Assignment - Specification

Assignment requires you to research and develop a report to examine contemporary issues in the e-commerce management sector, including further extending your prototype website to facilitate e-commerce transactions based on the same online business.

You will be required to extend the development of your prototype website using the Joomla! Content management system in cloudaccess.net. Details about setting up your website at CloudAccess.net is provided in Joomla Workshop.

Your research report and prototype website must be related to the online business category assigned to you. Failure to do so will result in your assignments being rejected and no marks will be allocated.

Report:E-commerce Research

Report Structure and Presentation

Your report should include a title page, Table of Contents (including List of Tables and List of Figures if applicable) and Appendices.

Report Letter of Transmittal, Executive Summary and Introduction

Your report should include a letter of transmittal, executive summary, and introduction to the report.

Note: Make sure to use the same name for your e-commerce site as reported in Assignment2.

Report Section 1- Social E-commerce & Social marketing

One of the trends that is currently impacting e-commerce is the growing use of social media to sell products and services. This concept is known as social e-commerce. Discuss some Strategies that your online business can adopt to facilitate social e-commerce.

Social marketing on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are on the rise. Facebook is the dominant social network in terms of visitors and engagement. What are some of the challenges you see in social marketing campaigns for your online business?

Report Section 2 - Mobile Platform

Lately the use of smartphones has disrupted the personal computing and e-commerce landscape. More than 25% of Facebook visits originate from a mobile device.

As mobile platforms become more widely adopted, they are becoming more useful for accessing sites and apps. What implications do you think the mobile platform has for your online business?

Report Section 3 - E-commerce Security Plan

The e-commerce environment holds threats for both consumers and business owners, such as malicious code, phishing and identity theft, hacking, cybervandalism and data breaches.

There are several measures an online business must undertake for a secure e-commerce environment. Adopting new and tested technologies is one thing but these technologies do not solve the problem themselves. Organisational policies and procedures are required to ensure the technologies are not undermined. Industry standards and legislations are required to enforce payments and commercial transactions.

What are the key activities that you should consider to establish an e-commerce security plan for your online business?

Report Section 4 - E-commerce for B2B Procurement

For this question, let's assume that your new online business is currently in a B2C model and you are interacting only with your customers for marketing, sales and support.

The supply chain refers to the series of transactions that links your business to your suppliers for purchase, production and logistics of your products and services.

Discuss how you can extend your online business for B2B procurement and how ecommerce technology can support automation in the supply chain?

Report: Conclusions and Recommendations to the Business

Your report should include a separate conclusions and recommendations section.

1- Conclusions provide a summary of your key findings from the body of the report.

2- Recommendations provide a summary of the recommendations to your online Business based on the research conducted in the report.

Report: Referencing and Appropriateness of Sources

References are required and the Harvard AGPS standard of referencing must be used. This standard is detailed on USQ Library Site http://www.usq.edu.au/library/referencing

Ensure that your reports are fully referenced, including any reference to the text book. Your report should include in-text references and a List of References.

Do not repeat verbatim large slabs of information from other sources such as the text - you must put the ideas/information in your own words.

You must use at least ten (10) academically sound sources other than the textbook in completing this report.

Note: the word count does not include letter of transmittal, executive summary, references or appendices.

Report: Appendix Journal

Prepare a journal that records your activities and research related to completing this assignment. In date order, clearly list the following:

1- Date of research & project activity
2- Full description of activity / discussion
3- Time duration of the activity
4- Web sites visited to collect information; other references accessed (using Harvard AGPS Referencing style - submitted separate to the List of References in the report).

Submit this journal as Appendix in the Report. Any references to web pages and online documents, such as white papers, should be listed at the end of the Journal.

Ensure you setup your Joomla! Website and complete the activities as listed in the checklist document Your Joomla! Website URL should be accessible for the marker to assess the activities undertaken as per the checklist document.

1. Overall Presentation & Functionality Enhancements
2. Product/ Service Catalogue
3. Shopping Cart/ Enquiry Form
4. Account Registration & Login
5. Checkout/ Order Processing & Payment
6. Discussion Forums/ Blog.