DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A HIGHLY MODIFIABLE RETAIL E-COMMERCE WEBSITE

Abstract

The availability, modifiability, and performance of retail e-commerce websites(RECWEB) is greatly impacted by seasonal constraints. For many RECWEB, half of the calendar year is comprised of holidays and seasons. Spikes in website traffic and transactions can lower availability, modifiability, and performance of a RECWEB. This can result in downtime, customer abandonment, and ultimately lost revenue. This research focuses the modifiability aspects of the problem. During holiday and seasonal periods, enhancements to a RECWEB are generally not feasible. Enhancements put availability and performance at risk. In addition, most human resources are dedicated managing content changes. RECWEB are less modifiable then other systems because enhancements are only feasible for half of the calendar year. Furthermore, the scope of an enhancement must fit within a six month time box. This research provides pilot project for testing, designing, and implementing a highly modifiable RECWEB. The approach is to automate seasonal content changes. The cost savings on human resources can be reallocated to enhancements work. In addition, enhancements can simulate holiday seasons further in advance. The result is enhancement deployment is more feasible throughout the calendar year.