Home > Articles > Certification > CompTIA

Internet Commerce in the New Era of Accountability

E-commerce is an environment that requires hard work and application of sound business disciplines, such as measuring important processes and outcomes—what we call metrics. To understand how to take these important steps toward building online success, we need to change our view of e-commerce and put it in some old, and some new, contexts. The authors of "Ecommerce Metrics and Models" explain this philosophy in the introductory chapter of their book.
This chapter is from the book

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Imagine it is the summer of 1849. The setting is a saloon in a little California railroad town. As the business of a regular evening continues, a stranger with a wild-eyed gleam bursts through the doors and shouts: "There's gold in them thar' hills." In that electric moment, the realm of possibilities for everyone changed.

Fast-forward a century and a half. Substitute today and the new digital economy for the gold country in California. Just as the landscape for business changed at that instant in the 19th Century, here in the 21st Century we are seeing similar possibilities and challenges. Our wild-eyed stranger could be any of hundreds of entrepreneurs enamored with possibilities to strike it rich in the online world of e-commerce.

Ironically, in 1849 very few made their fortunes finding and extracting gold from the Sierra. In the Gold Rush, immigrants selling clothes, transportation, and banking services created businesses and most of the wealth, carrying such brand names as Levi's, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America.

Some 150 years later, the digital equivalent of those who sold picks and shovels, blue jeans, and other items to the miners are the ones who are reaping profits from the online Gold Rush of the last few years. We all know about the financial services side funding and supporting seedlings. Who are the modern-day equivalents of those who created the supporting infrastructure for gold mines throughout the West?

To take maximum advantage of the widening range of possibilities facing us despite bubbles bursting and shakeouts in the financial markets, we must understand that there are still numerous and potentially lucrative options available for conducting business on or through the Internet. Some are as visible as a mother lode vein of ore. Others are buried deep within the gold field and need hard work, diligence, intelligence, and a little luck in finding the right combination of resources to tap into the vast storehouse of riches available in the online world.

E-commerce, however, is not an automatic moneymaking machine. It is an environment that requires a strong sense of customer service. It also requires hard work and application of sound business disciplines, such as measuring important processes and outcomes—what we call metrics. To understand how to take these important steps toward building online success, we need to change our view of e-commerce and put it in some old, and some new, contexts.

From its early days, Internet-enabled commerce was a random collection of business thoughts and ideas, technologies, decisions, and partnerships. To be successful today, these random collections must morph from a series of loosely connected "atomized" units of business functionality into a more robust and seamless whole. These units must combine and operate cohesively to fulfill an entrepreneurial or corporate objective. In this introductory chapter, we trace a few of the more pertinent evolutionary traits of the In-ternet, and lay groundwork for the construction and analysis of e-commerce business models.

Evolving E-Commerce

For the Internet and electronic commerce, 2000 marked a watershed year. Activity online in page views was soaring. Victoria's Secret scored more than two million unique visits for its Web-cast fashion show live from Cannes, France. After a predictably slow start, NBCOlympics.com reached a high-water mark of almost 11 million visits on the day when Laura Wilkinson won the gold medal for platform diving, forcing a favorite from China to settle for silver.

Needless to say, the American presidential elections pushed site traffic to some of the highest levels for CNN, the television networks, and other general news sites, often eclipsing offline media statistics.

With the proliferation of sites, service businesses, and venture capital, online statistics were hitting us from all directions. "Numbers to Know" were part of the regular fare from the media that report on electronic commerce, coming from such diverse sourcs as market research firms, online tracking services, investment bankers, and even government agencies. With a little shareware on a server, even you can log trends at your site . . . and then use the statistics to justify someone placing a banner ad on your home page.

It was, indeed, the best of times. Page views for many merchants were increasing, purchases of all goods and services were strong, and new software and hardware arrived on the market at a rate that often outstripped an ability to install it.

There were also storm warnings, indicating that the worst of times were just around the corner. The stock market in March and April 2000 woke us up to an incipient meltdown that would strip billions of dollars in valuations from online companies.

Toward the end of 2000 and into 2001, the bloom was definitely off the Internet rose. Venture capital funding of e-commerce companies rocketed from $7 billion in 1998 and $32 billion in 1999, to $15 billion in the first quarter of 2000, but soon plummeted. NASDAQ values for IPOs of online companies turned sour, dragging down funding prospects for those in the queue. With the IPO market following NASDAQ, it wasn't long after when valuations of companies for mergers and acquisitions followed suit and dropped like a stone.

When IPOs dropped from an average of 30 deals in March 2000 to about 13 in May 2000, it was clear to all that the easy times for funding were gone. Even for the companies that did make it out, no longer was the explosive first day in the IPO a guaranteed success. This IPO shutout led many underwriters to postpone or withdraw registrations with the SEC.

By the start of 2001 major players were e-liquidators—vultures who swooped down on dead and dying dot coms, snatched up a morsel or two of intellectual property and customer lists, and brokered them off to survivors. More than 40 such firms operated at year-end, focusing on online ventures.

A respected trade magazine, The Industry Standard, was tracking online ventures going out of business! In early 2001, the publication's Web site listed more than 80 companies, many with high-profile names that ceased operations in 12 months.

With declining cash assets, a grouchy capital market, and regular headlines heralding an online apocalypse, Internet executives at last started to face reality. Companies

scrambled to cut down bloated marketing programs. Customer acquisition costs, which ranged from $70–$80 per customer in the U.S., were pared down, and the focus shifted in part to customer retention.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020