Design and Implementation of an Online Bookstore With E-Payment Integration (a Case Study of Madonna University Nigeria Bookstore)
Chapter One
AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
AIM OF STUDY
The sole aim of this study “design and Implementation of an online bookshop” is to create a website “Madonnastore” where an individual can visit and buy books via a web browser.
OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
The objectives of the study are as follows:
- To save time and energy of going to the physical bookshop to buy books.
- To save money as extra money supposed to be used to get to the physical bookshop is saved
- To enlighten individuals about electronic commerce.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Electronic commerce being a powerful concept and process has fundamentally changed the current of human life. Electronic commerce is one of the major criteria of revolution of Information Technology and communication in the field of economy. This style of trading due to its enormous benefits for human has spread rapidly. Certainly it can be claimed that electronic commerce has canceled many of the limitations of traditional business. For example, form and appearance of traditional business has fundamentally changed. These changes are basis for any decision in the economy. Existence of virtual markets, passages and stores that does not occupy a physical space, allowing access and circulation in these markets for a moment and anywhere in the world without leaving home has been made possible. Selecting and ordering of goods that are placed in virtual shop windows at unspecified parts of the world and also advertising on virtual networks and payment is provided through electronic services. All of these options makes one believe why electronic commerce is considered the miracle of our century (Laudon Carol, 2014).
HISTORY
In the 1970s, the term electronic commerce, referred to electronic data exchange for sending business documents such as purchase orders and voices electronically. Later, with the development of this industry the term of electronic commerce is used to business of goods and services via the web. When the first World Wide Web was introduced in 1994 as a comprehensive, many well-known researchers have been predicated this type of business “the web-based business” will became soon an important in the world economy, but it took four years that http based protocols should be widely available to users. The first electronic commerce created in USA and some European countries in 1998. These types of business are formed with beginner and unprofessional websites and it has been expanded rapidly. Electronic commerce was spread rapidly in most cities in America, Europe and East Asia in 2005. Some say dates of electronic commerce return to prior of the Internet, but due to the costs of this style of business, only business and financial institutions and corporations could use it. But with the widespread use of the Internet to all of the people and change the structure of electronic commerce, this kind of business from specific business case for a particular group out and became the industrial form (Asokan, 1999).
DEFINITION OF E-COMMERCE
(kyte, 1999) defined electronic commerce, commonly written as e-commerce or eCommerce as the trading or facilitation of trading in products or services using computer networks, such as the Internet. Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web for at least one part of the transaction’s life cycle, although it may also use other technologies such as e-mail.
According to (Fazlollahi, 2002) e-commerce as the sharing of business information, maintaining business relationships, and conducting business transactions by means of telecommunications networks”
He pointed out that e-commerce includes not only buying and selling goods over Internet, but also various business processes within individual organizations that support the goal.
(Angehm, 2000) proposed that there are four different types of information technology that are converging to create the discipline of e-commerce:
– Electronic messages email and fax
– sharing a corporate digital library
– Electronic document interchange utilization (EDI) and electronic funds transfer
Advertisements
– Electronic publishing to promote marketing, advertising, sales, and customer support
Electronic commerce is the symbiotic integration of communications, data management and security capabilities to allow business applications within different organizations to automatically exchange information related to the sale of goods and services (Dayle, 2001).
IMPORTANCE OF E-COMMERCE
Electronic Commerce (e-commerce) applications support the interaction between different parties participating in a commerce transaction via the network, as well as the management of the data involved in the process (White, 2010).
The increasing importance of e-commerce is apparent in the study conducted by researchers at the GVU (Graphics, Visualization, and Usability) Center at the Georgia, Institute of Technology. In their summary of the findings, the researchers report that “e-commerce is taking off both in terms of the number of users shopping as well as the total amount people are spending via Internet based transactions. Over three quarters of the 10,000 respondents report having purchased items online. The most cited reason for using the web for personal shopping was convenience (65%), followed by availability of vendor information (60%), no pressure form sales person (55%) and saving time (53%) (Fazlollahi, 2002).
FRAMEWORK OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
According to (Riggins, 1999) Electronic commerce framework is comprised of three levels which are needed for a successful electronic commerce. These levels include
INFRASTRUCTURE
The first part of the framework being the infrastructure, for electronic commerce is including hardware, software, databases and communications. It is used in term of World Wide Web on the Internet or other message switching methods on the Internet or other telecommunication networks (Nissanoff, 2006).
SERVICES
The second part of the framework is the services which include a wide range of services that provide the ability to find and present information and also include the search for trading partners, negotiation and agreements (Nissanoff, 2006).
PRODUCTS AND STRUCTURES
This section of the electronic commerce framework consist forecasts and direct provision of goods, services and trade-related information to customers and business partners, cooperation and sharing of information within and outside the organization and organizing of environment for electronic marketplace and chain of supply and support (Nissanoff, 2006).
THE SCOPE OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
(Feng, 2007)Proposes that electronic commerce encompasses one or more of EDI, EDI on the Internet, E-mail on the Internet, Shopping on the World Wide Web, Product sales and services on the Web, Electronic banking or funds transfer, Outsourced customer and employee care operations
Electronic Commerce automates the conduct of business among enterprises, their customers, suppliers and employees anytime and anywhere. It also creates interdependencies between your company’s value chain and those of your suppliers and customers. Your company can create competitive advantage by optimizing and re-engineering those value chain links to the outside (Singh, 2010).
IMPACT OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE ON MARKETS AND RETAILERS
Economists have theorized that e-commerce ought to lead to intensified price competition, as it increases consumers’ ability to gather information about products and prices. Research by four economists at the University of Chicago has found that the growth of online shopping has also affected industry structure in two areas that have seen significant growth in e-commerce, bookshops and travel agencies (Muzumdar, 2012). Generally, larger firms are able to use economies of scale and offer lower prices. The lone exception to this pattern has been the very smallest category of bookseller, shops with between one and four employees, which appear to have withstood the trend. Depending on the category, e-commerce may shift the switching costs, procedural, relational, and financial experience by customers (Mehdi, 2008). Individual or business involved in e-commerce whether buyers or sellers rely on Internet-based technology in order to accomplish their transactions. E-commerce is recognized for its ability to allow business to communicate and to form transaction anytime and anyplace. Whether an individual is in the US or overseas, business can be conducted through the internet. The power of e-commerce allows geophysical barriers to disappear, making all consumers and businesses on earth potential customers and suppliers. Thus, switching barriers and switching costs may shift (Mehdi, 2008). eBay is a good example of e-commerce business individuals and businesses are able to post their items and sell them around the Globe.
In e-commerce activities, supply chain and logistics are two most crucial factors that need to be considered. Typically, cross-border logistics need about few weeks’ time round. Based on this low efficiency of the supply chain service, customer satisfaction will be greatly reduced (O’Brien, 2011). Some researcher stated that combining e-commerce competence and IT setup could well enhance company’s overall business worth (Leung, 2000). Other researcher stated that e-commerce need to consider the establishment of warehouse centers in foreign countries, to create high efficiency of the logistics system, not only improve customers’ satisfaction, but also can improve customers’ loyalty.
CHAPTER THREE
SYSTEM ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
This chapter gives an insight of the methods of data collection used for the research, the system requirements, the functional and the non-functional requirements. The system requirements include the hardware requirements and the software requirements.
METHODOLOGY
In this project “design and implementation of an online bookstore”, different methods of data collection were adopted. Data was collected from journal articles, textbooks (E-books and non-E-books), periodicals and conference reports pertaining to this topic. There was face to face interview with colleagues and scholars in this field of study. Different websites were also visited coupled with the knowledge in the course “data mining and web science” acquired in the classroom and also review of previous documentations in similar works.
SYSTEMS REQUIREMENT
The web application will not work properly (or at all) without these technologies. It will (can) run on most server configurations, Windows or Linux based servers that utilize different Hypertext preprocessor (PHP) configurations.
CHAPTER FOUR
SYSTEM DESIGN
INTRODUCTION
The chapter presents the system design of the project which encompasses the system flowcharts, class diagrams, database diagrams, use case diagrams and the database tables used during this research. Also in this chapter contains the test plan of the proposed project
SYSTEM PROCESS FLOWCHART
The flowchart below shows the different stages of the system a customer undergoes when he or she visits the bookstore website in purchase of a book. On the home page, a customer is provided with search panel, shopping cart panel or account panel. On the search panel, the customer can enter a keyword which can be an author’s name, the book title or the International Standard Book Number (ISBN). A page is viewed with results of what keyword that was typed. If the customer is not satisfied with the result shown he re-enter a keyword else he selects an item and adds it to the shopping cart. There, he updates his shopping cart and if he is a member, he signs in to place order and make payment. Otherwise he creates an account and then login to place order and make payments. On the account panel, a customer can sign in or sign up (if he is a new customer) and then proceed to login and view account information or update account.
CHAPTER FIVE
SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the implementation of the system which involves getting the screen shots of the output got from trying some of the test cases earlier stated in the previous chapter. It also presents some of the interfaces of the system , feedback from other users of the system and also descriptions of the components of the system
CHAPTER SIX
CONCLUSION
SUMMARY
Design and implementation of an online bookstore is a project that is aimed at creating a website that will sell only books. In gathering information about this research, several methods were adopted which includes reading different books on the topic, downloading articles from the internet, face to face interview with scholars in the field of web design and also discussing with my classmates. The website was designed in a way that a user or a customer visits the website, searches and selects desired books for purchase, adds them to the shopping cart, logins in or register as a new customer, make payment via paypal, visa or credit card and then feeds in details for shipping purposes. The system was developed using Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) programming language, MySQL database management system and XAMPP server for offline testing purposes. The books in stock for sale are categorized in academic, spiritual, health and novel books. The academic books are further subdivided into sub categories of the following department: Pharmacy, medicine, biochemistry, engineering, computer science and mathematics. This website is managed by an administrator whose some of its functionalities are to add or delete books, add or delete a category and also to accept or reject members. In order to access this website, a web browser should be installed on the user computer or mobile device.
PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED
Designing and implementing an online bookstore was a topic to work on. Despite the fun, there were some major problems encountered. These major problems include:
- My inexperience in the PHP programming language and environment. In order to solve this problem, I watched video tutorials which were downloaded from the internet and also consulted my classmates who were good in programming.
- Difficulty in installing software like XAMPP. I was able to tackle this problem by seeking help from classmates.
- Linking the available database to the high level codes so as to enable implementation. This problem was solved through the help classmates and external colleagues.
- Security issues which are yet to be resolved. Amongst them is ensuring that the three tier of information security (i.e. Confidentiality, Integrity, Authentication) especially in terms of a customer making payments are met.
LESSONS LEARNT
Some of the lessons I learnt are as follows:
Programming
The Online Book Store Project helped me to improve my confidence level in PHP Programming.
Time management
Doing this project alone as an individual has thought me how to manage time. I have learned how to face tense situations and meet the deadlines as this would add professionalism and a good experience for me, for my future job prospective.
Documentation
Through this project, I believe that I have improved my Documentation skills.
Software Lifecycle
Theoretically, I have had the knowledge of software development lifecycle but never had any good practical experience regarding them. Through this project I have learnt how to carry out a project following the various stages in Software Development Life Cycle.
RECOMMENDATION
The use of online bookstore is becoming rampant. This is due to the fact that it saves time, money, energy it takes to visit a physical bookstore.Most times customers are granted favors like discount and bonuses. I hereby urge organizations and establishments especially the educational ones to abreast its use so as to allow many users to benefit from the above listed advantages of this recent trend of ecommerce for it also creates more room for motivating users of such websites as not just buyers but also great readers.
REFERENCES
- Angehm, A. (2000). Designing mature internet business strategies, the ICDT model. European management journal, 5, 4.
- Asokan, N. J. (1999). The state of the art in Electronic payment systems. Institute of electronic and electrical engineer journal, pp 2.
- Chen, L. (2000). Enticing Online Consumers: A technology acceptance perspective in progress. ACM proceedings, SIGCPR, (p. 22).
- Dayle, S. (2001). The E-Business book: A step by stepguide to E-commerce and beyond. Princestone Bloomberg press.
- Delone, W. M. (2004). Measuring e-commerce success. International journal of electronic commerce, 9, 31-37.
- Diwakar, H. M. (2000). The architecture of a one-stop web-window shop. ACM SIGecom exchanges, 2(1), 44.
