eBay

What is eBay?

Ebay is an online marketplace where buyers and sellers come together and trade almost anything. Ebay is like an auction sytem, where people post their products on it and buyers bid on the goods to win them. Ebay has become one of the worlds largest E-commerce websites where millions and millions of people visit everyday. This popularity allows people to sell items on Ebay quite easily as someone out of the millions of people who use Ebay is bound to want your item.

Here are some of the features on eBay

Feedback

EBay has a unique feedback system, which allows buyers and sellers to post comments and feedback on their recent auction experience. Each transaction allows you to give a single rating to your trading partner either positive, negative, or neutral. You may also make comments no swearing , abuse, racial comments are allowed. Each user has a feedback score that serves as an indicator of their quality as buyers and sellers. This allows buyers to purchase items will full conifdence as they know how efficent the seller is. It is effectively your online reputation. The more positive feedback you get, the higher your score, which also eventually is visually identifiable with a star system so experienced eBayers can tell something about you at a glance. Negative feedback lowers your score, thus providing a way in which users can prevent loss of money, or being ripped off in one way or another. There is also a running percentage of positive feedbacks. Some sellers will not allow buyers below a certain feedback level, as most fraud is committed by new, or fake, buyers who will generally have little or negative feedback ratings. This excellent sytem helps keep the honest and respectable users safe.

Buyer Protection

The vast majority of eBay buyers will have no problems obtaining their product safety and quickly. However, if you don't receive your item or if it arrives significantly not as described, then you can receive the full value of your purchase (including postage) back when you pay with PayPal. This is a good feature as many people get frustrated when they don't receive what they bought and the added annoyance of not getting your money back really does put you in a  bad mood. So will the buyer protection feature on eBay you have the support if something does go wrong. Online payment service users, such as Paypal assure a buyer protection of up to £500 (this may vary) at no additional cost. For users who are not using PayPal as their mode of transaction there is the eBay Standard Purchase Protection Program which provides up to £200 coverage (less £25 processing cost) for either items that are not received or items that are not as described in the listing. The resolution process can be slow and on many transactions that fee makes it not worth doing, however it does provide essential protection for the buyers so it is worth it for expensive items of purchase.


Registration

Registration on eBay is absolutely free, and is a quick and simple process. I registered on eBay myself and found it to take about five minutes setup an account. There are three requirements for registration. You must be 18 years or older. This prevents inexperienced or under age purchases on eBay and prevents false purchases. You must provide credit card and address details, in order to join the eBay community and use it to buy and sell. 


The instructions are clear and easy to follow. Only essential details are shown and needed by eBay. This is useful as people don't have the time to enter irrelevant or unnecessary information and will be put off registering with the service.






EBay's Layout 

Good aspects of EBay

• It is very simple to set up an account and using eBay to buy and sell products is extremely interesting and pleasant.
• EBay offers you a large variety of products to choose from, it has millions of shops and Ebayers offering a huge range of items. 
• eBay is fun and very entertaining. You have the most unusual items to choose from. The graphics are neat and extremely colorful. The the quirky and personal listings, you will find are quite enjoyable to explore as well. If you are interested in any sort of unusual product you can normally find it here, as it offers more than what a shop in the high street does. 
• EBay educates on the prices of various products in the market at the current time. You can learn the price of any product at any given time online. Ebay lets you know what people are willing to pay for a given product in real time.
• Surprisingly enough, eBay most often than not refunds their customers, should anything go wrong with the product. Most of the sellers have return policy's that they follow. Be sure to check out the seller's feedback to determine if they do what they say they are going to do in their listing.

Negative Aspects of EBay

• You cannot be totally sure of the quality of the product you are buying. Almost all sellers will claim that their product is in excellent condition to get as much money as possible from their goods. However on delivery you will find that your product is not exactly in good condition; scratches cannot often be seen in pictures.
• When you buy a product online, it is usually mailed to you. You cannot be guaranteed that the product will not get damaged when being sent. Especially if you are in a different country from the buyer the postage costs can be expensive, you will need to pay international charges that also cost a lot of money. Be sure to get the item insured by the seller when ever possible, to prevent loss of money and damage of the goods.
• Buying online takes up a lot of your time even if you don't think so. Though buying on eBay is not time consuming, it isn't as much fun as spending time with friends and family in shopping towns and centres. You are also able to touch the products you want and you are able to make a more personal decision about the item as it is in front of you.
• On the net, you can never be too careful of frauds. It calls for you to trust a perfect stranger, even if they could be reasonable you just don't know. Always check the sellers feedback and ask questions to ensure that your sales transaction is fair for both parties.

E-commerce

What it is?

Electronic commerce or e-commerce is a term for any type of business, or commercial transaction, that involves the transfer of information across the Internet. It covers a range of different types of businesses, from consumer based retail sites like ASOS, through to auction or music sites like Ebay, to business exchanges trading goods and services between corporations. It is currently one of the most important aspects of the Internet as so many people rely on it throughout their day.

E-commerce allows consumers to electronically exchange goods and services with no barriers of time or distance from the comfort of your own home environment. Electronic commerce has expanded rapidly over the past five years and is predicted to continue at this rate, or even accelerate when new ideas are formed. In the near future the boundaries between "conventional" and "electronic" commerce will become increasingly blurred as more and more businesses move sections of their operations onto the Internet to make it convienet for their market.

Online Services

There many different online services for business on the Internet. The main tool for e-commerce is the use of the world wide web. Sellers set up stores which are specialised websites with payment processing interfaces allowing users to pay for goods and products online. The store is a series of webpages with photos, pricing and description of the goods.These goods are all linked to a database and a search facility so users can simply type in the product they want and get to it straight away. The shopper can then transfer the item to a virtual shopping basket and can then proceed to check out.

Amazon

Amazon is a large online shopping website providing the earth's biggest selection of books, magazines, music, DVDs, videos, electronics, computers, software, apparel & accessories, shoes and more!

The Amazon shopping experience begins with a very simple homepage that is clear and easy to navigate through.

When you look at the Amazon home page, its layout is in the form of a clear table like structure.Along the top navigation bar there is a search facility, and the search/shopping cart controls in the top right.
This simple and careful structure allows the user to:
Quickly find and purchase products straight from the homepage.The seller is able to quickly process online purchases through the basket feature.

Related Items Displayed

One example of customized content is seen on the home page. The homepage which modifies the main content based on how the user (whether logged in or not) has interacted with the product search feature and what the users want on the Amazon website.

Amazon has the ability to track client-site behavior to ensure that subsequent visits of each user are increasingly tailored to their tastes, habits and their desires.

This increases the likelihood that the user will make a purchase, and in some cases it will speed up the purchasing process becuase they dont need to search for the product. More significantly, it exposes the user to a wider range of products and services that tie in to their areas of interest. This means that Amazon can create more purchases as users see more things they want.

Why shop with Amazon Feature

The Amazon shopping experience is constantly reminding users of why the user should purchase a product from Amazon rather than from some other E-commerce site. A few examples are shown and discussed below.



This screenshot highlights amazons price difference compared with the nearest competitor.



 Each product displayed above has not only the discounted price offered by Amazon, but also the MRSP.

This simple feature, which is instantly understood by the user because of the strike-through text, is seen with virtually every product on Amazon. This gives the user confidence in Amazon being the cheapest on the internet and make them feel they are getting a bargain. This is a simple but strong sales incentive that has increased amazons revenue over the years.

The 'Look Inside' Feature

Books are one of the most frequently purchased items on Amazon, so it’s no wonder that the Amazon development team has built the feature that allows you to 'Look Inside' the book you want to purchase.

The “Look Inside” feature lets shoppers view certain sections of books: usually the front cover, table of contents, first pages, index and back cover. This feature is usefull for users who want to find out more about the product and whether or not the book is what the title says it is. This can be extremely helpful because shoppers will usually be able to tell from a glance at the table of contents or introduction whether a book suits them. There is nothing more annoying than purchasing a book that isnt what you thought it was going to be. Amazons 'Look Inside' feature prevents this from happening.

Customer review Feature