Users are constantly looking for information online, comparing, buying products and services online. That is why business websites play an essential role in promoting a company. They help build effectively against competitors, optimize internal processes, and find more clients. The main goal of any commercial project is to make a profit by selling goods or services (Biswas et al., 2019). The development and launching of an Internet portal and mobile application can provide serious support for businesses of any scale: from small to large corporations. A website is an opportunity to systematize important information about the business: products, benefits, reviews, prices, and terms of cooperation (Zhang et al., 2018). A website and mobile application development project for a home improvement store chain will be presented in this work.
The central aspect of the work will be the introduction of basic and additional functions in the web interface. The main functions are displaying product prices, store locations and their working hours, product descriptions on the website and mobile application. Additional functions such as a personal client cabinet, online personalized room design services, and store navigation will also be introduced as the project progresses. The entire project will be divided into three significant milestones, signifying implementing one or another set of features into the app or website. There will also be a description of the main goals and how to achieve them for each milestone. The timing of the project will be six months from the start of development to the final implementation for consumers.
Main Goals and Objectives
Before starting a new project, whether it is developing a corporate portal or a smartphone app, it is crucial to define its goals and objectives. Correct priorities help optimize development costs and make the final product more convenient and functional. Otherwise, the project quickly becomes unprofitable and does not pay off. The main goals in developing a website are to promote the company and stimulate sales. The launched website becomes an additional resource that generates traffic for the company. Paid advertising or SEO promotion can attract new customers and increase the brand’s audience, which has a positive effect on sales (Breuch, 2018). Additionally, an online store or corporate website effectively engages the target audience in the sales funnel. A well-developed website allows the brand to reduce the cost of advertising promotion and become a constant source of customer flow that generates sales (Ostrovska et al., 2019). The goals and objectives of creating a website are interrelated and often overlap. However, the project’s objectives derive directly from the goals of its development.
The first goal of the commercial website and mobile app that the team is developing is to generate profit by creating a new sales channel. Objectives for this goal include simplifying the process of buying online, implementing additional services, informing consumers, and demonstrating product features with the help of an online resource. The second goal of developing an app and website is to increase audience loyalty and establish customer feedback. The challenge to this goal can be defined as creating an operational customer service chain. This includes creating order, payment, and order tracking functions on the site in the customer’s personal account. Creating the personal account itself will also allow the company to increase customer loyalty, as it is a way to collect registration data for the company – the customer’s hobby, date of birth, and email.
The first two types of data will allow discounts and personalized gifts for customers based on their hobbies and needs. Customer email is needed to produce personalized marketing in an email newsletter, which will provide an additional sales channel. Thus, personalizing and enhancing the shopping experience will increase customer loyalty.
The third goal of the described project is to optimize and automate the company’s business processes. Implementing as many automated processes as possible on the website and in the company’s application can be an objective for such a goal. For example, the payment procedure can be fully automated. This will make it possible to speed up the work process and direct human resources to the areas where they are most needed. One of the innovative functions of the smartphone app will be in-store navigation for customers. It will save them time searching for goods in a large hypermarket and allow the store personnel not to be distracted from their work to point the customer to the shelf with the product. In addition, it is planned to introduce QR-codes for all goods by scanning which the customer will be able to get information about it – cost, characteristics, reviews and even a tutorial on its use. Therefore, the store’s work will be automated as much as possible without wasting valuable human resources.
Milestones
Once crucial project goals and objectives have been identified, milestones should be established. They will act as checkpoints to track progress and the timeliness of work; there will be three such milestones. The first is implementing essential features in the internal version of the site and mobile app. This indicates that the features will not yet be available to customers but will be introduced into the draft version of the site and app for testing on the target group. By the time this milestone is passed, the tank features should already be in the options expected to be present to a wide range of consumers.
The second milestone will be implementing additional features, such as online room design services, in the internal version of the site and app. It is also supposed to test how well the primary functions work in combination with the additional ones and the overall usability of the interface. The third milestone marks testing the internal version of the website and app on a sample of the target consumer group. When passing this milestone, both interfaces are assumed to be fully ready to work with a wide range of consumers. Only minor changes are possible based on feedback from the target group being tested.
Timeline
Setting a clear timeline describing the tasks and deadlines for quality work on the project is necessary. The entire timeline will be divided into six parts. They will correlate with a specific milestone and have ten actions required to complete it. The total time for the project is six months. The first part of the timeline will be dedicated to planning and will take one month. It will also be under the first milestone, which implies implementing the essential functions in the draft. This part includes gathering, processing, and analyzing customer requirements for the app and the store’s Web site. In addition, it also involves planning a set of basic features for the resource and presenting this set to the target group for approval. The following steps are to plan additional features and propose them to the target group. The final actions of the first part will be to determine the dates and methods of new resources’ implementation of the company and the development of a pr-strategy to present the new items to customers.
The second part of the timeline will be developing the basic features of the website and application; it will also take one month. The initial activities will be the design of the resource, the writing of the primary code for the website, and the optimization of the interface for the application. Further, independent testing of the site and the application and analysis of incorrectly working functions are implied. This will be followed by correcting the original code, adjusting the interface of the website and the application separately, and creating the final version of the resources with the basic functions. At the end of this part of the timeline, the project’s first milestone is expected to be passed. The third part will also take one month to develop and test additional resource features. Actions include writing the initial code of additional functions and testing them separately from the basic and together. This is followed by identifying incorrectly working code and its analysis, and then fixes. The following steps correlate secondary functions with primary functions for final testing, final testing itself, identification of failures, and elimination.
The fourth part of the timeline will take two weeks. It will include preparing the space for introducing additional mobile app features. The activities of this part will include assembling a team of management technicians to lead the process and handypersons. This will be followed by developing printing QR codes for each product and sticking them in the designated places. This part also includes testing the navigation system in the store, changing it in case of failure, and training the staff to work with innovative signs. In addition, it will also be necessary to install interactive signs for people with disabilities. By the end of the fourth part, the second milestone of the project is planned. Finally, the fifth and sixth parts of the timeline, the last of which will last a month and a half, will mark the final implementation of the system.
Part five will include final testing of the site and application by the target group, field testing of the store navigation system, and QR codes on products. In addition, it will also include the final correction of performance issues, as well as re-testing if necessary. This part also involves collecting, processing, and interpreting the test data by the focus group and writing a report on the work done. The sixth and final part is the most significant because it is the direct implementation of the system. It will take a month and a half, as it involves collecting, processing, and interpreting customer feedback regarding the new system. In addition, in this part, developers will have to create a customer support line for working with the site and the application. To do this, one will need to form a support team, define their job descriptions, test their work in the simulation, and notify customers about the possibility of contacting them. This part will also require an advertising campaign to promote the store’s new resources.
At the end of this part, the third milestone is considered passed, and the work on the project is over. Nevertheless, for the effective use of the site, it is essential to regularly carry out technical work, expand the project, and adjust the promotion strategy promptly. Creating a website for the company itself will not bring visible changes — the effect is observed only with constant project support. Only constant monitoring of the set strategy allows one to implement plans. Otherwise, the efficiency of the resource decreases, the project ceases to be helpful for the company and begins to bring losses.
Cost
The project’s total cost must be calculated based on the totality of the necessary work. Creating a website for the store will cost around $30,000, and creating a mobile app will cost around $20,000 (Ageeva et al., 2019). In addition, it is necessary to consider the team’s payment to prepare stores for the implementation of additional functions, such as online navigation. The project’s cost also increases with the involvement of a team of analysts evaluating the results of final and intermediate studies of resource versions. Finally, it is essential to attract marketers to advertise innovative introductions to the store’s customers. Thus, the total cost of the project will be about $300,000. However, maintaining the site in working order can cost an additional $ 10,000 each month of its subsequent operation. The project also implies an extensive expenditure of staffing resources since, in addition to the company’s staff itself, it attracts at least three external teams of specialists. As for non-staffing resources are primarily extensive money spending and materials for printing QR codes and creating a navigation system.
Sources
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Ostrovska, L., Runce, K., & Grabusts, P. (2019). Website creation for construction supply company. Proceedings of the Students International Scientific and Practical Conference, 0(23), 51-56. Web.
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