Final year e-commerce revision

Written by: Jonathan Briggs

December 30, 2004 [6031 views]

These questions are intended to test some of the ideas introduced during the module and to assist with revision and preparation for the examination. They will not however cover all the topics that could be raised in the exam.

I have created an online survey version of these questions too. You may choose to complete it and will receive group feedback. If you do complete it then please use bullet points to provide your answers. If you complete all these questions, you will have done far more than you are being asked to do in a two-hour exam. You will however have reflected on most of the material in the module and practiced answering on a wide range of topics and ideas.

I suggest that you answer the questions into a Word document and then copy and paste your answers into the on-line survey if you want some group feedback.

1. Which site are you using for your case study?
Advice: you can change your mind even at this late stage. You may only choose one of the approved sites. The ideal choice is one where you can see plenty of room for improvement and where a reasonable budget is likely to be available.

2. What is wrong with the current site?
Advice: look at how the current site is integrated into the business, the ways in which the current site makes money (or doesn’t), technical and design flaws that prevent customers from transacting etc. Don’t try and suggest improvements at this stage; simply list what is wrong. You should be able to locate at least 5-8 problems and list them in order of priority.

3. What specific improvements would you recommend?
Advice: start by listing improvements. Each one should directly address a shortcoming that you have identified in question 1. Be clear in your mind the difference between correcting a fault and an enhancement; making the brand reflect the offline brand is a correction, adding a gift selector is an enhancement.

4. What specific changes would you make to the customer experience and why?
Advice: analyse the customer experience in the current site first and explain any problems that you can see. Make specific suggestions as to what you would change. You might like to draw a diagram to illustrate the current or proposed steps in the shopping/registration/checkout process or to sketch how information would be laid out on your proposed pages. Notice that the question asks you to explain your answers. If this were an exam question perhaps 50% of the marks would come from the explanation.

5. What hardware and software would you recommend for developing and operating the new site?
Advice: there is no one correct answer here; so don’t panic about ‘getting this right’. There are however sensible and non-sensible approaches. You need to imagine that you are making recommendations to the client. This is not a battle between ASP, PHP, XML and Java or between content management systems. It is about creating secure, reliable, scalable and cross-platform e-commerce that can be tightly integrated within an existing real business and build on relationships with B2B partners.

6. How would you maximise the number of visitors coming to the site and turn them into regular customers?
Advice: make sensible suggestions about offline marketing but focus particularly on online optimisation and promotion. Once again, there is no single correct answer but a set of technical, creative and business steps that you could take to create a high visibility for the site. These steps might include search engine optimisation, audience targeting, online advertising, email marketing, viral campaigns etc. You should have a number of such approaches up your sleeve and be able to describe them in some detail. Note the second part of the question “and turn them into regular customers”; this asks you to reflect on how the customer experience can be optimised to encourage transactions and how repeat custom can be recognised and rewarded.

7. What are your top specific suggestions for improving the online aspects of this particular business within their industry?
Advice: this might repeat some of the things you have already said but I want you to reflect on the company within its market and think about anything that you could do that would take it ahead of its competitors. Be creative and imaginative here and perhaps go out on a limb by making suggestions that go beyond the normal (and perhaps obvious) improvements you may have already suggested.

8. How would you turn your suggestions into a project plan?
Advice: set out the key steps that you would take to implement your ideas. Estimate the time involved in each step.

9. What would be the likely costs involved in implementing your plan and what would be the scale of the benefits you would expect the company to achieve?
Advice: another two part question expecting two answers and once again there are no exact figures that you can use. You need to demonstrate that you understand the range of tasks involved, the costs of hardware, software and people and to estimate the costs that are likely. You are unlikely to have obtained the online turnover for your existing site but consider the scale of the company involved and make estimates.

10. What are the changes in the e-commerce landscape that could affect your project?
Advice: this is far more general than is likely in an examination but you need to be ready for a “left-field” question. You might want to address standards such as Web Services and XML, legal requirements such as the DDA, personalisation or changes in search engines. Such a question would be used to discriminate between good and average candidates. Make sure you tackle it even if you feel poorly prepared.

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