Green24 Project Website ECT455 E-Commerce Web Site Engineering

Deliverable A Deliverable B Deliverable C Deliverable D Deliverable E Deliverable F Deliverable G

Deliverable B - Business Case Statement Background The Color Purple Art Gallery, located in downtown Dayton, Ohio sells an assortment of African American artwork including original canvas paintings, African artifacts, and miscellaneous gift items. In addition to artwork, the Color Purple Art Gallery also provides custom picture framing, mini & vertical blinds window treatments and wallpapering. Sole proprietor James Hankins, who has been in business for almost 20 years, has posted increasingly declining sales over the past three years. He attributes this decline to the sagging economy in the Dayton area. Coincidently, two of the area's largest employers are also major base customers of the Color Purple. To expand his consumer base, James has entrusted the services of Green24 to create a web presence to increase its overall market share not only in the Dayton/Cincinnati/Columbus areas but also globally. Business Model Business to Consumer (B2C) Merchant and Services For profit sole proprietorship Revenue generated from online and in-store customers Value Proposition Company A web presence will allow the Color Purple to establish a larger geographical base. An integrated website will serve as a marketing strategy tool such as personalized content and merchandising. Web presence will increase the store's stature in suburban and rural areas of the city Local Artists Will provide an outlet for local African American artists to showcase their art Customers Customers will be able to view merchandise from the comfort of their home. Increase the appreciation of African American art to other cultures Competition The only direct local competition in the area were Black Art Plus, Ms. Millie's and Ollies. All of these businesses went out of business in 2006. The Color Purple would like to attract these customers. Indirect competition includes numerous traditional galleries, framing shops and other interior design service companies. Customer Base 80% African American middle class 35-60 age bracket New homeowners, or those remodeling existing homes. Downtown commuters, workers and the increasing residential base Project Phases Phase 1 A user-friendly storefront will be designed and implemented. An online shopping cart application will be developed so that customers can shop at the Color Purple from anywhere around the world 24/7. This phase will catalog paintings currently on display in the physical store gallery. Phase 2 Integrate additional services provided by the Color Purple Art Gallery onto the website. Due to the time restrictions of the quarter, this phase will not be included during the course. Phase 3 Virtual matting/framing to enable customers to visualize how a piece of art, mini blind, or vertical will look on a wall or window. Develop online art blog on the website. Contributions L.D. interviewed the business owner and documented the business case Crystal submitted initial ideas for the business case Andy Mentges registered the domain and setup the platform for the site Andrew Yoder added content to the project website Everyone collaborated on the approach and proofread deliverable B