Evolution of the Storefront

Evolution of the Storefront

By taking a look at how retail businesses evolved over time, you can understand better the roles of various components of an electronic shopping framework. Let's begin with the traditional model of retail shopping. Figure 3-1 shows various entities and interrelationships of traditional retail shopping.

Figure 3-1. Traditional retail business

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In a traditional retail business, customers interact with the merchant via a storefront. The purpose of the storefront is to display and generally to stock enough merchandise for customers to purchase on a day-to-day basis. The storefront has ways to accept payments from customers for their purchases and if some orders can't be filled directly on the store's premises, the merchant is responsible for taking the order and payment information. The order is then passed along to the company owning the store for further processing.

The entire purchase and delivery process works something like this. First, the company validates the order in terms of accuracy of information and availability of requested merchandise. When it finds everything in order, the company processes the payment instructions with the help of its financial institution. Upon proper processing of the payment, the company interacts with its suppliers and its clearinghouse (distribution center or warehouse) to initiate shipment of the purchased goods against the order.

In addition to selling goods, a retail business has many other peripheral functions and activities. For example, it is also responsible for marketing the company's merchandise, which is what draws customers to its storefront in the first place.

As the scale of operations, volumes, and need for efficiency increased, retail businesses began using software applications that captured the business logic of transactions and inventory control and carried out various business processes automatically. As they continued to prosper, businesses used more and more automation in their processes. Figure 3-2 shows how businesses increased their use of automation via computerization.

Figure 3-2. Automation via computerization

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Computer systems capture and process transactions efficiently at the storefront. At the end of the day, all orders are transferred electronically to the company's corporate computer systems. These systems are updated with data from suppliers and the clearinghouse, which help track inventory. The company's systems, in turn, typically communicate with the bank's computers to process payments in bulk. Once the payments are processed, the orders are sent to suppliers and the clearinghouse to be filled. However, the evolution doesn't end here. As more users were connected to the Internet and as Web application servers matured electronic retail business (e-business or e-commerce) came into being. Instead of businesses making use of automation, businesses themselves became automated. Application servers were now capable of hosting entire business processes on the Internet and interfacing with business processes of other entities, such as financial institutions and suppliers. The Internet also provided the means for providing ancillary services such as marketing. The physical storefront began to be replaced by an electronic storefront. People began hosting storefronts on the Internet and selling directly to customers, who interacted with the electronic storefront through a Web browser.

It is now possible to capture orders, process payments, update inventories, and initiate order fulfillment in a matter of minutes. The entire system requires little human intervention. Figure 3-3 depicts the e-commerce model.

Figure 3-3. E-commerce model

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Web Hacking(c) Attacks and Defense
Web Hacking: Attacks and Defense
ISBN: 0201761769
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 156

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