Kuwait University
College of Administrative Science
Dept. of QM & IS
Introduction to e-commerce (QM 351)
Project Related to e-Shopping Store in Kuwait
Summer 2008
This term project gives you an opportunities to apply the theoretical knowledge you
gained/assimilate in "QM 351: Introduction to e-commerce" and investigate whether they match
with the practice in Kuwait
To achieve this objective, your tasks consist to develop a case about a Kuwait e-shopping store.
Such case require you three steps: (i) select a Kuwait e-shopping store or maul and assess it based
on what your learnt in this course; (ii) collect relevant information from the web site related to QM
351; (iii) make interviews with the owner(s)/manager(s) of the store/maul.
Here are examples (but it is not be an exhaustive list) of what should be included in your case
analysis
Company description and products/services: For data collection on the Web site, don't copy/past,
instead try to write using your own style. Example of data on the web include:
 Company description
 Products/services offered
 Type of internet business model
 type of e-commerce
 Available components e-shopping such as e-Catalogs, shopping cart, search engine,
payment gateway, product ranking "rank our product", opinion of previous customers, etc.
(see the book)
• Customer support services: presence of FAQ, e-mail, instant messaging, etc.
• Etc. [Think to more questions and come to discuss with me in my office time]
E-shopping activities and background of his(her) e-shopping: For interview purposes, and
before you organize such interviews (it could one time or several times), you need to prepare a list
of relevant questions. To be well prepared you need to read the book or to access relevant
information related to e-commerce on the Web. You may use search engine (Google, AltaVista,
Araby, etc.). Examples of data that you may gather based on interviews include (but not limited to):
 Company details: Company date of creation, number of employees
 E-shopping development: pure play vs. click& mortar; details information about the eshopping web design; cost/ benefit study; Outsourcing design and maintenance (name of the
company that designed the site); Total Cost Ownership (TCO) [see more in QM 240,
chapter 6, e.g. web hosting, internet subscription, employee salary, web maintenance, etc.],
i.e. the total cost to own the B2C web site, operate and maintain the web site; check if the
company develops a business plan and business case for its ecommerce project (see chapter
1 in the book)
 Number of visitors: Ask your interviewee to give you approximately statistics about web
site visitors as well as web log (number of pages access, hits) over the last periods (monthly
vs. yearly), add also on an excel sheet the number of web site visitors. Check the traffic on
his web site using software (Alexa, compete you have sheen in the Lab with me).
 Importance of e-shopping activities: Ask your interviewee to give you the rate of online
activities compare to the traditional business (face-to-face), i.e. percentage (%).
 Customer satisfaction: Does the owner of e-shopping store monitors customer satisfaction?
If yes what is the frequency (related to time: weekly, monthly)? If yes, is it paper based or
web-based survey? Who customers perceive the following: ease of use of the site? Its
Dr Kamel Rouibah
1
QM&IS
Kuwait University
College of Administrative Science
Dept. of QM & IS
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usefulness? Its importance? Its security? What is his perspectives, if he does do it in the
present time
Drivers/ obstacles to e-shopping: What are the drivers and obstacles to e-shopping in
Kuwait according to your interviewee(s)? You may think to classify drivers/obstacles into
several categories: "personal factors", "organizational factors" and "environmental
factors", "cultural factors" – make a search using search internet in order to know more
about these concepts. How can e-shopping be promoted in Kuwait according to your
interviewee(s)? You need to summarize obstacles/ drivers in a table.
E-payment: What kind of payment methods are accepted (Cash, Knet, etc.)? Is there a
payment gateway? If not why? What about improving these current methods? What your
interviewee perception of using mobile phone as a complementary payment method?
Advertisement: Where does he advertise in order to increase his e-shopping visitors (daily
newspaper, word-to-mouth; other web sites (which?).
Recommendation: This last task is your opinion about what recommendations can you
propose to improve e-shopping business.
In an additional separate sheet you need to report.
 Start time and the end time of the interview, and date
 Name and full address, mobile phone, e-mail of your interviewee (if possible his business
card)
 His predisposition to visit our course/ college to share his e-shopping experience
Industry category
Trading and retailing
Hospital
hotels
Restaurant
Travel agencies, and transportation
Banking
Insurances
Service companies
Your company is a
Private Company
Public Company
How many employees does your company have?
Less than 5
6-25
More than 26
Requirements
- Work within a group team of two students (I don't accept more than two)
- Write a MS Word file which includes the following: Group names, students ID, lecturer names
"Dr Kamel Rouibah", QM 351, and Summer course in the first page. Start the case description
in the next pages.
- Font size should be 12 points, 1st heading (Bold 14 pts), second headings (Bold 12 pts)
- Return two versions: one paper copy and a second one by e-mail and prepare also a power point
presentation
- Deadline: Monday, 23rd July [each report delivered late will get minus 25%]
Dr Kamel Rouibah
2
QM&IS