Editorial Review :

This comprehensive, market-leading book emphasizes the three major driving forces behind e-commerce: technology change, business development, and social controversies. Each of these driving forces is represented in every chapter, and together they provide a coherent conceptual framework for understanding e-commerce, typical of Laudon books. The book offers in-depth and comprehensive coverage of concepts in marketing, economics, IS/IT, privacy and intellectual property. The book contains numerous case studies and an additional case book is available.

Customer Review :

Good, but dated....

I have used this textbook for several years - while it is a good basic source of information, it badly needs updating and supplementation in several important areas: RFID is not mentioned; Mobile/hand set E-Commerce is covered at a surface level, Search Engine and major Portal marketing needs updating, and much of the data are 3+ years old - very old given the rapid changes taking place.

If you are teaching an E-Commerce course from a Marketing perspective, with this book as the base, be prepared to suppement this textbook with books such as Spychips, and student subscriptions to WSJ or NY Times. Ad Age is another excellent supplementary information source.

This is one of the few areas in business where the textbook should be updated every 2 years.

Note from Spring 07 - the newer edition is better but still requires supplementation on areas auch as RFID and security.

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Very good text book - too detailed on the "Birth of the Internet"

For the most part this book is a very easy read and is organized very coherently - however, the author seems to digress sometimes by paying too much attention to certain subjects that are important and integral, but could use a 'lite' version. For instance, Chapter 3 is horrendous. Acronym after acronym really made my head spin.

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I love it!

I used this book for an E-Commerce course I've taken over the Summer'08 and loved reading every bit of it!

Given that there are incredible number of mistakes in the Chapter on Security related issues, but the pros out weigh the cons by a HUGE margin.

This book for me was an absolute joy to read, and I don't think I've read any book off late that has so much packed in it!

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Great Buy

This was a great buy, The book came in the indicated condition and has been a great help!

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Excellent textbook on E-commerce

I just received the new edition of Laudon and Traver's textbook on e-commerce and think its just great! I previously used the 2nd edition, which I also loved, and this new edition lives up to its predecessor. It contains all new and updated information and is extremely current. Its so well-written that it doesn't read like a textbook at all. I highly recommend it to anyone interesting in learning about e-commerce.

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Editorial Review :

'The Complete E-Commerce Book offers a wealth of information on how to design, build and maintain a successful web-based business.... Many of the chapters are filled with advice and information on how to incorporate current e-business principles o

Make your e-commerce vision a success with this comprehensive, step-by-step handbook. Whether your company is a startup or well-established, you'll learn how to plan, implement and operate a successful e-commerce site -- from selecting the right software and Internet service provider through effectively marketing your online business.

Customer Review :

high level design and management of a web business

Reynolds talks about many aspects of running your own commercial website. She discusses what type of servers you might need and how to configure these using RAID to maximise uptime while preserving data against hardware failure. Also mentioned is what type of net connections might be suitable and affordable. Along with how to implement security against various types of fraud attempts.

For promoting your website, email newsletters are suggested as being very economical. Though beware of email ad campaigns that can get you labelled as a spammer. Search Engine Optimisation gets a good exposition as a cheap way to promote your site in an engine's rankings.

The "Complete" in the title is slightly misleading. The book does not get into the nitty gritty of technical details about making a database, for example. Or writing webpages. Rather, it's at a higher level of design and management of these issues.

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review

this book is very clear and informative, a bit technical in some places but still worth every dime. better than the others i've got

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has the auther ever built a single e-commerce site?

After browsing thru all the chapters, i got the impression that the author is only buzzword-compliant and cannot go into any detail in any subject area. She must have read a lot on ecommerce, but i doubt she ever did any "real work" with ecommerce. The writing reads like it comes from a "good" student who diligently repeats all the words a professor said in a business classroom.

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THIS IS ABSOLUTELY THE COMPLATE E-COMMERCE BOOK

The dot-com bubble is about to burst again! But, that doesn't mean that e-commerce is dead--to the contrary. Author Janice Reynolds has done an outstanding job of writing the second edition of a book that provides select comparisons of various tools needed to construct, design, and run a successful e-commerce website.

Reynolds begins by examining the e-commerce phenomenon, and the challenges that it brings. Next, the author shows you how you can design a website that is brilliantly complex, employing all of the latest technology, or design a simple site without sacrificing attractiveness or efficiency. Then, she explains why the design and pre-build details are among the first steps you must take when extending an e-commerce site to the Web. The author continues by discussing that if you want to host your own servers, the best advice is to create a balanced plan with each segment working in partnership with each other. In addition, the author next discusses how power and data redundancy are a good start to ensure that your website is always available, but other types of redundancy also should be considered when building a website. She also deals with the bandwidth aspect of connectivity. Next, the author shows you how to institute an on-going program of security monitoring, maintenance, and to perform an annual security audit. Then, she shows you how to choose your basic website software: web server, log analysis, and database. The author continues by discussing specific e-commerce software. In addition, she discusses adjunct software. The author also covers how you can create a good QA plan to determine how and in what order each aspect of a website should be tested. Then, she discusses various software and online solutions to aid in your quest for the perfect, problem-free website. The author continues by examining consultant contracts, costs, types of consulting services available, when to outsource and when to do the work in-house. In addition, the author provides tips on how to choose a web-hosting service. She also examines three different methods that are used to search the Web. Next, the author offers some advice on getting the work started, developing targeted marketing strategies, monitoring the results, and continuously striving to improve your efforts. Then, she explains that in order to maintain a high level of customer satisfaction, the web-based business must realize that site experience is actually more important to an online customer than product experience, and build the website and service solutions around that fact. The author continues by discussing why order processing and fulfillment is a website's last form of customer contact. Finally, she shares some thoughts on the future of e-commerce.

The author has done an excellent job of writing a book with both the entrepreneur and the non-technology executive in mind. So, at the end of the day, this book will help you ask the right questions as you move to the Web.


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horrible book and title is very misleading

If you are from planet Mars, you still wouldn't find this book useful. The dumbest person I know, knows more than is in this book. There is no code. It doesn't tell you exactly how to do anything. It just blah blah's on and on about useless info. Design, Build, and Maintain a website title? It doesn't cover any of the technical side of this like the title says. Save you money and pay someone to start your online business for you. It took a whole book to tell you this????? Save your money.

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Editorial Review :

E-commerce. Some businesses have enjoyed tremendous success, while others that have been in it a while wonder why it’s not working as well as they had anticipated. Some businesses think they should be in it, but don’t know where to start. Others think all you need is a URL and a Web site and you’re in business.

E-commerce encompasses all aspects of buying and selling online. That necessitates several Internet technologies, including enterprise resource planning, electronic-procurement and payment transaction processing, Web site design, EDI and XML, networking protocols, and security. E-commerce is where sales and marketing and IT meet. Each group needs to know something about the other’s side of the business to do business online successfully. E-Commerce For Dummies helps bridge the gap between technical and sales with:

• Explanations of both business strategy and technology
• A comprehensive overview of the diverse areas of e-commerce, including business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C).
• Case studies that show real-world examples of what strategies are succeeding and what strategies are failing

The authors include Greg Holden, the e-Marketplace columnist for CNET and bestselling author of Starting an Online Business For Dummies, and two prominent analysts from the e-commerce division of IDC, one of the premier technology and business forecasting companies in the world. They provide guidance to help businesses just entering the e-commerce and companies that want to boost their e-commerce sales, including information on:

• Marketing and competing in Cyberspace
• Planning your storefront
• Processing and fulfilling online transactions
• Dealing with the back office, including managing the supply chain and setting up distribution and fulfillment systems

With online sales increasing at a phenomenal rate, established “brick and mortar” firms as well as entrepreneurs are realizing that e-commerce represents a tremendous opportunity. E-Commerce For Dummies helps businesses seize that opportunity and get down to business—online business—fast.

Customer Review :

E-Commerce

Introduction

Every year, people are seeking how to improve their lives to live more easily, simply, and conveniently. Therefore, many new technologies have been invented to allow people to have a wonderful life. Electronic commerce is an example of one of these innovations.

History and development

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is the use of, by two or more parties, information technology such as computers and telecommunications to make business transactions. This not only includes business-to-business transactions but also online retail and digitalization of the financial industry. E-commerce actually began in the 1970s. This was the period when large corporations started creating private networks in order to share business information with their partners or suppliers. This was also called Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) which transmitted standardized data via VANs (Value-added networks) between businesses, so paperwork and human intervention were nearly eliminated. This is the foundation of electronic commerce.

However, the e-commerce buzz that you hear on the radio, see on TV, and read about in the papers and on-line, today refers to on-line retailing, which uses the Web to sell goods, services, and information to customers. On-line retailing was pioneered by Internet companies five to six years ago. Every individual can buy flowers, airline tickets, stocks and bonds and even download software via a computer and some type of network.
Degree of Diffusion and Hardware and Software Usage

Currently, there are over 30 million users on the Internet. This is a very rapidly growing population compared to the number of users three to four years ago, which was only a few thousand. The number of users is expected to grow to over 200 million by 2000. Since both the United State and Canada are high tech countries, most people living in these two countries know how to use a computer and the Internet. Doing business on the Net is a good way for Canadian businesses to reach more potential customers. Clearnet, that is a telecommunication's company in Canada, has already offered on-line ordering to its customers. Mark's Work Wearhouse is another example using the Internet for marketing. Although the degree of diffusion of e-commerce on the Web is medium in Canada nowadays, it will be increasing as the number of Internet users increases. Using the Internet to build a marketing presence is an essential way to reach more customers.

Specific Hardware and Software

In order to do business and complete secure transactions on the Internet, you definitely need a computer but also require:

1. Banking--merchant account, which is a credit card merchant account at a bank that handles the Internet or "faceless" transactions.

2. A Web Site & Hosting: can be designed and put up by experts ready to help. Site size and complexity can vary immensely based on your requirements. Your Web site must be hosted in a secure server. Therefore, the credit card information and private data will be transferred safely.

3. Shopping basket--Shopping cart software: can be as simple as an order form, but it can also help you manage your entire operation.

4. Digital Certificate--Digital ID is a certificate that needs to be issued by a third trusted party. It assures both consumers as well as banks that you are who you say you are (It is just like a person's passport).

5. Credit clearing software: is transaction payment system software for credit cards. (It replaces the small credit card swiping terminals that you see at businesses.)

The Effects on Society

A utopianism point of view of e-commerce is listed as follows:

1. Business access - The Internet provides customers the opportunity to browse and shop anytime, anywhere at their convenience. They can access such services from home, the office, or on the road, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

2. Unlimited marketplace - The Internet allows you to reach people around the world. It transforms a local business into a global distributor and offers products on a global customer base.

3. Online fast updating - You can update your E-Catalog anytime. This includes adding new products, or adjusting prices without the additional expense and time of making a traditional print catalog.

4. Customizable to the Customer - By tracking user profiles, you can customize your catalog to specific customers by offering product selections specifically tailored to their likes.

5. Lower Cost - Internet marketing is one of the lowest cost methods of marketing products. By using this method you can save on catalog printing, postage, telephone costs, operators, toll-free customer service numbers and more. You only use a fraction of the cost required by traditional methods to reach worldwide audiences.

An anti-utopianism point of view of e-commerce is listed as follows:
1. On-line Security - Since there are many people who have the skill and technology to intercept and spy upon electronic information that flows through the internet, there are still a large number of individuals who do not feel secure when they are shipping electronically. They fear their credit card numbers, names, and private personnel date may be stolen

2. Cost - Although it is not expensive to set up a simple Web site for advertising a company's products, full-functioning electronic commerce sites are much more costly. The main reason is that telecommunications remain expensive. It is easy to see that sale literature, catalogues, and pictures of products are vital for the success of purchasing products on-line. High bandwidth is necessary so that the immense amounts of data, such as graphics, sound, and video can be transmitted

3. Quality of Purchasing Product - When people shop on-line, they are unable to touch or see the products until they receive them through the mail. Therefore, there is a greater chance that they will not like the products they ordered because of the quality and color. This is a major reason why some people do not like online-shopping.

Rating :

Did not enjoy

I thought the information in this book was not usefull to me in any way. I was really disapointed.

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Editorial Review :

Computer, Science, Technology, Internet, World, Wide, Web, Programming

Customer Review :

Interested in Integration with Amazon ? This is the best place to start.

I just got done reading and hacking the book and have found many new ways in which to interface with amazon.com web services. The book delivers on its title and does so to a broad audience in a clean style. You will need to understand XML technologies at a beginner's level and be proficient in PHP in order to fully utilize this book. Novices can also learn from this book.
Thanks Jason Levitt

Rating :

A bit too soon into XML / WSDL

I think this book is great, first time I have seen it advertized I thought: "I have to get this". Have not finished reading it yet, I am about one third through, but I think one of the big flaws (if not indeed the author meant it that way) is that it dives into XML / WSDL / SOAP too soon or too sudden... at least for me. By the time I have started understanting how everything is organized in the scheme of things, it was all about that, and I personally don't have experience --- a lot with these things.

Another thing I don't particularly enjoy is the presentation is intertwined -- PHP 4 and PHP 5. At times this is confusing and if you just browse trough trying to find something randomly, you always have to read back a little bit to find out whether it's about PHP 4 or 5.

Otherwise, I am pretty happy with it and can't wait to actually start implementing some things I heave learned in this book in my own applications.

Rating :

Not bad for the price

The info doesn't do a very good job explaining bits of the code. They just give you a few pages of code at a time and then shows you what the end result looks like. I would have preferred it covering less topics and explaining them better. This book is good if you already have a high traffic site and want to add another feature. Amazon web services may not be the best place if you are wanting to make some income from selling their stuff. The book says it is better if you have something to sell through amazon web services. I also couldn't get one example to work so I emailed the author but didn't get any reply.

Rating :

An excellent resource for web developers

Some of the reviewers seem to be wishing for a "..for Dummies" book. This aint it. What this book is is an excellent overview of the entire Amazon e-commerce platform from the perspective of a web developer. It is written by a web developer for web developers, full stop. And as far as that statement is true, this is an excellent (and inexpensive 8-) resource.

That said, there is most certainly an opportunity for some author out there to write a down and dirty guide to Amazon e-commerce for folks with mom'n'pop websites. Indeed, how about a down'n'dirty guide to amazon/ebay/google/yahoo services..as well as RSS..you name it? A gaping hole in the market IMHO.

Well, I digress: the current book is excellent and heartily recommended to developers and tech-savvy website managers who don't mind skipping some gory details to read a very good overview of what Amazon has on offer.

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Excellent introduction to Amazon web services

I am relative novice when it comes to using web services but I have some experience with PHP. I found the examples in this book very useful for illustrating how to get up and running quickly while giving a good foundation for more experimentation. The Author does not give away all of the answers to building a complete Amazon app which I found to be be nice because it made me think of other more imaginative ways to use them.

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Editorial Review :

Beginning Ruby on Rails E-Commerce: From Novice to Professional is the first book of its kind to guide you through producing e-commerce applications with Railsthe stacked web framework taking the world by storm. The book dives right into the process of creating a production-level web application using agile methodologies and test-driven development combined with Rails best practices. Youll take advantage of the latest crop of Rails plug-ins and helpers that will radically improve your programming schedule. Youll also create a real application step-by-step, plus the book is driven by real-world cases throughout.

You will begin by learning how to install Rails and quickly create a product catalog interfaced with your choice of database technologies. Then youll discover how to build modern, Ajax-powered shopping carts and add useful features like customer feedback modules. Next youll learn how to integrate your application with open source packages like the Ferret full-text search engine, and how to interface with back-end electronic payment systems. Youll also learn how to make your application work flawlessly with existing production systems using web services, and then ultimately deploy and tune your application for production use.

Customer Review :

ruby on rails presented extremely well

this book is an excellent introductory book to ruby on rails. i read chapters 1 through 9 (out of 13) for now, for work. i read _agile web development with rails_ as my first rails book, and although that was also a good book, i would highly recommend _beginning ruby on rails e-commerce_ first before _agile_ to a rails newcomer, especially to one looking for a gentle introduction, and/or may feel rusty with past programming.

_beginning ruby on rails e-commerce_ is very readable. the story that you follow to build an online bookstore flows naturally and easily. the order/presentation of the material covered to learn about for rails from how to set up controllers, models, and views to installing plug-ins and gems needed to integrating a bit of ajax-related tools is extremely organized and well done.

getting an authorize.net account can take a few/several days, so i recommend requesting one online about a week before you anticipate working through chapter 9: checkout and order processing.

there are several typos, some easily noticeable and others not, some that do cause problems if you didn't know about them. therefore, it would be a good idea to follow along with the errata online available at the apress site in a browser tab as you work through the book. i myself submitted about a dozen typos that were not included in the errata at the time of this review.

overall, this book is very well done. there haven't been many technical books i have read that i have been thrilled with, and this is one of those few. i went through a shared work copy, and anticipate purchasing a copy for myself soon.

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Good tips, annoying process...

Would've been a good book without spending half of it focusing on the jargon of their own methodology called "user stories" or some silly crap like that.
Good software always meets the same stages of development regardless of the flavor-of-the-month name or metaphor for the same crap.

That said, the book is otherwise absolutely sound, full of good information. And would be great if you weren't being distracted by their strange methodology naming.

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A fun and informative read

Overall, I really liked the book. It targets Rails 1.1 for the most part, so you won't learn 1.2-specific goodness like RESTful architecture and block-yielding form helpers, but it presents a wealth of information and does so in a very readable way. From payment gateways to full-text search, to I18N and L10N to Capistrano, you'll find it a great resource for launching your own e-commerce site in Rails.

Rating :

Good book ruined by sloppily coded examples

It's too bad this wonderfully written book is so full of errors. Did the authors run out of time to check the sample code? I spent days and days trying to get the sample code given in the book to work. The book version of the code didn't match the downloaded version and both were loaded with errors. After chapter four I gave it up as a lost cause. My list of errata was so extensive that I didn't bother to send it to the publisher because I had invested far too much time in the book already. I'm guessing the rave revues this book received were from readers that simply read the book and didn't try the sample application code.

Rating :

Offers nothing

While I really hate to slam down the authors of the book, this text really offers nothing to readers that isn't in better form elsewhere. The text is ridden with buggy code, incomplete explanations, and the style of coding leaves much to be desired. The "Agile Web Development with Rails" text (also available on [...]) builds nearly the same application (an eCommerce site), but does so while explaining the rails framework as well as offering up a solid reference textbook style for later use.

I teach graduate level computer science, and switched my curriculum to Ruby on Rails this term for my "Complex Websites" course. I reviewed many books, and this one ended up at the bottom of the pile. Sorry.

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