STARTING A BUSINESS ONLINE PART 2 Research Paper

STARTING A BUSINESS ONLINE PART 2 - Research Paper Example Domain name In web marketing domain name is an asset. Usually the domain name should be relevant, catchy, stylish, fashionable and easy to remember. According to Ethics Newsline (2013) â€Å"The introduction of new top-level domain names — the ending letters in web addresses, such as .com and .org — is raising some unanticipated ethical issues, according to various press reports†¦Addresses such as .car, .toronto, or .apple will become available, reports the  Toronto Star, but at a price.† Web spoofing and cyber-squatting are unethical activities in e-commerce. Spoofing refers to creating domains similar to well-known brands or established corporate companies like valmart.com for wallmart.com. Cyber-squatting is registering domain name of a well-known company or brand with the purpose of misusing it or selling it to the concerned company at an exorbitant price. Firms may be forced to buy these domains simply to avoid e-commerce frauds. Though $1,000 for dom ain re-sale is attractive, the name was not registered with the intention of re-sale. The name was selected after carefully considering various factors to ensure its suitability to the business and it is expected to be beneficial for the growth and development of the business in the long run. Also, it is felt that resale of domain name amounts to selling the name to our competitor who finds it worth to buy at this price. Also, if the buyer is not likely to become our competitor, it is bought with some ulterior motive and the domain name could be misused that is unethical. So, there is no question of resale of domain. E-Commerce software The Internet has emerged as a global medium for communication that is used gainfully used for commerce by creating web-based applications. In e-commerce, catalog designing is important like physical display of products in a showroom. It should be imaginative to include online marketing tools like gift certificates and discounts apart from display of prices and special features. The possibilities of expanding the market potential are unlimited with a good blend of content, photography, association with popular themes with a proper mix of graphics, flash and background images in a website. Online shopping cart software should incorporate features for selection of product, price comparison, placement of order and change the products selected if necessary. In the case of shopping cart software, synchronizing price and quantity with accounting and stores is very important and lack of this facility in software impedes real time inventory control. Establishing a good system for incorporating returns and exchanges in software is also essential for ensuring smooth flow of business. Order processing includes single-order processing, batch processing or mail order processing. Providing reputed online payment gateway in shopping cart for secure, fast and reliable transactions on real time basis is essential. Achieving optimum processing ca pacity of the system is very important for enhancing user experience. Null and Lobur (2012, p. 40) stated â€Å"No matter how many processors are placed in a system, or how many resources are assigned to them, somehow, somewhere, a bottleneck is bound to develop. The best we can do to remedy this is to make sure that the slowest parts of the system are the ones that are used the least.† Web presence and increasing Website usability The important factors need to be focused in