Software Development Processes

Question: Discuss about theSoftware Development Processes. Answer: Introduction Today in the 21st century most of our lives are internet based and we depend on it. Thus, there are also various options to do business over the internet. Now there are various options to run an online store. Shopify.com and Vendhq.com are one solution to our e-commerce needs which runs several online stores all in one place. Choosing the right kind of online store can have a similar effect on a business while choosing physical store's location. But it is not the final say in the online business but it does have a huge effect on the business. The online e-commerce store can boost a business or might paralyze it. Shopify Shopify is a group of hosted e-commerce site which comprises of every product needed by us. It also provides information how to set up an online shop and how to start selling products so that we can easily do it on our own. It is kind of building something we need and being the contractor of it ourselves. Everything less is in our control just the basic expertise used is that of Shopify so that the project can be implemented precisely(Park, Gu and Lee, 2012). As with most of the services at our disposal, Shopify does have its own advantages and also disadvantages. The main competitors of Shopify are Volusion and BigCommerce as all these three are hosted e-commerce sites but also competes with the other non-turnkey solutions as well. Shopify integrates and competes with e-commerce marketplaces such as eBay, Etsy, Amazon, etc(Park, Gu and Lee, 2012). Shopify does have a buy button which allows us to use it as a point of sale or inventory option. Thus, these enable us to buy products from anywhere with the help of online sources like Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, WordPress Blog, etc(WordPress for Business Bloggers, 2008). Now, with the recent turn of events, mobile point of sale or mPOS is an important platform on which all e commerce sites rely on for most of their transactions. Shopify has also kept up in the game and have created their mobile point of sale. Advantages of using mPOS of Shopify There is no such thing as best choice, there can be right choice depending on the objectives and resources which are at our disposal. The main criteria for a good online store are its speed and the security we have from its hosting servers as it is the question of processing credits cards through it. It is seen that every tenth of a second a customer has to wait for a page to load the chances increase for them to leave that site. There are many stores which outsource their payments to third-party vendors such as Google wallet or PayPal(Hristoski and Mitrevski, 2016). But the mPOS of Shopify is the one-in-one solution to all these as the customers do not have to worry about caching, compliance or hackers which mainly plague the online stores. The Shopify app is screaming fast. Shopify does have one of the best customer support and the marketing of it is top notch. Shopify does not ignore these key features and their development team is always working on bringing new developers, develo ping new apps to solve problems. For Shopify, the app store is a great induction in its services(Hristoski and Mitrevski, 2016). The mobile app has also enabled the users to access the online store easily without much difficulty at all times. While accessing the site can be a tiring and extensive method for most customers, the presence of a mobile app means that customers can access the store whenever they wish to. Disadvantages of Using Shopify Mobile App Every platform is not perfect so is the Shopify app itself. Shopify claims that these initial kicker goes away as the business grows but it does become a barrier for Shopify at entry level. Hacking into customization is one such case of disadvantage(Ghose and Sundararajan). Shopify uses some unique setup to customize themes using PHP for the templates. It becomes annoying for those who prefers to tweak something without going for full customization. Shopify Jargon is one such problematic area where they kind of use some terms which are not used by many for instance use of "collection" over "category"(Ghose and Sundararajan). Also, the app leads the customers to always keep their accounts open which may cause a lot of security issues for the customers as well as the organization itself. Vend Vend was created in 2010 by Vaughan Roswell which was first of its kind retail web-based POS using offline cache capabilities and HTML5. These features make Vend totally hardware independent. Although Vend being totally cloud-based, it can still operate in times of internet outrage. Thus these are the best of HTML5 which can save most of the data and POS app mirror copy(Hagino, 2011). Not only the offline features are the points to talk about, Vend is comprised of an impressive management system which features in-store as well as online capabilities. They have an extensive list of integrated third party software and thus being a good competitive retail management platform(Wei Zhang, 2005). Vend have also created their smartphone apps which is a necessity in the current era. Advantages of Vend app Pricing is one of the biggest advantages that Vend have at its disposal. They offer free 30 days trial subscription package. In comparison to other "Point of Sale" platforms they do not have any contract and the subscription fees can be paid monthly and if the annual fees are prepaid then there is a discount on the monthly prices(Lawley and Birch, 2016). The service of Vend is locally installed or cloud based. All the operations occur with HTML5 compatible web browser and if there is a network failure then operations run locally till the problem gets resolved. For retail operators of all stripes, Vend is suitable, but hospitality management and service might lacking features. There are no limits to the number of the store a business can have, thus the users range from large chains to small stores as well(Lawley and Birch, 2016). Disadvantage of using Vend Vend is easy to use but there are some features which are standard in other platforms but are lacking here. There is no purchase order support which is a rare sight in online Point of sale. This should be built in functionality as the product sold has to be shipped(Positive behaviour support has financial advantages, 2015). Since the vend app does not have a support for location, the shipping is a kind of a problem for the organization. The technical support costs are also above par. Customers feel satisfied with support offerings and all the other Point of sale systems does provide 24/7 support with their each and every plan. Thus if Vend wishes to be competitive in the sector then they might have a better look at this section of their service(Positive behaviour support has financial advantages, 2015). Conclusion If one tends to grow and is looking for all-in-one e-commerce platform then Shopify is the good option available in the market. Whereas Vend does not have all the huge features which its counterparts do offer but have geographically further reach and are very much focused on the retail sector. References Ghose, A. and Sundararajan, A. (n.d.). Evaluating Pricing Strategy Using eCommerce Data: Evidence and Estimation Challenges.SSRN Electronic Journal. Hagino, T. (2011). HTML5.The Journal of The Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers, 65(4), pp.467-470. Hristoski, I. and Mitrevski, P. (2016). 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