Web Development Proposal
DT: TO: FR: RE: June 23, 2003 Rich Bushnell Michael Conkle eMail: rich@bbks.com eMail: Mike@sandcastle-i.com
E-Commerce Web Development for Bilingual Books, Inc.
Dear Rich, David and I appreciate the opportunity to have met with you this past week and to present you Sandcastle’s proposal for developing e-commerce for Bilingual Books. You have great products and a proven demand for direct sales, which is a great combination for immediate success of your web site. As we touched on during our meeting last week, Sandcastle offers the core strengths of marketing expertise, top-level professional design, operational support and great technology that ties it all together. We got our start developing e-commerce web sites for specific Direct Response marketing programs. Our success came from understanding sound marketing practices and developing web technologies to bring them to the Internet. Sandcastle has developed and launched e-commerce sites for some of the web’s most successful products and services. Orange Glo International (Oxiclean), Space Bag, Tatouage Designs, Clorox & WebMD are just a few of the companies we are proud to have began commerce activities for on the web. Today, we continue to represent a wide variety of clients from entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies. In addition to Web Development, Sandcastle offers a complete range of Internet Marketing services. These include Opt-in Email Campaigns, On-site Promotions, Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search Advertising & a variety of off line promotions. Sandcastle can help you develop a cohesive campaign to bring people to your site, and keep them buying your products. Additional information on Sandcastle and a partial client list can be found on our web site, http://www.sandcastle-i.com. Thank you again!
Michael Conkle
1414 Dexter Avenue North. #306 Seattle, WA 98109 Tel: (206) 282-1492 Ext 302 Fax: (206) 286-0812 Email: mike@sandcastle-i.com
Project Overview Sandcastle understands the primary objective of this project is to develop a full-functioning ECommerce Web Site to serve your present (and future) customer base, and to facilitate streamlined order processing and customer lookup functionality. Specifics of this development effort are to: Develop a site design which is reflective of your markets and products. Create a simple yet effective user interface. Deploy full-functioning e-commerce. Automate your order processing functionality. Provide Customer Service functionality. Help create several aftermarket promotional opportunities.
In short, we want to maximize your selling and marketing opportunities, automate your current processing to save time and resources, and do it all within a great looking web site. This proposal for web development will specifically address site design, content, e-commerce technology, product merchandising, order processing, customer lookup, site hosting and on going maintenance. A more detailed discussion of each of these areas is found in the following sections of our proposal.
Site Design Our objectives for site design are threefold. First, we want to develop an interface that ties into your existing branding and product design. It will be critical that we carry the success that has come from your distinctive product design to our web site. Secondly, we will evolve a look and feel that will appeal to your three rather distinctive markets. It’s always a challenge to address diverse markets as those to whom you sell. However, again keying off of your product design will make this a much less challenging task. Thirdly we’ll want to develop a design which integrates the Spanish translation version while allowing us to maintaining design consistency with the rest of the web site. Furthermore, the design will: Deploy top-level professional design that will add value and equity to your products and company. Maintain a consistent “look and feel” throughout the site. Include a user interface that provides logical & easy access to products & information. Provide strong reinforcement of your branding. Drive sales and be focused on a positive user experience.
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Sandcastle’s Design Process – Sandcastle’s design and development path once a project is started, is to present you with several initial design options for your Home Page. These options will be based on your preferences and suggestions which will be discussed during an initial creative conference. The Home Page design will drive the look and feel of the rest of the site will be finalized through 2 or 3 design rounds. Upon approval of the design direction for the Home Page, a design for the subsequent sectional pages will be developed for both language versions based on the established look and feel. With final design approval, we will commence to build out the site guided by an approved site map Content We will follow your very complete outline for the site’s sectional organization and content structure. To aid in our understanding of your requested site layout and to help in determining the overall scope of this project, we have provided a detailed site map. Once finalized, this site map will be used as our primary guide in building out the web site.
E-Commerce Technology The E-Commerce functionality for the site will come from Sandcastle’s server-side, e-commerce technology. It will feature: Fully enabled, SSL secured shopping cart A straight forward, “standard” user interface for the shopping cart Data validation at multiple levels Individual customer accounts (optional for “Retail” customers) Multi-level pricing Real-time credit card processing through the Authorize.net Gateway Robust product merchandising including upsell & cross sell Order confirmation and auto email messaging Real-time order reporting The ability to be completely scaleable for future product line expansion
Furthermore, the shopping experience will be segregated between your two customer types, “Retail” customers and “Wholesale” customers. Retail customers will be offered “standard” pricing within your products shopping area. During the shopping experience they will be offered the option of creating a customer account which will provide for “quick check out” by pre-filling data fields (except credit card info) and customer account administration of their saved account information. Wholesale customers will be offered a separate pricing level on Bilingual SKUs accessed through a simple login procedure. Account creation and editing will be handled through a separate Admin Tool only accessible to Bilingual staff. Wholesale Orders will not be processed as credit card orders, allowing for “Invoice” to be selected as a payment type (credit card orders are possible if you’d like). They will be processed separately from Retail Orders (See Order Processing below) and allow for order data to be routed to the appropriate member of Bilingual’s Staff. Sandcastle will make available during the shopping experience for both customer groups, the ability of entering a Discount Code. Discount Codes can be used for special promotions or ongoing discounts offered to either customer group. These codes can provide for either a % off
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the product subtotal or a fixed $ amount. They can be associated to a specific SKU or the entire order and can also be used to make adjustments to the shipping cost. We normally set up Discount Codes to have a specific expiration date.
Product Merchandising As a part of Sandcastle’s shopping system, we will offer product merchandising at several levels. We can offer an “intrusive upsell” when any single product is added to the shopping cart. This upsell might be the “Language Map” offered when the “10 Minutes a Day” workbook of a specific language is purchased, or vice versa. Cross selling can take place at the view cart level. We can offer 2 or 3 “you might also be interested in” products here that are associated with any item in the shopping cart. Upsells or cross sells can also be controlled to only display to repeat customers or those with existing accounts if requested. Order Processing – Account Administration Order Processing will be handled through a secure, password protected administration area of your web site. Sandcastle typically makes this a non-navigatable section of your site accessed through a “back door” URL. (i.e.https://www.bbks.com/admin). Several other functions will be accessed through this administration area of your web site in addition to order processing. They are: Order Entry - Streamlined system for taking “phone orders” by your staff (or by contracted third parties). Order Record Lookup – To Facilitate Customer Service inquiries. Processing of “Retail” orders (credit card) o Package Label/Packing Slip Printing. o Local Pick List Printing. Processing of “Wholesale” orders Order Reporting – Sales Reporting and Order Detail Administration of Wholesale Accounts
At login, you are taking to a separate Administrative Function Home page allowing you to access any of the functions as noted above. Order Entry - For Order Entry of “phone orders”, the customer is asked if they have an “account” with Bilingual Books. This can accommodate both Wholesale and Retail orders. If no (non wholesale or no account previously set up), the person taking the order clicks to access site product listings, then proceeds with the order in the normal flow. For this “version” of the product listings, we would produce a somewhat streamlined version, which will omit some graphics to speed page loads and lesson the actual time needed in taking an order on the phone. If the person does have an account, order person clicks on “customer lookup”. Here customer records are accessed by looking up either: Phone Number Name Zip Code
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Order ID #
This search brings up a line listing of customers by name, address, city, zip code, and order date. The correct person’s line listing is clicked on to highlight, and then the “New Order” button is clicked, loading an order form pre filled with the customer’s data. All Data is completely editable in case any information has to be changed. (Credit card number is left blank since it is not stored permanently in customer records). The order person then can access the product pages of the same “streamlined” site, add the requested products to the cart, then proceed to check out as normal. “Smart” upsells as noted above can be deployed in this “streamlined” version so that whomever is taking the order can suggest any one of a number of upsells based on what was initially ordered. To facilitate order entry with third party vendors, (contracted telemarketers, or temp staff) this system will track the username of the “Order Person” and write it to the order record. This will allow you to track who took the order if you ever need to know down the road. Customer Lookup - The Customer Lookup function will provide a fast way to look up past orders and order detail information using a number of key fields: Phone Number Name Zip Code Order ID#
This search brings up a line listing of customers by name, address, city, zip code, and order date. The correct person’s line listing is clicked on to highlight, and then the “Order Lookup” button is clicked, displaying a complete detail listing of that particular order including ship date. Note that as part of the “Ship Processing” functionality as described below, we will also be able to display a “Ship Date” for the order being looked up. Order Processing (Retail Orders) - From the main Administrative Section, you’ll access an area to facilitate processing your Retail orders and printing shipping labels and picking lists. Menu selections will be provided for: Printing Picking Lists Printing Shipping Labels & Packing Slips Update Ship Dates
Print Picking List – This function is intended to facilitate assembling and packing each day’s orders. Two separate Picking Lists will be available to print at your local printer. Depending on the preference of your Shipping People, one list will be a Product SKU listing for each order. With this, each individual order can be “Picked and Packed” and readied for the shipping label. (Note all shipping labels and picking lists will match orders with an ORDER ID number). The second listing will be sorted by Product SKU. This will enable all products for that day’s orders to be readied for shipment and provide a listing of what was picked for that particular day’s orders. Print Labels & Packing Slips – From your local printer, this will produce an individual shipping label (customized with Bilingual Books, Inc. Logo & Address) for each order. The single sheet is folded so that the “top” side contains the shipping label, and the “back” side is the Packing List of
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order contents, what the person paid, their Order ID#, and any other messaging you may want to include (i.e., marketing info for upcoming specials and new products) The shipping labels are intended to slip into a Fed Ex Type, clear-faced label holder that adheres to the front of the packaging. Update Ship Dates – When the day’s orders have been processed and shipped, your Shipping People with the click of the mouse can update each order with the shipping date. This can globally update all records for that particular day, or if some orders could not be shipped, a ship date can be individually omitted until the order actually ships, and entered later. Any order not selected for processing with a daily batch will appear as a non-processed/shipped order until selected and processed. This allows for back orders or incomplete orders. Data Export - Sandcastle will also provide for a data export of individual sales order records in a data format common with your Accounting Software. This is intended for import into Peachtree assuming this functionality exists within your software package. Order Processing (Wholesale Orders) – Processing of Wholesale Orders will occur with an identical process to the Retail Order Processing. This will be a separate function and allow for processing Wholesale Orders as a separate batch. Data exported can be set up to be routed to the appropriate member of Bilingual’s staff as noted in the “specifications” outlined in your original email to Sandcastle. Order Reporting – Order Reporting will also be accessed through the Admin area. Sandcastle will provide for three levels of order detail. The default listing shows the current months orders by day, showing total orders, total dollar amount, and individual SKU quantities. Clicking on any date of the month will provide a listing of all orders for that day. Clicking on any individual ORDER ID will show Order Detail for that individual order. Administration of Wholesale Accounts – Wholesale account creation and administration will be handled through this section. Account detail information will be entered (or edited) and a username and password will be created.
Site Hosting The technology that drives the order transaction process resides on Sandcastle’s Servers. By using this technology for the site, we are able to offer robust E-commerce functionality, unlimited customization and enterprise-level hosting at reasonable costs. Pricing for Sandcastle’s hosting services is provided below. Additional information on Sandcastle’s hosting facility is provided as an attached document.
Project Costs Site Development - Cost includes design, creative and content deployment as outlined above, technical development, build out, testing, and live posting. Any additional copywriting, or stock photography approved for use within the site will be billed as a separate work order. This proposal assumes that all site content, both contextual and graphical, will be provided to Sandcastle in electronic format and that the site is hosted on Sandcastle Servers. A cost range is being provided to account for yet to be determined development time necessary to integrate with your present Peachtree Accounting Software and to accommodate for variances in order processing preferences.
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Cost: Per Transaction Processing Fee: Web Site Hosting Basic Web Hosting $60/Mo. Secure Server (Required for taking CC orders) $60/Mo. SQL Server (Required for data capture & transmission) $60/Mo. TOTAL Monthly Hosting Fee
$XX,XXX to XX,XXX $X.XX/Order
$180/Mo.
Site Expansion & Ongoing Maintenance For minor content changes, new product additions, and general site maintenance, Sandcastle charges an hourly rate of $100/hr. For larger updates and site expansions, Sandcastle will provide a firm cost bid with an outlined job scope document. ________________________________________________
Rich, please feel free for yourself or any member of your staff to call us after you all have had an opportunity to read this over. David and I would welcome the opportunity of demonstrating this system for your staff to give you a better understanding of its overall functionality and robustness. We look forward to the opportunity of discussing any of the details and providing a follow up to your questions. We are very excited at the prospect of working with such wonderful company. Thank you,
Michael Conkle Sandcastle Interactive
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