Chapter 1: Introduction of the Study

Reports, projects and presentations are always a great means of enhancing the level of
understanding. The report of MGT-305 has served as an important means of working together in
groups and dealing with officials that helped us to study, learn and analyze real world
circumstances.

1.1 Origin of The Report

Tanuza Nath (Lecturer), the honorable course instructor of ‘Management Information System’
assigned us to prepare a report on “Analyzing the website of eBay and its information
requirements ”

1.2 Background of The Study

A study on eBay website and its information requirements. eBay is a website. It is a place
for online auctions. Anybody can sell almost anything they want there. People can buy many
things there as well.
People have to send what they sell themselves, usually using mail. Some items may be collected
by the buyer such as items to large or heavy to post. Buyers can transfer the money in any way
they want as long as the sellers accept payments made that way. A lot of people use PayPal to
transfer the money. PayPal is owned by the same people as eBay. Margaret Whitman was the
CEO of eBay from 1998 to 2008.
eBay was started in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar. It was first called Auctionweb. The name 'eBay'
came later when he tried to register a domain name for his planned name EchoBay. It was
already taken so he shortened the name to 'eBay'.
Millions of items are bought on eBay every day. It is often very cheap to list an item on eBay.
Total costs are usually below ordinary auction house costs. Many people look at others' items
because they are interested in them.

1.3 Problem Statement

We work on eBay website. We have visited the website and explore it thoroughly. The report is
analyzing these following questions about eBay website-

 What functions does the eBay website perform?

 What data does it use?
 What are its inputs, outputs, and processes?
 What are some of its other design specifications?
 Does the eBay website link to any internal systems or systems of other organizations?
 What value does eBay website provide the firm?
1.4 Purpose of The Report
The purpose of this report is to submit a formal report assigned by our honourable course
instructor as a part of the requirement of the course “Management information system” in the
BBA programme.

1.5 Significance of The Study

The findings of the study will contribute to the benefit of the reader considering about know the
eBay website and its different types of information. The most important thing is to know about
design specification in a broad and practical way and so it is important know overall details
about it. As information found through our study like what functions does the eBay perform,
which types of data eBay website use, the inputs, outputs and processes of eBay website etc.
These information will provide the reader with the knowledge about the design of a website and
its information.

1.6 Objectives of The Study

General Objectives: The general objective of our report is analyzing web site design of eBay
and information requirements.

Specific Objectives: The specific objectives of the report are as follows:

 To know about the functions of eBay website.

 To know about the data eBay website uses.
 To know about the inputs, outputs and processes of eBay websites.
 To know about the design specifications.
 To know about the internal system of eBay website.

1.7 Methodology

The data we have presented in the report are collected from various sources. The two basic
sources of our data are mentioned below:

Primary Data Source

For preparing this term paper we discussed with our course instructor. Moreover, there is not
much of primary information required for preparing this report.

Secondary Data Source

Basically, we used secondary data source for collecting information. The secondary data sources
which we used to collect information about the factors fraudulent, negligence and innocent
misrepresentation are
  Brochures
 Websites
 Textbooks and
 Other sources from the internet.

1.8 Scopes of The Study

This study focuses on observing, analyzing and gaining practical knowledge about eBay website
and its information requirements. This will provide an overview of design specifications. It will
provide our view and findings about analyzing various questions provided by eBay website.

1.9 Limitations of The Study

The problems we faced during preparing this report are-

 Lack of primary resource.

 We had to go for only secondary data.
 Lack of enough reliability of data.
 Time constraints to prepare the report.
 Lack of experience.
 Lack of technical resource.
 Lack of access to other potential information.
Chapter 5: Analysis and Findings of The Study
5.1 Analysis of The Report

5.1.1 Functions of eBay

eBay's website has so many functions that can seem hard to navigate for the users who have
recently joined eBay, but it is not difficult once you consider its basic functions. At the simplest
level, eBay is composed of nine basic website areas.

Home page or feed

To access the eBay home at first one need to type www.ebay.com in browser’s address bar and
press Enter. The key areas of the eBay home page can be navigated via the master navigation bar
at the top of the page. The navigation bar’s five link boxes will take directly to many of the
important eBay areas. Hovering the mouse pointer, one can see a drop-down menu. By clicking
these various links what’s available in eBay can be seen.

Another way to go to home page is the eBay logo. Click the eBay logo from any page on the site,
and it takes you right back to the home page. eBay changes the home page minute to minute, so
today what link is available may yesterday is gone. That’s totally normal.

Buy

Clicking on the buy link near the bottom of the eBay front page will take you to the page that
lists all the main eBay categories in boldface text, as well as links to popular stores and eBay
promotions that vary from time to time. Under each of these categories, you can find its most
popular item subcategories.

Clicking on a major category will show a new page with more specific categories or sub-
groupings of that category. Individual item is listed by giving price, description, and a photo of
the item. For example, If you're interested in the category of Clothing, Shoes & Accessories, for
instance, you'll see the subcategories of women's clothing, men's clothing, shoes , jewellery ,
watches and more. If you chose the subcategory of shoes, you could then click on the minor
category of party shoes or sneakers.

Sell
It takes you to a page where you can start the process of listing an item for sale. The links at the
bottom of the page direct you to various Seller Guides. Selling tools used to list your own items
for sale.

My eBay

It takes you to your personal My eBay page, where you keep track of all your buying and selling
activities, account information, and favorite categories. My eBay, the page used to manage your
own account, purchases, and items for sale.

Community

A page of the eBay website where you can find the latest news and announcements, chat with
fellow traders in the eBay community, find charity auctions, and find out more about eBay is
Community.

Help

The website has a Help area where you can get answers to many of your questions, as well as
stay informed of eBay’s rules and regulations about trading on the site. The eBay Help overview
page consists of a search box, where you can type your query, an A–Z index, a list of the top five
questions on eBay a link to the eBay Answer centre and links for browsing help topics.

Sign In or Register

By registering one can become a member of the eBay community. The Register link isn’t visible
If you’re already a member and signed in. If you click the Sign In link, go to the Sign In page,
and then sign in, you don’t need to sign again for next 24 hours.

Contact Us

In order to contract with eBay you’ll either have to sign in (on the resulting page) or use a bold
link that says I’m a Guest to get you into eBay. Click in any of these two links will take you to
the page of Contact Us.

Site Map

It provides you with a bird’s-eye view of the eBay world. Every main link of eBay is listed here.
Try the Site Map first if you’re ever confused about finding a specific area.

More about eBay's website

1. Barcode scanner: It is still a useful tool when searching for products. It means you can
immediately find out whether someone is currently selling the item you need, which
saves the effort of scrolling through hundreds of product options.
2. Sale: eBay is also home to an extensive category system into which sale items are
organized. If you're new to eBay, navigating the auction website may feel overwhelming
with so many items for sale.
3. Detailed Seller Ratings: DSRs, or Detailed Seller Ratings, are those little yellow stars
that buyers click on to rate the seller when leaving feedback. If DSRs fall below a certain
level, seller's account can be restricted. Seller Dashboard will tell the sellers if they are
Top Rated, Standard, or Below Standard.
4. Policy Violations: It includes things like soliciting offsite sales, listing items that aren't
allowed, using copyrighted or unauthorized photos, including false information in the
description, or circumventing eBay fees.
5. Search Function: eBay has a huge amount of filter options to let you refine the result.
One can use an advanced search query to narrow down one's search to specific items,
sellers, locations, price ranges, and more. This includes completed listings, eBay Stores,
or other members and once you've found a search you like, and as long as you are logged
in, you can save it to use again.
6. PayPal: One of the main barriers to mobile commerce is the frustration encountered with
form filling and entering credit card details. One of eBay’s key strengths is PayPal, which
allows shoppers to make a purchase just by entering a password.
7. Recommendations: For collections, members, daily deals and interests to follow eBay
recommends regularly to its buyers in the feed.
8. Create or follow a Collection: By logging in, one can also create his or her own
collection or follow the collections of other members. To create collection, at first, search
for items you need or like. On the item page, click the “Add to collection link”. You can
also name the collection, or add the item to a collection you've already started. Another
way to create collection is the star icon above the top of an item means that you can click
the star to add the item to a collection. In the eBay home page, you'll see "Collections you
follow" on the left side of the page.
9. Follow a Member:  One can save a seller's profile by following a member. To do this at
first click the member's username. Then, Click the “Follow” button when in the member's
profile.
10. eBay Today: In eBay Today, you can explore a new collection every day and see what is
trending. The feed allows you to follow and discover the things you like easily.