www.ebay.com

Introduction
E-Commerce is a very common term used in today business world. It is where companies use the Internet for e-transactions with customers and suppliers, for managing internal business process, and coordination activities.
For this project, we have chosen to examine and evaluate on eBay, which is the world's largest online auction site. We will study its purpose, features, key characteristics, designs, strength and weaknesses of the site.

About eBay
Computer programmer, Pierre Omidyar, founded eBay on 1995. It is an American Internet company that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell goods and services worldwide. In addition to its original U.S. website, eBay has established localized websites in several other countries. EBay also owns PayPal, Skype and other businesses.

1. Objective

1.1 Purpose of eBay

eBay.Inc pioneers communities built on commerce, sustained by trust, and inspired by opportunity. eBay brings together millions of people every day on a local, national and international basis through an array of websites that focus on commerce, payments and communications.

The eBay Community is made up of more than 100 million people around the world who buy and sell in the eBay marketplace. The users include individual buyers and sellers, small businesses, and even enterprises. From the buyer who shops on eBay for practical needs, to the seller who relies on eBay as a primary source of income.

Their community encourages open and honest communication among all its members. It is guided by five fundamental values:
- We believe that people are basically good.
- We believe everyone has something to contribute.
- We believe that an honest, open environment can bring out the best in people.
- We recognize and respect everyone as a unique individual.
- We encourage you to treat others the way you want to be treated.

There is also an eBay Marketplace, which creates a powerful online platform for the sale of goods and services by a passionate community of individuals and small businesses. On any given day, there are millions of items available through auction-style and fixed-price trading.

1.2 eBay Trust & Safety

To help the community trade safely and build trust with one another, eBay offers the following tools, programs, and resources:

1) eBay Feedback
Feedback is each user's reputation on eBay. Through positive, negative, and neutral ratings and comments, each eBay member has a Feedback score. All sellers display this score in the Seller Information box of the item-listing page. eBay Feedback fosters trust between people by acting as both an incentive to do the right thing and as a mark of distinction for those who conduct transactions with respect, honesty, and fairness.

2) Buyer Protection
Users who see the PayPal Buyer Protection shield buy with confidence knowing that their purchase is covered up to $500 at no additional cost. For users who are not using PayPal as their payment system, there is also the eBay Standard Purchase Protection Program which provides up to $200 coverage for either items that are not received or items that are not as described in the listing.

3) Spoof (Fraudulent) Web Site Protection
The eBay Toolbar with Account Guard enables eBay members to protect their accounts by indicating when they are on an eBay or PayPal site and warning them when they are on a potentially fraudulent, or spoof, Web site. In addition, eBay helps users prevent and combat fraud by conducting online tutorials on spoof email and educating members on how to report issues.

4) eBay Security Center
The eBay Security Center provides guidance on buying safely, selling safely, and paying safely, as well as valuable third-party, government and law-enforcement resources. The Security Center is a valuable resource for all users, from first-time buyers who want information on safeguarding online transactions to high-volume sellers who want to protect their copyrights.

2. Features

2.1 Business Model
eBay uses the online auction business model (Consumer to Consumer) where participants bids for products and services over the internet. Like most auction companies, eBay does not actually sell goods that it owns itself. It merely facilitates the process of listing and displaying goods, bidding on items, and paying for them. It acts as a marketplace for individuals and businesses who use the site to auction off goods and services. Millions of collectables, appliances, computers, furniture, equipment, vehicles, and other miscellaneous items are listed, bought, and sold daily.

2.1.1 Auction Types & Bidding
eBay offers several types of auctions which include:
- Auction-style listings allow the seller to offer one or more items for sale for a specified number of days. The seller can establish a reserve price.
- Fixed Price format allows the seller to offer one or more items for sale at a Buy It Now price. Buyers who agree to pay that price win the auction immediately without submitting a bid.
- Dutch Auctions allow the seller to offer two or more identical items in the same auction.

Bidders can bid for any number from one item up to the total number offered.
For Auction-style listings, the first bid must be at least the amount of the minimum bid set by the seller. Regardless of the amount the first bidder actually bids, until a second bid is made, eBay will then display the auction's minimum bid as the current high bid. After the first bid is made, each subsequent bid must be equal to at least the current highest bid displayed plus one bidding increment. The bidding increment is established by eBay based on the size of the current highest displayed bid. For example, when the current highest bid is less than or equal to $0.99, the bidding increment is $0.05; when the current highest bid is at least $1.00 but less than or equal to $4.99, the bidding increment is $0.25. Regardless of the amount each subsequent bidder bids, eBay will display the lesser of the bidder's actual bid and the amount equal to the previous highest bidder's actual bid plus one bidding increment.

2.2 Payment Schemes
Customers have quite a number of choices to make their payments via PayPal, Personal check or Money order/Cashiers check, depending on the sellers' preferred mode of payment.

PayPal is an e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. It performs payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other corporate users, for which it charges a fee.

Advantages of paying with PayPal:
· Payment is traceable as consumers can track their payment via their eBay or PayPal account.
· It is immediate and convenient. The customers pay directly from the item- listing page and payment is deposited directly into the seller's account.
· It does not require consumers to use their credit card online (they can transfer directly from your bank account). Sellers don't see their credit card number (it is safely encrypted through PayPal's server), which limits the risk of unauthorized use.
· It offers PayPal Buyer Protection on eligible transactions up to $200 at no additional cost.

Advantages of paying with Credit card:
· Payment is traceable.
· It is immediate and convenient.
· It provides limited liability coverage. Credit card companies typically provide some level of identity and purchase protection whether consumers are paying with their credit card through PayPal, or directly to the seller.

Advantages of paying with personal check, cashiers check or money orders:
· Payment is traceable to a particular mailing address and provides proof of payment.
· Most banks offer one-stop payment service if problems arise before the check is cashed. Some money order services may have the option to stop payment if problems arise before the payment is cashed.

Disadvantages:
· Sellers must wait for funds to clear.
· Payment is extremely difficult to recover in cases of fraud.

3. Characteristics

3.1 Design Scheme & Graphics
The eBay homepage is filled with graphics that will easily catch the consumers’ attention. It is design in a way that customers search for their products according to categories thus reducing the time. eBay offers a wide range of categories from electronic products, video games, antiques etc.

eBay also helps consumers to narrow their search results. For example, under the camera category it is then sub divided into studio equipments, lenses, film and many more. “eBay Express” allows the consumers to get what they want without bidding and waiting. Another feature, which is the “eBay sneak peek”, enables the consumers to update themselves on what is changing on eBay such as the new generation of “My eBay”.

4. Analysis

4.1 Strengths
The strategic advantages of an online auction business model include:

No time constraints - Bids can be placed at any time (24/7). Items are listed for a number of days, giving purchasers time to search, decide, and bid. This convenience increases the number of bidders.

No geographical constraints - Sellers and bidders can participate from anywhere that has Internet access. This makes them more accessible and reduces the cost of "attending" an auction. This increases the number of listed items (ie. number of sellers) and the number of bids for each item (ie. number of bidders). The items do not need to be shipped to a central location thus reducing costs and reducing the seller's minimum acceptable price.

Intensity of social interactions - The social interactions involved in the bidding process are very similar to gambling. The bidders wait in anticipation hoping they will "win" and some bidders may bid primarily to "play the game" rather than to obtain products or services. This creates a highly loyal customer segment for eBay.

Large number of bidders - Due to the potential for a relatively low price, the broad range of products and services available, the ease of access, and the social benefits of the auction process, there are a large numbers of bidders.

Large number of sellers - Because of the large number of bidders, the potential for a relatively high price, reduced selling costs, and ease of access, there are a large number of sellers.

Network economies - The large number of bidders will encourage more sellers, which, in turn, will encourage more bidders, which will encourage more sellers, etc., in a virtuous circle. The more the circle operates, the larger the system becomes, and the more valuable the business model becomes for all participants.

Captures consumers' surplus - Auctions are a form of first-degree price discrimination. As such, they attempt to convert part of the consumers’ surplus into producers’ surplus. Online auctions are efficient enough forms of price discrimination that they are able to do this.

4.2 Weaknesses
eBay has its share of controversy, ranging from its privacy policy to well-publicized seller fraud. One mechanism eBay uses to combat fraud is its feedback system.

Weaknesses of the feedback system include:
A user may be reluctant to leave honest feedback out of fear of negative retaliatory feedback.
Users and generators of feedback may have different ideas about what it means. eBay offers virtually no guidelines. Feedback and responses to feedback are allotted only 80 characters each. This can prevent users from being able to fully list valid complaints.

Although eBay protects sellers from getting a negative feedback from a deadbeat buyer when the deadbeat buyer/bidder did not respond to Unpaid Item dispute, they do not offer the same protection for a buyer who gets a deadbeat seller.

Frauds that can be committed by sellers include:
Receiving payment and not shipping merchandise
Shipping items other than those described
Giving a deliberately misleading description
Knowingly and deliberately shipping faulty merchandise
Counterfeit or bootleg merchandise
Knowingly selling stolen goods
Inflating total bid amounts by bidding on their own auction with “shill” account(s), either the seller under an alternate account or another person in collusion with the seller.

Frauds committed by buyers include:
PayPal fraud: Filing false shipping damage claim with the shipping company and with PayPal.
Credit card fraud, in the form of both stolen credit cards and fraudulent charge backs.
Receiving merchandise and claiming otherwise
Returning items other than received
The buyer sends a forged payment-service e-mail, which states that the buyer has made a payment to the seller's account. An unsuspecting seller may ship the item before realizing the e-mail was forged.

Combating Fraud:
Third party businesses, such as CheckMEND, are compiling lists of stolen goods from local authorities and businesses so eBay consumers can check to see whether the goods they are buying are stolen.

5. Conclusion
eBay is a popular online auction website that everyone knows and until today there is still millions of consumers visiting the site. Therefore, we can see that the image that eBay has portray itself to the consumers is trust and safety. They give the consumers a sense of security to sell and buy items from the web.
Therefore to maximise customer relationship and compete with many other e-commerce websites, it is essential to receive feedback from customers and improve on the service to achieve greater customer satisfaction.

www.dell.com.sg

Introduction
With the ever-advancing technology, the Internet becomes a necessity to most people living around the world. More online businesses have also started to establish as early as the 1990s, to cater to the needs of consumers who prefer to stay indoors. Because of its convenience, more consumers prefer to purchase products online, resulting in more merchants entering businesses through the Internet. This will thus create more competitiveness.

The objective of this report is for us to select a competitive E-Commerce website, and to identify the objective, features, characteristics and analysis of the selected site. After much consideration, we have selected www.dell.com.sg as the E-Commerce websites to research on.

About Dell

Michael Dell founded Dell in 1984 and it is now the world’s leading computer systems company. Dell direct sales operations are currently in 13 markets in the region: Australia, Brunei, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

The Company goals are to provide each customer with carefully tailored standards-based computing solutions and develop new innovative products. From the server, storage and professional services needs of the largest global corporations, to those of consumers at home. It does business directly with the customers, one at a time.


1. Objectives

1.1 Purpose of Dell

The Company is based on a simple concept: by selling computer systems directly to customers in persons, via the Internet or phone. Therefore, Dell could best understand their needs and efficiently provide the most effective computing solutions to meet those needs.

The “Soul of Dell" defines the kind of company they are and aspire to become, which serves as a guide for their actions around the world. The core elements of the “Souls of Dell” are:

Customers: Dell believes in creating loyal customers by providing best products and services and outperforming the competition with value and a superior customer experience.

The Dell Team: They believe that their continued success lies in teamwork and the opportunity each team member has to learn, develop and grow.

Direct relationships: Dell believes in being direct in all they do. They are committed to behaving ethically; responding to customer needs in a timely and reasonable manner; fostering open communications and building effective relationships with customers, partners, suppliers and each other and operating without inefficient hierarchy and bureaucracy.

Global Citizenship: They believe in participating responsibly in the global marketplace. Dell is committed to understanding and respecting the laws, values and cultures wherever they do business.

Winning: Dell has a passion for winning in everything they do. They are committed to operational excellence, superior customer experience, leading in the global markets they serve, being known as a great company and great place to work, and providing superior shareholder value over time.

2. Features

2.1 Business Model

Dell uses the direct- sales model (Business to Consumer), which eliminates retailers that add unnecessary, time and cost, or can diminish Dell's understanding of customer expectations. The direct model allows the company to build every system to order and offer customers powerful, richly configured systems at competitive prices. Dell also introduces the latest relevant technology much more quickly than companies with slow-moving, indirect distribution channels. Dell's major competitors include Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Gateway, Lenovo, Sony, Acer, Toshiba and Asus. By leveraging its business-model, Dell attempts to undercut competitors and offer customers a more attractive choice of personal computers and other equipment.

Dell sells all its products both to end-use consumers and to corporate customers via the Internet and telephone network. It maintains a negative cash conversion cycle through use of this model: in other words, Dell receives payment for the products before it has to pay for the materials. Dell also practices just-in-time (JIT) inventory-management, profiting from its attendant benefits. Dell’s JIT approach utilizes the “pull” system by building computers only after customers place orders and by requesting materials from suppliers as needed. Since the days of the original dominance of telephone ordering, the Internet has significantly enhanced Dell’s business-model, making it easier for customers and potential customers to contact Dell directly. This model also has enabled Dell to provide very customizable systems at an affordable rate, since Dell manufacturing builds specifically for each customer.

From an organizational structure perspective, Dell has reorganized their whole organization from a very traditional functional structure to a much more process oriented, team-based approach. This structure was, by and large, driven by the offering concept in tandem with the e-business solution or ‘click only’ in other words. Dell has now revolutionized the industry to make computing accessible to customers around the globe, including businesses, institutional organizations and individual consumers.


2.2 Payment Schemes

Dell offers their customers various methods of payment via credit card, telegraphic transfer, cheque or bank draft, direct deposit, flexi payment and financing/leasing.

Credit card payment is very popular among the consumers, accounting for 90% of online purchases. It is worldwide acceptance, easy and secured way of payment. The advantages is that merchants will have in- built security as they process the transactions on site through arrangements made with commercial banks or credit card companies and consumers also gain legal protection. However, there are disadvantages such as high level of merchant fees, cost for consumers may be slightly higher as a result and not everyone has a credit card.

Therefore the various methods of payment offered by Dell have made the transaction process more effective and efficient.

2.3 Security

The Dell Store website is registered with site identification authorities to enable browser to confirm the Dell Store's identity before any transmission is sent. If the consumers are using a security-enabled browser, the information they send Dell regarding their purchase is encrypted, making it extremely difficult to read even if it is wrongly intercepted.

The Dell Store also utilizes industry-standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to allow the encryption of: potentially sensitive information such as customers’ name and address, critically sensitive information like their credit card number.

Dell has also implemented an added security measures concerning the privacy of customers credit card information. They encourages consumers to submit their order electronically without a credit card number and a sales representative will contact them personally to obtain the information.

3. Characteristics

3.1 Design Scheme & Graphics

On the homepage of Dell, the consumer is ‘greeted’ by graphical representation of the main products that Dell is offering to them. Not many words are used and this captures the customer’s attention. It is simple and easy to find the information one needs at a glance as most of the information can be found on that single page.

Dell has also classified the solutions into 3 main categories: Home & Home Office, Small Business and Medium & Large Business. This makes it more accessible and convenient for all range of customers. The customer can also alter the size the text on the page, thus catering to each individual who prefers large/regular-sized text and facilitating reading and illustration of the information.

Besides these, the keyword search box and drop down list allows customers to find what they require in a much faster way. Further information about Dell, concerns over privacy, site map and feedback are also available.


4. Analysis

4.1 Strengths

Because of Dell's direct model and the industry's response to it, information technology has becomes more powerful, easier to use and more affordable, giving technology savvy customers the opportunity to take advantage of powerful new tools to improve their businesses and personal lives.

Dell has used its commanding position to introduce many new products and services, especially to corporate customers, such as a custom Dell Web page for corporate accounts.

There is also improved operational efficiency due to mass customization by staying close to the customer using a Web-based order entry model that can build and ship a customized PC to any of its millions of consumers in only a few days, even overnight if the customer is really in a hurry.

For consumers, convenience is a fundamental factor, which affects consumer’s shopping desire. Dell therefore provides their consumers with an unprecedented depth of information necessary to make purchase decisions. They categorize their products according to notebooks, desktops, servers, printers, monitors and different solutions to cater to different type of consumers; this will thus enable them to find the right product at the right price in just a few clicks.

Dell has also developed advanced search technology to help the consumers find the products they are looking for by narrowing their selections according to the screen size, product category and graphics capability. There is a “Dell Deal” feature, which provides the consumers with information on the hot deals products and those advertised products on newspapers and online.

Therefore, consumers can save more time in searching their preferences by using these easy-to-search tools, as they are exact, fast and convenient.

4.2 Weaknesses

There are some difficulties faced by those online businesses as baby bloomers or people who are not comfortable in using the Internet to do online purchases will find it difficult or unsafe to adapt to such way of doing business.

Other than the distribution/production side of the PC business, there's another side to it: the support side. And here, the direct model looks less attractive. If after all, Dell is selling directly to customers, Dell has to shoulder all the related support costs, from handling information requests before the sale to taking and tracking orders to handling service inquiries after the sale. Dell can't offload any of those costs onto resellers or retailers or other distribution partners - because Dell does not have any distribution partners.

The direct sales model provides a cost advantage on the production side but brings a cost disadvantage on the support side.
Now, as long as most of the costs (for Dell and Dell’s competitors) lie on the production side, Dell is golden. If, however, the balance of costs shifts toward the support side, Dell is in trouble.
This is exactly what's been happening in the PC world. As PC prices have plummeted, thanks to cheaper components and ever more automated manufacturing, support costs have not fallen in tandem. Yes, Dell can get economies of scale in support and can automate certain tasks, but in the end there's a heavy labor component to support that sets a floor for costs: customers need to be able to talk to a human being when they have questions or problems.

Dell tested that floor recently, and it got burned by customer-support problems, so now it's having to reinvest on the support side of its business even as it continues to slash prices to hold onto market share. In its last quarterly financial statement, Dell noted, "We have increased our headcount not only to accommodate our global growth but to also improve our customer experience."

So there, perhaps, is the flaw in the direct sales model, particularly when it's applied to a commodity product like the PC: You have a cost disadvantage in customer support, which is hidden as long as support represents a fairly small portion of the each product's overall cost. But as the price of Dell’s product falls, due to savings on the production side, support begins to represent an ever larger percentage of its cost.

Dell's problems are more the result of massive brand failure than business model failure. The company has not added customer value where others, such as Apple, have done so in spades. Dell simply lacks the brand imagination to think beyond the parts it purchases. The company's purchasing logic ultimately led it to believe that its customers were commodities too, best served by least-cost drones.

If innovation is "more customers in the product, less process in the company," Dell has shown that solving only the process part is never enough.

5. Conclusion
From the above analysis, in order to be a competitive e-commerce website, it must be able to meet the customer needs, bringing in new customers and also retaining the current customers in this highly volatile environment it is operating in. This will be contributed by the website’s business model, graphics, security system and many more.

In this case, Dell has provided their customers with customization services which is thererfore a winning point compared to other competitors. Security is also an important issue which customers is concerned about and we can see that Dell has a security system that allows the consumers to give them the trust. More research and development has to be done also so as to present the latest PC technology at the lowest possible cost to targeted customers and only then can Dell continue to maintain its position as the World’s leading computer systems company.

References

1. http://www.ebay.com/
2. http://www.dell.com.sg/
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/