Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer: 

First, choose a pair of companies from the following list: 
1. Bloomingdales and Nordstrom (keyword: high-end women’s shoes) 
2. Comcast and Verizon (keyword: cable television) 
3. Teleflora and 1800flowers (keyword: flowers) 
4. CVS and Walgreens (keyword: pharmacy) 
5. Groupon and LivingSocial (keyword: daily deals and coupons) 

Then, read the following two articles about recent trends in e-commerce: 
http://tech.co/web-design-trends-ecommerce-2016-01 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aj-agrawal/5-ecommerce-trends-in-201_b_9204022.html  

Finally, visit the two websites for the pair of companies that you selected. Review the range of information resources and services used in the sites and the ways in which they are organized, designed, and presented. Analyze the website and the website’s e-commerce capabilities and answer the following questions: 

1. Compare and contrast the two websites. Which is more aesthetically pleasing and why? Which is more functional and user friendly and why?

2. Are either of the websites utilizing any of the e-commerce trends identified in the articles? If so, list them and explain. 

3. Which e-business tools for connecting and communicating (email, IMing, podcasting, videoconferencing, web conferencing) are the websites using (if any)? If they aren’t using any, are there any you think they should use? Explain.

4. Type in the keyword listed beside your chosen pair of companies above into your favorite search engine(google, yahoo, bing, etc.). Does it appear that these websites are using search engine optimization (SEO)? Which company is doing a better job of SEO(which is higher on your list of results)?

5. Are either of the websites generating revenues though one of the revenue generation methods (popup ads, banner ads)? As a consumer, do you like seeing advertisements for other websites when shopping? Explain.