Project Report On Online Shopping System For Retail Company

Project Goal

Client Information: 

This project is developed for a medium sized retail company, David Lawrence mainly known for their premium clothing collection throughout the Australia. The company was established in 1951 and since then it was able to maintain the legacy among other competitors. It provides wide range of options in fashion accessories that assist them to continue their business for this long period of time. The retail company has nearly 10 branches all over the New South Wales. They also has their 5 outlets outside the state. With a wide range of fashion accessories, the company has gained enough popularity in these few years.

Business Scenarios: 

The retail company, David Lawrence owns their property within fashion wear in the New South Wales. They mainly sell men, women and kid’s wear. They are much ahead of their competitors in terms of the sale of products and their yearly profit. The retail company has gained much popularity within a short period of time. The primary reason behind this is that they sell high quality products and their base of customers is extremely high. This has brought much opportunity for the customers as they get to view a wide variety of options in the retail store.

Identification of Business Requirements:

Although the company has made huge amounts of profits in terms of sales and making a huge customer base, but still the owners of the company think that they should expand the market of their business. The company already has their physical outlets in several places.

The company now wants to establish their presence in the area of online markets. They want to list their products in the online market so that they could reach to new customers. People who were not able to explore the store in a physical form would also be able to view their products on the online based domain and thus purchase their products. This would help in gaining a new set of customers, which would further increase the amount of sales for the company.

Approach: 

Based on the above decision made by the company, it could be said that the online based shopping would be beneficial for the company. This would help in reaching to a wide range of customers from all over the world. The project would be launched on the cloud server platform. This project would require the help of multiple iterations and the customer would need a quick response from the system. Hence the system would require an agile based approach. This approach would help in improving the viewing experience of the customers. They would be able to view multiple products on a single page.

With the help of the online shopping system, the customers would be able to buy their favorite right from their homes just by having an internet connection. Customers would be able to buy their products just within a click. They would also be provided the facility of paying through several options such as by using their credit/debit cards, PayPal or even through the process of cash on delivery. Users can sign in to the system or they could even buy the products just as a guest user.

Project Planning and Management

Expected Outcomes: 

The implementation of the online form of shopping option for the customers could have a major impact on the approach of the business. Customers would also be benefitted from this approach. They would not have to visit the store. Rather they can sit back at their homes and purchase their products. The outcomes for the business is that they would have a huge margin of profit within the existing business. They would have to look to look into newer form of options in order to reduce the labor costs though it would mean the expanding of the business.

With the implementation of the online platform within the retail company, this would also help in increasing of the involvement of various other brands who would wish to merge with the business. This would also help in building a better reputation for the company. Hence this would help in incurring several form of opportunities for investment within the business. This would be beneficial for the company as it would open new horizons for the company.  

Like any other typical project, this project is also consist of many identifiable phases. Every phases has its unique value and challenges. This phases are needs to be completed under certain resource and budget allocation in order to develop the project effectively. If one of the phases is planned wrongly it will affect other phases, in worst case the project will fail. Effective project planning and management is a major factor for this project as well.

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors	Resource Names
sprint 1	18 days	Thu 6/21/18	Mon 7/16/18
Planning	11 days	Thu 6/21/18	Thu 7/5/18
Gain relevant information of online market	1 day	Thu 6/21/18	Thu 6/21/18		General Manager
Analyze and decide the requirements	2 days	Thu 6/21/18	Fri 6/22/18		CEO,Genral Manager,Programmer
Register the domain name	7 days	Mon 6/25/18	Tue 7/3/18	4
Manage investment	1 day	Thu 6/21/18	Thu 6/21/18		CEO
Analysis	4 days	Thu 6/21/18	Tue 6/26/18
Generate information on online shopping	1 day	Mon 6/25/18	Mon 6/25/18	4	Genral Manager
Finalize domain Name	1 day	Fri 6/22/18	Fri 6/22/18	6	System Analyst
Finalize Requirements	2 days	Wed 7/4/18	Thu 7/5/18	5	CEO
Design	3 days	Thu 6/21/18	Mon 6/25/18
design the basic layouts	2 days	Fri 6/22/18	Mon 6/25/18	6	System Analyst
Design the database schema	3 days	Thu 6/21/18	Mon 6/25/18		Programmer
Create the website interface	2 days	Thu 6/21/18	Fri 6/22/18		Programmer
Milestone 1:    Information Collected and created web site	0 days

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors	Resource Names
Sprint 2	16 days	Thu 6/21/18	Thu 7/12/18
Planning	2 days	Thu 6/21/18	Fri 6/22/18
Collect product Information	1 day	Thu 6/21/18	Thu 6/21/18		System Analyst
Collect sales and Promotion details	1 day	Fri 6/22/18	Fri 6/22/18	3	System Analyst
Analysis	7 days	Thu 6/21/18	Fri 6/29/18
evaluate categories needed for each product	4 days	Thu 6/21/18	Tue 6/26/18		Programmer
finalize on website theme and user interface	3 days	Wed 6/27/18	Fri 6/29/18	6	Programmer
Design	5 days	Mon 7/2/18	Fri 7/6/18
add products categorically	2 days	Mon 7/2/18	Tue 7/3/18	7	Programmer
Produce Product catalogues	1 day	Wed 7/4/18	Wed 7/4/18	9	Programmer
Add checkout and shopping cart service	2 days	Thu 7/5/18	Fri 7/6/18	10	Programmer
Implementation	2 days	Thu 6/21/18	Fri 6/22/18
Produce Website with all Products details	1 day	Thu 6/21/18	Thu 6/21/18		Programmer
website with products checkout and shopping cart	1 day	Fri 6/22/18	Fri 6/22/18	13	Programmer
milestone 2: Products details and checking out service added to the website	0 days	Thu 6/21/18	Thu 6/21/18

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors
sprint 3:	26 days	Fri 5/18/18	Fri 6/22/18
Planning	2 days	Fri 5/18/18	Mon 5/21/18
Get SSL certificate for accepting payments	1 day	Fri 5/18/18	Fri 5/18/18
decide on services to be included	1 day	Mon 5/21/18	Mon 5/21/18	3
Analysis	3 days	Tue 5/22/18	Thu 5/24/18
Finalize Payment methods	1 day	Tue 5/22/18	Tue 5/22/18	4
determine to include google maps, feedback and forum services	2 days	Wed 5/23/18	Thu 5/24/18	6
Design	14 days	Fri 5/25/18	Wed 6/13/18	7
Payment done through PayPal, credit card and Cash on delivery	3 days	Mon 5/28/18	Wed 5/30/18
customer log in and accessing through Facebook or twitter	5 days	Thu 5/31/18	Wed 6/6/18	9
Services Included: google map, feedback and forums	3 days	Thu 6/7/18	Mon 6/11/18	10
Delivery service  facility	3 days	Tue 6/12/18	Thu 6/14/18	11
Implementation	6 days	Fri 6/15/18	Fri 6/22/18
test the system	2 days	Fri 6/15/18	Mon 6/18/18	12
Finalize the system	2 days	Tue 6/19/18	Wed 6/20/18	14
deliver to the client	2 days	Thu 6/21/18	Fri 6/22/18	15
Milestone 3: added service to the website	0 days	Thu 6/21/18	Thu 6/21/18
Milestone 4: system finalized and delivered	0 days	Thu 6/21/18	Thu 6/21/18

As planned earlier, this project is divided in four phases to make it easier to understand and monitor. Sprint 1 is consist of three sub phases as planning, analysis and design. The sprint 1 is will take estimated twelve days to complete. However, the design phase can take more than two days to complete the milestone. System Analyst and programmer both are external stakeholder. Depend on the analysis report, the design could be more complicated as the e-commerce system also needs to be introduced in the new website design. In the next stage, the implementation phase is divided on the four phase as planning, analysis, design and implementation. This phase will be responsible for adding services to the website including product details. Execution phase is the most crucial phase as it will take twenty nine days to complete. This phase is responsible for finalize payment method and deliver the website to the client.

Business Process Diagram for Online Order System

Source: (Author)

Project management practice is also essential to complete the project effectively. Adopting some practice will provide an extra edge (Sheffield and Lemétayer 2013). The organizational value of practicing project management is a central theme comprising much of the field’s current research and debate. Such value, however, particularly in terms of return on investment (ROI), is one that researchers and practitioners cannot easily calculate for every aspect of professional practice. Adopting appropriate practices the identification of valuable aspects can be perceived. For completing the project effectively we are utilizing the SCRUM. SCRUM is a stands for service oriented architecture, a framework utilized to assist the team members. The team member addresses adaptive problem with productivity and creatively delivering products. This framework assist us simplify the main problems by divide the project into smaller sprint.  It helped the stakeholders to focus on a particular task at a time. It also assist the team members to conduct an effective communication with each other (Park and Lee 2014). This effective communication assist the team members to solve many critical challenges. In addition to that this approach assist the managers to maintain and monitor the time schedule of each sprint which are planning, analysis, design and implementation. While following the SCRUM framework we were able to enable the lifecycle development. In addition to that it also assist us to recognize the customer requirement (Schwalbe 2015). Dual recognition (that customers will change their minds abbot what the want) managed while maintain the team members to achieve the common goals (Olson 2014). We are also able to adopt an evidence-based empirical approach to focus on the maximize the ability to deliver the project under deadline. The cross-functional team and team responsibility is also defined through the practices. The teams are supported by two specific roles. The first is a scrum master who can be thought as a coach for the product owner (PO) is the other role, and in Scrum software development, represents the business, customers or users, and guides the team toward building the right product.

Project Schedule

 

SPRINT 1

 

SPRINT 2

SPRINT 3

The SCRUM maser is responsible for use SCRUM process to perform at the highest level. We also adopt other practice such as service oriented Architecture. The Microsoft SOA can be defined as a set of a component which can be invoked and whose interface descriptions can be published and discovered (Nicholas and Steyn 2017). Service oriented architecture assist to improve performance and communication between distributed and remote teams. Web Services also assist the team members to Provide Project Management software the control and control of the application development lifecycle-giving including better control over the entire development process, from the management stage through development (Markham and Lee 2013).  This means that services like Google maps and feedback services are used in our system to complete our project.  

Input and Output:

The design is made in that way so that the client and the project manager will establish the communication. The user interface of the website is not complex as all te user will be able to use the website very easily (Luthans and Doh 2018). The products on the website are listed and the customer will be able to buy the products from the website with ease. The customer need to provide their details to the website for buying the products for the website. For the each category is mentioned on the website. The interface of the website is very simple ye many technology is used in the website. For the e-commerce implementation the cloud computing is implemented on the website back end. And the databases are also included to store the details of the customers (Lee 2015). The input design is made for the user input as the user will input the relevant information for accessing the website. And the output design is meant that the website will produce the relevant output for the user or the customer of the website. The architecture of the website is depend on the front end process and the back end process (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017). The technology that is used on the website is have to be properly implemented. The servers, databases and other components are the main parts of a website. The server’s capacity must be high unless the website will be crashed if at one time many user will be trying to access the website. So the server capacity must be customizable as per the requirement so that at one time many people can access the website. The database size must be high so that as many people will be able to input their details to buy the details. An architecture of a website is mainly the structure of the website (Heldman 2018). The structure of the website determines the objectives and the goals of the website. If the goals and the objective of the website is clear then it will give the user an experience that will be helpful for the customers of the website (Heagney 2016). The architecture must be determined before making the actual website design or developing. The website architecture of this website is created a layout that is logical to the user and the requirement of the business (Duboisand Tamburrelli 2013).  

Information System Design

Service and Design:

Website architecture has many factors that are needs to be taken care of. The first portion is the technical portion such as the communication interfaces, memory and servers. Then comes the aspects that are functional, like the processes and the serviced provided by the website (du Plessis and Van Niekerk 2014). Visual appearance is one another factor which includes the user interface, buttons, colours and other design elements. The last factor is the security parameter, which ensures the security of the website for the access control and the transactions. In this website the main technology that is implemented is the cloud computing technology. The cloud platform is very convenient to use as the cloud computing uses many services like IaaS, PaaS ans SaaS (Doloi 2013). The cloud computer provide many features to the website. The key features of the cloud computing that is provided into the website are like the self service. That enables the customer to collaborate with the platform of the cloud in the website. The cloud enables the services of the computing abilities (Davis 2013). No communication with the cloud service provider is needed. Another factor is the pricing as the cost of the cloud computing is less. And the cloud is also light to use. The cloud is straightforward and can be accessed by the client. Service quality is another factor that is need to be taken care of. The cloud computing must assure that the service for the clients is good. And one feature is elasticity and resource pooling. In this the assets are pooled countless served (Davis 2014). The asset flexible is very flexible. The extra issues are have to be fixed and then it must come to the ordinary level. Problem solving method is also added to the website. After support is given to the customer. The customer will be able to add their feedback to the website and the owner of the website or the company officers will be take care of the complaint and provide the service as per required.

Platform: 

For the clients we are proposed a cloud based infrastructure for servers, storage, database, networking and software deployment. There are many organization offering this computing administration called service provider (Coulter et al. 2013). There are several advantages of using cloud as on demand service, resource pooling, pricing compatibility and quality of service. Cloud based infrastructure is appropriate for the client as they do not have any pre-server installed. The website is a very new idea for them (Conforto et al. 2014). They never used any web based service to expand their business and compete with competitors.  Cloud computing must assure the best service level for clients. Services plot in the service-level assentions must incorporate certifications on round-the-clock accessibility, satisfactory assets, execution, and data transfer capacity. Any trade off on these certifications could demonstrate deadly for clients.  The cloud based infrastructure will provide an extra edge as the clients does not have to maintain the cloud infrastructure or any critical process (Conde et al. 2014). The service provider will be responsible for monitor and maintain the whole system. So client can focus on their products rather than services.

IaaS	PaaS	SaaS
· Storage (2 TB)	· Oracle database management system	· Paypal
· Server x 2	· Google engine	· Forums
	· JavaScript	· Facebook
	· Gmail

System Implementation

IaaS (Infrastructure as a service):

This allows the users to run/migrate application on the hardware of the cloud provider. In this model, applications are hosted by third party and given access to the users via the Internet (Binder 2016). David Lawrence here uses the OpenStack cloud operation system developed by IBM Smart cloud enterprise. This makes the proper use of the 2TB storage from Google and 2-server from IBM OpenStack (Ashkanasy et al. 2016). The IBM cloud manager Openstack with openstack solution provides software, architecture and mechanism that deliver openstack clouds to the client business environment. In addition to that the open, interoperable and potable openstock cloud services will assist accelerate delivery times utilizing a managed private cloud with dedicated compute, storage and networking services.

Adoption of Cloud: 

Automated Deployment: Cloud will enable the ability to provision resources on demand. The host log-in and all configuration were applied through API provided by cloud service provider. The IAAS model is utilized to define the trigger for scale in/out (Abrahamsson et al. 2017).  For many native cloud services, the cloud provider is responsible for scale-in/out the underlying infrastructure. Cloud service provider are responsible for hardware provisioning, setup and configuration, replication, and in some cases, software patching, and cluster scaling. The true benefit of cloud can only be realized by using native cloud services.

Result Analysis and Conclusion 

The retail company, David Lawrence that is situated in Australia sells fashion wear for men, women and children and other kinds of fashion accessories. They have their branches in various places all over the state. The physical store of the company is always crowded with people who always visit the store in order to purchase different kinds of fashion related items.

Recently, the company has noticed the fact that they have their presence only within the physical market. Due to this, the public would only be able to visit the store on a physical basis. The people within the company have recently decided to establish an online platform of the company. They would list their products on the online platform, which would be helpful for the company to expand the business. This would also be helpful for the people as they would not have to visit the physical store as they would have the facility to view their favorite products from their devices. This would increase the customer base of the company. The customers would be a major factor for the growth of the company. People would recommend other customers for viewing the online platform of the shop and hence buy their products.

The primary goal of the company is to establish a newer arena within the existing business market with the help of the online shopping system. People from all over the world would be able to visit the online store and thus they would purchase their products. The business mainly expects to gain a much wider base for the customers. This would help in gaining much more profits for the company. They would also provide several platforms for the facility of payment of the company. Customers could pay with their card, Paypal, BPay and many other options of payment. They could also be provided with the facility of paying with the help of cash on delivery. Users can sign in as a new user or they could also purchase products by signing as a guest user.

Results Analysis and Conclusion

Based on the discussion of the newer form of the implementation of online based purchasing system within the business, it could be described that this form of online business ideas would be helpful for increasing the margin of profits for the business. The new form of the business system would increase the margin of sales for the company.  For the retailing business of the cloths we have made the project. The project is to implement a website for the business. While developing the project the project manager and the team had to face many problems during the development phase. After the risk mitigated then the project is implemented successfully for the business. The business will benefitted a lot from the business. As the business will come online so the scope will be high for the business. For the online implementation of the website for the business the customer can purchase the products online from anywhere by sitting at home. The project is made in that way that it will be easy for the users to use the website and go through the product in order to buy them. There are many benefit of coming with the business online like the online platform is very less expensive, the advertising of the online website is very easy, it provide satisfaction to the user as using the website is very convenient, the online platform will engage more and more customers for the business, there will be no closing time for the business as the online platform will work 24*7, the user will be able to see the information of the business and the products on the website, the marketing is easy by sharing the links and it is known as the viral marketing, the website will offer better relationship with the customers and the business, as the customer is increased the sales of the business will also increase, the customer who will buy a product may be ended up by life time user and buyer of the business. The project is very helpful for the business and the business will be very beneficial from the website and it will generate a good amount of revenue.

User must be familiarized with the some factors in order to utilize the system properly. User must be familiar with the interface with the system including operating system environment. Even though, most of the operations will be monitored by the cloud service provider, user needs to know basic instruction to operate the system. The input format is either specified or implied on the DATA LIST or GET DATA. Output formats expanded to include punctuation characters, such as decimal indicators, grouping symbols, and dollar signs. Customer can easily log-in after register in the website. They will be able to buy any commodity from the website without visiting the retail shop. Back hand users will be able to add products and related details such as price, description and offer details. The system will also be platform independent so clients does not have to spend money for buying specific system

User Documentation

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