CHAPTER ONE

 INTRODUCTION

It is quite obvious that the internet and the World Wide Web are growing faster than they were estimated in the past decades. The Internet Technology unequivocally has dramatically reduced the world into a global village where every information is very obtainable. Shopping which is one of the essential parts of the real world activities has made its mark and found its way into the internet. It is commonly referred to as E-shopping which means electronic shopping or On-line Shopping.

On-line Book shopping entails buying and selling of books of all sorts with the buyer still making his choice and making the payment through the internet or through any other computer network. This pattern of trade conducted through the internet has grown extraordinarily simultaneously with wide spread use of the internet. This new trend in fact has contributed immensely to the growth of E-business and particularly in E-education. The number of transactions grows everyday, spurring and drawing innovations in the E-Library System and E-Commerce, Electronic Fund Transfer, Tupply Chain Management, On-line Transactions Processing and Internet Marketing. On-line Bookshop normally makes use of the World Wide Web (www) to an extent in the transaction life cycle; it also involves shopping of the physical items requested on-line. This chapter of the project research does not only explore the background of the study, the statement of the problems, purpose of study, the significance of the study and the limitations, it also goes as far as exposing and expounding the secrets and fortunes locked up in an online book shopping.

 1.1       BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The Federal Polytechnic Nekede, Owerri is one of the Higher Institutions of Learning the Federal Government can boast of because of the quality of graduates it produces. It was established with the aim of providing and equipping adequate and edifying information and motivation for the students who enroll therefore studies. It is located in the eastern part of Nigeria. In this school is cited the school bookshop located in the School of Business and Management Technology. It was established not only for the precipitate need of investment or source of revenue for the school. It was built to aid students in their learning by providing books for them at a cheaper rate with less compulsion. The Bookshop is called POLYNEK CONSULTANCY LIMITED. It is from the revenue that is generated from the bookshop that the POLYNEK Farm Plantation is managed. They also take care of dispatching toilet tissues to the school hostels and the files opened by students during admission.

 1.2    STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The existing system of operation and method of transaction in the schools’ bookshop has been haunted by the following problems;

.  Poor arrangement of books in the shop

.  Dirty and stuffy hall

.  Time wastage in searching for desired books

.  Time wastage in attending to students

.  Conflicting, confusing and inadequate record keeping of daily transactions

.  Wrong location of the bookshop.

 1.3   PURPOSE OF STUDY

The purpose of the study is to identify the problems inhibiting the bookshop growth and recommend practical solutions, analyzing the existing problems or systems of transaction and complete mode of operation. Therefore, to change the problematic existing system it is by designing an effective, user friendly or on-line transaction for students, lecturers and other interested customers anywhere they may be and projecting it for implementation.

1.4   SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The importance of this study (i.e. Federal Polytechnic Nekede Bookshop or POLYNEK Consultancy Limited) is based on transaction changes in the operation, the cost of executing some other operations, their functions and their benefits.

 1.5   LIMITATIONS AND CONSTRAINTS OF STUDY

This section deliberates on the difficulties faced in obtaining facts and vital information about the existing system and mode of operation of transaction from unsteady sales manager and rude students. It also includes the possibility of getting information from other sources such as journals, books and the internet which is very high. The involvement of the manager i.e. the shop keeper, some materials, programming language, the efforts involved in developing the new and better Bookshop On-Line transaction were so tedious and herculean as a task. The project research work includes the difficulty in combining it with other academic activities, economic crunch and other technical problems put into consideration. Also inclusive is the entire objective of the study such as the operational feasibility.

 1.6   DEFINITION OF TERMS

ACQUIRING SANK: This is a bank or financial institution that accepts payments for the product or services on behalf of a Merchant.

BOOKSHOP: It is sometimes referred to as bookstores. It is therefore a room or shop where books of a particular type or various types are packed and sold.

DIGITAL CERTIFICATE: It is a certificate that enables a merchant to do on-line business and it is been issued by a corporate body.

GATEWAY: This is a device that connects two computer networks that cannot be connected in any other way.

HYPERTEXT DOCUMENTS: They are documents written with HTML, ASP, ASP.NET, PHP, JAVA SCRIPT PAGES (JSP), CODE FUSION, and PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES.

INTERNET: It is an interaction of computer networks connecting other networks from computers, companies, houses etc.

ISP: (Internet Service Provider): This is a company(s) that provides internet access to homes or business users.

MERCHANT ACCOUNT: It’s a contract under which an acquiring bank extends a line of credit to a merchant who wishes to accept payment card association brand

MY SQL: This is relational database server that is ideal for both small and large applications.

ON-LINE BOOKSHOP: It is representation of material or real bookshop on the internet or on the web.

ON-LINE BOOKSHOPPING: This is the buying and selling of books through the internet or web.

PHP (HYPERTEXT PRE-PROCESSOR): This is a powerful server-side scripting language for creating dynamic and interactive website. 

PROGRAM: A program is a sequence of instructions written in a computer to execute a certain task and solve a problem. A program must possess clarity, be specific, effective and user friendly.