CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is a fairly new idea, and it is very common practice nowadays for businesses to conduct trade over the Internet. There are various advantages to e-commerce (e.g., lower cost, convenience). E-commerce can simply be defined as buying and selling merchandise or services online. Most successful businesses today have their own websites. Today, it is possible to conduct business nationally and globally with a click of a fingertip due to the worldwide use of the Internet. To be successful in the global marketplace, businesses need to develop culturally friendly ecommerce websites. When conducting business online, factors such as region and culture, web content accessibility, ease of use, secure authentication, payment, fraud detection, performance, trust, stability, technology, and convenience are vital to the businesses’ and consumers’ satisfaction and interest.

        The effects of the evolution of the internet and web access to today’s world can be likened to the effects the industrial revolution had on the agrarian societies centuries ago. This has made doing business internationally even much more easier and faster to do, and it has brought many geographically distant countries even more closer in the virtual world. New innovations in telecommunications, the continuous development of the internet and emergence of e-commerce have enhanced the globalization of markets (Emerald Insight Staff 2005, 25).

        The explosion in the use of the internet has created opportunities for several innovations. Electronic commerce, which is one of the most interesting and important aspect of this explosion has changed the way businesses operate. Large amounts of business organization now offer goods & services as well as communicate with their suppliers and buyers over the internet. Electronic commerce has brought about a highly competitive market and as a result large brick-and-mortar companies are rethinking their business models with the aim of staying competitive. A report says that by 2014, over 1 trillion dollars in revenue will be generated by e-commerce worldwide (Digital economy, [ref. 26 September 2011]). This figure is evident in the speed at which e-commerce has risen within the past few years.

E-commerce is attracting converts at an overwhelmingly increasing level. In short, e-commerce has moved beyond its developing days and is getting down to serious business, becoming a natural part of multi-channel efforts to make sales and improve the bottom line. (Lou [ref. 26 September 2011]). In order to rip the full benefits of e-commerce, businesses are redesigning their processes as a whole rather than doing the same things in a different way.

1. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Recently most businesses in Nigeria (SMEs and larger companies) are taking their businesses online. This is a kind of welcome development however, there are some limitations. One of the major problems facing some businesses to take their system online is the cost for the design of an e-commerce shop. Secondly most of the e-commerce shops designed in Nigeria does not have an automated shipping and inventory system. This made the existing e-commerce shop not very effective.  It is to this regard that this study is based on development of an e-commerce shop with payment integration, shipping and inventory system using wordpress CMS

1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main aim of this study is develop an e-commerce shop with payment integration, shipping and inventory system using wordpress CMS. The specific objectives of the study are:

1. to design and implement an e-commerce shop with a simplified payment gateway and inventory system using wordpress CMS
2. to built an e-commerce shop that is mobile friendly using wordpress CMS
3. to improve on the lapses of the existing e-commerce shop using wordpress CMS
4.  to build an e-commerce shop with automated inventory system using wordpress CMS

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study will be of immense benefit to shop owners that want to take their businesses online. The study will explore all the concept of e-commerce shop and how best to best to integrate a payment gateway and inventory system using wordpress CMS. The findings of the study will provide an insight on factors that are affecting the e-commerce shop. The study will also serve as a repository of information to other researchers and students that desire to carry out similar research on e-commerce. Finally the study will contribute to the body of the existing literature on e-commerce shop with payment integration, shipping and inventory system using wordpress CMS.

1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study will cover on design and implementation of e-commerce shop with payment integration; shipping and inventory system with focus on wordpress CMS. 

1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Some of the constraints faced during the research work are:

1. Resources: Due to the complex and insecurity associated with human factors during this research work, personnel who are used to the manual system perhaps for fear of losing their jobs have been reserved in relinquishing all necessary information to make this project an enticingly extensive one.
2. Time: Due to time allowed for this project work, as a student was limited to come up with a reasonable work within the stipulated time.
3. Power: Availability of stable, efficient and reliable power supply was also a major limitation of this project as it had to be suspended several times during design and testing stages

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (CMS): A content management system is a software application that can be used to manage the creation and modification of digital content. CMSs are typically used for enterprise content management and web content management.

WORDPRESS: WordPress is a free and open-source content management system written in PHP and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database. Features include a plugin architecture and a template system, referred to within WordPress as Themes

E-COMMERCE: E-commerce is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet.

INVENTORY SYSTEM: Inventory management software is a software system for tracking inventory levels, orders, sales and deliveries. It can also be used in the manufacturing industry to create a work order, bill of materials and other production-related documents