E-commerce

6pm.com is an on-line retail store for Shoes, Clothing, Bags  Handbags, Watches, Sunglasses, Accessories, and Jewelries. The website is owned by Ebags Inc. and first went on-line on February 8, 2004. 6pm.com is a virtual shopping mall where you can find ready to wear apparels for all ages and sex. It is one of the most successful on-line apparel and accessories retailer in the business with very positive ratings from its shoppers. It is estimated that 1,461,845 on-line shoppers visit their websites monthly and it is ranked 1,202 for the most visited sites in the United States. (whois.domaintools 2010)

6pm.com offers the convenience of shopping at home and having your items delivered at your doorsteps. Though shoppers need to pay for the shipping of the items and wait a maximum of four days before receiving the products , the discounted prices on the products is what really attracts online shoppers.


How does it work

You need to go at their website at www.6pm.com. The first thing you will notice are the discount banners on each item ranging from 60 to 80. The website is easy to follow, items are categorized and you need only to click a tab to find what you are looking for.  There are an options to sort items, defending on popularity, price range, and brand name. Once you find the item you want to buy, you need only to click on it to see the products details and the option to add it on your virtual shopping bag. Adding an item on the shopping bag will redirect to a inventory page, where you will be given an option to continue shopping or to checkout.

Clicking the checkout tab will redirect you to the log-in page (for existing users) and the new account registration for first timers(you can continue shopping by clicking the return to shopping tab). If you do not have an existing account you need to register and input personal information, such as name, shipping and billing address( HYPERLINK es), phone number, email address, and credit card number. 6pm.com has a privacy policy to assure customers that their personal informations are safe and well handled. After the login page you need to confirm on your sales and agree to deduct the amount to your credit card. That completes your shopping and you need only to wait for a few days for your items to be delivered at your doorstep.  6pm.com offers a 30 days return consideration to its consumers, but consumers need to pay for the shipping cost of the items. (6pm.com  2010)

 SHAPE
6pm.com being an exclusive internet based retailer is dependent on technology. From selling and advertising its products, to communications with its customers, to modes of payments for the products it is selling. The retailer-consumer relationship is purely virtual all transactions are done through the internet. The accessibility of being internet base is the biggest advantage of 6pm.com to a regular shopping mall. The convenience and flexibility it offers to its consumers is one of the reasons of its success. It also means that 6pm.com has a wider market reach, it is not limited to being land base, store operation is ensured to be 24 hours and the cost of operations can be limited to the technology it uses. The disadvantage of 6pm.com being internet based are it is prone to cyber attacks, hackers can bring down their website which will cost the company a significant amount of money in terms of repair and lost sales. Being internet based will also mean you will have a lot of issues on fraudulent customers and sales.

Advantages of online shopping
Convenience  Internet based stores are open 24 hours. Customers can access their products in the convenience of their homes and at their own time.

Easy Information Prices comparison can be easily viewed through searching through the internet. Product price is also most of the time lower because there is no sales tax. Details and reviews about the products quality can also be easily found in the internet.

Disadvantages of online shopping
Fraud This applies to both shoppers and retailers, fraudulent sales are a normal occurrence in online shopping. On the retailers perspective this happens when shoppers uses credit cards that they don t own or stolen. On the shopper sides, they cannot physically inspect the products for defects and quality.

Security Online retailers are prone to cyber attacks. Shoppers are subject to phishing sites which can result to identity theft.

Privacy Online Shoppers are required to share personal information to retailers such as home address and credit information.

Security and Privacy Policy
To  maintain confidentiality of its customers  personal informations, 6pm.com uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol for all financial transactions made through their site. SSL is a internet protocol used to encrypt data on internet transactions. It is a cryptographic system that establish a private connection between two users only (Verisign 2010). 6pm.com also guarantees that the informations provided is only accessible to its employees on instances of specific jobs that need access to such information for completion. The 6pm.com website employs the use of  cookies and web beacons. Cookies are pieces of information in text file send by the server to the internet browser of the user. They facilitate on the fast loading of web contents and data transfer between server and user. Web beacons or action tags, are used to monitor the user site usage. They track and records the actions, content viewed, and the frequency of visits of users (Allaboutcookies 2010). 6pm.com guarantees that its cookies and web beacons does not acts as spywares on the users hard drive.

In addition to internet security 6pm.com also employs third-party service providers for the physical security of their computer hardwares. This is to ensure that even the employees of the company will not have means to access data of its customers.

Improvements
6pm.com, being internet based is limited to surveys and web questionnaires to evaluate the effectiveness of its marketing operations. Surveys are normally presented on different forms survey for the company website, customer preference, surveys regarding the products and suggestions forms.

Next page is a sample survey given to customers on the evaluation of the company s website.
It is a simple general survey to assess the customer s point of view on how to improve the services of the on-line retailer. The first question is to ask the customer how he had known about the website. This can be a basis on the improvement on how the company promotes and advertise itself. Next is the accessibility of the website. The loading time of websites is important, it is the first real sign of the quality of service the on-line retailer can offer. If the contents takes minutes to load, the possible shopper will have second thoughts about the quality of service and possibly go to another website. The layout of the website should also be a point to ask to the consumer.  Does the customer find the web contents to be confusing Or is the website properly organized It is important to consider both the negative and positive feedbacks of customers on this part of the questionnaire. The visual appearance of the website is the foremost factor in catching the shopper interest. It is facilitates on the quantity of purchase of the customer. Another important information for the company is to know if the consumer bought anything through the website. This is the general purpose of web beacons, they are needed to monitor the customer activity in the site, and the survey will be a means to validate this information. It is also necessary to know  if the shopper found all the items he wanted to buy and the items he wants to see the next time he visits the on-line store. This is for inventory evaluation, and for the general layout of the website. You want customer to see what they are looking for the first time the website load. This is a effective way to attract impulse buyers.

6pm.com prides itself with its wide variety of choices. From high end signature products to ordinary apparels and accessories. This is the major selling points of 6pm.com it is a real one stop bargain store. The last part of the survey can be a commentsuggestion box, where customers can voice out their opinions on the improvement of the services and website of the on-line store. This also serves as a grievance section, where customers can voice out their opinions on unsatisfactory service and products quality.

Sample Questionnaire

How did you found our website       Magazine            Internet Adds            Friend  
Are the items properly categorized in the site   Yes              No  
How long does it take for the site to load Slow        Fast         Very Slow      Very Fast
Have you found what you were looking for    Yes                         No
Did you buy anything in this site  Yes                     No

Comments and Suggestions
On-line retailers do not have the capacity to build a solid customer-retailer relationship. It is therefore important to continually meet the ever changing preferences of customers. It is necessary to regularly conduct surveys and web questionnaires to customers to be updated on their growing needs. It is also the responsibility of the retailer to maintain confidentiality and respect the privacy of their customers.

The sample questionnaire though very simple is aim to assess the companys general performance. It is objective enough to evaluate if the company need to improve its current technology on its way of business.