Starting a B2C electronic commerce company •

Content: The term project is about a virtual Business-to-Consumer e-commerce company you will establish and expand to B2B and mobile commerce. Each student will study an existing business. They will analyze this business thoroughly and build a fictional company in this business with the goal of determining how the Internet can be used for:

· Starting a B2C electronic commerce company
· Producing guidelines for revenue generation and technology implementation
· Implementation of B2B and m-commerce expansions
You are encouraged to discuss your project topic with the professor. E-mail is the best way but any other communication is also more than welcome.
Unfortunately, project drafts are not reviewed prior to the submission date. However, specific content questions regarding the project will be answered in detail throughout the semester at any time.
Homework and project documents are accepted in .docx format only. The professor uses “Track Changes” function to provide feedback to the student during grading, and therefore documents in any other format are not accepted. All documents will be returned in .docx format.

Project Deliverable: The project will consist of a report (40%) and presentation (10%).

Project Chapters

1. Industry Analysis (25 points): What is the current business model of this industry you chose? Which company are you basing your e-commerce company on? Who are the other leaders in your business, and what made them leaders? What are the social, organizational, behavioral and legal issues surrounding your company?
2. Infrastructure Analysis (15 points): What is the information technology infrastructure required for your business? What exact hardware and software do you need, and why?
3. Benchmark Analysis (20 points): What constraints do you have concerning competition? What are the criteria for success, and how will you reach them? How would different firms collaborate in a model?
4. Product or Service & Customer Analysis (15 points): What are you selling? Whom are you selling it to? Why did you choose this group as your primary customers? What do your customers potentially think about your business’ and products/services’ strengths and weaknesses? Justify all of your answers.
5. Expansion Planning and Implementation (25 points): Please explain what you will sell and how if you will expand your business to B2B and mobile commerce areas. Now come up with the changes you need to do for this expansion. How can you implement an expansion into B2B and mobile commerce? How will you make money in this new business focus, and what are the steps of planning? What are the main differences between the old and new plans? What are the newly introduced challenges and risks in your new area? What does your new user interface look like (include screenshots and other illustrations)?