Beacon is a development partner for the eCommerce platform ASPDotNetStorefront and has been developing successful eCommerce websites with them since 2007.  Here are some features and functionality that we love about the software as well as a few “tips and tricks” that hopefully you will find helpful!  Please be sure to chime in with your own thoughts and suggestions…

Public Site Features

These are some features about AspDotNetstorefront that we really like and promote to our clients, along with a few links to where we have put some of these features to use.  Note that a few of these items require a purchased add-on for full functionality, but they are generally inexpensive, easy to install and don’t require source code.

Admin Site Features

I have been in the information technology world since 1981 when I wrote my first programs as a student at Wake Forest, then later as an intern at the NC Dept of Agriculture and throughout my career with RJ Reynolds, AT&T, as a student at Kansas State and now with Beacon.  In 1998 when we started Beacon, there were a few web development companies out there, but now they are EVERYWHERE!  All of them claim to be the best.  I know, I know.  That’s just business.  I have talked with hundreds of business leaders with respect to web initiatives over the years.  To no one’s surprise, the four main factors that drive the decision to select a web development/consulting firm are (1) Price, (2) Experience/Capability, (3) Delivery Time, and (4) Relationship / Support.  I believe we are very good at what we do, but by no means are we perfect as there is always room for improvement.  But having been in this profession for over half my life, I thought it might be worthwhile to share some of my experience-based thoughts on what good web development entails.  Of course, this isn’t all inclusive, but a solid foundation.

Website Development Facts:

1. For business purposes, it is NOT so simple that “a caveman can do it”.
2. Every website is a custom website.  Cost increases with the level of customization and volume of content/products.
3. You get what you pay for.  Cutting corners, having your nephew build the site, trying to build it yourself when you have time usually produces poor results.  Take the time to do it right.  Prioritize all your requirements and desired features.  Establish a realistic budget and share it with your vendor.  Ask them to provide as much as they can with that budget without sacrificing quality.  Push lower priority requirements to a future release.
4. Every website has a “Blueprint” Phase and a “Construction” Phase (most expensive of the two).  A good blueprint keeps the construction costs down and prevents re-work, so take the time to do it right.  Breaking these two phases into separate projects (contracts) works best.
5. Web development, hosting and marketing depend on each other.  It is a BIG advantage to have a single vendor that is strong in all 3 areas with good customer support.  One number to call for any web-related issues.

 Website Types:

1. Marketing (Informational, lead-generation)
2. Storefront (Ecommerce, online revenue generation)
3. Activity-Based (Custom Applications, Blogs)
4. Mix of the above

 Website Development Differentiators:  Good firms will not only discuss your specific needs, but will also share current trends, brainstorm new ideas and proactively cover the following (at a minimum), while constantly providing ideas and consultation.  If your web development company is sitting there waiting for you to tell them what to do, find another firm.

1. Cross Browser Compatibility:  Will your website operate in ALL the most current popular browser versions?
2. Updates to the website:  I’ve NEVER seen a website that didn’t need updates from time to time.  How will updates be handled and priced?
3. Content Management:  There are many, many content management systems on the market.  Of course, they vary in price based on features and functionality.  One size doesn’t fit all.  No reason to put a monster engine in a VW bug, nor a 4-cylinder into a Corvette. 
4. Coding for search engine visibility (SEO):  It’s one thing to create content for a web page, but a whole different thing to make the site search engine friendly, using meta tags effectively, the right keyword density, SEO landing pages, internal linking and much more.  You can’t just build a website and expect the world to find it.  You have to know how to construct it so the search engines “like” it…and I’m not talking about a Facebook “Like”!
5. Professional/Creative Web Design:  The old saying is quite true… You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.  Your website represents your business.  People don’t read content as much anymore.  This is why using the right imagery with easy navigation is important.
6. Calls to Action:  Ask yourself, “What do I want people to do when they come to my website?”  Is there a strong call to action that facilitates this?  And how will it be tracked?
7. Analytics:  I frequently say, “you can’t manage what can’t measure”.  MAKE SURE you have some sort of analytics tool (preferably Google Analytics) to track visitors, conversions and much more.  Your website is another Sales Rep – make sure it is performing well.
8. Site Search:  Is a site search tool included and is it appropriate for your site?  It is vitally important.
9. Hosting & support:  If your vendor also hosts your website, can they also host your email and provide spam filtering?  Are redirects being used appropriately?  What happens if a page isn’t found?  Do they check for broken links regularly?
10. Local web marketing:  Will your vendor help with optimizing your listings in Google Local, Places, Maps…and other standard local venues?
11. Integration:  Does your website need to integrate with 3^rd party or back office software?  Accounting?  Shipping?  Order Management?  CRM?  Will experienced engineers be available to discuss critical requirements.

 Choosing a Website Development Partner:  When you select a website development firm, there is always somewhat of a leap of faith.  Like any profession, there are good firms and bad firms. Minimize this leap by considering the following:

1. How many years have they been in business?  Demonstrates financial stability, success and peace of mind that they have not only been providing these services, but will be around when you need them in the future.
2. Look at their portfolio.  There are so many firms out there that showcase relatively unknown clients.  There’s a reason for this – especially if they have been around for a long time.
3. Read their blog and Facebook page.  It will tell you a lot about their breadth and depth of skills, their people and their personality.
4. Do they outsource or do everything in house?  Nothing against outsourcing, but I’m a big believer in minimizing the number of costly middle-men.
5. Ask about who’s doing the work.  Does one person handle project management, creative design, development, testing, SEO and implementation?  I have yet to meet a person who is an expert in all of these areas.
6. Ask for example deliverables.  Can they provide examples of a project plan and any other deliverables that are created prior to development?  The website is NOT the only deliverable.  Houses aren’t built without a blueprint, neither should your website.
7. Ask about communication.  Will your primary point of contact be a Project Manager or a Developer?  Can you meet this person?
8. Ask about the creative design process.  How many design-and-review iterations do they provide with respect to the website design – so that you can see the creative design(s) and request modifications?
9. Ask about the CMS and eCommerce software options.  Are they locked into only one of each or do they have more breadth of experience and alternative options to meet your price and functional requirements?
10. Ask how they test the website before it is launched.  Do they have a formal “User Acceptance Testing” process – so you can check everything out before it gets launched?
11. Is the firm a good fit for your business culture?  Does the relationship “feel” good & honest like the firm cares about the success of your website?  Or do you feel like you are just part of an assembly line.
12. Ask about post-launch support.  Who to call?  Pricing?  Expected response time?  After hours?  Ticketing system to insure your request is logged and monitored to completion?
13. Do they really provide their own hosting services or do they use a 3^rd party?  Ask this 3-part question:  Where is the web server located that houses my website?  How often is server maintenance performed and who performs it?  I’ve seen a lot of finger pointing between hosting firms and development firms over the years.

 Website Development Budget:  For us, every project is quoted separately  There’s always exceptions, but here’s a “Rule of Thumb” table that I have put together based on several hundred projects we’ve performed over the years.  I hope this helps to some degree with your approach to web development firms.

*Small:  option to pay monthly
**X-Large: businesses w/ large product catalogs, universities, etc (thousands of pages) that require careful planning and coordination with internal decision-making groups. Many times these projects require integration with existing legacy systems and/or 3^rd party software.
***Duration is dependent on the availability of resources, number of resources working concurrently and the client’s availability & delivery of content.

“Click here, edit this, move that, and save, there it’s that simple” said the presenter, with a shiny new website, upgraded to version 9 of ASPDotNetStorefront on the monitor, unfortunately the real world is never that easy. Recently, we completed the upgrade of a version 8 ASPDotNetStorefront website to version 9. Upgrades always have there own challenges and pitfalls and this project was no different. One of the biggest challenges for this project was ASPDotNetStorefront’s change to Microsoft master pages.

When upgrading, the first issue you will need to deal with is the change from ASPDotNetStorefront’s previous model of templates and skins to Microsoft’s master page model. I initially used the Upgrade Guide PDF for the conversion, but ran situations not covered by the PDF. The change to using master pages resulted in the use a server form tag wrapping the content in the master template. If you have any content that uses it’s own form, then that code will need to be modified. In this upgrade, we had two forms defined in the template that are present throughout the website, a website search form and a email sign-up form.

For the website search form we had 2 options: either use version 9′s new web control “as is” or modify the code to not use the form. We chose to modify the code because we are using a third party search add-on that offered extended search capability desired by our client. The modification we performed to the form were to use a JQuery function to capture the data submission event and do the post of the form data to the processing page instead of a normal form element.

For the email sign-up form, we had to use a different method. For this client, the email sign-up was handled by a 3rd party vendor, who’s form needed to be posted to. After posing the question to the ASPDotNetStorefront support forum and getting several answers involving some moderate to large programming changes, our web designer came up with a simple alternative: place the sign-up for in it’s own page outside of ASPDotNetStorefront’s name space and call the page in an iframe. Problem solved. For all intents and purposes the form is seamlessly integrated into the site.

Using both new and established technologies allowed us to meet the business requirements of the project without sacrificing the core programming benefits of ASPDotNetStorefront’s master templates. In the next issue, I’ll describe some of the issues we ran into with third party add-ons and working with the new templates.

I returned from the AspDotNetStorefront Developer’s conference in July with lots of exciting news about the upcoming release of AspDotNetStorefront ML Version 9, entitled “Ashland” (apparently a city in Ohio, near their headquarters).  Though no official release date has been publicized (Beta release was 10/7/09), my inside sources tell me mid to late November.

Here’s what’s in “store” (pun intended!):

• ERP synchronization– real-time integration with third-party and back office applications
• Enhanced Kit product layout– the older versions had kind of a clumsy kit interface; this one is much nicer user experience and Ajax-based.  Allows for images for kit options and toolbox .NET controls.
• Multi-Store– allows a single database and common administrators to manage products of multiple domains/stores.  Ideal for stores with up to 100,000 products, 10-20,000 entities and 200-300 orders per day
• Configurable URL-rewrites– Allows URL to be customized for search engine optimization purposes
• Entity page sorting– ability for visitor to sort category/department/manufacturer listing pages
• Adhoc WYSIWYG report generator in Admin
• Ajax-based mini cart
• Support for postal codes formatted by countries other than U.S.
• Support for versioning and nesting topic pages
• Coupon start dates and product exclusions
• Page-level, role-based security in Admin
• Direct integration with Avalara Tax Service and Velaro Chat Service

Click here to read more about Beacon Technologies‘ support and development with AspDotNetStorefront and be sure to contact us for more info on how we can help you create a top-notch ecommerce site!

Beacon Technologies’ close relationship with Google often grants us access to many of their education initiatives like the live Google AgencyLand webinars which are open to qualified Adwords companies and their clients. We recently attended one of these team trainings entitled “Five Rules of Consumer Engagement,” taught by Google’s Jim Lecinski and inspired by research conducted amongst Google customers in the Fortune 100. Lecinski asked the group an essential question to set the stage and because his answer will help many of Beacon’s customers, I feel it’s worth sharing. Q: How do you know when your company is ready to tackle the next phase of online engagement?

If you’re like most marketing directors, you’re feeling immense pressure to experiment with whatever hot social media tool everyone is talking about these days whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, or bebo. And although it’s true your brand shouldn’t fall victim to a trend; before you encourage customers to form an online community geared towards self-expression and entertainment, be sure you’ve mastered the first two phases – Digital Brochureware and Online Sales Channel.

In the mid-90s, companies mostly used their website as a place where potential customers could get more information, almost like an online brochure that made it easier for visitors to know what you have and what you do without having to hunt down a sales representative.

The next iteration of the web happened when companies started enabling their sites with eCommerce functionality, which was the next logical step; they now see what you have, let them buy something from you. A handful of brands led the way like Amazon and eBay and revolutionized online shopping; while others cling to their brick-and-mortar only strategy and have yet to develop an online sales channel. Perhaps their hesitation is due to regulatory reasons, but often it’s the hefty price tag of the necessary software to do it right that many shy away from, which is why Beacon recommends using BeCommerce.NET, our branded version of the AspDotNetStorefront for an eCommerce solution. Completely search engine friendly, BeCommerce.NET provides all the latest features, bells and whistles and integrates nicely with third party software like accounting systems, inventory control systems and in-site search. Depending on the cost of your products and/or services just a few online sales can justify your investment into this type of long term technology.

Lecinski recommends that companies only enter the third phase with social media sites, an initiative he dubbed “Creating a Community for Self-expression and Entertainment,” after they’ve focused on their financial goals first by offering the ease of doing business on the Web. Because no matter how exciting it is to have diverse groups of people engage with your brand and insert it into their daily fodder, you want and/or need to sell something, right?

According to a recent Luxury Vehicle study conducted by Google, customer conversion on the Web was 23 percent more likely if the dealer targeted clientele with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, i.e. paid placement on search but also utilized the power of boosting organic rankings. I have yet to hear of a Twitter campaign that resulted in that type of sales increase, although any online marketing tactic from email blasts to links into your site from Facebook can be tracked if your site is properly configured for Google Analytics. The lesson here is not to be blinded by the hype so that you replace your paid online advertising budget in your marketing plan with monies for social media efforts. Just have all your “fishing lures” working together and then use Google Analytics to gauge your plan’s total effectiveness based on online conversions, sales and in the case of some of our SEM clients, more foot traffic into stores.

And once you start thinking across sales channels, i.e. using the Web to drive traffic into stores and/or tracking traditional marketing success via vanity URLs, you enter into a league with best-in-class retailers who can access a single view of all customer data whether it comes from eCommerce, stores or call centers – everything is integrated in one database. Having this high level view paints a truer picture of brand engagement which will allow your company the opportunity to segment your multiple channel customers which are often your most valuable consumer group.

So don’t settle for tweets and chatter only, follow steps 1-2-3, focus on the right business decisions first and you’ll reap the financial rewards – contact Beacon to find out more about BeCommerce.NET, Google Analytics, email marketing campaigns and PPC.

‘Twas the day before Christmas, when all through the halls
All our sites were generating leads and qualified calls
Tracy’s team of eCommerce engineers coded with care,
In the hopes to avoid sneaky hackers’ malware;
John had our servers nestled all snug on their shelves,
While Barracuda spam filters blocked visions of naked elves;
And Brad with his backlinks, and Mark with his web apps,
Had just increased rankings with an SEO-friendly sitemap,
When out in Cascade Server there arose such a flurry,
As Justin typed CMS data definitions in a terrific hurry;
With a company like this, so lively and quick
I knew in a moment it must be Beacon Tech.

{Original Excerpt from Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement Clark Moore}

The Setup:
Two people are sitting at the airport waiting to catch a flight. They do not know one another.

Person #1 is a Business Owner. Person #2 is Beacon Sales Guy.

Business Owner (Person #1) looks to Beacon Sales Guy (Person #2) and sighs: “What a day! I just lost my 3rd major account this year. Apparently they had grown tired of telephoning and faxing in orders and receiving shipments the following week. They found another supplier that could actually take orders online and process and ship next day. Whatever happened to the telephone and fax machine? Whatever happened to personal relationships? What’s the world coming to?”

Beacon Sales Guy (shaking his head slowly): “Hmmm. That is tough news to hear. Sounds like a very bad year for your business. My timing may be off here perhaps but my company, Beacon Technologies, actually helps companies automate outdated processes by developing custom integrated ecommerce and ordering websites. We build ecommerce and ordering websites that integrate real-time to our customers accounting and inventory systems. Your clients would actually be able to purchase products, review order history, check inventory levels, receive customer specific pricing and much more if we were your web partner. Sales would quadruple. I promise!!!” (okay, i actually would not say the last two sentences but you get the idea)

Business Owner: ” Sounds like a lot of fancy fast talk to me. Whatever happened to simply picking up the phone and calling in an order? Geez!!!”

Beacon Sales Guy: “Well, actually it’s not really that fancy. Automating your ordering process to an automated web system can be a bit complex but we do it everyday. It is EXACTLY what we do!!”

Business Owner: “Well you seem rather confident. Do you think you can help little ‘ole me?”

Beacon Sales Guy: We are experts with all things ‘web’. Call me Monday and we’ll talk. (okay, i would actually ask for his phone number at this time)

Like the Business Owner above, are you struggling to find a reliable web partner?
Have you had several web partners over the past 5 years and they are simply not meeting your expectations?

Beacon will succeed!

About Beacon:
Sure, Beacon Technologies has been in business for over 10 years.
Sure, Beacon has 30 employees and can offer you vast expertise and experience with web strategy and implementation.
Sure, Beacon has a proven process and methodology to deliver high quality websites and web application, from start-to-finish, on-time and on-budget.
Sure, Beacon’s Graphical Design Team is excellent. Just ask them!!!
Sure, Beacon’s Content Management Software is flexible, robust, reliable, SEO-friendly, and fully licensed and supported technology.
Sure, Beacon’s CSS, UI, Web Designers are exceptional.
Sure, Beacon’s application developers, database administrators, system integration experts will develop a self-service system that will scale for you for years to come.
Sure, Beacon’s Managed Hosting services at TW Telecom Co-location Data Center is world class.
Sure, Beacon’s Project Management Team will truly please you with their personalities, energy, and attention-to-detail.
Sure, Beacon’s PCS Maintenance Team is well organized to facilitate ongoing minor maintenance request with a ticketing system to manage the workload.
Sure, Beacon’s Search Engine Marketing services are highly capable to deliver measurable results and positive ROI.
Sure, Beacon’s SEM Team has been recognized by Google as experts with both tools: Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer

But how can this help you?

If this sounds interesting or familiar (even just slightly)…call Beacon and let’s talk!

Full-Service Web Development Firm

• Website Design and Develop
• Content Management Software – with Cascade Server
• Custom Software Application Development
• Integrated eCommerce (frontend to backoffice)
• Search Engine Marketing
• Google Analytics Authorized Consultants, Google Analytics Partner List
• Site/Application Maintenance
• Hosting – Website/Server/Email
• Logo/Branding Design

Patrick Flanagan
336-232-5668
pflanagan@beacontec.com

After spending nearly 15 years with AT&T as a software developer/engineer and Program Manager for their Corporate Intranet, where I got hooked on the internet during the late 90’s, I “retired” to start Beacon Technologies during the dot-com craze.  I wish I had a dollar for every person that said or thought “I’m going to open an online store and make a ton of money!”  The ongoing belief was “Build it and they will come!” – a saying stolen from one of my favorite movies (“Field of Dreams” in case you are wondering).

Easy money, right?  Absolutely!  But let’s get on the same page here.  It’s easy to spend money.  Making money is an entirely different story. Okay.  I’ll admit it.  I said the same thing.  After starting up Beacon in 1998 and spending 5 years helping other companies produce millions through the internet, I said, “Hey, why don’t we open an online store and make millions too?”  We just had to pick something to sell, then, of course, we would make money hand-over-fist!

As a North Carolina company, we considered pottery, but we were worried about goods getting damaged during shipment.  We considered kites, but worried about demand.  Then THE product appeared one day while reading the local business journal – NASCAR Furniture.  The sport and the industry have deep roots in NC.  Better yet, we decided to go with leather NASCAR Furniture.  High margin.  Sell one or two a month and we’re good.  We would use our own eCommerce engine, our own securely hosted data center, our own highly successful search engine marketing expertise and simply drop-ship the product to all those NASCAR fans anxious to buy our products.  Like a lot of business ideas (especially back during the dot-com era), it seems like a no-brainer and too easy.  Oh how naïve we were.

So, in November 2004, we launched RaceFanFurniture.com.  In all seriousness, our primary motive was to create a “live” online store as a model, but hey, generating a little revenue would be gravy.  We would operate the store to understand issues that our customers experience with our software services.  This also gave us a site to implement and evaluate new features (including 3^rd party extensions) before recommending them to our customers.  It just made good business sense.  But deep down, I also wanted the “easy money” too.

The site generated 70 orders in 2004; 533 in 2005; 2474 in 2006 and 8566 in 2007 after expanding the product line, revamping the site and changing the name to SportsNutShop.com.  We are conservatively forecasting 24,000 orders this year.  With this growth, you may say, “Well, it is easy!”.  Not even close.  Remember, although we have good business experience, we come from the IT world with very little experience in retail.  We observed how our clients operated their online stores…but primarily from the technical perspective.  There are many, many other factors and requirements that affect success.

Bottom line is that it’s not easy…to make money with an online store.  It truly requires the same thought processes and business planning as a brick-and-mortar business.  After 10 years of ecommerce support, I’ve learned a lot.  I plan a series of posts to share some of this first-hand experience, primarily with specific examples from SportsNutShop.  You may write off some of this advice to what I call the “Duh” factor, but there are so many components to a successful, smooth-running ecommerce business.  So whether you are a rookie or a veteran in the ecommerce world, I sincerely hope you will find some “nuggets” that will make a difference. Some of the topics I plan to post about are below.  Please let me know if there are other topics that you are interested in.

• eCommerce Software
• Payment Gateways
• Shipping & Return Policies
• Product Selection & Management
• Inventory Management
• Accounting
• Vendor Management
• Drop-shipping
• Fulfillment
• Warehouse Management
• Search Engine Marketing (General, Organic, PPC, Shopping Engines)
• Email Marketing
• Hosting
• Site Search
• Online Help & Customer Service
• Gift Cards
• Loyalty Programs
• and More (as I think of them!)