Business Skills in E-Commerce
Short Description
Studies the Business Skills required to successfully deal with E-Commerce....
Description
Assignment Brief BTEC Level 4-5 HNC/HND Diploma (QCF) To be filled by the Learner Name of the Learner : Edexcel No : Date of Submission :
Centre No :
Batch:
Unit Assessment Information : HND Diploma in Computing Qualification Development : Unit 1–Business Skills for E Unit Code & Title commerce Assessment Title & No’s Market (pvt) Limited
and
Systems
: E-commerce Consultancy Report for Ocean
Learning outcomes and grading opportunities: LO 01: Understand the structure and aims of business organizations Learning Outcomes LO1.1 LO1.2 LO 02: Understand the impact of e-Commerce Learning Outcomes LO2.1 LO2.2 LO 03: Be able to design e-Commerce solutions Learning LO3. Outcomes LO3.1 LO3.2 LO3.3 LO3.4 5
Merit and Descriptor M2. M1.3 3
Assess or Date Reviewed Date Issued
Distinction M3. 3
: Miss. Roshani : :
D1. 1
D2. 1
D2. 3
D3. 5
Dinithi Internal Examiner (IE) Shahana Nadarajah Date of IE : Date Due :
: Miss.
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Assignment Brief Retail Industry is a highly growing industry in the Sri Lankan Business Environment where Ocean Market (pvt) Limited is holding a fair share of it and is operating as an in-store Super Market business of retail items specially focusing on textiles, cosmetics, accessories, computer accessories, baby items, stationery items and a variety of food products. Due to the high growth of the E-business in the industry, the management of Ocean Market understand that their customers are giving up on them and move to other competitors due to the unavailability of e-commerce facility in the organisation. Therefore they decided to get their customers back in and develop their business which matches the present context of electronic business. Assume that you have been hired by Ocean Market (pvt) Limited as an E-commerce Consultant to provide an e-commerce solution to achieve higher business results. Therefore, you are required to write a professional management consultancy report addressing the aspects mentioned below with relevant judgments wherever it is appropriate by critically evaluating the context.
Chapter 1 – Organization Profile 1.1 Core Business Functions of the Organization Provide your understanding on the nature of Ocean Market (pvt) Ltd by assessing its core business functions (LO 1.1) 1.2 Evaluation of Business aims and Stakeholders Evaluate the selected organization’s business aims by showing how those aims would relate to different stakeholders internal and external (LO 1.2) (M1.3) Chapter 2 – Background of e-Commerce and its impact to the Society 2.1 The Impact of e-Commerce to an Organization and Society Provide the background of e-commerce and functionality and analyze the impact of e commerce by evaluating its’ benefits and the risks while discussing how introducing an e-Commerce system to an organization would provide better business outcomes. (LO 2.1) 2.2 Global Impact of e-Commerce on society Discuss the global impact of e-Commerce on society by taking different examples with appropriate references (LO 2.2) Note: Your overall chapter must reflect the background of e commerce and its wider impact to the society through a range of sources of information with appropriate references. Please avoid using unreliable data sources such as wikis, answer web sites, blogs etc. (M2.3) Chapter 3 – Market Potential and Different e-Commerce Solutions 3.1. Market Potential of e commerce Investigate market potential of Ocean Market (pvt) Ltd for an e-Commerce opportunity (LO3.1) 3.2. Different e-Commerce Systems in the World Critically evaluate few e-Commerce systems currently in use by organizations realistically for similar purposes (LO 3.2) (e.g. you can provide screen shots of such systems in your appendices) Note: While critically evaluating e-commerce systems currently in use for similar business purposes in the world, you must justify the market potential for an e commerce solution for the selected organization through an effective SWOT and PESTEL analysis while synthesizing your own ideas in to an effective conclusion on why this organization must select ecommerce solutions. (D1.1)
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Chapter 4 – Proposed e-Commerce solution 4.1.
Proposed e-Commerce solution Based on the above justification on the market potential and the varieties of e-commerce solutions available in the world design, propose a best fit e commerce solution for Ocean Market (pvt) Ltd to achieve their business advantage. (LO 3.4)
4.2.
Capitalizing an E commerce solution You must discuss the financial implications of the above proposed eCommerce solution (LO 3.3)
4.3.
Feasibility of the E-commerce solution Critically evaluate the suitability of the above proposed e-Commerce solution to Ocean Market (pvt) Ltd based on different feasibility criteria. (LO 3.5) Note: The above proposed e commerce solution must be creative and innovative in terms of applicability to the organization that you have selected. (D3.5) Your overall report must be word processed within 2000-2500 words, created by using Times New Roman font (12-body, 14-sub headings, 16headings, 18-titles) with 1.5 line spacing, justified, uniform while written in report writing using appropriate Harvard referencing (both in text citations and end text reference list) wherever appropriate. It must contain appropriate Executive Summary, Table of Contents, Body, Conclusion, References and Appendices in accurate page numbers. The report must be printed single sided and bound along with the completed assignment brief on the top as the cover page. (M3.3) You must manage your study and submit the report within the assigned time duration (D2.3) You must demonstrate your autonomy/independence through the report by crafting an individual documentation. (D 2.1)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES...................................................................................................................viii CONTENT OF THE FIGURES.................................................................................................x ABBREVIATIONS....................................................................................................................xi EXECUTIVE SUMMARY......................................................................................................xii 1.1 Core Business Functions of the Organization.....................................................................13 1.1.1
Procurement............................................................................................................13
1.1.2
Sales........................................................................................................................14
1.1.3 Finance Function..........................................................................................................15 1.1.4 Marketing Function......................................................................................................16 1.1.5 Logistics.......................................................................................................................17 1.1.6 Information Technology (IT) Function........................................................................18 1.2 Evaluation of Business aims and Stakeholders...................................................................19 1.2.1 Business Aims of OM..................................................................................................19 1.2.2 Relation of Business Aims to the Stakeholders...........................................................20 2.1 The Impact of e-Commerce to an Organization and Society..............................................22 2.1.1 Background of e-commerce.........................................................................................22 2.1.2 Functionality of e-commerce.......................................................................................23 2.1.3 Impact of e-commerce on Business and Society.........................................................25 2.2 Global Impact of e-Commerce on society..........................................................................28 2.2.1 Positive Impacts of e-commerce on society.................................................................28 2.2.2 Negative Impact of e-commerce on Society................................................................30 3.1 Market Potential (MP) of e-commerce...............................................................................33
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3.1.1 Analyzing of data to investigate the Market Potential.................................................34 3.1.2 Conclusion for Ocean Market......................................................................................36 3.2 Different e-commerce systems in the world.......................................................................37 3.2.1 Classification According to Types of Goods Sold.......................................................37 3.2.2 Classification According to the Nature of Participants................................................38 4.1 Proposed e-Commerce solution..........................................................................................40 4.1.1 Selecting a Suitable System.........................................................................................40 4.1.2 Designing the System..................................................................................................41 4.2 Capitalizing an E-commerce solution.................................................................................50 4.3 Feasibility of the E-commerce solution..............................................................................53 4.3.1 Technological Feasibility.............................................................................................53 4.3.2 Economic Feasibility...................................................................................................54 4.3.3 Legal Feasibility...........................................................................................................55 4.3.4 Operational Feasibility.................................................................................................56 4.3.5 Schedule Feasibility.....................................................................................................58 Conclusion................................................................................................................................59 Appendices................................................................................................................................60 Appendix A: e-Commerce system of Urbanladder.com.......................................................60 Appendix B: e-commerce system of Kobobooks.com.........................................................61 Appendix C: e-Commerce system of Odel...........................................................................62 Appendix D: e-Commerce system for Keells Super.............................................................63 Appendix E: e-Commerce system of Lanka Tronics............................................................64 Appendix F: Other features of OceanMarket.com................................................................65 Appendix G: Management of Work......................................................................................68 References.................................................................................................................................70
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Bibliography.............................................................................................................................77
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LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Functions of finance department.................................................................................15 Table 2 : Application of the Marketing mix to the OM............................................................16 Table 3: How aims affect objectives.........................................................................................19 Table 4: SMART characteristics of a goal................................................................................19 Table 5: Relating business aims to stakeholders.......................................................................21 Table 6: Major players in Srilankan e-commerce industry.......................................................22 Table 7: Functions of an e-Commerce solution........................................................................23 Table 8 : Comparison of benefits and risks for properties of e-commerce for an organization25 Table 9: Comparison of benefits and risks in e-commerce properties for consumers..............27 Table 10: Positive impacts of e-commerce on society..............................................................28 Table 11: Benefits of e-commerce in Health care industry.......................................................29 Table 12: Negative impacts of e-commerce on society............................................................30 Table 13: Analysis for MP for an e-commerce solution...........................................................33 Table 14: PESTLE analysis for Ocean Market.........................................................................35 Table 15: SWOT analysis for Ocean Market............................................................................36 Table 16: Classification by goods sold.....................................................................................37 Table 17: Categories of B2B model..........................................................................................39 Table 18: Criteria's to be checked when implementing an e-commerce system.......................40 Table 19: Tabs in the system.....................................................................................................42 Table 20: Features of the store..................................................................................................43 Table 21: Features on selected products...................................................................................45 Table 22: Features of the shopping cart....................................................................................47 Table 23: Features of the footer................................................................................................49 Table 24: Sources of funds........................................................................................................50 Table 25: Rejected options for funding.....................................................................................52 Table 26: Process requirements of the proposed System..........................................................53 Table 27: Cost-Benefit Analysis of the solution.......................................................................54 Table 28: Legal feasibility of the solution................................................................................56 Table 29: Operational feasibility of the solution.......................................................................57 Nilshan Devinda
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Table 30: Proving the deadlines are reasonable........................................................................58
CONTENT OF THE FIGURES Nilshan Devinda
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Figure 1: Objectives of Procurement........................................................................................13 Figure 2: Sales Cycle Management..........................................................................................14 Figure 3: Supply Chain Flow....................................................................................................17 Figure 4: IT Services.................................................................................................................18 Figure 5: Stakeholders of the company....................................................................................20 Figure 6: Comparison of e-Commerce to in-store metrics.......................................................32 Figure 7: Process of a B2B e-Commerce System.....................................................................38 Figure 8: Homepage of OceanMarket.com...............................................................................41 Figure 9: Store of OceanMarket.com........................................................................................43 Figure 10: A sub-category of OceanMarket.com......................................................................44 Figure 11: A product on OceanMarket.com..............................................................................45 Figure 12: Shopping cart of OceanMarket.com........................................................................47 Figure 13: Guest details form...................................................................................................48 Figure 14: Payment method......................................................................................................48 Figure 15: Footer of OceanMarket.com....................................................................................49
ABBREVIATIONS
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OM: Ocean Market IT: Information Technology SL: Sri Lanka US: United States PESTLE: Political Economical Social Technological Legal Environmental SWOT: Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats B2B: Business to Business B2C: Business to Consumer C2C: Consumer to Consumer MP: Market Potential SSL: Secure Sockets Layer CA: Certificate Authority SEO: Search Engine Optimization TELOS: Technological Economical Legal Operational Schedule USP: Unique Selling Proposition
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report is a generalization of the research done for assessing the feasibility and applicability of an e-commerce solution for Ocean Market Pvt Ltd. The aim of this report is to analyze, compare, and evaluate the best fit solution for Ocean Market to help them hold its potential customers by means of e-commerce. The report describes key areas of e-commerce, and business aspects giving detailed information on the nature of e-commerce and its impact. The analysis done for investigating the market potential of Ocean Market and the feasibility criteria’s in chapter 4 of this report shows that such a system is viable and is capable of achieving the aim of this report by providing positive results that promotes the proposed solution. The report goes further up to show that, while such e-commerce systems could help the company on their business problem, there is a wider impact from e-commerce to the society. But, it proves that the majority of the impact is positive for the society, customers, and for the business. However, the outcomes of the business depends on the design and features of the system that this report promotes, so the final parts of this report addresses the features and functionalities of the proposed solution to meet the business needs.
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Chapter 1: Profile for the Organization 1.1 Core Business Functions of the Organization 1.1.1 Procurement Procurement function in an organization is associated with the process of ‘buying materials, goods and services needed to run a business’ (Esoft 2015: p.17). Procurement consider many other aspects as shown in the process below.
Understand Business Requirements
Buy Products and Services
• • • • • •
At the right price From the right source At the right specification In the right quantity For delivery at the right time To the right internal customer
Figure 1: Objectives of Procurement
Source: Author’s work adopted from Handfield (2011).
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1.1.2 Sales The main objective of the sales department would be to apply strategies to sell the products that was purchased for resale, and maximize the profit for the company (Chand 2015) as shown in the diagram below.
Figure 2: Sales Cycle Management
Source: Pipedrive (2015)
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1.1.3 Finance Function The duty of financial department is to manage finance activities (Jasmith 2011). The table 1 below explains 5 of the functions that must be carried in Ocean Market (OM). Table 1: Functions of finance department
Function Estimation of capital requirements Determination of capital
Description The finance department must estimate the capital that would be required for the company for maximizing its profit. Things like future programs, expected costs and policies should be taken into consideration in the estimation process. The capital structure is the company’s debt-to-equity ratio. Therefore, the finance function must analyze short-term and long-term debt equity.
composition When in times the company requires additional funds, the financial department must decide which action to take out of various options such
Choice of sources of funds
Investment of funds
as:
Issuing of shares and debentures
Loans to be taken
Public deposits to be withdrawn
The investment of funds to profitable ventures is the decision of the finance manager which enables the company to acquire regular returns. The finance function also deals with management of cash in paying of
Management of
salaries, expenditures, bills and etc. So the financial managers take
cash
critical decisions on situations where the company is at risk to maintain a good cash flow to the company.
Source: Author’s work adopted from Management Study Guide (2015).
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1.1.4 Marketing Function ‘Marketing activities help create demand for the company’s products and services… [by making them aware to the people]’ (Snedaker 2013: p.246). The major concerns of marketing are referred to as the “four Ps” of marketing as demonstrated by the table 2 below, while applying them to OM. Table 2 : Application of the Marketing mix to the OM
Function
Description Ocean Market has a range of products from textiles to accessories to
Product
food. The products of the company must be extremely important when marketing, and having a variety of products makes it easy for them.
Price
As Ocean Market sells retail items, their prices are in a low range, however, the less the price, the easy it is to market the product. The place where the company sells the product has a high impact on the sales. Ocean Market sells its product in a brick and mortar store,
Place
however, they will also make it brick and click in the near future. This also involves placement of the correct product at the correct place in the store. Even the best products would not be purchased if Ocean Market does not
Promotion
promote their products so that the people will get to know about the products. When, where, how, to whom the product is marketed must be considered when promoting the product.
Source: Author’s work adopted from Chianis (2013).
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1.1.5 Logistics Logistics is part of the supply chain management that controls forward and reverse flow of products between the points of origin to destination in OM (Transfreight 2009) as illustrated in the following diagram.
Figure 3: Supply Chain Flow
Source: Logistic World (2010).
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1.1.6 Information Technology (IT) Function IT department manages the computers, networks, and other technical areas of business. They are responsible for the architecture, hardware, software, and networking of computers in OM. Some of the services of IT are illustrated in the diagram below.
Figure 4: IT Services
Source: Basu (2011).
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1.2 Evaluation of Business aims and Stakeholders 1.2.1 Business Aims of OM Any organization has a mission which states its purpose, this purpose is the future goal of the organization which will also be the aim of it (Riley 2015). A typical aim of a retail store such as OM would be to add value, expand their business by increasing their product range and employee base. These business aims are achieved by setting business objectives which are reached once business plans work in day to day activities (Business Case Studies 2015). As an example, the table below shows how an aim of adding value to OM would affect other subobjectives of the company. Table 3: How aims affect objectives
Aim of Ocean Market Main Objective
Adding Value to the company Annual income to be increased by 20% by 2017 to achieve an annual income above the usual value. Increasing product price, range, and market stores
Plans for achieving the objective
and assigning sub-objectives and plans to each department.
Source: Author’s work. Joseph (2015) mentions that the objectives involved are mainly about profitability, retention, efficiency, and growth of the company. Whichever the objectives set, they all must exhibit certain characteristics known as ‘SMART’ described in the table below. Table 4: SMART characteristics of a goal
Characteristi
Description
c
The objective set must be specific which means adding more detail to the
Specific
general idea to provide exact information on what, when, and how things should be done.
Table 4 (Continuation) Nilshan Devinda
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Measurable Achievable
The objective or goal must contain measurable values such as numbers, so that the progress can be monitored easily. The objective should not exceed the limit where reality lets it to achieve, it should always be realistic and practically achievable. Goals have to be relevant based on the business climate. The goal will not align
Relevant
with other goals of the company if it’s not relevant, and will lead the company astray.
Time
The goal should always state its beginning and end, so that the plans can be
carried out to achieve that goal within the given time frame. Oriented Source: Author’s work adopted from Wayne State University (2015).
1.2.2 Relation of Business Aims to the Stakeholders A stakeholder is ‘any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s objectives’ (Freeman 1984: p.46). So when a business sets up new objectives, those objectives should benefit all the stakeholders of the business as long as it benefits the company. Some examples of internal and external stakeholders have been provided in image below.
Figure 5: Stakeholders of the company
Source: Grimsley (2015). The table below shows how the aims and objectives of OM would relate to the stakeholders in each department. The table also proves that the aims of the company affect its stakeholders by altering their benefits and activities they should perform. Nilshan Devinda
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Table 5: Relating business aims to stakeholders
Objective
Department
Relation to Stakeholders
Involved
External stakeholders such as shareholders of the company directly relates to this objective as their profit depends on
Increase sales quota
Sales
&
Marketing departments
how the objective is achieved.
The internal stakeholders such as the sales and marketing staff will be affected directly as their tasks are related to increasing the sales.
Increase
Marketing
Staff of the marketing department who are internal
customer
department
stakeholders, must apply more strategies to ensure an increased customer renewal rate each year.
renewal rate Sign channel
Administration
Having
more
partners
reflects
performance
and
department
achievement, so it’s the duty of the administration to choose what channel partners they are going to join hands
partners
with.
Launch new service
Administration
Launching new services will help to add value to the
&
company supporting the main objective widely. The
Finance
departments
administration must take decisions on what services should be launched, and must communicate with the finance department to ensure the company could afford the solution. Customers who are external stakeholders, also contribute in this work by giving their feedback.
Source: Author’s work adopted from Statuspath (2015).
Chapter 2 – Background of e-Commerce and its impact to the Society 2.1 The Impact of e-Commerce to an Organization and Society Nilshan Devinda
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2.1.1 Background of e-commerce Both developing and developed countries have barriers in implementing e-businesses, but while developed countries have facilities to overcome those barriers, developing countries like Sri Lanka (SL) must deal with issues such as trust, security, supplying personal information, computer literacy, language, awareness and accessibility (Ceylontoday 2013). Together with the front runners such as Wow.lk and Takas.lk, SL now has about 20-30 e-businesses in the industry (Team YS 2013). However, these local e-commerce portals falls into three categories as described in the following table. Table 6: Major players in Srilankan e-commerce industry
Type of Business Niche Players Large Players Bricks and Clicks
Description These players only focus one narrow vertical such as clothes, accessories, etc. Findmyfare.com is an example of such a business. These players offers a variety of products without focusing on one type. Anything.lk is an example of such a player. These companies have properties from both e-tailers and mortar companies to leverage the benefits from both (Towson University 2015).
Source: Author’s work adopted from Echelon (2015).
2.1.2 Functionality of e-commerce An e-commerce solution must contain special options that lets its users to make a purchase online. The e-commerce solution provides functionality to all of the functions that are listed in the table below. Table 7: Functions of an e-Commerce solution
Function of e-
Description
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solution The users of an e-commerce site must first register in order to proceed with
Registration
purchasing by providing necessary information. Registration is the first main function that an e-commerce solution must facilitate. An e-commerce site must provide the user with his basket, also referred to as
Basket
a shopping cart that lets the user to add products and make payments for all the products selected at once. The e-commerce site must provide a good payment method that lets the user to enter their credit card details and make the payment to purchase their
Payment
products. This system must let a bank or other payment service to carry out the process that verifies and facilitates the payments.
Table 7 (Continuation) Product
Product management is the main thing that an e-commerce solution must
Management
provide functionality to, and must provide features required for product placement, order fulfilment and so on. This feature defines the product via a set of standard fields provided in the points below.
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Category
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Product name
Description
Image
Sizes available
Price
Pieces in stock
The e-commerce solution must be able to gather information from the registration database, from the basket, delivery information, and verification data and summarize them to a form identified by a number (order number). Each form includes information as shown in the points below.
Order
List of products purchased
Management
User information
Details of place of delivery
Delivery time information
Payment information
Table 7 (Continuation) The e-commerce solution must provide back office functions such as enabling to search and sort orders by:
Listing Orders and Customer Details
Customer
Order status
Date
Payment
Source: Author’s work adopted from Engitel (2014).
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2.1.3 Impact of e-commerce on Business and Society Introducing an e-commerce solution to a business or organization will both positively and negatively affect all its stakeholders. The table below shows the analysis done to compare the impact of e-commerce by evaluating the risks and benefits of e-commerce to an organization such as OM. Table 8 : Comparison of benefits and risks for properties of e-commerce for an organization
Property of e-
Benefits / Business Outcomes
commerce The
Global Market Place
Low start and running costs
e-commerce
solution
can
help
Risks the
The ability to supply for the
company reach customers from around the
demand decreases as the
world that helps it to increase revenue thereby
market expands and will
allowing it to be expanded and deliver a wide
result in stock controlling
range of products to its customers.
problems.
Setting up a virtual store doesn’t cost much
The company will have to
when compared to a traditional store. The e-
risk their business on a third
commerce solution sets the company free from
party who provides server
hiring and maintaining a physical warehouse
facilities, or they would
where the company could reduce the price of
have to afford their own
their items in turn.
server
and
maintenance
cost.
Table 8 (Continuation)
24/7 Trading
An e-commerce solution always results in
Even though the transaction
automation of all the possible processes of the
took place at the exact time
organization such as transaction handling. This
that the customer wants, he
enables customers to receive a constant service
will not get it delivered the
at any time and any day they want it to be.
time
he
external
wants factors.
due
to For
example, if the customer receives it by post, and orders at night, he’ll have to wait till the next morning or so to receive his product.
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An e-commerce solution not only creates a virtual market, but also tracks all the business
Analytics
transactions and product purchases that lets the company to analyze these data to find out hidden trends and buying patterns of its customers, and to promote more related products in the future.
Source: Wills (2014). In the other hand, the consequences e-commerce solutions will result in altering the risks and benefits of the consumers too. This impact is analyzed by evaluating the risks associated for the benefits they get in the following table.
Table 9: Comparison of benefits and risks in e-commerce properties for consumers
Property of e-
Benefits
Risks
The ability of the user to
The user will not be able to touch or
navigate, compare, and to pay
perceive
online gives him the impression
purchasing and has an increased
of trust and quality on both the
chance of returning it due to less
products
satisfaction.
commerce User Convenience
and
on
the
the
product
before
organization. The user is also able to find more consistent information on all the products, having a rich
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idea
of
the
product
being
purchased. Some
customers
feel
Customers often feel like talking to
uncomfortable when they were
personnel
from
the
organization
being watched when choosing a
concerning their products or any
Lack of Human
product in a physical store. The
related matter. Absence of this option
Contact
e-commerce solution resolves
creates a major drawback for the
that problem and lets the user to
organization
choose, compare and even learn
customer satisfaction.
leading
from
less
about the product in their own pace.
Security
The e-commerce solution can
Customers are reluctant in giving
make sure that any details of its
their
customers are not leaked by
purchasing, due to the lack of trust
taking many security measures.
they have for the organization. This is
payment
details
when
one of the major issues that an ecommerce solution must respond to.
Source: Tina (n.d).
2.2 Global Impact of e-Commerce on society Jaspalsingh8 (2015) mentions that the impact of e-commerce on society could be divided into two categories as positive impacts and negative impacts as described on the topics followed.
2.2.1 Positive Impacts of e-commerce on society Patterson and Wilson (2000) cited by Raj (2009: p.91) mentions that, ‘as ecommerce improves the quality and flow of information and communication, there is a good reason to expect that the e-commerce will have positive impact on the society’. Some of such positive impacts have been described in the table 10 below. Nilshan Devinda
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Table 10: Positive impacts of e-commerce on society
Impact
Description The number of students learning e-commerce is increasing drastically and is not limited to the U.S. While clearly mentioning that ‘Hong Kong
Jobs for Society
government’s education and Manpower Bureau believes that there will be a shortage of 56, 000 IT professionals in 10 years’ time’ (Werthner and Bichler 2012: p.179), it is evident that the possibilities for employment will increase worldwide. Smarta (2009) points out the highs and lows of a new business describing the challenges and business experience as highs and the setbacks and stress as the lows. It states that whatever the low’s, it’s always rewarding with
Helpful for new Business
achievement. Lime Canvas (2013) mentions the advantages of e-commerce such as 24/7 service and low running costs would help the business become more productive and make the reward even greater. For example, Casey and Morgan found MixedMade which is a company that started selling hot sauce to people, and makes $ 170,000 within a year using the help of e-commerce (Schreiber 2015).
Table 10 (Continuation) The Australian Human Rights Commission of the government of Australia presented a report from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission which describes the benefits of e-commerce to the disables and aged people.
Helpful for Disables and Aged People
In the report, its author Tay (2000) summarizes the benefits of e-commerce for disables and aged people claiming that internet and other electronic document accessibility let such people reduce the impact of transport and building access barriers, and allow deaf people, people who cannot read English, and people who cannot turn pages to access the information they need. The report further states that services of e-commerce such as bill payment could be used by disables and aged people.
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Health Electronic commerce solutions such as health care applications plays a vital role in the health care industry, giving benefits to patients as described in the table below. Table 11: Benefits of e-commerce in Health care industry
Benefit
Description The satisfaction level of patients’ increases as their perception of
Increased Patient
wait times decreases and when they are using an online waiting
Satisfaction
service offered to them to wait at the comfort of their own homes. Patients can experience a service beyond a hospital’s traditional
Increased Service
service area as they can receive services even if they don’t
Area
belong to that particular geographic area, through the online waiting services. The e-commerce solution lets the administrators of the hospital
Reduced Crowding
to manage staff to increase their efficiency and schedule
in Hospitals
treatments so that the patients can experience less crowding in waiting rooms.
Table 11 (Continuation) Readmissions Prevention and Patient Quality
Appropriate follow-up appointments can be scheduled to Emergency room patients prior to discharge using online waiting services. This results in increase of compliance and prevent readmissions.
Source: Author’s work adopted from Steele (n.d).
2.2.2 Negative Impact of e-commerce on Society (Karake-Shalhoub and Qasimi 2007: p.55) shows out that e-commerce would have significant consequences on social structures of the country as its growth has made changes in the social, economic, and political fabrics of societies all over the world that leads to the conclusion that it constitutes to a number of threats with wide ranging negative implications across numerous areas Nilshan Devinda
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of society. Such negative impacts of e-commerce to the society have been described in the table below. Table 12: Negative impacts of e-commerce on society
Impact of e-
Description
commerce
Basu (2013: p.191) shows that the rich and educated have the best access to
Digital Divide
internet making a digital divide among the people and high income consumers shop online more than low income consumers. Those facts proves that e-commerce has an effect on the digital divide. Cook (2015) mentions that department stores and mega-malls were main places that people could meet, socialize and shop.
Reduced Opportunities to be Socialized
This kind of shopping used to be family treats and eventually evolved more into trips to the shops. The growth of e-commerce will thus eliminate such experiences as online shopping cannot provide such reminisce.
Table 12 (Continuation) Bristol (2001) shows that e-commerce results in expansion of import and export markets by increasing the import and export of traditional goods and services, thereby contributing to increase the tax and tariff revenues of such
Tax
products. On the other hand, states cannot compel e-tailers to collect taxes, that makes it unfair for the bricks and mortar companies which will worsen their situation and the related people (Efairness 2015).
Threat for brick and mortar companies
In the United States (US) alone, the e-commerce growth rate is 20 per cent a year (Morrison 2014), and ‘[f]or traditional “bricks and mortar” companies this has been a common threat for retailers selling products such as books and financial services’ (Pearson Education India 2008:
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p.219). The following diagram illustrates some of the differences between e-commerce and brick and mortar companies.
Figure 6: Comparison of e-Commerce to in-store metrics
Source: Nomi (2015).
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Chapter 3 – Market Potential and Different e-Commerce Solutions 3.1 Market Potential (MP) of e-commerce An e-commerce solution for OM is another business idea for the company, and therefore it must be checked for feasibility by performing a series of analysis that helps determine whether it is profitable to be implemented. The government of Australia shows how this series of analyses must be presented as illustrated below in table 13. Table 13: Analysis for MP for an e-commerce solution
Analysis Type
Description
Market Analysis
Ocean Market is a company that focus on a wide market where it can sell textiles to accessories to cosmetics and computer items to baby items to food. So this wider market helps the company to grow up with time. But there are certain other factors that need to be analyzed to explain the market of Ocean Market.
Demand Analysis
All the products that Ocean Market sells has an increasing demand in Sri Lanka, because those products are either consumed or be outdated within a certain period time after purchase.
Supply Analysis
Ocean Market is a retailer and will only sell products to the consumers where products are sold in few amounts, only to satisfy the needs of the consumers. So Ocean market will be able to meet the demands without being short of its stocks.
Relationship Analysis
Ocean Market is a company that buys the products in wholesale from its
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suppliers and always keep good relationship with them to pull forward in the business.
Table 13 (Continuation) Ocean Market has a very few number of competitors who have an e-
Competitive Advantage Analysis
commerce solution, because this technique is used by relatively less number of companies in Sri Lanka compared to other countries. The wider range of products that Ocean Market has, and the ability to deliver them to any location in the island could be really an advantage over others. As of 2015, the Sri Lankan retail market stands at approximately US$ 7 billion calculated with the household expenditure index (Pathmalal 2013),
Financial Feasibility Analysis
where Ocean Market holds a fair share. Operating as a retailer for years and having a fair share of that industry, Ocean Market is financially capable of moving for, and handling an e-commerce site for it. However, it should forecast its sales and its financial situation in the future and decide whether the e-commerce solution will result in increasing profitability to the company.
Source: Author’s work adopted from Small Business Development Corporation (2015).
3.1.1 Analyzing of data to investigate the Market Potential The potential of OM for moving to an e-commerce solution could not just be measured without analyzing its capabilities and its environment. Therefore a Political Economical Social Technological Legal Environmental (PESTLE) analysis must be carried out to make things more transparent and make decisions based on that. The following table shows the PESTLE analysis which have been carried out to investigate the MP of OM in SL for an e-commerce solution.
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Table 14: PESTLE analysis for Ocean Market In Sri Lanka, there are no political issue for the retail industry as they always try to encourage such business.
Political
However, when moving to e-commerce, Ocean Market must face problems such as the loss of popular payment methods such as PayPal due to political agitations that would worsen its plight. Sri Lankan’s have less buying power relative to other countries due to low
Economical
living standards and cost of living in Sri Lanka. Also the differences between the Sri Lankan rupee and other currencies in the world, have a major impact when going for an e-commerce solution. Ocean Market must track any trends in the society, and must have plans
Social
which considers various events and festivals in Sri Lanka and be updated on what the society really cares about. Sri Lanka is urbanizing, and shows growth in the number of people having
Technological
access to the internet. People are welcoming new technologies more faster making Ocean Market to consider an innovative idea using the technologies available. The legal factors such as rules, regulations and acts concerning retail business in Sri Lanka will apply to Ocean Market in common. Also when Ocean
Legal
Market introduce something new such as the e-commerce facility for its customers, it should make sure that their solution meets with the legal constraints of Sri Lanka. The Geographic’s, weather, population and so many factors affect a business
Environmental
in Sri Lanka. Ocean Market must be able to adapt and make changes to be more stable with the environment of Sri Lanka.
Source: Author’s work.
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Berry (2015) shows that business strategies could be developed by analyzing the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) of the company. So it is expedient to do a SWOT analysis after the PESTLE analysis is performed. The table below shows the SWOT analysis done for OM to make its MP visible even clearer and simpler than a PESTLE analysis. Table 15: SWOT analysis for Ocean Market
Strengths
Weaknesses
Has a variety of products.
Has
acquired
a
to its customers still.
growing
market.
No e-commerce facility given
Not popular enough to attract customers.
Has earned reputation and
build a good image of the
Not able to provide island wide coverage
company.
with
the
limited
number of stores.
Opportunities
Ability to move to an e-commerce
Threats
solution.
and
existing
competitors.
Ability to increase product range.
Ability to provide island wide coverage in the future.
Upcoming
Some other competitors give ecommerce facility.
Ability of the competitors to catch the market and turn customers.
Source: Author’s work.
3.1.2 Conclusion for Ocean Market The analysis for the MP of OM supports the conclusion that an e-commerce system for OM is feasible and essential. According to the technological field of the PESTLE analysis, it is easy to provide services to Sri Lankans, and OM can target that emerging market. It is obvious that the solution can alter the SWOT analysis done to OM in a more beneficial and productive manner.
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3.2 Different e-commerce systems in the world Electronic commerce systems could be classified into two categories, as type of goods sold and nature of participants as described in the following topics. However, it could be classified into other categories as well.
3.2.1 Classification According to Types of Goods Sold The table below explains 3 types of e-commerce systems which are classified according to the types of goods sold. Table 16: Classification by goods sold
Classification Type
Description E-commerce systems that aims at selling physical goods such as books, accessories, cosmetics and similar items comes under this
Physical Goods
category. An example is Urbanladder.com which sells online furniture and decorations, the e-commerce system of Urbanladder.com has been included in the Appendix A. E-commerce solutions that enable people to buy digital products such as music, documents, eBooks, software and similar products
Digital Goods
belongs to this category. Kobobooks.com is an example of such a seller which sells e-books. Its e-commerce system has been provided in the Appendix B The e-commerce systems used by banks and similar organizations
Services
that sell services to the people can be categorized as systems that aims to sell services.
Source: Khurana (2015).
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This type of classification is based on the nature of the market relationship in which the ecommerce systems play different roles accordingly. There are many classifications under this topic but a few major classifications have been described below.
Business to Consumer (B2C) e-commerce systems This is the most common type of e-commerce system based on market relationship and is used by many organizations in SL. This model enables direct sales to consumers interacting them online through the e-commerce system (Malik 2010). The appendices C, D, & E shows such e-commerce systems of Odel, Keells Super, & Lankatronics respectively.
Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce systems This e-commerce model focus on selling products to other businesses, thereby making a B2B market relationship online (Arline 2015). The figure below shows how this process is done in more detail.
Figure 7: Process of a B2B e-Commerce System
Source: Tutorials Point (2015).
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However, this e-commerce model could be further classified into two more categories as demonstrated in the table below. Both serves the same function while the number of parties involved varies. Table 17: Categories of B2B model
B2B E-commerce model
Description This e-commerce system is a straightforward and direct model where companies have their own B2B models to enable
One-to-many
customers to purchase their products. In this e-commerce model, many companies makes a closed
Many-to-many
network or a public market place model in which many suppliers can join it. This extensive market place is administered by a third-party with a recognized name.
Source: Kaplan (2015).
Consumer to Consumer (C2C) e-commerce systems As the name suggests, this model of e-commerce deals within customers where the customers are both buyers as well as sellers, so ‘[w]hile the main actors in C2C commerce are buyers and sellers, the presence of trusted intermediaries is required to provide infrastructure for C2C e-commerce activities’ (In 2008: p.1). Amazon, eBay and similar companies are examples of such intermediaries that provides an infrastructure for C2C activities.
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4.1 Proposed e-Commerce solution 4.1.1 Selecting a Suitable System Based on the conclusion in chapter 3.1 of this report, a B2C model has been proposed. The proposed system will upgrade OM to a brick and click company. The domain name is set as Ocean Market.com. Other criteria’s to be checked when implementing a system like this as shown in table 18 are considered. Table 18: Criteria's to be checked when implementing an e-commerce system
Criterion
Description The design of the website is the thing that attracts and provides the
Responsive Design
authenticity to its users. This design must fit whatever the device the user views it. Regular customers might create accounts and get the benefits such as
Support Guest
fast purchasing, but guest checkout must be there for users who
Checkouts
place a one-time order or those who does not like to create an account. Allowing the users to search for the stuff they need is essential,
Site Search
features like auto-completion of what the users’ type helps them reach fast for what they want. It is essential that the site is supporting Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
Security
which will be offered by a Certificate Authority (CA) (Bennett 2013). This ensures that any sensitive data transferred to and from the site is encrypted and is secure.
Table 18 (Continuation) Site Performance
The site must be fast enough so that its users will not be uncomfortable with it. To ensure fast loading, the following things
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can be done.
Combining the JavaScript’s or CSS files to single files. Compressing images so that they are less in size. Use caching to reduce time spent for the transfer of data between the web server and the database server.
Also Osterhout (2014) claims that best practices for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) such as proper architecture of the site consisting the elements such as the structure of the commerce catalogue helps the search engine understand the relevance of the keywords to the contents, increasing the efficiency of search function.
Source: Author’s work adopted from McDavid (2014).
4.1.2 Designing the System The following figure illustrates the homepage of OceanMarket.com.
Figure 8: Homepage of OceanMarket.com
Source: Author’s work. A beautiful header that attracts the user is provided consistently at every page of the site. It contains the name of company, and a simple message that motivates the user to buy its products. The header also provides all the tabs in the system, those tabs are explained in the table below. Nilshan Devinda
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Table 19: Tabs in the system
Tab
Description This is the page where the user lands once he entered the site, and
Homepage
contains some benefits that the user can receive through the site as shown on figure 8. This is the place where the user is presented with a catalogue of
Store
various products of the company from which he can view and buy the products he want. More on this tab will be presented on table 20. This tab lets the user learn and have an idea about the company and
About
its history, its boastings and pride. This tab therefore opens the page that reflects the image of the company over the years. This tab allows the user to become a member by enabling him to
Register
enter his details as required. This feature lets that user to make fast purchases in the future.
Login
Registered users are allowed to login using this tab, all other users are allowed to use the page as a guest. This tab appears at the upper right corner of the header which lets the user to identify it without confusion. The cart tab also shows
Shopping Cart
how many items the user has added to it, so that the user can know it without the need to click the tab. This tab lets the user to view the items he has added to the cart, the total amount he must pay and the option for checkout.
Source: Author’s work.
Store
The following image shows the store of Ocean Market.com.
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Figure 9: Store of OceanMarket.com
Source: Author’s work. The store of OceanMarket.com has many features that lets the user easily purchase its products as explained in the table below. Table 20: Features of the store
Feature
Description The storefront as shown in figure 9 is the page that the user sees as he
Storefront
presses the store tab. This page shows some of the top brands and products that the company sells.
Search
Search function on the store tab lets the user search any type of product that he wants and access it within seconds.
Table 20 (Continuation) Categories
The store tab presents the user with a category list that enable him to look at the various products of the company by clicking the related category. Some of the categories OceanMarket.com presents are Textiles, Cosmetics,
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Accessories, Baby Items, and so on. Sub-Categories lets the user to further refine the category he has chosen
Sub-Categories
and allows him to view exactly what he was looking for. As an example, the figure 10 shows the sub-category “Textiles> Shirts” which displays only the shirts from the Textile category.
Source: Author’s work.
Figure 10: A sub-category of OceanMarket.com
Source: Author’s work. The following image shows how the user can deal with individual products as he shops. The table 21 followed will explain the features in that image.
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Figure 11: A product on OceanMarket.com
Source: Author’s work. Table 21: Features on selected products
Feature
Description The above figure 11 proves that each product has its own path, and
Navigation Pane
the path is displayed for the user to know which side of the system he currently views. He can also simply click any link in the navigation pane to the visit the corresponding section. Every product displays its product name which allows the user to
Product Name
easily remember or choose the product. In the example in figure 11 above, the product name is “Formal Shirt”. Every product has its own description which allows the user to
Product Description
learn about the product or get an idea on what he is going to purchase. The image of the product is the thing that attracts the user and
Product Image
provide him the ability to make judgments so that he can consider buying what he likes. There are multiple images which appears when the user hovers the mouse over it.
Table 21 (Continuation) Product Price Nilshan Devinda
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correctly, it is by which the user sometimes compare products within the store. The user can state how much from a product he wants by
Quantity
numbering the quantity text box as shown in figure 11 above. Add to cart button lets the user to add the product to the cart and buy all the products added to cart at once without buying one by
Add to Cart
one. Once that button is pressed, the cart tab shows the number of products added to it. It also pops-up a side window indicating the products added and the sub-total, as shown in figure 11 above. If the user likes the product being viewed and want to let his friends know about it, he can share the product on his social media
Social Media Sharing
channels. The above figure 11 proves that this can be done for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Source: Author’s work.
Shopping Cart
The image below shows the shopping cart of OceanMarket.com, table 22 will explain the features of that shopping cart.
Figure 12: Shopping cart of OceanMarket.com
Source: Author’s work. Table 22: Features of the shopping cart
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Feature
Description This button lets the user purchase all the products in the shopping cart at once. Pressing that button will carry the user to a page where
Checkout
details of the user are collected, or if the user is registered, he will be redirected to a payment processor. The user can remove any product from the shopping cart as he wish
Delete Items
using the small cross button displayed on each product on the list. This button lets the user leave the shopping cart and allows to shop
Continue Shopping
for more. The user can press the ‘shipping info’ or ‘return policy’ buttons to
View Policies
calculate shipping costs or to view return policy that pops-up once the buttons are pressed.
Source: Author’s work. The following diagram shows the form that the user needs to fill once the checkout button has been pressed for users using the system as a guest.
Figure 13: Guest details form
Source: Author’s work. When all the required fields of the above form has been filled, the user will be redirected to Global Payments to complete the transaction as shown in the image below.
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Figure 14: Payment method
Source: Author’s work. Besides all these features of this site, its footer gives a variety of options for the user, and helps in building trust from the user. The image below shows the footer of OceanMarket.com, its features are explained in table 23.
Figure 15: Footer of OceanMarket.com
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Table 23: Features of the footer
Feature
Description The footer lists a set of popular social media sites that the user can
Social Media
click on to like the page on the corresponding social media site and
Connectivity
to stay connected on new arrivals and updates. The footer provides the user with a textbox to enter his e-mail
E-mail Subscription
address which allows him to subscribe for the monthly newsletter from Ocean Market. The bottom right corner of the footer contains a list of payment
Payment Methods
methods such as VISA, AMEX, and so on, which ocean market accepts payments from.
Table 23 (Continuation) Copyright Information
The bottom of the footer also provides the copyright information of OceanMarket.com. Along with other information such as shipping & Delivery, Privacy
Terms and Conditions
and Security, Returns information, the footer allows the user to view the Terms and Conditions of Ocean Market. The footer also provides the user to view the contact information,
Contact
Question and Answer page, together with the option to provide feedback. This link which appears on the left side of the footer lets the user
About us
know about Ocean Market, where its department stores are located, and allows to read the Ocean Market magazine online.
Source: Author’s work. Other details and features of this solution can be found under Appendix F.
4.2 Capitalizing an E-commerce solution
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Ocean Market has a lot of options when funding for its e-commerce solution, and the correct source must be selected for reducing the risks associated. The following table explains some of such sources from which Ocean Market can receive its funds. Table 24: Sources of funds
Source
Description Ocean Market has the option to fund for itself using the money
Personal Savings
it has saved over the years, however the company cannot risk all of its savings at once for an unpredictable solution.
Table 24 (Continuation) A business loan is the only type of loan that can be received
Bank Loans
from a bank to an organization, therefore Ocean Market has that as a second option. Many finance companies provide loans just like banks, they can
Finance Companies
take higher risks when giving commercial loans but their rates and fees are higher than that of banks. Venture capitalists are ready to invest their money on the
Venture Capitalists
solution, only if the solution is going to be so much successful, because they will get a massive return if it works. Angels are people who provide funds in return of a proposition
Angels
of the company equity. If the solution is about to benefit the public, grants can be
Grants
considered receiving. These are most often received for nonprofit organizations.
Source: Scorerochester (n.d). Ocean Market can go for a bank loan as it had made many business transactions over the years that would allow the bank to trust the company and provide the necessary facility. However, the company must show that they are investing their part too, for getting the bank loan. This will reduce the amount hired from the bank, decreasing the interest which should be paid.
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Considering these facts, the funding is done by personal investment and a bank loan which funds the required amount. This dual funding reduces the risks faced by the company by decreasing the amount of money hired from the bank. There are certain reasons for not choosing the other options which Ocean Market had. The table below describes why such sources of funds have not been chosen.
Table 25: Rejected options for funding
Option
Reason for not Selecting Credit cards are not a good option specially for an organization such
Credit Card debt
as Ocean Market because its interest rates and costs on the card will build very quickly and can be detrimental to a business owner according Taylor (2015). The table 24 above mentioned that finance companies have much
Finance Companies
higher rates of interests than banks and therefore have been not selected, as the bank can offer a much better deal to the solution. As mentioned in table 24 above, venture capitalists consider whether
Venture Capitalists
the solution will be successful, however the problem is that Ocean Market must provide them with a massive income once the solution works. UK Business Angels Association (2014) states that angels normally
Angels
takes shares from the business and will seek to have return on their investment for 3-8 years. So that is not a good deal for Ocean Market. The Government of UK (2015) says that a grant can only cover a part
Grants
of the project, and its application process is time consuming. It further states that there’s a lot of competition for grants, cutting that option out for Ocean Market.
The Lowa State University (2013) describes a different method known as leasing. According to Trisha (2014) leasing is when the lessor provides the lessee an asset and the right to use it against a periodical payment. So Ocean Market cannot take that option, because instead of periodical Nilshan Devinda
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payments it needs instant funding for its solution. Therefore self-financing and bank loan is the best option for Ocean Market.
4.3 Feasibility of the E-commerce solution The Technological, Economical, Legal, Operational, Schedule (TELOS) feasibility criteria’s are discussed under following topics because they offer a simple way to consider most important issues on feasibility as pointed out by Rudy (2014).
4.3.1 Technological Feasibility Alhanati (2012) shows that the technological requirements for completing the project successfully can be revealed by understanding the information and process requirements, as outlined in the table below. Table 26: Process requirements of the proposed System
Process
Technological Requirements The proposed solution is an e-commerce system on a website, and therefore must be hosted in order to make the site accessible for the public.
Web Hosting
Hosting can be done in several ways, either by using a home server, or a web based hosting service. Either option has its costs and benefits. While maintaining a home server increases the risk, a web based hosting service is the preferred choice.
Data Storing
The e-commerce solution will have to record all the sales, transactions, and many other details which requires a huge amount of storage space. So a data center is required to store such data it produces. As there are risks associated with on-premise data centers, the off-premise cloud data centers can be useful in such a case. As Angeles (2013) shows, that cloud storage can provide more security
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and other benefits, cloud based data centers could be used for the solution. The cloud space required can be purchased for an additional cost from the web hosting service.
Table 26 (Continuation) The e-commerce system takes information about the place of delivery when a customer purchases something from it, then it can place that item under orders section of the nearest branch where the delivery is about to
Back-Office Function
happen. So every branch of Ocean Market must have access to the internet to view the orders that appear in the system. Therefore networking facilities such as LAN systems comprised of devices such as routers, hubs, and PC’s must be present within every branch.
Source: Author’s work.
4.3.2 Economic Feasibility The economic feasibility of the solution can be determined by a cost-benefit analysis as shown in table 27, however Decision Analyst (2015) shows that a demand forecast is also essential to predict economic patterns. Table 27: Cost-Benefit Analysis of the solution
Process
Capitalizing the Solution
Costs
Benefits
Ocean Market must
When developed, the e-commerce solution can
capitalize the solution
increase reputation of the company, provide
by funds received by
services to its customers, get the company back
a
and
to track where the world market is moving, by
investment
helping to keep its potential customers as well
bank
personal as
loan
described
in
as attracting new customers.
chapter 4.2.
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Table 27 (Continuation)
Maintaining the eCommerce System
Ocean Market must
The e-commerce system can over the years
spend on maintaining
keep the regular flow of customers and increase
the system, such as
sales dramatically that would otherwise be
for
unable to do.
future
advancements.
It
must also pay an annual payment to the
web
company services
In relation to the annual costs it takes, it can contribute in generating vast amounts of profit for the company.
hosting for
its
and
for
storage. The
intellectual
Once the rights are privileged, the company has
property rights of the
the chance and opportunity to build its image
system
online through the proposed e-commerce
should
be
taken so that none
Preserving the Solution
other
is
able
to
duplicate or use the original work. This process
solution because of its uniqueness. When customers trust begins to grow on the solution, it is then that the intangible benefits of having an unique system appear.
involves
payment to the Sri Lankan government.
Source: Author’s work.
4.3.3 Legal Feasibility There are many laws and policies in Sri Lanka, the table below demonstrates that the proposed solution have no conflict with those laws making it legally feasible.
Intellectual Property Rights
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Table 28: Legal feasibility of the solution
Legal Constraints
Effect on the Solution Copyrights are rights given by law to the creators for their literacy and artistic works. These economic and moral rights must be considered to
Copyrights
check whether the solution have violate those laws which are published in gazette numbers; 1415/18 of 10th October 2005. The domain name and other names on the proposed solution currently comply with those laws making any names used feasible. Trademarks, Service marks, certification marks, and collective marks are the types of marks present.
Marks
The solution uses the same original trademark of Ocean Market and is viable to be used when checked against the intellectual property Act no: 36 0f 2003 under sections 103 and 104. Patents protect inventions and provide the benefits of the invention only
Patents
to the inventor. The proposed solution does not violate this law because such a system haven’t received a patent within the last 20 years.
Source: Government of Sri Lanka (n.d).
4.3.4 Operational Feasibility Heathcoat (2003: p.212) shows that operational feasibility is checking whether the current work practices and procedures of a company are adequate for the new system. It is also feasible if the employees can work with it easily. The following table demonstrates the solution’s operational feasibility.
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Table 29: Operational feasibility of the solution
Criterion
Description In order for the solution to be operationally feasible, ideas about the
Process
solution are taken from the employees of the company. This can be done easily in the systems investigation phase of the e-commerce solution. The process suggestions are then analyzed to look whether some
Evaluation
parties are affected when dealing with the system. Evaluation of those suggestions is an easy task that could be done in the system design phase. The development of the e-commerce solution does not involve
Implementation
employees from Ocean Market and therefore their work will never be affected during that phase. The solution is feasible if Ocean Market can use the newly introduced system with less efforts. Any required strategies could be
Strategies
applied as required in those situations. As the proposed solution provides all the functionality they need, Ocean Market can easily handle it. The solution is also considered to be operationally feasible if the employees require less time to adapt to the new changes. This adaptation process can be monitored to determine whether additional
Adapt and Review
changes must be made. Because the solution is designed to be simple to use, it will take less time for Ocean Market to adapt to it, however, review process is carried out.
Source: User’s work adopted from Scheid (2013).
4.3.5 Schedule Feasibility
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The solution is feasible schedule wise if it is delivered on time. Arnette (2014) shows that it is used to visualize the processes of the project to ensure on-time delivery, therefore it is also feasible if its deadlines are reasonable. The following table discusses some phases to prove that the schedule for developing the proposed solution is reasonable. Table 30: Proving the deadlines are reasonable
Phase
Description At this stage, the requirements of the proposed system are
System Analysis/Investigation
collected through different types of techniques. Once all the required data are collected, they are analyzed. After analysis, the e-commerce system is designed to meet all the
System Design
requirements and functionalities required, by a set of designers involved in the project team. Once the design phase completes, the e-commerce system is actually implemented. This phase requires a considerable time
Implementation
period because actual development such as coding is done on this phase. Upon successful completion of the implementation, the e-
Integration and Testing
commerce system is tested for errors, bugs, and interoperability. The system is also checked for security issues in this phase. In this phase, the e-commerce system is setup and runs actual
Installation
business. This is the final part of the development of the solution. Although maintenance and future improvements takes place after this, they are not part of the schedule.
Source: Author’s work adopted from Kay (2002).
Conclusion From all the analysis done to investigate the market potential of Ocean Market, including the market analysis, competitive advantage analysis, financial feasibility analysis, PESTLE analysis and SWOT analysis which shows positive results, the main advantage lies in the current situation Nilshan Devinda
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of e-commerce in Sri Lanka, because there are only a very little number of competitors for Ocean Market that has an e-commerce solution. However more competitors on the future can be expected, therefore, identifying their Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and promoting such, to face those threats are recommended. The solution proposed is the best fit for Ocean Market, because it’s a B2C model which falls under the category of physical goods seller while making the company a Brick and Click organization. The solution is full of functionality, Security and is feasible under all TELOS feasibility studies, however, what the customers sees is the design, products and the payment options. Selection of a popular and trusted payment service such as Global Payments will increase customer trust, while the user friendly design will attract new customers to provide Ocean Market full of tangible and in-tangible benefits by achieving better business outcomes.
Appendices Appendix A: e-Commerce system of Urbanladder.com
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Urban ladder is an online furniture and decoration seller who allows its customers to choose, buy, their products as well as allowing them to get it delivered to their homes, and have it installed. The following image shows its homepage as of August 29, 2015.
Apart from the various categories they offer, the major points to be noted on this page is that they provide:
A hotline number An email address The ability to search products The ability to sign up or login as a member The ability to shop as a guest The ability to add items to the cart
They let customers pay using payu biz, and accept credit and debit cards as well as net banking facilities. Urban ladder also accepts cash on delivery.
Appendix B: e-commerce system of Kobobooks.com Kobobooks.com is an online e-book seller which offers a variety of eBooks ready for purchasing. The e-commerce system of Kobobooks.com is shown in the screenshot below.
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Kobobooks.com allows its users to search its content in 9 different languages including English while enabling to manually locate the books using the categories and its catalogue which includes the Today’s Top 50 EBooks at the top. The solution even extends for mobile experience through its kobo app for phones and tablets. Apart from those features, it provides the following functionalities to its users.
The ability to sign up and login as a member, or login using Facebook or Google plus
accounts. Shopping cart functionality. Help section. Ability to add books to cart without login.
Appendix C: e-Commerce system of Odel
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Odel is the Sri Lanka’s first retail department store, and has acquired its online presence as Odel.lk allowing its customers to purchase its range of products online. As any other examples, Odel.lk has got its unique and professional interface as illustrated in the screenshot below.
This e-commerce system allows its users to choose from a wide array of its products categorized as Women, Men, Kids, and so on. It also allows to choose products by brand then filter results by size, color, and price. The site lets its users to connect with them via popular social media channels as well as enabling them to read the Odel magazine online. They gives the ability to change currency type, register, login or use it as a guest, use shopping cart, send and redeem gift vouchers, sort items by price, limit the number of results appear per page, calculate shipping costs, save items in the saved items list, and offer international delivery. The payments are handled by Global Payments Asia Pacific which is a joint venture of Global Payments and HSBC.
Appendix D: e-Commerce system for Keells Super
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Keells Super is a popular company in Sri Lanka specially focusing on food items. Its eCommerce solution brings its customers a new experience through Keellssuper.com and allows easy purchasing of its various food products. The following screenshot demonstrates how its homepage reflects the company’s red theme color.
As any other solution, this site lets its customers to register, login, search, view, add to cart, and pay to purchase anything online in its wide span of food products. The site aids the help of Global Payments to facilitate the transactions and allows payments via MasterCard, Visa, and American Express. The office and home delivery of products is a major point to be noted in this site.
Appendix E: e-Commerce system of Lanka Tronics Nilshan Devinda
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Lanka Tronics is an electronic items seller in Sri Lanka, and is available online through lankatronics.com site. It is one of the popular electronics seller in the country. Its homepage is as shown in the screenshot below.
This site lets its users to choose from a multitude of various electronic items classified by brand, size and many other variables. It allows to add items to cart, register, login or use as guest. The solution allows users to change the currency from LKR to USD and allows to pay via bank account, credit card, PayPal, and Dialog eZ cash. The payment using credit cards is powered by 2checkout.com. The users can also choose to collect their items from their stores, or get them delivered to their homes using post or courier service.
Appendix F: Other features of OceanMarket.com Nilshan Devinda
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Appendix F1: Multi-Platform Support The solution presented on chapter 4 is not only for PC’s, but works well with tablets, and smartphones. As an example, the following image shows how the same homepage of OceanMarket.com is seen on a mobile device.
All the features of the Desktop version are included in the mobile version making the solution suits any type of device.
Appendix F2: Back Office of OceanMarket.com
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The solution for Ocean Market not only serves the customers, but also the administrators and site managers who need to keep track of the things going on online. The back office functionality of the solution makes their work easier by tracking every detail they want. The following images shows some of the back office features of OceanMarket.com.
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The images above shows how the solution lets the administrator to manage emails, members, orders and view the sales as well as the stats per week. Back office functions like this is so much essential for a company to become success in their work.
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Appendix G: Management of Work Appendix G1: Gantt chart
Gantt chart
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Appendix G2: Self-Criticism
Self-Criticism Understanding the real meaning of what the individual chapters and topics of the assignment expect is sometimes equivocal, but other than that, the poor knowledge regarding the structure of a report and the format of a professional document has become major barriers in creating this report. The inconsistent availability of formats and structures of the same referencing style within different institutions and colleges also caused further confusion. Inefficient time management during the preparation of this report leads to sluggish attainment which affects how the report is been made. Going through materials thoroughly to help build the report with increased accuracy might have benefited in understanding the content well, and how the report presents them, however such practices lead to further delay which triggers peer pressure that further affects the final stages of work. However, all these problems were faced with responsibility while learning how such things could be dealt in the future. Improved skills in understanding, realizing, and dealing as well as time managing gained from this work will benefit in the future to be more efficient in all the above mentioned areas.
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