Project Abstract

Used textbooks is an economical and popular trend among college students. This project is going to set up a webpage in which users will be able to register themselves. The user will have an alternative login option using Facebook because Facebook already has a high number of book buyers and sellers. Once registered, the user can login into their book-space. In the book-space they can list out all the courses they are enrolled in for the semester. The web application will utilize SFU API’s to render the complete book-list based on the information provided by the user. The list will appear in the user’s book-space with each element in the list having a “buy/request” button. This will put that particular book in the “Demand” list which will be shown to the users who want to sell that specific book. This way buyers and sellers will be easily matched with minimal effort. Furthermore, the sellers will use the same approach but will instead see the “sell” button. Once a seller post their book, the buyers looking for that particular book will be notified the seller’s name and email address. The seller and buyer can then communicate through private messages and secure themselves a deal. Books will be recommended to the user by faculty and search history to maintain some level of control over the market.

Customer

As the name suggests, this webapp is meant for anyone who intends to buy/sell textbooks for SFU courses. Thus, the target customers are the current undergraduate students and graduate students.

Competitive Analysis

SFU Used Books Sales, Books2go.ca, Abebooks.com, BookFinder.com.

Overview

Students can post books related to SFU courses to sell. Buyers can search these books and contact the seller Allows students to post textbooks and then contact each other for the transaction. Helps people find any book from any bookseller. Ecommerce search engine for searching over 150 million books

Competitive Advantage

Dedicated list of course departments and numbers to provide users with better listing results Students from any Canadian Institution can looks for books here. Advanced Search options with a mature search engine, All sorts of books offered Simple search bar with a huge database of rare, new, used, out-of-print, textbooks etc.

Weakness

Search based on SFU API only. Only SFU students will find it easier to search books. Search of textbooks only based on the University and Book name. Not focus on a group of users(University students). Didn’t provide relative search functions for University Courses Not provide interface to public visitors who don’t have an exact book to search.