Chapter one

                                            Introduction

The internet has already evolved from being a mere go-to place for information, to a place where people buy and sell. Selling online is now the next logical step for businesses in response to this evolution. In this age, any business who wants to go into online selling are in luck; gone are the days when you have to hire an IT or web design expert just to have your own website. Today, selling online can be accomplished in a few minutes, through the help of e-commerce solution providers. E-commerce solution providers are those online services that give you the right tools to set up your online store for a monthly fee. While these services are most often at an equivalent cost, it can sometimes be cheaper and usually faster than hiring a professional on the traditional market structure.

 A web hosting service that helps any business build an online store, in achieving the foregoing the basic IT infrastructures have to be made available and implemented in order to bring to bear these new evolutionary trading system. This offers an easy-to-manage website that does not require much technical background. It offers themes for users to easily have a pre-made design for their online store.

 A pre-designed template,( that is an infrastructure) on which access are given, such as HTML,  this also a way to access the HTML codes of the template, which can be invaluable for users with background for web design coding. The term infrastructure (or "below the structure") is widely used for public works such as water and electric delivery systems, roads, and bridges and, even more generally, to refer to any systems that support society or an organization. IT infrastructure is the stuff on which we build and operate IT applications. Note that while people are specifically excluded from this definition, the costs of people to implement and maintain infrastructure are included in analyzing IT infrastructure projects.

Two related terms deserve mention. Critical infrastructure refers to those infrastructure assets critical to the functioning of society. While this traditionally has referred to infrastructure dealing with necessities such as the water supply, electricity, transportation, and food supply, the federal government now includes information technology in critical infrastructure, both in terms of the organizations that supply IT and the organizations that use IT.1

Cyber infrastructure has at least two popular definitions. First used in the academic community in an NSF-sponsored report over a decade ago, the term highlights the importance of information technology to the future research environment. The report defined cyber infrastructure as a "layer of enabling hardware, algorithms, software, communications, institutions, and personnel" between hardware and the applications.2 in the more recent National Infrastructure Protection Plan, cyber infrastructure is defined for a more general audience: "Cyber infrastructure includes electronic information and communication systems, and the information contained in these systems."3 Note that the first definition includes institutions and people, while the second includes data and information.

Analyzing Types of Infrastructure Projects

Infrastructure projects are not just about developing new infrastructure. They are also about maintaining current infrastructure, deciding when to replace infrastructure, and even about moving to the cloud. For example, when wireless networks were starting to be installed almost a decade ago, this was seen as totally new infrastructure, and it was not clear whether they would replace or augment wired networks. Universities that installed wireless networks then had to maintain them, fixing anything that broke and upgrading network wiring and routers that connected those access points. These maintenance projects were sometimes very large infrastructure projects in themselves. This life cycle of build-maintain-upgrade-replace-reemployment results in the different types of infrastructure projects. The factors to be analyzed for each type of project are similar, but different types of projects require different levels of justification, with each type addressing capabilities, benefits, risks, and costs in its own way (see table 1).

Table 1. Analysis factors for different types of infrastructure projects

Project Type

Initial Implementation

Maintenance and Upgrade

Reimplementation

Technology Migration

Capabilities

Basic capabilities

Additional capabilities

New design

Old capabilities vs. new capabilities

Benefits

To different constituencies

Use of anecdotes

Reliability and performance improvements

Capability, reliability, and performance improvements

Risks

New technology acceptance

Impact of upcoming technology shift

Impact on related infrastructure and systems

New technology acceptance

Costs

Maintaining prior infrastructure

Cost changes with maintenance frequency

Maintenance costs vs. replacement costs

Impact on related infrastructure and systems

Phased cost model

Migration costs

Initial Implementation Projects

When approaching completely new infrastructure, most IT organizations focus on the capabilities the project will bring to e-commerce or business. In the wireless network example, the core capability was to provide Internet access throughout the campus without having to connect to a wall outlet. This capability provides different benefits to different constituencies: students can use their laptops anywhere; staff can access systems and the Internet as they hold meetings across campus; researchers can work wherever they gather; office layouts do not have to be driven by where network outlets are available, prospective customers shopping online; and so forth.

In addition to those immediate benefits, IT staff often raised the possibility of an additional benefit: that wireless networks would reduce or even eliminate the need for most wired networks, thus lowering the cost of that infrastructure. Because wires had to reach all those wireless access points, however, the wired network would still need to go everywhere wireless went (although not necessarily to each desktop). Moreover, dozens of new wireless devices would keep demanding more and more bandwidth, and the wired network would need to keep up. Another factor to consider was the relative newness of wireless technology, and the likely need to replace the entire infrastructure in 3–4 years.

This is common in IT —  install a new infrastructure and end up maintaining the old one for a long time, or install a new technology and discover that a new version supersedes it in short order. So while you can expect various benefits from new infrastructure, there is always a risk that those benefits will not be realized. A thorough risk analysis will look at the impact of expected benefits not being realized, as well as other potential risks, including cost overruns and impact on other systems or departments. Meeting with staff from multiple departments is one way to help avoid surprises and demonstrate to decision makers that risks have been studied broadly.

With a completely new infrastructure, benefits and risks will have to be described without much data to draw upon. This means the analysis will be highly qualitative and anecdotal, although some factors might be quantifiable.4 Subjective assessments may come from anecdotes or interviews or surveys, or experiences at other online project implementation. For example, in a 2012 ECAR study on research computing, participants agreed (anecdotally) that "having research computing resources makes an institution more competitive in recruiting and retaining faculty with research computing needs."5

In addition to capabilities, benefits, and risks, the other important part of the analysis is the cost model. This will include the costs for the initial project, as well as expected operational costs for several years (typically 3–5) and any major expected upgrades or replacements if they occur within that time. Costs should be determined for planning, design, and implementation. If it is possible to put a time frame on when the technology will become obsolete (or at least obsolescent), then costs can also be estimated for replacement or major upgrade and can be included in the overall cost model as well.

Ongoing maintenance costs should be considered, including hardware, software, other equipment, construction, and personnel. Personnel costs (both contractors and employees) are often a significant figure and should include full- and part-time people involved in the project, both from IT and any other departments involved, such as the construction department.

Maintenance and Upgrade Projects

Analysis of maintenance projects includes the same basic factors as new infrastructure projects: capabilities, benefits, risks, and costs. Maintenance projects run the gamut of simple software upgrades to complex efforts that might involve retesting entire networks, systems, or databases. One of the facts of life is that there is never enough money to maintain or upgrade all infrastructures to the highest and most productive level, requiring organizations to establish priorities. This, in turn, requires understanding the benefits of maintaining and the risks of not maintaining IT infrastructure. For example, the failure to maintain networks means that fewer people will have high-speed access to online research facilities and that, as a result, fewer multi-institutional research projects will take place. In one instance, a physics professor asked the CIO at his institution for a written commitment that the university would increase bandwidth to keep pace with other institutions in the physics research community because he wanted to submit that document with a grant application! Without this commitment, he felt that he was unlikely to win the grant.

Before going forward with a particular maintenance project, an institution must consider several key questions:

• How often should the maintenance be performed?
• When should replacement be considered instead of maintenance?
• Is there a new or emerging technology on the horizon that might change the approach to maintenance?

The answers to these questions can help an organization decide what and how much maintenance is appropriate, which provides the basis for a cost model for infrastructure maintenance.

Reimplementation Projects

There comes a time in the life cycle of any software, hardware, or network system when it is appropriate to start over. Technology refresh cycles in the IT infrastructure realm can be as short as 2–3 years or as long as 5–7 years.6 Moreover, whereas some network routers, for example, have a useful life in the upper end of that range, newer equipment may have 10 to 100 times the capability for the same or lower price. When maintenance costs start to equal replacement cost, and the capability/cost ratio declines significantly, it is time to reimplement, taking into account the ongoing maintenance costs of new infrastructure, which may be higher or lower than current maintenance costs. However, replacement is rarely as simple as a "forklift upgrade." The related impact on facilities, networks, and other systems has to be taken into account. If current computer hardware requires power of 5kW per rack but new hardware requires 10 or 20kW, the cost of upgrading electrical and cooling equipment can equal or exceed the cost of replacing the computer hardware. Replacing software infrastructure such as the database system could impact hundreds of applications, perhaps requiring replacing these systems as well. The implications of reimplementing infrastructure can be far reaching, and all those reaches must be part of the analysis.

Technology Migration Projects

Sometimes a reimplementation project is based on technology so dramatically different that the infrastructure project is essentially a new implementation — except that the old infrastructure has to be migrated to the new. When universities started to shift from "plain old telephone service" (POTS) to IP-based telephony or from on-premises servers to cloud-based servers, the migration of services from one infrastructure to another was a major factor in the reimplementation. In this type of situation, the cost analysis has to show the overlap of both services, as well as costs attributable to the migration effort this is added by a drag-and-drop functionality in adding content - such as forms, texts or images - to the web pages. This functionality even lets you design your online store for mobile access. Apart from that, a business using Weebly can also use their mobile app, available for both Android and iOS, to track order, payment, and analytics. On the customers’ end, Weebly also enables them to shop using their mobile phones.

Items you can sell can span from physical products to digital goods (which can be sent via email upon purchase). 

Like any other e-commerce solution provider, it provides a shopping cart. For Weebly, it’s shopping cart is automatically set up so that once a user has signed-up, they can already have access to the service and start selling right away. 

Customers can also filter their search depending on the variety of the product , to easily find what they need. 

Other features include tax controls, flexible shipping options, SEO optimizer and analytics. In this age, any business who wants to go into online selling are in luck; gone are the days when you have to hire an IT or web design expert just to have your own website. Today, selling online can be accomplished in a few minutes, through the help of e-commerce solution providers like Weebly.

This is added by a drag-and-drop functionality in adding content - such as forms, texts or images - to the web pages. This functionality even lets you design your online store for mobile access. Apart from that, a business can use mobile app, available for both Android and iOS, to track order, payment, and analytics. On the customers’ end. Items you can sell can span from physical products to digital goods (which can be sent via email upon purchase). 

Like any other e-commerce solution provider, it provides a shopping cart. A shopping cart is automatically set up so that once a user has signed-up; they can already have access to the service and start selling right away. Customers can also filter their search depending on the variety of the product, to easily find what they need. 

Other features include tax controls, flexible shipping options, SEO optimizer and analytics. Having a business is tough: it involves not only creating an interesting product or service, but along with it is the need to ensure that you get good returns on your investment. With the tough competition out there, it is not always easy to make it through. That is why, as a business, you should take advantage of the internet and start selling online.

If you're still wondering what good it is for your business to sell online, here are some benefits to ponder:

Lower costs

Typically, people who start a business find a physical store where customers can drop by and buy the commodities. But this goes along with high costs such as rent and electricity. Starting with an online store does away with this while still attracting customers. 

Meanwhile, for businesses that already have a physical store, complementing it with an online store could potentially lessen the need for employees to market your product or service. By selling online, you can increase the reach of your business at a more cost effective rate of investment.

Greater market

Why limit your target market when you can make it bigger? This is one of the interesting advantages of selling online. Your products can be seen not only within a specific community but across a larger footprint. There is no need to do serious marketing because people who need your product will find you online. This will even increase sales for your business.

Up-to date information

Which of your products is out-of-stock? Do you have new items and specifications of your product? 

Customers get disappointed when they visit a store and find out that the product they're looking for isn't available. And your customers wouldn't know you have a new product unless they visit your store. By selling online you can address these issues and meet the expectations of your customers.

Today, a growing number of businesses are seeing the potential of selling online. As businesses who want to step up against the competition, you wouldn't want to get left behind. 

The internet is a big market. You can buy and sell online in Nigeria, thanks to services that are springing up to make it possible. Some of such services are classified Ads sites that allow users find buyers by posting free ads online. These websites enable buyers find sellers online. This article shares some websites where you can buy and sell online in Nigeria.

Classified Ads sites usually do not sell the products to you directly. They only connect buyers with sellers. So, both parties will have to meet to complete the deal.

Buy and Sell Old Stuff Online

Do you have an old phone or an old laptop or any old stuff that no one is using? Why allow it take-up valuable space in your home when you can sell it and make some bucks online. Yes, that old stuff in your home might be useful to somebody else. You can post a free Ad at free classified Ads sites placing your old stuff for sale so that interested buyers can find and contact you.

Classified Ads sites are a good place to buy and sell your old stuff online. You may just be a merchant or retailer of used stuff like cars, phones, computers, etc. You can also post free ads online and find buyers online. If you are looking for cheap bargains classified Ads sites are a good place to go to.

Buy and Sell New Stuff Online

If you are a retailer you can post free Ads on the internet. This will enable you find buyers. This is great as more and more people now visit the internet to find products to buy. These Ads will enable you place your business online, especially if you do not currently have a website.

At the site, you can add your phone number, and address so that interested buyers will find you. If you want to buy and sell online in Nigeria, classified Ads sites is a good place to go.

Find Suppliers & Get Supplies Online

Do you need supplies for your business, factory, or office and looking for suppliers? You can visit a B2B (Business to Business) website and post a free buy offer. Suppliers who can supply what you want will contact you for further discussions. Suppliers, Importers, Manufacturers, and Wholesalers can also post sell offers at B2B Marketplace to find buyers.

B2B Marketplace is a good place to buy and sell business supplies online. If you are selling products and services to businesses, you are better off posting your Ads at business to business websites. Buy and Sell business supplies online at B2B Marketplace.

Where to Buy and Sell Online in Nigeria

Here are a few websites where you can post free ads and buy and sell online in Nigeria.

Website Name

Type of Website

Type of products

Web Link

GiantBelly

Classified Ads Sites

All Types eg. Buy and Sell Phones, Computers Online

www.giantbelly.com

Rack

Fashion Classifieds

Fashion eg. Buy and Sell Clothing, Shoes Online

www.rack.com.ng

OLX Nigeria

Classified Ads Sites

All Types eg. Buy and Sell Phones, Computers Online

www.olx.com.ng

Tradestable

Classified Ads Sites

All Types

www.tradestable.com.ng

NaijaTechGuide Marketplace

B2B Marketplace

Business Supplies

marketplace.naijatechguide.com

Google Trader

Classified Ads Sites

All Types

www.google.com.ng/local/trader

With the launch of the Marketplace, Konga is transitioning from being one of Nigeria’s largest online stores to creating economic opportunities and empowering Nigerians as a whole. Konga Marketplace is an online platform which enables businesses of all types, large or small to showcase their goods Online and reach new markets.

Customers can also filter their search depending on the variety of the product , to easily find what they need. 

Other features include tax controls, flexible shipping options, SEO optimizer and analytics.

                                 DEFINITION OF TERMS

E-commerce: Generally refers to exchange of goods or services over electronic system such as internet.

B2B: Refers to selling of products or services to other businesses.

B2C: Refers to selling of product or services to end consumers.

Credit card: it is a card entitling its holder to buy goods and service from certain establishment.

Merchant: Refers to as organization (such as an MIT department) accepting credit card payments for the goods or services they provides.

Order: A record of a request for goods or services initiated by a customer.

Order ID: A unique identifier assigned to a customer order in clear commerce.

Banner: An advertisement or image displayed on one or more websites to attract visitors to your site.

Shopping cart: A wheeled cart for purchase of goods in a store or supermarket.

INSIGHT TO ONLINE MARKETPLACE

Online Market, commonly known as e-commerce or ecommerce, or e-business consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily with widespread Internet usage. The use of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well.

A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, but most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Online retailers are sometimes known as e-tailers and online retail is sometimes known as e-tail. Almost all big retailers have electronic commerce presence on the World Wide Web.

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