E-commerce assignment and examination

On October 19, 2004 at 4:00 PM, Osman wrote:

Would you achieve more marks for working alone? Or it does it ALL count on your answers in the exam?

On October 19, 2004 at 4:04 PM, Jonathan wrote:

It depends. In some ways it is easier to brainstorm and come up with creative ideas in a group but all the marks are for individual work. I think pairs would be a good compromise.

I am trying to simulate what happens when you pitch a real project. You work behind the scenes to get your ideas together but then you go as an individual to have those ideas scrutinised by the client. What they think of you is largely on an individual basis.

In this case it will be your ability to clearly summarise key points from your proposal and think on your feet that will determine your marks.

On October 21, 2004 at 8:31 AM, Simon Hukin wrote:

Does the business already have to have an online presence, or would it be acceptable to use a company that is currently looking into the creation of an e-commerce site?

On October 21, 2004 at 8:34 AM, Jonathan wrote:

Simon. Let me know who the company is and I'll make a decision. If they are a recognised UK retailer or catalogue company then it will be fine. If they are yet another company planning to assemble unbranded PCs then probably not.

On October 21, 2004 at 4:12 PM, Rob wrote:

I know of a Music Venue in Cardiff that is in need of modernisation of their website. They are trying to remarket the venue as a multi purpose use veune and so the website is in need of this as well. It forms a basis for marketing the venue as well as selling tickets for shows etc for themselves and their affiliates. The current site is very poorly designed and I think I can apply a lot of what I have learnt so far in this module to improving this website.

Let me know if this is a viable option or if you would prefer us to work with larger companies providing a wider range of services.

www.thepointcardiffbay.com

On October 21, 2004 at 4:16 PM, Jonathan wrote:

Rob. I am happy to approve The Point Cardiff Bay - their current site is very poor :-) and I'm sure you could make a big difference. You do need to include ticketing or some other revenue generating activities.

On October 23, 2004 at 12:57 PM, Simon Hukin wrote:

Jonathan. They are a very well established jewlery shop in sheffield, but as far as i am aware, they have only one branch. The company name is UK BULLION (formerly ASC PRECIOUS METALS). Not yet discussed this idea with my possible team, so just a suggestion. Thanks

On October 24, 2004 at 9:56 AM, Jonathan wrote:

Simon - I'm not against you using UK Bullion although I cannot find them listed as a company anywhere. You may find it easier to use a more mainstream company.

On October 25, 2004 at 10:01 AM, Andy Stone wrote:

I've been marking these assessments with Jonathan for a couple of years now, and I'm sure he won't mind if I add a couple of other things which everyone should consider when choosing a company:

1. Make sure you're fully aware of how the company you choose differs from its competitors (both within the type of industry, and - where appropriate - its target audience).

A good example from previous years was Heart FM. Just because it's in the radio industry, doesn't mean to say that the strategies that may work for, say, Kiss 100 or XFM, might be perfect for Heart. Although radio stations have all been increasing their interactivity through various media, have web streaming, etc. the types of partnerships and cross-marketing would be tailored towards the demographic profile of their target audience. Heart FM aim towards, predominantly female and slightly older audience than other stations, and I felt that people missed picking up on how you might capitalise on this.

2. In previous years, people have said that they can't fit everything into a 10 page report. This doesn't mean to say that you can't think about the kinds of issues which we will be covering over the duration of this module, and think about how you would deal with questions about these - a well-thought out proposal should be able to provide a good base for adding context to your understanding and critical awareness of such issues.

This is why the assignment and examination is structured the way it is - it's certainly possible for all members of a team to provide very different (but still very good) answers from the same starting point, but at the same time, if someone in the group hasn't been putting the same amount of work in over the duration of the module, it is very likely that the quality of their answers will reflect this.

Finally, bear in mind that the examination questions are there for us to determine how well you have achieved the goals of the module.
As you go through this course, it's a good idea to keep taking a look at what we expect you to be able to do by the end of the module, as this is what you are likely to be examined on.

http://www.jonathanbriggs.com/articles/Electronic%20Commerce%200405%20Module%20Guide_329BA.html

On October 28, 2004 at 4:13 PM, Raj Dhugga wrote:

Jonathan I was looking at the Safeway website and I think that it is in need of a major redesign. I know that Morrisons have decided to takeover the company so i was surprised that they haven't done this. When I was searching through the web site it seemed very basic, with generally little information on any products or services they provide. I also noticed that they didn't offer any online purchasing system. I was wondering if this would be a good choice for a case study.

http://www.safeway.co.uk/index.html

On October 28, 2004 at 4:17 PM, Jonathan wrote:

I think the takeover by Morrisons is the reason and I would expect a new site of this size to take 6-9 months to redesign - there will be a lot of backend work to do as well as new graphics etc. I will certainly let you use this as your case study.

On October 29, 2004 at 3:40 PM, Alex wrote:

Hi Jonathan, after looking at the sites in your list i have found that none of them are as rubbish as Top Man's web site. Could you have a look at it and see if it is suitable for the case study. I didn't find any of the sites in your list that bad and in the case of Dixons i thought it was a very good website. Maybe i'm missing something, i think that more guidance on how to appraise a web site would be helpful as i'm finding it difficult to heavily criticise the suggested sites (especially in the case of dixons). Cheers.

On October 29, 2004 at 3:45 PM, Jonathan wrote:

Very happy to approve Top Man for people to use in their assignment and exam.

I deliberately chose Dixons for this exercise because I agree that it is not THAT bad but it can still be improved in lots of ways - as many of you seem to have noticed.

My list are all real opportunities. It is no use looking at some tiny companies that would never have the knowledge or the budgets to implement big changes. I will provide some more guidance.

On November 1, 2004 at 1:13 PM, David Gough wrote:

Hi Jonathan i was wondering if you could have a look at a site which i am quite interested in doing my assignment on. The URL is: http://www.hendoncarstereo.co.uk/, it's a site that i believe i could make good comments on in order to improve it, could you lt me know if it's ok, and if it could be approved.

Many Thanks
David Gough

http://www.hendoncarstereo.co.uk/

On November 1, 2004 at 1:15 PM, Jonathan wrote:

I am happy to approve Hendon Car Stereo David. Lots of room for improvement.

On November 1, 2004 at 4:10 PM, Sukhi Kaur wrote:

Hi Jonathan, looking at Top Man's website, I can honestly say that looks much more better then Primark. Being a UK high street retailer, and doing well in the business, I'm sure they can put some money aside and design the website a bit more. The site is very poorly designed and I think I can apply a lot to improve this website. Could you look at the website and let me know if it is suitable for the case study. Thank you.

http://www.primark.co.uk/index.shtml

On November 1, 2004 at 4:11 PM, Jonathan wrote:

Primark is a good choice and is therefore approved!

On November 2, 2004 at 1:53 PM, Jasvir wrote:

Hi Jonathan i was wondering if you could have a look at a site which i am quite interested in doing for my assignment. O2 would be a preferred choice as we have one of the group members working for them, whereas, from a users perspective all three of us are O2 users. I personally have an online o2 account, and sometimes things do get a bit confusining in terms of layout and browsing! so there is definate room for improvement.

Could this be approved?

www.o2.co.uk

On November 2, 2004 at 1:54 PM, jonathan wrote:

O2 is approved!

On November 3, 2004 at 9:26 AM, Joerg Noppens wrote:

Dear Sir,

I am still a little uneasy about the whole cost issue.
Could you possibly provide a rough guideline of development costs or point out some books to read up on the subject?
Everywhere I have looked so far was rather weak in naming the actual figures.

Kind regards

J. Noppens

On November 3, 2004 at 9:28 AM, Jonathan wrote:

I will do a session on costs a little later in the course. It is a complicated area because so little infomation is public. I don't know of a recent book but perhaps someone else does?

On November 3, 2004 at 3:51 PM, Andrew Fernando wrote:

Hi Jonathan
I was hoping to take a look at Unwins as they currently have a VERY limited site and have been promising redevelopments since the beginning of the year and as they are getting taken over in December I think it may be an appropriate site to use for the case study.
What do you think?

Regards
Andrew

www.unwins.co.uk

On November 4, 2004 at 9:40 AM, Jonathan wrote:

Unwins.co.uk is approved!

On November 19, 2004 at 9:52 AM, Pritesh wrote:

As a part of the proposal, you have the heading:
"Analysis of audience, market, and discussion of demand"

what would that cover, and how would we find info on this?

On November 19, 2004 at 5:32 PM, Rafahan Waheed wrote:

Hi Jonathan. I just wanted to make an enquery regarding the report. Within the estimate of the project, is one required to include the cost of softwares and or software licenses, or is this to ones own choice, as long as it is stated. Thank you.

On November 19, 2004 at 5:35 PM, Jonathan wrote:

Pritesh - I want you to show that you have understood the sort of people who buy their products, how the market operates and how they fit in with competitors. You need to think about the bigger industry... is there an industry association? is there a magazine that reviews this sort of products? who are the style leaders?

you will need to do some research.

On November 19, 2004 at 5:37 PM, Jonathan wrote:

Do include any necessary costs in your estimate. Where there is a choice (Open Source versus Oracle for example) show the range of costs involved.

On November 29, 2004 at 11:49 PM, Jasvir wrote:

Hi Jonathan

Could JD Sport be approved?? This is a major high street retailer in sports wear. Its christmas promotion looks very poor!!

thanks

www.jdsport.co.uk

On November 29, 2004 at 11:51 PM, Jonathan wrote:

JDSport is fine! (BTW - I moved your comment to this posting to keep it in the same place as the others).

On November 30, 2004 at 11:27 AM, estelle wrote:

what do you mean by top-level implementation plan? thank you.

On November 30, 2004 at 11:29 AM, Jonathan wrote:

Thanks Estelle. I want you to prepare an "action plan" for the client; what steps would you do first? what are the highest priorities? when will the project be completed?

On November 30, 2004 at 2:44 PM, Rizwan wrote:

hi jonathan

I am currently looking at the techonology plan for lush. I have found it hard to understand exactly what is required. I have looked into different languages such as PHP and MYSQL that they could use. How would i find out what they currently use on their website, i.e. server.
Do you want me to talk about the hardware that they could purchase to improve the web site as well.

thanks for your help

On November 30, 2004 at 2:51 PM, Jonathan wrote:

I think for any technology plan you need to consider the following:
1. Giving control to appropriate people in the company (CMS)
2. Integration with third parties (syndication/aggregation)
3. Scalability
4. Reliability
5. Hosting costs
6. Tracking
7. Reusability
8. Usability
9. Cost
10. Legacy systems

If I am asked to come into a company and make some recommendations then these are the sorts of issues I am going to try and prepare some info on. It is often difficult to tell what the legacy systems are or how the existing site was designed/is being managed. Make sensible assumptions based on what you can see. Is the lack of commerce evidence of lack of control or hard to integrate systems? What approaches could you take to solving this?

On November 30, 2004 at 4:45 PM, Nick wrote:

Hi Jonathan,

I have found a toy wholesaler and they do not have an online catalogue and do not allow any purchases to be made via the Internet. Would this be a suitable company to use for the case study.

Thanks

http://www.playwritegroup.com

On November 30, 2004 at 4:46 PM, Jonathan wrote:

Happy to approve www.playwritegroup.com. It is mainly a B2B operation and you need to think hard about how that changes its needs. The current site is actually quite a good brochure.

On December 2, 2004 at 11:14 AM, James wrote:

Hi Jonathan

Could allsports be approved; This is a major high street retailer in sports wear. I reviewed there web site and found many issues with it. the URL is https://allsports.co.uk/flash/all_sports.htm

thanks

https://allsports.co.uk/flash/all_sports.htm

On December 2, 2004 at 11:14 AM, Nick wrote:

I have found a party store web site. Would this site be ok to use or is it not a good choice?

Thanks

http://www.aceconcepts.co.uk

On December 2, 2004 at 11:18 AM, Jonathan wrote:

I am happy to approve www.allsports.co.uk and www.aceconcepts.co.uk. Most of the stores I have approved have a physical presence in the high street and there are some advantages for you in being able to compare these two types of stores. AceConcepts is entirely online and you should think carefully whether this limits some of the things you could say.

On December 7, 2004 at 12:14 PM, DHARMESH PATEL wrote:

Hi JONATHAN i was looking for a site that would be suitable and different from the ones you have detailed for doing my assignment regarding the exam in JAN. I have been looking at many sites that can be undertaken to there maximum protential . Myself and a friend have seen a site that we would like to do and that it can be pproved by you. The site is called SterlingXS and they specialise in the supply of brand new refurbished & second user laptop/notebook pcs, desktop computers & peripherals. they are based in Guilford Surrey

thanx
kind regards
Dharmesh

http://www.sterlingxs.co.uk/

On December 7, 2004 at 12:17 PM, Jonathan wrote:

I had a look at www.sterlingxs.co.uk Dharmesh and you can use it if you want to but I don't think that it is bad enough to be a good case study. They clearly have a small budget and have created a fairly effective site. I agree that it could be improved but do they have enough money to make that happen?

On December 8, 2004 at 9:52 AM, vishal wrote:

I just have to make sure that u know that im doing Lush.co.uk.

Sory for telling you so late.

On December 8, 2004 at 9:54 AM, Jonathan wrote:

Can I just remind people that they do NOT have to let me know which company they have chosen as long as it appears on the approved list. You can change your mind at the last minute too if you want.

On December 10, 2004 at 1:12 PM, sophia darr wrote:

Hi Jonathan
Company: Brindisa
A quick question about audience: i have pin pointed a few which are: Tapas Bars, Restaurant Owners, Chefs and housewives aged 30-50, is that on the right track?

Thanks

On December 10, 2004 at 1:13 PM, sophia darr wrote:

Is there any chance we could view a sample proposal for one of the companies that you have worked with, just to gain an insight to how deep one should be going or just to make sure we are on the right track?

Please.

Thanks.

On December 10, 2004 at 1:14 PM, sophia darr wrote:

Is there any chance we could view a sample proposal for one of the companies that you have worked with, just to gain an insight to how deep one should be going or just to make sure we are on the right track?

Please.

Thanks.

On December 10, 2004 at 1:15 PM, sophia darr wrote:

Another quick question: Brindisa
As they have recently opened a Tapas Bar, would other spanish tapas bars be their competitors and french restaurants be similar businesses that they would be in competiton with or are the competitors meant to be only on the web e.g. www.tienda.com.

Thanks

On December 10, 2004 at 1:16 PM, sophia darr wrote:

The section about competitors/similar businesses- are you meant to establish just the companies names and state why they are competitors or are you meant to investigate other issues if yes what issues need to be discussed for this section please?

Thank You Jonathan

On December 10, 2004 at 1:49 PM, Jonathan wrote:

Thanks for all the questions Sophie. I will try and answer them...

1. Audience. This is the audience for the site - who is likely to buy? I agree that Brindisa has both a customer and trade audience but your customer profile is too narrow. Go and look at the people buying in their market stall and you will see a huge range of people interested in good food (not just housewives!)

2. Sample Proposal. As with the exam answers, this would tend to make everyone copy one model. I have given you the headlines for what I think you need. I will try and add another document a bit closer to the exam for you to check your report against.

3. Competitors. This is the competitors online and for Brindisa this will be all companies that sell good food online, not simply other spanish food importers. The supermarkets would be a sort of competitor if they addressed exactly the same market but they tend not to.

4. Competitors part II. I don't just want a list of competitors but a set of recommendations to your company of how they stack up online in comparison with the competitors.

On December 12, 2004 at 6:57 PM, sophia darr wrote:

Thank you for answering all my questions. But sorry another question, for the review against competitors would that be with the current situation of the website or after the website has been improved? (I presume its after the improvements)

Also for the recommendations against the competitors or similar businesses what aspects need to be discussed e.g. certain competitors are linked to supermarkets or online cooking recipes - would that be the right issues to be discussed? And what other issues need to be discussed about the competitors please or is just saying how they compare to Brindisa is enough?

Thanks

On December 12, 2004 at 6:58 PM, sophia darr wrote:

Hello Jonathan
A question about Analysis of Market just want to confirm does that mean how you would market the website e.g. for Brindisa could advertise the new and improved website that sells their products in cooking magazines- as they are expanding and have the budget in which they could afford to advertise widely in magazines is that right?

Also for discussion of demand that would be how much is spanish products in demand if that is right then how does one go about finding this out (i.e.contacting Brindisa?)

Thank You Jonathan

On December 12, 2004 at 7:12 PM, Jonathan wrote:

Sophie. The reasons you want to look at the competitors is to understand what they have done (and perhaps work out why) and consider taking the best of those ideas and applying them to your case study. Of course you will compare with both the before and after state of your site.

The analysis of the market is about understanding what is happening in the "industry" that your company works in. It includes what companies are doing about promoting themselves within this market. Just because a company is growing does not mean that it has lots of money for advertising. Would magazine advertising be the best way to draw people to a website?

Discussion of demand is hard and Brindisa are unlikely to tell you. One way of finding out might be to look at the sort of things people are looking for inside search engines. Look back at the lecture I did on this.

http://www.jonathanbriggs.com/articles/Search-engine-promotion_377BA.html

On December 29, 2004 at 8:36 PM, sophia darr wrote:

Is there any chance you could provide us with sub headings for each of the eight main headings that need to be included for the e-commerce proposal please.

Thank You

On December 29, 2004 at 9:36 PM, sophia darr wrote:

Would the following webiste be considered a 'similar business' for Brinidisa Please?

Thank You

http://www.britishsupermarketworldwide.com

On December 29, 2004 at 8:53 PM, rizwan wrote:

Hi jonathan

Still a little bit unclear on the technology plan, we have looked through the 10 points that you suggested to us. Are ALL these 10 points necessary for the exam?

What did you mean by content management system (CMS) ?
Do we need to look at CDA and CMA in regards to the content management system?
If hosting costs are not part of the budget do we need to research this thoroughly?
Can you also clarify what "tracking" is exactly about, is this tracking of the items?
Should we be looking at the costs of everything we implement within the technology plan as well ?

thanks for your time

On December 29, 2004 at 9:06 PM, Dave wrote:

Got a quick question for you Jonathan

If I outsource the web site hosting to an external company can I define the archeitecture used, i.e. Load balancer , multiple web servers and multiple databases and a Master database. As i believe this is relevant to scalabitly and reliability.

Cheers for that Jon

On December 29, 2004 at 9:23 PM, Pritesh wrote:

Hi Jonathan,
What do you require for the last section of the report?

'Estimates for improvements in revenue'

On December 29, 2004 at 9:34 PM, satyajit purkayastha wrote:

Hi jonathan I would just like to inform you that i wish to change the company for my case study, as i have been having some research problems. I am interested in dealing with the travel industry and wish to choose a company called octopustravel.com as i believe they will be a good company for me to use as i can suggest lots of improvements due to the fact that they are a smaller company in comparison to virgin travels, thomas cook etc and there will be alot more room for improvement. Please let me know asap if you could approve of this company. Thanks

On December 29, 2004 at 9:26 PM, Monalee Patel wrote:

Hi Jonathan,

Regarding the last section 'Estimates for improvements in revenue'. Please could you provide me with some tips on how to go about it?

Many thanks,

Monalee

On December 29, 2004 at 9:16 PM, Robert wrote:

Hi jonathan

I have been looking at the mock paper and i came to the £50,000 budget question. I look at your lecture on budgets and have done some research myself. However i am still a little unclear on how exactly i should be spending £50k , would it involve the issues talked about in your lecture ?

Could you please give me a few hints or a web site to look at about budgets.

thanks

On December 29, 2004 at 8:49 PM, k0104620 wrote:

jonathan can you please tell me if you would approve me doing a travel site called ocatpus travel.

On December 29, 2004 at 8:40 PM, Jonathan wrote:

Sophie. As I have already explained I am really keen not to have all the reports become exactly the same and therefore providing standard subheadings is not a good idea. I will be posting a checklist to help you look at your own report.

On December 29, 2004 at 8:52 PM, Jonathan wrote:

I am happy to approve Octopus Travel but I think travel companies could be quite hard. It's up to you.

http://www.octopustravel.com/

On December 29, 2004 at 9:03 PM, Jonathan wrote:

Rizwan

Thanks for the questions. If I were you I would make notes all the technology plan points I have outlined.

A content management system is a piece of software that allows your ecommerce site to be updated and changed. I have read that some CMS vendors split their products into content management/content delivery but you don't need to split a CMS into these two separate systems.

You should have an idea of the difference between "free hosting" and a proper managed e-commerce service including the prices.

When I mention "customer tracking" I mean techniques that help the store understand what people have bought in the past and perhaps targeting particular promotions towards them.

I think you should always research the scale of costs involved but I will never ask you for exact figures.

On December 29, 2004 at 9:08 PM, Jonathan wrote:

Dave

If you are using a full service hosting company such as RedBus you will be able to buy the architecture you want. A cheap or free host will probably insist that you use what they have defined.

On December 29, 2004 at 9:21 PM, Jonathan wrote:

Robert - good question about the 50k

We generally find that individual design, bespoke programming, complex product modelling, international clients and customer decision support are among the expensive items that eat into the budget.

It is hard to find sites that discuss these costs openly.

On December 29, 2004 at 9:25 PM, Jonathan wrote:

Pritesh

I want you to evaluate the sorts of improvements that you think your changes will make to the revenue or savings from the site. We find that with a proper budget of lets say 50k we can generate an additional 150k+ for our clients. Note that this is revenue and not profit.

On December 29, 2004 at 9:27 PM, Jonathan wrote:

Monalee (and Pritesh) - try and work out the current number of visitors, the numbers of those who convert to being customers and the average spend per order. How will your new site change any of these?

On December 29, 2004 at 9:39 PM, Jonathan wrote:

British Super Market Worldwide is sort of similar except that it is for British people living abroad. It does not appear to have a wholesale arm (like Brindisa). I think that there are other "high class" specialist retailers that would be more similar.

http://www.britishsupermarketworldwide.com

On December 30, 2004 at 6:50 PM, Ahmed wrote:

Hi Jonathan

Jonathan, we've been looking at allsports and you have approved but JJB seems to be a very poor site and easier to improve. Jonathan can you please tell me if you would approve me doing the site JJB.

On December 30, 2004 at 6:53 PM, Jonathan wrote:

Sorry Ahmed - you are right. I thought I had approved JJB too - happy to do so!

http://www.jjb.co.uk

On January 1, 2005 at 10:42 PM, Alex wrote:

Hi Jonathan,
I'm still not to clear on what is needed in the Technology Plan, i have read your early posts but am still not sure where it fits in. Are we trying to define what technology we propose to use, os's, applications, scripting languages, hosting companies computer specs, etc? How do the 10 topics relate to this?
Cheers

On January 1, 2005 at 10:46 PM, Jonathan wrote:

Technology plan... imagine you are a consultant to your case study company and they ask you what technology they should be using. You need to start with where they are (if you can tell) and make technology recommendations (hardware, software and hosting) that will help them achieve the business and creative changes you are proposing.

On January 2, 2005 at 10:24 PM, Nicole Matson wrote:

I have started a proposed plan for my MSC assignment based on Kingston University but want to know if I'm on the right track and if it is suitable. I have sent an email to jonathan @ othermedia.com with the outline attached - would appreciate your comments.

On January 7, 2005 at 11:31 AM, Ravi wrote:

Can i use www.yourconcierge.co.uk for my assignment?

On January 7, 2005 at 11:31 AM, robert wrote:

hi there

When we talk about the 50k budget would we need to include our consultancy costs. So the time taken for us to do research into competition and so on. This would be an accurate representation of how the money would be spent in a "real world" e-commerce project.

Thanks for the tips about bespoke programming etc, would it be a good idea to look at your budget just to gain a rough idea ?

thanks

On January 13, 2005 at 2:12 PM, Alx wrote:

Hi again,
Just couple more questions. What steps should be covered in the implementation plan, does it include the design, developement stages or just the final stage of putting everying together? Also, if we use outsourcing for the web hosting do we have to include the costs in the budget, and should we include any maintenance or support charges?
Cheers

On January 13, 2005 at 2:15 PM, Jonathan wrote:

Implementation plan....

This should cover all the actions that you, the company and any third parties need to take in order to make the project happen. It should include things like new photography, uploading of stock information, design of promotions, buying of SSL certificates.

On November 11, 2005 at 1:36 PM, Amish wrote:

I was thinking about a record shop website
hows that?

www.independance-records.co.uk

On January 12, 2006 at 1:06 PM, Charles Perrett wrote:

Just relised that I need to submit my company that I am doing for approvement.

www.jst.org.uk

On March 22, 2006 at 6:23 AM, Rooney wrote:

Choose one major difference between the first wave and the second wave of electronic commerce. Write a paragraph that describes this difference to a person who is not familiar with either business or Internet technologies.Who can help me with this