E Commerce Factors

Not long ago, customers purchased goods and services from their neighborhood supermarkets, which were plagued with long queues, traffic issues, wobbly shopping carts, and inclement weather. Despite the availability of internet shopping, people were wary of transition. They were particularly apprehensive about using credit cards and disclosing personal details to merchants. This, though, has all changed. Most shoppers nowadays tend to purchase items from the convenience of their own homes. They simply use their smartphones or computers to place orders and send them to their destinations. Despite security fears and issues of familiarity being present, shoppers prefer to shop on the web. This has been due to easier return policies, faster deliveries and free shipping services that are offered by majority of the online retailers. In order to ensure that customer experience is more approachable, online retailers need to put certain factors into perspective. Some of these include offering assistance to online customers, use of customer reviews and investment in website functionality and appearance.

Offering Assistance to Online Customers

Shopping assistants sets the physical stores from the online. When shopping, not many people appreciate being stalked by the assistants but they can be priceless if they are knowledgeable about the products and services on offer. Customers often feel secure when there is an expert ready to help them choose a product (Holden & Gulbrandsen, 2009). This feeling of comfort and security in customers can be created through consultants and live chat.

Customer Reviews

Customer reviews on online shopping websites play a major role in customer decisions. Most customers trust reviews from previous clients more than marketing pieces (Holden & Gulbrandsen, 2009). Brands can greatly improve the customer experience by showcasing product reviews not only on their sites but also on their in-store displays and mobile apps. Most customers specifically seek websites that have customer reviews and use them as resources for making their purchase decisions (Napier, 2006).

Investment in Website Functionality and Appearance

Impressions matter a lot and customers would not want to arrive at a poor website. Websites with poor navigation, unappealing color combinations and abundant comic sans font do not encourage customers (Napier, 2006). Online retailers need to invest in the look and feel the brands. Elements such as taglines, logo, voice and color schemes need to be considered (Holden & Gulbrandsen, 2009). There also has to be a balance between educational context and visuals for the respective target audience.

Explain why an owner would decide to rent a server for an e-business site. Give an example of a situation in which a rented server would be the best option.

Renting a server is regarded as the best strategy to stay updated with the rapidly changing technology. In fact, the sole reason why most e-commerce entrepreneurs lease servers is to have the latest equipment and technology. Renting a server and the required equipment helps the business achieve various benefits that include:

Flexibility and Competitive

The nature of operations of a business are always susceptible to change at any time. To remain competitive and also ensure security, updates on the server need to be done frequently. Circumstances that require frequent changes in the server would require that the business invests heavily on IT (Holden & Gulbrandsen, 2009). However, the business would not have the expertise to quickly change the server to be in line with the changes of the business. Renting a server would be more efficient as experts would easily align the server to meet the needs of the business.

Economical

The economical nature of renting a server as makes it to be preferred to purchasing. Purchasing a server is quite costly particularly at the initial stages. Renting a server offers a business other service such as free set up and installment, technical support, improved price options, training of server and safe handling among others.

References

Holden, G., & Gulbrandsen, D. (2009). E-business. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Napier, H. A. (2006). Creating a winning E-business. Boston, Mass: Thomson Course Technology.