Workshop Vacancy
E-commerce is turning out to be among the most invested business in the world today. This is because of the rapid development of technology that has paved the way for the development of websites and social media marketing. Due to this, some software and hardware have been developed to help in setting up the e-commerce websites and also help in managing them. Among the software needed to create an e-commerce website is a Web server. This can be either hardware or software. The most common use of a web server in developing an e-commerce website is to host the site. In addition to that, web servers can be used to store data and run enterprise applications. Secondly, a web browser is needed in the development of a Milwaukee web design.
A browser is an application designed to display internet pages. To run the servers, the server software is required to help in managing the connections (Hasan, Anne and Steve 240). A few examples of those are the Ubuntu Server Edition, FreeNas, Apache and many more. The website also needs Ports and Protocols. The protocol is the type of connection that the site is running through, for example, the HTTP or DNS. The port, on the other hand, is the name of the link that you are going to use. Web authoring tools are also mandatory in creating an e-commerce website. An example is the dream weaver or the Microsoft Publisher. After that, one will need a database system (Hasan, Anne and Steve 240). This will help to store user passwords, Names, and addresses. In our case, the names and passwords of our clients will be stored, thus making it easier to pick up cars for maintenance and also ensuring client confidentiality. A database system also helps in saving other company information. Finally, the website will need a domain name. The Domain name must be recognizable, thus helping in ranking in search engines. Below is a recap that will help in putting everything into place.
Front-end: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Ajax, and Query
Server Side Scripting: PHP, ASP
CMS: WordPress, Woo Commerce, Magento
Database: MySQL, MSSQL
E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services over electronic systems. In our case, it is the selling of motor repair and maintenance services through an online platform. A lot of transactions are involved in the online business, including electronic funds transfer, marketing, and supply chain management, among others. This rapid growth of e-commerce has also led to the generation of associated threats. The most sensitive security issue is privacy. People want their information to be kept away from unauthorized parties. Privacy is a major concern for consumers in the e-commerce world. This is because of the rise in identity theft and impersonation. When a customer or client knows that his or her information will be kept private, he or she will be willing to provide truthful information. This will lead to the development of trust between the client and the company. Trust in turn, is directly linked to increased client Loyalty. This is manifested through increased buying of the company services and also the motivation to come back.
To try and fix the issue, the website will have to develop an authentication protocol to help keep out unauthorized persons. This is because customer and client authentication have become critical in the e-commerce business. The integrity of data in the company is an assurance that the data transmitted between the company and the clients is correct and has not been subjected to any alterations or changes during transmission. Authentication is, therefore, the means to make both parties in an online transaction can be confident that they are the person they are saying they are. A data has, or checksum such as the MD% or the CRC can be used to establish if the information is changed or not. In case such measures are not put in place, data can be compromised through such techniques as phishing or man-in-the-middle attacks. To curb this security issue, an e-commerce business must incorporate the use of digital signatures and the public key infrastructure to help in making the verification process robust.
Another form of security issue is technical attacks. This is the most challenging security issue any e-commerce business can face. In this case, the perpetrators target sites or services hosted on high-profile web servers. The most common is the Denial of Service Attacks, which involves overwhelming a server to paralyze its regular activity. Defending this kind of security issue is one of the most challenging aspects of today’s online businesses. The most challenging part is tracing the source of the attack as the attackers use masked IP addresses, thus disguising the exact origin of the attack (Niranjanamurthy and Dharmendra 20). DoS attacks can be executed in different ways, including the ICMP flood. This is mostly referred to as Smurf attacks. In this case, perpetrators send a large number of IP addresses making the fake appear to be the real address of the victim.
Another form of attack is the Teardrop attack which involves sending mangled IP fragments overlapping to the target machine. A bug in the TCP fragmentation causes the fragments to be improperly handled, thus crushing them as a result. Another form of technical attack is pushing. This is often referred to as the Permanent denial of service. It is an attack that damages a system so severely that it requires the replacement of the hardware. The attackers exploit security gaps in the victim’s remote management interface, for example, the printers, routers or other networking hardware. This attack leaves the doors open for the attacker to remotely update the device firmware to a modified, corrupt firmware image. This attack leaves the device permanently unusable by the company. Another form of technical attack is the Distributed Denial of Service Attack. In this case, thousands of computers flood the victim’s website by choking legitimate traffic.
Other than the technical security issues, there are also non-technical attacks. This involves phishing and social engineering. Phishing is when an attacker poses to be a legitimate entity in electronic communication. In this case, one gets to get usernames, passwords, and even credit card details. Social engineering, on the other hand, is the art of manipulating people into doing things or giving confidential information. Social engineering is a threat to e-commerce as it is difficult to detect as it involves human factors that cannot be patched to hardware or software (Niranjanamurthy and Dharmendra 20). The only way to curb this is to use the albeit Staff training and education
Marketing is the primary determinant of how successful an e-commerce business will be. A company should identify its markets precisely, and that includes the specific demographic. For instance, our company will be targeting mostly the youths and young adults who spend a lot of time online. This will ensure the company can advertise its services to potential clients. There is no need to live a lot of money advertising to older people who have spent most of their lives going to the garage and watching their trucks being serviced. Young people, on the other hand, have embraced advanced technology and are willing to use it.
The company will utilize all the e-commerce marketing methods. The first method is to optimize the layout of the website. On top of that, the company will employ content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, search engine marketing, retargeting and our services on multiple platforms. Social media marketing is the most used in the current e-commerce world. Therefore, our company won’t be different. In addition to that, our company is based in Saudi, and our primary target is the local community. Thus coming up with a regional marketing strategy will be a perfect idea as it will give us the opportunity to get hold of the local market. To increase our customer base, the company will also utilize Multichannel marketing. This will involve interacting with customers using indirect and direct means of communication. This will help boost trust and thus increase our customer base.
Among the ethical issues in e-commerce is the privacy of the users of the Website. Most electronic payment systems know the identity of the buyer. Therefore, it is necessary to protect the identity of the buyer. This leads to many companies installing tracking or monitoring systems to monitor the activities of their employees online to identify employees of use business hours for non-business activities (Sharma and Wang 420). This makes it easy for the management to track fraudulent actions in case a customer files a complaint. Other than the ethical issues, some laws govern the e-commerce business. For instance, all e-businesses are required to comply with all copyright laws.
This is in place to protect intellectual property in its various forms. An example of that is when you buy software; you are only given the rights to use it and not the rights to distribute it. Another legal issue in e-commerce is domain names. The competition over domain names can lead to conflict and infringement of trademarks (Sharma and Wang 420). Therefore our company will be careful in advancing our objectives as an online car and motor garage aimed at selling its services in Saudi Arabia.
In conclusion, it is evident that e-commerce is booming in the 21st century. Everyone is going online, and therefore businesses are shifting to e-commerce. This has led to the development of large online retailers that sell their products around the globe. But the motor vehicle industry has been left behind for a long time. Therefore I chose to venture into the sector and develop an online garage that could connect the different workshops in Saudi Arabia. This will include building a website that is user-friendly and also connects the workshops to the customers. But then, e-commerce is subjected to some threats, among them is the privacy threats and technical threats. But the company will have mechanisms in place to ensure that the customers get maximum satisfaction and that their security is safeguarded. To ensure uninterrupted performance, the company will conform will all the ethical and legal provisions, thus guaranteeing no conflicts arise between clients and the workshops or even the government and our company.
Works Cited
Hasan, Layla, Anne Morris, and Steve Probets. “E-commerce websites for developing countries–a usability evaluation framework.” Online Information Review 37.2 (2013): 231-251.
Niranjanamurthy, M., and Dharmendra Chahar. “The study of e-commerce security issues and solutions.” International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer and Communication Engineering 2.7 (2013).
Sharma, Gajendra, and Wang Lijuan. “Ethical perspectives on e-commerce: an empirical investigation.” Internet Research24.4 (2014): 414-435.
