Started and a family business in the 20th century with it’s main store at Port-Louis Stop & Shop Supermarket is now a public limited company with loyal customers all around Mauritius

Stop & Shop targets innovation and follows market trend in this modern economy.

Innovations means, a step towards technology.

Stop & Shop deals much in Business to Customers (B2C), and Business to Business (B2B).

Thus, the Internet has becoming an increasingly important channel for both as an efficient way of communication

Our customers and us can go online to engage in advertising, buying and selling of products and services. This shall be efficient in terms of cost and time.

Economic characteristics of implementing E-Business in Stop & Shop

There are two main economic factors that would boost Stop & Shop to be effective and efficient in operating the business. These are:

Demand Side

Supply Side

How is E-Business solutions important to Stop & Shop!

Lower Costs

Marketing

Communications

wider range of stock

E-mail Marketing

Overcome Geographical Limitations

Gain New Customers with Search Engine Visibility

How is E-Business solutions important to Stop & Shop!

Eliminate Travel Time and Cost

Remain Open All the Time

Weakness that may be encountered

If the project is stopped halfway, it could result in high loss in investment.

E-Commerce stores take a good bit of administration and marketing in order to be successful.

may result in customer dissatisfaction when the goods are delivered.

Some customers may not feel at ease to give information about their credit card or related payment process.

Weakness and strengths – Transactions Costs

Search costs

Strength: Costs will thus reduce. Time effective

Information costs

Strengths: Updated information provided to customers and about customers

Bargaining costs

Strengths: No need to move to specific location to deal over purchase, everything can be done online. Saves cost and time.

Weakness: May require costly equipment to implement such communication and may require additional employees to handle this department

Decision costs

Strength: Can get the best customers. Inconveniences can be avoided.

Weakness: May result in loss of customers as they may easily compare prices and may result in negative perception about the supermarket if customers find better prices on other online websites

Policing costs

Strength: Results in customer’s satisfaction and reliability and trust in Stop & Shop Supermarket.

Weakness: May be costly in terms of transport cost if goods do not meet the requirements and have to be returned.

Strength: Customers can rely on us and be sure to avoid dissatisfaction. Both customers and stop & Shop are in need to be ethical.

Weakness: May cost much in terms of time to the supermarket if customers argue against the term of contract

Enforcement costs

SOCIAL FACTORS

Social factors govern the demand for internet services and the inclination to make purchases online and this is important to understand factors which will make people make use of the online services of our supermarket.

There are some factors which need to be considered when developing such a system and these are:

Cost of access

Value proposition

Security

Fear of the unknown

Privacy and trust in e- commerce

E-Commerce is Green

Technology in organization.

E-strategy

What is strategy?

1. Defines how we will meet our objectives.2. Sets allocation of resources to meet goals.3. Selects preferred strategic options to compete within a market.4. Provides a long-term plan for the development of the organization.

Smith (1999)- SOSTACSituation Where are we now? Objectives Where do we want to get to? Strategy How are we going to get there? – The Big Picture Tactics How are we going to get there? – The Detail Actions Who is going to do what and when? Control How can we control, measure and develop the process?

E-business applications to be implemented

Intranet

An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to share information, operational systems, or

computing services within an organization. This term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and

instead refers to a network within an organization. Sometimes, the term refers only to the organization's internal website, but may be a more extensive part of the organization's information

technology infrastructure, and may be composed of multiple LAN.

why intranet for Stop and Shop?

An intranet can be used to store useful information such as:Directory of staff and contact numbers.

sharing information on customers, suppliers and partners within an organisation.

Intranets are also being used as corporate culture-change platforms. For example, large numbers of employees discussing key issues in an intranet forum application could lead to new ideas in management, productivity, quality, and other corporate issues..

When part of an intranet is made accessible to customers and others outside the business, that part becomes part of an extranet. It will enable our shop to send send private messages through the public network, using special encryption/decryption and other security safeguards to connect one part of their intranet to another.

How will it be a Low cost of access ?

Low cost of software;

Low cost of hardware;

Capability for being run on all platforms;

Standardized file transfer, document creation and network protocol;

Reduction in paper costs useful!

Extranet

An extranet is a computer network that allows controlled access from the outside, for specific business or educational purposes. In a business-to-business context, an extranet can be viewed as an extension of an organization'sintranet that is extended to users outside the organization, usually partners,

vendors and suppliers, in isolation from all other Internet users. In contrast, business-to-consumer (B2C) models involve

known servers of one or more companies, communicating with previously unknown consumer users. An extranet is

similar to a DMZ in that it provides access to needed services for channel partners, without granting access to an

organization's entire network

WHY AN EXTRANET SYSTEM FOR STOP AND SHOP?

Exchange large volumes of data using electronic data interchange (EDI)

Share product catalogs exclusively with trade partners

Collaborate with other companies on joint development efforts

Jointly develop and use training programs with other companies

Provide or access services provided by one company to a group of other companies, such as an online banking application managed by one company on behalf of affiliated banks

To enhance efficiency in supply chain management.

facilitates partner inclusion in information flows from an organisation.

What is CRM?

Builds a database that describes the customers and the relationship they hold with the company.

Database: a collection of information that is organized in a way that allows it to be easily accessed,managed and updated. whatis.com

Provides enough detail so that the company can offer the client the product/service that matches their need the best. whatis.com

May contain information about their past purchases, who is involved with the account and a summary of all conversations.

Benefits of CRM to stop and shopResearch has shown that companies that create satisfied, loyal customers have more repeat business, lower customer-acquisition costs and stronger brand value. Which equals better financial performance.

Is a fast way to identify and handle potential problems.

Tracks all points of contact between a customer and the company

Provides all employees with product specs, product use information and technical assistance.

CRM quickly manages the scheduling of follow-up sales calls to assess the satisfaction of customers and their repurchase probabilities (when and how much).

Technologies and Architecture to Implement

Locating Products

Self-Serve Scanning

Shop Anywhere

Stop & Shop’s Website

Self-Checkout System

E-payments systems

Types of e-payments

E-cash

How it is used:

E-cash is used over the Internet, email, or personal computer to other workstations in the form of secured payments of "cash" that is virtually untraceable to the user. It is backed by real currency from real banks.

Electronic cash issues.

1) E-cash must allow spending only once.2) Must be anonymous, just like regular currency.3) Divisibility and convenience4) Complex transaction.

Two storage methods : online and offline

Paypal

Advantages of e-cash

Users

Merchants

International exchange

Disadvantages of e-cash

Electrical disruption

Penalty for access to cash

Smart cards applications

• Plastic card containing an embedded microchip • Ticketless travel

– Seoul bus system: 4M cards, 1B transactions since 1996– Planned the SF Bay Area system

• Authentication, ID• Medical records• Ecash • Store loyalty programs• Personal profiles• Government

– Licenses• Mall parking

Smart cards

Food Stamp Project

Food stamp is the first implementation of the FAMILY CARD project on a nation-wide scale. The family card is Egypt‘s first E-government success stories. It was initiated in 2005 when the Egyptian Government decided to use the smart cards technology to automate the government social services specially the subsidies. We also for our supermarket we are coming up with such smart cards.

The Advantages Of Using Smart CardsMore secure

Safe to transport

Double as an id card

Possible DisadvantagesEasily lost

Security

Slow adoption

Possible risk of identity theft

Secure electronic transaction protocol

SET (Secure Electronic Transaction) is a very comprehensive security protocol, which utilizes cryptography to provide confidentiality of

information, ensure payment integrity, and enable identity authentication. For authentication purposes, cardholders, merchants,

and acquirers will be issued digital certificates by their sponsoring organizations. It relies on cryptography and digital certificate to

ensure message confidentiality and security. Digital envelop is widely used in this protocol. Message data is encrypted using a randomly generated key that is further encrypted using the recipient's public

key

Security aspects to be considered

With the arrival of new technologies and the cost reduction process people have to adapt themselves to the new ways of purchasing. That is making payments online. However with many scandals which have happened with e-payments people fear to adopt this practice.

1. Don't trust cloud providers

2. Use fake personal data

3. Regularly make local backups

4. Avoid daisy-chaining accounts

5. Press cloud providers for better password practices

6. Disable remote wiping for laptops

7. Press cloud providers for better password practices

Other ways to prevent being hacked are:1. Cryptography

Types of crypto systems: 

Both the encryption and decryption keys are kept secret.Example: To encrypt, map each letter into the third letter forward in the

alphabet order; To decrypt, map each letter into the third letter back.

 

Problems with Secret Key Cryptosystems:- Key transfer- Too many keys

Firewalls* A firewall is a barrier placed between the private network and the outside world.* All incoming and outgoing traffic must pass through it.* Can be used to separate address domains.*Control network traffic.*Cost: ranges from no-cost (available on the Internet) to $ 100,000 hardware/software system.

Electronic Mail Security 

E-mail is the most widely used application in the Internet. Who wants to read your mail ?

Business competitors Reporters,Criminals Friends and Family

Two approaches are used: PGP: Pretty Good Privacy PEM: Privacy-Enhanced Mail

Approximate Costing For implementation

Being in the business for so long, Stop & Shop is always proving its

great care towards its customers as well as suppliers. Therefore to remain

amongst the top in this highly competitive market, the management is continuously monitoring the need

for innovation and technological novelties. Therefore this year we have

come up with a long list of improvements bringing a new era to

the world of supermarkets and shopping in Mauritius. These huge

changes towards sophisticated computerization and E-Business should very quickly proves its

competitive edge for Stop & Shop in the market and also a great ease for

the customers, suppliers and management team.

Conclusion