The Web and E-commerce
To work on the internet, it is important to understand how it works. This article covers concepts and information about the web and one of the most widespread models on the internet: e-commerce.
The internet is a network of computers connected worldwide. The name Internet comes from Inter, meaning international or worldwide, and net, meaning network. Its main function is sharing information from anywhere in the world with access.
The internet was created in 1969 under the name ARPANET. A few years later came the World Wide Web. It is also known as the web. It is a virtual environment, because it does not exist physically, and it holds digital content stored on hardware. The word web, in English, means "fabric or network," an analogy in which many points are connected and interconnected. On the internet, however, it is possible to navigate between these points in a non-linear way (LAQUEY and RYER, 1994).
Web
The web is a technology with no owner, because it is built on sharing information. This information is contained in addresses called sites, which in turn are made of "pages." This is also an analogy to printed pages, although the concept of a web page does not match the printed one exactly, because in digital media pages can constantly change in size, shape, and content (RADFAHRER, 2000).
Digital content can take many forms, such as text, images, sound, and multimedia. This data is distributed through online servers that generate a huge amount of data, forming the World Wide Web, created in 1989 by the English scientist Tim Berners-Lee (LAQUEY and RYER, 1994).
The web uses the concept of "navigation," because you can access information in a virtual space in a non-linear way through hypertexts. Hypertexts are large pieces of content with "links," connections to other related or unrelated content. To navigate the web you need a browser, in English "browser", a program that locates addresses on the web and interprets the languages contained in the address (RADFAHRER, 2000).
It is essential to understand what websites are. They are digital content stored on some computer somewhere in the world, and they make information available. "Sites" can be found through an electronic address.
For a site to be online, you need a technology ecosystem: a computer loaded with the data of the online site. This hardware that makes the site available on the internet is called a server. Each server has an address so it can be located on the web, which is the Uniform Resource Locator (URL). However, a URL is made of four numbers separated by dots, from 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255, so to make addresses easier to find, the domain system was created, also called unique names, which are linked to the URL. Domain formats can vary a lot, but a common pattern is name.com or www.name.com.br (RADFAHRER, 2000).
Within this ecosystem there are many particularities that keep changing with technological developments. One of them is browsers, the most popular software needed to navigate the domains of the web. How software works is by looking up an address and transmitting hypertexts. You can see this when you access an address: before the domain comes the acronym http (hypertext transfer protocol) (RADFAHRER, 2000).
Because there are several browsers, it is an important factor to analyze when designing websites, since they interpret online pages in different ways. These pages are based on markup languages called HTML (hypertext markup language) and cascading style sheets, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Markup and style sheets define things like colors, shapes, fonts, how images are displayed, and the whole structure of the site, so it is often necessary to run countless tests of the site in many browsers, so the pages fit the browsers. Beyond these particularities, there are plug-ins, which are software that support the browser. Care is needed when designing sites that require plug-ins, because if these are not installed, or if the hardware does not support them, pages will not load properly and navigation will be compromised. The plug-ins most common are the ones that let you watch videos and animations.
According to Laquey and Ryer (1994, p. 21), "the Internet lets you reach a larger number of people and a greater volume of information faster than you can imagine." But to access sites on the internet, you need working hardware, such as a computer or phone, a browser, and internet access. This access may or may not be satisfactory, because the hardware must communicate with data that is not local. In other words, if the connection is poor, navigation will be compromised. With this in mind, when designing a site, you have to understand how and where people will access the content, because if the data in the address is not compatible with the software, hardware, or internet quality, navigation at that address will be compromised.
E-commerce
Technological developments made faster computers, mobile devices with internet access, and access to these technologies for thousands of people possible. The arrival of the web brought significant changes to online services, and more and more users became familiar with shopping on the internet. E-commerce (electronic commerce) became a profitable business in this context and created billionaire entrepreneurs. However, online commerce has distinct particularities that are essential for anyone who will work in this field to understand.
According to Smith, Speaker, and Thompson (2000, p. 73), "E-commerce derives from the term electronic commerce; i-commerce derives from the term internet commerce." This difference exists because electronic commerce covers not only the internet but any commercial operation carried out through electronic devices, such as bank statements and invoices generated by banking systems. i-commerce, in turn, is a part of e-commerce, since it sits within the set of electronic applications.
The e-commerce model allows a company to be built with lower costs and some advantages, such as the possibility of reaching a market of millions of people all over the world, restructuring the company more quickly, and reaching markets that are still little explored. Despite the many advantages of e-commerce, many companies disappeared quickly and went bankrupt, because it takes a constant cycle of evaluation and updating within the company, given how fast changes happen in the digital world.
According to Smith, Speaker, and Thompson (2000), something fundamental in e-commerce is traffic, because the number of visits to the site generates income regardless of selling products or services. In other words, people need to keep visiting continuously, so revenue can come from ads. This is one way to keep the business sustainable, because this profit will cover losses, keep the business competitive, and keep its shares rising.
Running an e-commerce business requires multidisciplinary teams that can keep up with technological changes and the market. One example is understanding where to invest capital. If the market of smartphone users grows to the point where they start buying directly from their mobile devices, is it strategic to invest in that niche or not? These questions must be constantly evaluated, as must the standards of the web, browsers, markup and programming languages, security, the economy, and so on.
Successful e-commerce cases
Amazon, an American company founded by Jeff Bezos, began operations in 1995 with the goal of selling books online, at a time when many investors believed it was an unviable, dreamy business, because there were no mass buyers on the internet. People were believed not to buy from a store they could not physically visit, so it would be very hard to earn consumers' trust in a virtual store.
Bezos knew how to take advantage of the well-known advantages of off-line commerce and multiplied its strength with the resources of online, such as the ability to offer a vast variety without taking up physical space, saving resources, and updating systems quickly. That is how the company built a broad line of products sold within a complex "ecosystem."
Amazon has partnerships with suppliers and publishers, for example, and so it can obtain millions of titles and deliver them to consumers quickly and at affordable prices. Among other strategies, Amazon provides many details about each of its products and shows comments from people about what is sold.
Customer reviews are essential, because in many cases people trust other users' opinions more, and they begin using e-commerce to check opinions. Based on those opinions, many end up buying directly from Amazon.
With this strategy, the virtual address became the largest online retailer and also a source of recommendations. In 2019, Amazon became the most valuable brand in the world, overtaking giants like Apple and Google. According to the BrandZ ranking, developed by the marketing research agency Kantar, the company is worth US$315.5 billion, the equivalent of more than R$1.2 trillion (TechTudo 2019).
Another success story in a niche market is the Brazilian company Jovem Nerd. It started in 2002 as a project by Alexandre Ottoni (known as Alotonni), with a blog that later became the Jovem Nerd portal.
According to Sabatini (2011), Ottoni realized that through the blog, which carried content his audience of nerds liked, he could monetize the service. He later teamed up with Deive Pazos (known as Azaghâl) to turn the creation into a business. Jovem Nerd became a success story by offering users niche content such as podcasts on geek topics, comedic material, and products such as mugs, t-shirts, and even books from its own publisher, Nerdstore. By focusing on this niche, Jovem Nerd seeks to understand its customers' culture in order to provide products and services that excite them.
In 2021, Magalu (Magazine Luiza), the giant Brazilian e-commerce company, bought Jovem Nerd, which has 5.5 million subscribers across its YouTube channels, and programs that have passed the mark of 1 billion views (Exame, 2021).
References
Exame, 2021: <https://exame.com/negocios/por-que-o-magalu-comprou-o-jovem-nerd-e-para-onde-vai-a-varejista/>
LAQUEY, Tracy e C. RYER, Jeanne. O manual da internet – Um guia introdutório para acesso às redes globais. Rio de Janeiro: Campus, 1994.
RADFAHRER, Luli. Design/ Web/ Design 2. Rio de Janeiro: MarketPress, 2001.
SMITH, Rob; SPEAKER , Mark; THOMPSON, Mark. O mais completo guia sobre e-commerce. São Paulo: Futura, 2000.
TechTudo 2019: <https://www.techtudo.com.br/listas/2019/06/amazon-e-a-marca-mais-valiosa-do-mundo-veja-oito-curiosidades-sobre-a-empresa.ghtml>
Comments