Shoppingshrine.com case study

Case Study: ShoppingShrine.com

Business type: Ecommerce website

shoppingshrine.com

Ecommerce is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Online shopping

was started in 1979. The latest figures say that at least 85% of online population has used

the Internet to purchase something. Ecommerce sales are growing by more than 20% every

year and will be a $1.4 trillion industry by 2014.

Shoppingshrine.com is an ecommerce website developed for The InfoTribe, a team

of entrepreneurs from Qatar. It’s an ecommerce website which enables consumers to

purchase products from the Internet through safe and secure payment gateway. It also

offers an opportunity for traders to sell their wares online.

Infoquest JLT, Dubai

Our client wanted this ecommerce portal as a platform for consumers to buy quality

products via the Internet with the comfort of sitting at their homes or any other place of

convenience. Our client aims to be the market leader in the Middle East region in

ecommerce solutions in this burgeoning industry. Internet usage in the Middle East has

increased by more than 2,250 % in the last decade and our client wants to capture this user

base with this website.

The portal we designed offers customers different products to choose from and the

unique selling proposition of this website which we created is that it also offers sellers, an

opportunity to showcase their wares which is a unique option not offered by most other

ecommerce firms making our site different from most other websites.

We recommended them an idea where any vendor could advertise their products for

a particular period of time for a pay giving the advertiser exclusivity and also customers

throughout the world. It makes an ordinary vendor reach a global audience and also

thereby promoting our client’s mission of improving the quality of life of the Middle

Eastern communities.

Shoppingshrine.com Case study


Our team of technology experts has offered various ideas to our client during the

process of the creation of this website which has helped in the look of the website as well

as adding to its value.

We suggested using various payment methods over using only 3-4 payment

methods generally by ecommerce portals since it increases the customer base manifold as

many customers are comfortable with certain payment methods than others. Inputs were

offered on the design aspects as well and the end results were highly appreciated by our

clients.

Navigation

Our client is satisfied that the user gets the experience of a lifetime and also where

the customer would be coming back to shop frequently to the portal based on the user

friendliness and the options in the site.

We have created a website where the customer enjoys the privilege to choose from

a variety of products and can also ask for a particular product of his/her liking to be

included.

The user has to register with the portal and can browse the products which are

elucidated in detail for a better understanding of the product. The payment methods have

been included with the latest security features.

The different payment gateway integration was an arduous task but it was

completed by our technical team in a timeframe way ahead of the schedule thanks to our

expertise in creating many successful ecommerce portals.

Visitors to this site can view the website in both Arabic and English. They also have

the option to see the rate of the products in both Qatar’s Riyal and in USD.



All the important options that a site visitor needs are placed on top of the website

for easy navigation. The registration of a buyer can be completed with ease with some basic

details filled in. Purchase of an item hardly takes 1-2 minutes.

Design of shoppingshrine.com

The site has been designed with HTML and CSS with the framework designed by X-

Cart software. The design is a standard version of most other ecommerce websites with a

basic design found in many other ecommerce companies.

The user experience of navigating through this site is smooth especially since all the

important tabs for a user has been strategically placed for easy use to navigate the website.

The icons depicting the products possess the ability to grab the attention of the user

with its look. The feature where the image is zoomed in when the pointer is placed over a

product enhances the quality of the user experience.

The other technologies which have been used by our web designing team to create

this website are JavaScript, XHTML, Ajax and PHP.



Products

Shoppingshrine.com has a variety of products to offer to its customers ranging from

electronic products to beauty products for men, women and kids. The site also has top

brands like Samsung, Blackberry, and Gymboree et al to name a few. The products are

available at a discounted price as directed by the various manufacturers.

The traders who use this portal as a seller fix the price of the products as per the

traditional Arab way of selling- souq, an open air market place where vendors command

the market price for their products.

New products and offers are also introduced for special occasions.

Payment security

The payment for the products is done in a secure way. The website is PCI DSS

compliant which makes the transaction from a debit or credit card as secure.

The other security features included:

HTTPS option

PGP

GnuPG

P3P

A business which requires transactions online requires a lot of security from data

theft and the users must feel assured that the money which they are spending to purchase

product goes to the rightful person. This was an area which our client was extremely

concerned about. All the security options that we included in the shoppingshrine website

has made our client relaxed and satisfied.



Shipping Options

It is a known factor that logistics is a vital part of a business transaction since more

the time a customer waits to receive a product which he/she had paid for, the chances for

his/her dissatisfaction increases with time.

We suggested our client that if we offer International shipping also, we could be at an

advantage because of two factors:

1. Most of our competitors offer shipping only to its parent country thereby decreasing

their clientele list.

2. Since shoppingshrine.com also offers indigenous products of the Middle East since it

has its base there and people from other countries that cannot travel to this part of

the world, could buy them no matter wherever they stay.

The unique feature of the site is that it ships products around the world and a 1 day

delivery time is promised for customers within Doha.

Shipping companies integrated with the portal:

1. FedEx

2. Intershipper

3. USPS

4. CanadaPost

5. UPS

6. DHL.

People from those countries which have the shipping option can purchase any

products from shoppingshrine.



Diverse payment methods

After a lot of research on the mindset of a customer who purchases products online,

we understood that many customers were comfortable with different payment methods to

choose from. We concluded that if we do not offer a particular payment method, the

chances of losing a particular set of customers who have affinity to a particular payment

method was bound to happen.

We had a brainstorming session with our clients and advised them the advantages of

having a vast set of payment methods and payment gateway integration was done

smoothly thereby increasing the prospect of more customers coming in.

Payment methods are aplenty which adds to the aura around this site.

It includes

1. COD,

2. Credit card

3. Check

4. Gift certificate

5. Fax ordering

6. Wire transfer

7. Google Checkout

8. PayPal Pro, etc.



Conclusion

Shoppingshrine.com would be a very good competitor for all the other ecommerce

websites in the Middle East especially because of the diversity in its products. The multiple

payment methods available in the site also add charm to the user as it gives the user a lot of

options to pay.

The unique selling proposition of this website is that it gives an opportunity for

vendors of any goods to advertise as well as sell their products. This option takes

shoppingshrine.com to a new league in the ecommerce industry as the list of the products

and vendors could go higher after a few months from the time the site becomes

operational. It adds justice to its mission of improving the Middle East conditions by giving

others an opportunity to trade here making the Arab vendors reach their craft and

expertise to the world.

I hereby conclude that shoppingshrine.com will be a market leader soon in the

Middle East thanks to its innovative strategy of giving space to new retail vendors, its

products ranging from the luxurious to the budget buyer, the multiple payment methods,

the security features on it, user navigation and also because of especially the look and

design of the website.

We are proud to have created this website which had to be smoothly integrated

with the different payment methods and the numerous shipping options which a difficult

task was to begin with considering all the constraints. We are proud that our expertise in

web designing technology helped in shoppingshrine.com coming true.


Technology

Shoppingshrine.com case study