CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

In recent years there has been a significant increase in shopping online especially among young and adults. Online shopping can take place in many forms, namely: auction, sprees and direct shopping.

This phenomenon has sparked off a new shopping trend in our  society today and it will become more pervasive in the coming years as it has created more shopping avenue for customers today, not forgetting it provides a more convenient way of shopping compared to the hassle of manual shopping.

Online shopping has provided a whole new perspective to consumers which are more prevalent among the younger generation. Online shopping is growing tremendously. As internet becomes the primary means of advertising and selling products or services worldwide. Many businesses are creating websites in addition to their retails stores, and many start their business with online store alone. Online store is the number one remote shopping method that consumer use nowadays, through phones, orders mailing and so on.

Although there are advantages on online shopping that attracts consumers, there is room for further growth of online shopping. There are many factors that contribute to consumer’s satisfaction when shopping online. Most importantly, customers need to trust online business owners to shop on their websites.

Thus primarily, online vendors need to build customer’s trust. There is consumers mistrust about online vendors and risk perception about online shopping, hence, security measures must be enforced to protect customers against theft or disclosure of their privacy. In addition, other technology factors, such as ease of findings products and delivery speeds are important to satisfying customers. The website should examine advantages and customers concern relating to online shopping and provide possible solution to these concerns in order to reduce negative perception and to facilitate shopping for higher customer’s satisfaction.

Online payment has become crucial to our lives. Financial institutions have provided several platforms for online payments for ease of transactions.  With advanced technology, industries, firms, companies, organizations, businesses and individuals can now have their websites to create awareness to the public and also get information easily and faster with the use of internet.

The proposed case study which is Jayus shopping complex deals in computers, books, wears, electronics, and provisions and so on.  It will be a great shopping complex in town with the aid of online shopping system. Due to proliferation of information technology in the society, it is imperative for the mall to widen its horizon and meet its customer expectation. With this, it is therefore important to design a website that can support online sales of goods and services.

1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The current method of transaction used by Jayus shopping complex is stressful and cumbersome to operate and manage. The following are the problems encountered with the existing system.

ü Insufficient awareness of goods and services.

ü Lack of easy access to information and goods.

ü Difficulty in transaction processes.

ü Customers have to be physically present at the shop before choosing any item for purchase.

ü Lack of adequate storage facilities to track goods and customer’s bio-data.

1.3     AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The aim of the study is to develop an online store for Jayus shopping complex, Anyigba. It focuses on the online shopping system using the World Wide Web and the internet. After the completion of this study, the Jayus shopping complex will be able to transact online business such as buying of goods and services with less stress when compared to how it was done previously.

The objectives of the study are:

1.  To provide online advertising of goods and services.

2.  To network sellers and buyers.

3.  To reach the specialized market.

4.  To save cost for both sellers and customers.

5.  To provide 24 hours, 7 days services delivery.

6.  To reach a wide desirable demographic area.

1.4     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The importance of an online shopping is to help business owners and customers by providing services on-demand anywhere in the world provided there is an internet service. In view of this, the following are the benefits of online store to Jayus shopping complex and its customers:

ü It brings the shop closer to the customers: This means that customers can be at the comfort of their home to order, pay and receive their goods promptly.

ü It allows the customers to view the quality of the item they want before making any transaction.

ü It enforces the provision of cashless economy which helps to reduce cash in circulation.

ü It helps the company to keep accurate record of both the inflow and outflow of items.

ü It gives the company the opportunity of focusing on other resources such as the development of man power resources.

1.5     SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The focus of this work is to design a reliable web-based application with multiple scope in a bid to shift focus from the previous method of selling items manually at Jayus shopping complex, Anyigba.

1.6     DEFINITION OF TERM

 

CREDIT CARD: Is a payment card issued to users as a system of payment, it allows the cardholders to pay for goods and service base on the holder’s promise to pay for them.

DEBIT CARD: Is a plastic payment card that provides the cardholder electronic access to his or her bank account(s) at a financial institution.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol, is a protocol that is used to transfer files from one system to another, especially an online server using either a FTP client or operating system FTP.

HTML: Hyper Text Markings Language, is the major language that can be used to create a web-page.

HTTP: Text Transfer Protocol is used to transfer the contents of a file that can easily be displayed and read by a web browser.

INTERNET: Internet is an acronym for international Network, which is the collection of autonomous computers so that they can share information, data and other useful resources.

ONLINE SHOPPING: This is the process of buying goods and services via the internet

POP: Post Office Protocol is a protocol that is used to receive incoming mails from a different mail server.

SMPT: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, is another protocol that is used to send mail from one mail server to another mail server.

WEB BROWSER: A web browser is software that knows how to interpret and display web content.

WEB SERVER: A web server is a machine that sent information to a client that made a request to it.

---