E-Commerce for a Small Supermarket Matt and Grace own a small supermarket in a r
ID: 423436 • Letter: E
Question
E-Commerce for a Small Supermarket Matt and Grace own a small supermarket in a rural town with a large and grow- ing elderly population. Because of their remote location, they don't have any competition from the large chain stores. A small private liberal arts college, with about 1,500 students, is also located in the town. "I think we need a website for our store," Matt tells Grace. "Why?" asks Grace. Everybody has one. It's the wave of the future," responds Matt. I'm still not clear, Matt. What would be on our website?" Grace asks. "Well, for one thing we could have a picture of our market with me and you standing in front of it," says Matt. "What else?" asks Grace Matt answers, "Ah, maybe people could look up stuff and order it through the website. Yeah, those college kids would think that's great; they're into using com puters all the time. That will increase our business. They'll buy food from our tore rather than the pizza and burgers they always eat or get delivered from Sam's Sub Shop. And those people who live in the senior citizens' apartments would use it, too. I heard they're teaching them how to use computers. And maybe we can even set up a delivery service Hold on," says Grace. "Those college students get pizza and subs from Sam's at all hours of the night, long after we're closed. And I think the senior citizens enjoy getting out. They have a van that brings some of them here each day to shop, and they really don't buy much anyway. And how will they pay for what they order through the website? I'm all for keeping up with things, but I'm not sure this makes sense for our little supermarket, Matt. What would we be trying to accomplish with a website? just explained it to you, Grace. It's the way all businesses are going. We either keep up with things or we'll be out of business," replies Matt. Does this have anything to do with that Chamber of Commerce meeting you went to in Big Falls last week, where you said they had some consultant talking about e-business or something?" asks Grace. Yeah, maybe," Matt says. "I think I'll give him a call and tell him to stop by and tell him what I want." "How much is all this going to cost us, Matt?" asks Grace. "I think we need to think about this some more. You know we are probably going to have to pave the parking lot this summer Matt answers, "Don't worry. It'll all work out. Trust me. Our business will crease so much, it'll pay for itself in no time. Besides, it can't cost that much; this consultant probably does these kinds of projects all the time." CASE OUESTIONSExplanation / Answer
The first phase of the PLC of the e commerce site for a small superstore will be the identification of the functional and technical requirements of the project. The deliverables are in form of documantation of specifications with testing plans and steps for functional validation. This document will be agreed upon by all parties to the project to their satisfaction and for further action.
The second phase is the design phase where key elements of the design are identified with user interface and user experience to enable the users to give a complete and seamless experience. The deliverable of this phase is to give the client a fair idea about the design features and look of the website.
The third phase consists of development or building phase. In this process the visual design and the back end systems are brought together using appropriate coding technology. This phase is focussed on the development team which will give the users timely update on the progres of the project and timeline for completion, sharing the difficulties and issues they face with the project.
The last phase is of testing and debugging. The objective of this phase is to test the functionality and integrity of the website construction so there may be no hickups later. It is to ensure that the site will function seamlessly on all kind of devices and interfaces it will be accessed through.
Besides functional experience, it needs to be tested for financial transactions using different methods of payment to ensure that the transactions are carried out with ease. Also necessary is the integration of these payment methods with ordering process for a flaless customer experience.
Set up, training and handover are the last part of the project where the system in now set up for functional use, users are trained to operate maintain the site and the system is ready to operate.
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