Project proposal

Project Proposal: E-commerce Website

Introduction
Soleful company is a local business in Winnipeg that has been serving shoe customers since
2000. It is a family-owned business that is dedicated to providing Winnipeggers with the highest
quality shoes, exceptional customer services, and unbeatable prices. The business has 50
employees with three stores across in the city of Winnipeg.

The company is selling a range of shoes from:

 Athletic shoes: these shoes are designed for sports or other physical activities including
but not limited:
o Running shoes
o Basketball shoes
o Tennis shoes
o Cross-training shoes
 Casual shoes: these shoes are designed for everyday wear and often comfortable and
versatile including:
o Sneakers
o Slip-on shoes
o Loafers
 Dress shoes: these shoes are designed for formal occasions and often made of leather and
other high-quality materials.
 Boots: these shoes are designed for cold weather or more rugged terrain including
o Work boots
o Hiking boots
 Sandals: these shoes are open-toed and use for warm weather or beachwear, some
examples:
o Flip-flops
o Slides

Other products the company is selling are clothes and fashion accessories.

In today's digital era, online shopping has become a popular trend among consumers. The
convenience of online shopping has led to an increase in demand for e-commerce websites.

Before the covid pandemic hit, the company was only selling its products locally in 3 stores in
Winnipeg. Although the company has a website, but it is only used for showing. Customers can
check products, but they can only buy by calling to the stores’ hotlines or in person at stores.
During the pandemic, the company saw a spike in the volume of customers ordering by phone. It
wanted to develop a website, where customers can shop online and pay it via all the types of
bank cards, such as: credit cards, debit cards or PayPal… In addition, the owner wanted to
expand their reach beyond the local customers to other provinces in Canada and to improve
customer services by analyzing customers’ information: history of orders, age, interest, shopping
behaviors, and so on.

After meeting with the client – Soleful and based on business’ needs. An agreement has been
made:

 The project will be completed within 4 weeks.

 The client sent a list of features in a spreadsheet file needed for their website and the
progress of the project will be checked in each week.
 There has been a fine if the requirements of the project don’t meet during each check-in.

Objectives
The primary objective of this project is to develop an e-commerce website that offers a seamless
shopping experience for customers. The website will provide users with a user-friendly interface
that is easy to navigate, and the platform will be reliable, secure and scalable.

Features
The following features will be included in the e-commerce website:

 User Registration and Login

 Product Catalogue
 Shopping Cart
 Payment Gateway Integration
 Order Management
 Customer Reviews and Ratings

Technology
We will develop the website using modern web development technologies such as HTML 5,
CSS with framework Bootstrap or Tailwind CSS, and JavaScript, Rails framework. The website
will be deployed on a reliable and secure web server, and a database management system will be
used to manage the website's data.

Database
1. Create Accounts: users can create accounts and log in to the website
2. Users’ information: user can store their name, contact details: email and phone number,
users can add one or addresses. If there are more than one address, they can set a default
shipping address.
 3. Payment methods: Users can add one or more payment methods to their account, and if
there are more than one payment method added, users can set a default payment method.
4. Products: the website can store products and other information such as variations of a
product. Each variation has each own price, product image, price.
5. Categories and brands: each product belong to a category, and a brand. Categories and
brands can belong to other categories and brands
6. Stock quantity: the website can keep track quantity of each product in stock
7. Shopping cart: visitor can products to their shopping cart. It will only be associated with
database once the user logged in to the website.
8. Order process: users need to provide their payment details, shipping address to place an
order. Based on the shipping address to calculate tax rate, shipping method (standard or
express), the website will display the order total.
9. Reviews: users can leave a review for products they have purchased.
10. Promotions: The website can allow one or more categories to have a discount on price.

shop_user

address

I have separate table for province and country to avoid duplication in address table

shop_user and address table. many to many, two users in same address and a user can have many
addresses.

category: category can belong to other categories, attributes: name, self-join, hierarchy of
category

Promotion table: I assume promotion is linked to product table, many to many because one
promotion can apply to many category and one category table can have more than one discount

Product: name, description, product image for product name

variation: product can have many options such as size, color. The variation is linked to category I
assume it applies to category. For example, the category of shoes can have size, color, material.
Phone can have: color, storage

variation_option: list all different value for each variation. For example: size could be S, M, L,
XL

product_item: an instance of a product. Soccer indor shoes, color, size, combination of attributes,
quantity, price depending other options. product can have many option, variation can have many
product items

shop order: order date capture the date purchased, order total: calculation

and orderline: qty, price when ordered.

user review: id, user_id, ordered_line_id

Timeline
The development of the e-commerce website will take approximately 1 month. The project will
be divided into four stages:

 The project will be completed within 4 weeks.

 The client sent a list of features in a spreadsheet file needed for their website and the
progress of the project will be checked in each week.
 There has been a fine if the requirements of the project don’t meet during each check-in.

Conclusion
The proposed e-commerce website will provide a convenient and secure platform for customers
to shop online. With the inclusion of essential features such as a product catalogue, shopping
cart, and payment gateway integration, we are confident that this website will be successful in
meeting the needs of its users.