Ecommerce Solution - Software & Articles

Just got enquiry to build online shop, as you see there, the ideal solution of this is Oscommerce, because most of the requirements already existing in oscommerce and its addons.

Main requirements:

Front end/Home page

• Customisable welcome content, special offers, news and featured items on home page
  
• Self managed content pages i.e. news, about us, articles, delivery info etc. to form navigation
• Product category navigation which allows sub-categories
• Log-in and shopping cart links
  
• Add to favourites link
  
• Bread-crumb trail so customers can link back to where they came from
  
• Product search by item number, name or keyword
  
• Some kind of animation to catch the eye – definitely animated logo but perhaps a showcase for the boxes?
  
• Gift Finder – simple tool to be devised – possibly organised by age/sex/price
  

Categories Navigation

• Each category can have subcategories shown perhaps as a rollover
  
• Products to crossover into different categories
  

Product pages

• Product personalisation field
  
• Optional second personalisation field (include personalised date or message on certain items too)
  
• Customisable product options in drop down format (or something better) i.e. colour, style, wording, size…
  
• 2 levels of product information (i.e. More info)
  
• Buy now button on level 1 info as well as level 2
  
• Quantity option
  
• thumbnail, larger and zoom-in images
  
• Landscape or even wider format images if required
  
• Ability to show colour alternatives images – best option would be colour swatches with rollovers that change the image???
  
• Ability to show usual price and special offer price
  
• Products can be attributed to numerous categories to allow cross over
  
• Show 3-4 related products unique to each item
  
• Options for wish-list and email a friend
  
• Show the number of pages in the category (i.e. not have to scroll down on each page)
• Show items that are out of stock so users can seek be informed when item is available?
• Ability to turn products ‘on’ and ‘off’
  

Shopping cart

• View Basket and Check out option links available throughout site
  
• Show check out process and whereabouts you are in the trail
  
• Customer registration as standard using Find Address tool
• Basic data capture in Registration i.e. Ages and birthdays of children/relatives to be stored for later use i.e. birthday reminder emails.
• Standard ability to update quantities, clear cart, continue shopping etc..
• Visually seamless integrated payment system using Protx or possibly Worldpay that allows for major credit cards and Switch
• Ability to defer payment to ensure that items are stocked before a transaction goes through
• Various shipping options i.e. 1st class, standard or next day – not actually required at this stage but should be an option
• Option of gift wrapping according to weight at checkout
• Gift sending and message as standard option in checkout
• Shipping according to predefined combined product weight parameters
• Related products during check out process
  
• System emails to customer and store owner relating to order confirmation and failure (see below)
  
• Customer questionnaire at end of transaction process
  
• Promotional codes options  

User experience flow TBC1.     Customer confirms order and completes transaction at checkout section of site and is prompted to fill in simple feedback questionnaire.
2.     Customer automatically receives Order Pending email that confirms items purchased and postage and payment method and let’s customer know that they will be emailed once the item has been dispatched.
3.     Back End sends email to Site Owner confirming payment received and detailing customer info, items purchased, gift options, other comments
4.     Double check payment and that stock is available.
5.     If item unavailable or payment declined contact customer either by phone/email to rectify the matter.
6.     We fulfil order as soon as possible and update status of item to Dispatched on the system.
7.     Customer automatically receives Order Dispatched email confirming that the item has been dispatched and the transaction has been approved.
8.     Customer can view order history in the account section of the web site.
9.     Customer receives quarterly (?) email detailing new products, special offers and asking about feedback

Admin area

• Simple and clear user interface
  
• Different administrator levels
  
• Easy to add, amend and update products, categories and options
  
• Ability to view settings, administrators, customer info, orders, products
  
• View transaction information
  
• Customisable printable invoice/delivery note/labels (to be used as a gift message tool?)
  
• Customer newsletter??
  
• Reporting on site stats and as much as possible on product sales – i.e. monthly best sellers etc.
  

Design

• Animated logo
• Customised animated header for different seasons i.e. Christmas, Easter, Sale season
• Twinkling flower gifs
•  Any other new design elements that might work 
  

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Have you considered becoming an e-commerce entrepreneur but not yet have a web site? Maybe you already have a brick and mortar business and have expanded into e-commerce as a way to develop your customer base. Maybe you are an e-commerce entrepreneur and already have a web presence. Whether you are in business or not, anyone who has a serious desire about entering into e-commerce must have a web page (unless you sell on e-Bay). Sure, there are hundreds of ISP’s that offer on-the-fly template models that make it easy for business entrepreneurs to put up an e-commerce page within minutes. This model is great for those who might not be able to afford a dynamic, custom design web page but it comes with major drawbacks that must be taken into consideration before before choosing to go this route:

1. Limited design templates and customization: depending on how large the template base is, your current or intended ISP might not offer a large enough template selection to ensure, somewhat, that your web site will be unique. Sure you can customize certain aspects of the templates with a banner or icon and most don’t require HTML knowledge, but for all intents and purposes, templates tend not to be designed to be changed (this is why they are templates). Imagine being one among dozens of other like-minded e-commerce entreprenuers who chose the same template. While the Internet might be big enough to obscure your template from your competitors’ own copy, this rationale might undermine the whole basis for having a web site in the first place: greater exposure and uniqueness. If you are selling similar products then what’s to distinguish your site from theirs?
2. Limited e-commerce capacity: Most e-commerce ISP packages try to “wow” potential customers with offers such as complementary Paypal integration. However, not everyone is a Paypal fan or customer (although your customers no longer need to be Paypal members to process payments) and if this is the only option for payment, you might turn away potential customers who are wary about Paypal. Almost since its creation, Paypal has also been plagued by a reputation of being unfriendly with its own Paypal account holders. Without getting into details which might prejudice your consideration of Paypal, consider doing your homework before deciding. Not to be too harsh on Paypal, this service does offer attractive incentives for entrepreneurs who have a tight budget by offering low-cost transaction fees and a free payment gateway that does not require a merchant account.  A safer and cost-effective route is to seek out “pay-for-play” merchant account companies that will charge slightly higher transaction fees and nominal payment gateways in return for processing limited transactions. As your e-commerce business grows and begin to process a higher volume of orders, you can upgrade to higher tiers that charge less expensive fees per transaction. Your money will be deposited into your bank account within 48 hours.
3. More comprehensive ISP’s will offer shopping cart software such as OsCommerce (OsC) that have the potential for being designed uniquely, but unless you are a programmer or you contract a programmer, you might not be able to move away from the typical one-dimensional “OsCommerce look.” OsCommerce is robust, dynamic, and most importantly FREE. However, it lacks dedicated customer support (there is no 800 number to call for help) and most users must rely on blog sites to get technical support from peer OsCommerce users. Most ISP’s that I have seen will offer OsCommerce “as is” but will not provide technical support if you get into a snag. OsCommerce is compatible with major payment gateways which allow site owners increased flexibility in changing payment gateways whenever they want.
4. Bottom line, consider all viable options and do your research before deciding to go with any payment or shopping cart options offered by your ISP.

For those of you who can afford to invest in an e-commerce venture, you might still consider the above observations as a matter of cost-feasibility (affordability) but it might not be cost-effective (worth your money for a slightly higher investment for a longer term benefit). If you can afford to hire a web site designer, then this is the most cost-effective route compared to settling on cookie cutter templates. If you want to stand out and not be afraid of being typical, then going custom is the way to go. Consider web searching for sites that sell similar products. Look at their sites, do they look like professional designs or do they look sophomoric? How many of your potential competitors use cartoonish .gif designs, flashy banners, and visually painful advertisement banners or pop-ups? Would you buy from places like these? I wouldn’t.

Being in control over whom you hire to design a web site to your specifications will definitely boost your chances of standing out among your competitors. If you go with OsCommerce then don’t settle on the standard OsC template either, inject creativity into it and demand this from your web designer. A web designer worth a dime might ask some general questions, be hard to track down, be unresponsive, and maybe do an OK job. A professional web designer worth a dollar will ask pointed questions about what you have in mind, what kind of products or services you intend to sell, what kind of “feeling” you want to convey through your web site (really, I’m not kidding), and what kind of transactions, if any, need to be processed. S/he will be efficient, responsive, trustworthy, and creative. If you build rapport with your professional web designer then this might be the beginning of a long-term professional relationship, thus becoming the technical support you’re your web site needs.

Your web site is a reflection of his/her work, thus s/he has an invested interest in keeping you happy and your site running. Remember that “word of mouth” marketing is the best advertisement for your professional designer. If your designer is proud of his/her work, he/she will want to display it prominently on his/her web site, thus exposing your site to a larger audience as an added bonus. If s/he deserves recognition, reward him/her with positive referrals and reviews whenever you get emails from potential customers who contact you about the web designer.

Not to template is a matter of survival. Stand out, be unique, go with what’s right in your mind and heart, and be proud of what is ultimately created. Make your web site YOUR web site and not your ISP’s.

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Templatemonster dot com sales a range of oscommerce templates, they are really nice designed, but when it comes to integration you would find them not compatiable with your own customized Oscommerce package. The problem is that they were not created for  STS template usage, all graphics and styles placed in defauld header.php, fotter.php and boxes. If you ever used STS template you would get what I’m talking about.

The alternative for oscommerce skin, is to create design for it in photoshop, then cut it to html, then easily integrate into your STS Template.

Even those commercial templates could come in your help, you can use their styles, and graphics but converted in your template format.

I’m thinking to open a section on this website, where we can share nice STS template with community. 

Advantages of STS template is opportunity to change your website design easily, since you edit only one file insted several php files.

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I captured this picture on my way to home, its new built AMAY business shopping center, which is still under construction, its going to be the biggest commercial center in Azerbaijan, possible even the biggest one among former Soviet republics. The “A.M.A.Y.”, located near a station(underground) “Ganjlik” about 12 years, used to be one of the objects of trade most popular in Baku.

The name of this business market associated with the first letters of the initials of its owners. However on command of time for change to the ware markets more modern, civilized form of trade which high service translates mutual relations of buyers and sellers on a new, better level comes. Henceforth the market center has changed the status, becoming shopping center ” A.M.A.Y. “. The large object of trade not only has changed the address, having placed nearby to station of underground “Khatai “, but also has found the new person.

Today’s “A.M.A.Y.” is respectable 7 the floor shopping center erected on the area in 2 hectares. The building both outside, and from within is decorated by a national ornament, and from the ceilings divided into three sections, spreeds soft light of our three-colored flag. On a ground floor it is planned to establish two fountains. About scales of the project speak such facts: the center has 12 inputs-outputs, 28 passenger and goods lifts, 12 escalators. Throughput of this trading complex will be estimated in thousand buyers, here there will be a underground garage on 2 thousand machines. According to director of Open Society ” A.M.A.Y. ” Novruz Abazarova, all the businessmen had the shops at former fair, certainly, on the basis of contracts from Open Society will be provided by the equivalent trading area in a new building. Let’s note, that the market center located near of station of underground “Genjlik”, totaled the order of 360 shops. The majority of owners of shops leased them. Director of the “A.M.A.Y.” has informed also the important fact: ” the Administration of the enterprise has decided to release in first two months businessmen from payment for municipal services, having taken these charges on “.In turn, owners of shops within the limits of the given presentation period not begin to keep for rent from the tenants. Let’s note, that in a building the business center in which offices of company ” A.M.A.Y. ” will be placed also is stipulated. Besides the complex includes a conference hall, set of cafe, restaurants, the entertaining center for children, grocery supermarkets, etc. In opinion of our interlocutor, in region while there is no analogue this shopping center.

As if to quantity of the workplaces created here this parameter will be made over 7 thousand by person (at former fair 3 thousand) worked. It is necessary to add, that the building of a complex is calculated on 9,5 points steadiness and erected with participation of 1200 local builders within six months. Construction of last floors now comes to the end. And already in the near future “A.M.A.Y.” will open its doors.

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