Hi,
I am inquiring about customizing an e-commerce solution, so that it will be
tailored to my specific online retailing needs. We currently have an existing
online solution that does a very good job of displaying and selling our
products. However, we have encountered certain issues with our current solution
provider that has got us looking for alternate solutions. Therefore, we are
looking for a cost effective method of replicating our current online retailing
solution, and hopefully enhance it while doing so. Another reason for needing
our own software, we are looking to hopefully host essentially the same store
with different domains.
We are currently a small cellular service retailer located in Southern
California. Since the start, we have been looking for ways to sell our
services/products via the internet as similar to our actual retail store as
possible. Our current competitors on the internet include: Amazon.com,
Letstalk.com, etc. You will notice that both these companies resell wireless
service offered through T-Mobile Wireless, AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, and
Sprint Wireless. If you ever shopped for cellular service online, you will have
noticed that the price of a phone when purchased with any rate plan is always
the same. For example, this means that purchasing the Motorola V60 with a
T-Mobile $29/month rate plan, is the same price when the phone is purchased with
a T-Mobile $39.99/month rate plan. The difference with our company is that we
offer different pricing for each for price plan offered. You can see this being
implemented in our current website.
If you look through the Phones section, you will notice our current setup. We
want to be able to have the products displayed and listed the same way. We want
to maintain the same functionality, including the comparison feature, list by
manufacturer, etc. Notice that when you select a phone, it will bring you to a
page where it lists all compatible rate plans, organized by plan type and the
price of the phone if purchased with the specific rate plan. It is essential
that the functionality remains the same, including the phone specs, price w/o
activation, specifications, etc. A possible enhancement over our current site
will probably be to be able to list the phones according to wireless carrier,
instead of manufacturer.
Here is the tricky part. I will need 2 separate databases for the adding
products. The first database will simply accommodate for adding products and
entering the technical specs, required for comparisons, wireless carrier (ATT,
Cingular, or Sprint, etc), etc. This first database is only visible to the
administrator, and not to the customers looking at the store. The second
database is for choosing which products to sell, and then entering the
corresponding prices for the price plans depending on which wireless carrier was
selected in the first database. The second database is what the storefront uses
to determine which products are displayed, used for storing pricing information,
special offers, rebates, etc. The storefront then uses the first database to
display the specs, etc relating to the specific phone. The reason for using 2
databases for products is for the simplicity of offering the same products in
multiple storefronts without having to enter the same products twice. Hence, I
can simply copy the database file into each storefront, and I will simply choose
which products I will like to sell at each specific storefront. Therefore, I
will simply make copies of the first database, and copy them into every
storefront that I own. Therefore, in each store, I can choose to sell different
products, and change the prices from store to store, yet have the same possible
selection of products to sell. And of course, I will like to be able to modify
all aspects of the product.
The next part deals with is the Rate Plan section. If you look through our
current website, and select Rate Plans, it does an excellent job of displaying
all the rate plans in its appropriate category according to its wireless
carrier. Then if you select a rate plan, you will then go to a page that
displays the plans’ details, list all the phones compatible with that wireless
carrier and also displaying its corresponding price for that phone according the
rate plan selected.
For the rate plans however, we will probably only need 2 databases for the
same reason of having multiple stores. First database will store all the
wireless carriers, price plans, and the static information about each price
plan. The second will simple be to choose which price plan is to be displayed or
sold on the website.
There is a key difference between rate plans and the phones. Rate plans are
not considered products. Rate plans are only sold in a package with phones that
determines price of the package. Therefore, the customer can not just buy a rate
plan; the customer must select a phone to go along with the rate plan. However,
the same is not true with the phones. The phones can be bought with or without
the rate plan, as you can see by surfing through our website. Therefore, the
customer when purchasing wireless service via our website, the customer will be
purchasing a package determined by price plan selected and phone selected.
One of the main reasons we need a new solution is because we need to add
specific features. Such a feature is a discount given in the form of a rebate
offered for specific phones bought with a specific rate plan, etc. There are
other minute additional features that we would like to implement, but for the
sake of getting a quote for this project, we will only describe the absolute
crucial parts of our online store needs.
Another crucial part of the online store is the ability to sell regular items
as well, which is what a regular shopping cart is by default. We would like to
be able to sell accessories as well a cellular service.
Here is an overview goal of the storefront. We are looking to replicate our
current website (functionality wise) as closely as possible. More than that, we
are forward to using this software installed on multiple domains that will be
essentially selling the same types of products and service, but without having
to input all the product information and service over again. We want to be able
to sell the same products on each website, but given the choice to choose to
sell different phones or cellular service at each store. Most of everything can
be seen by trying to shop through our current website.
Just to clarify the storefronts. We wish to brand out multiple
storefronts. Meaning each store will be its own individual store, but will be
able to sell the same products and rate plans. These stores will be
completely independent with their own inventory, their own shipping locations,
merchant accounts etc. The only thing these storefronts will share are
their functionality of selling the same products and services. Our goal is to be
able "franchise" our online cellular retail store. Therefore, for each
franchise, we control the products and services that each franchise can choose
to sell. Although we control the cellular products and services that are
offered, but we do not want to interfere with how the franchises chooses to sell
the products. Meaning, we provide all the products and a ready built
store, but the franchise will be able to choose which products to sell, and for
how much.
My reasoning for the 2 databases was for the convenience that we are able to
update or add products to our franchises product database that they can choose
to sell, without interfering with their current store settings. Meaning,
we update the list of phones and rate plans that they can choose to sell, but
they do not necessarily have to choose to sell them.
There is one more problem to emphasize. Because we are essentially
reselling other wireless carriers services, we have no control over what is
offered in a rate plan. Meaning, we can not change how many minutes is
offered through T-Mobile's Get More Rate plan. Therefore, it would be best
if the franchise had no control over what is offered in the rate plan.
However, they can choose whether or not they wish to offer the rate plan in
their online store.
In essence, we provide a fully managed online store front to our franchise
owners. All they have to do is set the prices and market the store.
Again, this is just an overview of our needs. Hopefully this should be
sufficient information to give you a clear understanding of what it is we are
looking to achieve. Of course, there are many other minor details and
enhancement, such as look, placement, etc that we are looking forward to discuss
once we receive a quote that we can work with.
What we want to achieve is similar, but not the same. We simply want to help
other cellular retailers setup their own online store. They choose the products
to sell, the service plans to offer, and they set their own pricing. They
maintain their own inventory, etc. They are in charge of managing their own
online store, taking orders, customer support, and update product selection and
pricing. These stores will also be hosted on their own domains, but on our own
servers. My current webhost allows for me to point domains to certain
directories within my webspace, similar to a reseller.
In essence, we want to franchise our pre-built online webstore specific for
reselling cellular service.
Therefore, imagine our current website as what an example "franchise" store
would be like. Each store should be able to be modified to its own theme and
company identity.
Having said all this, we are looking for the most cost effective way of
creating this solution for us. This was the goal I was looking to achieve with
previous proposal. I thought by giving a clearer picture, it will help you
understand my needs.
Below is a picture I sketched out that should be a little clearer, just
incase I am completely loosing you. Of course the picture below is very
amateurish, so please excuse me. Hopefully it will only give a general idea of
what we want. And of course, there are a lot more details involved, but this
should be sufficient to clear up any misconceptions that I may have caused.
I do not have access to the source code, and therefore, I will need this
built from the ground up. In terms of being more technical, it would be great to
use the most cost effective method of creating this solution. My guess it PHP/MySQL.
Of course, I will be open to suggestions. The franchise stores should be hosted
on the same server, to simply everything. Therefore, there will be DNS entries,
so that certain domains are pointed to certain directories within my web hosting
account.
I would also like to address several issues that I have stated in my previous
quote request. I mentioned having 2 databases. What I mean by this should be
clearly seen in the picture below. You will notice that I have the master
catalog located on the administrator side. Hence, this would mean that each
franchise store will maintain their own product database, but refer to the
master catalog for product updates, etc. I hope this will clear up this aspect
of our needs.
I also wanted to emphasize that each franchise store should be capable of
regular e-commerce, and all the features that regular e-commerce retailing
solutions should have. Just to name a few: inventory control, sales tax
regulation, payment gateway configurations, etc. Each franchise store should
also have the ability to create new product categories, aside from rate plans,
and be able to sell whatever else they please, such as hats. What this comes
down to is similar to a regular shopping cart, but with an add-on module that
sells cellular service. Of course the emphasis of each site will be to sell
cellular service.
Therefore, it would seem to be that a majority of the programming should be
to create the actual franchise store functionality. The "Administrator" aspect
should be only simply to maintain a master catalog, and to be able to setup each
franchise store on the same server. Again, this is just a generalized view.
Like always, I feel this should hopefully allow you to get a better
understanding of what it is that we are looking to achieve. If you have any
further questions, please feel free to email them over.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey
