Online Goods and Services

Question 1

What are the features of online shopping?

Answer 1

• Facility to sort and search for goods
• Images provided of products
• 24/7 availability
• Comparison of prices to similar products
• Recommendations for future purchases
• Customer reviews of products
• some sites offer ‘comparison sites’
• Bookable delivery service, for example for food

Question 2

State two features of an online shop that would be useful to people wanting to buy books.

Answer 2

• Customer reviews of the book available to inform choices
• Books rated by other customers
• Customers able to see example pages from the book without leaving the house
• Available to customers 24/7/365
• Tailored recommendations given to customers for additional purchases

Question 3

What advantages are there for a customer to shop online?

Answer 3

• Far greater choice because you are not limited to one geographical area
• You can sop all day, every day
• You can find the best price using price comparison websites
• You do not have to leave the house
• You have the right the return the goods for any reason within 7 days of delivery unless goods are customised
• You can read other users’ reviews of a product

Question 4

What are the disadvantages for a customer to shop online?

Answer 4

• You need Internet access and computer skills
• You cannot pay using cash
• You cannot see or touch products or try on clothes
• You usually have to pay for delivery
• You need to submit personal information through a website
• There is a risk of not receiving goods or having personal details stole on fraudulent websites.

Question 5

State two benefits to the seller of selling on an online auction website.

Answer 5

• No need to have a physical shop to sell items
• Can sell as many or few items as they wish
• No need to develop a website of their own
• Potential market is much larger than might be-auction websites are popular across the world
• They can receive safe payment from a third party payment processor, without having to give away their bank details
• They can receive positive ratings from bidders so tat other people know they are trustworthy

Question 6

State three advantages to someone selling their products online rather than in a high street shop.

Answer 6

1. They can work from any location
2. Low overheads / initial investment
3. They can sell to people around the world

Question 7

What is a transactional data?

Answer 7

Transactional data is the information collected about that sale or purchase. It is stored in databases which can then be searched and sorted. Personalised information is often stored in cookies.

Question 8

What transactional data is collected?

Answer 8

• Purchase price
• Unique reference number given to each transaction
• Data and time of the purchase
• Personal information from your online account
• Details of the items purchased
• Delivery tracking data that displays delivery status and location

Question 9

What is transactional data used for?

Answer 9

• To understand customers’ buying habits to see trends
• To produce a more personalised experience
• For targeted advertising campaigns and to produce personalised adverts
• To create personalised marketing such as coupons for products that customers are likely to purchase
• To track delivery of the goods

Question 10

Why do organisations use Internet advertising?

Answer 10

• It can be targeted at particular customers
• Statistics can be gathered
• It is cheaper than traditional advertising, for example TV adverts
• It reaches a wide range of customers
• It reaches customers much faster than traditional advertising

Question 11

What is viral marketing?

Answer 11

It is when an organisation creates interesting can entertaining content that makes people want to ‘pass it on’ to their friends using social networking, email and texting.

Question 12

Describe two ways in which a company could use personalisation techniques to persuade people to buy their products.

Answer 12

• They could send personalised emails based on transactional data
• They could personalise adverts using past browsing and searching on other websites
• They could offer relevant alternative products and favourite categories based on purchase history
• They could offer recommendations based on what you have viewed or purchased

Question 13

What are the four ways of paying online?

Answer 13

1. Credit / Debit cards
2. Online bank transfer
3. Third party payment processors
4. Online coupons and online gift vouchers / eVouchers

Question 14

What is the CCV?

Answer 14

Credit Card Verification code is the number on the back of the card which is not included on the magnetic stripe or chip. Entering the code means that the person must have seen the credit card.

Question 15

What are the advantages of using a third party payment processors?

Answer 15

• Sellers do not need to offer a secure site

- Buyers are not exposed to fraud

Question 16

What is NFC?

Answer 16

Near Field Communication is a contactless payment service which allows devices to communicate when close together. It can be used to make payments.

Question 17

Jackie is sent an eVoucher as a present. Describe how she can use her eVoucher.

Answer 17

She can enter the unique reference number from the voucher. This should show the amount she has on her eVoucher and allow her to select how much of the eVoucher to use.

Question 18

What are the consumer rights under UK law?

Answer 18

When you buy something, that item must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described. If the item is faulty it has to be replaced, repaired or the money refunded. When buying online you have the same rights as you do when buying in the shop.

Question 19

What is locally installed software?

Answer 19

Software where the user obtains software on DVD or downloads from Internet and then the user installs the software on computer or file server.

Question 20

What is hosted software?

Answer 20

Software where the user logs in through Internet to use software when needed and the software runs on a web server over the Internet. Also known as SaaS (Software as a Service).

Question 21

What is local data storage?

Answer 21

It is when your files are stored on the digital device you are using.

Question 22

What is online data storage?

Answer 22

It is when your files are stored on a server elsewhere which you access using the Internet. This is referred to as ‘in the cloud’.

Question 23

What is a search engine?

Answer 23

It is a computer program that searches for web content that contains, or is tagged with, the keywords you have entered in to the search box. The search engine then searches its indexes for content containing those key words and displays a list of the content that is matched.

Question 24

Describe one way in which users can refine web searches to improve the validity of results.

Answer 24

• Add more key words to narrow down the search
• Search by the type of object you are searching for e.g. image, a web page, news, maps, videos to narrow down the search
• Use the advanced search facilities of the search engine to select options that are relevant to your search
• Search by date/language/location as appropriate to focus the search results
• Use more than one search engine. Different search engines give different results
• Use Boolean terms such as AND and NOT to filter the results to make them more relevant.