IS480 Team wiki: 2012T1 Shopaholic Project Overview
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Contents
Singaporean's Definition of Spree
Consolidation of a mass order for an online merchant, usually by an individual who wishes to purchase some items from a particular merchant, and hopes to reduce the cost of shipping by spreading the cost over more items.
Role of Organizer - Open Sprees to take in orders. When Spree is closed, organizer will make purchase from Merchant, and ship items to their address. After which, organizer will repack items and re-distribute to all participants of the spree.
Role of Participants - Submit orders for a particular merchant in a spree. Make payment to the organizer for items he/she wishes to purchase.
Why People Spree?
- Merchant do not have a store front in Singapore
- High Shipping Cost. It is more cost effective to spread the cost of shipping over more items.
- Merchants do not accept Foreign Credit Cards. People would need to engage concierge services, which charges about 5% of the total cost of the items for every order placed with a particular merchant. It would also be more cost effective to spread the concierge service charges amongst the spree-ers
- Merchant do not ship directly to Singapore. In order to get the items from the merchant, one would need to engage courier services such as Vpost, Borderlinx and Comgateway which provides you with a US/UK/China address. Afterwhich, one may proceed to place the order with the merchant for the item to be shipped to the given address, which would then be forwarded to your address in Singapore. Since not everybody has an account, they would choose to join sprees to get the items they want from the particular merchant.
Our Motivation
Limited by the brands that are being imported in Singapore, many of us flock to shop online to get our hands on items that cannot be found in Singapore. Also, because prices of many international brands found in Singapore are being marked up greatly, most prefer to purchase these items online to seal the best deals. However, due to steep shipping costs incurred, it may not be so worthwhile to buy the items online after all. Hence, this motivates people to start sprees where orders are aggregated to one bulk purchase so that the shipping costs are split amongst the involved parties.
However, the current situation for sprees in Singapore is mostly unregulated and disorganized. Managing these sprees is a manual and tedious affair. We aim to redesign the online social shopping experience, making it such an easy and simple process that it becomes an extension of yourself. Shopping as a group will be done effortlessly without the hassle, so that the joy of the retail experience can shine through untainted by any unwanted issues.
Business Model
Current Spree Model - Spree Organizer
Current Spree Model - Spree-er
Step 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Step 4 |
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Browse Merchant Sites for items to purchse
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Search Forums and Blogs for Open Sprees to join
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Factors to consider when Joining Sprees:
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Fill up Form with details of item you wish to purchase
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Step 5 | Step 6 | Step 7 | Step 8 |
Proceed to make payment to Spree Organizer [Approx 6 Mins]
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Fill up remainder of form with payment details [Approx. 3 Minutes]
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Wait at least 48 Hours or until Spree closes for Spree Organizers to Verify Payment
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Wait for item to be posted to your own home
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Our Goals
For Spree-ers
Spree-er Goal 1 - Reduce time taken to capture an order (1 item)
Spree-er Goal 2 - Reduce Calculation Error
Spree-er Goal 3 - Ease Payment Procedure
For Spree Organizer
Spree Organizer Goal 1 - Ease order consolidation
Spree Organizer Goal 2 - Ease Fund Collection Process
Own Benchmark For Success
Goal 1 - Implement seamless integration of Plugin for 10 Merchant Sites
Apparels & Accessories | Kids | Health & Beauty |
---|---|---|
Forever21 | Disney Store | Drugstore.com |
GoJane | Beauty.com | |
G.A.P / Old Navy | E.L.F | |
Victoria Secrets | ||
River Island | ||
La Senza |
Goal 2 - Technical Support
Our framework is able to support a new site within 24 hours, when a request is sent by a Spree-er.
Goal 3 - Supporting Platforms
Windows | Mac OS |
---|---|
Chrome | Chrome |
Mozilla Firefox | Mozilla Firefox |
Safari | Safari |
Internet Explorer |
The X Factor
Inspired by: