Topic Ten

We wouldn't give our credit card to a stranger on the street so why do we give it to strangers online?

1) What does this meant by the following statements?

Trust is not associative (non-symmetric)
Trust is not always equal on both sides, one party can be trusting but the other party may be deceiving.

Trust is not transitive
This means that just because someone else trusts someone doesn't mean other people will trust them. For Example: If i trust Bill and i trust Bob that doesn't mean Bill and Bob trust each other.

Trust is always between exactly 2 parties
Trust needs to involve to parties, it can not be one sided. If there is not trust from both parties then trust does not exist.

Trust will involve either direct trust or recommender trust

Direct trust is learning if you trust someone from your own experience

Recommender trust is trusting someone on the recommendation of someone else. 

2a) Have a look at the following websites. What are some of the elements that have been incorporated to increase your trust in the sites? If there are also some aspects which decrease your level of trust describe them as well.

eBay
What eBay has going for them in terms of been trusting is a strong well established brand name which is already trusted by many. What also works in eBay's favour is they work as a third party, to their clients. Therefore is a trust issue occurs it would most likely be between the two individuals rather than between eBay and a individual. eBay does offer many ways individuals can gauge how trustworthy the sellers and buyers are such as feedback history and star ratings which is easily accessible to the buyer or seller to gauge what kind of person they are buying from. eBay also uses paypal as their preferred check out system to provide extra protection to the user.

ANZ
ANZ is a well known Bank. Their website is easy to use and navigate around offering easy access to needed information. Just by looking at the website, it looks trustworthy and doesn't look at all 'dodgy'. Out of all the websites i use the one i expect full trust from is my banking website as it involves some of the most private and confidential information.

Thinkgeek

Until searching it i had never seen or heard of 'thinkgeek' nor had any family or friends which to me already meant that i didn't trust this site. Once i started having a look around the site it was very easy to navigate and i easily found what i was looking for the Privacy Statement. This offered information about how the site keeps information and ensures that there is no breach of trust such as: 

• 128-bit encryption to and from the servers and web browser.
• Credit card numbers are not stored in our database. We keep on file only the last 4 digits to verify the card that was used.

They also offered a link to biz rate (which i have never heard of) that gives a rating of what customers think of the site. After reading through some feedback majority of it was positive. Personally i don't think i would purchase from this site but i believe that it would be trustworthy enough if i was interested in their products.

PayPal

Paypal eliminates fraud by offering buyer protection, therefore paypal needs to appear as a trustworthy website. Elements on the website such as Verisign Identity Protection, Australian Financial Services Licence number and ABN been freely available on the first page immediately gains trust. It shows they have nothing to hide.

2b) Find a web site yourself that you think looks untrustworthy.

I've been looking for cheap flights over the past 4 weeks, one site i have come across is cheapflights although this site is offering the best prices i am reluctant to purchase as it seems a little to good to be true. After navigating through the page i found the privacy policy. Which states the site isn't 100% secure and they they 'try there best not to pass on your details' i don't think ill be buying from this site as they have no affiliation with large airlines, nor do they have anything that suggests they are a trustworthy site.

Topic Nine

Channel Conflict

Channel conflict is when organisations sell their products through multiple channels. Such as selling their products directly and selling them through eCommerce. This means that 2 different marketing or distribution channels are competing for the same sale.

There are three main types of channel conflict:

Horizontal conflict

Vertical conflict

Multiple conflict

Topic Eight - Online Auctions

eBay is one a site i visit often. you can buy or sell almost anythings from brand new to used goods.  

Q1: eBay is one of the only major Internet “pure plays” to consistently make a profit from its inception. What is eBay’s business model? Why has it been so successful?

eBay use a Auction Brokerage business model this model:

• Brings the buyer and seller together
• charge a fee for advertising/listing
• They act as third party providers to the buyer and seller.

You could claim that is success has come from multiple aspects of the business/website

Its simple, easy and well organised which makes it quick and easy for users, they have a good strong reputation, safe payment options like pay pal etc.

Q2: Other major web sites, like Amazon.com and Yahoo!, have entered the auction marketplace with far less success than eBay. How has eBay been able to maintain its dominant position?

eBay is a strong well positioned organisation, which is the leader in online auctions. 
I believe it has a lot to do with the fact that eBay only operate as a third party broker and don't ever handle the products themselves, where as amazon tried to sell there own stock in a auction setting. As they are the leader in the market and are always improving there site, it would be hard for another organisation to match them.

Q3: What method does eBay use to reduce the potential for fraud among traders on its site? What kinds of fraud, if any, are eBay users most susceptible?

eBay prides itself on been a safe place to buy and sell, and keeps track (to a certain degree) that goods are what they say they are. With the feedback system you can see if the person you are buying from has a good or bad feedback score, but the main tool they use to reduce fraud is by encouraging the use of PayPal which reduces the risk of been scammed.

For Example a few months ago i was bidding to purchase a LV wallet on eBay when i checked to see if i had won the item had been removed and i had a message explaining that eBay removed the item as they believed it was a fraudulent/counterfeiter item.

Q4: eBay makes every effort to conceptualize its users as a community (as opposed to, say “customers” or “clients”). What is the purpose of this conceptual twist and does eBay gain something by doing it?

eBay does this so customers feel like they are more involved in the company, that the community all work together in a mutual agreement to buy and sell goods, they bypass the fact that they are a customer of eBay and are more appealed to the thought of dealing directly with people just like them. This is a classic conceptual twist, and in the long run they gain more business and members of the community(customers).

Q5: eBay has long been a marketplace for used goods and collectibles. Today, it is increasingly a place where major businesses come to auction their wares. Why would a brand name vendor set-up shop on eBay?

I can understand why more and more business' are selling through eBay and i have purchased goods through some of my favourite brand through their eBay store. I believe this trend is coming from the popularity of online shopping, but they may not have the budget to set-up and maintain a full personalised website. eBay allows them to sell on line but only pay a small commission to list the goods.

My favourite feature about eBay is you can search for the one thing and have multiple of that item come up and you can compare prices etc.

Q6. I have a few businesses, and I have used eBay for about 12 years on and off. Currently I have about 600 books listed on eBay (seller name ozrural). I stopped selling on eBay for a few years but they changed the rules this July and it is viable again (for me). What do you think changed?

Since July 2013 is yet to come i did some research on changes made in July 2012 and could find very little that i though would have changed your mind so I'm going to pretend that the question asked about the changes in April 2013.

This April eBay introduced the seller protection program which now means sellers are offered more protection than ever before.
The new policy covers:

• Unpaid item protections
• Protections on seller feedback and ratings
• Actions sellers can take to help eBay with buyer protection case
• When and how sellers can report incidents that violate eBay policies 

Topic Seven - Automata

1) Check this link to my ‘intelligent’ cybertwin which I also mentioned in the Powerpoint. You may like to create your own cybertwin as well. The more you ‘train’ your twin, the better the responses will be. While it is just a fun exercise, Think of the opportunities. Imagine if we had a cybertwin that could answer your questions about the course. Or perhaps a shopping assistant?

I think this would be a great idea for some things and not so much for others, for coursework if you trained it well enough it could become a great time saver for answering frequently asked questions. In some instances though we are long way from using these types of programs as there is still a need for human interaction. E.G asking medical advice.

If you would like to make a 'cybertwin' you can do it HERE

2) Write a one paragraph describing the Turing test and another paragraph describing an argument against the Turing Test, known as the about the Chinese room.

The Turing Test is used to test a machines abilities against the abilities of a actual human. The test is separates a person a computer and a judge and checks how close the computers answer is to the humans. it does not check if the answer is correct or not.

The Chinese room argues that the Turing test does not correctly determine is a computer can be as smart as a human, Searle argues that software can easily manipulate symbols and they do not understand or think like a human. (Wiki, 2013)

3) Can virtual agents succeed in delivering high-quality customer service over the Web? Think of examples which support or disprove the question or just offer an opinion based on your personal experience. Write you answer on your blog page or express an opinion on this voice discussion board.

Virtual agents can most defiantly deliver high quality customer service over the web. Successful Web customer service needs to meet all the elements of face to face customer service. Eg. Professional  polite and well mannered. Recently i bought a new coat, the designer had none left in my size, so i emailed some of the stockists and found a shop in Adelaide that replied promtly to my email and were more than willing to help, this supports the arguement that virtual agents can provide high quality customer service over the Web. 

Topic Six - Digital Markets

Question One

a) What experiences have you had with shopping online?
I'm a regular online shopper and have far to much experience, for me its about the convenience of been able to order something online from anywhere around the world and have it delivered to your door.

b) Describe a good experience.
I like to buy clothes from The Iconic. This is a store i have never had a bad experience with and i purchase from it all the time. The items are well priced, they have fast next day delivery and they have excellent communication.


c) What did you like about the online store you used?
It is quick, easy to navigate, security verified and they have great communication e.g order confirmation email and shipping confirmation email.

d) Describe a bad experience?
I recently purchased a iPhone cover of eBay, when i finally received it after 30+ days it was broken. I sent a email to the seller and received the reply 'it wasn't broken when i sent it'. I was really limited with what i could do in this situation and as eBay act as a third party seller they could really do anything either. My hands were tied all i could do was leave bad feedback and take the $20 loss.

e) What problems did you have with the online store?
I didn't have a problem with the store, more so the seller.

f) What features make an online store more appealing?
Easy to use and navigate, international shipping, if it has a reputable name and review, i like to pay through pay pal rather than give out my credit card details so i prefer a site that supports pay pal.

g) What features make an online store less appealing?
A hard to navigate website, not having secure payment options, high pricing, poor reviews

h) Should we expect to see the prices of goods and services rise or fall due to the migration of consumers online?
I think as we are in a buyers market we can expect to see the prices of goods and services drop, also the more stores that appear online the more competitive the pricing is therefore we can expect further price drops.

Question 2 

a) The dispersion of prices (that is, the spread between the lowest and highest price for a particular product) will narrow.
I agree with this statement. Customers generally look around for lowest pricing, shopping in store or online.
b) The importance of brand names will decrease.
I disagree with this statement! Brand names hold a significance and many people hold loyalties with certain brands. Shopping online makes it easier to find the product you want by the brand you like.
c) Price competition will make all products cheaper.
This i agree with, to remain competitive in the market you need to offer competitive prices, therefore when something similar or the same is available for a lower price companies really need to follow the pricing trend and reduce their price.
d) Digital markets will become dominated by a handful of mega-sites, like Amazon.com.
I disagree, there are still people who like to shop from smaller, local online stores i know from personal experience it is more convenient to deal with a smaller site if something goes wrong as you are often talking directly to people rather than receiving computer generated emails etc.
e) How do you think the balance of power between buyer’s and seller’s will change?
I predict that soon enough buyers will have full power over sellers. The are numerous sellers out their all competing for the same buyer therefore the buyer has the power over the seller as they will attempt anything to make the deal.
f) Prices are clustered online.
the price of goods and services is influenced by the quality, supply and demand of a product.
g) Online prices are elastic. ( i.e. immune to change up and down with demand)
Prices will go up and down depending on the demand of the product. You can see a trend between price drops if the product is in low demand and the price will rise if the product is in high demand.
h) Online prices are generally transparent (the extent to which prices for a given product or service are known by buyers in the marketplace.).

I agree that online pricing is transparent, you can easily search the price of a product or service to compare to another. Even sites like myshopping are designed so buyers can compare the same products for the best price.
Question 3

a) What types of m-commerce services does your cell phone provider offer?

My mobile service provider is Optus they provide m-commerce services such as Email, Online bill paying, blue tooth, Internet, Apps etc.

b) Which of these services do you use?

I use all of these services i tend to use my phone for everything from online banking and paying bill to email and surfing the web.

c) What types of transactions do you perform through your cell phone or other wireless device?
Paying bills, Internet banking and shopping
d) What types of transactions would you like to perform, but are currently unable to?
With today's technology i cant think of anything i have tried to do on my phone and haven't been able to.
e) What is your opinion of wireless advertising/mobile marketing?
There are a lot of people whose only access to the Internet is through their mobile phone, therefore it only makes sense that advertising through mobile phones is effective. Since the introduction of smart phones and 'APPS' it makes sense for organisations to advertise through mobile platforms. from my personal experience i am more likely to shop on my phone if the business has a APP or a mobile friendly page, i think this is something organisations that haven't already jumped on the trend should definitely look into.

Topic 5 - Business Models

Business Models

Business models could be considered the least understood aspect of the web today, there has been talk about how the Internet has changed the traditional business model, but there is no evidence of what this actually means. Below are the 9 types of business models, their main features and a example to help you understand.

Brokerage
Brings the buyer and seller together
usually charge a fee for advertising
complete transaction 
A good example of a brokerage site is EBAY. They act as third party providers to the buyer and seller.

Advertising
Banner ad's are the main source of revenue
High level of traffic needed to be successful
A example: Classifieds for a small fee they list advertisements for items you want to buy or sell Tradingpost 

Infomediary
collects data on consumer habits and trends
assists buyers and sellers in understanding the market
Advertising networks: collects data to analyse marketing effectiveness
Incentive marketing: a example of customer loyalty schemes is MyerOne which offers incentives to customers like redeemable points which add up to gift cards.

Merchant
companies that offer goods and services
may be fixed price or auction
virtual market: solely run online The Iconic 
click and mortar: have a shop front and a online store New Generation


Manufacturer (Direct)
Manufacturer reaches the buyer directly
compress the distribution channel
is efficient, has improved customer service and has a better understanding of customer preference
a Example of this is Alice.com which eliminated the retail middle-man

Affiliate
provides purchase opportunities wherever people are on the wed
drives high volume traffic to one site
offers financial incentives to affiliated partner sites
Amazon uses banners, pay-per-click and revenue sharing

Community
Based on user loyalty
Revenue comes from advertising
Open content: volunteer workers create the content Wikipedia
Public Broadcasting: free to air radio and television Seven

Subscription
Users are charged a fee (daily, monthly, yearly)
Sites often offer free material and subscription material
Internet service providers example is Bigpond who provide Internet for payment
Content service provider example is Foxtel who provide video and audio to people for a subscription fee

Utility
Is based on metering usage - pay as you go
With metered usage you are billed on actual usage of a service, for example household utilities. (Power, Water, Gas)

1) What is the Mobile phone use /100 population - compare Australia, USA, China, India, Your Country

Mobile telephone subscriptions (post-paid and pre-paid) per 100 population out of 144 countries. 

Australia Rank 67 Value 108.3USA        Rank 95 Value 92.7
China     Rank 115 Value 73.2
India      Rank 117 Value 72.0
(The Global Information Technology Report 2013, pg 330)

2) Internet use / 100 population - compare Australia, USA, China, India, Your Country

Percentage of individuals using the Internet out of 144 countries. 

Australia  Rank 18  Value 79.0USA         Rank 20 Value 77.9
China      Rank 74  Value 38.3
India       Rank 119 Value 10.1
(The Global Information Technology Report 2013, pg 331)

3) Compare main strengths and weaknesses of Australia or your home country in the survey

Some of the things i find are Australia's greatest strengths are the capacity for innovation, our economy, availability of skilled employees and the availability of space which leaves room for growth.
The things i would consider to be weaknesses are we have a low population considered to countries like China and India. 

4) What does the survey suggest to you about the Information Technology readiness of Australian business compared to Australian consumers?

The survey suggests that Australian businesses are just as information technology ready as the consumers and world partners.  

Sources:

Knox, I. (2013). Week 5 notes. BUEBU1501. Retrieved April 10, 2013 from http://ubonline.ballarat.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=267537&inpopup=1 . 
Rappa, M. (2009). Managing the digital enterprise. Retrieved April 10, 2013 from http://digitalenterprise.org/models/models.html#Advertising
Beñat Bilbao-Osorio, Soumitra Dutta, and Bruno Lanvin. (2013) The Global Information Technology Report. Retrieved April 10, 2013 from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GITR_Report_2013.pdf

Topic 4 - Digital Design

1. In two paragraphs explain why a customer centric Web site design is so important, yet so difficult to accomplish.

One thing i hate is a website that is hard to navigate, the common benefits of creating a 'customer centric' website are increased sales. If a customer can easily navigate your webpage and you have the product they are looking for that increases your chance of a sale. The website must offer a easy transaction from start to finish which is appealing to the customer (from finding the item, information regarding the item, reviewing the item, purchasing the item, or giving feedback)

Why is it so hard to find? Simple, everybody is different. A design that suits someone isn't going to suit someone else, that's life. What businesses need to do is find a design that balances between different people. The design needs to be easily navigated and offer a smooth process. If customers like your site they will continue to use it and recommend it to their friends.

2. Define the term ‘presence’. Write an additional paragraph that describes why firms that do business on the Web should be more concerned about presence than firms that operate in the physical world.

presence - pres·ence - (The Free Dictionary, 2013)

• The state or fact of existing, occurring, or being present in a place or thing.
• Immediate proximity in time or space.

Website presence means having your page positioned so it can be found when a customer searches for it, chances are if your site isn't seen in the first few pages of a search it wont be found at all. A organisation who runs a a internet only site needs to ensure they have a well found website presence so ensure success of the business.  

3. Usable Doesn’t Have To Mean Ugly ‘for a web design to be truly beautiful, it has to be functional, have purpose and contribute in some way to the website’s intuitiveness, usefulness and branding. All of these things contribute to the overall effect of a design’. This is a quote from one of the articles on web design linked on Web pages that suck. Find a web page that ‘does not suck’ and discuss the features that make it work. A website i LOVE is THEICONIC. Possibly the one of the best sites, i think even my Nan could use this site. It is easy to navigate around and takes less than a minute to find something, and buy it. Features of the site: Offers a search bar to search for what you are looking for. Offers a livechat help function which has a maximum wait time of 3 minutes Has the 'Contact us' Number in the header of the site which is easily visible on all pages of the site Is NAB and Norton Security approved so it is safe Has paypal purchasing - which is the safer, easier way to pay.