Evaluating functionalities of eCommerce websites for emigrants Célia Ferreira, Ramiro Gonçalves Escola de Ciências e Tecnologia Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro Vila Real, Portugal
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Rosalina Babo Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto Instituto Politécnico do Porto Porto, Portugal
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Abstract— The internet and technological advancements have revolutionized the way in which business and commerce is conducted nowadays. A lot has changed since the traditional over the counter form of trade to the electronic form of trade. The latter in which data is transferred electronically. Ebusinesses are beginning to examine the benefits of using Web 2.0, especially in the form of social networking sites, to collaborate with business partners and to communicate with consumers and potential employees. In order to create, possibly in the near future, a platform for selling services and typical Portuguese products, throughout this project various online companies’ websites’, which sell products and services, were analyzed. Other than analyze website characteristics we also tried to understand how these are sustained and how they interact with social networking services.
most important aspects of the Web 1.0 world. Soon, though, usability and sharing became very high priorities, and Web 2.0 evolved. Information published in the Web 2.0 world spread at very high speed, and Web 2.0 became a synonym for progression [1].
Keywords- elctronic business, electronic commerce, web 2.0.
I.
INTRODUCTION
Having a world of stores available without leaving home is a scenario that electronic platforms like the Internet and mobile phones have brought users. Users can jump from shop to shop quickly and easily, and choose between different products, compare features and prices and easily make transactions, and then receive the products at home. In order to create, possibly in the near future, a platform for selling typical Portuguese products, throughout this project various online companies‟ websites‟, which sell products and services, were analyzed. Other than analyze website characteristics we also tried to understand how these are sustained and how they interact with social networking services. II.
WEB 1.0 & WEB 2.0
As we look back at the World Wide Web of 1996, there can be no doubt that today‟s web is better and more useful. Hyperlinking webpages and bookmarking were two of the
The second phase of the Web (Web 2.0) has also been called the „social Web‟, as users can create and publish content in an easily manner, and the collective intelligence of users encourages more independent use. The World Wide Web (WWW) was originally envisioned to be used to share ideas and promote discussion within a scientific community. Web 2.0 reveals a return to these original uses, and prompts significant changes in the ways the World Wide Web is being used [2]. Web 2.0 is more dynamic and interactive than its antecedent, Web 1.0, allowing users to not only access content from a Website but also contribute to it [3]. “People have changed their perception of and participation in the Web, and have gotten used to the Web as a communication medium, a socialization platform, a discussion forum, a business platform, a storage device for their diaries, and as a constantly growing and expanding encyclopedia” [4]. As stated by Boulos and Wheeler, “Web 2.0 software has emerged to facilitate new online activities, many of which could not have been previously achieved”. Online social interaction has been enhanced through the use of wikis, blogs and podcasts. Web 2.0 encourages a more human approach to interactivity on the Web as it better supports group interaction and fosters a greater sense of community in a potentially „cold‟ social environment. The social Web is about “conversations, interpersonal networking, personalization and individualism” [2]. According to Anderson the „Web 2.0‟ “should not be held up in opposition to „Web 1.0‟, but should be seen as a consequence of a more fully implemented Web” [5].
III.
WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES/ APPLICATIONS
The web 2.0, or participative web, is defined by the OECD as “an Internet increasingly influenced by intelligent web services that empower users to contribute to developing, rating, collaborating, and distributing Internet content and customising Internet applications” [6]. There are a number of elements that make up the web 2.0, such as blogs, wikis, multimedia sharing, audio blogging and podcasting, user created content, social networking services, and so on. These technologies are described ahead.
A. Blogs A web log or most commonly known as a blog is a website where people can enter their thoughts, ideas, suggestions and comments [3]. Blogs are simple content management tools that enable non-experts to build easily updatable web diaries or online journals [7]. Blog posts are published chronologically, with links and comments on various issues of interest. B. Wikis According to Murugesan a wiki is “a simple yet powerful Web-based collaborative-authoring (or content-management) system for creating and editing content” [3]. Wikis are also described by Vossen and Hagemann as “pages or systems of pages describing content that other people can directly edit and hence extend, update, modify, or delete” [4].
C. Tagging, social bookmarking and cloud tagging According to Anderson a tag is “a keyword that is added to a digital object (e.g. a blog, a website, picture or video clip) to describe it, but not as part of a formal classification system” [5]. As defined by Murugesan, Social bookmarking is “the process by which users bookmark interesting pages and assign tags to each”. Once tagged, bookmarks can be shared with others [3]. Tag clouds are collections of tags from a number of different users of a tagging service, which groups information about the frequency with which particular tags are used. Tag clouds display the popularity of various tags using font size [17]. Tags with higher frequency of use are displayed in larger text [5]. D. Multimedia sharing A few well known examples of storage and sharing of multimedia content services include YouTube (video) Flickr (photographs) and Odeo (podcasts). These services allow users to contribute actively to the production of Web content. Many people now participate in the sharing and exchange of these forms of media by producing their own podcasts, videos and photos.
E. Audio blogging and podcasting Podcasting is simply making audio files, most commonly in MP3 format, available online so that users can then download them to their desktop and posteriorly play them on a computer or on a wide range of handheld MP3 devices whenever they desire. Originally podcasting was referred to as audio blogging. F. RSS and syndication As stated by Anderson [5] RSS (Really Simple Syndication) “allow users to find out about updates to the content of RSS-enabled websites, blogs or podcasts without actually having to go and visit the website. Instead, information from the website (typically, a new story's title and synopsis, along with the originating website‟s name) is collected within a feed (which uses the RSS format) and „piped‟ to the user in a process known as syndication”. G. Social networking services According to Sharp social networking services are defined as “software that supports group interaction” [7]. Sharp, believes that for applications to qualify as „social software‟ they must provide at least one of the following: 1.) support for conversational interaction between individuals or groups; 2.) support for social feedback; 3.) support for social networks [7]. IV.
WEBSITE CHARACTERISTIC ANALYSIS
Throughout this work various websites were analyzed in order to determine which website functionalities are most common and important. These websites can be grouped into two categories, ones related to expatriates, which inform and offer services to people who are planning or have recently moved to another country, and websites that sell goods online. This section will present, and explain main functionalities identified on analyzed websites. Other than this we also highlight whether these websites resort to any web 2.0 application or service. It is also stressed how each website is sustained. Information regarding traffic to these websites was also considered with the help of an online tool, www.alexa.com [18]. The importance of analytic tools is also underlined in the following section. Considering all the websites analyzed and features that were identified the desire is to, in the near future, develop an e-commerce website with the most important and popular features. A.
Analytics tools
This section is intended to give an insight of how analytics tools are becoming more and more important in understanding user‟s behaviour, which, in turn could be used as a competitive advantage on e-commerce websites. Website owners, with the help of analytics tools, can obtain useful information regarding visitor behaviour. It allows owners to monitor visitor patterns and target key phrases for which visitors are searching. As more and more people turn to the internet for information and to make
purchases it is important to observe and understand customer behavior for “if you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might tell six friends. If you make a customer unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends with one message to a newsgroup. If you make them really happy they can tell 6,000 people about you” [11]. Commerce evolution has allowed many businesses to either exclusively go online with their business or “have websites to complement their other activities” but the proportion of organizations that actually know how successful their websites are, is likely to be relatively low [11]. Depending on a websites objective, its success will vary. Success could be return of investment, profitability, effectiveness, reliability, utility, or competitive advantage. A company that operates a mainly informational Website could recognize the website as successful if it attracts large amounts of people. On the other hand, for companies using their Website as a commercial tool, success may be better defined by a large number of purchases being made from it [11]. At present, the success of a website is generally measured by easily obtained statistics such as hits, page views, visits, visitors and sessions, etc. [11]. Although the analytics tools that are emerging are increasingly sophisticated, and provide much more useful information, other than the information previously mentioned, throughout this work the tool used was Alexa (which will be explained in the next section) for it was the only one found that was free, simple and did not need additional requirements. An example of another analytics tool is Google analytics [19]. Despite it being a free tool it requires the user to have a website, google analytics generates a code which then has to be introduced into the websites code. This will then allow users to view information in different types of graphs. B.
Website analysis tool
Throughout the elaboration of this work we resorted to the help of www.alexa.com which is a website that allows people to discover information about other websites. Alexa can be used “to find out how popular a site is, to find new sites, to learn who owns a site and a lot more”. This website is helpful for web professionals, who wish to gain information about their online competition, as well as for anyone else who wishes to find the best website to buy a certain product. Alexa takes all websites in the world and sorts them out by popularity. Based on global rankings one can see a list of the most popular websites in the world. One can also view a list of popular websites by country, for example, you can find out which websites people in Portugal like to visit. The websites in the “top sites lists” are ordered by their one month alexa traffic rank. The one month rank is calculated using a combination of average daily visitors and page views over the past month. The website with the
highest combination of visitors and page views is ranked number one. Users can also search “Top Sites” by category where users can view lists of top websites in thousands of different categories. For example, within the category Internet I searched for Social Networking and the result was a list of websites ordered by the most popular to the least. With the help of alexa we were able to view websites popularity according to alexas ranking. Data such as the percentage of global internet users who visit a certain website, percentage of global pageviews, daily pageviews per user to a certain website, daily time spent on a website, which websites users viewed before and after visiting one‟s website and the percentage of website traffic from each country, was also available. With this data we were able to compare website popularity with website characteristics, i.e, view which characteristics are most common on highly ranked websites. C.
Social Networking Services
The rapid diffusion nature of online social networks predicts major power shifts as users start to embrace the „collective intelligence‟ of their surrounding social environment. Some users have begun to rely on their network of friends, family, and fellow travelers for reviews, feedback and advice about the latest movie, book or restaurant. This aspect should be kept in mind as the number of people connected to social networks seems to have increased exponentially and “a critique or negative comment on a product” on a social network such as Twitter, Facebook or Youtube, “can cost an enterprise a loss of up to 30 clients” [9]. It is therefore necessary to be aware of the “potentially „disruptive‟ nature of socially networked consumers” [7]. An analysis published by a client on one of these “sites” reaches, in average, 45 clients and two thirds of these can prevent or discontinue ones relation with the firm that was criticized. Publications on social networks are forming a new way for clients to abandon their relationships with enterprises, switching to competitors without directly protesting. Social networks allow people to share, in an easier manner than ever before, bad buying experiences. People have not only started writing comments on products or sellers and on trips or special offers, but are now opening up to writing just about any topic, people have started to write about themselves, and to comment on any issue even without a particular cause (such as a prior shopping experience) [4] . Social networking services have been credited with the ability to expand social contacts, accelerate business processes, improve customer relations and acquire costeffective recruitment of staff. On the other hand these applications have also gained the reputation of negatively effecting staff productivity [10].
www.uk-groceries.com
www.spanishtaste.com
www.italianfooddirect.it
Promote the company /contacts
X X X X X X X
X
X
X X X X X X
X X X X X X
Partnerships with other companies Registration Shopping cart National trade International trade FAQ / Forums News Topics Classifieds section Advertising displayed on site Product promotions Language options Ordering as registered member Ordering without being registered Payment options Search section Feedback / comments on site Weather forcast Photo gallery City or country guides / maps Blog Linked to Social Networks Currency converter Newsletter Word translator Questions in real time Retailer Pending orders
X
X
X X X X X X X
X X X X X X X X X
X X X X X
X
X X X X
X X X X X
X
X X X X X X X
X
X X X
X X X
X X X
X X X
X X X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X X X X X X X
X X
X X X
X X X X
X X
X X
X X X X
X
Promote the company and contacts: Most websites have information regarding the companies
X X X X
X X X
X
X
X
X X X X X
X
X
X
X X
X X X
X X X
X X X X X
X
X X X
X X X X X X
X X X
X
X
X X
The most common characteristics analyzed are the following:
X X
X
www.expatsportugal.com
www.portugal-gourmet.com
Characteristics
www.xpats.com
www.portugalweb.pt
X
Websites
www.expatfinder.com
www.portukale.com
Upon a detailed analysis of a number of websites, a list of main characteristics was made. A table was then created with
www.portugal-linha.pt
these characteristics in order to be able to compare which websites had which characteristics and to view which are the most and least common characteristics. This table can be viewed ahead:
Website characteristics
www.bongous.com
D.
background, information;
their
objectives
and
contact
Registration: Most of the analyzed websites have member registration mechanisms;
Payment options: the majority of websites have various payment options which include, bank transfers, payment upon delivery and other payment services such as paypal;
Photo gallery: Many websites had a photo gallery available of products and/or locations;
National and international trade: Most websites allow not only national but also international trade;
On most websites only registered members are able to order products;
The least popular characteristics are:
Pending orders: this option allows other users to view information about orders that are currently being processed;
Word translator: this functionality allows users to translate words;
Questions in real time: a few websites have mechanisms to contact someone or ask questions live;
Weather forecast: a few websites have weather forecast available;
Classified section: some websites have a classified section;
Currency converter: this feature was found on at least one website;
Only 5 out of the 11 websites are linked to a social network. V.
CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
The development and progression of the internet has brought many benefits and changes in the way things are done, including business [14]. The way in which business is now done has been revolutionized due to the rapid advances in computer technology united with the rapid acceleration in communication networks and the growth of sophisticated software [15]. Users can now complete their tasks in less time and reduce delays associated with the conventional method of interactions. In contrast to Web 1.0 in which users could only access content from a website, Web 2.0 is more dynamic and interactive, allowing users to contribute to it. The Web has turned into a “communication medium, a socialization platform, a discussion forum, a business platform, a storage device for their diaries, and as a constantly growing and expanding encyclopedia” [4]. The use of social media by individuals and by ebusinesses is rapidly growing, as the benefits for organizations in using Web 2.0 social collaboration tools have been identified, especially in the form of social networking sites, to collaborate with business partners and to communicate with consumers and potential employees. The
use of social media for marketing has also been widely adopted. However, these technological advancements and this new incarnation of the web do not only bring benefits, there are security issues which must not be forgotten and one must also keep in mind that these tools are not only used to disseminate the good but also the bad news. “A negative comment made to a product on Twitter, Facebook or Youtube can cost up to 30 clients to a company, on average” [9]. With the ever growing popularity of web 2.0 tools and adoption of electronic means to conduct business it is believed that analytics tools could become more and more important to businesses and could even be determinant in obtaining competitive advantages. Analytics tools allow website owners to monitor visitor patterns and target key phrases for which visitors are searching. As more and more people turn to the internet for information and to make purchases it is important to observe and understand customer behavior. This information could be useful when planning marketing and business strategies. In this work, basic measures such as hits, page views, visits, visitors and sessions were obtained to examine the popularity of each analyzed website. Although there are much more sophisticated analytics tools, throughout this work the tool used was Alexa, for it was the only one found that was free, simple and did not need additional requirements. A detailed analysis of a number of websites, which are related to expatriates, was conducted throughout this work. These websites are either informative and/or offer services to people who are planning or have recently moved to another country, or websites that sell online goods or services. Since “the use of social media by individuals and by e-businesses is rapidly growing” we highlight whether these websites resort to any web 2.0 application or service. Considering all the websites analyzed and features that were identified the desire is to, in the near future, develop an e-commerce website with the most important and popular features. This study could be used, in the near future, as a base for assessing the feasibility of creating an electronic commerce for Portuguese emigrants. For such study, Portuguese emigrants should be inquired in order to better understand their needs of products and services. REFERENCES [1] [2]
[3] [4]
Cvetkovic, M. (2009). Making Web 2.0 Work--From "Librarian Habilis" to "Librarian Sapiens". Computers in Libraries, 4. Boulos, M. N. K., & Wheeler, S. (2007). The emerging Web 2.0 social software: an enabling suite of sociable technologies in health and health care education. Health Information and Libraries Journal(24), 2-23. Murugesan, S. (2007). Understanding Web 2.0. IEEE Computer Society, 34-41. Vossen, G., & Hagemann, S. (2007). Unleashing Web 2.0 From Concepts to Creativity: Elsevier.
[5]
Anderson, P. (2007). What is Web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications for education. JISC Technology and Standards Watch. [6] OECD. (2007). Participative web and User-Created Content: Web 2.0, Wikis, and Social Networking. OECD: Paris. [7] Sharp, D. (2006). SMART INTERNET 2010 – SOCIAL NETWORKS: Faculty of Life and Social Sciences Swinburne University of Technology. [8] Richter, A., & Koch, M. (2008). Functions of Social Networking Services. Paper presented at the 8TH International Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems, Carry-le-rouet, France. [9] Paula, H. (2009). Uma crítica no Twitter pode custar 30 clientes a uma empresa. Retrieved 26 Novembro 2009, 2009, from http://www.jornaldenegocios.pt/index.php?template=SHOWNEWS& id=398167 [10] Zyl, A. S. v. (2009). The impact of Social Networking 2.0 on organisations. The Electronic Library- Emerald, 27(6), 906-918. [11] Phippen, A., Sheppard, L., & Furnell, S. (2004). A practical evaluation of Web analytics. Internet Research, 14(4), 284-293.
[12] McLeod, S. A. (2007). Simply Psychology from www.simplypsychology.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk [13] Dumas, J. F., & Redish, J. C. (1993). A Pratical Guide to Usability Testing. Westport: CT: Greenwood Publishing. [14] Hussain, O., Chang, E., Dillon, T., & Hussain, F. (2008). Determining the Level of Perceived Risk in e-business Web 2.0 Interactions. [15] Sengupta, A., Mazumdar, C., & Barik, M. S. (2005). e-Commerce security – A life cycle approach. Sadhana, 30, 119–140. [16] Millen, D., Feinberg, J., & Kerr, B. (2005). Social bookmarking in the Enterprise. ACM QUEUE, 29-35. [17] Viégas, F. B., & Wattenberg, M. (2008). Tag Clouds and the Case for Vernacular Visualization: IBM. [18] http://www.alexa.com/ [19] http://www.google.com/analytics/
