Ecommerce Implementation

This report discusses the implementation of ecommerce systems and the importance of mobile presence. It covers topics such as system analysis, design, development, testing, and maintenance. It also explores social marketing campaigns and privacy issues in social networks.

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eCommerce Implementation
Student name
Course
Institution
Date

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Executive Summary
eCommerce has in the recent years received a lot of attention from a number of businesses.
This is because it allows the business to reach to a wider market segment and make the
services available to the customer at all times, whether day or night. The focus of this report
is on eCommerce implementation where the project will adopt the SDLC development cycle
to implement the eCommerce system. SDLC approach is made up of five key phases
including system analysis, design, development, testing, and maintenance. The second aspect
discussed is the social marketing campaign which is also made up of five steps including
customer acquisition, engagement, amplification, community, and sales or brand strength.
Thirdly, a number of social media privacy issues have been discussed and how to enhance
your privacy while using social media. Finally, the report discusses the importance of mobile
presence and how to achieve it through building a mobile app, mobile website, or a
responsive website.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Implementation Plan..................................................................................................................4
System Analysis.....................................................................................................................5
System Design........................................................................................................................5
System Development.............................................................................................................6
System Testing.......................................................................................................................6
System Maintenance..............................................................................................................6
Social Marketing Campaign.......................................................................................................6
Privacy in Social Networks........................................................................................................8
Mobile Presence.......................................................................................................................10
Conclusions and Recommendations to the Business...............................................................11
References................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
E-commerce implementation gives a business the capacity of to sell or rent products over the
internet allowing the clients to buy or rent at any time of the day. It also facilitates the
business to establish a strong brand, reach a new market, develop stronger relationship with
the consumers by enhancing their purchasing practice. Whether one is upgrading the current
system or implanting an ecommerce system for first time, implementation plan is one of the
most essential factors that should be critically analysed before launching an ecommerce
system. eCommerce has evolved over the years and has received a lot of attention in the
recent years (Amighini, Rabellotti and Sanfilippo, 2013). People are now shifting to online
shopping because of the convenience and shopping experience that comes with it. The days
that people had to visit a physical store to shop are physically being replaced by online
business and companies and enterprises should keep up with the changing business
environment. Currently, it has become a necessity for every business to have an online
presence where they can engage with their customers.
However, before implementing an eCommerce it is important to ensure the business have
enough resources to be able to afford an eCommerce solution that fully meets the needs of the
business (Datta, 2010). Nevertheless, a business should not implement an eCommerce
solution because everybody else is, but it should analyse its business requirements and
determine what the business needs. There are several aspects that a business should consider
before adopting any business system for instance tax implications and regulations for
operating and eCommerce business (Heinemann and Schwarzl, 2014). This report will focus
on describing the implementation approach that will serve as a guide for implementing the
car rental eCommerce application, steps involved in social marketing campaign, privacy
issues in social networks, and mobile presence in eCommerce.
Implementation Plan
As mentioned in the earlier section, an eCommerce implementation plan is a very crucial
element in the implementation of an eCommerce solution (Farooq et al., 2019). The plan
divided the implementation strategy into various steps that are identifiable where each step
has a distinct and unique objective that is necessary towards achieving a successful
implementation of the online car rental system. The implementation plan is comprised of the
five steps of system development life cycle (SDLC) which includes system analysis, system

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design, system development, system testing, and system maintenance. The implementation of
the eCommerce system has a higher possibility of failing if there is no proper guidelines or
plan that is being followed. Good planning is essential in situations that involves several
stakeholders (Farooq et al., 2019). Nevertheless, developing an implementation plan is a
complex process and is challenging because it requires the project team to identify individual
steps that are needed to achieve a specific goal. The implementation plan does not only test
the ability of the business to implement a strategy, but also its ability to change. The
implementation plan also specifies the roles of the different project members in the
implementation process.
System Analysis
This process involves gathering business and user requirements. There is need to also sort the
information that is needed for a successful implementation of the system within the
mentioned deadline (Koks, 2017). This will allow the project team to come up with a
practical and feasible time table. Additionally, it allows the project manager to verify that the
various phases have been completed successfully. This report proposes nine key steps that
will see successful implementation of car rental online system. The steps are discussed
below. Also, verifying the opportunity that the business has identified is important. It is
important to first analyse the potential benefits of the proposed system to the business
(Wither, 2016). The company needs to review the current online pricing issues, technology
implications, search engine opportunities, conversion rates, strength of the brand, the success
of the competitors, and web traffic. Once the company has developed a feasible scale of the
opportunity and scope of the visions, then the company can proceed to come up with the
appropriate stare tic approach. It also involves identifying the people or company that will be
involved in developing the car rental system. The company needs to analyse all the available
options and choose the one which can be able to deliver high-quality product that meets the
business needs and is within the budget. The next step involves shaping the vision of the
project where the development team and the business discuss on the different aspects and
identify those that will be given the highest priority.
System Design
This phase involves converting the user requirements into logical design that cane be
interpreted by the developers.It is important that the business model is explored. It is
necessary that a great customer experience is deliver in order to have a successful
eCommerce business (Yasin et al., 2016). Essentially, this means that the company need to
implement an elegant car rental system, timely and impeccable fulfilment, and responsive

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customer service, as this will go a long way in building customer loyalty and trust. The
company need to provide the budget for the implementation of the system. The company can
explore the different investment models available.
System Development
This step involves designing and building the car rental website. In the project, it is proposed
that the company will adopt the agile software development methodology while developing
the car rental system. In essence, Scrum approach, which is a type of agile methodology, will
be use because it facilitates rapid development of application solutions allowing the customer
to constantly review the product and allow the development team to make the changes as
needed (Trepte, 2015). Finally, adopt the various changeover strategies that will best suit the
business and launch the system, make it live.
Every step has a cascading and positive effect on the other steps and thus it is important to
implement all the steps correctly and in a manner that is acceptable.
This involve analysing the best option available such as developing an in-house system or
outsourcing it. Based on the budget and the needs of the business, an in-house customer-
developed online system will be suitable. It also includes simplification of the integration
strategy (Wither, 2016). The business needs to identify the existing systems that will be
integrated with the car rental system. Also, identify the critical factors that need to be taken
into account, the technologies available for development like Java of .NET, and the
eCommerce trends. Identify the different implementation partners (SCHU, 2018).
System Testing
System testing involves subjecting the system to a series of tests including unit testing, white
and black box testing to ensure that the system will be able to handle all the business
transactions without failing. Testing also is necessary to ensure that the system has met all the
business and user requirements identified in the system analysis stage.
System Maintenance
The company needs to have strategies for continued system maintenance including patching,
updates, and upgrades. Maintenance is important to ensure that the system is secure and that
all the processes are running with minimal interruptions.
Social Marketing Campaign
Social marketing campaign is a fundamental step towards increasing your presence among
the customers. It is a critical aspect that business needs to have an effective approach in
marketing the products and services (Alves, Fernandes and Raposo, 2016). This section will

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discuss five steps involved in social marketing process including fan acquisition,
engagement, amplification, community, and finally brand strength or sales. These steps are
discussed below.
Customer acquisition: social marketing is made up of several tools for getting in touch with
various market segments who are active online through email campaigns, search engine
marketing, re-targeting campaigns, socials network marketing, and display adverts using
different referral programs and networks. The company can employ the principle of: create
awareness, interest, desire, and action, (AIDA) (Kahn, 2017). It is necessary to mention that
customer acquisition can be very costly especially if the business is venturing their products
and services online for the first time. Nevertheless, it would be cheaper if the company has a
well-established offline strategy.
Engagement: once you have gotten the attention of the customers, it is important to engage
them and sharing information about the services and products offered by the company. The
customers are constantly seeking information on brand offers, process, details, comfort,
discounts, among others to enable them make purchase decisions. It is important to employ
the various communication channels such as social media to engage the customers in order to
build trust among them (Sakshi, 2017).
Amplification: this step involves optimizing the key processed based on key metrics to
measure how the business is performing online based on the number of visitors to the website
and the amount of revenue generated. Amplification also involves the percentage of the
visitors who have been converted to customers, cost of customer acquisition, and the number
of visitors to the website using the different channels. There is a significant difference
between these channels based on the objectives of the business, therefore, every business
needs to have a customized method of describing future analysis and key metrics. Once these
methods have been defined and the number of visitors visiting the website have increased
significantly, a deeper amplification level is required on the business and technology front.
Business amplification level involves analysis of the total spending, conversion rates,
percentage of cancelled carts, customer retention and loyalty rates, generated revenue among
others. Technology front involves amplification of the website to load faster, check-out and
shopping cart functions, and optimization of multivariate testing among others. There are
several functionalities and features that can be used to help the business enhance and increase
the rates of conversion and revenue generation. A number of studies have been done
regarding the same like display of the right product through cross-selling and up-selling and
ratings and reviews. Studies have shown that approximately 48% of the customers read

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product reviews before making purchase decisions and 64% of them are likely to buy
products with good reviews (Thakur, 2018).
Community: the community is one important aspect that many online retailers have ignored
yet it makes up the bigger percentage of the opinions aired online. Therefore, it should be
considered when formulating the social media campaign strategies. The community make-up
up to 75% of the overall activities recorded on the website every day. Basically, this means
that the marketing strategies need to be created around the community because of the long-
term benefits associated with them. The business has the responsibility of determining the
view of involving the community when implementing social media strategies.
Sales and brand strength: this step basically describe if the number of sales has increased or
the brand is becoming the ‘talk of the town’, that is, becoming established among the
customers (Yang et al., 2014). The number of sales is directly proportional to customer
retention. If the website offers the visitors amazing user experience, they are likely to
comeback and refer other people. The company will improve its brand awareness and
increase the amount of car rentals. The business needs to constantly seek new features and
technology that will improve the customer experience.
Social media campaign plays a significant role in online business because it is cheap and the
business can reach a wider market segment. With regards to this, the business needs to
understand the customers’ preferences and take up the initiative to fine-tune and streamline
its online experience to meet the dynamic changes of the customers. It also involves
understanding profitable customers, customer demographics and segments, the channels that
profitable customers used to access the website and the cost that the business have incurred in
attracting the profitable customers.
Privacy in Social Networks
As the company will be providing social media links to better improve customer involvement
and engagement, some privacy concerns may arise which may affect both the company and
the customer (Chung, 2016). However, it is needless to say that social media will be around
for a very long time and it is important to take advantage of the benefits but paying attention
to the information shared (Brookshire, 2017). The way social media is used can impact the
company and the customer both positively and negatively. Some of the privacy concerns are
discussed below.

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Impersonation and account hacking: recently, the number of cybercriminals including
hackers and spammers targeting social media users have increased significantly. A social
media account that has been compromised makes an ideal target because the attackers can
easily impersonate the user (Fernie, 2012). Cybercriminals are very interested in social media
accounts because it is an easy way to spread scams, malware, and viruses that the
contemporary email spam. This is because it is very easy to trust the messages sent from
social media accounts belonging to your friends and the possibility of opening the links sent
is high (Morrow, 2016). However, the company is putting in security strategies to ensure that
when being redirected from the website to the social media platforms, the customer will do so
securely.
Another privacy concern is harassment and stalking. It is not everyone who is a ‘friend’ on
social media is actually a friend. Some are there to bully and stalk the customers. Customers
may make some comments on the various business posts on social media and a person with
ill intentions can just click your profile from the comments and start harassing the customer.
As such, it is important to consider the people one is communicating with on social media
and attempt to determine their intentions. This is a very common issues that customers often
face on a daily basis.
Moreover, while being redirected to the social media sites, an attacker may attempt trick the
users into turning over their passwords. Many companies are constantly asking their
customers access to their social media which is inversion to privacy. Many countries have
tried to come up with legislations to prevent companies from asking for such information but
they have failed to take effect. Nevertheless, the company will not ask for access to the social
media accounts of the customers rather, it will only provide links to the company social
media pages and accounts to enable them have a more interactive engagement with the
business representatives managing the social media accounts.
Having an effective privacy intrusion and effective marketing is another concern. This is
because more online businesses are trying to have accurate target marketing on social media
and such efforts have resulted in the inversion of privacy. For instance, Facebook have
received a lot of criticism because of its targeting engine because it is discriminative
according to some users.
Many social media users are using smartphones to access their accounts and have shifted
from the contemporary desktop computers. Smartphones supports location services and as a
result the threat to security and privacy is increased. Research has shown that social media
apps collect information from the smartphones continuously without the knowledge of the

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users. Therefore, attackers can be able to identify your location based on the geo-data
collected from the smartphone.
In order to enhance privacy while using social media use strong passwords, avoid using
social media on public Wi-Fi and public devices, turn off location setting on the phone,
double-check the links sent to you before opening or clicking on them, employ the use of
two-factor authentication, and keep personal information available on social media to a
minimum (Surveillance, 2018).
Mobile Presence
Mobile presence is not a new concept to online retailers. It has become a necessity to invest
in mobile presence because currently, the biggest number of the customers are using
smartphones (Abarghooei, 2015). Mobile platform such as mobile apps have become one of
the most effective ways of connecting with mobile shoppers. The number of mobile shoppers
is increasing more rapidly that desktop shoppers. This is because of the aspects such as
convenience. The widespread and the evolution of mobile technology is fuelling mobile
shopping. Even with this great opportunity that presents itself to the company, it is important
for the company to understand how the customer use their mobile devices to interact with
online retailers. It has become an important factor for businesses to understand how to
interact with the increasing number of mobile user and shoppers (Mary Metilda and Malathi,
2016). A number on online businesses have started optimizing and revising their marketing
strategies to target the increasing number of mobile users.
First, the business needs to design mobile-first. This entails developing an app that will be
able to improve the various user experiences than that offered by the competitors. This is one
way of optimizing the business website to meet the needs of the mobile shopper. The number
of mobile users accessing the online retail stores has increased significantly and make up to
52% of the traffic that online retailers get (Mary Metilda and Malathi, 2016). It would be a
better strategy to design the system first for the mobile users and later think about how to
implement it to desktop presence. The mobile app should have search panel on all the product
pages to allow the customers to search from the product they are looking for rather than
constantly going back to the home page in order to access the search bar. It is important to
ensure that this functionality is also available on desktop platform. Google My Business
(GMB) listing offers a great opportunity for the business to optimize their search engine

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listings (O’Brien, 2017). The listing should include blog posts, reviews, photos, location, and
store hours.
Another way of achieving mobile presence is through creating a mobile app that will enable
the mobile users access the same functions and have the same user experience as those
accessing the website from a desktop (Katharina, 2011). It could be a wise move if the
business invests in customized retail mobile app. This is because studies have shown that
more that 91% of time used by mobile users is actually inside mobile apps (Sarikakis and
Winter, 2017). There are several strategies that the company can do with a retail mobile app.
The app provides in-store assistance to quickly identify the product of interest, enable users
to check their balances, earn and redeem points, and develop customer loyalty, and facilitates
the users with to learn more about the product they are interested in buying without having to
consult with the sales representative. Mobile presence should be complemented by supporting
the mobile pay to allow the users to make payment for the services without having to carry
cash or use credit cards. The mobile application should support showrooming where a
shopper is given an ‘in-store’ experience on the app. Basically, the users view products from
different angles from the picture provided for in the app. This enables them to find better
choices that best fits their needs. This increases the chances of preventing or avoiding the
chances of rejecting the delivered product. In order to have a competitive mobile presence, it
is important that prices are competitive and giving the customers rewards and discount by
shopping through the application.
Additionally, if the company have a limited budget and cannot develop a mobile app at the
moment, it can focus on developing a responsive website to allow the website to fit to any
screen automatically without compromising the look and feel of the user interface and the
overall user experience (Park, 2017). A responsive website is cheap and easy to implement
compared to a mobile app. It is also cheap to maintain. Moreover, the development team can
also develop a separate website version for the mobile users which, in most cases, has less
content than the original content and offers better experience for the mobile users. Mobile
website offers great flexibility and support analytics.
Conclusions and Recommendations to the Business
In conclusion, whether one is upgrading the current system or implanting an ecommerce
system for first time, implementation plan is one of the most essential factors that should be
critically analysed before launching an ecommerce system. eCommerce has evolved over the

ECOMMERCE IMPLEMENTATION 12
years and has received a lot of attention in the recent years. People are now shifting to online
shopping because of the convenience and shopping experience that comes with it. The
implementation plan also specifies the roles of the different project members in the
implementation process. The implementation of the eCommerce system has a higher
possibility of failing if there is no proper guidelines or plan that is being followed. Good
planning is essential in situations that involves several stakeholders. There is need to also sort
the information that is needed for a successful implementation of the system within the
mentioned deadline. This will allow the project team to come up with a practical and feasible
time table. The customers are constantly seeking information on brand offers, process,
details, comfort, discounts, among others to enable them make purchase decisions. It is
important to employ the various communication channels such as social media to engage the
customers in order to build trust among them. The business needs to understand the
customers’ preferences and take up the initiative to fine-tune and streamline its online
experience to meet the dynamic changes of the customers. It also involves understanding
profitable customers, customer demographics and segments, the channels that profitable
customers used to access the website and the cost that the business have incurred in attracting
the profitable customers. The way social media is used can impact the company and the
customer both positively and negatively. Impersonation and account hacking: recently, the
number of cybercriminals including hackers and spammers targeting social media users have
increased significantly. To enhance privacy while using social media use strong passwords,
avoid using social media on public Wi-Fi and public devices, turn off location setting on the
phone, double-check the links sent to you before opening or clicking on them, employ the use
of two-factor authentication, and keep personal information available on social media to a
minimum.

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