Module Code:

BHO0171

Module Title:

E-commerce

Assessment Type

Individual Report

Academic Year

2024/25 Term 1

Assessment Task

For this assignment you need to develop a brief proposal for an E-commerce start-up business. Accordingly, the aim of your proposal is to attract the attention of potential angel investors.

Level of AI-Use permitted for this Assessment

Level 1 – Not Permitted

Level 1- Not Permitted. The use of AI tools is not permitted in any part of this assessment.

Level 2 – Some use Permitted. Some use of AI tools is permitted in the research/early stages of this assignment but you must ensure that the work you submit is your own. If you use AI tools, you should acknowledge or reference this in your work.  Use the Text reference builder to learn how to reference AI generated ideas. The sorts of questions to consider when using AI are:

Is it accurate?

Are the references genuine?

· Has it reproduced bias?

Level 3 – Integrated. The use of AI tools is integrated in this assessment. Further guidance is included in this assessment brief.

Duration N/A

Word Count 1500

Task specific guidance:

In this report you must have the following parts:

Executive summary (approximately 200 words)

This is a brief summary of your whole business plan. The executive summary can help your potential angel investors to learn about your idea without reading the full proposal. It is not an “introduction”. It summarises the report and gives a quick overview of important information about your business plan to the readers.

You need to insert the URL of your website here.

1. Introduction/Description of the business (approximately 200 words)

In this section you are expected to provide motivation and rationale for selecting a particular business domain. The aim of your proposal is to attract the attention of potential angel investors, who will be interested in the specific domain of business and your rationale for selecting it. You need to select one of the following business domains:

· book publishing and retailing,

· music publishing and retailing,

· tourism and travel,

· clothing retailing,

· or any other idea for business you may have.

2. Describe and justify your E-commerce business model (approximately 800 words)

In this section you need to provide details and justifications for your model. You also need to specify the key components of your business model in this section including value proposition, revenue model, market opportunity, competitive environment, competitive advantage, etc.

This section is covered in teaching weeks 4/8/11.

Teaching week 4: Payment systems and E-commerce security.

Teaching week 8: E-commerce business strategy (business models).

Teaching week 11: Ethics and E-commerce.

3. Marketing strategy (approximately 300 words)

In this section you need to specify the market strategy for your business following the analysis for your business model in Section 2.

This section is covered in teaching week 8/10.

Teaching week 8: E-commerce business strategy (business models).

Teaching week 10: Consumers online and E-commerce marketing.

4. Conclusion (approximately 200 words)

Summarise the attractive points in your proposal (why should an investor choose your business to invest?).

5. References (not included in word count).

Other requirements:

Table of contents

You should create a table of contents via MS Word’s Automatic Table of Contents function, which can be found at the top left corner after you clicked References button at the top centre of MS Word. To use this function, you need to set the styles of your section titles and contents when writing. You can find available styles: Normal, Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. at the top right of MS Word window.

Table of Contents should be located after the Executive Summary and before the Introduction.

Develop your website and provide the Link to the website

Construct a functioning e-commerce website for your business by using development tools like WordPress, Wix, Weebly, etc.

Fulfil the requirements of the website as laid out in the tutorials:

– Need to have at least 5 pages including Home page.

– Use a menu on the Home page to reach the other pages.

– Home page should present the logo and a picture (banner) created by yourself.

– Products or a similar page should present your products/services.

– A table is required to display the services and prices.

– Contact us page should contain a contact form and an interactive Google map block.

This section is covered starting from week 7/8 (see WordPress tutorials).

Teaching week 7: E-commerce Infrastructure and Online Presence.

Teaching week 8 tutorial: Wordpress.

Required Reading:

Laudon, K. C., & Traver, C. G. (2023). E-commerce 2023-2024: Business, Technology, Society (Global Edition). Pearson Education Limited.

General study guidance:

· Cite all information used in your work which is clearly from a source. Try to ensure that all sources in your reference list are seen as citations in your work, and all names cited in the work appear in your reference list.

· Reference and cite your work in accordance with the APA 7th system – the University’s chosen referencing style.  For specific advice, you can talk to your Business librarians or go to the library help desk, or you can access library guidance via the following link:

o APA 7th referencing: https://library.hud.ac.uk/pages/apareferencing/

· The University has regulations relating to academic misconduct, including plagiarism. The Learning Innovation and Development Centre can advise and help you with how to avoid ‘poor scholarship’ and potential academic misconduct. You can contact them at [email protected].

· If you have any concerns about your writing, referencing, research or presentation skills, you are welcome to consult the Learning Innovation Development Centre team [email protected]. It is possible to arrange 1:1 consultation with a LIDC tutor once you have planned or written a section of your work, so that they can advise you on areas to develop.

Do not exceed the word limit / time / other limit.