E-Commerce

E-Commerce Web-Sites Report

Case Study 1:Amazon.co.uk

Arguably the best e-commerce site on the web, amazon.co.uk is a very famous site. It has lead the way for many sites, and online businesses. The criteria are as follows:

 Speed of Page Downloads

 Navigation

 Ease of Use

 Range of Products

 Secure Server

Speed of Page Download

Impressively, amazon.co.uk manages to download entirely in the first three seconds. However, it’s American counterpart takes twice as long. Both of these times are acceptable however, as a recent survey has claimed that the average internet user will wait for a maximum of 10 seconds and then will press the back button. This time actually reduces as you visit the site more and more as the images are stored on your computer, and so can be re-used. This speed is consistent on every page, even unvisited pages.

Navigation

Amazon has been held up as an example recently, as it’s "three clicks to get anywhere" system grew steadily more popular. It’s not entirely true, but navigation is still exceptionally easy. A small table down the side reveals all the places, and sub-categories available within that category, while a toolbar at the top makes it easy to flip quickly from books to music, plus underneath is the main sub-categories available.

Ease of Use

Once you have found what you want, and been persuaded by the reviews to buy it, you must click the elusive "Add to Shopping Basket" button, which actually took me some time to find (but maybe that’s just me). Click it, and you are taken to a screen where you may save several things up, and buy them at once later, or delete something things from your shopping list, and then see the total. From there it’s just a quick click to the "checkout" where you must sign up as a member, or enter your password if you’ve already shopped there before.

Range of Products

To say that amazon.co.uk has a broad range of products would be the understatement of the year. It sells all that is necessary for life (literally), except for a) food, and b) clothes. In non exaggerated terms, that translates to books, music, dvds, videos, software, games, kids, and auction and even a specialist wares section (zshops).

Secure Server

Amazon.co.uk does have a secure server, but it does not come into play until you have reached the checkout. There, from the point where you enter your password in, is secure. It is a SSL 40 bit, although interestingly, Hotmail has a 128-bit SSL server.

Total

I give amazon.co.uk a 9/10.

Case Study 2:bol.co.uk

One of Amazon’s biggest rivals, BOL has failings that make amazon number 1. For example, bol.co.uk doesn’t even exist. You have to go to bol.com, then click on the UK flag. That’s when you discover that the actual address is www.uk.bol.com. As a result BOL may have lost several customers from type in traffic.

Speed of Page Downloads

The first time I visited the UK home page, it took only 1 second to load, although this is not something to boast about. The page was incomplete, and bits of raw HTML were left lying about. I returned, a few hours later, and while the home page is now ok, a lot of the rest of the site isn’t. The complete pages, were not much good either. The quickest out of a random 3 took 9 seconds to load. Far too slow.

Ease of Use

To find a copy of Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 in Amazon (without using the search engine) took about 1-Ð'Ð... minutes. In BOL, I’ve been searching for the last 10 minutes, and I still haven’t found it. Even with the search engine, I still get irrelevant results. Once you’ve found what you wanted (which is exceedingly difficult), you can either add it to your shopping basket, express checkout it, or add it to your wish list. From then on, it is very similar to amazon.co.uk.

Range of Products

Although their range of products is not quite as extensive as Amazon’s, BOL do have a lot to offer, including book, music, dvds, videos, games, software, gifts (a section advertising offers), and My-BOL (an area is basically more advertising, but only on the things you choose).

Secure Server

BOL has the same kind of secure server as amazon, e.g. a 40-bit SSL server. However, unlike amazon.co.uk, there are no boxes up anywhere saying that all information sent in is totally secure.

Total

I give BOL.com a pretty poor 4/10.

Case Study 3:Tesco.co.uk

Tesco is a well-known e-commerce site in the UK. It has a large supermarket equivalent, so people can be sure who they’re buying things from.

Speed of Page Download

Travelling to tesco.co.uk will automatically get transferred to tesco.com. This means that going via tesco.co.uk, the page takes a total of five seconds to download, whereas with tesco.com, the page takes a mere two seconds. However, what is lost with download time, is gained in customers from type-in-traffic. All pages appear speedily, and even the most complex pages take no more than three to four seconds to appear.

Ease of Use

Tesco.co.uk is an easy to navigate through site, with its toolbar at the top, with entries to "Home, Shopping, News and Features, Talking Tesco, Register and Sign-In, Help". This is all one big frame at the top of the page, so no matter how far the user scrolls down the page, his navigation options are still