| Abstract: | In the bachelor’s thesis, we examined the field of e-commerce with a particular focus on the dropshipping business model and its implementation using the Wix platform. In the theoretical part, we first presented the fundamental characteristics of online stores, their development, key elements, and contemporary trends in e-commerce. We also examined the legal framework governing online sales in the Republic of Slovenia and highlighted the main requirements that had to be considered when conducting online business. Particular attention was paid to e-commerce optimization, including search engine optimization (SEO), user experience (UX), and user interface (UI), as these factors had an important impact on the visibility of an online store, user satisfaction, and the effectiveness of the purchasing process. We then presented contemporary trends in the development of online sales, with particular emphasis on the use of artificial intelligence, business process automation, mobile commerce, and personalization of the user experience. We examined the dropshipping business model in greater detail, including its operation, development, advantages, challenges, and the importance of selecting suitable products and reliable suppliers. We then focused on modern platforms for building online stores and analyzed the Wix platform in more detail, including its functionalities, advantages, limitations, localization options, subscription plans, and supporting applications. Among the applications intended for implementing the dropshipping business model, we selected Modalyst for the practical part.
In the practical part, we used a combination of analysis and experimentation to evaluate the suitability of the Wix platform for the quick and simple establishment of a dropshipping online store and the effectiveness of its integrated artificial intelligence tools. For the purposes of the experiment, we designed a fictional online store called Cartoon-Land, intended for the sale of plush toys, and prepared the basic structure of the website, which included a landing page, product catalogue, product pages, a contact page, a shopping cart, and a checkout page. We tested the process of selecting and customizing a template, managing products with Wix Stores, connecting the store with Modalyst and AliExpress, and importing and editing products. During the development of the online store, we also used several artificial intelligence tools, including Aria, AI Store Builder, AI Product Images, and AI Text Creator, and evaluated their usefulness in preparing textual and visual content and adjusting website elements. We found that Wix enabled us to establish a technically and visually adequate online store for the selected business model relatively quickly and without advanced programming knowledge. Our cost analysis showed that the initial entry into the business model was relatively affordable, although paid subscriptions and additional services were required to access all functionalities necessary for actual business operations. The tested artificial intelligence tools accelerated the development of the online store and reduced the amount of manual work, but we found that their outputs still had to be reviewed and, where necessary, adjusted. Among the main limitations, we identified restricted customization options for certain elements, incomplete localization, occasionally slower user interface performance, and the inability to carry out an actual payment and complete the full ordering process when using the free subscription plan. |
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