Introduction

During 2005, we plan to continue enhancing e-commerce part of EZ-NetTools, specifically the shopper interface.  Several years ago we started major enhancements to EZ-Catalog.  These changes revamped the underlying structure of the catalog but only moderately affected what the shopper would see.  These changes provided a solid base on which to build the changes we are contemplating in 2005.  We had hoped to make these changes in 2004 but the project was preempted by a few other projects most notably, hardening the email system to withstand the flood of spam messages.  While we have not licked the problem of SPAM (no one has yet), the problem is at last manageable for now.

Determining What Enhancements to Make

We used several sources to determine what enhancements to make to EZ-Catalog.

• First, we reviewed all the suggestions and comments that had been submitted by you, our customers over the years.  Many of these came from emails sent to suggestions@eznettools.com. 
• Second, we talked to our technical support staff about what kinds of changes our customers were wanting.  The staff was also a good source of ideas of ways to improve the existing features.
• Third, we listened to what our marketing staff says that potential customers are interested in when they are considering purchasing an e-commerce system.
• Fourth, we investigated our competition to see what features they include in their systems.
• Fifth, we read several publications from noted gurus on the subject.  These included a series of reports prepared by Jacob Nielsen and another by Ralph Wilson.
• Sixth, we use EZ-Catalog ourselves.  We had some ideas of what we wanted to see.

From these sources we generated a long list of potential upgrades to the system.  We then spent several buzz sessions with our staff reviewing the list.  Based on the feedback each had received, we came up with a refined list of enhancements and a general priority of each. Since the requirements are still fluid, we are still encouraging input from our customers.

Candidate Features That Are Very Likely to be Included

The primary focus of the planned enhancements will be on the look and feel of the shopper interface.  Some features in the shopper interface will have a ripple affect on some of the other features such as the check out process or the import/export function.   But in general  less emphasis was given to the Check Out, Shipping, or Payment interface or functionality.  We will also address some of the annoying “bugs” in the catalog system.

• The look and feel of the SHOPPING CART will get a lot of attention.
  • Provide configuration options to easily modify the fonts, colors, and background images.
  • Provide a way to change how the various elements of the shopping cart are configured on the page.  We would like to provide one or two default layouts with the ability for those with some programming experience to provide more customization.
  • Provide a option for displaying complementary product on the cart page based on the items selected.  We may add a option for listing specific products to promote on the cart page.
  • By default  the shopping cart page will likely look more like the Checkout pages to provide a consistent look and feel to the purchasing experience.
• The look and feel of the CATEGORY PAGES will probably have the most dramatic changes.
  • Provide configuration options to easily modify the fonts, colors, and background images.
  • Provide a way to change how the various elements of the catalog pages are configured on the page.  We would like to provide one or two default layouts with the ability for those with some programming experience to provide more customization.
  • The layouts will be able to display the products in a category in rows and columns as is some common in catalogs today.  Click here to see how this might look.
  • An entirely new feature will be the ability to have nested or subcategories with information about the subcategories displayed in rows and columns.  For example, a category for women’s clothing might have rows and columns of more categories such as pants, blouses, shoes, sweaters, dresses, hosiery, outerwear, intimate, accessories, etc.  With this feature, shoppers will be able to drill down to find the products they want.  Click here to see how this might look.  This feature will interface with the ability that already exists of having a product in more than one category.
  • These pages will be designed to be more search engine friendly with such features as metatags, etc.
• A new dynamic page will be provide for displaying information for an INDIVIDUAL PRODUCT.
  • Provide configuration options to easily modify the fonts, colors, and background images.
  • Provide a way to change how the various elements of the product pages are configured on the page.  We would like to provide one or two default layouts with the ability for those with some programming experience to provide more customization.
  • There will be a way to associate and display complementary products.  For example, to show a shirt that will go with a pair of pants or gloves with a coat.  Click here to see an example.
  • There will be a way to associate and display alternative products.  For example, other styles of coats.  Click here to see example.
  • There will be a way to associate a product with other products to be included with the purchase such as a printer cable to be included with a printer.
  • These pages will be designed to be search engine friendly with such things as metatags, etc.
• We plan to enhance the CATALOG IMPORT/EXPORT.
  • Provide the ability to import/export the category information independently from the product import/export.
  • Ability to specify the field qualifies.
  • Generally clean up the import and export.
• We plan to enhance the CATALOG SEARCH.
  • Make the existing search page so that it is not so long.
  • Provide the ability to search for a product number, the product description, an dthe product title.
  • Include the search in EZ-PageBuilder so that it will also search the catalog.

Other Enhancements that may or may not be included for this revision.

There are some enhancements that we carefully considered but have not made a final determination whether they should be included or not.  We would like to receive you input.

• Display a default shipping cost in the shopping cart with the option to change the zip code to recompute the shipping charges.
• A dynamic page builder block that will display information about the shopping cart such as the number and value of items in the cart.
• Quick shopping function that would allow a person to put in just the product codes and then link straight to the shopping cart.
• A simple inventory control function.
• An “email this product to a friend” link.

The following enhancements were carefully considered, but will not likely be be included in this years enhancements.  These will be considered in the future.

• Provide for returning shoppers so that the system will remember their personal information.
• Payment using coupons.
• Various discount options.

The Next Step

Over the next several weeks, we will study each of these requirements to determine the effort required and the ramifications of each enhancements.  We will also examine the synergy of the enhancements to see which make sense to combine.  We will also start to combine the enhances into groups that we can work on independently.  This will allow us to stage some enhancements to be completed earlier.  While we are making these evaluations, your input could still have an effect on the decision making process.  The next step will be to finalize the design and start to program.

We are very excited to undertake these enhancements.  We have been planning some of them for several years.  We have appreciated the suggestions we have received over the years.  We are anxious to help you make your ecommerce even more successful.