DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ONLINE PRODUCT CATALOG SYSTEM

ABSTRACT

An online product catalog system is an application software that allows a brand to communicates with its customers. The aim of the study is to Design and Implement an Online Product Catalog System. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to design and develop an application software that will visually display products online and group the products into various categories with descriptions, use the Online Product Catalog as effective search tools and place orders (Cart), create sales easily and help the buyers acquire updated price quotations. The motivation that led to the implementation of the proposed system is that alot of people waste a lot of time seeking for information regarding the type of products manufactured and how these products work and how to purchase them. Most people are unaware of the existence of the organization, what products they sell, and the services they offer. The methodology adopted in this study is the structured system analysis and design methodology (SSADM) which is a technical approach for analyzing and designing an application or system by applying object throughout the software development process. The programming language used is HTML, CSS, JAVASCRIPT, PHP, SQL and JQUERY. The reason why web programming languages was used is because, it is platform independent and it is a web based application. This project will be of benefit to Enterprises, Shopping Malls/Supermarkets and many large companies like; waste companies, and Power holding companies. The expected result is an electronic billing system that will visually displayed companies’ products online to enable the prospective buyers and customers to know the available products, these products will be categorized and described accordingly like type, model, manufacturer, and color.

CHAPTER ONE

1.1 Introduction

An online product catalog system is an application software that allows a brand to communicates with its customers. Customers are informed of all relevant product details before they move ahead in the purchase funnel. For a business, it's a tool that helps its product or services go online and become visible to potential customers. More visibility means increased sales prospects which in return assure better conversion rates (G2, 2021). The global community especially the technologically advanced world is striving to attain the global information age. It is an age that is envisaged to go beyond the use of computers as a mere tool for fast information processing, rather they will also become medium for processing, arranging, analyzing and transferring such information from one location to another at equal fast rate.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

Products catalogs are basically created to provide manufacturers and suppliers, with a platform to present their products and services efficiently to the online audience. These product are fast gaining popularity as they are the most cost-effective medium of advertising online, besides being one of the most successful medium (Mackay, et al., 2006). However, just displaying a product catalog would not help a business sell its products and services. It has to be attractive, with organized information as well. An organized, appealing and well-formatted product catalog is more likely to make an impact than a plain one with inadequate details.

Product can be displayed on the company’s website or online store. The visitors can visit the website and look through the range of products offered by the company. The product can be sent to the business directories where they can be accessed by wholesalers and retailers from different parts of the world.

The product can be emailed to prospective buyers in the form of an e-mail marketing tool.

Furthermore, catalog is a complete list of item, for example, of things that people can look at or buy (Horney, 2000). Online catalog is of a great benefit thus, providing sellers with a content management system that assembles aggregates, normalizes, and distributes product information. In the same vein, it also provides potential buyers with an interactive interface that offers a multimedia representation of the product information as well as retrieval, classification and ordering services. People derive joy through online cataloging and shopping (Wolfinbarger, 2007). This, in fact, is one of the reasons people shop online because if it is not enjoyable and interesting, they will not. Online catalog uses a multidimensional visualization mechanism based on parallel coordinates and augmented by a number of visual facilities for filtering, tagging, color-coding, and dynamic querying.

Moreover, online product catalog (or electronic product catalog) is an element of e-commerce. Over the past few years, electronic commerce (or e-commerce) on the Internet has emerged as a dramatic new mode of business. Online product are much more than the electronic version of printed product (Staray, 2005). On one hand, they are a content management system that provides sellers with the ability to assemble, aggregate, and normalize product (or service) information from supplier databases and quickly, inexpensively, and easily distribute the information. They provide potential buyers with an interactive interface by offering a visual representation of product information as well as retrieval, classification, and ordering services.

1.3 Statement of Problem

Most industries and large organization in Nigeria are yet to create awareness about their products and services. Sometimes the way the awareness is been carried out is far behind technology. People waste a lot of time seeking for information regarding the type of products manufactured and how these products work and how to purchase them. Most people are unaware of the existence of the organization, what products they sell, and the services they offer.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to Design and Implement an Online Product Catalog System. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to design and develop an application software that will:

Visually display products online and group the products into various categories with descriptions.
Use the Online Product Catalog as effective search tools.
Place orders (Cart), create sales easily and help the buyers acquire updated price quotations.

1.5 Significance of Study

The relevance of the study is that, organizations has been making use of printed product catalogues without images. This method or system requires that customers or prospective buyers visit the nearest depot to view the products and place their orders manually before any transaction of whatsoever is made. But with the online product catalogues, the benefits of online media advertising are experienced.

This will help to bridge the gap between the company and the rest of the world.

Also, the companies’ products will be visually displayed online to enable the prospective buyers and customers to know the available products, these products will be categorized and described accordingly like type, model, manufacturer, color, and so on.

1.6 Scope of Study

This research work covers the design and development of an online product catalog for Purvey Nigeria Limited. It will show case or advertise products on sale to the online audience customers. The system will also feature a search option where users can search by category or by keyword. And also the users can create an order or a wish list of items they wish to purchase.

1.7 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).

1.8 Definition of Terms

Administrator: He sees to the security and maintenance of the Web Application. He may or may not be a professional in Web Content Management.

Back-end: This is the Web Administrator’s Corner. It comprises web pages that give the web administrator the ability to manage and control the contents of a dynamic website.

Catalogue/Catalog: An organized collection of available goods and services produced by a company, this can be printed papers or electronic in nature.

…

CHAPTER TWO

2.0 Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

The review of relevant literature is the main topic of this chapter. A literature review covers theoretical and methodological contributions to a certain issue in addition to the state of knowledge at the time of writing. It provides information about the state of the art in relation to the subject you are writing about. It examines the body of work on the chosen subject. The literature evaluation in this study comprises the …

Procedure for Downloading the PDF (Docx) Material

Design and Implementation of an Online Product Catalog System can be downloaded by requesting the full set of materials at the project or seminar cost. The document will be sent via Microsoft Word (MS-Word) format via WhatsApp (e-mail) following payment confirmation.

Seminar Material Cost
₦3,000

Project Material Cost
₦5,000

Request Complete Material

Click here to request the Complete Material via WhatsApp including;

Preliminary Pages,
Chapter 1-5,
References and Appendix.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PRELIMINARY PAGES

Title page
Approval page
Dedication
Acknowledgement
Table of Contents
Abstract
CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Background of Study

1.3 Statement of Problem

1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study

1.5 Significance of Study

1.6 Scope of Study

1.7 Limitations of the Study

1.8 Definition of Terms

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Theoretical Review of Product Catalog System

2.3 Brief History of Product Catalogue

2.4 Relevance of Product Catalog Database Management System

2.5 Product Catalogue Database Query System

2.6 Types of Catalog

2.7 Traditional Product and modern (Online) Product Catalog

2.8 The Use of Internet for Online Cataloging and Shopping

2.9 Factors that Contributed to Online Product Cataloguing

2.10 Product Catalog and Online Store on the Internet

2.11 Online Product Catalog as an Element of E-Commerce

2.12 Advantages of Online Product Catalogues

2.13 Online Product Catalog System Web Portal

2.13.1 Types of Online Product Catalog System Web Portals

CHAPTER THREE

SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

3.1 Methodology Adopted

3.1.1 Problem Identification Using SSADM

3.2 Analysis of the Existing System

3.2.1 Dataflow of the Existing System

3.2.2 Disadvantages Of The Existing System

3.2.3 Weakness of the existing System

3.3 Analysis of the Proposed System

3.3.1 Data Flow Diagram of the Proposed System

3.3.2 Advantages of the Proposed System

3.3.3 Justification of the Proposed System

3.4 Functional Requirements

3.4.1 Use Case Diagram Of The Admin / User Privileges

3.5 Data Requirements

3.6 High Level Model of the Proposed System

CHAPTER FOUR

SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

4.1 Objectives of the Design

4.2 Cohesion and Decomposition High level Model

4.3 Control Center / Overall Dataflow Diagram

4.3.1 Proposed System Operation Flowchart

4.4 System Specification and Design

4.4.1 Input and Output Specification

4.4.2 Database Specification and Design

4.4.3 Data Dictionary

4.5 Choice and Justification of Programming Language

4.6 Program Documentation

4.7 Implementation Techniques

4.8 Programming Module Specification

4.8.1 Installation

4.8.2 Security Design Specification

4.8.3 System Architecture

4.9 Computer Hardware Minimum Requirement

4.10 Software Requirement

4.11 Personnel / User Training

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Summary

5.3 Conclusion

5.4 Recommendation

5.4.1 Area of Application

5.4.2 Suggestions for Further Research

REFERENCES

APPENDIX A - “SOURCE CODE”

APPENDIX B - “OBJECT PROGRAM”

Disclaimer for Complete Material Utilization
The displayed research work titled "Design and Implementation of an Online Product Catalog System" is stated as a research guideline towards accomplishing your assigned project / seminar research work. All the research materials on this website are ONLY for research purposes and should be used as a guideline in developing your research work. For no reason should you copy word for word as projectlist.com.ng will not be liable for any who copied the material. By ordering the complete research guideline, it signifies that you've accepted our terms of service.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Can this topic “Effective Solid Waste Management as a Booster to Nigeria Economy” be used for Estate Management (EM) Project?

Yes it can be utilized for research — It is always known that cleanliness is next to godliness and health is wealth Good health is achieved if there is good management of the environment. The need for a good management of the environment cannot be over emphasized since there is a continuing environmental decay as a result of increased urbanization. Pollution is a major problem of urbanization of which most of the causes have been identified as industrial combustion, solid waste generation, oil spillage disposal etc. since these causes are inevitable; there is need for a good control of them. In this project there will be a critical look at solid waste management situation with special focus on Cities Enugu. The project, which is required for the attainment of programme, will …

Can the material for “Effect of Leadership Style on Subordinate Productivity” be used as a guide for Industrial Relations and Personnel Management (IRPM) Project?

Yes it can be used — From the immemorial, the role of leaders in ensuring excellence organizational performance cannot be emphasized. The need for adequate motivation suitable working environment, compensations efficient communication between employers and employees are important to promoting excellent organization performance. Though studies on motivation and leadership role amongst employees are well studied in financial organization in developed countries, less could be said of in financial organization in developing countries like Nigerian. Therefore, it was important to evaluate leadership and organizational performance in financial intuitions in Nigeria. The evaluation was done through the use of questionnaires with questions tailored towards determining: the relationship between leadership and organizational performance, pattern of leadership and the extent of factors for worker’s low performance and leadership style affected labour …

Can the material for “Evaluation of Usefulness of Inventory Management” be used as a guide for Business Administration and Management (BAM) Project?

Yes it can be used — It has been generally accepted that for any organization to produce and satisfy its stakeholders, such organization must have good management team that manages the resources of the organization using some laid down rules. In manufacturing concerns, inventories constitute a greater proportion of assets. The management of inventories usually involves a lot of problems which range from the right tome to place order to maximization of profits for the stakeholders. Thus, the research undertaken this research work entitled. Evaluation of usefulness of inventory management. A study of some selected Beverage Companies including: Coca-Cola Nigeria Plc, Pepsicola Nigeria Plc and Nigeria Mineral Water Industries Limited. The objective of this work includes: To determine whether profit is maximized and cost minimized due …

Can this topic “The Effect of Yoruba on the Spoken English of Mushin Market Women in Lagos” be used for Yoruba Project?

Yes it can be utilized for research — The study was carried out to examine the effect of Yoruba language on the sound system of spoken English language among the indigenous Mushin Yoruba market women in Lagos. It was to find out the features that distinguish Lagos Yoruba accent from the Received Pronunciation. Investigation revealed that despite the fact that various studies has previously been conducted on the phonology of Nigeria English, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba languages respectively, however, research gaps exists in the area of the effect of Yoruba on the spoken English of Mushin Market women in Lagos which this study sets to bridge. It is obvious that language has gain a lot of ground among the Nigeria languages; however it is one of the major …

Is the topic “Design and Implementation of User Application Software for Estate Management Practice” recommended for Computer Science (CS) Project?

Yes it is highly recommended — Real estate management is quite a broad term for a number of areas that include property management, surveying, business and finance and the built environment. The aim of this research work is to develop User Application Software for Estate Management Practice to make estate information accessible to both government and individuals who may like to acquire building or landed property. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to develop an application that will keep information on land size, land location and land owners in an estate and handle details for rent and sale of property from clients. The motivation that led to the implementation of the proposed system is that gaining access to estate information …

Is the topic “Design and Implementation of a Software Based Luggage Billing System for an Airline” recommended for Computer Science (CS) Project?

Yes it is highly recommended — An automated luggage billing device is an instrument, which is used in determining the weight of object placed on its load cell. The aim of the study is to Design and Implement an Online Luggage Billing System for an Airline. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to design and develop an application software that will keep luggage billing records of all incoming and outgoing immigrants, verify and give accurate bill for airline passenger luggage through the use of an internet accessible device and handle any luggage weighing objects and consequently requires the bill of airline passenger’s weight luggage. The motivation that led to the implementation of the proposed system is that the existing …

Can the material for “The Impact of Financial Sector Reforms on the Nigerian Banking Sector (1980 - 2010)” be used as a guide for Economics Project?

Yes it can be used — This study examined the impact of financial sector reforms on the performance of the Nigerian banking sub-sector. The study aimed to test the impact of financial sector reforms lags on the performance of the banking sub- sector. Variables were incorporated in the model to capture other variables that can impact on the performance of the banking sector. While money supply was proxy for financial sector reforms, interest rate was proxy for banking sector performance and variables such as inflation, real GDP and money supply lags were introduced. Data collected covered the period between 1980 to 2010. In analyzing the model, the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) methodology was employed. Money supply, inflation rate, real GDP and money supply lags were revealed to …

Can the material for “Analysis of Food Security and Poverty Status Among Households in Ehime Mbano” be used as a guide for Agricultural Engineering (AE) Project?

Yes it can be used — The research proffers an analysis of food security and poverty status among households in Ehime Mbano. It elucidates the nature of food security and poverty status, portrays the challenges of food security and poverty and provides measures to enhance food security alleviate poverty. …

Is the topic “The Impact of Motivation and Incentives on Employees Job Performance and Productivity” recommended for Business Administration and Management (BAM) Project?

Yes it is highly recommended — The success and the survival of any organization are determined by the way the employees are motivated and rewarded. The reward system and the motivating incentive will determine the level of employees’ commitment and their attitude to work. However, any organization that wants to achieve it objective as regards the research topic “the impact of motivation and incentives on employees’ job performance and productivity”. Employers must have a thorough understanding of what drives the employees have to perform efficiently and also serve as a guide in determine the most reliable and better performance. …

Can the material for “Effects of Ethnic Nationalism on Internal Security in the Niger Delta Region (1999-2014)” be used as a guide for International Relations Project?

Yes it can be used — The study was carried out to investigate the Effects of Ethnic Nationalism on Internal Security in the Niger Delta Region (1999-2014). Investigation revealed that ethnic nationalism is a common phenomenon in Niger Delta, Nigeria. Ethnic nationalism in Niger Delta has been agitating for so long for self-determination and to control their God giving resources, in their quest to achieve their aims, their actions sometimes has generated a lot of tension to Niger Delta region. Ethnicity is not in and of itself an African issue. It can be used to further the nation's socioeconomic progress and stability. The research design used in this report is descriptive design, utilizing questionnaire method to obtain information from the respondents for this project. Primary data …