The Establishment of Second-hand Goods
Trading Platform of Darwin
Name： DAHUZHU
Student number： S306455
Group： Friday
Date： 15/08/2018
Page of Content
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................ 1
OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................................ 1
REASONS/BUSINESS OBJECTIVES OF THIS PROPOSAL................................................................................ 1
PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT ................................................................................................................ 2
EXPECTED BENEFITS/CURRENT SITUATION AND MARKET OPPORTUNITIES ................. 2
MARKET ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................................... 2
SWOT ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................................................... 3
OUTPUT ANALYSIS .................................................................................................................................... 3
PROJECT REQUIREMENTS .................................................................................................................. 4
COSTS ......................................................................................................................................................... 5
MAJOR RISKS ........................................................................................................................................... 5
TIMESCALE............................................................................................................................................... 6
MAJOR MILESTONES OF THE PROJECT: ...................................................................................................... 6
GANTT CHART........................................................................................................................................... 7
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................... 7
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................ 8
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Executive summary
The main reason for developing a Second-Hand Goods Trading Platform of Darwin (SGTPD) is
to cut down on the unnecessary waiting time, thus increasing the efficiency of buying and selling
used goods. SGTPD consists of a website and mobile applications for i.
5. people who pay and finish the deal. The Platform can consider
to purchase those items posted more
than three days according to the condition of these products and
deliver it to the warehouse where
they continue displayed to waiting for potential buyer online or
at the warehouse. Although
delivery service and warranty are offered for those items sold
from the warehouse to increase the
chance of making a successful deal, the price would be slightly
increased as well.
The target of the market is people who live in Darwin,
especially those people who are poor in
time and make a sale or purchase as soon as possible. The
market for used products has shown an
increase in the amount of people involved and the values of
items traded, and therefore the market
is stable and the introduction of SGTPD will attract a decent
number of customers.
Project requirements, detailed cost information and major risks
are listed below in each section
respectively. The amount of time the project will take is around
five months, including the
developing of website and mobile applications, as well as the
integration of the SGTPD. The total
6. cost of the project will be up to approximately $49,000, with the
majority of expenses coming
from labour’s wage.
Overview
Reasons/Business objectives of this proposal
The disposition of second-hand goods has been an issue of each
household and business company.
It is not eco-friendly and uneconomic to throw used goods with
great condition away, therefore
people in Darwin tend to sell used goods out to other people
who need it no matter online, or at a
garage sale. In the meanwhile, some people are willing to
purchase used goods due to its lower
price. The increasing demand of the trading of used goods of
people and the expectation of less
trading time make it possible to introduce a specialized platform
for Darwin.
People tend to visit markets or post information on Facebook or
Gumtree to collect or sell items
online. However, there is no comprehensive platform for selling
and buying used items without
quality and safety concerns. People often fail to purchase used
7. items as their please because no
products available online or at market. Second-hand Goods
Trading Platform of Darwin (SGTPD),
providing web service, mobile application service and a big
warehouse, would allow communities
in Darwin to trade freely without the concern of time and space
restrictions. The project would
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also allow for the possible of new job positions created for a
small number of people who deal
with second-hand goods to make a living.
The expected outputs are:
• The ability to follow the schedule
• Senior software engineer to check the integrity of SGTPD
• Software engineer/Database engineer/Web designer/Technical
assistants.
8. Performance measurement
The key performance measurement indicators are:
• An increase number of customers.
• A reduction of the amount time needed for a specific trade.
• An increase number of new and repeat site visits
• An increase number of SGTPD application downloaded
• An increase customer satisfaction.
Expected Benefits/Current situation and market opportunities
Market analysis
Nowadays, the number of used goods in each family increased
due to the fact that people prefer to
buy second-hand products rather than new, not only can they
save cash on new purchases but also
contribute to the environmental protection by reusing and
recycling unwanted items. According to
the 2018 Second Hand Economy Report, Australia’s second-
hand market is now estimated to be
9. worth a whopping $34 billion, with almost 100 million used
goods were sold in the last 12 months.
The needs of selling used goods out to offset the cost of
replacing a new one also increased because
around 56% Australians have sold items in 2017, with an
average 11 items sold per person. This
has prompted the establishment to develop localized second-
hand trading platforms with user-
friendly functions such as small item insurance and money back
guarantee to positively contribute
to the development of the second-hand economy in Darwin.
It is obvious that the future of the industry is stable, as many
Australians are turning to the second-
hand economy and making it work by collecting their unwanted
items and selling them online or
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at markets. Moreover, the user-friendly functions such as
delivery, insurance and money back
guarantee make the trading platform more competitive than
others because trust and safety
10. concerns can be reduced dramatically.
SWOT analysis
Strengths:
1. Services such as delivery, money back
guarantee and insurance attract more
people
2. Allows customers doing business
without barriers
3. Fewer staffs needed
4. Creating relevant job positions
Weaknesses:
1. Small market scope (only in Darwin)
2. Less likely return within the first year
3. Less business-running experience
11. compared to competitors
4. Less funds
Opportunities:
1. The increasing number of people
turning to second-hand economy
2. Long lifespan used products are
popular among people
3. More people are certain what items in
their household are worthwhile selling
4. A great number of Darwin people are
still use board to disperse selling
information
Threats:
1. Existed competitors with big market
share
2. Competitors may offer similar
services
12. 3. Possible injury to staff during delivery
4. Safety concerns of warehouse
Output analysis
The market of SGTPD is primarily that of people who living in
Darwin, especially those people
who want to make a quick trade of used products will be
originally attracted by SGTPD when the
platform established. However, the market also includes
potential customers who currently use
Facebook and Gumtree to collect and sell items as their priority.
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The more people turning into the member of SGTPD, the more
convenient for people to make a
deal with the assistance of a warehouse. This is because the
selling time dramatically reduced with
13. the help of platform which is popular among sellers, and
therefore attracting more potential
customers. People can sell used goods with good condition
quickly, and the less popular items may
display on warehouse as well as SGTPD website to wait next
buyer.
Since SGTPD is a totally new platform to be developed that
only works for Darwin, the project
may face issues that comes from the development of website
and mobile applications. For example,
first version of website and applications are less likely to offer
customers user-friendly operating
experience due to the lack of customers’ feedbacks.
Project requirements
The requirements needed to carry out this project:
• Approval from relevant authority section to begin design and
develop website and mobile
applications
• Senior software engineer with the ability to work around
developing process
14. • One unit rented as office for staffs to work
• Materials for developing (i.e., Desktops, Specialized software,
etc.)
• Tightly related questionnaires need to contribute to design
section
• Scheduled time for staffs to work
• Detailed plan on how exactly the website and applications will
be developed
The possible assumptions for this project:
• Only those with suitable qualifications will be hired to work
as a team
• Only those desktops with great performance will be bought
• Flyers and posters can be posted around to inform potential
customers the platform to be
released soon
• The plan to convert a unit into an office with excellent
working atmosphere
15. DAHUZHU
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• Relevant research for the decision of warehouse location
The constrains for this project:
• There may be a shortage of qualified labour (i.e., Senior
software engineer)
• The desktops and other materials needed will be available for
purchasing in Darwin or
arrive on time if bought from other places
• Unit converted office may cause lower work efficiency due to
the small space
Costs
The total costs of the project will add up to roughly $49,000 out
of $50,000 given, with the majority
of the costs coming from labour, followed by the expenses on
materials and house rent.
16. Specifically, according to PayScale (2018), the average cost for
labour is approximately $25/hour,
and therefore the amount of money spend on labour is added to
approximately $32,000. The
following large section of the cost comes from the expenses on
desktops, servers, specialized
software and other paid materials, which would add up to about
$8,000. The last section of the
costs would come from the office rent and decorations, with
$450 per week and thus the total
money spend on the office would add up to another $9,000.
Major risks
There are a number of risks involved in the process of the
project, each of them will be identified
and certain solutions will be given to minimize the negative
effects.
• There is a possibility of project delay, which could be caused
by the heavy workloads that
software engineers fail to manage, and therefore takes longer
time than expected to finish
and goes over the budget as a result. This risk could be
dramatically minimized by setting
17. strict schedules to follow. Staffs must follow the schedule when
the project is in process,
any work delay must be patched as soon as possible.
• Due to the fact that the majority of tasks will be taken by the
assistance of computers,
there is definitely a risk of data crash either caused by the crash
of a certain software or a
computer crash. Setting up a redundancy or using data backup
process could reduce the
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possibility of data crash occurrence and thus keep data safe.
Two ways can be adopted
simultaneously to ensure the safety of data if possible.
• There is a potential risk of leakage of project information.
Everything either detailed
project design information or the process of the project should
not be disclosed to the
18. public. This is because the negative effects caused by
competitors if they release new
versions of substitutes with new features that we own faster.
The risk of information
leakage could be minimized by writing relevant confidentiality
policies or standards in the
contract.
• The feasibility and flexibility of design is key to the success
of project, and therefore low-
quality design is a risk. A possible solution for the low-quality
design is to increase the
number of designers and receive user’s feedback through
questionnaire.
• External forces such as laws, regulations and markets could be
a risk to the project’s
success. The whole project could fail if the process touches
compliance-sensitive
processes regulatory. The risk could be minimized by setting
relevant strict regulations to
follow.
Timescale
19. The amount of time that the project will take to complete
estimated to approximately five months.
It is an estimate according to Bill Erickon’s article, in which he
states that a typical website will
take 14 weeks at a minimum from start to launch. This includes
2 weeks discovery, 3 weeks design,
3 weeks design revision, 3 weeks initial development and 3
weeks of modifications. A mobile
application can be developed from scratch to the release point
in about three to four months, which
is estimated by Bartosz Bielecki. So, the development of mobile
applications can be done
simultaneously by another small group of software engineers.
However, the estimated amount of
time takes to finish the developing of website and mobile
applications of project is roughly 14
weeks, six more weeks are given for marketing, integration of
SGTPD, other preparations as well
as the offset the risks of unexpected delay.
Major milestones of the project:
• Project approval
20. • Establish a schedule
• Hire qualified staffs (senior software engineer, software
engineers, Database engineer,
Web designer, and Technical assistants)
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• Begin the developing of website and mobile applications
• Finished the developing of website and mobile applications
• Lease a warehouse
• Finished the integration of SGTPD
• Release the first version of SGTPD
Gantt Chart
21. Conclusion
In conclusion, the establishment of SGTPD will approximately
take five months to complete, with
roughly $49,000 out of $50,000 spent on the whole project. The
release of SGTPD will positively
contribute to the prosperity of the second-hand economy of
Darwin.
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31/05/2019
Project approval
Market research
Material preparation
Establishing schedule
Hire staffs
Debrief staffs on project and project planning
Begin the website and application developing section
Complete the deveoping section
Lease warehouse
Integration of SGTPD
22. Launch SGTPD
Start Period
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References
Gumtree. (2018). 2018 Second Hand Economy Report.
Retrieved from
https://www.gumtree.com.au/second-hand-economy/
Bill Erickon. (2016). How long does it take to build a website?
Retrieved from
https://www.billerickson.net/how-long-does-it-take-to-build-a-
website/
Bartosz Bielecki. (2018). How long does it take to develop a
mobile app? Retrieved from
https://insanelab.com/blog/mobile-development/how-long-does-
it-take-to-develop-
mobile-app/
23. PayScale. (2018). Salary Data & Career Research Center
(Australia). Retrieved from
https://www.payscale.com/research/AU/Country=Australia/Salar
y
https://www.gumtree.com.au/second-hand-economy/
https://www.billerickson.net/how-long-does-it-take-to-build-a-
website/
https://insanelab.com/blog/mobile-development/how-long-does-
it-take-to-develop-mobile-app/
https://insanelab.com/blog/mobile-development/how-long-does-
it-take-to-develop-mobile-app/
https://www.payscale.com/research/AU/Country=Australia/Salar
y
