Wholesale
Overview
| eSITE.CONNECT wholesale (b2b) Online Store will transform the way you do business with your trade or account customers. With live integration to your accounting and distribution software, you can be assured that specific customer relationships are respected online. This means customers can trade at their leisure 24 /7 without requiring the assistance from your personnel. It is a Win-Win solution and one that will both increase productivity and sales opportunities at the same time. |
Wholesale Demo
- Live integration with your Accounting Package
- Respects Customer Relationships
- Harnesses Web 2.0 Technologies
- Ordering Interface
- Many Searching and Add To Cart Options
- Secure SSL Order Submission
- Secure SSL Live Credit Card Payments
- Personalised Facilities
- Live Customer Account Enquiry
- Online Help to Improve Customer Uptake
- Suits Complex Business Models
- Specialized Modules Available to Suit Your Requirements
- Intuitive and Comprehensive Administration
What We Offer
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eSITE.CONNECT Online Stores are hosted at one of our state-of-the-art eCommerce Data Centres and connected Live to your accounting software running on your server at your premises. eSITE.CONNECT will supply and deploy its Live eCommerce software on your server that securely connects it to your online store.
Whilst most information is mirrored to the online store daily, Live eCommerce allows users to view up-to-the-minute pricing and stock availability, avoid backorders, submit orders instantly, check their account status or reprint account history information such as an invoices or payments.
Should the live link become unavailable, your online store will automatically switch to offline mode without web users knowing.
Live eCommerce and mirrored information ensures that online information remains up-to-date whilst shielding your accounting software from the load of your online store.
Prerequisites: We require that you have a minimum of 1500 X 256 mbps ADSL connection however we strongly recommend that you upgrade or sign up to an ADSL2 connection. Your ADSL connection must have a static IP address assigned by your ISP.
Accounting Systems
eSITE.CONNECT Online Stores link web users to your customers/debtors in your accounting system. This means that customer specific pricing, discounts, tax rules, freight rules and many other customer relationship settings are respected once the customer has logged on.
Once an order is submitted, the order is posted into your accounting system against the web users assigned customer/debtor account.
Better still, you can create an unlimited number of web users for each customer/debtor account. Each web user has their own shopping cart, contact details and personalised items. For example, if you have a customer account that have 7 retail stores where each store places orders independently, you can easily setup a web user account for each store and assign them to the same debtor account.
Furthermore, the Purchaser Manager module enables you to create a hierarchy of web users for a given customer account. This allows you to create manager users who can approve or decline orders submitted by their assigned purchaser users. All of this means that your Online Store can handle very complex customer models.
Finally, the Online Store provides shopping cart persistence which means that every web users' shopping cart lives forever. When they next login, their cart is automatically synchronised with your accounting software ensuring products and pricing remains accurate whilst they are compiling orders. This means that your customers can build their orders over time.
By preserving customer relationships online, you have the same intimate relationship with your customers as they have with your business offline. This gives your customer freedom to trade 24/7 whilst providing you peace of mind as mistakes are avoided and that any specific negotiated pricing or terms is reflected online.
Our aim is to provide rich eCommerce facilities that are not only intuitive but easy to use. Moreover, wholesale or trade customers who place order regularly need a fast and efficient workflow so that the ordering process is perceived as a rewarding experience. eSITE.CONNECT Online Stores have harnessed the power of Web 2.0 technology to ensure that every aspect of the users experience meets the above criteria.
For instance:
- Adding items to the cart occurs in the background. There are no page reloads or waiting. The customer simply moves onto their next task.
- The popular Quick Add facility is lightning quick, making it all too easy for customers to order from printed catalogues.
- The administration centre has been optimised and managing the online store is fast and easy.
The wholesale (B2B) ordering interface is very intuitive and optimised for speed. The interface skin can be designed according to your company image/branding however the interface layout is less flexible than the public/B2C websites because it has been carefully designed to support many complex B2B workflows. The interface has been designed for easy and efficient navigation, particular for those businesses who sell thousands of products across many category levels.
Logging into the B2B interface can be done from within your current website, a login splash page or an eSITE.CONNECT public content managed website. Once logged in, the interface is comprised of four main components:
1. The navigation bar provides facilities for fast product catalogue searching. The first component is the keyword search box that can be linked to one of the various catalogue search profiles. Under the keyword search box is the listing of top level product categories that link to the product category navigator.
2. The menu bar provides access to the My Briefcase section which stores the web user's personalised information such as Shopping Lists, Favourite Lists, Ordering History, Account and other facilities. Also, the comprehensive Help Centre and Logout options are available from the Menu bar.
3. The status bar contains shopping cart summary and web page bookmarks created by the user.
4. The main working area begins with the welcome page which displays flagged items such as Specials, While Stocks Last, New Release and News. All web user workflows are performed in the working area.
A final key aspect is the Help Centre icon located on every page displayed in the working area. Upon clicking, the Help Centre is loaded with the facility the user is currently working with displayed. This aims to assist the user without them needing to pick up the phone.
eSITE.CONNECT Online Stores provide various facilities that assist customers to browse your online product catalogue and add items to their shopping cart.
Searching
Behind the scenes, the Online Store provides a facility to setup and configure complex searching profiles. Each search profile defines the input data required, what columns that data is to search or filter on and how the information is presented in the search listings.
For instance, you may want default keyword search to find products where the keyword partially matches your inventory code, any word in the short description and any word in the brand field. You want these products displayed according to a specific search ranking or sorted on product description.
Once configured, a search profile can be linked to the keyword search facility located on the navigation bar. Other search profiles are listed in the advanced search bar located on the search listings page.
Browse By Category
The top level product categories are displayed on the navigation bar and linked to the product category navigator. The navigator is specifically designed to minimise scrolling and provide options for either visual or description browsing.
Search Listings
Products search listings are displayed in a neat and easy-to-read layout with product thumbnail icons and quantity boxes displayed for each item. For large results, listings are displayed in intervals but continue to load in the background whilst the user browses the first interval. This makes switching between intervals instant.
Items can be added to cart by entering a quantity in the quantity box associated with the product.
Quick Add
If the customer knows your product codes or is working off a printed catalogue, then they can add products to the cart using Quick Add located on the View Basket/Cart page. Once a few characters are keyed in, a filtered list of matching codes is displayed.
My Briefcase
Products can be found and added to cart via the facilities stored in the users Briefcase most notably Shopping Lists and Favourite List. For those accounting systems that offer Special Priced Contracts or Preferred Item Lists, these items are displayed in Contract Shopping Lists. Whilst MYOB Premier: Does not offer contracts, we have developed several facilities that provide similar functionality.
eSITE.CONNECT Online Stores have a secure ordering process. Upon checkout, the interface is switched into secure mode with the secure padlock displayed on the browser window. Harnessing the highest level 256-bit encryption certificates provided by GeoTrust, you can be assured that your customer's information remains highly secure whilst they complete their order and payment details.
eSITE.CONNECT Online Stores securely process credit card payments via one of our supported payment gateways. The payment gateway immediately transfers the funds between the web user's bank account and your bank account. In fact, the online ordering process will not complete unless the transfer of funds occurs and the payment gateway returns a valid payment receipt. The payment receipt is displayed on the web order and the order posted to the accounting system.
The payment gateway provides a web interface so that you can login and review your online payment history. Payment reports can be configured to automatically send to your accounts department for reconciliation or verification purposes.
Special Note: Depending on the accounting system, credit card payments are posted against the order meaning that payments do not need to be reconciled.
eSITE.CONNECT Online Stores provide a range of personalised facilities to provide independence and enhance the experience for web users. Fundamentally, every shopping basket is personal to the web user. This means that web users can compile orders independently of each other over time. This is especially important for web users assigned to the same customer/debtor account. All other personalised facilities are conveniently wrapped up in the web user's Briefcase located on the menu bar. |
Please find below a description of the facilities located in the web user's My Briefcase:
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These features aid customers to find products quickly and organise their customers for a faster online ordering experience. |
| Harnessing the Live eCommerce link to your accounting system, the Live Customer Account Enquiry is located in My Briefcase -> My Account and enables web users to check their account online. Your accounts department will be delighted with this facility as customers can be redirected to the web to: |
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Introducing your customers to your Online Store can be a difficult task. There is a bit to learn and depending on how savvy they are, it can be a challenging process. To aid this and reduce the initial impact on your staff fielding questions, the Online Store comes equipped with a comprehensive step by step online Help Centre.
The Help Centre is managed and kept up to date by the eSITE.CONNECT team on an ongoing basis. Large screenshots and clear step-by-step instructions guide the user through the ordering process and other more advanced facilities.
The Help Centre can be launched from the menu bar or through helper icons located on every page. Upon clicking on a helper icon, the the Help Centre is launched into a new browser window which in turn, displays the instructions and steps for the facility that the user is presently working with.
Implementing a wholesale or business-to-business online store can be a challenging exercise particularly when it comes to multiple warehouse locations, franchises or groups including national and regional interests. Even aspects such as complex workflows, pricing structures, stock rules and freight terms, minimum ordering rules, controlling access to inventory or restricting user permissions to certain functions can quickly cause frustration.
Luckily, eSITE.CONNECT Online Stores comprises a wealth of administration facilities and configuration options already bundled to overcome these challenges. If we do not have an option, our flexible software architecture means that in most cases, our RnD team can rapidly develop customised features to address your requirements.
For larger, highly customised projects, we offer consulting services to draft a specification and implementation plan. This document outlines the business model, workflows, design requirements, RnD and any other project specific details. The document serves as a blueprint for the project ensuring that both parties understand what is to be achieved and allows us to provide an accurate quotation.
Over the years, eSITE.CONNECT RnD has developed specialised modules that operate on top of the core product offering. Modules are licensed separately and in most cases can be simply turned on with minimal configuration.
The following modules are available to add to your wholesale site:
- Account Enquiry
- Product Combinations
- Purchaser / Manager
- Dropshipment
- Web Marketing
- Credit Card Payment Gateway
Easy to use administration centre to allow you to add additional information to your inventory set, manage your users, manage your online store and view your statistics.
