PROJECT TITLE

Online Import and Export Community

Supervisor

Mr. Inayat Ullah Khan

Submitted By

Hafiz Saad Bin Waqas 14PWBCS0428

Abid Ali 14PWBCS0433

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & IT

UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
PESHAWAR

Month Year
July-2018
1
 Project Approval

It to certify that this project is approved and recommended as partial fulfillment for the award

of Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, from University of Engineering & Technology

Peshawar.

Supervisor

Chairperson

2
 Undertaking

It is to certify that the Project titled “Online Import and Export Community” is our original

work. No portion of the work presented in this project has been submitted in support of another

award or qualification either at this institution or elsewhere. Where material has been used

from other sources it has been properly acknowledged / referred.

Signature -----------------------------------

Hafiz Saad Bin Waqas

14PWBCS0428

Signature -----------------------------------

Abid Ali

14PWBCS0433

3
 Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our Respectable Supervisor Mr.Inayat Ullah Khan for guiding us

throughout the course of our Research and implementation of this Final Year Project. We

would also like to thank all our teachers especially our esteemed supervisor Mr.Inayat Ullah

Khan for guiding us in solving our problems related to Development, Designing, Research &

Implementation of our FYP.

We would also like to thank our families and friends for their continuous encouragement and

moral support which pushed us to complete our project time with our utmost dedication.

4
 Abstract

Online Trade & E-commerce has changed the way businesses operate globally. Merchants buy

and sell products via online trade portals and Marketplaces which are easily accessible and

provide 24/7 connectivity, these E-commerce Marketplaces provide ease of doing business and

provide multiple product categories under one platform. Countries like United States, China,

Germany, Russia and the rest of the developed world rely greatly on online trade portals & E-

commerce Marketplaces to facilitate trade to fulfill their demands for imports & exports.

Unfortunately, the situation in Pakistan is not very good, Pakistan being a developing country

does not have local E-commerce Marketplaces where Merchants, Traders and Manufacturers

can list their products for exports, nor does Pakistani Merchants, Traders & Manufacturers

have easy access to international marketplaces due to low internet penetration and difficult

import laws.

This situation has created a huge opportunity for developing an Online Import Export

Community for local Pakistani Merchants, Traders and Manufacturers to sell their goods online

through an easily accessible E-commerce Marketplace and interact with International buyers

and Sellers. This thesis shares the steps towards the development & implementation of a

Pakistani Local E-commerce Marketplace which will act as an Online Import Export

Community for the local business community.

5
 Table of Contents
Project Approval _______________________________________________________________ 2
Undertaking ___________________________________________________________________ 3
Acknowledgements _____________________________________________________________ 4
Abstract ______________________________________________________________________ 5
Chapter 1: Introduction _____________________________________________________ 8
BACKGROUND _____________________________________________________________________ 8
1.1 Purpose ___________________________________________________________________ 8
1.2 Project Scope and Product Features _____________________________________________ 8
1.3 Objectives _________________________________________________________________ 9
1.4 Existing System: __________________________________________________________ 10
1.4.1 Features: ______________________________________________________________ 10
1.5 Project planning: __________________________________________________________ 11
1.5.1 Distributions of work ____________________________________________________ 11
1.5.2 Gantt Chart: ____________________________________________________________ 11
Chapter 2: Background Study, Literature Review _______________________________ 12
2.1 Introduction ___________________________________________________________________ 12
2.1.1 Literature Review __________________________________________________________ 12
2.1.1.1 Alibaba _______________________________________________________________ 13
2.1.1.2 EBay _________________________________________________________________ 13
2.1.1.3 Amazon _______________________________________________________________ 14
2.1.1.4 TradeKey.com __________________________________________________________ 15
2.1.1.5 Etsy __________________________________________________________________ 15
2.1.1.6 Significance of Online Trade Portals ________________________________________ 15
2.1.1.7 Problems faced by Pakistani Business Community _____________________________ 16
2.1.1.8 How to Improve the Situation to Implement Online Trade Solutions in Pakistan? _____ 17
Chapter 3: Requirements ___________________________________________________ 19
3.1 External Interface Requirements ______________________________________________ 19
3.1.1 User Interfaces__________________________________________________________ 19
3.1.2 Hardware Interfaces _____________________________________________________ 19
3.1.3 Software Interfaces ______________________________________________________ 20
3.2 Other Nonfunctional Requirements ____________________________________________ 21
3.2.1 Performance Requirements ________________________________________________ 21
3.2.2 Safety Requirements _____________________________________________________ 22
3.2.3 Security Requirements ___________________________________________________ 23
3.2.4 Software Quality Attributes _______________________________________________ 23
3.2.4.1 Availability: ___________________________________________________________ 24
3.2.4.2 Reliability: __________________________________________________________ 24
3.2.4.3 Usability: ___________________________________________________________ 24
3.2.4.4 Integrity: ____________________________________________________________ 24
3.3 Use Cases ________________________________________________________________ 25
3.3.1 Diagrams: _____________________________________________________________ 26
3.3.1.1 Buyers: _____________________________________________________________ 27
3.3.2 Sellers ________________________________________________________________ 27
6
 3.3.3 ERD Diagram: __________________________________________________________ 37
________________________________________________________________________ 37

Chapter 4: Analysis and Design _____________________________________________ 38

4.1 Overall Description ________________________________________________________ 38
4.1.1 Product Perspective ______________________________________________________ 38
4.1.2 User Characteristics______________________________________________________ 39
4.1.3 Operating Environment ___________________________________________________ 40
4.1.4 Design and Implementation Constraints ______________________________________ 41
User Documentation ______________________________________________________________ 42
4.1.5 Assumptions and Dependencies ____________________________________________ 42
4.3 Design: __________________________________________________________________ 45
Chapter 5: Implementation and Testing _______________________________________ 46
Required Hardware and Software: _______________________________________________________ 46
5.1. Hardware ___________________________________________________________________ 46
5.1.2. Software __________________________________________________________________ 46
5.2. Implementation __________________________________________________________________ 47
5.3 The web infrastructure implementation ________________________________________________ 48
5.4 The mobile infrastructure implementation ______________________________________________ 48
5.7 Testing__________________________________________________________________________ 58
5.7.1 Web Portal Testing: ______________________________________________________________ 59
Chapter 6: Conclusion _____________________________________________________ 62
Appendix: Glossary __________________________________________________________________ 64
References ______________________________________________________________ 64

7
 Chapter 1: Introduction

BACKGROUND

1.1 Purpose

The purpose of this thesis is the Research, Design, Development & Implementation of Online

Import and Export Community to facilitate trade and E-commerce among the Pakistani

Business community and merchants. Our team has worked on developing an Online Trade

and E-commerce Marketplace called EasyTijarat.com, with EasyTijarat.com we want to

create an Online Import and Export Community for Pakistani businesses. Online Trade and

E-commerce are one of the core and fundamental technologies to boost trade and E-

commerce for countries all over the world. Unfortunately, Pakistan has been left behind in

this sector due to slow adoption of latest technologies and lack of awareness among local

Businesses. With the formation of an E-commerce Marketplace we want to mobilize and

empower Pakistani Manufactures, Traders, Exporters and Merchants to benefit from the

power of Internet and Boost their Sales and Exports internationally.

1.2 Project Scope and Product Features

The project scope deals with the designing and development of a full fledge Online E-

commerce Marketplace platform called “EasyTijarat”, which comprises of a web portal,

Android App & iOS App. The EasyTijarat Online Import and Export community has many

features and functionalities for its target users, which is the business community in Pakistan

8
like Importers, Exporters, Traders and Manufacturers.

The key features which we have designed & implemented in our platform are listed below:

• Creation of an Easily accessible online web-portal Marketplace platform

• Ability to create user profile on the Marketplace Platform

• Ability to List Products with Pictures on the Marketplace Platform

• Ability to order products listed by other users on the platform

• Search functionality to find desired products

1.3 Objectives

There are several core objectives behind the development of Online Import and export

Community in Pakistan. Which has several benefits to not only its users but also to the

economy of our country Pakistan. The key objectives are listed below

• To enable local Merchants, Traders and Manufactures tap into Online Trade and E-

commerce

• To increase International Trade facilitated by E-commerce

• To provide a local solution to Pakistani businessmen

• To encourage local manufactures boost exports by using online trade to access buyer

community internationally

• To invite more business to consider Online Trade and E-commerce as a viable

business channel

• To provide a one-stop shop solution to local Traders, Businessmen and Manufactures

towards a platform they can trust and easily make their account.

9
The benefits of online trade and E-commerce are immensely, our primary objective is to

provide a local solution and platform to our traders so that they can do trade and E-commerce

easily. The benefits of such a platform will be immense, such that more traders can do trade

and overall exports will go high.

1.4 Existing System:

During the initial development work on EasyTijarat, Online Import and Export Community

portal, our team came across several existing systems and implementations. However, they

were inadequate and Lacked core features like Search, Multiple Listings, Email support and

availability of Connecting Mobile Apps with the Platform. Since most users in Pakistan don’t

have a laptop or Computer with them, the development of Mobile Apps was crucial for the

ease of our customers. Therefore, we decided to create our platform from the ground up

which had the features users were looking for.

1.4.1 Features:

Our core focus during the development phase of our project was to streamline core

operational features of our web portal to optimize user experience and improve the

performance of the marketplace. For this purpose, we focused on working on the following

features.

• Develop functionality for easy account creation

• Develop functionality for easy search.

• Develop functionality to create listing of products

• Develop functionality of Email integration to receive notifications

10
 • Develop functionality of communication between buyers and sellers

• Easy search discovery and ordering of products

• Providing same functionally to mobile app users as available to web platform users.

1.5 Project planning:

1.5.1 Distributions of work

Task Hafiz Saad Bin Abid Ali

Waqas
Do the literature survey ü ü
System analysis and design ü ü
Data Collection ü ü
Design techniques ü ü
Implementation ü ü
Testing ü ü
Proposal Writing ü ü
Progress Report Writing ü ü
Final Report Writing ü ü
Presentation Preparation ü ü

1.5.2 Gantt Chart:

TASK OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUNE July
Literature Survey
System analysis and
design
Data Collection
Design Techniques
User Interface
Design
Implementation
Testing
Proposal Writing

11
 Final Report
Preparation
Writing the Final
Report

Chapter 2: Background Study,

Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

2.1.1 Literature Review

There is a lot of available research, articles and publications that highlight the importance of

online trade and E-commerce. Several international trade organizations and research groups

have categorized online trade & E-commerce as one of the most fundamental and important

technologies which countries must adopt to boost their economies. We have examples of

countries like China which grew their economy size from $360 Billion USD in 1990 to

almost $6 Trillion USD in 2010 to which Online Trade and E-commerce play a Huge Role

[1]. We also have examples of Brazil, India and other developing countries who have

immensely gained due to their adoption of E-commerce technologies and local E-commerce

adoption. The situation in Pakistan is different, the trade and export sectors have seen the

worst time in the last ten years. The primary reasons for this poor performance is lack of

initiatives undertaken by both private and public sector to boost trade and exports, and lack

of innovation happening in E-commerce and online trade in our country. There are several

other factors for the decline in our exports and manufacturing sector, which includes lack of

12
digital finance mechanisms to establish trade and exports and also lack of any local online

portal that facilitates trade.

When we initially planned to make this platform and Online Import and Export community for

Pakistan, we researched to find similar examples of successful companies and trade portals

that facilitate imports and exports among buyers and sellers. The chief businesses that were

discovered in our research are discussed below.

2.1.1.1 Alibaba

Alibaba is a Chinese Business group which is the largest Online Retail and E-commerce

Group in Asia [2]. Alibaba.com is an online Business-to-Business (B2B) platform that

enables manufactures connect with bulk buyers all around the world. The beauty of

Alibaba is its powerful online platform and payment systems, that establishes trust

among customers online. Alibaba started business in early 2000s and presently is the

largest company operating in B2B trade and commerce. Alibaba is well-known Online

trade platform to shop mainly from Chinese manufactures and sellers. Alibaba charges

for gaining real-estate on its platform, which goes as high as $5000 per year per business

page. It should be noted that the Alibaba Platform services are mainly presented in

Chinese language which makes it a very Chinese friendly website.

2.1.1.2 EBay

EBay is an American Company which started in early 2000s. EBay is best known

globally for its Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer Services (B2C)

[3]. EBay is considered one of the earliest companies globally to initiate E-commerce

13
 and Online trade thanks to the advancements made in Internet Distribution and overall

delivery and fulfillment technologies. EBay started primarily in the United States Market

but expanded globally very quickly. Today EBay is best known to find goods price

through their auction mechanism. Users can bid online for an item and the winner gets to

purchase the product. EBay was also the first international company to create a payment

system for its users, where users could buy and sell products through EBay payment

service. However, that was not successful and EBay had to Purchase PayPal which is

currently the biggest online payment service in the world today.

2.1.1.3 Amazon

Amazon is the most successful E-commerce company in the world today [4]. Amazon started

initially as an Online Bookstore, which grew in popularity so much that today almost 50% of

all E-commerce related sales in America are made through Amazon. It should be noted

however that Amazon is strictly a Business-to-Consumer platform. Which means that it

doesn’t facilitate trade, but the example of Amazon is very crucial to stress towards the

importance of adoption of E-commerce technologies. Amazon has indirectly affected Online

trade, where Businesses purchase from manufactures to cater to the massive demand on

Amazon Stores. Almost 60% of products sold on Amazon through Merchants are

manufactured in China. Therefore, this creates a good example of how E-commerce

transforms the overall trade of products and boosts economy. Amazon is also the biggest

customer of United States Postal Service (USPS) which has made it the biggest and most

profitable supply and distribution company in America.

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2.1.1.4 TradeKey.com

TradeKey.com is an online Business-to-Business marketplace, specializing in facilitating

global trade [5]. It primarily engages in helping worldwide traders find new trade partners

and business opportunities online. With over 9.5 Million visitors per months and over 4.5

million registered members from over 220 countries, TradeKey is becoming the first choice

for any trade person.

TradeKey.com is world's first B2B marketplace that earned ISO 9001 Quality Management

System and ISO 27001 Information Security System certifications, which clearly indicates

the level of service it is delivering to its valued members and visitors.

TradeKey headquartered in Saudi Arabia is best known for source heavy industry products

and manufacturing industry products.

2.1.1.5 Etsy

Etsy is an online E-commerce marketplace dealing in Handmade products and Vintage

products. Etsy started in 2005 and quickly become very popular for sourcing handmade

products and items [6]. Etsy is currently the online worldwide Marketplace which primarily

sells handmade products source from 50 countries across the globe. By 2014 Etsy had over

50 million users worldwide and the Marketplace connected 1.4 Million active sellers with

19.8 million active Buyers.

2.1.1.6 Significance of Online Trade Portals

There are several advantages of online trade portals. The biggest advantage is the availability

15
of these portals, which makes Business possible 24/7[7]. Other advantages include easier

international discovery and accessibility of customers globally, where ever internet

connectivity is available. For Pakistani Businesses Online Portals have a lot of advantages as

well, which are listed below.

• The possibility of account creation for Pakistani Businesses, which is not possible on

International portals which don’t operate in Pakistan

• The possibility to connect with customers from across the Globe.

• Showcasing products to International Customers

• Communicating with Customers from International Countries

• Availing online trade and Cross Border Trade Opportunities.

2.1.1.7 Problems faced by Pakistani Business Community

There are several problems facing Pakistani Businesses when it comes to Online Trade and

Exports[8]. One of the primary problems that affects Pakistani businesses is that Most Online

Trade portals don’t have official company presence in Pakistan. This makes the process of

Signing-Up on these platforms difficult for Pakistani Businesses, and even if they do manage

to make an account they run into difficulties and problems which takes months to get

resolved. Another problem in Pakistan is that no International Online Payment Service

Works in Pakistan, Most of these online trade portals work on PayPal or other advance

Payment Services, since these services don’t operate in Pakistan, Businesses have working

accounts but can’t access payments or conduct their business. Another Problem which is

faced by local businesses is lack of regulation made by the government in the Online trade

and E-commerce sector, there is no policy or framework laid forward by the government that
16
could analyze or access the needs of consumers in this sector. Due to this there is no progress

towards improving this sector from the government.

2.1.1.8 How to Improve the Situation to Implement Online Trade Solutions in

Pakistan?

In Pakistan today there are several advancements in internet connectivity and infrastructure

development that could really facilitate businesses to avail online trade and E-commerce

facilitate through E-commerce Marketplaces like EasyTijarat.com. The introduction of 3G &

4G technologies and the distribution of High Speed Internet Connectivity across Major cities

of Pakistan has facilitated the formation of online E-commerce marketplaces[9]. Moreover

the smartphone penetration in Pakistan is on the rise as well. This increased adoption to

smartphone usage and high speed networking like 3G and 4G can greatly benefit the

adoption and usage of online trade platforms. User literacy and understanding of internet

based technologies is on the rise as well. Which is a plus point for introducing a trade

platform for local trades and businesses. Our mission is to create an Online Import and

Export Community in Pakistan and bring Pakistani Trades, Businessmen, Merchants and

Manufactures to the world of Online trade and E-commerce.

There is also development in the infrastructure of trade in Pakistan. Local Companies like

TCS, Leopard Courier have made it possible for average small businesses export their

products internationally. TCS has recently signed MOU with FedEx and DHL which enables

it to ship products to international destinations. In the past 5 years there is also development

in the road, railways and shipping infrastructure of Pakistan. The China Pakistan Economic

Corridor Initiative has made tremendous progress for local infrastructure. Now our country

has two ports to deal with international shipments namely Karachi Port and Gwadar Port. If

17
we assess the overall scenario in Pakistan, there is tremendous opportunity to capture in

International Trade and Exports. Our efforts in research phase highlighted us with the

importance and need for the establishment of Online Import and Export Community in

Pakistan, and we are confident that EasyTijarat will become the go to destination for

Importers and Exporters in Pakistan to boost their business and increase international trade

through Pakistan.

18
 Chapter 3: Requirements

3.1 External Interface Requirements

3.1.1 User Interfaces

The User Interface really holds value when it comes to the core customer experience.

Delivering the best customer experience is one of our priorities. We believe the every

customer touch point should be designed in a way that it easy to use and easy to understand.

For this purpose, we have chosen the best frameworks and the best front-end solutions so that

the final e-commerce marketplace is responsive (adjusted on mobile devices), and easy to use

and navigate throughout the site structure, find products easily and buy them in an instant.

We have chosen a theme with an implemented Bootstrap front-end framework that has all the

qualities and characteristics that we needed to build the final e-commerce marketplace for

buyers and sellers. The Bootstrap framework is both responsive and clean, delivering the best

end user experience.

3.1.2 Hardware Interfaces

This is an online e-commerce marketplace which is primarily a software product. The users

can access this online e-commerce marketplace from ay device which can connect to the

internet and which can browse the internet. In this project, we used the virtual servers from

godaddy.com that provides the networking hardware, physical server, RAM, storage and

other such things which are necessary to make the e-commerce marketplace available on the

internet. The collective hardware interfaces are described below:

19
 • Internet enabled mobile devices.

• Internet enabled Laptop machines.

• Internet enabled Desktop machines.

• Physical Server with Storage, RAM and Networking Interface.

• Physical Router for routing and Networking.

• SSD storage for quick content processing, delivery and storage.

3.1.3 Software Interfaces

As mentioned in the section above, this e-commerce marketplace is primarily a software

product and involves many technological frameworks, interfaces and implementations. To

deliver the best customer experience, we have chosen the technology stacks very carefully so

that our team can finish up the project within the deadlines without any unnecessary delays.

We have also avoided the outdated and deprecated software interfaces to avoid the software

loopholes and infrastructure problems that arise because of outdated software packages. We

have presented a list of all the software interfaces that we have use in building up this e-

commerce marketplace.

• Linux based Ubuntu Operating System

• Apache Server

• PHP MyAdmin

• WordPress Stack

• Woo-Commerce for e-commerce functionality

• WC Vendors for Marketplace functionality

• The Gem Theme for the best User Interface, Usability and experience

20
 • Google Chrome and supported browsers for development and delivery

• React.Native cross-platform technology stack for mobile apps

• Expo software package for React.Native implementation

• Visual Studio Code IDE for the development and coding

• FileZilla FTP for file transfer between the Remote Server and the Local Host

• SSH terminal for easy access to the Ubuntu Operating System

• Android and iOS software packages

• Adobe Photoshop for design implementation and visual work

3.2 Other Nonfunctional Requirements

3.2.1 Performance Requirements

To make the best online e-commerce marketplace which will be accessed by millions of

users, buyers and sellers, the performance of the entire technical infrastructure is the main

key. We have taken care of the key performance requirements before starting this project so

that the system continues to work without any errors and issues. The key Project

Requirements of this online e-commerce marketplace are briefly listed below:

• The project should use the latest tools and technology stack.

• The online e-commerce marketplace should be accessible on all the internet enabled.

handheld and laptop or desktop devices.

• The system should prevent DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks.

• The system should prevent spam from populating the marketplace.

21
 • The system should be online 24/7 with limited downtime.

• The system should accessible with the fastest possible delivery.

• The images on the e-commerce marketplace should be compressed beforehand so that

they don’t take too much time to load and appear.

• Proper page structuring of the e-commerce marketplace for better indexing from the

search engine crawlers coming from Bing and Google.

• Proper Backup System so that if the entire infrastructure fails, we should be having

proper backups to enable the system and make it online so that it is accessible quickly

and in a secure way.

3.2.2 Safety Requirements

The entire technical infrastructure of the online e-commerce marketplace is made secure

by its design and all the possible safety requirements were kept under consideration

before the development and the execution of the online e-commerce marketplace. This

is very important consideration because without the safety requirements, the entire

project would expose the dangerous loopholes that can be exploited by a third party

intruder.

Also, our e-commerce marketplace involved the transfer of money from buyers to

sellers, and all the credit card information, addresses, emails and the phone numbers

would be stored on the server so it is very important that we design systems to prevent

data breach and data leak due to the sensitive nature of the data. If any data break or

data leak happens, we would loose the customer trust and it will seriously harm our

reputation at the same time which will hurt our business in the long run.

22
3.2.3 Security Requirements

As listed in the above section, the entire system should be made safe and secure. All of

the security requirements of the system are briefly listed below. Some of the security

considerations were taken and some are for the future implementation plan.

• The system should be controlled by a single admin

• User Roles on the marketplace must be defined with a very careful consideration

• Spam prevention should be done wherever its needed

• Passwords should be properly hashed with a very strong hashing algorithm

before saving them to the database

• Passwords should be very strong in order to prevent the social engineering

attacks

• Payment information must be stores in a third party PCI Complaint system to

avoid the payment information being hacked by the third party intruder

• Two Factor Authentication should be enabled in the future to prevent bots and

intruders from logging in the system

• Log-In attempts count should be integrated to prevent brute-force attacks

• The IPs from the spam sources should be properly blacklisted to prevent them

from attacking again and again.

3.2.4 Software Quality Attributes

The core and standard Software Quality attributes were taken into consideration before

jumping onto the implementation and execution of the online e-commerce marketplace.

All the software quality attributes are discussed below.

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3.2.4.1 Availability:

This is a very important attribute when it comes to the software quality. The entire system

should be available 24/7 with minimum downtime. To make it available 24/7, we have

implemented virtual servers with redundancy and backups so that if anything unexpected

happens, we should be having the means and resources available to make the entire system

online with its full functionality.

3.2.4.2 Reliability:

The entire system should be reliable and it should be having the means to prevent most of the

attacks like DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service), DoS (Denial of Service) and the Brute-

Force attacks on the databased on the e-commerce marketplace. Reliability of the entire

software system is also connected to the availability of the system.

3.2.4.3 Usability:

Our entire system of the online e-commerce marketplace should be designed in such a way

that the system is easy to use, easy to navigate and easy to understand. For this purpose, we

have designed the best possible user experience for our buyers and sellers.

Harder usability makes it difficult for the customers to understand the platform and use it for

their own needs, this is why we haven kept this under strong consideration.

3.2.4.4 Integrity:

The integrity of any software system is really important to keep it running with proper and

dined functionality and without any unexpected errors. This is why we have taken some strict

security measures that are well defined in the Security Requirements section above. To

briefly explain it here, no authority has the rights to modify the system without the approval

from the admin or the super user of the system. If a buyers wants to do any changes, all the

24
changed should go through a verification process as an added layer to deliver the streamlined

and desired functionality.

3.3 Use Cases

Here in this section, we will present the use cases of our online e-commerce marketplace. We
have tried our best to keep the entire system simple and easy to use so that the customers
don’t face any kind of difficulty in using our system for their own needs. We have briefly
described the use cases in the table down below.

Primary Actors User Cases

1) Sign Up

2) Login

3) Browse the products

4) Select the Products

5) Add to Cart
BUYERS
6) Proceed to Checkout

7) Add the payment information

8) Add the address

9) Add the order notes for the seller

10) Receive the Order email from the system

1) Sign up as a vendor

2) Submit the Application

SELLERS 3) Application approved

4) Go to their dedicated dashboard

5) Add the products (or remove them)

25
 6) Submit product for review

7) Product approved

8) Collect orders and payments

9) Deliver the orders

10) Send the confirmations

1) Add or delete the user

2) Approve or reject the vendor applications

3) Approve or reject the vendor products

4) Add to remove the vendors

5) Set the commission rate

ADMIN
6) Configure the system

7) Set shipping methods

8) Set currency

9) Update the system

10) Add or Delete the plugins

3.3.1 Diagrams:

In this section, the use cases that were explained in the previous section in a table format are

presented in a diagram. The diagrams are presented for three distinct use cases, i.e. Buyers,

Sellers and Admin.

26
3.3.1.1 Buyers:

The buyer’s workflow is clearly defined in the diagram below. The buyers are the users that

come to the e-commerce marketplace, search for the products and make a transaction with

the seller of the products. The buyer has a very limited functionality in the entire system for

the sake of security and infrastructure integrity.

3.3.2 Sellers

The workflow of the sellers is very clearly articulated in the diagram below. The sellers are

the kind of user that can list and sell their products through our online e-commerce

marketplace. They can add or remove products, set the price and deliver the product to the

customer in case someone buys their listed product. The rest of the touch point are explained

in the diagram below.

27
3.3.2.1 Admin

The admin is the super user of the entire e-commerce marketplace with the maximum

amounts of functionality and control over the entire technical infrastructure. The admin can

do everything, from updating the system to configuring the system, add and remove products

and approve the vendor (Buyer) applications. All the aspects of the admin are briefly

described in the diagram below.

28
Description of use cases:

In the above two sections, we have briefly defined the use cases for buyers, sellers and

admin. Here in this section, we will define the most important use cases for the buyers,

sellers and the admin in the table format.

Buyers:

Name Description
Use Case ID 1
Use Case Name Sign Up and Login
Actors Buyer
Description Here, the buyers can Sign up to our portal. In case
he has an account, he can just Log in to the portal.
Pre-Conditions The buyer can’t place an order
Post-Conditions The buyer can place and order
Normal Flows 11) Open the Sign Up or Login Form
12) Fill In the details
29
 13) Receive the confirmation email
14) Browse the marketplace and place and order
Alternative Flows -
Exceptions -
Includes -
Priority High
Frequency of Use Min: 1 Max: *
Business Rules -
Special Requirements -
Assumptions -
Notes and Issues -

Name Description
Use Case ID 2
Use Case Name Browse and Select the products
Actors Buyer
Description Once the user is logged in, he can browse or
select the products.
Pre-Conditions -
Post-Conditions -
Normal Flows A user can go to the website and browser the
products in the shop section.
Alternative Flows -
Exceptions -
Includes -
Priority High
Frequency of Use Min: 1 Max: *
Business Rules -
Special Requirements -
Assumptions -
Notes and Issues -

Name Description
Use Case ID 3
Use Case Name Add to Cart and Proceed to Checkout
Actors Buyer
Description Here, the user can add the desired products to
their card and then proceed to checkout and
place and order.
Pre-Conditions The user cart is empty.
Post-Conditions The user cart is full and he has successfully
placed an order.
Normal Flows 15) User can Browse the products
16) User can select the products of his choice
30
 17) User can Add the products to their cart
18) User can proceed to checkout
19) User can finally place an order
Alternative Flows -
Exceptions -
Includes -
Priority
Frequency of Use Min: 1 Max: *
Business Rules -
Special Requirements -
Assumptions -
Notes and Issues -

Name Description
Use Case ID 4
Use Case Name Order completion
Actors Buyer
Description Here, the user can complete his or her order that
they placed during the checkout
Pre-Conditions Products in the cart
Post-Conditions Order completed with all the details
Normal Flows 20) User places an order
21) User goes through the checkout page
22) User completes all the details
23) User completes the order
Alternative Flows -
Exceptions -
Includes -
Priority High
Frequency of Use Min: 1 Max: *
Business Rules -
Special Requirements -
Assumptions -
Notes and Issues -

Name Description
Use Case ID 5
Use Case Name Order Notification
Actors Buyer
Description In this use case, the user will get the order
notification via email that his or her order has
successfully been placed.
Pre-Conditions Order placed but no notification
Post-Conditions The successful order notification email
Normal Flows 24) A user places an order
25) The user received an email that his or her
31
 order has been placed and is processing
further.
Alternative Flows -
Exceptions -
Includes -
Priority Medium
Frequency of Use Min: 1 Max: *
Business Rules -
Special Requirements -
Assumptions -
Notes and Issues -

Seller:

Name Description
Use Case ID 1
Use Case Name Sign Up and Login
Actors Seller
Description Here, the seller can sign up as a vendor and
submit his application form to the admin.
Pre-Conditions The user is not an vendor
Post-Conditions The user is a vendor and he can sell through our
platform.
Normal Flows 26) Open the Sign Up or Login Form
27) Fill In the details
28) Receive the confirmation email
29) You have became the vendor
Alternative Flows -
Exceptions -
Includes -
Priority High
Frequency of Use Min: 1 Max: *
Business Rules -
Special Requirements -
Assumptions -
Notes and Issues -

Name Description
Use Case ID 2
Use Case Name Sell Products
Actors Seller
Description Once the application has been approved, the
seller can start selling.
Pre-Conditions Can’t sell the products
Post-Conditions The vendor can add, remove or sell the products
through our platform
Normal Flows 30) The vendor can Log In to their dashboard

32
 31) The vendor can add or remove the products
32) Once the product has been approved,
the vendor can start selling the product
Alternative Flows -
Exceptions -
Includes -
Priority High
Frequency of Use Min: 1 Max: *
Business Rules -
Special Requirements -
Assumptions -
Notes and Issues -

Name Description
Use Case ID 3
Use Case Name Collect Orders and Payments
Actors Seller
Description Once the vendor starts selling the products, he
can collect orders and payments from the
buyers.
Pre-Conditions Can’t collect the payments and orders
Post-Conditions Collect the payments and orders
Normal Flows 33) The vendor start selling the product
34) Once the buyer buys the product, the vendor
can receive a notification that someone has
bought his product
35) The vendor would be able to directly
collect the payments from the customers
(Buyers)
Alternative Flows -
Exceptions -
Includes -
Priority High
Frequency of Use Min: 1 Max: *
Business Rules -
Special Requirements -
Assumptions -
Notes and Issues -

Name Description
Use Case ID 4
Use Case Name Deliver the orders
Actors Seller
Description Once the buyer buys the product, the vendor can
collect the payment and the order notification
and can deliver the product through a courier
Pre-Conditions Can’t deliver the products
Post-Conditions Collect the order details and delivers the product

33
Normal Flows 36) The user (buyer) can place an order
37) The vendor can collect the order details
38) The vendor can collect the payment
39) The vendor can ship the order
Alternative Flows -
Exceptions -
Includes -
Priority High
Frequency of Use Min: 1 Max: *
Business Rules -
Special Requirements -
Assumptions -
Notes and Issues -

Name Description
Use Case ID 5
Use Case Name Send the order confirmations
Actors Seller
Description Once the vendor delivers the order, he can send
out the order confirmation emails to the buyer to
let him know that his product has been delivered.
Pre-Conditions Can’t send the order completion notification
Post-Conditions Can send the order completion notification
Normal Flows 40) The buyer can place an order
41) The vendor can collect the order details and
can send the product
42) The vendor can inform the customer that
his or her order has been delivered
Alternative Flows -
Exceptions -
Includes -
Priority High
Frequency of Use Min: 1 Max: *
Business Rules -
Special Requirements -
Assumptions -
Notes and Issues -

Admin:

Name Description
Use Case ID 1
Use Case Name User management
Actors Admin
Description The admin can add or delete the user and can do
all the user management tasks
34
Pre-Conditions The admin can’t do the user management
Post-Conditions The admin can do all the user management
Normal Flows 43) Admin logs into the dashboard
44) Admin can go to the user section
45) Admin can add or delete the user
Alternative Flows -
Exceptions -
Includes -
Priority High
Frequency of Use Min: 1 Max: *
Business Rules -
Special Requirements -
Assumptions -
Notes and Issues -

Name Description
Use Case ID 2
Use Case Name Vendor Applications
Actors Admin
Description The admin can approve or reject the vendor
applications
Pre-Conditions The admin can't see the vendor application
Post-Conditions The admin can approve or reject the vendor
application
Normal Flows 46) Admin logs into the dashboard
47) Admin can go to vendor section
48) Admin can approve or reject the vendor
application
Alternative Flows -
Exceptions -
Includes -
Priority High
Frequency of Use Min: 1 Max: *
Business Rules -
Special Requirements -
Assumptions -
Notes and Issues -

Name Description
Use Case ID 3
Use Case Name Vendor Management
Actors Admin
Description Just like the user management, the admin can
add or remove the vendors from the platform
Pre-Conditions The admin can't add or remove the vendors
Post-Conditions The admin can add or remove the vendors
Normal Flows 49) Admin logs into the dashboard
35
 50) Admin can go to vendor section
51) Admin can add or delete the vendor
Alternative Flows -
Exceptions -
Includes -
Priority High
Frequency of Use Min: 1 Max: *
Business Rules -
Special Requirements -
Assumptions -
Notes and Issues -

Name Description
Use Case ID 4
Use Case Name Commission management and configuration
Actors Admin
Description The admin can configure the entire system and
set the commission rate for the vendors
Pre-Conditions The admin can’t configure the system
Post-Conditions The admin can configure the system and set the
commission rates
Normal Flows 52) Admin logs into the dashboard
53) Admin can go to configuration section
54) Admin can configure the portal and set
the commission
Alternative Flows -
Exceptions -
Includes -
Priority High
Frequency of Use Min: 1 Max: *
Business Rules -
Special Requirements -
Assumptions -
Notes and Issues -

Name Description
Use Case ID 5
Use Case Name System Updates
Actors Admin
Description The admin can update the entire system if the
new update arrive.
Pre-Conditions The admin can’t update the system
Post-Conditions The admin can update the system
Normal Flows 55) Admin logs into the dashboard
56) Admin can go to configuration section
57) Admin can configure the portal and
36
 update the entire system
Alternative Flows -
Exceptions -
Includes -
Priority High
Frequency of Use Min: 1 Max: *
Business Rules -
Special Requirements -
Assumptions -
Notes and Issues -

3.3.3 ERD Diagram:

37
 Chapter 4: Analysis and Design

4.1 Overall Description

4.1.1 Product Perspective

This project is an online e-commerce marketplace. This marketplace is designed to buy and

sell different kinds of products. What’s unique about this online e-commerce marketplace is

that people who want to sell their products can make an account, apply as a vendor and start

selling their products and goods to millions of potential buyers across the globe. To explain

our online e-commerce marketplace further, we have broken it down into different points that

are briefly listed below:

• Fully functional and ready online e-commerce marketplace

• Supports both vendors (Sellers) and Buyers

• Vendors (Sellers) can add, remove or update the products

• Vendors (Sellers) can see the stats and analytics of their products

• Vendors (Sellers) can check order notifications and deliver the products

• Buyers can make an account and start buying

• Buyers can browse through the variety of products that the vendors (sellers) have to

offer

• Buyers can review the products and the vendors

• Vendor applications are only approved and rejected by the admin

38
 • Admin can update and configure the online e-commerce marketplace

• Admin can perform serious and sensitive tasks like vendor management and user

management

• Admin can define different roles for the users to ensure integrity of the online e-

commerce marketplace

• Admin can install different Plugins for marketing, management, security and

functionality enhancement

• Admin can also remove the plugins without any prior notification to the vendors

(sellers).

4.1.2 User Characteristics

There are two kinds of users for this online e-commerce marketplace. One is primary and the

second ones are secondary. The primary users of this online e-commerce marketplace are the

vendors (Sellers) and the secondary users of this e-commerce marketplace are the Buyers.

1) Vendors (Primary Users)

2) Buyers (Secondary Users)

Vendors are able to make an account, add products to our online e-commerce marketplace

and start selling. Buyers are able to make an account, browse through thousands of products

from the vendors, add them to cart and buy them instantly. Once a buyer buys a product, the

vendor would get notified about the order, after which he can ship the product to the desired

customer. Not just the vendor but the buyers also receive constant updates and notifications

about the progress of the order in either Pending, Processing and Completed state.

39
4.1.3 Operating Environment

As we have explained in the sections above, this e-commerce marketplace is a completely

online product. This online e-commerce marketplace can be accessed through any internet

connected device like mobile devices, Laptop devices or any desktop or handheld device that

is directly connected to the internet and it can browse the web seamlessly. To give an

unmatched experience to our customers, we have made sure that the technology and the tools

that we use are top notch, latest and according to the standards of the current industry.

In order for our online e-commerce marketplace to operate seamlessly, it needs a couple of

basic things which are briefly listed below:

• Linux based Operating System (We are using Ubuntu).

• Minimum 250 MB RAM and 2.2 GHz Processor Machine

• Public Static IP address

• Apache server

• PHP environment

• SSH (Secure Shell) and FTP client (File-Zilla)

• WordPress and Woo-Commerce

• Content Delivery Network (CDN)

• Domain Name

• DNS Mapping

There are the basic requirements needed for our online e-commerce marketplace. All of

the requirements are fulfilled and are taken care of by the development team.

40
4.1.4 Design and Implementation Constraints

Our project team has tried their best to make and deliver the best online e-commerce

marketplace with all the necessary requirements and essentials. However, we are a small

team with a very limited capital both in terms of Human Resource and Investment.

Therefore, there are a few problems that our e-commerce marketplace has:

Scalability Problem

Right now, the online e-commerce marketplace is operating on a very basic server

infrastructure. When the user traffic on the e-commerce website will increase and more

vendors sign up with hundreds of products, we would be needing a bigger server that will

cost 5 or 6 times more than what we are paying right now.

Medium of Communication

The entire e-commerce marketplace has been designed by keeping the global audience in

mind. This is the reason we have chosen English as a primary language of the e-commerce

marketplace. Vendors (Sellers) or the users that can’t understand English are going to face

some problems in using our system.

Lack of a Payment Gateway

The fundamental aspect of our online e-commerce marketplace is the Payment Gateway.

Without the proper payment gateway, the buyers won’t be able to pay the vendors (sellers)

and the sellers won’t be able to collect the payment directly from the buyers. This is a huge

problem. Pakistan currently have no payment gateways that supports the marketplace model,

where the buyers and sellers communicate and pay directly. As we are operating from

41
Pakistan, we don’t have the leverage to use the foreign payment gateways because they don’t

support Pakistan as a country to set up their operations.

Lack of Accounting

The system doesn’t have all the tools necessary for accounting and payments that are

required by the vendors (Sellers) so that they can focus on just selling and marketing. Right

now, the vendors have to do manual accounting and keep their records so that they can file

and pay for the taxes, calculate the cost of the goods and plan for the investment later on.

User Documentation

While making our online e-commerce marketplace, we have made sure that the design go the

marketplace should be such that it is easier to understand and easier to navigate. All the user

documentation necessary would be incorporate into our website and will be sent as an email

to both the vendors (sellers) and the users. We would be bringing up a support channel where

users and vendors or sellers can communicate with us directly if they face any kind of

unexpected problems. Our support team will try our best to resolve all the issues and respond

to all the queries, delivering the best and one of its kind support and customer relationship

management.

4.1.5 Assumptions and Dependencies

This entire system of online e-commerce marketplace doesn’t have any such dependencies.

However, the system needs proper environment to run and operate. The environment

variables should be properly set up, and the Apache server should be configured properly

before deploying. If any of the dependencies are broken, the online e-commerce marketplace

won’t be able to run seamlessly and will result in many errors. We have proper backup
42
systems in place to reduce the risks of failure so that we can deliver on our promise. The core

dependencies of our system are briefly listed below:

• Linux based Operating System

• Apache Server

• PHP MyAdmin

• MySQL

• Woo-Commerce

• WC Vendors

• Public and Static IP address

• Proper networking and stable internet connection

4.2 System Features:

Our entire system of the online e-commerce marketplace has a number of features.

The features have been divided into three distinct categories - Admins, Vendors

and Buyers. The feature set for each one of the distinct users are briefly listed

below.

Admin:

• Add or delete the user

• Approve or reject the vendor applications

• Approve or reject the vendor products

43
 • Add to remove the vendors

• Set the commission rate

• Configure the system

• Set shipping methods

• Set currency

• Update the system

• Add or Delete the plugins

Buyers:

• Sign Up

• Login

• Browse the products

• Select the Products

• Add to Cart

• Proceed to Checkout

• Add the payment information

• Add the address

• Add the order notes for the seller

• Receive the Order email from the system

Sellers:

• Sign up as a vendor

• Submit the Application

• Application approved

• Go to their dedicated dashboard

44
 • Add the products (or remove them)

• Submit product for review

• Product approved

• Collect orders and payments

• Deliver the orders

• Send the confirmations

4.3 Design:

The design of the online e-commerce marketplace is seamless and is easier to understand and

easier to use. The design of the system was made by keeping both the Primary Users

(vendors) and the Secondary Users (Buyers) in mind. Vendors can easily add, remove or

update their products, see the analytics, send and receive order notifications and configure

their store settings. Buyers can easily browse for their desired products, add them to cart, buy

them instantly, and receive order notifications for the progress of their placed order.

45
Chapter 5: Implementation and Testing

Required Hardware and Software:

For our online e-commerce marketplace, a number of hardware components (from the server

side) and the software infrastructure components and tools are required. The hardware and

software components that are required are briefly listed below in different sections.

5.1. Hardware
There are two kinds of hardware required for our online e-commerce marketplace. One part

of the hardware components are required from a server side and one part of the hardware

components are required from the accessibility side of things. The hardware components that

are needed in our online e-commerce marketplace are briefly stated below.

• Server Side PC with SSD storage and proper RAM

• Networking Interface for the Public Static IP address

• Internet enabled laptop for accessibility of e-commerce marketplace

• Internet enabled desktop accessibility of e-commerce marketplace

• Internet enabled handheld devices accessibility of e-commerce marketplace

5.1.2. Software
As discussed in the previous sections and sub-sections, our online e-commerce marketplace

is primarily a software product and requires a number of technologies and tools to be be built

and continuously operate. The number of software components that are required are briefly

listed below.
46
 • Linux based Ubuntu Operating System

• Apache Server

• PHP MyAdmin

• WordPress Stack

• Woo-Commerce for e-commerce functionality

• WC Vendors for Marketplace functionality

• The Gem Theme for the best User Interface, Usability and experience

• Google Chrome and supported browsers for development and delivery

• React.Native cross-platform technology stack for mobile apps

• Expo software package for React.Native implementation

• Visual Studio Code IDE for the development and coding

5.2. Implementation

In this section, we will explain the core implementation details of our online e-commerce

marketplace. For the sake of clarity and ease of understanding, we have divided the core

implementation into two main parts.

1. The web infrastructure implementation

2. The mobile infrastructure implementation

These two are the main implementation components in our online e-commerce marketplace.

Let’s discuss them briefly below.

47
5.3 The web infrastructure implementation

This part of the implementation deals with the web side of the things. In the web

infrastructure implementation, we have used a number of technologies that are briefly listed

below.

• Ubuntu Operating System

• Apache Server

• PHP packages for the version number 5.0

• PHP MyAdmin

• MySQL

• WordPress and Woo-Commerce (PHP 5.0)

• SSH and FileZilla

• The Gem Theme

• WC Vendors

5.4 The mobile infrastructure implementation

This part of the implementation deals with the mobile side of the things. Our online e-

commerce marketplace is also accessible on all the major Android and iOS devices. We had

two options when we were developing mobile applications for e-commerce marketplace.

1. Native Apps

2. Cross-Platform Apps

In Native Apps, the mobile applications are made in native languages. The only disadvantage
48
in choosing the native technologies is that you would be needing a different language to build

and maintain the native version of the apps which is not possible in a small team of two

people.

In Cross Platform Apps, the mobile applications are made in the web technologies. The code

base for both the Android and iOS platforms is the same. The apps are fast and beautiful, and

deliver the best user experience. As the code base in cross platform applications is the same,

it is easier to manage and build for the small team of two people.

For the mobile infrastructure implementation of e-commerce marketplace, we have chosen

the cross platform applications framework to build, test and deploy the apps. In cross

platform application framework, we have chosen React.Native, which is also the platform

used by Facebook, Uber, AirBnB and other such hyper growth mobile application platforms.

The React.Native framework is based on JavaScript (ES7 syntax).

49
5.5 Graphical Interface

Here in this section, we will discuss and go through the graphical interface of our online e-

commerce marketplace. Our marketplace has two main components, the web and the mobile.

We will discuss the graphical interface of each one of them separately.

5.6 Interface for Web and Mobile

While making our online e-commerce marketplace, we have taken great care of the core user

experience. We tried to deliver the best user experience to our esteemed customers. Here in

this section, we will showcase the eight pages of our website. We will discuss about the

design of each one of the individual pages, our decision to make it like that and some core

user experience components that we have taken care of during our design decisions.

5.6.1 Homepage Design

In any web portal, homepage is one of the most important pages because this is where you

customer lands for the first time. Good homepage designs increase customer trust and they

are more likely to buy your product or service. If the design of your homepage is bad, then

the customer won’t be able to trust your website. In our homepage design, we have decided

to go with the minimal and clean design approach. Minimal design means that you should be

having the minimum things on your homepage and don’t populate it with a lot of features,

components and sidebars. As you can see from the image below, our homepage looks clean

and elegant, both on the website and on the mobile apps (iOS and Android)

50
 Figure 1 Homepage

Figure 2 Mobile Homepage

5.6.2 Categories Design

In every online e-commerce marketplace, the way people find your products and buy them is

really very important. This is why we have introduced the concept of categories. Under this

concept, we have solved just one core problem that every customer faces while browsing the

web, Discoverability. We have aligned the categories into small blocks labelled by the

category name. Once the user clicks a block, he or she would be redirected to the main page

of that specific category where he will be able to find products, buy them and get them

delivered to their doorstep.

51
 Figure 3 Categories

Figure 4 Categories In App

5.6.3 New Arrivals

Customers are always interested in the buying products which are just released. In order to

make it easier for customers to discover products that are new and just released, we have

added a section for newly released items, and we have named it ‘New Arrivals’. Under New

Arrivals, we constantly update and add things which are new and are just published to our

online e-commerce marketplace. This section was designed in a way that customers can find
52
the maximum number of products in a single row, without affecting the main design of the

page. Here, the customers can see the products, slide to see all the new items, click on the

product and buy their preferred items instantly.

Figure 5 New Arrivals section on Web

Figure 6 New Arrivals Section in App

5.6.4 Shop

This is the main page of our online e-commerce marketplace where all the items from the

store are listed in a grid style view. If any customer wants to see the products that our

vendors or buyers have to offer, he can simply click on the shop page where he will be

redirected to the main shop page of our website. From this page, the customer or the visitor

can browse all kinds of products from our vendors or sellers, select his or her desired

53
products and add them to cart. Once the products are added to the cart, then the customer or

the buyer can move forward and buy those products instantly which would be then delivered

to his or her doorstep.

Figure 7 Shop Section

Figure 8 Shop Section Mobile App

5.6.5 Product Page

This page on our online e-commerce marketplace is designated for the individual products

from the vendors and the sellers. This page serves a single purpose and that is to ensure that

the customer can get maximum amount of information about the product that he has selected.

On this page, customer can see the images of the product, the description of the product, the

54
summary, the reviews from the precious buyers and the social share icons where the

customer can share this product with their followings. From this page, the user or the buyers

can add the product to the card and from there, they can login, enter their billing address and

living address where they will collect the products that the vendors will ship.

Figure 9 Product Page

Figure 10 Product Page on App

5.6.6. Order Page

This is the page where the customer is about the finalized the deal and make a purchase

decision. Once the customer browse and searches for the desired product, he or she selects

them, view their details, descriptions and reviews, add them to cart, finish browsing the

products and view the cart, he or she is presented with this page. On this page, the customer
55
or the user will see all the products that he has added to the cart. He is able to see the total

sum of the products that added previously. He is able to delete a product that he or she

doesn’t need from the cart and they are also able to apply coupons for further discounts.

Figure 11 Order Page

Figure 12 Order Page on App

5.6.7. Checkout Page

On this page, the customer is presented with the final steps towards his purchasing. This is

the page where the customer can login in with his details, enter the address and the billing

(payment) information and he is also able to add some order notes which will notify the

56
vendor or the seller of this specific product about the any kind of design or packaging

preferences that they buyer has regarding this product. Once the customer signs in, add the

payment information, billing information and the address where the product has to be

delivered, he would then receive a confirmation that his order has been received. At this

point, both the customer, vendor and the admin would receive the confirmation email.

Figure 13 Checkout Page

Figure 14 Checkout Page Mobile

5.6.8. Contact Us Page

On this page, the customer is presented with the information about our business. If the

customer has any kinds of complaints or queries, he or she can directly reach out to us via a

phone call, message or an email. We really care for our customers and want to deliver the

57
best customer experience that we possibly can. For this purpose, we will encourage

customers to reach out to us directly at their own convenience. We have made it really easy

for the customers to reach out to us whenever they want and wherever the want.

Figure 15 Contact Us Page

Figure 16 Contact Us Page

5.7 Testing
Without testing, no software product is complete. Before the launch of our online e-

commerce marketplace, we have made sure that our product is well tested, well document

58
and all the features and the components are working completely fine. We have performed a

series of tests on many different components of our online e-commerce marketplace. All the

tests that we have done so far are briefly listed below.

5.7.1 Web Portal Testing:

We have made sure that every aspect of our web portal is working completely fine without

any major flaws. We have tested through the entire customer flow, from the homepage to the

final checkout page where the final order is placed. We are proud to say that everything

worked fine as expected.

5.7.2 Mobile Apps Testing:

We have performed the series of tests on the mobile apps, both for the Android and iOS. Just

like we tested the web portal, we went through a series of customer touchpoint and customer

flows to see if everything is working as expected. We browsed the products, added them to

the cart and made a final purchase. Everything worked as expected.

5.7.3 Database Testing:

This is the most crucial part of the testing process. Database is the soul of any online

technical infrastructure. Everything from the products to the email addresses and customer

information is stored in the databases. To test the database, we have thoroughly applied the

CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations and we have found out that the database

queries and the database tables are properly laid out and are working as per our expectations.

To add more security, we have also enabled the backup feature where the core database is

59
backed up on regular intervals so that when anything unexpected happens, we should be

having the complete backup of the database.

5.8 Challenges

In one of the sections above, we have briefly explained what are the challenges that we have

faced during the completion of this project.

5.8.1. Scalability Problem

Right now, the online e-commerce marketplace is operating on a very basic server

infrastructure. When the user traffic on the e-commerce website will increase and more

vendors sign up with hundreds of products, we would be needing a bigger server that will

cost 5 or 6 times more than what we are paying right now.

5.8.2. Medium of Communication

The entire e-commerce marketplace has been designed by keeping the global audience in

mind. This is the reason we have chosen English as a primary language of the e-commerce

marketplace. Vendors (Sellers) or the users that can’t understand English are going to face

some problems in using our system.

5.8.3. Lack of a Payment Gateway

The fundamental aspect of our online e-commerce marketplace is the Payment Gateway.

Without the proper payment gateway, the buyers won’t be able to pay the vendors (sellers)

and the sellers won’t be able to collect the payment directly from the buyers. This is a huge

problem. Pakistan currently have no payment gateways that supports the marketplace model,
60
where the buyers and sellers communicate and pay directly. As we are operating from

Pakistan, we don’t have the leverage to use the foreign payment gateways because they don’t

support Pakistan as a country to set up their operations.

5.8.4. Lack of Accounting

The system doesn’t have all the tools necessary for accounting and payments that are

required by the vendors (Sellers) so that they can focus on just selling and marketing. Right

now, the vendors have to do manual accounting and keep their records so that they can file

and pay for the taxes, calculate the cost of the goods and plan for the investment later on.

61
 Chapter 6: Conclusion

Our team is really proud that we have completed this project despite of many challenges that

we faced during the execution and implementation phase. Our supervisor helped us a lot in

solving the problems that we faced during the execution and implementation of our online e-

commerce marketplace.

We believe that it should be really easy for the buyers and the sellers to come together,

communicate, negotiate and exchange value. Our technology makes it happen and we will do

much better in the future.

62
 Chapter 7: Future Recommendations
In the future, we want to solve the major challenges that we faced during the execution and

implementation of our online e-commerce marketplace. Specifically, we would really want to

solve the payments problem where the vendors would be able to collect payments directly from

the buyers. Right now, we have to do this process manually and distribute payments at the end

of the month.

We would also like to solve the scalability problem where we want to seek investments from

the investors and the peers who want to be our stake holders. In the end, we would really want

to thank our supervisor who assisted us in this project.

63
 Appendix: Glossary
1. Marketplace: A place where people buy and sell different kinds of products

2. E-commerce: Selling Goods, Products and Services online via the internet as a

medium

3. Payment Gateway: A payment provider, like a bank, which settles the payments

4. HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language

5. CSS: Cascading Style Sheets

6. MySQL: An Open Source relational database system

7. WordPress: An Open Source Content management System

8. Woo-Commerce: An Open Source software that adds the e-commerce functionality

to the WordPress

9. Apache: An Open Source Server Software

10. UX: User Experience

11. UI: User Interface

12. Front-end: The outer look of the website

13. Back-end: The implementation of the server architecture

14. DDoS Attack: Distributed Denial of Service Attack

15. DoS: Denial of Service Attack

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References
[1] World Bank GDP Stats on China Available at:

https://data.worldbank.org/country/china

[2] What is Alibaba, Wall-street Journal Available at:

http://projects.wsj.com/alibaba/

[3] All you need to know about EBay Available at:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/169844

[4] About Amazon Available at:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Amazoncom

[5] TradeKey.com Another Alibaba in B2B Online Media, Available at:

https://www.chinainternetwatch.com/46/tradekeycom-another-alibaba-in-b2b-online-media/

[6] All about Etsy Available at:

http://click-labs.com/etsy-business-model-revenue-how-etsy-works-makes-money/

[7] The impact of e-commerce on international trade and employment, Available at:

https://ac.els-cdn.com/S1877042811015382/1-s2.0-S1877042811015382-

main.pdf?_tid=03f97669-e704-412f-8c5e-

f9571d8c9234&acdnat=1532693337_8542b85b6244243a55c0c361cc1d7a81

[8] Seven Big Challenges for Pakistan, Available at:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264860921_Seven_Big_Challenges_for_Pakistan_-

_and_the_Lessons_They_Could_Teach

[9] Pakistan E-commerce set to cross $1 Billion, Available at:

https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/06/19/pakistan-e-commerce-sales-set-to-cross-1-

billion-by-2020/
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