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E-COMMERCE
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ONLINE CATALOGS To do business on the Web, you have to allow for immediate gratification. Online catalogs have to be truly online, allowing customers to view your products, read about your products, price your products, and order your products without having to pick up the telephone or leave their chairs. This process must be reliable, secure, and user-friendly. You must solicit responses from customers, process those responses, and react in real time -- whether or not your physical location is open for business. |
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SHOPPING CARTS AND DATABASE INTEGRATION Shopping carts make online catalogs easy for your customers. For little more than the cost of a basic Web site, you can add software to your site that keeps track of your customers' orders and allows them to check out by electronic cash, electronic check, or an online credit card transaction. Database integration allows you to automate shipping and billing, and process orders without retyping what your customer has already typed. Sophisticated systems can even use pipelines to check your supplier's availability of parts or products before processing the order -- all without any input from your staff. |
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ACTIVE SERVER PAGES Microsoft’s answer to real interactivity, Active Server Pages allow for easy integration between online catalogs and your databases, for the rotation of scheduled banner advertising, and for the provision of changing images on your Web site. ASP technology runs only on the Microsoft IIS server, but additional technology from ChiliSoft extends this capability for most other popular servers. |
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FORM AND FUNCTION Even if you don't need an online catalog, forms allow you to collect comments and data from visitors on your Web site, forming the backbone of electronic commerce. Careful form design and server scripting are a must to make data collection truly useful. |
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COOKIES TO FEED YOUR BUSINESS Providing your site with a semblance of memory, cookies free users from having to retype their identification into forms when revisiting you. The information is actually stored on the user’s own machine, but the results can also provide you with valuable feedback on which elements of your site are and are not working. |
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NAVIGATION SYSTEMS User-friendly navigation adds to a customer's comfort and confidence while reinforcing your corporate identity. It can also underscore the message that you want the audience to take away. |
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MULTIMEDIA FOR INFORMATION DELIVERY Ensuring that critical information is delivered leaves nothing to chance or a reader's whims. Used judiciously, multimedia presentations, Java, and HTML extensions can increase your Web site traffic and aid in information comprehension. |
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A MATTER OF STYLE Cascading style sheets and components in Dynamic HTML allow you to control precisely how things look on your page, not only when the page first loads, but also when the user interacts with it. |
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A HOT CUP OF JAVA Java applets are portable mini-applications that are delivered directly to the user along with your Web page. Smaller than some graphic files, they will run on any computer system so long as the browser is set up to recognize them when they arrive. |
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SCRIPTS AND SUCH Script languages such as JavaScript or VBScript allow you to perform serious business functions and make your pages respond to user actions. They can also communicate with the server to randomize images and information, or add password or database capabilities to your Web site. |
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ACTIVE-X REACTIONS Active-X controls download once and then remain available to use immediately on any HTML page or in other applications. Most controls only run in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 3 or 4, or with a special Navigator plug-in. |
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MEMORABLE WEB SITES Seeing is one thing, understanding is another. Experiencing is something else entirely. Users remember 30 percent more information from an interactive session than from one-way communication. Web sites that incorporate multimedia can show up to a 40 percent increase in the length of time that potential customers stay and – in how much they absorb. Think about it. You remember something better when you have to do something with it, or
to it. Or when you get it with more than one of your senses at a time. You see a piece of
pizza through a restaurant window. Mmmm. Looks good. But you can keep on walking. The door opens. You smell the pizza. Your footsteps falter. You may not stop at that restaurant, not then . . . but if you smell pizza again that day, and again . . . If you're like most people, you will end up having pizza for dinner.
CAPITALIZING ON INTERACTIVITY Web site content is expensive to develop, but it is necessary. Just as location is "IT" in real estate, in Web speak, "IT" boils down to content. So why not have your Web site generate your content for you? Many visitors are eager to participate. With our sites, you can allow them to add questions, articles, links, images...virtually anything you can image. And it happens safely. They suggest content, but you have the opportunity to approve it before any other site visitors can see it. Approval takes a few seconds, less time than it takes to phone a writer and ask him/her to create new copy. If you want to spruce up your Web site, there are easier and more useful ways to incorporate an interactive experience. SENSIBLE OPTIONS We can allow you or your visitors to create virtually any kind of content online - without any HTML or programming knowledge:
MULTI-LEVEL AUTHORIZATION Our membership and authorization programs let you quickly and easily manage members and editors for your site. Each module includes:
Depending on their authorization level, members see what options are open to them. They are never frustrated by options that they cannot access. Every part of their site experience is intuitive and as easy as possible. COMMERCE AND BUSINESS READY
Today, a Web site that works is one that does your business for you. The more interactive your site, the more useful it can be. Hit counters can create a sense of traffic to beef up a start-up site and encourage other visitors to explore. Guest books can let other visitors know who is visiting and what they have to say about your pages. Calculators, calendars, games, calorie counters, exercise trackers, recipe holders, shopping list compilers, and random images that pull up a different photograph every time someone reloads the page -- all of these serve useful functions and encourage visitors. But database integration, electronic shopping carts, and online shopping experiences are the bottom line of interactivity today. Online catalogs are no longer a nice-to-have -- they're an essential part of the Web experience. There is no reason that any business that displays its products on the Web should force a customer to phone to place an order. (Studies show that customers use the Web to AVOID having to talk to salespeople!) AN INTERACTIVE EDGE Today, on the Web, virtually anything is possible. Anything that you can imagine wanting to do can probably be done. Ask us. And if we don’t have the expertise, we know someone who does. Done properly, multimedia and interactive events can help you to put your site out ahead of the rest, without driving away customers who cannot access the more advanced features. Database integration with server side scripting or active server pages can automate your site maintenance, handle your customer service and order processing tasks, and allow your customers to use your site in ways that are helpful to them, not just enjoyable. By determining who your customers are likely to be, and by understanding how the Web is actually WORKING -- not just today but tomorrow -- our designers can provide you with interactive solutions that will give you an edge on the future. And that can translate to a future that you can bank on.
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Remember the pizza example that we used above? Okay,
now think about what would happen if you walked into a pizza parlor ready to order, only
to discover that you had to leave, call for a reservation, and wait hours, or days, before
you could place your order. The answer, of course, is simple. You would go eat somewhere
else.
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