UofM Used Textbook Ordering System (UMUTOS) will be a platform that allows users to buy and sell used textbooks. It will provide a more convenient and faster way for users to complete their used textbook transaction, through gathering and integrating used textbook information.
UMUTOS is designed primarily as a platform for UofM students, instructors and all the other staffs who want to transact their used textbooks. Those people can be both sellers and customers.
Sellers can post their inventories with detailed information (title, quality, price, author, images, etc.) by one simple step, UMUTOS will provide the information for each posted textbook. Before textbooks sold, sellers can manage their inventories, update textbooks information or delete their posting. After textbooks sold, sellers can only view the selling history. Customer can rate on sellers that they made transaction with, each seller’s reputation would be an important factor for customers making decision.
Customers are able to view a list of all selling textbooks on the main page of UMUTOS. They can find book by its categories, sort the list by price (ascending or descending order) or sellers’ rate. Also, they can easily find out their desired textbooks by merely searching its title, author or related course ID. If the desired book is not currently available, customers can add those textbooks to their wish lists, UMUTOS will notify sellers the most needed textbooks. Besides, customers can view detail information of each textbook and add the textbook they want to the shopping cart. Customers could place an order in the shopping cart after they add all desired books. Additionally, customers can view their transaction histories, and rate the seller after the transaction.
This system will be a significant benefit to university students. Comparing with traditional bookstores, UMUTOS is not limited by space and therefore can provide an infinite number of books to select. UMUTOS simplifies purchase procedure, allowing customers to make purchases wherever they are. It also introduced many efficient ways for customers easily find a book. Such as searching its title, author or shop by book subjects. What’s more, UMUTOS offers both sellers and customers the opportunity to view feedbacks from previous customers. These feedbacks can provide a reference to customers of the seller's reputation and guide them during the selection.
To be considered as successful, UMUTOS should achieve the following criteria. Firstly, the majority (i.e., over a half) of potential users should prefer to buy and sell used textbooks on UMUTOS rather than physical bookstore on campus. This comparison will be conducted by counting customers flow in the physical bookstore and on UMUTOS. Secondly, we will also analyze the used textbook inventory of physical bookstore and UMUTOS, that is, users should be more comfortable to find the used textbook that they want on UMUTOS. Thus, the stock of different kinds of used textbooks on UMUTOS should be larger (i.e., over two times) than the physical bookstore. Lastly, during each year, the number of new registered users should be larger than twenty percent of the number of overall students on campus.