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This article discusses the current issues with the Intedge project website, the goals for the new website, the challenges faced during development, and the overall benefits of the new website. It also highlights the future benefits and technical advantages of the revamped website.
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Current Website Issues • Goals for the New Website • Challenges we were facing • New Website: • Functionality & Usage • Overall Benefits • Future Benefits
Current Website • Issues: • Fairly brief • Outdated Features • Outdated Design • Limited Functions • Limited Visual Appeal • Limited Dynamic & Interactive Aspects • Limited Credibility • Lacking Professionalism • Outdated Product Catalog • Limited expandability • Limited manageability • Overall: • Lacking the level of professionalism to compete in today’s market • Sending wrong image about the company • Hurting business more than actually benefiting
New Website Goals • Overall Goals: • More modern & Up-to-date • Professional, visually appealing but at the same time easy to use • Clearly outlines that we are a US Manufacturer and our products are Made in USA. • Sufficient dynamic and interactive features to keep users longer on the site • Convey sufficient professionalism in order stand out from the crowd (Manta.com lists over 250 textile manufacturers in the US alone) • Convey credibility along with professionalism • Ability to compete & separate ourselves from the rest in an attempt to become more of an industry leader • Goals in terms of functionality: • Ability to feature and administer current catalog • Ability for existing customers to place orders • Ability for new customers to request custom quotes • Ability for anyone to find products sold by Intedge nearby or online.
New Website Development Challenges • #1 Challenge: • Find a solution to portray the catalog to current and new customers and interested parties without • competing with our own customers • causing rivalry and/or price competition among our own customers • jeopardizing any existing relationships in place • Product Price Problems: • Flat rate prices do not exist for personalization services • Customers shop from us at different price levels • Online customers are reselling our products at fixed prices Display of product prices had to be eliminated in order to avoid confusion, competition and rivalry among existing customers.
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Made in USA aspect is clearly outlined. Main Navigation Dynamic Component Contact Information Services Reinforcement Important Buttons Expandable Dynamic Component Category Navigation User is visually lead to LOCATE DEALER
Lists all Intedge Dealers in the USA via convenient map format
Ability to obtain directions to the closest Intedge location
Before we were Vintage! 4 links
…now we are in touch • Hundreds of Dealers • Supported by credible • online brands I mean … Intedge 100’s of links
Professional Product Pages
Professional Product Pages with enlarged images
Kiss Human Data Entry Errors Good Bye
See Colors & Patterns available… …with a single mouse click opposed to turning to catalog p5
Order? Quote? No problem
Any number of Sales Reps can be immediately notified of an order; 24/7 via email!
Professional & visually appealing service page
Page dedicate to just Colors and Patterns
Professional looking Footer area
Member Login / Dealer Signup
Professional Sign-up Form
Professional looking, attractive “Welcome Email” Sent to customers upon sign-up
Customers can conveniently access & review or print their previous orders
Administer Shipping Addresses Select among shipping options
Administer Payment Addresses Select among payment options
Numerous other features… • Ability for members to administer newsletter and product related notifications • Login, Logoff, Change Password, Forgot Password, Change Account Information, Edit user and contact info and all other default member functions seen on “larger” sites. • Ability to leave order comments • Ability to Download PDF Catalog • Social Media Plug-Ins • Social Bookmarking • Live Chat • XML Sitemap (in progress…) • RSS Feed (in progress) • Bestsellers, Featured & Special Products, X-sell (“We also recommend”), corresponding administrational functions …and soo much more.
Future Technical Benefits • Robust, Stable, Secure, Up-to-date, Future oriented and 99% Production Ready • The system is in theory capable of handling up to 1 million records within the database; a limit set by mySQL. • Full flexibility provided through a Content Management System / Administration area which allows for: • Editing of all catalog, customer, order, informational aspects and much more. • Interaction with customers in regards to their orders; all conveniently recorded within a secured database • Template Driven (header, body, footer) – a single change effects whole catalog • Design/Update flexibilities provided through admin area. No Coding required. • A professional is not required to handle update related tasks • Administrators can be assigned to certain areas of the administration area exclusively such as i.e. catalog/product management only, order administration only • Many other features (Data Management, Catalog Marketing, Feeds, Reports etc.) • Fully optimized for Search Engines (SEO)
Overall Future Benefits • Custom designed, custom developed, fully functional, automated, online product catalog. Designed to generate leads with the ability to grow a dealer base quickly and cut down on customer service by speeding up and automating the process of order / quote requests. Everything is now centrally recorded in a secure database and can be accessed at any time. Less paperwork, less hassle. No data is lost. • We are now giving existing customers the ability to access the product catalog conveniently via web and adding a new venue / sales channel. Customers can now place specific – even custom - orders, without even having to pick up the phone or sending an email together with the ability to access their previous order records at any time. We are practically adding trust. • Not only does this cut down on customer service time spent on the phone or emailing back and forth with customers; data entry errors are now also being kept at a minimum and there is much less confusion in regards to available product options such as sizes, colors, add-ons etc. Less confusion on both ends cuts down production mistakes and leads to more satisfied customers. • This upgrade is going to do I N C R E D I B L E things to the overall company image. The fact that Intedge went the extra mile will not go by unnoticed among online visitors. • Quicker than you think, you will be doing business with people who did not consider you a proper business partner before. Not because you guys aren’t nice or your products aren’t good. They really didn’t even get a chance to get to know you…Why? Well… primarily because of the image you were signaling over to others by using your previous website.
Who would you rather trust doing business with? Who would youtrust with a large, custom order worth $1,000s of dollars?
- THE END - The Intedge Project