ABSTRACT
Online marketplaces have proliferated over the past decade, creating new markets where none existed. By reducing transaction costs, online marketplaces facilitate transactions that otherwise would not have occurred and enable easier entry of small sellers. One central challenge faced by designers of online marketplaces is how to build enough trust to facilitate transactions between strangers. This paper provides an economist’s toolkit for designing online marketplaces, focusing on trust and reputation mechanisms. Electronic commerce systems for business-to-business commerce on the Internet are still in their infancy. The realization of Internet electronic markets for business-to-business following an n-suppliers: m-customers scenario is still unattainable with today’s solutions. Comprehensive Internet electronic commerce systems should provide for easy access to and handling of the system, help to overcome differences in time of business, location, language between suppliers and customers, and at the same time should support the entire process of trading for business-to-business commerce. In this paper, we present a DBMS-based electronic commerce architecture and its prototypical implementation for business-to-business commerce according to an n-suppliers: m-customers scenario. Business transactions within the electronic market are realized by a set of modular market services. Multiple physically distributed markets can be interconnected transparently to the users and form one virtually central market place. The modeling and management of all market data in a DBMS gives the system a solid basis for reliable, consistent, and secure trading on the market. The generic and modular system architecture can be applied to arbitrary application domains. The system is scalable and can cope with an increasing number of single markets, participants, and market data due to the possibility to replicate and distribute services and data and herewith to distribute data, system, and network load. The methodology adopted for this project is the Structured System Analysis and Design Methodology (SSADM).
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
Today, international trading of products, i.e., goods and services, by small companies is mainly carried out via traditional communication channels. Suppliers address customers by means of mail, phone, fax, and direct personal contact. Customers find suppliers by means of the various kinds of advertising, by yellow pages, and even by hearsay. International business-to-business trading becomes even more difficult for small and medium-sized companies, suppliers and customers, in rural and remote regions. In this case for both suppliers and customers it is hard to identify international business partners; time of business, location, and language are only some of the additional barriers to be overcome. Comparison of different offers on the international market, strategic placement of offers according to market dynamics and the like are difficult, expensive or even impossible. Hence, a common international electronic market place dedicated to a particular vertical market could overcome these difficulties in trading especially for small companies, the place on which suppliers can place offers and meet their customers, the place on which customers find a variety of offers of one or many suppliers and on which they can compare, select, and negotiate offers. Preferably, for those parties this market place should be easy to find and to enter and should be independent of time, place, and trade. To make an electronic commerce system attractive for the clientele addressed above electronic commerce systems should demand neither expensive hardware nor expensive software prerequisites. These companies need a simple but comprehensive software solution that easily opens them the door to a possibly well populated open electronic market place to trade on. Hence, the usage of the Internet, Web browser, and Java applets lays near at hand. The users will demand the system to be secure and this calls for consistent data management and the consideration of security aspects at multiple levels in the system. Today, business-to-business commerce is mainly based on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), a standard for conducting business over electronic networks. It enables companies to order products, bill customers, track accounts receivable, trace product shipments, and transfer funds electronically. EDI differs from other types of electronic commerce in that two parties who want to transact business must have some kind of business relationship first. EDI transactions are generally carried out over secure value-added networks built specifically for EDI, such as IBM’s Global Network and the network operated by GE Information Services. Because such networks are quite expensive, most EDI customers are large companies. Although EDI has traditionally been available only on value-added networks, it is becoming available on the Internet [4]. For example, GE Information Services recently introduced a secure link between its network and the Internet, so businesses using the GE Information Services network can exchange private documents such as purchase orders and invoices with companies over the Internet. However, although the link to the Internet is secure, anything sent over the Internet is not secure unless it is encrypted. Current work in the context of EDI tries to overcome these limitations in linking EDI networks together with the Internet. Although EDI is the most successful form of business-to-business electronic commerce available today, it is still quite costly and causes too much overhead and difficulties for being used by small and medium-companies. Most major IT vendors have announced and/or developed individual Internet commerce platforms. Prominent examples are IBM Commerce POINT, Microsoft Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition, Oracle Internet Commerce Server, INTERSHOP, Sun/ JavaSoft JECF (Java Electronic Commerce Framework). These systems provide interesting services like security, payment, directories, and catalogs to be integrated with existing systems and the Web, but all of them are largely proprietary. Only a few basics like HTTP, HTML, and SSL serve as de facto standards. INTERSHOP for example is a quite static system based on templates and pre-configured settings, where Microsoft Site Server enables through its pipeline technology the extension of the commerce system and commerce functions.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS.
In human endeavor, there is a lot of development which helps to maximize production, income and operation of businesses at Ogbete main market. These have brought increase in complexity of marketing system like B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumers) and its operations.
Based on these, a number of problems are facing the Ogbete main market system which include
- a) Day-to-Day pressures of selling
- b) Coping with customers
- c) Solving basic business problems
- d) Competitions (a new player enters, market conditions changes, sales drops, the company introduces a new products or services).
- e) Most of the leads came from the sales staff.
- f) Unable to recognize previously visited customers
- g) Availability of market (sales and services) to the whole parts of Nigeria
- h) Unstable fixed price
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The aim of this study is to design and implement a database driven online virtual marketplace with a particular reference to Ogbete main market. The web based program developed in this research essentially provides all the necessary marketing services and operations done at Ogbete main market which will help increase their operations based on sales and services.
These operations include general sales and marketing management.
In this study therefore, the researchers hope to accomplish the following objective:
- a) To design a better pricing mechanism in the market
- b) To solve the problem of geographical location
- c) To maximize sales
- d) To help improve customer relationship
- e) Increases social interaction activities
- f) Reduces pressures mounted on sellers
- g) Increases management of stock items
- h) Easy shopping
- i) Introduces bidding system
- j) Accommodates more marketers
- k) To improve quality delivery system
1.4 SIGNIFICANCES OF THE STUDY
Buying and selling is very important to our everyday life, it’s very important that we humans have to market what we have like goods and services to other people that needs it, also purchase what we are lacking. Marketing is highly regarded everywhere in the whole parts of the world. The following are some significance of this study:
- The secured site for electronic commerce will help the populace people of Nigeria to get rid of risk in carrying cash around and the convenience of shopping anytime of the day.
- It will reduce the risk of transportation, since the customer does not have to travel far to shop for any items or goods.
- It will reduce the risk of authentication of the product and improved business transaction as customers are now sure of the originality of the product they purchased.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This project looks into the processes involved in marketing of goods and services in the marketplace. The researche concentrated on the operation going on the general marketing activities like sales, management of stocks, pricing and registering of customers, security and policy guiding sales.
1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
Some of the constraints that may have in one-way or another affected the outcome of this work include:
- a) 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.
- b) 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.
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
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