AN EVALUATION MODEL FOR METAMARKET

ORIENTED WEBSITES

Emad Farazmand

IT department, Mahshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mahshahr, Iran

Babak Akhgar

C3RI, Sheffield Hallam university, Sheffield, U.K.

Ayoob Mohammadian

Strategic Studies Department, ITRC, Tehran, Iran

Keywords: Metamarket, Website elements, Evaluation, Business Model.

Abstract: Website is an important part of e-business. There are many researches done about website design and

evaluation, almost focus on technical aspects of website neglecting the importance of evaluating website,

based on business requirements. This research tries to determine suitable set of criteria for website

evaluation in the field of metamarkets. To do so at first the metamarket and website elements are discussed.

Then we have selected some metamarket websites and examined the website elements in each of them.

Finally there is conclusion about the suitable set of criteria and evaluation model for metamarket website

evaluation that some of them are much more important. Also there are recommendations for those who want

to establish metamarket website.

1 INTRODUCTION

One of the most important issues in any type of

commerce (electronically or traditionally) is

selecting and installing a robust business model. As

mentioned by Joan Magretta, (2002) A well defined

business model remains essential to every successful

business. Well defined and managed business model

could bring substantial value to organizations.

Business model gets the enterprise direction, defines

the proper capabilities and activities, and creates

values for the enterprise. In fact a business model

defines the linkages among key strategy, capability,

and value drivers of business performance (lynda M.

Applegate, 2009). It could be said that if there is an

enterprise, there should be a business model, and if

there is a successful enterprise there should be a

powerful and beneficial business model.

As cited by Scott M. Shafer et al. a business

model is a representation of a firm’s underlying core

logic and strategic choices for creating and capturing

value within a value network. We can conclude that

business Model has two parts, the means side and

the ends side. In the mean side there are underlying

core logic and strategic choices which could lead to

the ends side, creating and capturing values. Also it

should be considered that business model is not the

business strategy. While the business strategy

defines a roadmap to the desired future, business

model determines how to walk the way (Scott M.

Shafer 2005).

Evolution of information and communication

technology in recent years significantly affected on

how the businesses conduct in their operations and

also resulted in new types of organization with novel

business models which are fundamentally depended

on technology. Dotcom or e-commerce companies

are such companies, known by their powerful

presence in the World Wide Web. For these

companies, business model is an important aspect of

the business as well, that is called e-business model.

In this paper we will focus on metamarket as our

favorite business model which has been introduced

147

Farazmand E., Akhgar B. and Mohammadian A..

AN EVALUATION MODEL FOR METAMARKET ORIENTED WEBSITES.

DOI: 10.5220/0003492401470152

In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS-2011), pages 147-152

ISBN: 978-989-8425-56-0

 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

by Rayport and Jaworski (2001). Other authors like

Applegate (2003) introduce a kind of e-business

model that is a market enabler for buyers and sellers.

Obviously, one of the most important

components of an e-business model is its interface

resources with the customers and mainly the

website. Website is inseparable part of each e-

business model and if well designed, it can play a

significant role in business success.

Therefore each investor and entrepreneurship

who wants to establish ecommerce website should

be able to pre-evaluate its website effectiveness and

efficiency and become sure about its proper

performance before taking it in front of the

customers. For this reason many website evaluation

criteria have been introduced by different authors

but almost considered criteria about technical and

general aspects of a website neglecting the

importance of special e-business model aspects that

should be reflected in website. The main purpose in

this paper is to find criteria for evaluation and design

the metamarket websites.

In the next section we will review the concept of

metamarkets and define the term, comparing

different authors’ viewpoint about this concept –

which sometimes use different terms for the concept.

The third section is a review about website

evaluation criteria in some papers and classification

of these criteria. Then we will evaluate some

metamarket websites which have an excellent rank

in Alexa.com reports then the observations have

been summarized. Finally there is a conclusion

about the proper criteria for evaluating and

designing the metamarket websites and also some

recommendations for entrepreneurships and

investors in this area.

2 METAMARKETS

As mentioned by Applegate et al 2003, the

successful entrepreneurial organizations of 1990s

built businesses that leveraged a non-proprietary,

shared internet infrastructure to unite buyers and

sellers in fragmented markets. In fact internet and

other communication and information technologies

gave power to market makers and buyer/seller

connectors to create market value and expand the

network economic of scale and scope (Applegate et

al 2003).

Nowadays market connectors, using internet and

other communication networks, have more power in

the e-business world. Rayport and Jaworski (2001)

introduce the metamarket switchboard, category

switch board and auctions business models which

are company and user derived. By "company and

user derived" they mean that both company and

users provide content and value added services to

the site. Metamarket switchboard model brings

together many buyers and sellers based upon the

activities that customers engaged in to meet

particular goals. The revenue model my include

transactions, product sell and advertising (Rayport,

jaworski 2001). Other business models cited by

Applegate et al. (2003), like aggregators and

infomediaries are similar to metamarket model

discussed by Rayport and Jaworski. These models

are trying to bring together many buyers and sellers

and create the place in which people virtually

conduct in transactions. Thus we define metamarket

as “technology based e-business model in which

many buyers and sellers (service providers,

producers, retailers and so on) can use website

facilities to bring together and conduct in

transactions based upon customers’ needs. In this

paper we will examine some successful metamarket

websites and introduce a metamarket website

evaluation model.

3 WEBSITE ASSESSMENT

As told earlier website is one of the most important

elements in e-business models which are established

based on internet, web and other electronic facilities.

In fact the website is the customer interface resource

and if designed well, can play essential role in

business success. Therefore many authors interested

in determining how should be a well defined website

and what are the criteria to evaluate it. This section

reviewed some papers in this area.

Wen-Hsien Tsai et al (2010) after reviewing the

literature in this context consider ten criteria to

evaluate the national park websites quality:

navigability, speed, links, relevancy, richness,

currency, attractiveness, security, personalization,

and responsiveness.

Alastair G. Smith et al. (2001) used two

categories of criteria for New Zealand’s five

governmental websites evaluation. First category

contains eight criteria which are related to

information contents of the website. These criteria

are orientation to website, content, currency,

metadata, services, accuracy, privacy and external

recognition. Second category contains five criteria

which are related to how much it is easy for user to

use the website. These criteria are links, feedback

mechanisms, accessibility, design and navigability.

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Blanca Hernndez et al. (2009) in their research

about the main factors that must be taken into

account when designing a commercial website

studied the features which determine website

quality. These features are accessibility, speed,

navigability and content quality. Accessibility is

about to appearing in the top results provided by the

principal search engines, and enjoying great

popularity on the internet, which can be measured by

the number of links and by page-pank, obtained by

for example Google. Speed is about the website

loading time in compare with other websites that is

affected by many factors such as the equipment

used, the time of the connection, the traffic to the

page, etc. Navigability is the usability of the website

and the ease with which users can find relevant

information, access the homepage and avoid getting

lost when searching for products (Evans & King,

1999). And finally content quality is about the

website information which are informing, interacting

and transactional contents.

Another framework regarded elements in

designing an e-commerce website, is the 7Cs

framework introduced by Rayport and

Jaworski(2001). This framework concerns a website

as a customer interface supported with a wide range

of internal and inter-organizational systems. Also it

provides a comprehensive framework for the

evaluation of interfaces in that it alerts researchers to

major issues in interface design that should be taken

into account (Lee 2004). This model introduces

website's seven main elements in website design and

evaluation. Let’ take glance on these elements.

Context of the website captures its aesthetic and

functional look-and-feel. In fact context is a

container for website contents.

Content is defined as all digital subject matter

on the site. While context largely focuses on the

“how” of site design, content focuses on “what” is

presented.

Community is defined as the interaction that

occurs between site users.

Customization is defined as the site’s ability to

tailor itself or to be tailored by each user.

Communication refers to the dialogue that

unfolds between the site and its users.

Connection is defined as the extent of formal

linkage between the site and other sites.

Commerce capabilities are those features of the

customer interface that support the various aspects

of trading transactions.

Comparing 7C’s framework with other presented

criteria for web site design and evaluation reveals

that this framework is more comprehensive and can

cover the others. This is shown in the Appendix 1.

As seen in most cases introduced criteria are

general and the role of business model is neglected.

Thereby for introducing evaluation criteria we have

considered this table of criteria to be sure about

comprehensive attention to website different

elements in literature. Blanca Hernndez et al (2009)

cited that most of the existing literature is

undertaken in a general context without

differentiating between the types of firm or sector

analyzed and does not take into account that the

factors considered may not be applicable in all cases.

Thus, we can’t be sure that these criteria will be

suitable for metamarket websites evaluation, but

could be a proper start point to obtain such an

evaluation model.

Table 1: Comparing 7C's framework with other criteria

models for website evaluation.

Website element Related criteria presented by

other authors

Context

Navigability, Speed, Accessibility,

Page-Rank

Content

Relevancy, Richness, Currency,

Accuracy ,Attractiveness, Content

Quality, Orientation to Website,

Content, Metadata

Community

Communication

Responsiveness, Feedback

mechanisms

Customization

Personalization

Connection

Links,

Commerce

Security, Privacy, Services

The above mentioned table has been considered

as the initial reference for metamarket website

evaluation model. In this table some criteria are

redundant and should be merged. Also by examining

the metamarket websites, other criteria have been

observed which haven’t been considered in website

evaluation literature. As a result, the following table

shows the refined model. After examining four

selected metamarket websites, this model can be

finalized.

4 EXAMINING METAMARKET

WEBSITES AND RESULTS

To determine proper website aspects of

metamarkets, we have reviewed some websites with

metamarket model. These websites are examined

based on criteria presented in table 2. Selected

websites are Babycenter.com, Edmunds.com,

AN EVALUATION MODEL FOR METAMARKET ORIENTED WEBSITES

149

Theknot.com and Monster.com. All of these

websites have excellent rank in Alexa.com reports

which shows their popularity and success.

Babycenter.com is a website which guides

parents before and after child's birth and gives

clinical and other kid’s related advices. The services

are how to get pregnant, how to deal with kid

problems, communicating with other parents and

share experiences, and shopping related services and

goods from other providers all over the world. The

rank of Babycenter.com in Alexa.com reports is

about 1025.

Edmunds.com is the website trying to help

people find an ideal new or used car in United States

by offering information about car vendors. Many car

manufacturers are willing to have advertisement in

this website. The rank of Edmunds.com in

Alexa.com reports is about 1500.

Theknot.com is a website, trying to help people

having desirable wedding ceremony and couples can

build their personal profile and receive advices,

service and product offers from different vendors

about their ceremony. Theknot.com rank in

Alexa.com reports is about 3250.

Finally Monster.com is a job finding website

which helps people to find job all over the world and

plan for their career and also promote their skills.

The rank of this website in Alexa.com reports is

about 550.

Evaluation results for these websites are shown

in table 3. This table shows our observation. All

criteria have been examined for each website (based

on measures described in table 2) and have been

valued 1 through 5 (1 means zero support and 5

means full support of criterion). Also for each

criterion the average and variance have been

calculated.

5 ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION

Regarding the results shown in table 2, we can

determine which criteria should be considered in

metamarket website design. In this section we will

review our findings about proper set of metamarket

website designing criteria based on 7Cs elements

introduced by Rayport and Jaworski.

High variance value for a criterion determines

that there is no convergence about it in successful

metamarkets and this criterion is not so important in

evaluation and design of metamarket websites. The

suggested evaluation model can be finalized by

eliminating such a criterion and specifying a weight

for remaining base on average score. (Table 3).

Based on these finding we have some

recommendation for those entrepreneurs who want

to establish a metamarket website:

1. For a metamarket website to be successful, it

should focus on specific and valuable subject

(rather than special product or service) and

connect customers and vendors around the

subject.

2. Customer requirements will change over the

time, so website owners should recognize

customer requirements lifecycle and serve the

customer base on this lifecycle.

3. Never neglect the importance of communities

both internal communities and social networks.

4. Website should be able to recognize customers

and serve them personally. To do so, it will be

useful to create user profiles and there should

be searching tools on these profiles.

5. Plan for website optimization in search

engines, this make the website more popular.

6. To prepare customer requirements, metamarket

should make coalitions with other businesses

and never relay just on internal resources.

7. In addition to above mentioned

recommendations, other general aspects in

website design, cited by other authors should

be regarded.

Finally it should be noted that designing a

website is just a part of a successful business model

Table 2: Results of evaluation.

Website element Criterion BabyCenter.com Edmunds.com TheKnot.com Monster.com Average Variance

Context

Speed 2 3 3 3

2.75

0.25

Navigability 5 4 5 5

4.75

0.25

Accessibility 5 5 5 5

5

Content

Attractiveness 5 3 5 5

4.5

Richness 5 5 5 5

5

Community

Internal Communities, 5 5 5 5

5

Social Networks

Participation 5 5 5 5

5

Communication

Feedback mechanisms 5 5 5 5

5

User Content 4 1 1 1

1.75

2.25

Customization

Personalization 3 3 5 5

4

1.3333333

connection

Links

5 5 5 5

5

Affiliate Program 4 5 5 5

4.75

0.25

Commerce

Commercial Facilities 3 1 5 1

2.5

3.6666667

Security 1 1 4 1

1.75

2.25

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and we should never neglect the importance of back-end

resources and systems.

Table 3: Final evaluation model with weights.

Website element Criterion

Average

Context

Speed

2.75

Navigability

4.75

Accessibility

Content

Attractiveness

4.5

Richness

Community

Internal

Communities,

5

Social Networks

Participation

5

Communication

Feedback

mechanisms

5

Customization

Personalization

4

Connection

Links 5

Affiliate Program

4.75

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This paper is extracted from a research program

supported by Islamic Azad University – Mahshahr

Branch.

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151

APPENDIX

Appendix 1: Initial evaluation criteria for metamarket websites.

Website element

Criterion Definition How to Measure Reference

Context

Speed

This criterion refers to quick connection and

delivery, minimal use of large graphics and

bright colours, easy access to links, and website

loading speed

Alexa.com Report

about the speed

(Bilsel et al., 2006)

(Smith, 2001) (Rayport

2001)Wen-Hsien Tsai et

al (2010)

Navigability

This criterion measures how easy it is to navigate

around the site, how easy it is to return to the

home page of the site, how easy it is to find

relevant information how many links are required

to get from one point in a site to another, and

what search tools the site provides

Navigational tools

like menu and Site

Map, search

Facilities,

(Miranda-Gonza´ lez

& Ban˜ egil-Palacios,

2004), (Smith, 2001)

(Rayport 2001)

Wen-Hsien Tsai et al

(2010)

Accessibility

It is about to appearing in the top results provided

by the principal search engines. The more

accessibility, the more visits to website

Alexa.com Report

about number of visits

to website

Smith, 2001)(Rayport

2001) Blanca Hernndez

et al. (2009)

Content

Attractiveness

This criterion consists of whether web pages are

fun to read and help visitor promote their

excitement, such as through graphics, online

games, cartoons, screensavers, software

downloads, and Q&As

Multimedia contents

(Cao et al., 2005;

Huizingh, 2000;

Miranda-Gonza´ lez &

Ban˜ egil-Palacios,

2004).

Richness

This criterion refers to detailed level and scope of

information content. That is, formations

contained on the website are rich in content

Life cycle based

contents, Subject

Oriented contents

(Bilsel et al., 2006).

Wen-Hsien Tsai et al

(2010)

Community

Internal

Communities

This criterion refers to Built-in communities in

which user can participate

Facilities like chat,

message board,

number and variety of

communities

(Rayport 2001)

Social

Networks

Participation

This criterion refers to the company’s presence in

social networks

Number and

importance of social

networks in which the

company participates

Authors suggestion

Communication

Feedback

mechanisms

Facilities for users to provide comments, request

clarification, suggest improvements and

corrections to site.

Email, FAQ,

Newsletter, User

Comments, Q&A

Smith, 2001

User Content

This criterion refers to the contents of website

which are provided by users.

User ability to share

the idea, photos,

movies, topic, articles

and rating

(Rayport 2001)

Customization

Personalization

This criterion includes an individualized

interface, effective one-to-one information, and

customized service Customized content of the

website can provide a user with the relevant and

up-to-date information that will address his

specific needs

Registration, User

Profile, Cookies,

Customized Contents

(Lee & Kozar, 2006).

(Ho & Lee, 2007).

(Rayport 2001)

Connection

Links

This criterion refers to availability of links to

other related websites.

Alexa.com reports

about number of

website links in other

websites

(Bu¨ yu¨ ko¨zkan

& Ruan, 2007), Wen-

Hsien Tsai et al (2010),

Smith, 2001

Affiliate

Program

This criterion refers to the website’s ability to

support other websites services

Number and

significance of

affiliate programs

(Rayport 2001)

Commerce

Commercial

Facilities and

Services

This criterion refers to website ability to support

commercial transaction between buyers and

sellers.

Facilities like

Shopping cart,

Financial transactions,

Order Tracking

(Rayport 2001), Smith,

2001

Security

This criterion deals with how a website proves to

be trustworthy for customers. A confident

website should assure the secrecy of its users’

personal and private data as well as prevent the

content of a message from being tampered with

Authentication and

Authorization

facilities in website

(Ho & Lee, 2007)

(Bu¨ yu¨ ko¨zkan et

al., 2007; Chu, 2001)

Hsien Tsai et al (2010)

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