E-commerce Consumer behavior model The model is composed of two major parts: influential factors and the consumer decision process. Influential factors: Five dimensions are considered to affect consumer behavior. They are: consumer characteristics, environmental characteristics, merchant and intermediary characteristics, product/service characteristics, and EC systems. The consumer decision process: This process starts with a positive attitude (intention to buy) and ends with the buyers’ decisions to purchase and/or repurchase.

CREATING A NEW COMPANY OR ADDING AN ONLINE PROJECT Identify a consumer or business need in the marketplace. The prospective business owner sees a gap between what people want and what is available. The key is innovation. Investigate the opportunity. Just because a person perceives that an opportunity exists does not mean that it is real. Determine the business owner’s or organization’s ability to meet the need. Assuming that realistic business opportunity exists, does the prospective business owner or organization have the ability to convert the opportunity into success?

CREATING A NEW COMPANY OR ADDING AN ONLINE PROJECT Some tips for success: Do your homework. Research what’s really happening in the world. They have to be tangibly more effective than anything already on the market. Aim for excitement. Make your customers say “wow” or “finally,” such as Bezos’s initiative to take customers into space. Whittle, shape, iterate, and repeat. Test and improve the ideas and prototypes several times. Get real. Build physical prototypes to get feedback from friends, suppliers, and customers. Avoid creating a gizmo. Beware of creating a product (service) with obvious faults, even if it looks like a very good design. Even though a product (service) must be attractive to customers, it must also work.

CLASSIFICATION OF WEB SITES (BASED ON THE LEVEL OF FUNCTIONALITY) Informational web site It does little more than provide information about the business and its products and services. The major purpose is to have a presence on the web. Interactive web site It provides opportunities for the customers and the business to communicate and share information. It delivers informational features (an e-newsletter, product demonstrations, blogs, and customer discussion forums) and value-added tools (currency converters, price comparisons, calendars, and calculators).

CLASSIFICATION OF WEB SITES (CONT.) “Attractor” web site It attracts and interacts with site visitors. Attractors (games, puzzles, prize giveaways, contests, and e-cards) encourage customers to find the web site, visit again, and recommend the site to their friends. Transactional web site It sells products and services. These web sites typically include information and interactivity features but also have sell-side features (shopping cart, product catalog, customer-personalized account, shipping calculator, and the ability to accept credit cards to complete the sale. Collaborative web site It allows business partners to collaborate in B2B EC.