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Learner
Name of the Learner :
Assessment Title & No’s : E-commerce Consultancy Report for Ocean Market (pvt) Limited
Assessor : Miss. Dinithi Roshani Internal Examiner (IE) : Miss. Shahana Nadarajah
Date of
Date Reviewed : IE :
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
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)
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 e-commerce
solutions. (D1.1)
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, 16-headings, 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)
ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................. xi
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 59
Appendices ............................................................................................................................... 60
References ................................................................................................................................ 70
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.
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.
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.
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).
The finance department must estimate the capital that would be required
Estimation of
for the company for maximizing its profit.
capital
Things like future programs, expected costs and policies should be taken
requirements
into consideration in the estimation process.
Determination of The capital structure is the company’s debt-to-equity ratio. Therefore, the
capital finance function must analyze short-term and long-term debt equity.
composition
‘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.
As Ocean Market sells retail items, their prices are in a low range,
Price
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, however,
Place
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
promote their products so that the people will get to know about the
Promotion
products. When, where, how, to whom the product is marketed must be
considered when promoting the product.
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.
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).
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 sub-objectives of the
company.
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.
The objective set must be specific which means adding more detail to the general
Specific
idea to provide exact information on what, when, and how things should be done.
The objective or goal must contain measurable values such as numbers, so that
Measurable
the progress can be monitored easily.
The objective should not exceed the limit where reality lets it to achieve, it should
Achievable
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
Oriented carried out to achieve that goal within the given time frame.
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.
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.
These players only focus one narrow vertical such as clothes, accessories,
Niche Players
etc. Findmyfare.com is an example of such a business.
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.
The users of an e-commerce site must first register in order to proceed with
purchasing by providing necessary information.
Registration
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 a
Basket 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 products.
Payment
This system must let a bank or other payment service to carry out the process
that verifies and facilitates the payments.
This feature defines the product via a set of standard fields provided in the
points below.
Product code
Category
Product
Subcategory
Management
Product name
Description
Image
Sizes available
Price
Pieces in stock
Payment information
The e-commerce solution must provide back office functions such as enabling
to search and sort orders by:
Listing Orders Customer
and Customer
Order status
Details
Date
Payment
Table 8 : Comparison of benefits and risks for properties of e-commerce for an organization
Property of e-
Benefits / Business Outcomes Risks
commerce
The e-commerce solution can help the company The ability to supply for the
reach customers from around the world that demand decreases as the
Global Market
helps it to increase revenue thereby allowing it market expands and will
Place
to be expanded and deliver a wide range of result in stock controlling
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
Low start and commerce solution sets the company free from party who provides server
running costs 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.
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.
The ability of the user to The user will not be able to touch or
navigate, compare, and to pay perceive the product before
online gives him the impression purchasing and has an increased
of trust and quality on both the chance of returning it due to less
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.
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.
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 achievement.
Lime Canvas (2013) mentions the advantages of e-commerce such as 24/7
Helpful for new
service and low running costs would help the business become more productive
Business 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).
In the report, its author Tay (2000) summarizes the benefits of e-commerce for
Helpful for
disables and aged people claiming that internet and other electronic document
Disables and
accessibility let such people reduce the impact of transport and building access
Aged People
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.
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.
(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
of society. Such negative impacts of e-commerce to the society have been described in the table
below.
Basu (2013: p.191) shows that the rich and educated have the best access to
internet making a digital divide among the people and high income consumers
Digital Divide
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
This kind of shopping used to be family treats and eventually evolved more into
Opportunities
trips to the shops.
to be Socialized
The growth of e-commerce will thus eliminate such experiences as online
shopping cannot provide such reminisce.
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 products.
Tax
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).
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.
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.
Market Analysis
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
suppliers and always keep good relationship with them to pull forward in the
business.
Analysis 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.
Source: Author’s work adopted from Small Business Development Corporation (2015).
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.
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
living standards and cost of living in Sri Lanka. Also the differences between
Economical
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 which
Social 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
access to the internet. People are welcoming new technologies more faster
Technological
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 Market
Legal 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.
Opportunities Threats
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.
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.
The table below explains 3 types of e-commerce systems which are classified according to the
types of goods sold.
This type of classification is based on the nature of the market relationship in which the e-
commerce systems play different roles accordingly. There are many classifications under this topic
but a few major classifications have been described below.
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.
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 place
Checkouts
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.
The site must be fast enough so that its users will not be uncomfortable
with it. To ensure fast loading, the following things can be done.
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.
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 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.
Registered users are allowed to login using this tab, all other users
Login
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 how
many items the user has added to it, so that the user can know it
Shopping Cart
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.
The store of OceanMarket.com has many features that lets the user easily purchase its products as
explained in the table below.
The storefront as shown in figure 9 is the page that the user sees as he presses
Storefront the store tab. This page shows some of the top brands and products that the
company sells.
Search function on the store tab lets the user search any type of product that
Search
he wants and access it within seconds.
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
Categories
of the categories OceanMarket.com presents are Textiles, Cosmetics,
Accessories, Baby Items, and so on.
Sub-Categories lets the user to further refine the category he has chosen and
allows him to view exactly what he was looking for. As an example, the
Sub-Categories
figure 10 shows the sub-category “Textiles> Shirts” which displays only the
shirts from the Textile category.
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.
The above figure 11 proves that each product has its own path, and
the path is displayed for the user to know which side of the system
Navigation Pane
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 learn
Product Description
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
provide him the ability to make judgments so that he can consider
Product Image
buying what he likes. There are multiple images which appears
when the user hovers the mouse over it.
The user can state how much from a product he wants by numbering
Quantity
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 one.
Add to Cart 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 channels.
Social Media Sharing
The above figure 11 proves that this can be done for Facebook,
Twitter, and Pinterest.
Shopping Cart
The image below shows the shopping cart of OceanMarket.com, table 22 will explain the features
of that shopping cart.
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 details
Checkout
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Ocean Market has the option to fund for itself using the money it
Personal Savings has saved over the years, however the company cannot risk all of
its savings at once for an unpredictable solution.
A business loan is the only type of loan that can be received from
Bank Loans 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.
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.
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.
Credit cards are not a good option specially for an organization such as
Ocean Market because its interest rates and costs on the card will build
Credit Card debt
very quickly and can be detrimental to a business owner according
Taylor (2015).
The Government of UK (2015) says that a grant can only cover a part
of the project, and its application process is time consuming. It further
Grants
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
payments it needs instant funding for its solution. Therefore self-financing and bank loan is the
best option for Ocean Market.
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).
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.
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
As Angeles (2013) shows, that cloud storage can provide more security
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.
Function 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.
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.
Ocean Market must The e-commerce system can over the years keep
spend on maintaining the regular flow of customers and increase sales
the system, such as dramatically that would otherwise be unable to
for future do.
Maintaining the e- advancements. It
In relation to the annual costs it takes, it can
Commerce System must also pay an
contribute in generating vast amounts of profit
annual payment to the
for the company.
web hosting company
for its services 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 should be online through the proposed e-commerce
taken so that none solution because of its uniqueness.
Preserving the other is able to
When customers trust begins to grow on the
Solution duplicate or use the
solution, it is then that the intangible benefits of
original work. This
having an unique system appear.
process involves
payment to the Sri
Lankan government.
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.
Copyrights are rights given by law to the creators for their literacy and
artistic works. These economic and moral rights must be considered to
check whether the solution have violate those laws which are published
Copyrights
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.
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.
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.
The solution is feasible if Ocean Market can use the newly introduced
system with less efforts. Any required strategies could be applied as
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Keells Super is a popular company in Sri Lanka specially focusing on food items. Its e-Commerce
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.
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.
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.
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.
Gantt chart
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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