Improving E-commerce for Enhanced Business Performance using Website

Running head: GENERAL COMPUTING PROJECT
Method to improve e-commerce for enhanced business performance using website
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:

1GENERAL COMPUTING PROJECT
Acknowledgement
Conducting the research study enhances me to improve my knowledge as well as analytical
ability. It gave me the chance to face challenges all the while and conquer them. It will not be
possible to conduct the research without the significant direction of my professors, companions
and every one of who have added to this advancing knowledge. I will also want to thank my
supervisor _________________ for helping me in my research work as well as given me his full
support during the research process. I would also thank all the participants within this study for
giving their time and helping me out. From the support of people, I am inspired to work on the
research in this subject area. Finally, thank you to my family members those help me and
encourage me.
Thank You.
Yours Sincerely,

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Abstract
E-commerce website is online process of purchasing of products and services from the
online store. The research study is based on investigating the business potential for the internet
for small as well as medium sized enterprises mainly within UK. In this study, an e-commerce
website is implemented for Greenwoods which improve its current business performance.
Currently, the company is operated traditionally, and it is not operated online. Therefore, an
online website is created for the company which offers SME which is cost effective as well as
reliable. It provides with an opportunity to compete with larger counterparts. Into the
informational age, it is seemed that each of the organization has its own website which is
designed as well as maintained the reputation of the company. The report is being provided with
building of the online business, therefore the legal as well as regulatory issues are also analyzed.
Based on online perspective, e-commerce is provided ability to buy as well as sell of products on
the internet. Mainly, this project is based on online perspective through which the researcher
develops an e-commerce website for selling and buying of men’s wears through online mode.
The rationale of this project study is development of e-commerce website for a retail store which
is facing problems due to its traditional retail business. The website allows the retail store to sell
their products and services to online audiences. The focus of this study is to find the impacts and
also challenges of the e-commerce in the selected company. After the design of the website,
implementation is to be done with testing of the sites by use of various testing tools as well as
techniques. The customers can able to search for various items online and can buy the item not
going to the store through only one-click on the computer mouse. The research study is mainly
focused on the benefits of e-commerce website in the retail industry; issues that Greenwoods
face in their traditional business operations and development of e-commerce website improve

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business performance of Greenwoods. With the e-commerce website, the suppliers decrease
inventory cost of the goods that they can able to automate inventory management. The online
business opportunities of Greenwoods are to manage the suppliers, communicate with the
customers, offer of services online, allow the customers to purchase online along with research
on competitors. The online business opportunities change offline aspects of business like
promotions and range of products.

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................6
1.1 Background of the research project.......................................................................................6
1.2 Aims and objectives of the project........................................................................................7
1.3 Research project questions....................................................................................................8
1.4 Scope of the work..................................................................................................................8
1.5 Problem context.....................................................................................................................9
1.6 Rationale of the project........................................................................................................10
1.7 Limitations of the project.....................................................................................................10
Chapter 2: Analysis........................................................................................................................12
2.1 Identification and analysis of the problem...........................................................................12
2.2 Literature Review................................................................................................................13
2.2.1 E-commerce information management.........................................................................13
2.2.2 Benefits of e-commerce for retail industry...................................................................15
2.2.3 Issues that Greenwoods face in traditional business operations...................................18
2.2.4 Development of e-commerce website improve business performance of Greenwoods
...............................................................................................................................................20
2.3 Discussion and justification of the product requirements....................................................22
2.4 Justification of tools and techniques in the project work....................................................27
Chapter 3: Synthesis......................................................................................................................32
3.1 Design..................................................................................................................................32
3.1.1 Research about various E-commerce websites.............................................................32
3.1.2 Requirements Analysis.................................................................................................32
3.1.3 System Architecture and Design..................................................................................36

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3.2 Implementation....................................................................................................................43
3.2.1 Implementation of main web application.....................................................................44
3.2.2 Header of the website...................................................................................................45
3.2.3 Creation of tab menu structure and pages.....................................................................46
3.2.4 Home page of the website.............................................................................................47
3.2.5 The application page.....................................................................................................50
3.2.6 Blogs in the website......................................................................................................53
3.2.7 Implementation of plugin.............................................................................................57
3.3 Testing.................................................................................................................................60
3.3.1 Introduction...................................................................................................................60
3.3.2 Overview of the test architecture..................................................................................60
3.3.3 Discussion on the Content Management System..........................................................61
3.3.4 System under test..........................................................................................................65
3.3.5 Test architecture for communication purposes.................................................................68
3.3.6 Summary.......................................................................................................................68
Chapter 4: Evaluation and Conclusions.........................................................................................71
4.1 Evaluation of the product.....................................................................................................71
4.2 Evaluation of the project process.........................................................................................72
4.3 Conclusion and recommendations.......................................................................................73
References......................................................................................................................................78
Appendix – Website......................................................................................................................89

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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Background of the research project
The general computing project is based on improving the e-commerce for enhanced
business performance by developing of an e-commerce website. The selected organization for
this project is “Greenwoods”; it is chain of menswear stores with it does headquarter is in
Bradford, England. The products of Greenwoods are suits, jackets, shoes, shirts, pants and other
accessories (Greenwoodsonline.com 2015). The company faces various problems due to not
operating its business online, therefore the company faces challenges of low productivity and
profitability. Gregory, Ngo and Karavdic (2017) stated that invention of faster internet
connectivity along with online tools result into e-commerce website. This website offers
advantages to Greenwoods and their customers. The proposed e-commerce website of
Greenwoods consists of purchasing as well as selling of the products throughout electronic
system such as computer network, internet. The website has significant option of the business as
it develops an online store for Greenwoods. The customers can purchase the products 24*7 a day
which provides them with shopping experience (Wang, Wang and Liu 2016). E-commerce is
preferred as best way of shopping due to its easiness in addition to convenience. The customers
get description along with details from the catalog of products. With the e-commerce website,
the suppliers decrease inventory cost of the goods that they can able to automate inventory
management. In this way, the company can save the operational cost.
From the above discussion on e-commerce, it is observed that there are various benefits
and opportunities of e-commerce into retail industry. Greenwoods adopted of e-commerce and
enhanced their services and facilitated their customers which provide an impact on customer’s
behavior and industry (Turban et al. 2017). The focus of this study is to find the impacts and also

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challenges of the e-commerce in the selected company. Jarvinen and Karjaluoto (2015)
suggested that rapid emergence of the e-commerce into Greenwoods changed the business nature
of the company rapidly. Chi, Zhao and George (2015) stated that the e-commerce website
provides many opportunities for creating better business economics. Through development of the
e-commerce website, the company can better understand their customers. The customers can able
to search for various items online and can buy the item not going to the store through only one-
click on the computer mouse or Smartphone. The developed e-commerce website helps to
provide brand awareness into online landscape.
Wang, Pauleen and Zhang (2016) defined the definition of e-commerce into four
different perspectives. Firstly, on communication perspective, e-commerce is delivery of
information, products and services over the computer network and other means of electronic
means. Based on business perspective, e-commerce is application of technology towards
automate the business transactions. Based on service perspective, e-commerce is the tool to
address customers, managing to cut the service cost at the time of improving quality of goods
(Chuang and Lin 2017). Finally, based on online perspective, e-commerce is provided ability to
buy as well as sell of products on the internet. Mainly, this project is based on online perspective
through which the researcher develops an e-commerce website for selling and buying of men’s
wears through online mode.
1.2 Aims and objectives of the project
The project is aimed to develop an e-commerce website for Greenwoods to improve their
business performance by increasing their sales in the UK market. The study identifies the
problems into the traditional business of Greenwoods. The project also evaluates the benefits of
online retailing by use of e-commerce website. The online marketplaces allow anyone to set up