E-commerce

Technological advancement in the recent past has posed a major challenge to most marketing managers in various institutions around the world. With increasing globalization and dynamism in technology, onlineinternete-communication also known as e-commerce has become essential tool for marketing. Internet is a powerful tool for marketing that can enable an organization to be effective and profitable if used appropriately. This is because it has multimedia characteristics or features that make it a good interactive channel. E-communication is essential in reducing costs associated with printing and information sharing as well as trade channel intermediary costs. E-communications helps an organization to deal on one to one basis with its consumers.
   
There are different forms of new media or e-communication devices or avenues which include World Wide Web commonly known as WWW, mobile phones, short messages, chat programs found in the internet, HTML or the hypertext mark-up language, email services, interactive television and other hypertext links found on the web pages that enables individuals to quickly navigate through various pages and documents through the computer. Different companies around the world are today using internet services to market and sell their products.

An analysis of five e-commerce websites from the auto industry and aviation industry
E-commerce has become a major competitive tool in the automobile and aviation industry as competition continues to increase in these two industries. Toyota Company, Honda Company and Nissan motors group are some of the companies in the automobile industries that are currently using e-commerce.  Honda Motors Company has its headquarters in Japan with different branches all over the world. This company maintains its website which enables dealers and consumers to get information regarding the company. In the dealers website of the company, various models of cars are displayed. The website contains other navigation buttons to enable browser users to access different information either pertaining to the company or the products and services. Customers are enabled to make enquiries and to purchase vehicles using online services after which the company organizes for their shipment.
   
Toyota Company is another example of a company in the automobile industries also a Japanese company that is today using e-commerce to market its products. Just like the Honda Company, Toyota motors also has a website whereby it displays various models of its products (vehicles) and also provides sale options for browser users. The website is well designed with clearly marked navigation buttons and bars as well as a good mix of background colours making it easier for browser users to use it. Each navigation buttons lead to a different segment containing different information. Online services are offered while shipments for online purchased products are arranged immediately upon successful closing of a deal.
   
Nissan Motor Company is a multinational company with its headquarters being in Japan. This company deals with manufacture of automobiles. It is the 3rd largest car manufacturer in United States today.
The company has been using and upgrading its information technology infrastructures to market most of the products it manufactures. In the year 2003, Nissan motor company introduced a window server to enable it market its vehicles market its products (vehicles) faster around the world and to enable it reduce its costs. Larry Berger the manager of Nissan North America computer services asserted that windows server has allowed us finally work as a global company.

WIN project undertaken in year 2003 has enabled the company to share vital information with the employees on time as well as to collaborate with the clients more efficiently.  Toshishiko Suba the senior manager in this company stated that because of window server 2003 and exchange server 2003, our employees can now access our network through mobile devices from anywhere. Introduction of windows XP professional model from Microsoft has enabled the company to incorporate Multilanguage in its e-communications without necessarily operating different versions. Each product posted on the website of Nissan company has four translations including Spanish, Japanese, English and French.

The aviation industry has also not been left behind in the use of e-commerce or internet services as a means of selling out their services. American airlines and southwest airlines are some of the multinational airlines in United States. American airline has been upgrading its use of internet for the past several years. Recently, the company introduced WI-FI in-flight booking services to enable its clients to book flights using internet. The website of this company provides several options and a display of services offered including a section of frequently asked question. This section allows clients to ask various questions and gain immediate answers from the company. The website even has an option whereby individuals can use different languages while accessing information about freights or services.

Southwest Airline Company is a low cost airline based in America. It is rated the largest airline company in the world as it carries the biggest number of passengers and sixth in terms of revenues. The airline offers online or internet service which enables its users to book flights online without necessarily having to go the booking offices. Currently, this company introduced the Wi-Fi internet access to improve its internet services to its customers.

Features of good and bad website design
Web design is critical in effective internet marketing of goods and services. Web design entails a combination of technical prowess and artistic skills founded on the knowledge of the changing technology and consumer needs. Website design is essential in determining the number of online customers that visit a companys website. It is thus essential for a company to ensure that the way its website is designed is appealing and easy for potential viewers and consumers to access and navigate through. There are various factors that determine whether a website design is good or bad.
Good website design

For a website design to be described as being good, the following factors must be considered and fulfilled. One of the major determinants of a good website design is the text contained in the website. For it to be good, it should not at any moment interrupt the text contained there in. texts should also be big enough to be to ensure that visitors to the website can lead them clearly without struggling. However, they should not be too big in a way that disrupts the visibility or capacity of a person to read. For a website to be good, the hierarch of information should be made perfectly clear with columns contained in a text being narrower than those of a book to ensure that the reading is much easier on a computers screen.

Navigation is another essential tool that contributes to a good website design. For a website design to be good, the navigation bars and buttons should be easy to read, understand and use them. They should not be complicated with sophisticated language that some users may not understand. They should also be consistent in the entire website of an organization with the frames being used on the navigation buttons being not obtrusive. For large websites, they should have site maps or an index through which website users can navigate through instead of wasting time trying to locate various items contained on the web. The navigation bars and buttons should be able to give the visitors clues on what they are about and the page number they are viewing on the site.

Links are also very vital during website design. Good website design should have link colours that coordinate with the colours of the other pages. In a good site, links should be underlined to make them clear to website visitors. Graphics are also essential in contributing to a good web design. The buttons contained in a website should not be too dorky and big. All graphics should have a label of alt with all graphic links having text links that matches them. The backgrounds and graphics should have colours that are browser safe and all graphics that are animated should be able to switch off by themselves.

The general design of a website is also very important. Pages should download easily and quickly with the home page and first page clearly fitting in a pixel space of 800 by 600. All other pages should also have a visual impact that is immediate and also in pixels of 800 by 600. A good website design should also effectively utilise well graphic elements including pull quotes, subheadings and photos for breaking up big text areas.

Looking at the websites of Nissan, Honda and Toyota Motors as well as the American and southwest airlines, it is clear that all the features of a good website design mentioned above have been implemented. Websites of these companies are easy to navigate through, they have clear and well marked links, graphics are well designed and placed and texts are clear, have right font and easy to read. The two websites are well designed and meets the standards of good website design.

A bad website design
A bad website design is one that does not contain the elements of a good website design. It is characterised by backgrounds that has it default colour being grey with colour combinations of background as well as the text that make text reading difficult for browser users. A bad background of a website design may also contain backgrounds that are busy and distracting which makes it difficult for users to read the text contained therein.

A bad website design has very small texts making text reading a problem to many browser users. It may also have text crowded in one side usually the left age or in a centred style with the body copy on the left being over flush. Also, bad website design maybe characterised by texts or information that is stretched across the entire page. Paragraphs typed in bold, italic, caps or a mixture of the three formatting styles also characterises a bad web design. Underlining texts that do not constitute a link also makes a website design to be bad.

Blue links that are default or surrounding graphics is also an element of bad website design. Unclear characteristic concerning their direction, links contained in body copy and with potential of distracting readers or even lead them to useless or remote pages, un-underlined links making it difficult for readers to identify them and dead links are all elements of a poor web design.  other elements of poor web design include large files of graphics making them difficult or time consuming to load or download, inclusion of useless or meaningless design, images of thumbnail that are as large as the full images, lack of alt labels on graphics, missing graphics and also graphics that hardly fit in the screen. All these are identifiers of bad website design.

There are many indicator of bad website designs including junky advertisement, animations and blinking that does not switch off on itself, unclear or complex navigation bars and buttons, useless title pages and orphan pages, and the general design characterised by lack of focal point on any page, failure of home and entry pages to fit in the standard browser window, and inclusion of many focal points in a single page.

Means of using traditional shopping stores tactics on electronic selling
Electronic selling differs significantly from distribution stores on their arrangement and mode of creating a shopping environment. In traditional shopping stores, various strategies including lighting, music and displays are used. The music is usually directed at attracting the attention of the buyers and to encourage them or entice them to look at the product being offered. Usually, music is employed to fit a particular product. Different lighting styles are used which in most cases keep on changing aimed at catching or drawing the attention of the customers. Lighting is of different colours and they shine at different intervals. Displays entails showing off the products being offered for sale. Some of the best products are used for display purposes which draw the attention of potential buyers.

While not all the above tactics can be applicable for online or electronic selling, some of this tactics can be essential in drawing the attention of a consumer. To begin with, a web designer should ensure that all the qualities of a good website design are upheld as these are the major determinant of the attention that a browser user is willing to give to a particular website. Display is one of the major methods that can be used to improve electronic selling. However, this is only applicable in cases of physical products. Companies should display pictures of their best products at various angles and directions to give the viewer a full dimension or sight of the product. Products should be arranged well to fit in the standard screen and overlapping avoided. Links should be provided for different variety of products with navigation buttons being clearly labelled.

Display rights can also be employed on internet or electronic selling. However, this should be done with a lot of caution as they may scare away potential customers. Display lights should be arranged in such a way that they do not tamper with the information contained in the website. The most effective displays that can be used are in form of animations of different types. Display rights should not be very bright but harmonised to create desired impression. Slow tunes may also be played along the animations but the tunes as well as the lights should not last long so as to ensure that they do not distract the browser user.

Sale of products via the internet
Online shopping has become the in thing today. Most consumers are more comfortable doing their shopping via the net. However, there are some products that are quite sensitive and that consumers prefer to do the shopping physically rather than purchasing them via the net. Such products include clothing, shoes and perfumes. Consumers need to be there to ensure that these goods fit them and are pleasant to them. It is difficult to order clothing online especially for personal use as the delivered goods may vary with the tastes, preferences and even size of an individual. All the products that need in store help are rarely purchased via the net. Also, the risk associated with online purchasing may make consumers to prefer it or not.

One of the major fears of online shoppers is their security as well as those of their products. E-tailers are some of the effective ways that are used today to reduce the risk associated with online shopping. E-tailers also known as online retailers are large retailers whose main work is to ensure that online shoppers have access to online shopping facilities for various products and services. E-tailers are legal businesspeople who are registered under the electronic retailing association. Being legally registered, e-tailers are likely to increase the security of online shoppers as shoppers have a reliable network that can be held responsible in case of failed or lost shipment.

How to boost the level of customer service using internet
Internet is an essential and effective tool of managing and handling issues relating to customer relations. Companies can employ internet technology to improve the satisfaction of consumers and to ensure that the consumers have greater access to services and products offered by an organization. Customer services that are web based are effective in reducing costs associated with offering customer services and also in providing data to consumers. One of the ways in which organizations such as Nissan and southwest airline can employ to improve their customer relations is by ensuring that their websites are constantly updated to ensure that customers are always aware of major changes, innovations and all the internal operations of organization. Posting up to date information is essential in improving the customer service in an organization.

The second way on how to use internet to improve or boost the customer service is by providing interactive devices that enable customers ask questions directly to the customer care in an organization using the internet. There are various customer services that are web based that are currently available in the market and that can greatly help an organization improve is customer service. A service such as i-CSR meaning internet customer service representative is an option that allows an organization to provide 24hour services in a day throughout the year to its clients. With such services, clients can access the website and get attention from the company at all times regardless of the time or the day.

Creating an option of FAQs or the frequently asked questions is also another way that internet can be used to enhance the customer service of an entity. Under this section, clients are able to ask and receive immediate answers on various issues relating to an organization, its products or services. Via this service, clients can view other questions that have been asked and solicit information from them. This is an interactive way that enables an organisation interact with its clients and get to understand their needs and know them better.

Importance of e-communication in an organization
The major benefits of internet marketing in integrated marketing communications are classified into five categories commonly referred to as five Ss by marketing managers. The five Ss include sell, save, speak, sizzle and serve. One of the major benefits of e-communication is that it leads to reduction of operating costs. With e-communication, an entity is able to reduce printing costs as information is posted on the website of the company where it can be assessed by employees and the customers. This was evident after Nissan Company introduced the server systems in year 2003 Microsoft Corporation .

E-communication is also essential as it enables businesses or companies to directly interact and communicate with their customers on a one to one basis. This ensures that all the questions of customers are answered and clarity made on products and services offered. By communicating directly to a customer, an entity is able to solicit loyalty and to improve customer relations and services offered.

Sale of products is another benefit that can be derived via e-marketing or communication. Online services today enable customers to place orders for products and purchase goods via internet. Online sale of products helps an organization to build relationships with the customers as well as solicit their loyalty. Also, online sale enables an entity to convey information at relatively reduced costs. This has been a major strength of Southwest Airlines that has enabled this company gain client confidence and goodwill.

The net has a multimedia nature that allows companies to use movements, graphics, videos and audio so as to make online communication more interesting and exciting. This also allows for messages to be easily and quickly changed thus saving customers and companys time. Also, via the internet, an organization can be able to create databases for specific customer segments.

Internet business is one of the rapidly growing areas today. Most businesses have introduced e-commerce in their operations and to cub the rising competition as a result of globalization and dynamism in technology. The automobile and aviation industries are some of the most competitive industries today around the world. Given the fact that these industries usually serve or operate in the global market, technology is of essence to them and a major competitive force for companies operation in them. Nissan and Southwest airlines are some of the companies in these two industries respectively that have been able to use technology to improve their operations and competitiveness.