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The Internet is fast becoming a major way to shop. What makes a consumer shop at one place rather than another? Is it because the merchandise is displayed in an attractive, easy to find manner? Is it because the store arrangement makes it easy to get from one department to another? Is it because the shopper has confidence in the company and can trust it's reputation to stand behind its product? What are some ways we can ensure our Internet shopping is safe and convenient? This assignment is designed to help you closely examine these issues so that you can be an informed Internet shoppers. Read the whole assignment before you begin since you will have to write about your process as part of your report. I. Think of a product you would like to buy (laptop computer, pair of shoes, a music cd or video, mp3 player, inline skates, car.) Ideally you should have a particular brand and model in mind so that there is a common denominator. You are not actually buying something. We are not encouraging you to go out and spend money on something for a class project. II. Find two shopping sites on the Internet that carry your product. Develop your strategy to find stores that carry your project: Will you begin by using a search engine like Yahoo or Altavista, for example, and typing in the keyword for your product? Do you already have some online stores in mind that you could go to to shop? III. After you find your product and the Two (2) stores that carry your product, write an analysis of your shopping experience. For comparison purposes, it will be best to choose one site that gave you a very good shopping experience, with confidence in the stores security for online transactions and a user-friendly site, and one site that did not give you as positive a shopping experience. Write your report based on these guidelines. a) What product did you choose for your shopping
trip? IV. Compare the sites based on this criteria: 1) Analyze the store's Web site: a) Graphics - Describe, compare and critique the graphics for whether or not they enhance or distract, ease of loading, etc. Pick a few representative pages (home page, page you used to find your product, for ex. ). Was there a picture of your product? Could it be "zoomed" in? Were there also pictures of other similar products to which you could compare your product? Explain in detail the reasons for your responses. b) Layout and navigation - Describe the layout and discuss how it facilitates or hampers your shopping experience. For example, could you easily go back and forth from one page to another? For example, did you "lose" your product or have a hard time getting back to the page that displayed your product? c) Ease and security of transaction - (Short of buying the product, checkout whether or not the site gives you the opportunity to order online or whether you have to call or mail in your order, or whether it has secure credit card transactions. ) A very important consideration for online buying is whether or not the site has secure credit card transactions. Does the company advertise on its site that sales are secure,encrypted? Does a lock icon appear on the status bar? Explain in detail why you think the sites are secure or not.* * In the news on Jan 11, 2000, was a story about someone hacking into a company's Web site and posting hundreds of credit card numbers on the Web. That company, obviously did not have a secure site. Can any site be completely secure? d) In one paragraph, reflect on what you learned from doing this report. Do you already shop online? If so, did this report make you more aware of what can make an online shopping experience more or less pleasant and secure? |
