BUS 133
E-Commerce: Physical Products
Course Overview
This course builds upon the concepts learned in BUS 130: Introduction to E-Commerce, BUS 131: Social Media Marketing, and BUS 132: E-Commerce Information Products in order to effectively develop a plan and website to sell physical goods.
Instructor: Deborah Bayles
Email: deborah_bayles@cuesta.edu
This is a 9-week course that meets 100% online via the Cuesta Canvas Learning Management System. Two course modules with their associated reading and homework will be covered each week.
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students will achieve the following Student Learning Outcomes:
1. Review and identify e-commerce sites that demonstrate best practices in selling physical products.
2. Design an e-commerce business plan for a fictitious company that sells physical products.
3. Analyze the target market, competitors' offerings to that target, and types of products that will create a competitive advantage.
4. Evaluate product sourcing solutions and differentiate traditional supply chains from Internet value chains.
5. Create a simple product catalog with pricing, SKUs and descriptions and solve the issues of product ordering, fulfillment, shipping, and delivery.
6. Apply the concepts of social media marketing to promote the product offerings and provide support through forums.
7. Discuss how customer service and CRM will be approached, how product returns will be handled; and how extranets will be best utilized.
Course Prerequisites
An understanding of basic business, which can be gained through the introductory courses offered by the Business Education division, would be very helpful. Learners should take BUS 130: Introduction to E-Commerce course, BUS 132: E-Commerce Information Products, or BUS 243 (Marketing) and BUS 131: Social Media Marketing to be thoroughly prepared for this course.
Textbooks
Technical Requirements
I realize this is stating the obvious, but you must have access to a computer, an email account, and a reliable Internet connection. You must have a backup plan should your system or your Internet provider fail, as technological problems not related to me or to Canvas are your problem. It is essential that you understand the basic concepts of email, web navigation, computer security including firewalls, cookies, trusted sites, and online communication to succeed in this course.
It is strongly recommended that you obtain a flash drive to store your work and also investigate another location (e.g. another computer/flash, email) to save an additional copy of your files in case of mishap.
There is a very useful page of information about distance education at Cuesta. You can find it here. In particular, you will want to view the FAQ page which provides some assistance with the technical side of distance ed (for ex. suggested minimum system requirements, how to get technical assistance, etc).
The Nature of the Course
Cuesta's Canvas Site Login Information
Go to the Cuesta Canvas site: https://canvas.instructure.com and login:
- The Login name matches your my.cuesta login name: firstname_lastname.
- The Default Canvas password is: Changeme1. You will be forced to change your password the first time you login.
- If you have any technical problems, please email support@my.cuesta.edu for assistance.
Course Pacing and First Week Requirements
The pacing of the course is very intense --a regular 18-week semester course is condensed to 9 weeks. The lectures will become available to you on a regular basis, one module at a time – one module will be released on Tuesday and one module on Friday of each week. Previously covered material, of course, will always be available to you. But for your benefit, as well as mine, I want to keep things moving at a manageable pace and keep everyone in the class at approximately the point. So, within each section of material you will be able to set your own pace to a great extent, but the timing of moving from section to section will be set by me. You will need to complete all necessary material by those dates in order to perform adequately in the course.
Please be prepared to spend 8 - 12 hours per week on coursework for this class.
You will be required to log on to the course site several times a week, so do not plan to work on this course only on the weekends. Also, I am able to contact you only via your Cuesta email prior to the start of the course, so please check your Cuesta email regularly in the week before school starts and the week that school starts for updates or questions.
Once the course begins on the first day of class, log in immediately to the Course Canvas site and post your introduction.
If I do not see your introduction posted and evidence of your having logged on and started downloading and printing out the materials by the fifth day of the semester, you will be dropped from the course, and your space will be taken by someone else who is waiting to add the class. Also, review all of the materials on the course site and be ready to begin working on the class assignments in Module One.
PLEASE NOTE: Class attendance is determined by on-time participation in Module Discussions. If you do not post before the deadline in a Module (deadlines are clearly stated) or you miss two consecutive Discussions then you will be deemed absent from the class and may be dropped. Please check the site DAILY for news and updates about exams and assignments.
Disabled Students
School Policy
Each student is required to follow all school guidelines and comply with all school deadlines including personal responsibility for adding and/or dropping this class. Each student is responsible for obtaining updates or changes to the syllabus and/or assignments for the course.
If you have any additional questions prior to the first day of class, please feel free to e-mail me. I look forward to working with you!