Development of a Scalable E-Commerce Website for Small Businesses
Chahal, Harsh (2025)
2025
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025060520725
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025060520725
Tiivistelmä
The digital resurgence in the retail industry has accelerated in recent years; however, many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) still face significant challenges in adopting scalable and affordable e-commerce platforms. SMEs lacking dedicated IT resources or cost flexibility often find commercial systems prohibitively expensive, overly complex, or insufficiently adaptable. This thesis aimed to design and implement a lightweight, secure, and user-friendly e-commerce infrastructure that small businesses can adopt with minimal technical overhead.
Combining theoretical research with practical implementation, the project followed a functional thesis approach. Theoretical foundations were drawn from literature on user experience design, secure system architecture, and digital commerce trends. Agile methodology enabled iterative development across structured sprints. The technology stack included HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, and Stripe for secure payment processing. All stages were informed by GDPR compliance and usability best practices.
The final prototype includes features such as user registration, product browsing, cart management, secure checkout, and an admin dashboard for inventory control. Stripe’s API was used for tokenized payment processing, ensuring PCI-DSS compliance and data privacy. Performance testing with Google Lighthouse and Apache Bench indicated strong scalability and responsiveness. Usability testing with 10 participants yielded a 93% task success rate and an average satisfaction score of 4.4 out of 5. No personal data was collected or stored, and all ethical protocols related to privacy and transparency were followed.
This project demonstrates how open-source technologies can be used to build professional-grade e-commerce systems tailored to the needs of small businesses. While the system fulfills core business functions effectively, future improvements should address simplified installation and long-term maintenance to support adoption by non-technical users. The solution also lays the groundwork for additional features such as multilingual support, analytics tools, and automated customer engagement systems.
Combining theoretical research with practical implementation, the project followed a functional thesis approach. Theoretical foundations were drawn from literature on user experience design, secure system architecture, and digital commerce trends. Agile methodology enabled iterative development across structured sprints. The technology stack included HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, and Stripe for secure payment processing. All stages were informed by GDPR compliance and usability best practices.
The final prototype includes features such as user registration, product browsing, cart management, secure checkout, and an admin dashboard for inventory control. Stripe’s API was used for tokenized payment processing, ensuring PCI-DSS compliance and data privacy. Performance testing with Google Lighthouse and Apache Bench indicated strong scalability and responsiveness. Usability testing with 10 participants yielded a 93% task success rate and an average satisfaction score of 4.4 out of 5. No personal data was collected or stored, and all ethical protocols related to privacy and transparency were followed.
This project demonstrates how open-source technologies can be used to build professional-grade e-commerce systems tailored to the needs of small businesses. While the system fulfills core business functions effectively, future improvements should address simplified installation and long-term maintenance to support adoption by non-technical users. The solution also lays the groundwork for additional features such as multilingual support, analytics tools, and automated customer engagement systems.