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3 Jun 2001, Hong Kong
Dear Dr. Ecommerce
I am writing to ask some questions about e-commerce, which is the topic of the project I am doing for a technical writing course. My project is to develop an e-commerce system for a company providing interior design, renovation, and selling furniture. Would you be kind enough to answer the following questions?
- What potential problems encountered when setting up an e-commerce system?
- What are the solutions for the problems?
- What factors do we have to take care of when setting up the e-commerce system?
- How to make the system cheaper and user-friendly?
- How to maintain the system after building it?
Your information is really very important to me to finish the project as it tells me something valuable. I am looking forward seeing your reply.
Yours sincerely,
Grace
Dear Grace:
This is a job for your imagination!
First, you need to imagine how your on-line shop would be structured. You should probably make some notes or draw pictures or do what ever works for you to envision your shop. It might help to look at similar kinds of shops already selling on-line
Once you've done this, you need to think about everything that could go wrong in setting up and operating the shop. From your question it is not clear whether you are dealing only with technical problems (in which case, problems such as hard-disk crash, hacking, system overload, etc need to be considered) or whether you are dealing with all kinds of problems (in which case you also need to look at issues like developing customer trust, legal issues, finance, etc). But, I'm sure your imagination can find a lot of potential problems. If possible, get a friend or two to help. Your friend will see problems you don't.
Now that you know the potential problems, you need to use your imagination together with your technical knowledge to think about solutions.
Likewise, continue this exercise in your imagination and taking advantage of your technical knowledge. If your imagination hasn't been getting enough exercise lately, read JPB Creative's Ten Steps to Boosting Creativity.
You should also think about joining the eThesis discussion forum - it's especially for students researching e-commerce.
Good luck,
Dr. Ecommerce