E-Commerce Website

Over 29 billion worth of sales via the Internet
- is your business online? (Nielsen/Netratings 2004)

Why Do People Shop Online?

• Convenience - visitors can shop when and where they like.
  
  
• Choice - people can browse a range of merchants for the same products without leaving home.
  
  
• Accuracy - the direct automated system prevents ordering errors; the products ordered are the products delivered.
  
  
• Information - many shopping sites offer a depth of detail that is not available on the high street. Product data sheets, customer reviews, comparison charts and links to supplier sites all help inform the customer.

Advantages of an E-Commerce site for Your Business

• Wider Market - from one source your business can reach an unlimited number of regional and international clients.
  
  
• Cost Effective - a virtual shop allows more efficient use of capital expenditure.
  
  
• 24/7 - round the clock shopping generates sales even while you are asleep! In fact, most Internet home shoppers do so out-of-hours.

Advantages of Providecom System - In a nutshell

• Future-Proof Technology - built using open-source technologies that are updated constantly, compared to e.g. Microsoft products that are updated at best, yearly.
  
  
• Scalable - our systems are database driven which not only means fast load times, but should you become the next 'Amazon.com', your data can be ported into any high-end solution with ease.
  
  
• Total Freedom - using open-source removes the reliance on a specific software package, hosting service or support provider.
  
  
• Total Control - with minimal training you control all functional aspects of your system from any Internet PC at any time. No special software or powerful PC required. Need to change a product/price/category? Do it in seconds!
  
  
• Evolving System - as your needs change so will your system, giving you the flexibility of a multi-thousand pound bespoke system at a price around that of most out-of-the-box solutions.
  
  
• No Ties - instead we aim to secure your loyalty by offering unmatched levels of technical support, development and systems framework. This approach goes against-the-grain of the majority of ecommerce suppliers, that lock merchants into their system.
  
  
• Fresh approach - You pay for services not software since developing and supporting your system is your only costs.

Functionality Overview

• 100% Control - add / amend your product catalogue online, 24/7 via the easy-to-use product management interface.
  
  
• Unlimited Products / Categories and Sub-Categories - unlike many others we do not restrict the number of products you can sell on your site.
  
  
• Automatic Thumbnail Creation - Our ecommerce software can automatically create thumbnail images of your products and optimise their size to ensure your website runs quickly even on the slowest of connections.
  
  
• Promotional Codes - keep your customers coming back time after time by rewarding them with a promotional codes for discounts and money-off coupons. Keep control of your promotions and amend them at any time.
  
  
• Tiered Pricing - Provide across-the-board discounts to your account customers, visible only to them via a secure login.
  
  
• Automatic Account Creation - Users register their details for instant/future ordering.
  
  
• Automatic Receipts - all customers automatically receive a comprehensive receipt/invoice to their email address.
  
  
• Order Status - free up your telephone by allowing your customers to check the status of their order at any time by logging into your website.
  
  
• Plus Much More - Provide's talented programmers can realise any feature you may wish to incorporate into your website allowing you to get a step ahead of your competitors. Our system will have many more features than you probably need, at least at the start anyway. So you simple turn off/on these features, as you need them.

OK here comes the more technical bit…

Technology and Methodologies

Why We Choose Open Source
There are a number of benefits inherent in the use of most open-source ecommerce.

Linux

The most fully tested and widely used server operating system in the world, and for most the most fundamental open source of all. Microsoft Windows can no longer deal with the modern demands, as it simply cannot keep up. Each release of Windows since NT4, has proved more and more unreliable in terms of performance and security.

Low cost

The code of open-source ecommerce systems can be obtained for free, and any commercial support associated with the product is typically comparable or cheaper than other products.

Pay for services, not software

With no outlay on software, an open-source ecommerce system leaves the majority of the project budget to address critical supporting tasks, including:

• customising the ecommerce system to match specific business needs
• integrating the ecommerce system with other business systems
• developing templates, stylesheets and publishing code
• reviewing, restructuring and creating content
• conducting usability tests, both on the site and the ecommerce system
  providing training to authors and end users.
• conducting communication and change management activities.

It is these activities that will have the greatest impact upon project success, and these are the services we can provide.

Ease of customisation

Having access to all the code of the content management system provides an unparalleled degree of flexibility. With an open-source ecommerce system, all the code is freely accessible (by definition). This allows us to make any required changes to the system to meet your specific business requirements.

With many open-source content management systems being the product of multiple developers, the ability to customise and extend has already been well tested.
Pool resources across organisations

The ability to freely share open-source code would potentially allow organisations (particularly government agencies) to pool resources, and share the benefits (and costs) of refining content management solutions.

For example, additional customisation and improvements made by one agency to an open-source system could be applied to other agencies. This would allow larger agencies to support less-resourced agencies in meeting their content management needs.

Ease of integration

The combination of open platforms and simplicity of customisation makes integrating open-source content management systems with other software considerably easier. Many open-source solutions are also built with newer technology, which was developed with integration in mind.

Rapid problem resolution

When a bug is identified in a commercial ecommerce system, the only option is to report it to the vendor, and wait for a bug fix. At worst, it may be six months or a year before a new version is released that resolves the issue or limitation.

Future proofing

With hundreds of commercial vendors in the market, industry pundits are predicting a shake-up over coming few years that will leave only a few of the large vendors still standing. In these conditions, the future existence of vendors is far from certain. If a product is terminated, or the vendor shuts down, support immediately ceases. With an open-source solution, the reliance on a single vendor for all support and upgrades is eliminated. Even if the product is 'mothballed', full access to the code allows for ongoing in-house development.

If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of enabling e-commerce in your business, please contact us at or use our contact form.

S2 Solutions Ltd. use *O*pen *S*ource *A*rchitecture by Mullshrimp Ltd.