Creating a Process Model for eBay.com: E-commerce Technologies Project

This project focuses on creating a process model for eBay.com, an e-commerce platform. It begins with an introduction to e-commerce technologies and their impact, highlighting the need for process improvement within eBay. The assignment analyzes eBay's business model, including its C2C and B2C components, and identifies areas for enhancement. The core of the project involves developing an IDEF3 process model, which includes business requirements, logical and application layers, and key features. The business layer addresses the need for an improved user experience, while the logical layer outlines the steps from customer interaction to order fulfillment. The application layer details the system's processes, from product availability checks to payment processing and returns. The project concludes by summarizing the benefits of the IDEF3 process model for eBay, emphasizing its potential to enhance operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. The project showcases the application of process modeling to improve e-commerce operations, offering insights into how eBay can optimize its processes and maintain customer interest.

Create your own process model for
eBay.com e-commerce
Technologies

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Business Model and Auction details of eBay ............................................................................1
Business Requirement......................................................................................................................2
Business layer..............................................................................................................................2
Logical layer ...............................................................................................................................3
Application layer.........................................................................................................................3
Key features of using IDEF3 process model...............................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
E- Commerce technologies have brought various advancements in today's world as it has
helped in increasing the rate of activities and processes, thus attracting and satisfying a huge
number of customers (Hinz, Han and Spann, 2011). Although the structure of eBay is well
maintained but still, there are some loop holes that needs to be maintained, so it can be well
analysed with the help of IDEF3 process model. The model helps in determining what the system
of eBay is and what it does. There are some building blocks of the IDEF3 process model which
involves the junction links, behaviour unit and all the involved decompositions. eBay has been
considered as a well managed website that deals with providing various services and products to
the customers and also, has been successful enough in satisfying much number of customers. The
IDEF3 process model can help in creating a well maintained process model for eBay.com.
Business Model and Auction details of eBay
Although the website has been started in the year 1995, it has simply got out of the track
and much amount of people have lost interest in it. This may be because of some factors lacking
in the structure of the business. Although when the company was started, it has involved all the
essential features that were necessary for an efficient marketing, but still, some features were
lacking in the structure of their business. The business model of eBay is discussed as under :
C2C AND B2C
Overhead : Less
Competitive advantage : less
Risk : low
Start up feasibility : higher
Difficulty in sourcing : Lesser
Working
This model, C2C has been developed by eBay in order to provide a higher level of
satisfaction to all the customers as it meant from customers to customers. Moreover, they made
an expansion in their business model and the new one was named as B2C, which means business
to customers (Pt Joseph, 2015). B2C is considered as the sort of transaction in which eBay
focused on providing different types of products and services to the customers. Usually, it is also
referred to as the online marketing and sales in which the company made a website of their own
and involved all the processes on their website. Then, the customers on the basis of their choice
1

start purchasing the stuff from the website. This was the basic consideration with the
involvement of the B2C model. In contradiction, C2C, which the initial model used by the eBay
facilitates all the transactions of the services and products for the customers. It is being done
within customers only (Rosenblatt, 2013). So, all the selling, purchasing along with the other
processes was done within the customers only. So, the requirement of the company is a proper
implementation of the integrated definition for process description capture method (IDEF3)
process model so that they can be able to achieve every factor they were not able to achieve at
the time of C2C and B2C model.
With the help of IDEF3 process model, it can help in two basic factors and these are discussed as
under :
 Descriptions of the process flow for getting the idea of the relationship within different
actions.
 Object state transition for getting the idea of all the permitted states.
Business Requirement
Business layer
The business requirement for eBay is that for involving all those features which they
were not able to achieve before at the time of C2C and B2C model, they have to involve a set of
factors such as they should maintain the website in a way that when people will open the website
for booking, it should act as an easy procedure.
 The website should be attractive enough that it can attract the customers in one sight only
(Kim, Suh and Lee, 2013).
 Also, it should include all the necessary features such as the main and basic tabs should
be on front only, so that the customers can have direct access to the required tabs without
having any hectic etc.
 Also, it should be easy enough for customers to order. First, the customer selects the
product on the basis of their choice and then, selects the payment method, whether they
want to pay the money at the time of delivery or by means of credit or debit cards.
 So, then the company should ensure the fact that they should process the orders as soon
as possible, without any delay.
 Also, in case if some customer has some issue with the product, then eBay holds the
responsibility to take proper acre of it, by providing the replacement of the product to the
2

customer because by such means, customers also consider the fact that they are important
for their company which helps in maintaining their interest in the company.
3
Illustration 1: Business layer of eBay

Logical layer
Logical layer is considered as the layer that involves the composition of the components
of the business layer. The classification is being discussed as under :
 When the customer will visit the website of eBay, then, they can scroll for a large list of
the products, so it then depends on the choice of the customers.
 If the customer likes something as according to their choice, then the person either add it
to cart or go for the option buy now. For both the options, the person has to sign in.
 The ones who does not have an account in eBay, have to sign up for creating a username
and password. Then, the person will be able to save or purchase the product.
 Then, the customer makes payment by means of PayPal and the procedure of processing
the payment has been completed to carry on the order to be delivered.
 After that it comes to the duty of the eBay that they have to process the request, send the
order from the manufacturing store to the logistics that will deliver the product to the
store at the specified city.
 Then, from there, some marketing or sales agent will deliver the same to the person who
has made the order.
 After delivering the product to the individual, eBay can take feedback or reviews from
the customers about what was their experience with the products and services of the
company (David, 2011).
 It is important as well because there are some cases when the customer does not satisfy
with the product, so in such cases, they can tell the specific company about it and the
company may replace it as soon as possible.
 By such means, the customers also consider the fact that they are important for the
company, which helps in maintaining their interest in the company.
 So, this factor can help eBay in gaining much number of customers, thus a higher level of
productivity as well.
4

Application layer
As everything has to be planned before only, so the eBay does. From the process starting
at the customer visiting the website till the person receives the order, everything is analysed
properly. When the customer orders a specific product, first it is being checked in the system
whether it is available or not in the required size and colour as per the choice of the person. If the
product is available, then, the product of the customer gets confirmed and the payment method is
being asked to the customer. It is the choice of the customer whether they want to buy it from
their credit or debit cards or by means of cash on delivery. If the customer prefers the net
banking method or by means of credit or debit card, then, the customer have to fill in the details
of the card, then the payment is being processed. Then, the company checks whether the
payment has been received in the account or not. If the payment has been received successfully,
5
Illustration 2: Logical layer of eBay

in that case, eBay can start the processing of the order and within a few days, the order is being
delivered to the person who has ordered. There are some cases when the person is not satisfied
with the product and wants to return it (Sarbah and Otu-Nyarko, 2014). There can be two
processes considered, one is returning and the other is exchanging. So, in case of the
replacements requests, the company replaces the product with the one required and in cases of
the return requests, the company sends an agent for collecting the product and transfers the
specific money to the bank account of the person within a few hours. This policy of eBay has
attracted and satisfied much amount of customers because there have been observed some cases
when the company does not return any amount back on returning, rather they provide an option
for exchanging he product with some other.
6
Illustration 3: Application layer of eBay

Key features of using IDEF3 process model
There are various aspects through which the eBay can involve various changes in their
structure as it has some very special features such as asynchronising the design of the event drive
(Abbass and BIN IBRAHIM, 2013). It is because it avoids all the issues that are related with the
synchronising of the data or information that are included in their business and all the operations
running. It helps in maintaining the scalability of the operations that every factor and operation is
being done at the accurate time only and it is to be done so that the specified process can be done
in the given deadline only. It is because if it will take more time, then there is a possibility that
the operations might require more factors. This process model has been defined in a way that it
gets fit with the partitioning model as well, because it acts as a very flexible model. Also, it
supports a parallel execution which helps in making use of the resources as large as possible. It
can actually help eBay in achieving all the targets and goals in a faster time. This model is quite
different when compared to the other models of the process flow because it involves various
factors that can actually help eBay in gaining a successful number of customers along with the
maximized number of sales of the company because it has a well maintained and developed
structure that covers all the basic aspects of the requirement of an e commerce website that can
be able to involve all the basic set of elements that can be sufficient enough to satisfy the
customers to a huge extent and in reply to that, it is the responsibility of the company to take
proper care of the customers because customers are a very important part of the organisation and
they can only help the company in attaining all the targets and goals. By involving this process
model, eBay can even access the data scalability completely. Also, it includes a very special
feature which is termed as the custom O-R mapping. It also makes use of the beam managed
transactions that are usually auto committed to the database, so it can actually help eBay in
achieving all the targets and gaols and that too at a faster rate.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the report that people had lost their interest in eBay because the
structure was lacking in some essential factors. So, after replacing their C2C and B2C models
with the IDEF3 process model, the company observed enormous number of changes that helped
them in making their operations and processes more effective and appropriate, thus helped the
company in gaining much number of customers with a higher level of productivity as well. The
7

model consists of three layers such as business, application and the logical layer that helped in
making effective changes in the processing of products and services of eBay.
8

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abbass, S. M. and BIN IBRAHIM, O. T. H. M. A. N., 2013. A MODEL FOR DEVELOPING
ONLINE VERIFICATION AMONG E-COMMERCE CONSUMERS. Journal of
Theoretical & Applied Information Technology. 55(1).
David, F. R., 2011. Strategic management: Concepts and cases. Peaeson/Prentice Hall.
Hinz, O., Hann, I. H. and Spann, M., 2011. Price discrimination in e-commerce? An
examination of dynamic pricing in name-your-own price markets. Mis quarterly. pp.81-
98.
Kim, H., Suh, K. S. and Lee, U. K., 2013. Effects of collaborative online shopping on shopping
experience through social and relational perspectives. Information & Management. 50(4).
pp.169-180.
Pt Joseph, S. J., 2015. E-commerce: An Indian perspective. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd..
Rosenblatt, H. J., 2013. Systems analysis and design. Cengage Learning.
Sarbah, A. and Otu-Nyarko, D., 2014. An Overview of the Design School of Strategic
Management (Strategy Formulation as a Process of Conception). Open Journal of
Business and Management. 2(03). p.231.
9