This document outlines the major details that will be required for the development of an e-commerce application for a company that deals in computer accessories. The management of the business enterprise has decided to increase their sales effort to cater for the online market through selling of their products via the internet. In this regard, an online shopping cart will be designed so that the business can achieve its specified objectives. The application will be able to display items currently on sale to the customers, provide means of selecting the item(s) that customers want to buy, and a check out mechanism. The check-out interface will provide a mode of payment for the user to pay for the selected items and a form to collect the name, address, and other details that are essential for shipping the item(s) to the customer.
For this application, there are a number of technologies that can be used for the development of the application. Since the application will be web based, web technologies such as HTML(Hypertext Markup Language) for content display, CSS(Cascading Style Sheets) and JavaScript for formatting and adding good visual appearance. A database program such as SQL and a server side technology such as PHP to process the various requests to the server will support the backbone of the application. To come up with the application, developers will need to research on the various input data that will be received from the users and the information that will be presented to the visitors. Typically, the online shop will present the computer accessories in the shop, their respective price, and a description on the specific details about the item. For instance, a computer hard disk will be accompanied by a picture of the item, price, and a description about its capacity, make, and model. The users will be expected to pick items they want to buy. The application will be expected to allow the user to enter the quantity of the items he/she want and the capability of to pick more than one different items. After picking the item(s) they are interested in, the application will present all the items in the shopping cart and a form to checkout, pay and fill in details for shopping the item(s).
An e-commerce application will significantly increase the sales, as it will be able to reach customers situated in all parts of the world. Furthermore, the application will be integrated into the current accounting system to help manage online sales. Among the missions of this computer, shop is to increase its sales significantly gradually and this will be a milestone in achieving that goal. After full integration of the application to the business core systems, key business decisions will be made based on the reports generated from the application. This will help promote the much needed business growth. Several major e-commerce systems are in operation, developed by various business enterprises to help increase sales. An example is amazon.com which is an online retail shop sells a number of products to its customers such as books, electronic devices, and multimedia content. It provides means for its customers to pay for the goods their purchase and a mechanism to have the item(s) shipped directly to the customer’s premises. Another successful e-commerce system is eBay. The system targets people selling items and those who want to buy such items. The items range from electronic devices, computers, and kitchenware. The items are arranged in categories with their respective prices and visitors can be able to buy whatever item(s) pleases them.
The e-commerce application may experience compatibility issues with the current system. This is because the current business systems may have been developed in a technology not compatible with that used in the e-commerce application. Such problems will significantly be observed when it comes to sharing of data between the two systems. Such will include reports on issues like amount sales, total revenues, and stock values. To help coordinate the whole operation, the developers of the e-commerce can use technology that will allow sharing of data between the two systems possible. Such could be using Extensible Markup Language (XML). Decision support models help a business to arrive at key decisions that shape the course of action for the business. A number of models can be applied for this task and visually represented to make sure that all those involved in the process can understand the whole process. One of the major decisions that the management of the computer shop will have to make is whether to implement an e-commerce application for their shop. They would have to consider the various options available, advantages, and disadvantages of the system so that the decision they make would be informed. Web based applications face a constant threat of security. To properly tackle this problem, the developers will have to take on a number of guidelines that will help ensure that the transactions conducted on the application are safe. Some of the security measures that can be taken include communication between secure channels, validation, and verification of user inputs to make sure that whatever is submitted to the system what is expected and will not harm any part of the system. The business will have to invest well in the project, as implementing tight security mechanism may be costly.
The application will run on web browsers. This will require that the enterprise acquire modern and up to date browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera. After that, the company will need to decide where the application will be hosted online. They can either acquire servers or do the hosting or their can outsource the task to experienced institutions. Hosting companies ensure that the security of the system is up to date and clients will not get involved in the logistical nightmares of implementing such security. Software will be mainly for the development of the software. Developers will be required to use licensed development software in case of proprietary software or they can use open source software. The business enterprise selected individual will do the administration of the application. He/she will update the stock and prices on the application as well as regular reports on the various business aspects. The cost of the whole application development will mainly fall on the development phase. This is because the business will have to get the right skilled people to do the development. Deployment cost may be either high or low depending on the part taken by the company. Buying and configuring servers may be costly as compared to the application being hosted by a different company and paying for the service. Finally, from the reports generated by the application, the business enterprise will be able to evaluate the success of the system and determine which elements to improve.
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