CSC 560 Electronic Commerce & Internet Strategies
Web Site Analysis

Web Site
Analysis
(25%)

Due: Week 8

This assignment requires you to apply the knowledge of  commerce value chain and design principles in analyzing one of the pairs of websites listed below: 

  1. Apparel:  Lands' End and Gap
  2. Auction: eBay and Amazon.com Auction
  3. Computers: Dell and Gateway
  4. Travel: Travelocity and United Airline 
  5. Portal: Excite and iVillage
  6. Automobile:  Carpoint and VW (or your favorite auto make)
  7. Music: CDNow and Tower Records
  8. Lifestyle: Williams Sonoma and Wine.com
  9. Government: City of Sidney and City of Chicago 
  10. Shopping Bot: Mysimon.com and BizRate
  11. Nonprofit: American Cancer Society and Chicago Symphony
  12. Books: BarnesandNoble and half.com

Email me W.J. Patterson, your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice. I will post the list of assigned sites..   

  1. What are the value proposition and business model for these sites? Who are their competitions? How does the website relate to other channels for this company?
  2. Who are intended customers for the websites?
  3. How does these sites market and advertise themselves to attract consumer interest? (Attract)
  4. What's the perceived quality and availability of product. breadth of information, and tools for advice? (Do not focus on the specific product or product categories.) (Interact)
  5. How do these sites process order placement and payment? (Act)
  6. How do these sites handle delivery, shipping and return? (Act)
  7. How responsive are their customer services?  (React)
  8. How useful are each site's special interface feature and arrangement of content?
  9. Are these sites well organized, easy to navigate, visually appealing? (Usability)

Deliverable: 

  • The review should be a minimum of 6-8 typed pages and must provide an thorough and comparative analysis (instead of an outline). 
  • Include relevant references for the analysis and provide full citations (author, title, url, date).  
  • Observe academic honesty.  
  • Grading Criteria.

W.J. Patterson Ph.D. Candidate - eCommerce & IT   Copyright © 2004. All rights reserved.   Last Updated: .