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eCommerce Features Explained

The following is the complete feature list for ampleShop™ version 2.5. If you cannot find the feature that your business model requires or there is a feature that you would like to see added, please contact us or fill out the feature request form.

Installing ampleShop™

Installation Wizard

Our installation wizard guides you through the installation process step-by-step.. The only task that the administrator has to perform manually is the creation of an MS SQL 2000 database and registration of a datasource in the ColdFusion administrator.

Store Management Features

Store Setup Wizard

The web based store setup wizard allows the enterprise administrator to create an unlimited number of new stores. An easy 5-step configuration process leads you through the confirmation of the license agreement, selection of a datasource, definition of the store info, confirmation of the ColdFusion mapping name based on the new store name, and the final verification of the entered data. Upon successful completion of these steps, the store creation scripts are executed.

Store Settings

Choose from predefined web templates, adjust local settings, adjust time and date display formats, and manage inventory by disabling or enabling products or product attributes (i.e.disable products when they go out of stock).

Store Copy

The Store Setup Wizard features the powerful Store Replication Module which copies all store data (such as products, shipping methods, and discounts) from an existing store into a newly created store.

Store Data Deletion

Delete unwanted stores, purge data, delete template files and delete ColdFusion Administrator settings associated with a deleted store.

Store Administration

Store Administration Console

Easily change any data establisehd upon store creation. Choose different web templates, change local settings, or change date and time display formatting.

Unlimited Number of Store Administrators

The store owner can register as many administrators per store as needed.

Products

Unlimited Depth Product Category System

Easy configuration through a JavaScript, treelike, foldable navigation system or a static, expandable, category navigation display.

Product Types

Specify product types and define the names for the nine custom fields in the product database and the product detail page.

Advanced Product Drill Interface

Browse by category; search by text, product number, date of addition; define search result display order, and limit the number of results or displayed result.

Product Edit/Insert Interface

Intuitive product editing interface featuring layer-based insert modules. There is a drop down selection of product attributes including Country of Origin, Discounts, Unit of Quantity, Warehouse, and Category. You can easily define the available shipping and packaging methods. Editing is done with our integrated WYSIWYG editor which includes image upload.

Custom Size Sets

Define size sets from S to XXL or 35 to 41. This is especially useful for batch insertions into the Product Matrix.

Colors

Define colors using a DreamWeaver like color picker. Useful for defining product versions in the Product Matrix.

Advanced Product Matrix Management

This unique feature allows product classification based on an array of custom attributes. For example, a store administrators can create a matrix of product versions based on available sizes, colors, and styles. If 'Store Product Inventory' is enabled the store can display real-time inventory. For advanced recognition of the product you can also enter a SKU modifier for each product version.

Product Attributes

Defining Product Attribute Sets and assigning Attribute Options has never been easier. Attribute Sets can be displayed via radio, select or checkbox. Options can be configured to sum the price, weight, and concatenate SKU modifiers for a specific combination of options.

Multiple Product Media Types

There are four predefined media types to which products can be associated: small image, medium image, large image, or video/audio. Store administrators can also customize other media type formats as needed. ampleShop" lets you do all of this without any additional programming or risky changes to the database schema. ampleShop's built-in media manager allows you to associate each product with an unlimited number of media files. Simply add a few lines of code and then register a new media type in the store administrator. In minutes you can upload and present almost any standard media format such as Java applets or SVGA content.

Related Product Groups

Define Related Product Groups and assign products to facilitate cross selling.

User Comments and Product Rating

Store customers can comment and rate products on the store web site. Of course, comments must be approved by the store administrator before appearing on the product pages.

Inventory Management

Generate reports on product inventory status by browsing reorder alerts, available quantity, product category, and product number.

Product Auctions

Auctions Module add-on is available for separate purchase along with the ampleShop™ 2.5 standard update release for the ISP and the Single Store license models. The auctions module is targeted as a small to mid-level size level software product tightly integrated with the catalog management and the reporting tools of the standard ecommerce software engine.

The following are the aucton module features:

• Auctions management console for modifying all auctions from one centralized location.
• Integration of online auctions with the database of store customers.
• Silent auto-increment bid
• Customer bid increment alert
• Bid increment limit
• Buy now price
• Bid sheet generation

Product Subscritions (memberships)

The ampleShop" Subscriptions Module is available as a standard feature of ampleShop" 2.5. The key features of the Subscriptions Module add-on include:

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Marketing

Search Engine Optimization

The default template supplied with every purchase of our eCommerce software license is 100% Search Engine Optimized. By following the modern trends of today's key search engine players, and by weighing the opinions of SEO experts, we were able to build in all the features that can help you push your product higher in the search engine results.

To insure the best possible results for the search engine ranking your eCommerce storefront must also conform to content organization and website marketing strategy best practices.

We have compiled a wide variety of tools to help you maximize your position in web search results. We provide documentation, tips, and links to external marketing articles that every successful eCommerce merchant should be familiar with.

Built In Newsletter

Interaction with clients is a significant part of any marketing strategy. Our eCommerce software features a built-in newsletter generator to help you inform clients about promotions, new products and service improvements. The easy-to-use ampleShop™ Newsletter Wizard lets you create and send multipart type emails (html and text only versions) to subscribers and existing store customers. Store administrators can choose between uploading a ready made html/text newsletter version or creating newsletters on the fly using the built in WYSIWYG editor.

In addition, the newsletter manager is equipped with an automatic unsubscribing agent to easily remove clients who do not wish to receive your newsletter any longer.

Distribution & Packaging

Shipping methods

ampleShop™ supports four types of shipping methods: 'Flat Fee', 'Matrix by Weight', 'Matrix by Cost' and 'USPS Web Tools'. 'Flat Fee' uses a single shipping cost regardless of order cost or weight. 'Matrix by Weight' determines shipping cost by using a sliding scale based on weight. 'Matrix by Cost' determines shipping cost by using a sliding scale based on the cost of the order. The registered 'USPS Web Tools' allows customers to enter their username and password in the ampleShop™ USPS configuration interface and obtain package costs based on the weight and the distance of the shipment.

Packaging Methods

Administrators can define one or more fixed price packaging method and apply them to products.

Countries

Administrators can disable or enable countries for customers and products. Administrators can also define whether or not a country is subject to Tax rules registered in ampleShop™.

Warehouses

Define where your goods will ship from. You can have an unlimited number of warehouses. The warehouse zip code is connected to the 'USPS Web Tool' as a default method for obtaining shipping prices.

Suppliers

Maintain an unlimited list of registered suppliers for easier browsing of your Product database..

Users

Merchants can configure and maintain customers information for their store. Customers are automatically created at purchase, but can also be created by the merchant through the Users Interface. Passwords, contact information, and multiple address lists can all be updated by the store administrator.

Financial

Orders Drilling

ampleShop™ comes with an extensive Orders Drilling interface allowing adminstrator to browse by order status (pending, shipped, canceled or archived orders), date or price range, customer name or order number.

Order Management

Full management capabilities over each order including refund and/or cancelellation, shipping, client email notification, invoice/transaction viewing and printing, and credit card billing.

Taxation

Establish dynamic taxation procedures based on either shipping country or customer billing country. Taxes apply only to taxable countries, countries that have been specified in the Tax definition, products that are specified as taxable, and product types that have been specified in the Tax definition.

Single Discounts

Discounts can be Global or Product level. Global discounts apply to all products in the shopping cart and reflect during the store checkout. Product discounts can be assigned to products using the Insert/Update page.

Quantity Discounts

Quantity Discounts apply when a certain number of a product is purchased. Quantity Discounts can be Global or Product Level. Global Discounts apply to products within a quantity-based, sliding-scale range. The Product Level Quantity Discount pertains to a specific product and is assigned using the Insert/Update page.

Promotions

Set a promotion type and decide whether it will effect only the cost of shipping or the total cost of the order. Create new promotions and define their calculation as: Amount Off, Percentage Off or Exact Amount. When a customer provides their promotional code during checkout, the appropriate transaction element is recalculated based on the promotion definition.

Integrated Payment Processing Gateways

ampleShop™ is currently integrated with PayPal, Authorize.Net's AIM, Verisign's PayFlowPro, 2CheckOut, ChronoPay the european payments provider, ACH Direct's PaymentGateway (tm) and the Merchant Partners QuickCommerce Pro. Developers can benefit from extensive documentation for developing custom payment processing modules.

Shopping Cart Gift Certificates Generation and Management

ampleShop™ has an integrated Gift Certificate generation and management module. Store Administrators can generate Gift Certificates in several denominations and in unlimited series. When a Gift Certificates series is generated the Gift Certificate series browser allows you to print the series with corresponding barcodes. This allows the Gift Certificate to be used online or in physical stores.Once generated, gift certificates are set as pending. When sold, gift certificates are recategorized as being put in traffic. If not used, Gift certificates expire 180 days after being put into traffic. Gift certificates are good for a single purchase only. After use, the Gift Certificate Number is removed from circulation and any remaining balance cannot be used. If the value of the total order exceeds the value of the Gift Certificate, the remaining balance can be paid via credit card. ampleShop™ does not provide the possibility to automatically email purchased Gift Certificates however, look for this feature in future software releases.

Transactions Browser

Monitor and assess your store through our Transaction Browser featuring a summary of all financial transaction registered in the online store.

Statistics and Reports

Articles

See detailed article statistics through either Real-Time or Performance-Over-Time views.

Inventory

See graphical or tabular representation of your inventory movements over time.

Sales

Graphical or tabular reports of sales over time. Reports can display based on country, amount of purchase and order status (canceled, archived, pending, shipped).

Web Site

View an assortment of site statistics including referrers, visited page statistics, various times of visit, and average execution time for specified processes.

Customer

View an assortment of visitor statistics including referrer, ip-address, browser type, last visit, length of visit, etc.

Storefront Content Management System

Featured Items

Add articles to the Featured Items list and define their position on the web site.

Custom Pages

Upload and edit custom pages using a WYSIWYG editor.

Database & System Management Tools

Database Import Tool

Our powerful database import tool lets you import from any CSV file containing structured product information. Imports are run without complex database import scripts or modifications on existing tables. In addition, the database import tool is designed to safeguard data integrity by preventing the user from populating the product database with unreferenced column values. This helps reduce the generation of unwanted error messages as well as maximize storage space. This feature also works for importing various media types: images, audio, video or flash

Database Export Tool

Export database table data in CVS or Excel format.

Database Batch Operation Purges

Easily delete unwanted information such as abandoned shopping cart items or unnecessary website statistics.

Full Text Search

Interface for creation of Verity Search Collections and repopulation of search indexes.

Site Status

Disable/Enable access to the entire online store during holidays or maintenance sessions.

File Manager

Easily and securely manage files on your server with Sandbox security in the ColdFusion administrator which does not allow access outside of the defined site root.

Shopping Cart and Store Checkout Features

Database Driven Shopping Cart System

Instead of saving user shopping information by storing "cookies" on the user's browser, ampleShop™ stores this information in the database. This allows access to a wider array of useful information including how long users keep data in their shopping carts before purchasing and how many unrealized purchases have occurred.

Intuitive 4 steps checkout system

• Ability to select from multiple shipping and billing addresses.
• Payment with Gift Certificates
• Invoice payments
• Real-time credit card processing
• Purchase using Promotional Codes
• Email Order Details
• Order tracking

Customers have the ability to automatically view their order history. They can also view order details with information on order status.

Security Features & Policies

In addition to the standard security measures commonly used during development of web-script based products our application uses several important architectural solutions for safer operation in unstable internet environment.

Centralized Payment Gateway Component System.

All the stores use the same components for the various payment gateways. Gateway settings for each store are recorded in databases in an encrypted XML format.

Cryptographic data protection.

We use industry standard encryption algorithms for protecting the sensitive data entered in the store checkout process as well as for storing merchant information. Decryption keys are not stored on the web server, so even if an intruder manages to penetrate the server security, encrypted data is still inaccessible. To minimize the risks of online financial transaction, all relevant information is purged from the system as soon as transactions are complete.

Customizable SSL Encryption

Depending on the desired security level of your site, you can secure various areas of your online shop. Upon entering a secured area, customers are automatically redirected to a secure SSL connection to ensure data confidentiality.

Password Protected Entry

The administration area is password protected so that only designated personnel can gain access. It is also possible to define hierarchical administrator levels so that only top level administrators have access to financial management.

ColdFusion Scripting and Database Architecture Approaches

CFML Only

No java or cfx tags are used in the application. All application software is written using the standard ColdFusion markup language.

Modular Programming Approach

All functionality is encapsulated in ColdFusion components thereby separating programming logic from presentation.

Extensive Documentation and Support

All application information is available in our registered customer section.

Relational Database Schema

Our database system was developed using the Visio Enterprise Architect ERM modeling tool. It has been designed with referenced relational keys to prevent erroneous input /delete and primary key indexes to increase the speed of queries. The Visio ERM model of our shopping cart system is available with the ISP and Developer licenses of our software package.