Internet Store Front

[Littledonnie19]

Greetings,

I am currently developing a new ecommerce site for my company, and have seemed to hit a major bump in the road. We have purchased a pretty robust inventory management system that handles everything from accounting to CRM, but the internet store front that partners with it has left a little to be desired. More specifically, we need a store front that will allow us to search and display multiple areas of our product database from one link. We sell footwear and clothing, and due to the nature of the business, and people's perception of our current categories (what really is a "work" shoe) it is vital for us to be able to display results from multiple areas. What we are left with now is the decision to keep the current software and add hundreds of links to our site, build a proprietary system, or find a new store front that can be integrated with our inventory management system. Has anyone come across a situation like this before? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Chris

[TipPro]

I am little confused on what you are asking but it sounds like your are dissapointed with the available site search. You can look into a third party site search service. If your company has a their own Web server you can purchase site search software or you can find a company to host it for you.

What is your database format? Depending on the site search software, some of them query your actual database and others index your Web site product pages. For example Mondosoft site search software indexes your product pages. It pulls specific info from user defined meta-tags and keywords from the product page like the product names and descriptions.

Before I go on and on can you give more details about your problem. What do you mean by display multiple areas of your product database from one link? Are you fustrated on the way your customers are going to navigate your e-store or is it the site search? What do you mean by adding hundreds of links to our site?

[Littledonnie19]

Sorry for the confusion TipPro, I am not the best at the technical end of these things. Our database is SQL, and from what I understand, our current search actually queries the database. The frustration I am having is that I am building landing pages for organic placement, and I am not able to add what I feel are the necessary links. For instance, on my landing page for "Slippers" I would like to have a link that says "Show All Slippers." Unfortunately, my Men's and Women's slippers are in 2 seperate departments in my product hierarchy. Using the current store front, I can have a link to display Men's and a link to display Women's, but not a link to display items in both departments. The same situation holds true for the majority of my site, and my provider suggested just adding single, specific links for every department, class, or subclass in my product hierarchy. Doing this will add in upwards of 20 additional links per landing page, greatly diminishing the usability that we were basing this site on. So, should I sacrifice the user friendly site that I wanted, or are there other viable options for me to look into. Hope this cleared up any confusion.

Thanks

[JPnyc]

Are you a coder yourself? Because you could alter it. Is the site written in ASP? I would assume it was if you're using MS SQL server.

[Littledonnie19]

JPnyc,

I am persoanlly not a coder, I handle the SEO and marketing, which is how I found my way here. From what I understand, the site is not written is ASP. Basically, the store front was built for a 1 store, really small operation who isnt looking for many frills. I can give you some examples of other sites using the same software package as me, just drop me a PM. Thanks for the help.

[JPnyc]

You can post one here. Not that big a deal. We don't allow advertising on the forum but this wouldn't qualify as advertising. Gahead, post a link so I can get an idea what language is involved.

[Littledonnie19]

www.camcommerce.com is our software provider. We are using "Retail Star" and our inventory management system, and "iStar" as our store front. Some examples of other companies using this software are:

http://www.newbalanceseattle.com/

http://www.flipflopcompany.com/

[JPnyc]

Ah, I see. Well nowhere there does it tell me what language is used, but I can tell you just from looking at their site, to look elsewhere. They don't know what they're doing even with basic DHTML. Try opening their site in Firefox or Opera and use their dropdown menus. If they can't get something that simple correct, I wouldn't trust them with the more complex issues.

[TipPro]

ahh I understand your problem now. This is a problem for your IST professional. You need to create relational databases. I am sure you have some sort of start already but it may have to be improved.

Let me try to give you a crash course on what a relational database is…


A relational database consists of many tables…

One table is called PRODUCTS that consists of several fields. These fields will be “Product ID”, “Product Name”, “Retail Price”, and “Product Description.” This table keeps track of all of your products. Then you have another table called CATAGORIES that also consists of several fields. These fields will be “Category ID”, “Category Name”, and “Category Description.” This table keeps track of all your different categories.

Then comes the relational part of the database…


You create another tabled called PROD_WITH_CAT that consists of several fields. These fields will be “Product ID” and “Category ID.” This table is going to keep track of what categories certain products belong in.

The “Product ID” in the PRODUCTS table is unique meaning that there cannot be two records with the same id. Same goes for the “Category ID” in the CATEGORIES table.
This is not true for the PROD_WITH_CAT table. In this table “Product ID” and “Category ID” are not unique. A product can be in this table many times with different categories. For example the Timberland X5000 will be related to the Men category, the Boot category, and the Work category.

So back to your Web site. When you want to show all display all the boots on a Web page you are going to query the PROD_WITH_CAT table and search for every “Product ID” that is related to the “Category ID” boot. If you want to display all men’s boots your query will now be every “Product ID” that is related to the “Category ID” boot and the “Category ID” men.

Confused? This is not the easiest stuff to understand. But I hope you are able to gather some understanding. Your problem is with your database, not your store front. Even after you fix up your database your store front may not be able to create the custom queries you need. You may need bring in a Web programmer who knows SQL (the commands are not hard you could learn them yourself). As for the database you probably are going to need a professional unless you hit the books yourself and learn what it takes to create a great relational database.

[Littledonnie19]

JPnyc,

Is your suggestion, then, that we have shortchanged ourselves and should be looking for a more robust company? We seem to have concepted a relatively intelligent and intuitive site (on paper); does this company seem to fall short in what they can provide to us? Thanks!

[TipPro]

Yeah the companies Web site is useless in Firefox (Thank you to the creator of the my most used extension IEView!).

The e-stores you gave us links to are written in ASP. If your database is SQL and you are able to fix it how I mentioned above in my last post, you should be able to create a store front to do whatever you want it to do. You should not have to use the supplied store front. You can use any major Web programming language with SQL (JSP, ASP, PHP, etc…)

[Littledonnie19]

Guys,

Thanks a bunch for all the great info! To be completely honest, the database and storefront was a package deal that was recommended and purchased before I was formally introduced to the ecommerce department. I work for an established footwear retail chain that is looking to add an ecommerce website to our current business model. I attended the Search Engine Strategies conference in NYC earlier this year, and your wealth of knowledge lead me to you guys when this problem arose. From what I gather from your comments, this software package seems to be the wrong choice for us to use. I'm not sure if the provider is willing to create relational databases for us at this time. If the decision was made to scrap the software, do you have any suggestions on a good software solution that will provide us with all the features to meet our needs. Our usability and future potential are of greater concern than our immediate financial obligations--meaning that we are willing to put adequate finances behind this project in order to see it succeed. At this point in time, we are in desperate need of direction as to how to go about selecting a software provider that can accommodate us. Any suggestions related to software providers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[JPnyc]

Glad you enjoyed the SEO convention. I did too, I was there. Well I didn't get to really examine the software you bought but the matter of getting DHTML dropdown menus to work in all browsers isn't a tough problem as IT problems go, and they couldn't do it. So yes, I would have to be suspicious of their ability.

[Littledonnie19]

It appears that this provider was not the way to go, thanks for helping me get to the bottom on that before it was too late. We currently do not have an in-house programmer who could create relationship tables or our own proprietary system, and most likely will not have one for quite some time. We were really hoping to find a software solution that would include a robust inventory management system, CRM, accounting, EDI, and a flexible and customizable store front. I know, its a lot to ask, but one can hope. If you were in my shoes, where would you go from here? What software solutions would you recommend? We are willing to invest the right amount of money if the right solution is out there..... Thanks!

[JPnyc]

I'm gonna have to rely on some of the more experienced e-commerce folks here to answer that. I'm basically a coder and not an experienced shop owner. Devin?