EASYSHOPPING: A M-COMMERCE

APPLICATION FOR SUPERMARKET

INDUSTRY

Bachelor of Industrial Information Technology Dissertation

W.M.D.P WANNINAYAKE

Industrial Information Technology

Uva Wellassa University, Sri Lanka

October 2012
 EASYSHOPPING: A M-COMMERCE
APPLICATION FOR SUPERMARKET INDUSTRY

A dissertation submitted to the

Industrial Information Technology Degree Program,
Uva Wellassa University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the

Degree in Bachelor of Industrial Information Technology

by

DAMITH PANDULA WANNINAYAKE

Registration Number: UWU/IIT/08/0042

Industrial Information Technology

Uva Wellassa University, Sri Lanka

October 2012
 DECLARATION

I do hereby declare that the work reported in this dissertation was exclusively carried
out by me under the supervision of Mr. S. T. C. I. Wimaladharma. It describes the
results of my own independent project except where due reference has been made in
the text. No part of this dissertation has been submitted earlier or concurrently for the
same or any other degree

Date: ……….. ___________________

Signature of the Candidate

We/I endorse the declaration by the candidate.

_______________________
S. T. C. I. Wimaladharma
Supervisor
Date: ………………….

i
Abstract
Mobile commerce is quickly becoming commodity and companies are always trying
to use mobile technologies for increase their overall profit and the Internet has created
new ways to do these transactions. People use hand held devices for fulfill their day to
day transactions. Mobile Commerce is the subset of e-commerce, which includes all
e-commerce transactions carried out using a mobile device. This project focused on
shopping field of the supermarket industry. This application highly concern about
Human Computer Interaction and latest mobile technologies. Currently this concept is
not popular in Sri Lanka and this might be a revolutionary product for Supermarket
Industry.

This application can be used either within supermarket premises or from home. All
the product details are stored in a database and system communicates with the web
application via internet. User interaction with the application has been enhanced by
latest UI elements.

This application has developed based on several technologies such as Java, JSON,
PHP, jQuery, MySQL, SQLite, XML, and Ajax

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Acknowledgement
The satisfaction that accompanies that the successful completion of any task would be
incomplete without the mention of people whose ceaseless cooperation made it
possible, whose constant guidance and encouragement crown all efforts with success.
I am grateful to my project supervisor S. T. C. I. Wimaladharma for the guidance,
inspiration and constructive suggestions that helpful me in the preparation of this
project. I wish to extend my sincere gratitude to all the lecturers in Computer
Science and Technology and Industrial Information Technology degree programs on
helping to evaluate the project.

I also thank our colleagues who have helped in successful completion of the project
Finally, I am thankful for all the people who helped me to complete project as a
success.

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List of figures
Figure 1: Tesco’s Android Application ......................................................................... 4
Figure 2: Walmart’s Android Application ..................................................................... 4
Figure 3: System Architecture ....................................................................................... 8
Figure 4: User Registration .......................................................................................... 14
Figure 5: Sign in to the system .................................................................................... 15
Figure 6: Dashboard Window ...................................................................................... 16
Figure 7: Update cart ................................................................................................... 16
Figure 8: Add to cart .................................................................................................... 16
Figure 9: View product details ..................................................................................... 17
Figure 10: Completed customers ................................................................................. 17
Figure 11: Completed Transaction List ....................................................................... 18

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Table of content

Contents
DECLARATION ............................................................................................................ i
Abstract ..........................................................................................................................ii
Acknowledgement ....................................................................................................... iii
List of figures ................................................................................................................ iv
Table of content ............................................................................................................. v
Chapter 01 ...................................................................................................................... 1
Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Background ....................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Motivation ........................................................................................................ 1
1.3 Goals ................................................................................................................. 1
1.4 Achievement in brief ........................................................................................ 2
1.5 Structure of the dissertation .............................................................................. 2
Chapter 02 ...................................................................................................................... 3
Literature Review ....................................................................................................... 3
2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 3
2.2 Tesco 'virtual fridges' concept .......................................................................... 3
2.3 Walmarts ‘Scan & go’ application ................................................................... 3
Chapter 03 ...................................................................................................................... 5
Technology & Methodology ...................................................................................... 5
3.1 Technology adopted ......................................................................................... 5
3.2 Development stages .......................................................................................... 6
Chapter 04 ...................................................................................................................... 8
Design......................................................................................................................... 8
4.1 Overview .......................................................................................................... 8
4.2 System Architecture ......................................................................................... 8
4.3 Functional requirements ................................................................................... 9
4.4 Non - Functional requirements ......................................................................... 9
4.5 Assumptions ..................................................................................................... 9
4.5 Logical Database design ................................................................................. 10
Chapter 05 .................................................................................................................... 14

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 Implementation......................................................................................................... 14
5.1 User registration ............................................................................................. 14
5.2 Confirm the user account ................................................................................ 14
5.3 Sign in to the system ....................................................................................... 15
5.4 Main window / Dashboard of the mobile application .................................... 15
5.5 Add to cart and update available cart items .................................................... 16
5.6 View item details ............................................................................................ 17
5.7 Complete the payment and leave the supermarket ......................................... 17
Chapter 06 .................................................................................................................... 19
Testing ...................................................................................................................... 19
6.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 19
6.2 Testing ................................................................................................................ 19
Chapter 07 .................................................................................................................... 20
Conclusion and future works.................................................................................... 20
7.1 Conclusion.......................................................................................................... 20
7.2 Future works ....................................................................................................... 20
References .................................................................................................................... 21

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 Chapter 01
Introduction

1.1 Background
Mobile commerce is quickly becoming commodity and companies are always trying
to use mobile technologies for increase their overall profit and the Internet has created
new ways to do these transactions. People use hand held devices for fulfill their day to
day transactions. Mobile Commerce is the subset of e-commerce, which includes all
e-commerce transactions carried out using a mobile device. This project focused on
shopping field of the supermarket industry. This application highly concern about
Human Computer Interaction and latest mobile technologies. Currently this concept is
not popular in Sri Lanka and this might be a revolutionary product for Supermarket
Industry.

1.2 Motivation
The initial idea was taken from the “Inter University Enterprise Mobility Competition
– 2011” who’s conducted by SLASSCOM and Motorola Solutions. That system has
developed for specific Motorola device and cannot be used with today available
mobile devices. I wanted to develop that concept for android mobile devices and
anyone having the application has access to the supermarket database using their user
credentials. This concept based on M-Commerce concept and most of companies’ use
this concept to increase their overall profits.

1.3 Goals
1. Increase the company overall profit by increasing the selling’s and customer
satisfaction

2. Easiness of shopping

3. Reduce waiting time on the cashier.

4. Self-checkout system for customers

5. Retrieve product details by mobile

6. Keep individual records about customers for analyze customer patterns

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1.4 Achievement in brief
Develop a mobile based shopping application based on supermarket industry which
provides facilities to customers such as search products, read QR using mobile
camera, checkout items, self-payment etc…

1.5 Structure of the dissertation

Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction about the system and the importance of having
a mobile based system in supermarket industry. The motivation, the existing systems
incompetence, advantages of the developed system, goals and the achievements of the
proposed system also has been explained briefly.

Chapter 2 is for description of literature survey which explains the previous work on
the particular area.

Chapter 3 is about Technology & Methodology .It describes the techniques and
technologies which are used in the project in detail, and the approaches to reach it
goals.

Chapter 4 provides the details on functional views and assumption that have been
used in this project.

Chapter 5 is about the implementation of the developed system.

Chapter 6 contains the testing, user evaluation and performance of the system.

Chapter 7 describes the conclusion and discussion as well as the recommendation for
future research.

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 Chapter 02
Literature Review

2.1 Introduction
This chapter provides an overview of previous attempts on mobile shopping
applications. Some of them developed it as virtual supermarket concept and come of
them not developed to use inside the supermarket.

2.2 Tesco 'virtual fridges' concept

The screens show a selection of products on moving pages that customers can scroll
with their hands. Once the desired item is found, ordering it is as easy as pointing a
smartphone at it. The dedicated Tesco app will scan the barcode, add the item to the
basket and offer a range of payment options. Holidaymakers can book a home
delivery slot up to three weeks away, and the shopping will be waiting for them once
they are back from the trip.

According to Tesco, around 30,000 people depart from Gatwick’s North Terminal
each day, and each has an average of 70 minutes of spare time while awaiting their
flight. This time can now be spent making sure that a pot of instant noodles isn’t the
only source of sustenance in the house.

The pilot will involve four virtual fridges and six smaller displays, offering a choice
of 80 essential products, including milk, eggs, cheese and cereal.

In order to do their “virtual shopping”, customers will have to download the Tesco
smartphone app. It is available on devices running iOS or Android, with Windows
Phone 7 and others ignored for the time being. Registering with Tesco.com is another
requirement, which allows instant access to thousands of grocery products not listed
on the “fridges”.

2.3 Walmarts ‘Scan & go’ application

Walmart serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week. They
serve them in the ways they want to be served – in retail outlets, online and on mobile
devices. Walmart operates under 69 different banners in 27 countries. With fiscal year
2012 sales of approximately $444 billion, Walmart employs 2.2 million associates
worldwide.

3
Retail giant Walmart is apparently testing out a new iPhone app which allows
shoppers to scan items as they move around the store, bagging them up as they go.
Payment is made at an automated checkout – as opposed to via the handset – once all
the shopping’s done.

Figure 1: Tesco’s Android Application Figure 2: Walmart’s Android Application

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 Chapter 03
Technology & Methodology

3.1 Technology adopted

This system used several technologies in both client side and server side. Client is the
android application and server is the supermarket backend system.

Server side

 PHP – Core of backend system has developed by using PHP.

 MySQL – To store data on the backend system I used MySQL; world’s most
popular free and open source database system. But the database will change in
future according to customer requirement of the supermarket.

 Ajax – Namely Asynchronous JavaScript and XML is the method where we

can use to load the data from remote location without refreshing the page. In
server side validations web system has used Ajax and JSON

 JSON - (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format.

It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and
generate.

 jQuery - jQuery is a fast and concise JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML
document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for
rapid web development.

 CSS, HTML

Client side

 Java (Android) – Java is the base language to develop application on android

OS.

 XML - For develop user interfaces on android application

 JSON – Communicate with the server via JSON response

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  HTTP Request / Response – Sending and receiving data between android
application and backend website.

 SQLite – Store data on the client side. This is a lite weight database comes
with android OS.

Tools and other software’s

 Adobe Dreamweaver – For design user interfaces and developments on the

web system.

 Netbeans IDE – Develop PHP codes on the server side.

 Eclipse IDE – To develop android application.

 Navicat - This is a GUI tool to interact with databases.

 FileZilla – FTP client to transfer files to web system.

3.2 Development stages

1. Preliminary Study

Download and install android SDK and discovered the APIs according the
requirements. Discovered available applications on the android market and went
through the interfaces.

2. Submission of Proposal and approval.

Created project proposal on the problem identified by proposing the IT driven

solution.

3. Created the system architecture and divided the whole application in to sub
categories.

Designed the table structures, UI styles, Web system interfaces.

4. Physical designing.

Created the databases using Navicat, Designed web interfaces using Dreamweaver
and designed the android application user interfaces using Eclipse IDE.

5. Constructing the final system.

6
Develop the web applications and divided the web application in to several modules.
Created APIs to interact with mobile applications and developed the android
application based on android 2.2 and developed the functions which used to
communicate with web system and finally integrated all systems together as a one
system.

6. Evaluation and testing

Tested the mobile application using several users and fixed the bugs based on user
feedbacks.

7. Documenting the final thesis and demonstration

Writing of final dissertation. Presentation and demonstration of the completed system

is to be completed.

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 Chapter 04
Design

4.1 Overview
The design phase is where all the information which gathered previously put into an
arrangement where it can represent the whole design structure of the system in an
illustrational manner. Furthermore stating chapter will be presenting with high level
design diagrams and necessary other diagrams for the system. The architectural
designs of each process will be illustrated below to give a better understanding for the
reader.

4.2 System Architecture

Figure 3: System Architecture

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4.3 Functional requirements
 Mobile user can create user accounts

 Mobile user can reset, change passwords

 Login to the mobile application using their user credentials.

 Sending registration details, password reset details to user’s email address.

 Scan product details using mobile camera, search product details

 Add interested items to shopping cart

 View shopping cart items

 Update / Delete shopping cart data

 Payment via mobile payment gateway

 Password remember function based on user requirements

 Logout from the mobile application

 Submit all paid items list to web system

4.4 Non - Functional requirements

 Usability – Attractive and simple user interface to mobile application

 Availability – Back end system must be available on 24 hours and it must be

run without any interferences.

 Security – Since the application interact with payment process both systems
must have the security implementations

4.5 Assumptions
In general it has been assumed that mobile users have knowledge about functions of
android applications such as single press and long press, navigations etc…

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4.5 Logical Database design
Table name: logger_records

Description: This table for record all the error messages, all user access times to the
system

Table Structure:

Name Type Length Extra

Auto increment
LOGGER_ID int 10 (PK)
LOGGER_VALUE varchar 1000
DATE timestamp 0

Table name: market_access_type

Description: This table for keep access types of the back end users

Table Structure:

Name Type Length Extra

Auto increment
TYPE_ID int 11 (PK)
TYPE_DESCRIPTION varchar 30

Table name: market_branch_details

Description: This table for keep all branch details of the supermarket

Table Structure:

Name Type Length Extra

BRANCH_ID int 11 PK
BRANCH_NAME varchar 100
Keep details ACTIVE or
STATUS varchar 20 INACTIVE

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Table name: market_cus_details

Description: This table for keep all personal details about mobile users

Table Structure:

Name Type Length Extra

FIRST_NAME varchar 100
LAST_NAME varchar 100
USER_ID double 0 PK
EMAIL varchar 100
PASSWORD varchar 100
GENDER varchar 10
STATUS varchar 10
REG_REQ_DATE timestamp 0
REG_COM_DATE datetime 0
REG_CONFIRMED varchar 10
USERNAME varchar 100
CONFIRM_CODE varchar 15

Table name: market_cus_transactions

Description: This table for keep all transaction and shopping details about mobile
users

Table Structure:

Name Type Length Extra

ID int 10 PK
PROD_ID int 11
QUANTITY int 11
TRA_DATE timestamp 0
TOTAL double 10
USER_ID double 0
TRN_STATUS varchar 10
UNIQ_TRA_ID varchar 100

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Table name: market_product_categories

Description: This table for keep all product category details

Table Structure:

Name Type Length Extra

CAT_ID int 10 PK
CAT_DESCRIPTION varchar 100
STATUS varchar 20

Table name: market_product_companies

Description: This table for keep all product company details

Table Structure:

Name Type Length Extra

COMP_ID int 10 PK
COM_NAME varchar 200
SATUS varchar 20

Table name: market_product_countries

Description: This table for keep all product country details

Table Structure:

Name Type Length Extra

COUNTRY_ID int 10 PK
COUNTRY_NAME varchar 200
STATUS varchar 20

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Table name: market_product_details

Description: This table for keep all product details including prices, discounts, county,
certificates etc… details

Table Structure:

Name Type Length Extra

PRODUCT_ID int 10 PK
CAT_ID int 10
PRODUCT_NAME varchar 100
PRODUCTION_DATE date 0
EXP_DATE date 0
PROD_COMPANY varchar 200
PROD_COUNTRY varchar 200
CIRTIFICATIONS varchar 300
WEIGHT varchar 50
PRICE double 0
PROD_IMG longblob 0
DISCOUNTS double 0
STATUS varchar 20

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 Chapter 05
Implementation
This section describes implementation of the system and the layouts of the proposed
mobile application; it includes some of the graphical interfaces of the application.

5.1 User registration

Figure 4: User Registration

This is the user registration interface of the mobile application. This is the first
process of the shopping system and without having an account on EasyShopping
system users are not allowed to access the system.

5.2 Confirm the user account

Once the user created the account he/she will receive a confirmation code which will
send from web system and user want to confirm his/her account by entering the
validation code. That code will automatically generate by web system.

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5.3 Sign in to the system

Figure 5: Sign in to the system

Once the user confirms their account he/she can sign in to system using their
username and passwords. In here user validation will proceed by Asynchronous task
process in android. Important thing of the technique is it will separately from UI
thread. So application will not stuck or crash during network activities. Once the web
system validated the user it will send a JSON output to the browser and based on
JSON decoded data from the client side application will maintain the user activities.

5.4 Main window / Dashboard of the mobile application

Dashboard contains four main actions of the mobile application. Users can access
these common features quickly from the dashboard. These UI layouts are working
both portrait and landscape mode since those are well designed according to UI
standards. There are four main functions such as Scan, Search, My Cart and Pay Now

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 Figure 6: Dashboard Window

5.5 Add to cart and update available cart items

Figure 8: Add to cart Figure 7: Update cart

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With above functions users can add items to their shopping cart and after adding users
can modify the content of the cart based on their balance of the account. Total amount
want to pay will display top of the windows.

5.6 View item details

Figure 9: View product details

Based on above windows users can view more details about specific product.

5.7 Complete the payment and leave the supermarket

After users complete the shopping he/she can use pay now option of the application
and once the payment is successful all the transaction data will upload to the central
database and web system indicate that new user has completed the payment with the
listed products.

Figure 10: Completed customers

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Figure 11: Completed Transaction List

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 Chapter 06
Testing
6.1 Introduction
Testing is the process of executing a system with the intention of finding errors. The
main objective is to find errors as possible in unit/component, integration and system
testing. It causes to prevent the errors of the system as well as it adds value to the
system by confirming user requirements

6.2 Testing
Testing of the mobile application took several steps and used two real time users to
test the application. System was tested in several steps

 Functional testing – Common functions of the mobile application such as user

registration, reset password, change password, text fields validation were
tested and based on user feedback did the essential changes of the code.

 Nonfunctional testing – These are the testing of user interface icons, network
activities, respond times etc… Response time was different based on network
connection of the user.

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 Chapter 07
Conclusion and future works
7.1 Conclusion
EasyShopping is an android application developed to facilitate the Supermarket
Industry. Today most of people having hand held smartphones. They use it to ease
their day to day m-commerce works. None of the application didn’t have facility to
shop inside a supermarket premises. This system has provided a facility to shop and
do the payment via online.

It has features and technologies like

 Communicate and transfer data between mobile and web application using
HTTP request and response mechanism

 Transfer data in to mobile device using JSON format.

 Store important data in mobile device using SQLite

 Load data via Asynchronous actions in android

 Intent mechanism for transfer data inside the mobile device

 Error validation in both server side and client side

 Innovative and unique UI

 Read QR using mobile device’s camera.

7.2 Future works

 Change the back end system based on supermarket available technologies

 Use security enhanced data encryption decryption in both client side and
server side

 Send user validation data into user’s mobile number via SMS rather than send
it to email

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References
[1] Jason Morris 2011, Android User Interface Development Beginner's Guide, ISBN 978-1-
849514-48-4.

[2]Jonathan Stark 2011, Building Android Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, ISBN
978-1-449-38326-8

[3] http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1144382/

[4] http://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/

[5] https://play.google.com/store/

[6] http://www.json.org/

[7] http://jquery.com/

[8] http://developer.android.com/index.html

[9]http://www.androidhive.info/2012/05/how-to-connect-android-with-php-mysql/

[10]http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/AsyncTask.html

[11] http://www.londatiga.net/it/how-to-create-quickaction-dialog-in-android/

[12] http://www.vogella.com/articles/AndroidSQLite/article.html

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