We’re in the market for a full e-commerce website.
We sell primarily media products (books, dvds, cds, video games, etc).
The website design, we would like something “unique” but still clean, easy to use. We’re not interested in an Amazon or eBay style clone (maybe should be, as those sites are successful) however… while we want something unique, fresh, we don’t want graphics overkill. The site needs to be eye-friendly, not overwhelming, and yet still catchy/memorable, and pleasant to view/use. Even something like a uniquely designed mascot that may sit or pop up at various points of the site, pointing out to things, helping out… maybe doing a little “run” when a search is being performened “Our dedicated little music-monkey is searching our warehouse right now… give him just a few seconds to see what he finds.” while an animation of a little monkey tossing around a bin of CDs, and books, is showing. That’s just a random idea. But you get the point. Something unique, cool, fun.
I don’t really care what code the site will be designed in, as long as it will be SEO friendly. SEO, will also be part of this project. I believe, if the same people who are responsible for design, will also be responsible for SEO, they will build the site from scratch in a manner that is most conducive SEO. We will inform you, exactly which aspects of our products we wish the greatest search engine focus to be placed on (example… we may not necessarily care too much about the author of a book being used as a search engine keyword, as much as a particular book’s ISBN number instead. 😉
Database: there is nothing that irritates me more, as a business owner, than limits. Thus, the product database will need to be designed, and optimized, for high speed performance, even to a point where our database will reach as many as one million products, or more. The database absolutely must be able to support as many as 1 million products, or possibly, more, without crashing or running at Commodore 64 speeds.
Naturally, I’d like to think goes without saying, but, an advanced “intelligent” search of our catalog, will have to be implemented as well. For example, on music CDs, catalog numbers (aka, product codes) can sometimes be written on a CD in the format: “SRCD-89202” but a customer might simply enter “SRCD89202” in the search window, seeking that particular CD. In such case, I would like our search engine to recognize this, and return the result. The same, would have to be applied to catalog/product database upload/update. If we have a listing in our catalog that has a product code of say “XRJL-892” but are now uploading a product that has a catalog “XRJL892” it will have to be recognized and treated as a duplicate entry.
Naturally, there are a number of “assumed” elements of a website, that I won’t get into, but it will be my understanding, that these elements will be included (for example… “About us”, “Contact us”, and standard design elements of this kind).
The site update/content revision/edit admin panel, will need to be as simple and “WYSIWYG” like as possible, as I know nothing about html/php, etc. Thus, when I will want to change/edit the site (About us, promotions, discounts), I need it to be as rookie-friendly as possible.
Promotions/discount capability: the site will have an ability for me, the admin, to offer promotions (and send them via email to subscribers). Example, % discount on certain products (example, CDs only) and/or from a set category (example, set time/date begining/end, percentage discount, and product category that will be affected by the discount).
Payments/checkout: full shopping cart, naturally, implemented/working. Google payments compatible, and Paypal compatible.
Buyer “wantlist” system designed, that will enable a buyer to enter title/author, catalog (product) number, and maybe another variable or two, of a product they are seeking. They’ll be able to submit as many products as they will individually, or upload a “want list”. Once they do so, we will have the ability to send them a link, directly to their cell phone, with price/availability of the items from their wantlist, and that will enable them to purchase the item, directly from their cell phone, instantly. If they are registered on our website, their payment preferences will be stored, and they’ll simply need to confirm their password/purchase via their cell phone, and confirm the purchase that way.
The buyer “wantlist” system, will also have a test feature, where… once the list is submitted to us, the buyer will then have the option to enter their cell phone number, or cell phone mail address, and click “Test”. Our site will send them a quick “It worked!” message (or something like that). Once it’s successful, they can “save” the information, and when our team is able to locate their items in our system, we will send them the price/purchase email to their cell phone.
Language support (both in terms of menus (website layout/design) and the product database itself) will have to be in a number of major languages (English, French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Italian, Korean, Indian, Thai, and others…).
Catalog numbers/EAN/UPCs, etc… when updated, if entry exists, have option where I can either “skip duplicate” entries (based on catalog number), add new listing, or, update quantity of active listing.
Product database upload admin panel will be simple/easy to use, and will use a simple .csv template file I can upload to update my inventory.
Site/server will have some kind of anti-scraping security feature installed (too many calls from one IP in a short period, etc… or calls that have identical intervals, will be blocked for an hour or two, and reported to me via email… if the exact same server call pattern resumes from that IP again, and maybe a third time, that IP will be permanently blocked.
Product upload template, will accept either URLs for image locations (in which case those images will be automatically downloaded onto my server, and stored there- as opposed to simply linking to the image urls. The product template will ALSO accept a local path (example, C:\Images\test.jpg) for product images. Again, in such case, the image will then be uploaded onto my host/server, and accessed from that location when the item in question is viewed on the live website.
Please submit samples of “RELATED” websites, not just a generic cut and paste resume (everytime we post a project here, we’re bombarded with generic resumes, that seldom have anything to do with our unique projects.) Naturally, we ignore those… and focus on the few that are specific and more related to our project.
We will consider your feedback, bid price, and, the delivery timeline when selecting the winning bidder. Just as you would likely not be happy if we did not pay the exact amount agreed upon, in the same way, we would not be happy if the project delivery time is not the same as agreed upon, so please.. be certain, that you enter a delivery time that can and will be met, even with the necessary testing/possible bugs, etc.
Remember, this is a complete project, from start to finish. You will be responsible for all design, implementation, setting up on the server/host, and everything else related. Basically, when the website will have our catalog uploaded, will be fully searcheable/working/live (online), and will be detected by the major search engines, and able to receive orders, the project will then be considered complete.
Thank you to everyone, for your interest.
