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Prototype of E-Commerce website for Classy Merchandises Limited

E-commerce has been noted to be among the rapidly growing retail industry segments in the last 10 years. Currently, the worldwide web is associated with numerous online stores, and merchants are noted to open approximately 20,000 novel e-commerce storefront each week (Karimov et al., 2011). E-commerce has proved to be effective in granting organizations a competitive edge over their rivals, who still focus on physical stores. Having a well-developed e-commerce websites serves as a significant step towards the attainment of a robust online presence in e-commerce (Bai et al., 2008). This paper presents a front-end e-commerce website for Classy Merchandises Limited. The paper accomplishes this goal by outlining the business background of Classy Merchandises Limited along with the aim of creating the website. The paper then proceeds to analyse the business using SWOT and PESTEL analysis (environmental analysis). Besides, the paper determines the objectives for the development of the website in relation to the business. The paper also develops solutions and concludes by employing a concept map to abridge the association among solutions, aims, and objectives.

Classy Merchandise Limited’s Business Background and Aim of Creating the Website

Classy Merchandises deals in household furniture and apparel for men, women, and children. The organization operates a range of physical stores in major cities across the country, and has some of its branches in other countries. Besides, the company is involved in the shipping of its products outside the country to other customers upon demand even in nations where it does not have branches. The organization employs a range of payment options including MasterCard, Visa, ZIP, and PayPal among others. Classy Merchandises has a well-equipped IT department with qualified staff. Even though the company serves a larger market, which is spread outside the country, its management has not managed to establish a robust online presence. The organization’s management intends to expand its market share by focusing on online consumers and compete effectively with other organizations that execute their operations over the internet. Classy Merchandises’ management aims to begin its transformation process by developing an e-commerce website where its online consumers can access information about the products the company sells. However, the organization’s management seems to lack an idea on how to accomplish its goal amidst tough economic times, stringent policies governing patency, and intense pressure from environmental groups for environmental conservation. As such, this paper aims to establish an e-commerce website for Classy Merchandises with the aim of ensuring that the company reaches online consumers and improves business efficiency by having a robust online presence and by integrating all business operations respectively.    

Analysis of the Business using SWOT Analysis and Scope, audience Analysis

Environmental Analysis

CHEN & LI (2015) define environmental analysis as a strategic tool employed in identifying the internal and external elements that impact organizational performance. Environmental analysis takes into consideration the evaluation of the level of opportunity or threat the internal and external factors might present to a business. These assessments are then transformed into the process of decision-making. Environmental assessment contributes to the alignment of strategies with the company’s setting (Shabanova et al., 2015). Organizations execute environmental analysis to establish the potential impact of certain elements of the operating and general settings on business activities. SWOT and PESTEL analyses are examples of environmental analysis.

SWOT Analysis

According to Shabanova et al., (2015), the SWOT analysis focuses on the assessment of an organization in relation to its strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats presented to it. The SWOT analysis of Classy Merchandises is shown below:

Strengths:

• Well-equipped information technology department
• Qualified IT personnel
• Provision of a range of payment options that can be integrated into an ecommerce website

Weaknesses:

• Lack of an online presence

Opportunities:

• Availability of online consumers across the world
• Presence of modern technologies that can be employed to establish robust ecommerce websites

Threat:

• Presence of well-established online businesses that subject the organization to intense competitions

PESTEL Analysis

PESTEL analysis focuses on the political, environmental, economic, legal, social, and technological factors influencing business performance (CHEN & LI, 2015). The PESTEL analysis for Classy Merchandises is presented below:

Political:

Political factors influence the level at which an administration or government may impact a certain industry or economy (Shabanova et al., 2015). Classy Merchandises operates in favorable political environment.

Economic:

Economic aspects determine the performance of an economy that affects a company in a direct manner and possess resonating long-term impacts (CHEN & LI, 20150. The tough economic moments can impact Classy Merchandises’ business performance in a negative manner.

 Social:

Social aspects scrutinize the market’s social setting and measure determinants such as demographics, cultural trends, and population analytics among others (Shabanova et al., 2015). Classy Merchandises operates in an environments characterized by diversity in cultural trends, as it targets consumers from different nations, ages, and genders among other demographics.

Technological:

Technological aspects entail innovations that may influence the industry’s operations and the market in a favourable or unfavorable manner. CHEN & LI (2015) add that the technological setting entails issues such as research and development automation, and levels of innovation awareness that an industry possesses. Classy Merchandise technological environment is favourable as seen in online business employing ecommerce website to enhance business efficiency and service delivery.

Legal:

Legal aspects are associated with both internal and external sides. There are certain regulations that influence the business setting in a particular nation, while there are some laws that organizations can maintain for themselves (Shabanova et al., 2015). Classy Merchandise operates in a legal setting characterized by stringent patency policies. Thus, the organization’s management should be informed about rights to ownership of ecommerce website designs and avoid issues that might involve the business in legal suits challenging the firm’s patent rights to its ecommerce website design.

Environment:

Environmental factors take into consideration the elements that are under the influence or determination of the surrounding environment. Examples of these factors are global transformations in climate, weather, climate, environmental offsets, and geographical location (CHEN & LI, 2015). Classy Merchandises operates in business environmental characterized by immense pressure from environmental groups for the need to conserve the environment. As such, taking its business online provides the company with an opportunity to avoid conflicts with such groups.      

Objectives for the Development of the Website in relation to the Business

In relation to the analysis above, the objectives for developing the ecommerce website for Classy Merchandises focus on five primary areas including online marketing, online purchase, customer centric design, maintenance and trust creation, and security implementation. 

Online Marketing

The website development will embrace an integrated marketing approach that incorporates content marketing, social media marketing, and email marketing. Proper content marketing contributes to the attraction of more sustainable conversations, interaction, and more positive attention (Liao, 2006). Social media marketing allows the organization to communicate with the market, industry, and consumers in a personal manner. Email marketing contributes largely to the reaching out to organizational customer base.  

Online Purchase

The objective of the website development will also entail having an online purchase platform that integrates a range of payment options such ZIP, MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal for all product categories. The product categories that will be considered in the website are official wear (menswear and women’s wear), casual wear (children’s wear, menswear and women’s wear), sitting room furniture (tables, chairs, sofa sets, shelves, and wall units) and bedroom furniture (beds, wardrobe etc.).

Customer Centric Design

Cyr et al., (2010) assert that a good ecommerce website design should be customer centric. Apart from offering different product ranges, the organization targets a range of consumers from various ages, gender, social and educational backgrounds. As such, the ecommerce website design will be made consumer centric by incorporating aspects of personalization, interactivity, accessibility, and usability. 

Trust Creation and Maintenance

According to Huang & Benyoucef (2013), trust creation and website maintenance are essential considering for a good ecommerce website design.  As such, maintenance and trust will be ensured by ensuring that customers’ confidence in the website is enhanced and that consumers continue to access up-to-date information. 

Security Implementation and Context

Ecommerce websites are primary targets for fraudsters and hackers via cross-site scripting and structures query language (SQL) (Cyr, 2008). As such, security implementation for an ecommerce website is an essential objective. Context is also a vital consideration for development a good ecommerce website, as it contributes to the appeal of the website to customers. Thus, the aspects of context and security implementation will be considered in the design of the ecommerce website. 

Solutions

Identifying and implementing the solutions for meeting the website design is a significant step to the realization of a successful ecommerce website (Zhou et al., 2009; Lee & Koubek, 2010). The objectives outlined in the previous section will be addressed using various solutions.

Online Marketing

Several measures will be embraced to ensure the incorporation of an integrated online marketing approach in the website. Content marketing will be accomplished by integrating links of newsletters, blog post, and videos about Classy Merchandises’ products and activities. Social media marketing will be realized by providing links to various social media networks including Facebook, twitter, and Pinterest among others. Email marketing will be accomplished by providing organizational emails.

Online Sales/Purchase

Online purchase and sales will be accomplished by providing a catalogue for the four product categories including casualwear, official wear, sitting furniture, and bedroom furniture. Besides, a platform that provides for various options of payment such as SmartCard, PayPal, and Visa among others will be integrated in the ecommerce website.

Customer Centric Design

The Classy Merchandises’ website will be made customer-centric by embracing several measures. Personalization will be accomplished by providing for user accounts for login in. This provision will only apply for a given class of consumers, particularly the loyal one with a long history of purchases with the organization. Interactivity will be accomplished by proving links to various social media networks. In addition, a platform that allows for a two-way communication between customers and Classy Merchandises’ management will be provided. Accessibility will be achieved by providing for a search engine where users can type in key words for the products for which they are searching. The organization of the website will also be simple and logical to allow for easy usability among users.

Trust Creation and Maintenance

Trust will be attained by providing organizational addresses such as location, telephone and mobile contacts, as well as email address. The website will also be subjected to a constant updating process and maintenance by seeking the services of a website management firm.

Security Implementation and Context

Multiple layers will be implemented safeguard the website against application level attacks like SQL injections and cross-site scripting. The system will also be subject to installation of security patches on frequent basis. Appropriate website context will be accomplished by incorporating attractive colour schemes, visual themes, graphics, and animations.

Website Design and Story Board

Cyr et al., (2010) assert that information architecture, which entails the organization and labeling of the content of the site, is critical to ensuring that users have a good experience when they visit an ecommerce website. In the development of the organization’s ecommerce website, a navigation map hyperlink will be employed in the development of the structure design. Beside, a story board will be employed for designing of the web page. Figure I below shows the storyboard that will be employed in the creation of the website.

Figure I: Story board for Classy Merchandises Ecommerce Website

Summary of the Association among Solutions, Aims, and Objectives using a Concept Map

Zhou et al., (2009) define a concept map as a diagram depicting the suggested associations between concepts or ideas. The concept map summarizing the relationship between the aim, objective and solutions is provided below:

Figure II: Concept map for relationship between aim, objectives, and solutions

Conclusion

Owning a well-established e-commerce websites is as a significant step towards the realization of a robust online availability in e-commerce. Adhering to the measures outlined in this document will contribute immensely to Classy Merchandises’ development of a good ecommerce website.