What is the ballpark? Characterize the marketplace. - Size, growth, demographics, structure.

What is the ballpark? Characterize the marketplace. - Size, growth, demographics, structure.

The demographics for the market place are already given in the above section. The business is aiming to grow rapidly. The main reason behind it is the variety of the products and the after sale services. Also, the potential customers will be provided with the special discounts in case they purchase jewelry beyond a certain limit.

➢ Where’s the content coming from?

The content related to the business and the potential customers is obtained by conducting the extensive market research in Saudi Arabia. It helped the business to know about the taste and the choices of the customers in Saudi Arabia.

➢ Know yourself— conduct a SWOT analysis.

This better helps to know about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and the threats for the business.

·         Strengths: The e-commerce store for jewelry items is a unique and different idea. In case it is used positively it can provide the firm with the increased revenues. The customer will come through new experiences. It is perceived to be the unique store in Saudi Arabia. It is also unique due to availability of the variety of the items at a single place.

·         Weaknesses: People in Saudi Arabia are conservative. They might not believe the new business. Rather they will prefer already existing businesses. The major threat that exists for the business is about less trend in Saudi Arabia for making the online purchases.

·         Opportunities: The business adopt the innovative ideas in order to display the products and attract the increased number of customers.

·         Threats: The major threats that the business can face may relate to the competitors and the technological advancements for providing the services to the clients. This is how the business can face the threats in providing the services to the customers.

Figure: SWOT analysis

➢ Develop an e-commerce presence map.

Type of presence                         Platform                                                  Activity

➢ Develop a timeline: Milestones. - 6 phases.

➢ How much will this cost?

Figure: Costing for website

The above said graph is showing the costing for the said project. It helps to evaluate about the costs along with the percentages for different domains. The various domains may include marketing, hardware, software, telecommunications, hosting service, design along with the development of the content. It thus helps to know that the significant areas are the above said domains in which the business is desired to make the investments. This is how the firm can generate the revenues.

Building an E-Commerce Site: A Systematic Approach

➢ Planning: The Systems Development Life Cycle

The development life cycle of the software is being discussed in this chapter. The project is all about the development of the software for the said project. The flow of the software, the modules as well as the sub-modules suggest to consider SDLC (Software Development Lifecycle) in order to achieve the said purpose. This framework will better assist the directions of the current software.

It can be said that SDLC needs to be followed brutally. It is a step-by-step procedure in order to support the development of the software. It is also termed as the software development process as it better helps to direct all the project-related processes. Every phase of the SDLC is further sub-categorized into certain steps. The more accurately this flow is followed, the more effective is the completion of the software. The entire SDLC process is classified into the phases as given:

·         Planning: This phase is related to the plans related to the management of the entire project. It help in the planning for the allocation of the resources, planning for the capacity, decision-making for the project schedule, estimates related to the costs and provisioning etc.  It tends to provide with the project plans, project schedules, cost estimates as well as the procurement requirements.

·         Requirement Analysis: For the purposes of software development, the analysis of the requirements is performed in this phase.

·         Design and prototyping: In this phase, work on the design and the architecture of the software is started. It makes use of the established patterns for the development of the software.

·         Software Development: This phase provides with the developed software. This method can either be carried out as agile methodology or as the single block-of-effort (i.e., waterfall). It tries to provide with the software in the working form as soon as possible. The testable, functional software is the output of the said phase.

·         Testing: It is considered to the most significant phase of SDLC. Without testing, it is not possible to deliver quality software. The quality of the software is measured by considering as given: quality of the code, unit testing, integration testing, testing for checking the performance and the security testing.

·         Deployment: It is perceived to be a highly automated phase. The moment when the software is ready it is then deployed.

·         Maintenance: In order to ensure the proper operations of the software, the software is monitored constantly. Bugs and defects discovered in Production must be reported and responded to, which often feeds work back into the process.

By taking into consideration the above steps, the website will be developed for providing the customers in Saudi Arabia with the intended services.

▪ Create your own website

• Testing

Once designed properly the website will be tested as per the defined terms and the conditions. The areas where there exist the issues they will be corrected accordingly.

• Implementation

The implementation phase is all about the provision of the website for ecommerce to the customers in Saudi Arabia. they can make use of the website for ordering online.

Choosing Software

The development of e-commerce required a great deal more interactive functionality, such as the ability to respond to user input (name and address forms), take customer orders for goods and services, clear credit card transactions on the fly, consult price and product databases, and even adjust advertising on the screen based on user characteristics.

➢ Functionality for web server

The web server will help to provide with the hosting services for the website. The e-commerce website will be hosted by making use of the web server.

➢ Provides basic functionality for sales

The user interface will provide the users with the framework for searching the items of jewelry and then selecting whatever they like and desire.

• Online catalog

This catalog will provide the customers with the variety of the jewelry. It will help the customers to choose the items as per the prices and the description of the products.

• Shopping cart

The items selected will be added to the shopping cart. It will help the customers to get the receipt for their selected items.

• Credit card processing

The credit card will be processed by making use of the well-defined system where the bill amount will be deducted from the credit card of the customer. This is how the e-commerce website will charge the customers for their buying.

Choosing Hardware

The hardware requirements are as given:

Payment and Security

The payment will be made after adding the products to the cart and it will be made online.

Explain your business e-commerce process

➢ Explain in detail all the steps from the time a visit is recorded until the final user buys a product.

First the client will visit the website to view the products. The customer will then add the products to the catalog/ cart. He will then make the payment through the credit card. The seller will receive the payment through the bank.

Conclude your report

This report is basically about an e-commerce business which is located in Saudi Arabia. This business is intending to provide the people, in Saudi Arabia, with antiques and other jewelry for normal routine. This business has a website associated with the business where all the articles of the business are better displayed. It provides the customers with the facility to select from the viable options as per their choice. This report is also aimed at providing with the product or the service type, business statement, business vision and the objectives, the financials for providing the business to cover up the costs and earn the profits. Also, the SWOT analysis for the business is being provided in the report along with the recommendations for the said case. Once designed properly, the website will be tested and after taking the corrective measures it will implemented for the customers of Saudi Arabia.