Shopping Sites (Edexcel IGCSE Ict)

Spec point — 4.1.1

Shopping sites

What is a shopping site?

• Shopping websites offer customers the ability to purchase a range of products and services

• Characteristics of shopping websites include:

  • Product catalogue
  • Basket
  • Checkout
  • Secure payments

Product catalogue

• When shopping online, users browse a catalogue of products
• Catalogues are often grouped in to categories to make browsing easier
• Catalogues are also linked so the user can have similar recommendations made for them during their shopping experience
• When a customer selects an item from the product catalogue, then can add it to their basket

Basket

• A shopping site basket allows the user to be able to add multiple items or products from the store to their basket
• It is a way for the user to keep everything in one place until they are ready to pay for their items
• Using a basket allows the user to be able to pay in full for their entire purchase in one transaction

Checkout

• When a user is ready to complete the purchase of their items, they will do this at checkout

• Checkout also allows users to

  • edit delivery details
  • use voucher codes

• Checkout can often ask users to sign in, or proceed as a guest on the site to complete their purchase with ease

Secure payment

• When payment is made, shopping websites will use a secure payment method to ensure the transaction is secure
• This will often be done by a third-party payment processor
• More information about security of websites can be found in in the revision note ' Methods of Securing Data'

Advantages and disadvantages to the customer