The FutureWare Simple On-Line Sales System!

Established businesses face some daunting tasks in building a web site that can accept credit cards. Not suprisingly, many "e-companies" offer solutions that range from doing everything from soup to nuts (high up-front and maintenance costs), to those that maintain the business' catalog in their database (constant up-charges, limited ability of changing product mixes). All of them require the business to have technical expertise to meet their particular requirements, and when they do provide documentation it often turns out to be incomplete and inaccurate, not to mention help staffs that are never there and few who really know what it means to meet payroll. Many businesses, especially small ones, after looking at this have concluded that it's just not worth the trouble.

That's why FutureWare built (and uses) the Simple On-Line Sales System, that not only integrates handlers for several proven credit card processors, but also includes a Relational Data Base System and a Web Page Builder, that allows anyone to build an "eCommerce" web site and have it up and running in minutes, without having to know geek-speak and the esoterics of web technology. Bold claim, that, and we back it up with a guarantee.

But there's more. Just building a product that encapsulates credit card processing, databases and automatic web page generation isn't enough. FutureWare has long experience in building Point Of Sale systems, both software and hardware (!), even back to the days of Electronic Cash Registers, so our Simple On-Line Sales System is built with a real-world appreciation of how a successful business operates.

We've even included a CheckList And PreFlight that you can print that will both help in determining if accepting credit cards over the web will benefit your business, and some things that should be done before starting an "eCommerce" web site.

The following sections of this web page describe the various aspects of our Simple On-Line Sales System in more detail. If you have any questions or comments, then please email them to us at Web POS Questions.

The Elevator Pitch
The FutureWare Simple On Line Sales System (SOLStem) is built for businesses that want an internet sales presence, but don't have the resources to develop a web site, either by themselves or by contracting with an independent developer. More specifically, it allows one person to create and manage their own web site without having to know the mysteries of web design, the only requirement being that they know how to use a web browser.

Most small business' web sites are remotely hosted, and SOLStem is designed with that in mind, but it can also be used where a business has its own web server system.

SOLStem includes a relational database, so businesses can maintain their own inventories and offerings without having to give the data to a catalog processing company. This not only significantly reduces operating costs, but allows the business to be more responsive to market changes while at the same time keeping control of their on-line operations.

The presentation of products is done using a combination of HTML pages that are created by SOLStem, as well as database-driven catalog lists, which eliminates the need to be well versed in web technology. Yet these can be modified in various ways to give a unique look and presence for those who have these skills.

SOLStem is designed to open web standards to be viewed by virtually any browser, while at the same time being fast and eliminating extraneous clicks required of a web customer.

Among other things, SOLStem includes the following operational features:

But SOLStem can easily grow to do other things as well. Some of these additional functions include:

More Than Just A Web Site
Having a spiffy web site that's easy to create and manage is all well and good, but if there are a lot of items being offered then initializing the integrated database can take a long time on a web browser, even with a high-speed connection.

To address this challenge, SOLStem includes a desktop utility program that runs under Windows 95/98/NT/2000 that allows the database to be initialized quickly, with either manual entry or importation of text-based feed files, such as those from Excel. Once everything is OK on the desktop, then the data can be transferred to the web site and integrated into the database quickly and reliably.

Try It For 30 Days On Us
Like all of FutureWare's software products, download a copy of SOLStem and put it through its paces for 30 days at no charge. If you like what you see, then register it with us. After all, our motto is We Succeed When You Do.

Desktop Utility Program
SOLStem's desktop utility program only operates under Windows 95/98/NT/2000, and requires access to the internet in order to transfer information to and from the web site.


The desktop utility not only makes it easy and fast to build the initial database, but can also build the web site itself. Not only for the initial set-up, but also for routine maintenance that often can be done much faster than doing maintenance over the internet. Synchronizing with the web site is seamless, so having to know how to do FTP transfers and all that are eliminated. It even keeps track of backups, and reminds you of when your domain name registration is due for renewal. Just some of the many reasons SOLStem includes the word simple.

The Web Page Builder
Creating and maintaining web pages, even using some of the more popular tools like FrontPage, PageMill and Dreamweaver, can be a daunting task for someone who's not well versed in these skills, which includes not only HTML but also some heavy lifting Javascript. Adding database access makes it even more difficult. And then there's the creative graphics.

SOLStem's Web Page Builder eliminates all of this, making web page creation a simple matter of choosing among presented options. Although it may at first appear simple and limited, in fact the possibilities are extraordinarily rich, and making a unique look and style is easy, allowing for a great deal of creativity and personalization. But this is not limiting in any way, as those who have web design skills can do their creative thing and plug it into the Web Page Builder. This is because there's a fundamental structure that is used throughout the web site, even if it can't be seen directly.

First, the basic requirements. The web site must, among other things:

In practice this means avoiding large graphic images, not using proprietary web features, and above all using common sense. Don't make it hard for a customer to make a purchase. Try to have no more than three clicks to putting an item into the shopping cart.

The Structure
The presentation given to a web customer consists of three elements, all on the same screen:

The various possible arrangements of these three elements are shown in the following diagrams.


Each element, banner, index and catalog, can have its own backgrounds for color or graphic images.

Summary Section
The Summary Section lists the various totals based on customer purchase selections, and is always in the same place on the screen for the customer's viewing convenience. It can appear in one of several locations, depending on the number of totals to be displayed:

The values of the various totals are calculated automatically whenever a customer selects a purchase item, or removes one from the shopping cart. The totals are display only, and cannot be changed by a customer.

If the summary section has the totals arrayed vertically, then it can have its own background for either color or graphic images.

The summary section displays the various totals of the customer's order, as well as several buttons that can display the contents of the shopping cart, clear the shopping cart, and proceed to checkout. Many of these totals can be optionally displayed according to the following chart.

Summary Total Description
SUBTOT Always displayed, sum of taxable subtotal and non-taxable subtotal
NTX SUBT Optional non-taxable subtotal
TX SUBT Optional taxable subtotal
TAX Optional tax total
TOTAL Optional, the sum of non-taxable subtotal, taxable subtotal, sales tax and shipping.
S + H Optional shipping and handling charge, only if merchant manages shipping charges
ITEMS Optional number of items
SHIP WGHT Optional shipping weight
SHOW SHOPPING CART A button that is always displayed, and when clicked opens the shopping cart
EMPTY SHOPPING CART A button that is always displayed, and when clicked empties the shopping cart
CHECKOUT A button that is always displayed, and when clicked goes to the checkout counter

If the summary section is a horizontal array at the bottom of the banner element, and there are a lot of totals displayed (e.g., both taxable and non-taxable subtotal) then the increased height of the banner can take a large amount of screen real estate. Similarly, if the summary section is a vertical array then the increased height of the banner can also take a large amount of screen real estate.

Banner Element Organization
The banner element can have several sub-elements. The summary section is one. The others are:

The diagram below details the relative placement of a banner's sub-elements.


Index Element Organization

An index element, if used, generally provides finer-grained choices based on clicking a navigator button. These choices are presented in a vertical array, usually alphabetical. When a customer clicks on an index element choice, then the catalog element is displayed that has purchase items that are within an organized group of items. The index element choices can be either text descriptions or buttons.



Buttons
Buttons are used in the banner element's navigation section, and can also be used in the index element. Buttons often have a "flyover" effect, so that when the mouse goes into the button area the button's image changes, and when the mouse leaves the button area the button's original image is restored. Sometimes the screen cursor also changes as the mouse flies over a button.

There can be three kinds of buttons:

Regardless of a button's type, action is taken when a customer clicks on one, which usually displays different pages.

The standard SOLStem buttons' mouse flyover swaps the background and caption text colors, as well as changing the screen cursor. Some browsers don't recognize a mouse flyover, notably AOL's proprietary browser, and Netscape's later browser versions.

The standard SOLStem buttons' background field and caption text colors can be selected in the same manner as a structure element's background color.

The button type is selected during the set-up, which can be done in three ways:

The Catalog Element: Where Purchase Choices Are Made
The catalog element contains a list of items from which a customer can choose to purchase, and is generated dynamically by SOLStem from the database, based on previous customer choices in the banner and index elements. A customer selects an item to be purchased by entering a quantity for a chosen item in the catalog list. When an item is selected, the various totals are automatically calculated and displayed in the summary section, and the item is added to the shopping cart.

For ease of reading, a "greenbar" can be applied to the catalog element's item list, which alternates between two selectable background colors for successive items.

Each item displayed in the catalog element has the item's information arranged on a horizontal line. Some of this information is always displayed, and other information can be optionally displayed, as detailed in the following table.

Item Description
Thumbnail Image Optional thumbnail image of the item
Description Always displayed, a text description of the item
Brand Optional brand name
Model Optional model description
Manufacturer Optional manufacturer's name
Unit Of Measure Optional description of the items' unit of measure
Weight Optional item weight value
Ordering Part Number Optional manufacturer's part number
Stocking part Number Optional store part number, sometimes a UPC code

Price

 Always displayed, the item's unit of measure price
Taxable Optional taxable status indicator
Purchase Quantity Always displayed, an entry box where the customer indicates the number of items wanted
Item Total Always displayed, the non taxable total for the number of items selected

Item information is displayed as a horizontal array in the order of appearance in the table above. The optional items can be selected when the SOLStem is set-up, and can also be changed later using an administrative screen. In general, not all item information is displayed in order to reduce any horizontal scrolling that a customer may have to do.

A customer can only change the value in the PurchaseQuantity entry box. The ItemTotal value is calculated automatically, and cannot be changed by a customer.

If a thumbnail is displayed, and a more detailed image exists for the item, then when a customer clicks on the thumbnail the detailed image (usually larger) is displayed in a "pop-up" screen.

If the item has more detailed information, such as a specification, then clicking on the item's description will open a "pop-up" screen that contains the extended details.

Any pop-up screen can be closed by clicking on the "X" in the upper right-hand corner, or by clicking on any quantity entry box in the catalog element.

The Shopping Cart
The shopping cart is a "pop-up" screen that lists all the customer's purchase items. It is displayed whenever the customer clicks on the ShowShoppingCart button in the summary section. A customer cannot change any quantities or pricing information in the shopping cart, but they can remove an item from it by clicking on the item's RemoveThis button, which automatically recalculates the various totals and closes the shopping cart.

Each item displayed in the shopping cart has the item's information arranged on a horizontal line. Some of this information is always displayed, and other information can be optionally displayed, as detailed in the following table.

Item Info
Description
Remove Item A button that is always displayed, when clicked removes the item from the customer purchase
Description Always displayed, a text description of the item
Ordering Part Number Optional manufacturer's part number
Stocking part Number Optional store's part number, usually a UPC code
Price Optional, the item's unit of measure price
Taxable Optional taxable status indicator
Purchase Quantity Always displayed, the number of items selected
Item Total Always displayed, the non taxable total for the number of items selected

Shopping cart item information is displayed as a horizontal array in the order of appearance in the table above. The optional items can be selected when the SOLStem is set-up, and can also be changed later using an administrative screen. In general, not all item information is displayed in order to reduce any horizontal scrolling that a customer may have to do within the shopping cart.

The shopping cart can be closed by clicking on the "X" in the upper right-hand corner, or by clicking on any quantity entry box in the catalog element.

How The Elements Work Together
The goal in the site's design is to have no more than three clicks to select an item to be purchased by a customer. These are described in the following.

  1. First Click is done on one of the banner's navigation buttons, which selects a general group of items. This generally changes the index element to display narrow item groups within the general group.
  2. Second Click is done on one of the index's choice items, which then displays an even narrower selection of items in the catalog element.
  3. Third Click is done on a specific item listed in the catalog element. When an item is selected (generally by entering the selected item's order quantity), the various totals for the customer purchase at that point are calculated and displayed in the summary section, and the item is added to the shopping cart.

Shipping Charges
Shipping (and handling) charges can be calculated in one of several ways.

For merchant managed shipping charges, the summary section's "S+H" line item will be enabled. If the "S+H" is displayed in the summary section (selected during set-up) then the shipping charges will be calculated every time an item is selected for purchase.

For calculated shipping charges, if a either the UPS or FedEx web tools are enabled (during set-up) then when the customer goes to the checkout counter these shipping options will be displayed for a customer choice, and the selected shipper web tool will be opened, and the calculated shipping charges based on the customer's selections at the web tool will be added to the purchase total and displayed for confirmation.

Taxes
Taxes for on-line retail sales is a murky subject, and SOLStem applies a very simple tax application rule: If the customer's ship-to-state is the same as the merchant's, and the merchant is in a state that has a retail sales tax (e.g., California), then taxable items are taxed at the rate in effect at the merchant's location. Taxes are specified as a percentage of taxable gross for the purchase items selected.

In general, if taxes are applicable according to the rule above, then they are not calculated until the customer goes to the checkout counter, when the entire purchase is presented for confirmation. However, if the summary section's tax item is enabled, and the customer clicks on a "I'm a resident of STATE for tax purposes" checkbox in the banner element, then the tax will be calculated and displayed in the summary section each time an item is selected for purchase.

If a credit card clearing service is used, then many of them either include or offer as an option a "tax calculator" that typically has to be set-up by the SOLStem merchant.

The Checkout Counter
If a customer has selected at least one item, then they can go to the checkout counter and finalize the purchase by clicking on the summary section's CheckOut. This will fill the catalog element with all the items selected by customer for confirmation, followed by the summary totals, and several choices to finalize the purchase depending on how SOLStem is set-up:

Additionally, the purchase will be recorded in the SOLStem database, which both the customer and the merchant can review for purchase status.

When the purchase is finalized, then a "Thank You" page will be displayed in the browser window, eliminating the banner, index and catalog elements. This will again detail the purchase, display a tracking number by which the customer can later determine the status of the order, and the customer can print the page detailing the purchase for their own records.

Meta Tags
Meta tags are specially formatted text values that are used to "attract" search engines, and are often used to get the merchant to appear close to the start of search engine results. How the search engines do this is not well defined, and their criterion for high ordering is not immediately obvious.

SOLStem can't make any claims on getting search engine attention, but does allow a means by which a merchant can enter meta tags, which are put at the "top" of the banner and index elements. The catalog element is dynamically generated from the database and doesn't "exist" when the search engines do their surveys.

Home Page
An optional home page can be added to a SOLStem application, which is a flat HTML page that contains the merchant's "main billboard" (and the meta tags), displayed before the structure elements.

The Database
SOLStem's integrated database is kind of like air: It's just there, and the merchant doesn't have to do anything special to create or manage it, other than to enter items, suppliers, and other information into it. It does have several functional sections, which are described in the following.

Item Inventory
This is the fundamental part of the SOLStem, containing the actual items that a customer can select to purchase, and constitutes the merchant's "raw inventory". Every item has the same structure, and has the following basic components.

Name Description
Barcode Optional UPC-A or UPC-E bar code identifier. Must be unique within the database.
Brand Optional brand name of the item
Category Optional grouping identifier for the item
Cost Optional item's unit cost
Department Optional grouping identifier for the item
Description The item's description
FullImage Optional full graphics image of the item
Group Optional grouping identifier for the item
Manufacturer Optional item manufacturer's name
Model Optional model name for the item
OrderingPartNumber Item's part number presented to a customer. Must be unique within the database
PromoPrice Optional promotional unit price
PromoQtySold Number of items sold at the promo price
PromoStartDate Start of a promotional sale for the item
PromoStopDate End of a promotional sale for the item
PTDSalesTotal Total item's period-to-date sales amount
PTDQtyTotal Total item's period-to-date quantity
RegularPrice Item's unit-of-measure retail price
ShippingWeight Optional item's shipping weight
SpecificationPage Optional web page containing specification details for the item
StockingPartNumber Optional merchant's internal part number. Must be unique within the database. Generally not displayed to a customer
Supplier Optional item's supplier information
TaxableFlag Tax status control
ThumbnailImage Optional thumbnail image of the item
UnitOfMeasure Item's unit-of-measure (e.g., "Each", "Case12", etc.)
WholesalePrice Item's unit-of-measure wholesale price

Some of these item component names can appear in the category element when a customer is browsing for items to purchases, while others can only be viewed by the merchant when administering the item inventory database.

If the merchant wants to maintain on-line inventory then additional item components are available for administration. These components are never displayed to a customer, and most are updated automatically when a purchase is finalized for on-line inventory control. These components are detailed in the following table.

Name Description
AverageUnitCost A rolling average of the item's unit cost based on multiple procurements
BackOrderedQty The difference, if any, between an item's ordered and received quantity
LastUnitCost The item's unit cost at the time it was last procured
LastLeadTime The difference, in days, between when the item was last ordered and when it was received
MinimumOrderQty The minimum procurement order quantity
OnHandQty The number on hand and available for sale.
OnOrderQty The number ordered for procurement
ReOrderThresholdQty Used to generate a recommended procurement list when the item's OnHand value becomes less than this value
ReserveQty The number of items being reserved and not offered for sales
ReserveReleaseData The date on which the item's reserved quantity is released back to sales

Browser And Host System Requirements
The SOLStem user only needs to know how to use a web browser; we take it as given that they know how to manage their business. But there are things that are required in order to exploit this product, such as server environments, browser versions, and other techie details that are dull but important. These requirements are outlined in the following subsections.

Server Requirements

The Browser
Security