Introduction

Ecommerce is an exciting and increasingly universal field that is changing the face of business, socialization, communication, and politics—throughout the world. This 12 week course will provide an introductory review of business frameworks and marketing, and how ecommerce can transform business and communication. This course will also have “deep dives” into critical areas that require greater emphasis for ecommerce success such as ecommerce development environments, site building tools, graphics/brand creation, social media and traffic generation. Industry speakers will be arranged accordingly. At the end of the course, students will have prepared their own ecommerce site for presentation to the administration and to an industry panel. Please note that course deliverables will be entirely project based and that each student will develop their own project.

Requirements

  • Genuine desire to create an amazing industry level, and functional ecommerce site and campaign that is viewable on the PC, mobile phone and tablet.
  • Strong knowledge in using a computer, an internet browser, using standard net tools, and managing a wifi/internet connection.
  • Strong knowledge of either the Windows or Apple operating systems, including excellent file management skills.
  • Background knowledge in marketing would be helpful, but is not required.
  • A dedication to be present in all classes and to delivery assigned homework.
  • On-time and with quality.
  • A consistent demonstration of professionalism in the class, their interactions with their fellow students, the instructor, administrators and industry experts.
Students will also have to complete the “Pre-class Document” that will need to be finished prior to the first day of class. This document can be obtained from Student Services.

Marking Scheme

  • Students will require a 75% and a minimum of 80% attendance to pass the course.
  • Students not meeting these requirements will be required to retake the course, at their own cost, when it is offered again. Any student that falls below the required attendance level will be asked to leave the course.

Breakdown

Attendance 10%
Participation 10%
Professionalism 10%
Business Idea and Plan 30%
ecommerce Project 40%
*Please note: All daily presentations, assignment/project outlines and or documents will be available online at SMRT after the current class has finished.

Content

Week 1

Outcome: By the end of this class, students will be able to understand how ecommerce is rapidly changing the world. They will also understand the marketing principles required for ecommerce success to occur.

Material Covered

  • Introduction to the scope of ecommerce and Marketing Principles.
  • Video and series of real-world examples.
  • Class group connections on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Skype In-class exercise: What are you really selling?
  • In-class group exercise: ecommerce Success Stories.
  • Business plan document handed out and reviewed.
*Homework: Bring in ecommerce success news and examples.

Week 2

“Outcome: By the end of this class, students will understand the detailed scope of their final project, along with the project marking scheme. Additionally students will be fully immersed in the tool to create the presentation layer of their project.”

Material Covered

  • Instructor, Introduction of ecommerce success stories.
  • Student offering of ecommerce success stories.
  • Review of previous day’s material.
  • Final Project assigned and discussed. Marking rubric presented.
  • Final Project Part One : Introduction to Adobe Elements, graphics creation.
  • Introduction to file formats for the web.
  • Class Exercise: Header design (image manipulation, cropping, and saving into file formats).
Homework: Become more proficient with Adobe Elements. Bring in ecommerce success news and examples.

Week 3

“Outcome: By the end of this class, students will become clearer in defining corporate and product positioning, as well as industry best practices in communicating needs and features to audiences. This class will also have an industry expert speaking about the role of mobile on ecommerce and communication.”

Material Covered

  • Instructor, Introduction of ecommerce success stories.
  • Student offering of ecommerce success stories.
  • Review of previous day’s material.
  • Final Project part two begins: Market Assessment, determining business opportunities.
  • In-class group exercise: McDonald’s vs. Subway.
  • In-class group exercise: Apple vs. Microsoft.
  • In-class exercise: Perceptual maps, where opportunity lies.
  • Guest Speaker: Alan Jones, Industry Expert, Mobile.
*Homework: Think carefully about your final business idea. Bring in ecommerce success news and examples.

Week 4

“Outcome: At this point students will have elected their ecommerce direction for their final project and will have added strategic parameters to define the opportunity, to differentiate it within the marketplace and will have developed the genesis of their communication goals to their respective audience(s).

Material Covered

  • Instructor, Introduction of ecommerce success stories.
  • Student offering of ecommerce success stories.
  • Review of previous day’s material.
  • Final Project Part Three begins: Ideation, determining characteristics of a student’s business ideas.
  • In-class exercise: The marketing mix matrix revisited.
  • In-class exercise: The opportunity/problem defined/solved.
  • In-class exercise: The creative/communication brief.
  • In-class exercise: The 30 second pitch.
*Homework: Make your business idea more concrete, detailing your offering, relevance and differentiation in the marketplace. Also clearly think about your product positioning. Practice and improve your 30 second pitch. Bring in ecommerce success news and examples.

Week 5

“Outcome: When students leave this class, they will have been exposed to several content management systems and development environments. Students will also be able to create a simple integration between 2 development tools (web and mobile).

Material Covered

  • Instructor, Introduction of ecommerce success stories.
  • Student offering of ecommerce success stories.
  • Review of previous day’s material.
  • In-class exercise: The 30 second pitch.
  • Final Project Part Four begins: Choosing the right tools.
  • In-class exercise: SnapPages (test graphics supplied)
  • In-class exercise: WooCommerc. (test graphics supplied)
  • In-class exercise: WordPress (test graphics supplied)
  • In-class exercise: Shopify (test graphics supplied)
  • In-class exercise: DudaMobile (test graphics supplied)
  • Integration of the tools.
  • Guest Speaker: Michele Mancuso, Product development/marketing expert.
*Homework: Practice all of the CMS/Development tools. Practice using Adobe elements to create test visual elements and incorporate them. Test the mobile capabilities of each tool and integration of the development tools with Dudamobile. BUSINESS PLAN DOCUMENT IS DUE.

Week 6

“Outcome: Critical to the success of any web project is content. At the end of the class, students will have assessed and determined what content will be required for their project. In addition, students will understand the importance of branding and its role in communicating the project to its audience.

Material Covered

  • Instructor, Introduction of ecommerce success stories.
  • Student offering of ecommerce success stories.
  • Review of previous day’s material.
  • Final Project Part Five begins: Right tool chosen, Content design begins.
  • Determing what content is required for a successful project.
  • In-class exercise: the content checklist.
  • Branding and the implications for success.
  • In-class exercise: defining your brand, tone and voice, mood board.
*Homework: Continue development of your project content specific to the branding that you have determined. Bring in ecommerce success news and examples.

Week 7

“Outcome: Students will have begun development on the projects and will use this time to continue the development of their sites.”

Material Covered

  • Instructor, Introduction of ecommerce success stories.
  • Student offering of ecommerce success stories.
  • Review of previous day’s material.
  • Final Project Part Six begins: Development Begins.
  • In-class work time.
*Homework: Continue the development of your website. Bring in ecommerce success news and examples.

Week 8

“Outcome: Students will have continued their development efforts in class and be introduced to additional best/wrong practices in development ecommerce environments so that these tips can be incorporated into their sites.

Material Covered

  • Instructor, Introduction of ecommerce success stories.
  • Student offering of ecommerce success stories.
  • Review of previous day’s material.
  • Final Project Part 6 Continues: Development Continues
  • Top 5 things you need for a successful ecommerce site.
  • Top 5 mistakes of developing an ecommerce site.
  • Web site stickiness.
  • Guest Speaker: Monisha Khanna, PR and Communications expert.
*Homework: Continue Development of Site. Incorporate best practices, web stickiness and PR tips into development. Bring in ecommerce success news and examples.

Week 9

“Outcome: Students will be finalizing their sites by integrating all material together. (content, branding, website, tablet, mobile)

Material Covered

  • Instructor, Introduction of ecommerce success stories.
  • Student offering of ecommerce success stories.
  • Review of previous day’s material.
  • Final Project Part 6 continues/Part Seven begins: Final Integration.
  • In-class work time, development.
*Homework: Ensure that your site is being finalized for all 3. Bring in ecommerce success news and examples.

Week 10

“Outcome: Students will have completed or largely have completed their sites. This class will introduce students on promotional techniques, audience building and traffic generation strategies.

Material Covered

  • Instructor, Introduction of ecommerce success stories.
  • Student offering of ecommerce success stories.
  • Review of previous day’s material.
  • Final Project Part 8 begins: Promotions and traffic generation
  • “The empty room syndrome.”
  • SEO
  • SEM and Google AdWords.
  • Landing Pages
  • CPM/Display advertising.
  • Affiliate advertising/Drop Shipping
  • CPA/CPL advertising
  • Contra advertising
  • Public Relations
  • Guerilla Marketing
  • Co-marketing/Co-operative Marketing
  • Social Media strategy
  • Social Media Strategy and Deployment.
  • Content strategy
  • Event strategy
  • Digital media Metrics
  • In-class exercise: Advertising models 1
  • In-class exercise: Advertising models 2
  • In-class exercise: Advertising models 3
  • In-class exercise: Social Media Strategy
  • In-class exercise: Digital Metrics and tools for analysis
*Homework: Finish your site completely and develop a promotional strategy for your site, Bring in ecommerce success news and examples.

Week 11

“This class will involve class, theory, practice, and one on one in-class work time with the instructor to assist students in the final development of their ecommerce projects) related to their marketing plan and testing for the site.

Material Covered

  • Instructor, Introduction of ecommerce success stories.
  • Student offering of ecommerce success stories.
  • Review of previous day’s material.
  • Work time to integrate marketing strategy into the site project.
  • Work time to integrate KPI for digital metrics into the site.
  • Final Project Part Six begins: Testing and Quality Assurance.
  • Proper audience presentation techniques.
  • Practice responding to audience questions.
  • Additional in-class work time.
*Homework: Final touches on project based on feedback from the initial audience. Test! Test! Test!

Week 12

“Outcome: This class will be the presentation of the students’ ecommerce business to the administration, to the class, to the instructor and to an industry panel).

Material Covered

  • Project presentations

 

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