the key elements of the web site (the 7Cs)

I would like to explain and identify the 7Cs of boots.com as below:

The context of the site captures its aesthetics and functional look-and-feel.
There are 2 dimensions of context, functionally and aesthetics. A functionally oriented site focuses mainly on the core offering, whether it is a product, service, or information. It also emphasize on utilitarian goals such as ease of navigation. As for the aesthetics, an aesthetics nature of a site is mainly captured by visual characteristics such as colours, graphics, photographs, font choices, and other visually oriented features.

As for the boots.com, this site is using the functional design. It offers several options for accessing and viewing the products, detailed product displays, and all the checkout options that customers have come to expect.

Secondly, is the content. A content refers to any digital information included on a website.
There are 3 dimensions of content offering mix, appeal mix and multimedia mix. Offering mix is content of the site that containts product, information, and services. Appeal mix is refers to the promotional and communications messaging projected by the company. And the multimedia mix is refers to simply to the variety of media such as text, audio, image, and graphics that incorporated into a web site.

As for the boots.com there are offering mix(product, information, and services), appeal mix(promotional and communications messaging), and multimdia mix(text, audio, image, and graphics).

There are also have 3 types of content, the time-sensitive content refers to very short shelf life, reference content refers to longer shelf life, and current content that does not require frequent updates.

Thirdly,Community is a set of interwoven relationship built upon shared interests.
Can build closer relationships between consumer and the firm, and between consumer and consumer.

As for the customization, customization is a site’s ability to modify itself to – or be modified by – each user.There are 2 dimensions of customization: personalisation and tailoring.

Personalisation of boots.com allows users to specify their preferences in content selection, context selection, and personalized tools.

Login registration

And the tailoring, it tailoring based on past user behavior

Tailor your account to suit yourself

The communication refers to the dialogue between the website and its users. There are 3 formsof comminication Firm-to-user(e.g. e-mail notification), User-to-firm(e.g. customer service request), and User-to-user(e.g. instant messaging)

(e-mail notification of boots.com)

There are also 3 dimension of communication Broadcast a one-way information exchange from an organisation to user.For example: FAQ

Interactive a two-way communication between the organisation and a user. For example: customer service

As for hybrid, it is the combination of interactive and broadcast.


Other then that, connection is the degree to which a given site is able to link to other sites through a hypertext jump, or hyperlink, from one webpage to another. There are 5 dimensions of connection,
Links to site, Home site background, Outsourced content, Percentage of home site content ,Pathway of connection.

Lastly, commerce is a transaction capacity of a site, the sale of goods, products, or services on the site – along with shopping carts, shipping and payment options, checkout, and order-confirmation functionality. The dimensions of commerce are registration, users registration allows a site to store credit card information, shipping address, and preference. Shopping cart that users can place items into their personal virtual. Security - Sites attempt to guarantee security of transactions and related data through encrytion and authentication technologies. Credit card approval - Sites that can have the ability to receive instant credit approval for credit card purchases through electronic links to credit card clearance houses. One-Click shopping - boots.com also uses a patented features that allows users to order products with a single click. Order tracking - users are given the ability to check the delivery status of the product they ordered. Delivery Options - users are presented with a choice of options to specify their desired speed and cost of delivery (next-day shipping, two-day shipping, etc.).

One-Click shopping

shopping cart