues are taken care of by the owner of the shopping mall. The seller is usually required to provide a catalog of goods in the required form, indicate how payment and delivery will be made, develop a design for the store’s website based on the landlord’s template (usually this service is offered for an additional fee), clarify the mutual obligations of the parties and conclude an agreement . Disadvantages include the incompleteness of the market information received, the availability of data on the store’s commercial activities for a third party, and the risks of the company that owns the retail row. 5

The functionality of an online store can be considered from two positions: from the side of the buyer who entered the store, and from the side of the seller (i.e. from a technical point of view).

According to the degree of automation of the trading process, methods of organizing an online store are divided into:

Web-showcases - a combination of a catalog, navigation and ordering systems with subsequent transfer to the manager for further processing;

Actually, online stores – a trading system is connected to the web storefront and a full trading cycle is carried out;

Internet trading systems - Internet stores are integrated into the internal document flow system.

These methods provide different levels of customer service and require different amounts of investment. Web storefronts can handle ordering and sometimes invoicing. At this stage, work with the order passes to the sales manager. Showcases are not a means of truly reducing the level of transaction costs, and the profitability of a web storefront differs little from the profitability of conventional trading methods. The cost of software for an online store is at least an order of magnitude higher, but the achievable profitability also differs from the capabilities of a web storefront. Online store systems perform most of the tasks that cannot be solved within a web storefront. Including, thanks to dynamic information processing and working with databases, the online store has the ability to work individually with each registered customer.

In general, the minimum components necessary for the operation of an online store include:

Web server - distributes incoming requests, differentiates access;

Application server - manages the operation of the entire system, in particular the business logic of the online store;

DBMS - stores and processes data about goods, clients, accounts, etc.

Payment systems and logistics systems are connected to this complex. For complete integration with the company’s business processes, a gateway can be organized for electronic data transfer between the online store and the internal document automation system.

The Web server provides an interface to the database of goods sold (in the form of a catalog, price list), works with a virtual shopping cart, places orders and registers the buyer, provides online assistance to the buyer, transmits information to the trading system and ensures the security of the buyer’s personal information . Next, the trading system automatically processes incoming orders. The order processing process begins with checking the availability of goods and reserving them in the warehouse. If part of the order is missing, the system informs the buyer of a possible delay. Then, when paying online, a request to the selected payment system is initiated and upon confirmation of payment for the order, an order for delivery of the goods is placed. TS controls payment and delivery of goods.

Conclusion

Businesses are using the Internet as a new additional medium for making profits. That is, a company, using traditional methods of doing business, supplements them with virtual capabilities, without completely abandoning them. This could be a search for new customers, and new opportunities to interact with them (familiarization with the product, issuing invoices, etc.). Thus, “business on the Internet” for a company implies the transfer of part of business activity to the network, using it as an additional environment.

What we call “electronic commerce” today is nothing more than “business on the Internet.” What is “business on the Internet” in our conditions? If you look at this process from the outside, it may seem like wandering around a dark room: getting there, a person wanders around and tries to grab something. Not very many lucky people manage to do this. But those who find their niche work successfully in it.

In Russia, there are difficulties with the profitability of an online store. The reason is the lack at that time of a critical mass with which to work.

The main functions of the online store are providing information to the buyer, processing orders, making payments and providing information about the progress of the order and delivery of goods.

Through the Internet, the buyer uses a browser to access the web server of the online store, which contains an electronic storefront.

The basis of an electronic storefront is a catalog of goods with prices, which can be structured in various ways (by product category, by manufacturer), and contain full information about the characteristics of each product, its image. Buyers of online stores are interested in the same things that they can get in regular stores. Many people visit electronic stores to obtain information about a product with a view to further purchasing it offline. Detailed descriptions and the presence of large-format photographs of products increase the possibility of purchase. Customers of online stores are also interested in information about the availability of goods in stock, comparative reviews of goods, sometimes the availability of support from the store plays a big role (various forms of expert support, especially if high-tech goods are sold, when the buyer cannot choose the product himself and needs consultations, additional useful information). The catalog contains all the information about the product available to a potential client, which should fully compensate for the lack of samples and a sales consultant. An important requirement for a store is the speed and efficiency of information search processes (either guided by the catalog structure or using a search system), selection and ordering of goods, and an intuitive interface. The right step would be to place sections with store purchase rules and help. The client should be able to get answers to questions related to the purchase at any time. These are the conditions for after-sales service, consultations on the specifics of payment schemes, etc.

In general, the technical side of any Internet store can be considered as a set of electronic storefront and trading system. However, often the electronic storefront is the Internet store itself, and the second important part, the electronic trading system, is simply missing. All customer requests are sent not to the automated order processing system, but to sales managers. Further, the business processes of the electronic store completely repeat the business processes of the retail enterprise. Thus, the Internet showcase is a tool for attracting buyers, an interface for interacting with them and conducting marketing activities. Issues of transferring store business processes to the e-commerce sphere (use of trading and payment systems, logistics issues) will be discussed separately in the B2C section

Particular attention should be paid to promoting either the Internet store as a whole or a specific product. Depending on the range of products offered and the characteristics of the goods, different promotion strategies are used. When selling a fairly unique product and a small assortment, advertising of the product or its branding is carried out, because in this case, store branding may not be profitable. With a wide assortment, it is necessary not only to advertise the goods sold through the store, but also to promote the brand of the store itself (promoting a store brand is easier and cheaper than branding a large number of products separately). Promoting a store brand has another positive aspect. Customer trust is critical to a store's success. The buyer must not only quickly and conveniently find the product he needs, but also be confident in its quality and that this product will be delivered to him. At the same time, the frequency of repeat visits and purchases in the store depends on such parameters as the breadth of assortment, a friendly navigation system, a transparent payment system, and prompt delivery. Repeat purchases- one of the most important moments of the store’s work, because... The profit a company receives from one purchase very rarely covers the marketing costs of attracting a customer. It is necessary to interest the buyer so that he wants to come to the store again and begins to make a profit.

List of used literature

Arunyants G.G. Information systems in business management technology. (Course of lectures for students of economic specialties at universities). Vladikavkaz-2005.

Goat. E-commerce. Strategic technologies. M. 2002.

Rovdo A.A. A guide to modern computer communications and the Internet. 2002.

Yakubaitis E.A. Information systems and networks. M. 2005.

Karminsky A.M., Nesterov P.V. Business informatization. M. 2004.

Esther Dyson. Life in the Internet era. 2002.

Semenov M.I. and others. Automated information technologies in economics. M. 2003.

http://www.elitarium.ru

http://www.dialog-it.ru

http://www.e-commerce.ru

http://www.epochta.ru

1 Yakubaitis E.A. Information systems and networks.

2 Goat. E-commerce. Strategic technologies.

Trade and technological processes are a set of trade (commercial) and technological processes, the purpose of which is to bring goods to consumers with the least amount of labor and time.

The main models for organizing retail trade on the Internet, depending on the degree of automation of trade and technological processes, are: Internet showcase; vending machine and automatic store (or online trading system - TIS).

Internet showcase is an Internet site that contains information about the company and the products it sells. All a visitor can do is obtain information (more or less detailed and up-to-date) about products and services.

The practical usefulness of such a showcase is quite obvious; the costs of its creation and administration can be quite low, but this is not trade, but only a type of advertising. This solution lacks integration with the business process of the trading company. To make a purchase, a potential buyer must first visit the online storefront, and then go through the usual purchase cycle: a call or visit to the company, payment, etc. This approach can be justified primarily for the sale of complex products, the study of which takes time on the sales floor too much time.

Vending machine In addition to the functions that the online storefront performs, it can accept orders and then transfer them online or in batch mode to the manager. Further processing of the order is carried out according to the usual scheme for the company. The fundamental difference from an online storefront is that purchase orders and invoices for payment for ordered goods are issued without human intervention. Unlike an online storefront, a vending machine carries out real trading and, in terms of the cost-to-result ratio, looks most preferable for businesses with a small flow of customers.

Automatic store is the most powerful, comprehensive and complex solution. It not only issues invoices, but also provides order tracking tools. If you use online payment system it accepts payments and generates requests for delivery of goods to customers. Orders are processed automatically, goods are reserved in the warehouse, balances are adjusted, and other necessary operations are performed.

An automatic store is a full-fledged virtual trading service that carries out operations to work with the customer through automatic program control. The functions performed include such as demonstrating the product, providing comprehensive information, technical customer support, drawing up and processing orders, issuing invoices, transferring money payments, selecting the optimal delivery method, etc. In this case, the presence of a person is also required, but here he carries out only general control over the operation of the entire system.

The main condition for building truly profitable TIS is the integration of trade and accounting, warehouse, and accounting systems within the company with online trading systems.

From the buyer’s point of view, the first model has a significant difference due to the fact that there is no opportunity to place an order for the product directly on the website. The last two solutions look fairly similar. This is due to the fact that the buyer deals with external design, and this is always an online catalogue, a navigation system and an ordering system. Therefore, both of these options can be combined under the common name of an online store, which is an automated system that operates on the basis of the fundamentals of e-commerce and implements service and commercial functions inherent in stores with traditional forms of service.

As soon as the buyer begins to place an order, he is convinced of the advantages of an online store compared to an online storefront. These advantages are manifested in the fact that the buyer can be offered a more flexible system of discounts, accept an order, immediately issue an invoice taking into account the cost of delivery and insurance, etc. In addition, he will be able to see the real state of the warehouse and receive information about the progress of his order.

From the sellers' point of view, these three solutions differ quite significantly. An online storefront is inexpensive for trading companies, but:

• An online storefront allows you to organize only trade to order; it is almost impossible to organize trade from a real warehouse;
• the use of a storefront does not reduce the costs of sellers for staffing and operating expenses;
• an online storefront is a very cumbersome solution from a management point of view and not flexible enough from the point of view of organizing marketing campaigns;
• the image of a company that has opened and maintains a simple online storefront is always worse than that of a company that has organized online trading using a fully functional online store;
• organizing online retail trade using a storefront is for trading company ineffective and even often unprofitable.

An online store is significantly more profitable for a trading company (especially a medium-sized business) that wants to really manage the entire process of online trading and various marketing campaigns, sell both to order and from a warehouse, reduce the number of sales managers, etc. To create the Internet -a store will require more one-time costs compared to a storefront, but they will be much more effective, since using online stores is significantly more cost-effective than using storefronts.

There are several options for creating an online store.

1. Renting a store in an electronic shopping mall. The cheapest and simplest option, since most technical issues are taken care of by the owner of the retail row.

Electronic shopping row - it is essentially an electronic department store or electronic supermarket, widespread in economically developed countries. They unite independent sellers on one trading platform using the Internet. Each seller registered in the electronic trading row places a catalog of their products in the system. Then all product offerings are compiled into a single catalog of the trading range.

There are several options for seller participation in the electronic shopping mall:

• placement of its price list in the catalog of price lists of the retail range;
• placing a page for a new online store in the system, to which interested buyers are redirected;
• rent of a specific thematic section of the catalogue.
• 2. Purchasing ready-made online store software. Depending on the functional features of the solutions, they are used for small and medium-sized projects. The main disadvantage is limited opportunities modifications in accordance with the requirements of a specific customer.
• 3. Order development from a specialized company. One of the most commonly used options for large projects with non-standard requirements. It is not practical to use this option to create a regular store integrated with a common back office. In such cases, they usually order the developer to modernize a ready-made solution.
• 4. Developing a solution in-house. The most complex and costly method. Applies only if the company has all the necessary resources for developing software products (staff of programmers, testing specialists, patent law specialists, strong service technical support etc.). The development of their own solutions is often used by large companies or holdings that include several online stores.

In order to open an online store, following the last three options, you can do one of two ways.

• 1. Installation of the server on the enterprise local network. This option is the most expensive and difficult to implement. To implement it, the following components are required: server hardware; server software; high-speed communication channel; building a security system.
• 2. Placement of the store on the server of the Internet provider. Software The online store is located on the provider’s server (a separate server or server disk space is rented). This service is called hosting.

In this case:

• the Internet provider channel will be used as a dedicated channel, which will provide more fast access buyers to the online store;
• Trading company managers can manage the store remotely from their office.

This is a cheaper option, since in this case specialized server equipment and a high-speed channel are not required, and the costs of maintaining the store are also reduced. However, the flexibility of configuration, the functionality of the store, and the efficiency of order processing are reduced.

In the current state of online trading in Russia, the most attractive model is a vending machine. This option, at a fairly modest cost, will allow you to assess the demand for the goods and services offered and begin an advertising and promotion campaign for your online store. At the same time, with a large number of orders and developed infrastructure, an automatic store wins. An online storefront is a means of advertising, not trade, and it is not practical to consider it as a solution for an online store.

The main feature of the online storefront is the fact that here users can view the product and its characteristics.

Creation of an online storefront helps you promote your products and services among consumers faster and more efficiently. It is very important, when developing your online project, not to confuse two completely different concepts: an online store and an online storefront.
The creation of an online showcase is done with the goal of introducing consumers to a huge selection of company products, but not selling them online. Most often, an online showcase is a catalog that contains all the goods and products of a company. A potential buyer can view the products provided and choose what he needs.
Such web resources help to significantly promote your business, and also cost much less than the development of other Internet sites.

Online showcase – the face of the company

Online storefronts differ from other web resources in that they only present a company’s product or service without selling it. As a rule, this is a corporate website where visitors can find the information they are interested in about a product, its description, cost and specifications. In addition, often such resources also provide the information visitors need about what the company can offer its customers and clients. Of course, creating a storefront on the Internet does not pose any particular difficulties, but when there are too many names of a wide variety of products, the creation work requires the hands of real specialists.

It is essential to have a professional web design agency that knows how to realize the qualities and benefits of the products and services offered in the brand image you want to offer online. This web agency, which has a team of experienced adverts, makes the design measure each client, going deep into creating a web tag for the company. His unique designs make the company's website unique because he does not make templates that others may have. A website is the most important face of a company, agency or institution, so you must reflect the best of it in the best possible way.

Features of the online storefront:

• An online storefront helps find new buyers and consumers. Speaking of this feature, these sites are indexed in such a way that allows them to automatically find buyers using a variety of search engines.
• A web resource in the form of a showcase allows you to increase the possible income of your company several times.

At the customer's request, we can add a simple email order form to the product page! To make it easier to imagine how an online storefront works, you can take as an example thick catalogs with products that may be of interest to potential buyers.
Creation of an online storefront involves the use of a wide variety of approaches:

This is why choosing a personalized web design is so important. For this, it is important that the information that wants to be conveyed is clear, structured and attractive so that the public can understand it and be attracted by it to a greater or lesser extent. The agency has reviewed proposals on the website where the information is clear, with vivid and well-structured images, such as the example this agency offers us to observe the quality of your web design and the effectiveness of your web development. To see the web design project, click to this link.

• Creation of a catalog that will take into account the necessary capabilities to facilitate work with search engines;
• This kind of site needs permanent job specialists are working on its promotion so that potential buyers can more easily and without much effort find the product they need;
• Internet showcase is more of a business website than a simple online presence.

What do you get by contacting us?

• Custom designed to suit your company's goals.
• We use a CMS that does not have a heavy load on the server.
• We will add some variety to your storefront by also creating reviews, ratings and other features
• We offer our clients an administrative panel to fill out the site.
• We also offer support for modern HTML standards and the possibility of search engine optimization.

By deciding to contact our company, you can be sure that your virtual storefront will be a real breakthrough for your business.

The showcase of an online store is designed to solve the same problem as the showcase of a regular store, namely, to present the product to potential buyers. While regular storefronts contain real goods, online storefronts display information about products taken from the catalog. What information this is and how it is presented depends on what kind of product the online store sells.

As a rule, any product has a name, a short and full text description, photographs of appearance and cost. Sometimes a product may have multiple prices depending on size, weight and other attributes. For example, the cost of mattresses of the same type depends on the size. There are also more complex cases.

The product page can provide information about the availability of goods in stock, delivery times, etc.

Some products can be presented on the display using a name, text description and photographs. For other products, e.g. consumer electronics and books, you need to set many attributes (parameters). For books, this is the title, author's name, abstract, table of contents, year of publication, name of publisher, ISBN number, dimensions and weight, cover type, availability of a CD, information about available translations into various languages, example chapters, and so on.

If a store offers a variety of products, then for each product category it is necessary to use its own set of attributes. For example, televisions should be described differently from car radios or players.

The more Full description the product will be presented, the easier it will be for customers to make a choice when purchasing

A good online store has not one, but several storefronts (although all of them can be located on one page in the form of blocks). Each of the showcases classifies the product in its own way, but they are all tied to general catalog goods. Here are several types of showcases:

• tree-like product catalog;
• new goods;
• sales;
• most popular products;
• related and recommended products;
• goods by manufacturing companies, manufacturing plants and similar

The tree-like catalog display allows you to search for products by category. By opening the branches of the catalog, the visitor finds what he needs. At the same time, he looks through the sections of the catalog, designed in the form of a list of product names. With the help of such a showcase, you can easily find a product by belonging to a particular product category.

A display of new products helps the visitor find a product that has just or recently appeared on sale. As a rule, such a showcase is organized in the form of a list of items located in a prominent place on the main page of the online store. If a lot of new products of different categories come to the store every day, it makes sense to give the display of new products a hierarchical structure to facilitate search.

The purpose of a showcase of popular products and sales is clear from the name. Typically, such displays are organized on the main page of the store, on the catalog page or on product description pages.

The online store may provide special system purchase analysis, identifying those products that are most often purchased together. These products may be considered related products and may be offered for sale on the View Details page.

The buyer can choose related products along with the main product as an addition to the purchase

Showcases by manufacturing companies and manufacturing plants usually present a simple list of company and plant names. By clicking on a line in such a list, the visitor will open a page listing products produced by the corresponding company or factory.

In addition to display windows, or blocks with information, the online store catalog must contain a search. Search allows the visitor to find the product he needs using keywords found in the title or description of the product. In this case, you can specify additional criteria for selecting goods, for example, by cost. The search will help the visitor in cases where it is difficult for him to find a product on other displays, when he does not know the category or accurate name goods.

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If a company produces or sells many types of goods on offline trading platforms, provides a range of services, and you want to demonstrate them to customers, indicating the exact characteristics, and want to tell them what exactly you do - then this is for you. This will allow the client to consider specific products or examples of services provided and order their production.

If you sell goods online and specialize in this, if you want a client to go to your website to choose, order, pay and receive the goods by delivery, then the online storefront will be an inflexible and even complicating sales tool. Since the site will not be suitable for processing applications and paying for orders. In this case, you need not just a catalog, but a full-fledged online store.

Online storefront or online store: what is the difference?

Developing an online storefront is also cheaper than creating an online store, due to the lack of functional elements for sale.

Creation of an online storefront

Creating an online showcase seems to be not difficult - just create product cards or illustrations of completed work with a description. But in reality, when you have hundreds of product names and each one needs to create a relevant explanation, configure search engine optimization, create a design for a multi-page website - such a task becomes difficult to complete on your own.

Therefore, the SEOSKY company offers you a professional approach to creating and promoting an online storefront.

Creating a website begins with you filling out a small questionnaire (brief) in which you describe point by point the specifics of your business and how you imagine your site. Based on the brief, we set the goals and objectives of the project, generate ideas and options for the design and functionality of the future site.

Stages of work of SEOSKY specialists:

• Creation of layout, design and functional modules.
• Development of the structure and prototypes of all website pages. The sorting of the catalog, the grouping of products in it are approved, functions are added to third-party systems (for example, the ability to download products from 1C, receive notifications by e-mail or orders for calls from the site).
• Obtaining your approval for the development plan and finalizing the elements in accordance with your wishes.
• Designer rendering of all website elements and creation of content in the form of texts, product cards and photographs.
• Technical setup of the site. The more functions and products in the online storefront, the longer the setup.
• Filling with goods and content, setting up indexing in search engines, site testing.

The online showcase is ready! Now all that remains is to promote your site with using SEO or contextual advertising.

Order an online showcase from SEOSKY

Order the creation of an online storefront from specialists in the development and promotion of websites of any complexity. SEOSKY has already created more than 200 successful business websites. We offer our services at competitive prices.

The final cost of developing an online storefront will be influenced by factors such as the choice of CMS (content management system), choice of hosting, multilinguality of the site, search filters and others. At your request, we will also add any additional modules.

Discuss all the details of the order with our specialists.

Write to us and we will contact you!

Internet showcases (web showcases)

The next option for organizing retail trade on the Internet is a web storefront.

The pages of the online showcase contain information about the company, catalogs of products (services), price lists for them and a form for submitting an application.

In the online showcase, you can publish company news, additional information about manufacturers, advice, analytical reviews, etc. Such a site, compared to traditional sources, provides more complete information about goods and services.

The following types of online storefronts can be distinguished:

static online storefront based on regular HTML files;

a dynamic online storefront displaying information from a database.

Along with participation in the electronic trading row, this is the least expensive solution, however, the online storefront, unlike the trading row, does not provide the full sales cycle, including interactive procedures for issuing invoices, accepting payments, tracking order fulfillment, etc.

The operating principle of the online storefront is based on collecting preliminary applications and then executing them. This principle is used, for example, by websites specializing in the sale of goods of limited demand (such as art objects). The main problem for the seller is the need to guarantee that the potential client will fulfill the order on pre-agreed conditions. The buyer runs the risk of receiving the selected product or service late (or not receiving it at all).

A distinctive feature of this business model is the implementation of the purchase and sale process in several stages. First, the seller collects applications, then finds out from the supplier the terms and conditions for fulfilling the order, and then informs potential clients about this (usually with the help of Email) and finally, if they agree, ensures delivery of the goods.

From the point of view of sellers, an online storefront and an online store differ quite significantly. An online storefront is inexpensive for trading companies, but it has significant disadvantages:

Disadvantages of online storefronts (1):

1) does not allow automation of trade from a real warehouse;

2) does not allow reducing the staff of selling companies and their operating costs.

Disadvantages of online storefronts (2):

3) there is no flexibility in managing trade processes and organizing marketing campaigns.

All customer requests in the online storefront do not go to the automated order processing system, as in electronic store, and to sales managers. Further, the business processes of the online storefront completely repeat the business processes of a traditional retail enterprise. In this case, there is no possibility of a real reduction in the level of transaction costs; the profitability of a web storefront differs little from the profitability of conventional trading methods. The main feature of this form of online trading is that the processes of interaction between the web storefront and the company’s internal business process are carried out manually by managers (this is shown in the slide picture with the corresponding arrows).

Online storefront transaction processing processes

Online store transaction processing processes

Thus, an online storefront is only a tool for attracting buyers, an interface for interacting with them and conducting marketing activities.

Let us now consider the concept and functions of an online store

Trade automation becomes profitable only as its scale grows. As long as several employees handle the manual processing of customer orders, especially if the number of customers is small, it is easier for merchants to organize online trading based on an online storefront. But for firms conducting hundreds of transactions a day, this is unacceptable.

The most comprehensive, although difficult to implement, online trading system is an online store that covers all the main business processes of a trading enterprise: selecting goods, placing orders, conducting mutual settlements, tracking order execution, and in the case of selling information goods or providing information services - delivery via electronic communications networks.

The advantages of an online store compared to an online storefront are that the buyer can be offered personal service, a flexible system of discounts, and can also immediately issue an invoice taking into account the cost of delivery, type of payment and insurance, and tax deductions. In addition, the buyer can receive information about the progress of his order. The use of this model in e-commerce allows you to significantly reduce inventory in warehouses and thus obtain significant cost savings compared to offline shopping malls. Since orders in the online store are processed automatically, the manager is no longer a necessary link in servicing the buyer; his task is general control of the operation of the system.

As part of trading in online stores, as a rule, the principle of personalization is used, based on profiling technologies - the systematic collection and analysis of statistical information about customers.

According to this principle, the virtual merchant ensures that customer preferences are taken into account. The client is offered a package of services and a set of goods oriented towards him, cumulative discounts, etc.

An online store is beneficial for a trading company that needs full control and management of all online trading processes and various marketing campaigns (trading both to order and from a warehouse, conducting advertising campaigns, organizing sales, etc.). Creating an online store requires large one-time costs compared to a web storefront, but with significant turnover, the use of online stores turns out to be significantly more profitable.

The online store includes the following main components (1):

Internet showcase - a front office located on a web server and equipped with a virtual shopping cart;

Payment acceptance system.

The online store includes the following main components (2):

System of accounting and control of order execution;

Back office, whose information systems are integrated with front office systems.

The online store is designed to perform the following tasks (1):

Providing online buyer assistance;

Registration of buyers.

The online store is designed to perform the following tasks (2):

Providing an interface to the database of goods sold (in the form of a catalog, price list);

Working with the buyer's electronic basket ("cart").

The online store is designed to perform the following tasks (3):

Placing orders with choosing a payment method, delivery, insurance and issuing an invoice;

Reservation of goods in the warehouse.

Carrying out settlements (when choosing electronic payment methods) or controlling payment (when using traditional forms of payment);

Formation of requests for delivery of goods to customers and issuance of accompanying documents;

Providing the buyer with a means of tracking the execution of orders;

Goods delivery;

Collection and analysis of various marketing information;

Ensuring the security of customers' personal information;

Automatic exchange of information with the company’s back office.

An online storefront is located on an Internet server and presents a website with active content. Since the online store must have a constant connection with information system company, it is located either on a corporate server in the enterprise’s local network, or on a remote server with a permanent communication channel. The need to fully automate the company's business processes determines high requirements for the back-office process management system. This system should ensure the automatic execution of all actions related to sales, warehouse operations, have internal mechanisms for monitoring emergency situations, etc.

In general, the minimum hardware and software components required for the operation of an online store include:

Software and hardware components of the online store include (1):

Web server (distributes requests coming from the Internet, differentiates access to information);

Software and hardware components of the online store include (2):

Application server (manages the operation of the trading system, in particular the business logic of the online store).

Software and hardware components of the online store include (3):

DBMS server (provides storage and processing of data about goods, clients, accounts, etc.).

Payment systems and, in some cases, delivery systems are connected to this complex. To integrate with the company’s business processes, a gateway for electronic data transfer is organized between the online store and the company’s internal automation system (document flow system, ERP system, etc.).

The business model used significantly distinguishes the options for building online stores from each other:

Business models for building online stores (1):

online store (there is no traditional retail network).

Business models for building online stores (2):

combining offline business with online (when an online store is created on the basis of an existing real trading structure).

The second type of store has an undoubted advantage. In this case, symbiosis adds new opportunities to both types of business:

The online store takes advantage of delivery with existing network retail stores, it can offer the option of receiving goods in the selected store; unlike a purely online store, there are no problems for it when returning goods;

Offline buyers can preview the product range and characteristics on the website, and then come to the nearest physical store.

Based on the availability of inventory, online stores can be divided into:

Working under contracts with suppliers (lack of any significant own inventory).

And also on -

Having their own warehouse facilities (availability of inventory).

The model of working under contracts with suppliers is based on the electronic mediation of a virtual trading enterprise between manufacturers or distributors of goods and retail customers.

Prices that are more attractive than those of offline competitors are explained by the absence of costs for the acquisition (rent), maintenance and equipment of retail premises and warehouses and the low level of personnel costs.

This business model was immediately popular, but it quickly became apparent that, while easily replicable, it did not provide strategic competitive advantage. In other words, when many online stores with previously unknown (or little-known) names and standard assortments enter the e-commerce market, an individual seller cannot be sure that any significant number of buyers will choose his server to purchase goods.

Another type of online stores are those who have their own warehouse and inventory.

This could be an organization (Internet division) of an offline trade and service or manufacturing company. The scheme of interaction between the seller and the buyer in this case is almost no different from the scheme of the first model. The only difference is that in this case the store operates with goods from its own warehouse, rather than from the supplier’s warehouse and, therefore, is less dependent on external factors. This model is not as easily copied by competitors as the previous one, since it requires capital costs to create a warehouse system and inventory.

The development of e-commerce does not necessarily lead to an overall increase in the number of customers and the turnover of the trading enterprise as a whole. The so-called “cannibalization” of sales markets often occurs, i.e., an online store begins to compete with the offline divisions of the company and increase turnover by luring their customers.

The first interactive element of the interface that the user encounters is the product catalog, reflecting the product range of the online store.

The catalog is usually presented in the form of a hierarchical tree structure, the basic elements of which are typical product groups and specific products (complete analogy with the presentation of the file structure in OS Windows Explorer). When you click on a group, it expands, opening the next level of this group. At the last level of each group, specific products of a certain type are presented. If desired, the buyer can view an image of the product and its detailed characteristics.

The completeness of the information contained in the catalog, a convenient presentation structure and quick search capabilities largely determine the success of the online store. It is in the catalog that all the information about the product available to a potential client is located, which should to a certain extent compensate for the lack of real samples and a sales consultant.

3D technologies can play a significant role in the catalog, which make it possible to examine the sample of interest from all sides, look inside, etc.

However, the use of 3D technologies places increased demands on the capabilities of the client's computer.

To ensure a quick search for the necessary information, it is used automated system search, working according to parameters specified by the client: product name, required quality characteristics, maximum price, etc.

To one degree or another, the structure of the product catalog influences the structure of the site. Placing a product according to industry-standard product classification does not guarantee ease of search for customers. For example, when creating a product catalog for a perfume store, it is not enough to use proprietary classifiers of manufacturers: the names of some sections will not tell the consumer anything (for example, aldehydes). Therefore, when developing a catalog, it is necessary to take into account the buyer’s ideas about the classification of goods in this group.

The process of making a purchase in an online store consists of 2 stages:

Product selection (search, receipt detailed information about the product, placing it in the cart);

Placing an order (selecting a form of payment and delivery).

If the purchase process was interrupted, for example, the user urgently needed to go on business, the online store remembers Current state his baskets. The next time you visit the store, the customer’s shopping cart will contain previously selected products. Depending on the policy of the store administration, the storage time for data about shopping carts of store customers can be long (up to several weeks).

There are several types of baskets. The standard basket can be divided into main and auxiliary.

The buyer places all the products he likes in the auxiliary cart, and at the time of placing the order, he decides which of the selected items will be transferred to the main cart and paid for, and what will remain in the auxiliary cart until his next visit to the store.

In addition, there is the concept of a standard basket, or standard order. The need for such a basket arises in the case of regular purchases by some buyer of identical batches of goods.

The buyer forms the contents of the cart and declares it standard. In the future, he can change its contents. Each buyer can create an arbitrary number of such baskets for himself. It is most effective to use a standard basket with a wide range of purchased lots of goods.

Another type of shopping cart is a corporate shopping cart for corporate customers. It is used to automate the supply of large geographically distributed enterprises.

The corporate basket is built on the basis of the baskets of individual structural units (departments, offices, branches, etc.) of one enterprise, taking into account the limits on spending funds on supplies to various structural units, restrictions on the financial resources of the enterprise, etc.

Having created a basket, the client gives the command “Complete order”, while choosing a convenient form of payment and delivery.

An important component of the interaction between the buyer and the store is registration, in which the buyer provides the store with the data necessary for:

1) identification (name, password);

2) direct purchase (full name, address, phone number, email address, etc.).

In the future, this information is used in all interactions between the buyer and the store - the buyer only needs to identify himself. During registration, the online store ensures the security of the buyer’s personal information, using secure channels for data transmission, such as the SSL protocol.

Registration is an optional condition for visiting the online store. At the same time, it provides a number of advantages. Firstly, registration allows the buyer to always see the status of his orders and save the contents of the cart for future visits. Secondly, for each purchase there is no need to specify the data required for its implementation (delivery address of goods, legal details of the organization, etc.). Registration allows, by tracking the preferences of a particular buyer, to personalize service: provide personalized information, set prices taking into account individual discounts, maintain order histories, etc.

Data about the buyer and the contents of his cart are sent to managers in the back office of the online store. Back office software includes an interconnected database of incoming orders with tracking of their fulfillment, a customer database with their credit history, an automated warehouse and accounting system, applications for top managers and the client part of the Internet banking system, etc.

Order processing begins from the moment the application is submitted and contains the following steps:

Ordering steps (1):

Reservation of goods in the warehouse;

Payment (in online mode, payments occur automatically; in offline mode, an invoice is issued for payment and then the receipt of funds is monitored).

Ordering steps (2):

Preparation of documents for delivery of goods.

The online store software automatically generates, signs with the store’s electronic digital signature and sends the client an invoice, according to which he can pay and receive the goods in the store within a certain time. An electronic invoice in this form is the basis for payment. Online stores allow you to pay by postal order, plastic card, electronic money, regular bank transfer or cash (when using courier delivery or when receiving goods in an offline store). After the payment is notified, the trading system creates an order for the delivery service. The buyer can receive information about the progress of the order online.

Let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of the main methods of paying for goods in online stores.

Advantages and disadvantages of payment methods for goods in online stores (1):

1. Payment in cash to the courier. Payment is made at the time of delivery of the goods by courier.

Advantages of this method:

Guarantee of receipt of goods (by the buyer) and money (by the seller);

The ability to check the product (and completeness) immediately and, if desired, return it by refusing to purchase;

Opportunity to get advice from the courier.

This method is one of the simplest, most reliable and convenient.

Flaws this method: significant costs for courier service, especially for sales outside the city, and the inability to provide a high level of service and pre-sale services.

Advantages and disadvantages of payment methods for goods in online stores (2):

2. Payment and receipt of previously ordered goods in the store.

This payment method is no different in reliability from a simple purchase in an offline store. The buyer, having placed an order in the online store, indicates in which of the company’s real stores he wants to receive it and, after the specified period, purchases the goods in the designated store.

The advantages for the buyer are the same as in the first case, plus:

By looking at the store, the buyer can draw a conclusion about the reliability of the selling company;

The shopping process in a traditional store is familiar to everyone;

There are no psychological problems typical for courier delivery - buyers are wary of the appearance of strangers in their home;

It is relatively easy to guarantee a high level of service and pre-sales services.

The disadvantage for the buyer is that it is necessary to go to the store to purchase. The disadvantage for an online seller is the need for a physical store. As a rule, only online stores organized on the basis of offline trading enterprises can afford this.

Advantages and disadvantages of payment methods for goods in online stores (3):

3. Cash on delivery. After placing an order, the goods are sent to the buyer by mail. Payment is made at the post office, directly upon receipt.

Advantages:

No geographical restrictions;

Relatively low shipping costs.

Flaws:

Impossibility of preliminary inspection of the product (the contents of the postal item can be checked only after payment for the purchase);

Unreliability of delivery (products may be damaged during transportation);

Significant delivery time (the longest of all possible options).

Advantages and disadvantages of payment methods for goods in online stores (4):

4. Payment by bank transfer. After placing an order, the buyer is issued an invoice, which can be paid through the cash desk of any bank (for individuals) or from a current account (for organizations). The method is convenient for organizations. For individual This method of purchasing is not so convenient - you must first go to the bank to pay, and then wait to receive the goods. This option is characterized by all the disadvantages of cash on delivery payment.

Advantages and disadvantages of payment methods for goods in online stores (5):

5. Payment using a plastic card. To make a payment, the buyer enters the plastic card details into a special screen form and receives a notification of debit from the account, indicating the completion of the payment.

The advantage is the simplicity of the payment process. The disadvantage is the low level of security of payment transactions.

Advantages and disadvantages of payment methods for goods in online stores (6):

6. Payment using electronic money, electronic checks.

In order to use this payment method, you must install a digital wallet on your computer ( online wallet) and connect to the electronic money system.

Advantages of this method:

High degree of security;

Simplicity and convenience of the payment process.

Disadvantages of the method:

The need to create a wallet with electronic money;

There may be costs associated with payment for payment system services.

This method is ideal for those who frequently shop online, it is reliable and safe.

After the order and mutual settlements, data on purchasing activity is entered into the system. In the process of working with the buyer, marketing information is constantly collected and analyzed. The owner of a virtual store, having complete information about website visitors, can build a marketing policy in accordance with it.

In addition to the basic components (product catalog, order archive, electronic shopping cart) that ensure the implementation of business processes, the online store contains a number of additional information sections.

Any online store needs sections:

General information about the store;

On the specifics of the product range;

A form for quickly searching for the desired product (due to its great popularity, the search form is usually located on home page);

Assistance in navigation and purchasing;

Target market news;

Answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ and "contextual helpers").

It is important to pay attention to the “Help” section; its absence is the reason for refusing many purchases. According to research by Andersen Consulting, about 25% of buyers do not make purchases due to lack of information about the product (service). 62% of buyers answered the question: “What actions on the part of online stores could push them to make a purchase?” It could be reviews, recommendations for goods and services. Another 58% (multiple answers could be given) said that they needed advice on choosing color, size, quantity, etc.

It is known that making a visited store based on information portal much easier than organizing a popular news section in an online store. Therefore, beginning online stores are trying to find an information partner. A store has goods and money, a news site has an audience and information. Combining these resources gives a good economic result.

The structure of the site is not limited to the sections listed above. According to JUPITER COMMUNICATIONS research, 24% of online stores use the “Hits” section (aka “Top Sellers”, “ Best products", etc.). This allows you to increase sales. It is no secret how strongly public opinion influences a person, especially when he has doubts.