Specifications

Compatibility
Be sure to test your site in a number of browsers and operating systems. If the site does not
work for a popular browser or operating system, you will look unprofessional and lose a sec-
tion of your potential market.
If your site is already operating, your Web server logs can tell you what browsers your visitors
are using. As a rule of thumb, if you test your site in the last two versions of Microsoft Internet
Explorer and Netscape Navigator on a PC running Microsoft Windows, the last two versions of
Netscape Navigator on a Apple Mac, the current version of Netscape Navigator on Linux, and
a text-only browser such as Lynx, you will be visible to the majority of users.
Try to avoid features and facilities that are brand-new, unless you are willing to write and
maintain multiple versions of the site.
Providing Services and Digital Goods
Many products or services can be sold over the Web and delivered to the customer via a
courier. Some services can be delivered immediately online. If a service or good can be trans-
mitted to a modem, it can be ordered, paid for, and delivered instantly, without human interac-
tion.
The most obvious service provided this way is information. Sometimes the information is
entirely free or supported by advertising. Some information is provided via subscription or
paid for on an individual basis.
Digital goods include e-books and music in electronic formats such as MP3. Stock library
images can be digitized and downloaded. Computer software does not always need to be on a
CD, inside shrink-wrap. It can be downloaded directly.
Services that can be sold this way include Internet access or Web hosting, and some profes-
sional services that can be replaced by an expert system.
If you are going to physically ship an item that was ordered from your Web site, you have both
advantages and disadvantages over digital goods and services.
Shipping a physical item costs money. Digital downloads are nearly free. This means that if
you have something that can be duplicated and sold digitally, the cost to you is very similar
whether you sell one item or one thousand items. Of course, there are limits to this—if you
have a sufficient level of sales and traffic, you will need to invest in more hardware or band-
width.
Digital products or services can be easy to sell as impulse purchases. If a person orders a phys-
ical item, it will be a day or more before it reaches her. Downloads are usually measured in
seconds or minutes. Immediacy can be a burden on merchants. If you are delivering a purchase
Running an E-commerce Site
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RUNNING AN
E-COMMERCE SITE
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