For example, an online music store might offer customers a search on music genre, partial album name, artist or composer etc.  Searching is very flexible with a widely configurable range of options delivering search strategies ranging from very simple to advanced boolean queries.  Searches may include selections of keywords, exact phrases or partial words.  Searches on multiple indices may be entered as single or individual terms, e.g. one could search for a title and an author supplied in a single entry field or by title entry field and a separate author entry field.  A wide range of search options and combinations are available.

With scalable support for many millions of entries searchable by key or by combination of attributes, the Catalog Engine is suited for a wide range of applications, not only e-commerce.  It has applications in libraries and in spare parts or component display systems.  The fact that it is online makes it even more flexible and accessible to global customers and mobile workers.

The Catalog Engine is ideally suited for application in fields such as:

• library catalogs
• automotive or equipment parts catalogs
• book or music catalogs
• stock photo catalogs
• office product catalogs
• booking, lending or rental systems
• warehouse inventory lists

Search results can return short or long-form product information including images, stock levels, store availability, prices, offer validity/expiry times, related documents and sound or video teasers/tasters.   Search results are “paged” e.g. results can be returned in pages with configurable numbers of results per page.  Complementing the indexed search, a free text search over stored documents e.g. product descriptions, abstracts or reviews can deliver extended or more detailed results as drill-downs.

The searchable data, i.e. the indexed data, can be updated periodically without interruption to online requests.  This is usually done using dual background/foreground catalog databases with the background catalog rebuilt with update batches before being hot-swapped with the foreground catalog.

Volatile information such as stock levels, store availability, reviews or even pricing (including special offers) can be individually updated in real-time for each catalog entry.

WebVentures can offer the High-Volume Catalog Engine as part of a complete online system or as a standalone element integrable into third party systems.  Contact us for more information.

E-commerce sites rely on trustworthy and reliable transaction management.  WebVentures delivers robust and secure online payment and transaction management services to merchant acquiring banks in Australia and New Zealand.  Outside those geographic areas, WebVentures integrates with local merchant acquiring services to deliver a full range of credit-card payment support.  Contact us to investigate support for your currency, in your language.

In addition to credit card payments, WebVentures provides customizable support for business-specific stored credit or pre-paid accounts.  Post-paid “account” transaction support is also available.

Transaction management ensures no payments are lost or orphaned from their corresponding business transactions.  Your customers see a complete and accurate response to their payment requests.  If their payment request is declined, a full description is provided.  For Australia and New Zealand regions, full security is provided for credit card payments by means of CVV/CSC (Card Verification Value/Card Security Code) capture during the transaction.  In other regions, additional data such as Billing Address may be verified.  No sensitive data, e.g. complete card numbers or CVV/CSC, is held online.  Only a partial card number is retained for cross-reference purposes.  Merchants have the ability to review all transactions through a separate web portal.

Transaction management also links with the CRM system to create comprehensive fulfillment notes or “pick-lists” to inventory/dispatch teams or systems.

Just as the CRM holds all information essential to delivering the correct customer experience, the CRM contains enormously valuable historical data for understanding your online business.  The CRM is linked to the transaction database allowing detailed analysis of purchasing patterns, transaction histories and product sales.  Data may be mined to view catalog-wide or individual product movements, effectiveness of sales campaigns and geographic and demographic patterns.

CRM data can be transferred to back-office systems for integration with POS transactions, ERP and other corporate data centers.  Conversely, back-office data can be automatically uploaded to the online CRM on a scheduled or ad-hoc basis, ensuring your online records are fully accurate and timely.

Whatever your specific needs, WebVentures has a flexible Customer Relationship Management system capable of managing the online data associated with high-performance, multi-million customer sites.