Shop Systems
Overview & Introduction
Future graduates of our E-Commerce programme will find a wide range of fields of activity in the working world, regardless of whether they wish to pursue a career in consulting, in the implementation of e-commerce projects or in management responsibility within a larger corporation. Although all these fields of activity are very different from each other, they all have a common goal: the sale of goods and/or services via Internet services. At the heart of this sales process, there is always a kind of shop system.
This area of specialisation now looks at the planning/design, implementation and operation of shop systems from various perspectives all relevant for practice, but without the desire to overemphasise individual aspects. So, within the three courses of this area of specialisation, you will be able to build solid specialist competences in the following focus areas:
- Types of shop systems, their range of application as well as strengths and weaknesses
- Data and the management of required data
- Integration possibilities and interfaces
- Measurement and evaluation of the technical and commercial performance
- Performance optimisation measures
Structure of the specialisation area:
This area of specialisation consists of one specialisation seminar (usually in the summer semester) and two specialisation modules (one in the summer, one in the winter semester).
Specialisation 1: Shop Systems
Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Rolf Schillinger
Description
Almost every transaction in e-commerce is based on a shop system. When online trading began, shop systems were operated by the traders themselves to sell their goods directly.
Today, however, a complex network of marketplaces, (price) search engines, marketing networks and the associated online shops has developed, in which the boundaries between the individual systems often become blurred. In order to achieve and maintain the necessary agility in this market environment, it has therefore become indispensable for e-commerce experts to see the big picture of this market and thus recognize that individual shop systems can only be a small fraction of their own online strategy.
A professional e-commerce project today therefore often does not start with the planning of a self-sufficient online shop but with the higher-level planning of data management and integration platforms such as ERP systems and multichannel integration tools for connection to Ebay, Amazon and other large platforms. Only then does the selection of the appropriate types of shop systems follow.
In addition to these planning aspects, this module also gives you the opportunity to set up the various shop system types and integration platforms yourself and test them with requirements from real e-commerce projects.
Having completed the module successfully, you will be able to
- distinguish the most important types of shop systems from each other;
- plan an optimal shop platform based on project requirements;
- set up or book and configure shop systems yourself;
- plan and implement the connection of shop systems to price search engines;
- connect shop systems to several sales channels via multichannel platforms.
Specialisation 2: Operation of Shop Systems
Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Rolf Schillinger
Description
Both the actual shop systems and the associated hosting and caching products and strategies are now relatively technically mature and no longer present shop operators with major technical challenges. E-commerce managers can therefore concentrate on continuously monitoring and optimising the performance of their online shops. To do this, it must first be defined individually for each project by which technical and business key figures the shop system’s performance is characterised. For the collection and analysis of these key figures, suitable measuring methods and evaluations must then be derived, which serve as input for optimisation measures at both technical and commercial level.
In this environment, our E-Commerce graduates assume an interface role, as they are as familiar with the commercial side of online commerce as they are with its technical and psychological aspects.
Having completed the module successfully, you will be able to
- analyse and evaluate the performance of existing websites from a commercial and technical perspective;
- compare shop performance parameters within the scope of project specifications and select suitable parameters;
- create measurement strategies for the selected parameters;
- identify, evaluate and select suitable performance optimisation measures;
- evaluate the implementation of performance optimisation measures.
Specialisation Seminar
Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Rolf Schillinger
Description
During the specialisation seminar, participants move on two levels. On the technical level, they work out proposals for solutions to current topics in the context of shop systems, which either originate from their own professional environment, cooperation with companies in general or their own interests within the area.
On the academic level, they will hone their skills in transferring research results into implementable solution strategies.
Research projects and bachelor’s theses
For this area, Prof. Dr. Rolf Schillinger offers research projects as well as bachelor’s theses. This specialisation seminar is a perfect starting point for creating ideas.