Introduction to E-Commerce - Course Syllabus

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Introduction and Syllabus Review

What to Expect from this Course

Definition of E-Commerce

Brick & Mortar and E-Commerce Businesses:

- Differences and common elements

The E-Commerce Business Plan:

- Storyboard
- Site description
- Website content: copy, design, navigation and visibility

"Tools” for Online Presence:

- Hardware: the bare minimum components
- IP address and domain name: how IP address and domain name relates to each other, top level domains and sub-domains, the Domain Name System
- ISP and hosting company: pros and cons of sub-domain, shared hosting, virtual private server and private server accounts
- E-Mail: mailing lists and news letters
- HTML editing software: basic illustration
- Image editor
- FTP program
- Web browsers: why you need to have four
- Web analytics: illustration of free log analysis tools and JavaScript based applications

Tools of the E-Trade:

- Merchant account: what it is, offline and real-time credit card processing
- E-Mail payment services: PayPal
- Digital certificates: what they are and how they work
- Shopping cart: elements and review of four different programs

Elements of an E-Commerce Website:

- Business credibility
- Catalog: elements of a good product page
- Security
- Redundancy

Promotion:

- Search Engine optimization (SEO)
- Pay Per Click (PPC)
- Link exchange
- Banners
- Affiliate programs