Purpose
This routine is used to adjust the various ‘e-Commerce Options’ available in the system. These options are used by the B2B (Business to Business), B2C (Business to Consumer) and B2R (Business to Rep) portals which are an extension of the Online Advantage application.
Data Input
Step 1 – Stock Availability
Stock Availability Location
You may choose to show on your e-commerce web site the quantity of stock available for products. Select whether you want the ‘stock available quantity’ to be calculated from all stock locations or a specific list of locations.
If you require a specific list of locations, enter the list of locations required.
Note: Locations that are flagged as ‘obsolete’ are not included when calculating stock available.
These locations may also determine the ‘Issuing Location’ for the order when it is placed. Issuing Location is set as the Customer’s Default Location if it is present, or, if not, the first location on the list matching the Customer’s Branch, or if no locations match the branch, the first location in the list.
Use only locations in customer’s branch
Set this option if you want the available stock quantity calculated only from locations that correspond to the customers branch.
Use customer’s default location
Set this option if you want the available stock quantity derived from the customer’s default location. If the customer does not have a default location, available stock will be derived according to the other location settings – i.e. per customers branch, or from the location list, or from all locations.
No. of days to add to current date if stock is available
Where you are showing a ‘next in’ date on your web site, this configuration adds a number of days to the current date to calculate the ‘next in date’ if there is stock available.
No. of days to add to current date if stock is not available
Where you are showing a ‘next in’ date on your web site, this configuration adds a number of days to the current date to calculate the ‘next in date’ if there is no stock available.
Return to the Top
Step 2 – Miscellaneous
Default Contact Type (Accounts contact)
For the B2B and B2R applications, it is possible to enter contact information. This entry is used as the default Contact Type for the ‘Accounts’ contact when creating new contacts via B2B or B2R. The ‘accounts contact’ is most likely the contact to be tagged to receive Invoices, Credit Notes and Statements via Document Delivery.
Make the Accounts contact the main contact
If the accounts contact is the main contact for the Customer, tick this option and it will be tagged as such when the contact is created.
Default Contact Type (Order contact)
When creating an order contact via B2B or B2R, this is the contact type that will be assigned to the new contact. Order contacts receive an Order Confirmation.
Bank for Online Payments
This is the merchant bank to use when online payments are made via the web site. You must have a ‘Payment Gateway’ set up to receive payments via eCommerce.
Use Last Price
If this is selected, the B2B and B2R application users see the option to ‘use the last price’ for a product from last time they ordered the same product. (Not currently active in 9.5 release).
BCC Email for Price List Download
If you have a Price List download available on your web site, then the email address entered here is blind copied onto the email so that you can keep up to date with who is viewing the price catalogue. (Not currently active in 9.5 release).
Sales History Weeks
Enter the number of weeks to show previous sales history for. A customer returning to use the B2B application can see their previous orders going back for the specified number of weeks and easily order ‘same again’ if that suits them. (Not currently active in 9.5 release).
No. of days to add to Order Required Date
This is adding a ‘lead time’ for you to be able to get the order to the customer.
Override B2B Logout URL
When the B2B customer finishes their e-commerce session and logs out, their web page navigates to the URL entered here. This allows you to direct your customer to current news or specials on your own web page.
Step 3 – Confirmation Email
Email Order Confirmation To
When a B2B portal user enters an order, you can use this option to nominate that an Order Confirmation is emailed to either the customer’s Branch or Account Rep thus altering them that a new order has been placed. Note that the Branch/Rep must have a valid email address held in the system in order for the email to have a valid destination address for sending.
Document
From the list available, choose the email document you want to adjust the email subject and body text for. There are 5 types of emails:
- Rep/branch OC – for when you have chosen to have your Rep or Branch emailed an Order Confirmation when a B2B order is placed. The Branch or Rep must have an email address set up
- B2B Customer OC – this email sends an Order Confirmation to the Customer placing the order. There must be a Contact set up on the Customer’s account details that is flagged to received Order Confirmation via email
- B2B Quotes – if you’re e-commerce portal is set up for quotes, this email sends a Quote to the Customer placing the quote. There must be a Contact set up on the Customer’s account details that is flagged to receive Quotes via email
- B2C Customer OC – if you are using e-commerce for B2C, the Order Confirmation is sent to the email address entered by the customer
- B2C Quotes – if you are using e-commerce for B2C for quotes, the Quote is emailed to the email address entered by the customer
Email Details
For the selected email type, you may enter/edit the Subject, Body, From Address and format for the attachment name.
Step 4 – Configuration – Language
At this step there are three columns for configurable ‘wording’ that can be used on the e-commerce web pages. The first column is the default wording that is used if you don’t enter anything specific in the second and third columns. The second column is used for both the B2B and B2R applications. The third column is used for the B2C application.
- ‘Alternatives’ – term for product alternatives for similar items to the one being viewed (see Product Details for more on alternatives). The alternatives are shown on the web page under the heading entered here
- ‘Complementary items’ – term for product complementary items – items that are usually sold in combination (see Product Details for more on complementary items). The complementary items are shown on the web page under the heading entered here
- ‘Other Links’ – term used on web page links that are set up in Product Details. The links are shown on the e-Commerce portals under the heading entered here. An example of an alternate wording might be ‘Specifications’ or ‘More Information’
- ‘View Basket’ – term used for link to see what has been added on the current order. ‘Show Cart’ or ‘Check Order’ could be an alternative wording
- ‘Order’ – this is the terminology to use for an order on the portal. ‘Purchase’ or ‘Buy’ might be an alternate wording
- ‘Add To Cart’ – the wording that appears on the option to add a product to the order
- ‘Check Out’ – term used for button/link where customers complete their order and go to payment
- ‘Catalogue’ – this is used to describe the top level of the Product Indexes
- ‘Product Search’ – this term appears as text in the search input text box
- ‘Product Heading’ – this wording appears as text in the product code input text box
- ‘Continue Shopping’ – terminology for the link that takes the user from the basket back to the catalogue if they want to add more items
- ‘Save as Quote’ – wording used on the quote submit button
- ‘Download Docket’ – term used on the button after an order is submitted which then downloads a PDF copy of an Order Confirmation
- ‘Index Link’ – wording used on the catalogue link which expands each index to show/hide catalogue index details
- ‘Site Title’ – heading that appears on the browser window/tab and used for Search Engine Optimisation – it should reflect your company/business name
- ‘Invoice Reorder’ – term for the button appearing on an Invoice ‘view’ display that allows users to fill their order basket with the same items/quantities from a previous purchase. Feature not available in the B2C portal
- ‘Order Forms’ – the wording used on pages where Order Form interaction occurs i.e. filling the basket via order form, or saving items in the basket to a new order form. Note, the Order Form dynamic index (if in use) is changed via the Product Index, and the Order Form caption on the menu is maintained via Menu Maintenance. Feature not available in the B2C portal
- ‘Sales History’ – term used on pages where a customers ‘Purchase’ history is shown. The ‘Purchase History’ caption on the menu is maintained via Menu Maintenance. Feature not available in the B2C portal
- ‘Delivery’ – term used next to delivery options. This could be ‘freight’, ‘shipping’ etc.
- ‘Charges’ – term used next to value of charges at the checkout stage. Could be ‘fees’, ‘levy’ etc.
- ‘Group’ – term used by your company when breaking down and organising a sales order into sections (groups). For example, if you sell building supplies, your customers may want deliveries staggered, so the order could be grouped by ‘Delivery Date’. If you sell stationery, a university might place a large order, but you might group it by ‘Faculty’ so that it is easier to divide up when the order is delivered to the school. If you engrave trophies, the order might be grouped by sports teams or individual players.
- ‘Promotions’ – term used to highlight products that are on sale. A ‘badge’ is overlayed on the product image with this word. There is limited space, so best to keep the word fairly short e.g. ‘Sale’, ‘Promo’. A product is ‘on sale’ if there are Special Prices entered for the current date. Where the customer or product group is set up with a discount, the words ‘n% off’ are shown on the promotional badge instead of the word configured here. If the product is marked as a clearance item, the word ‘CLEARANCE’ is shown on the badge instead of the word configured here.
- ‘Product Note’ – term used as a prompt for input of item notes. Default term is ‘Comment’. Note: this term is prefixed with ‘Add a’. Examples are ‘Add a Note’, ‘Add a Comment’, ‘Add a Description’.
Return to the Top
Step 5 – Configuration – Options
At this step there are two columns of options. The column on the left is for B2B and B2R applications. The column on the right is for the B2C application. Select an option to switch it ‘on’.
- Show Customer Order Number – specifies if you want a prompt for customers to enter their own order reference into the order
Customer Order Number Required – if you are showing an input for customer order number, then this option makes it a required field. This field is deprecated – use the required settings from System Options, Customer, Customer Terms or Users to flag customer order number as a required field.- Delivery Instructions Required – if this option is selected, the user is required to enter something in delivery instructions on checkout
- Allow Payments – if this is selected, the option to enter a payment is visible on the Account Summary page
- Default Home Page – this is the default landing page that is shown when a user logs on. This can be overridden per Customer
- Site Logo – this is the logo that appears at the top of the page.
- Default Sort – this is the default sort option for the order products are listed in on the web page
- Show Index Short Description – this option will show or hide the index name in the catalogue
- Show Index Detail – this option will show or hide the link that expands index text/details
- Quote Only – with this option selected, only quotes may be submitted, so no ordering allowed
- Show Enable Ordering – specifies if the customer can enter orders. Switch this off if you just want to show you product range
- Button index style – tick this if you want index navigation UI to be a button instead of a tile with text and images from the product index.
- Related Products View – here you can set whether a catalogue product’s ‘alternate’ or ‘complementary’ items are seen in a list of textual ‘links’ or as a thumbnail image scrolling carousel style ‘viewer’
- Use Search Overlay – if this is ticked, the search results appear in an overlay style with images
Size/Colour Configuration
Here there are various options available to configure how products with size and/or colour are displayed in the web page catalogue. The terms ‘Size’ and ‘Colour’ are configurable as per normal Online Advantage set up.
Model Consolidation
If you have not switched on multi-size and multi-colour option for products, you can still achieve a product view on the e-commerce web page with size and colour selection options by combining the products under a model.
For example, a model ‘SHIRT’ may consolidate products ‘SHIRT14RED’, ‘SHIRT16RED’, ‘SHIRT18RED’, ‘SHIRT14BLU’. On the e-commerce product page when ‘SHIRT’ is viewed, the user has the options of choosing size 14, 16, or 18 and colours red or blue.
To achieve this, you must set up a custom data set linked to the product master to define the size and colour the product represents.
That custom data set code is the model consolidation code entered at this field.
Show size & colour detail in catalogue
This option ‘explodes’ the combination of sizes and colours so all sizes and colours are seen in the view. For example if you have a t-shirt with 3 sizes and 2 colours, there will be 6 items show in the catalogue.
Show size & Colour in Product Detail
This option does not show the size and colour in the ‘Catalogue View’ but shows you the available size and colour options once you click on a product and go to the ‘Product View’. This makes for a less ‘busy’ catalogue.
Show Size in Catalogue and Colour in Product Detail
This option ‘explodes’ every available size in the ‘Catalogue View’ and when you click on a product/size combination to go to the ‘Product View’ you see the available colours.
Product Info Configuration
This set of config settings affect what appears on the Product Details view page. The product name, image and description are always shown but you have the option of showing the following information.
- Show Additional Details – specifies if extra information about the product is shown in the ‘Product View’ page
- Show Weight – specifies if weight should appear in the ‘Product View’ page
- Show Volume – specifies if volume should appear in the ‘Product View’ page
- Show Date Next In – specifies if the date next available should appear in the ‘Product View’ page
- Show Available Quantity – specifies if available quantity should appear in the ‘Product View’ page
- Show Prices – specifies if prices should appear in the ‘Product View’ page
Price Configuration
This set of config options affects the way price is shown on the web page.
- Show Prices – includes prices on the web page details
- Money symbol – the symbol to show for prices e.g. $
- Price Display Decimals – sets the number of decimals to display if showing prices
- Price Display thousands separator – the character to use to separate 1000s eg. ‘,’
- Price Display Decimal separator – the character to use to separate decimals e.g. ‘.’
- Price Display Negative – the method of showing negative values e.g. ‘B’ for brackets
- Show Tax Inclusive Prices – tick this to show prices inclusive of tax, untick this to show ex-tax pricing
- Price Tax Description – wording entered here helps describe on the web page whether the prices are showing inclusive or exclusive of tax
Step 6 – User Registration
If you have several people from a customer who may be logging on to your e-commerce web site, then they can each register their own details to receive their own unique log in code. (Not active in 9.5 release).
B2C User
This user is used by the B2C application as a default user for the system as a B2C customer does not have an account and a registered user code and password. This user has a ‘cash account’ customer set as its Primary Customer.
No. of days inactivity before B2B user expires
Enter how many days should lapse before the B2B user is considered ‘inactive’ and should be disabled or deleted. If nothing is entered here the default is 365 days.
Action to take when B2B user expires
Choose either Delete or Disable.
If the user is deleted and the B2B user gets in touch again, new User Details must be created. If the user is disabled, then the User Details simply need to be enabled again. If nothing is selected here, the default is to disable the user.
The expiration check is performed during End of Day and it is only B2B registered users that are checked. The expiry checking is based on the date of their last log in. If the user has never logged in, it is assumed it is a new user who hasn’t logged in yet and the user is not deleted/disabled.
B2B Registration User Template
Enter a user code here that will be used as a template when registering new E-commerce users. The details from the user template are copied for the new user details.
Email Details
When the user registers, they will be sent an email with their details. Enter the details of that email here including the Subject, Body and From address. You can also specify an attachment for the email which you could use to include a welcome letter, or to pass on terms and conditions.
Step 7 – Delivery Options
Set up the available delivery options for the e-Commerce customer. There must be at least one option. There must be a corresponding Carrier for each option listed. The Carrier is used to define the product and price for the delivery option via other charges functionality.
Option
Enter the description of the delivery option that the e-Commerce customer will choose from. e.g. Collect, Pick up, Standard Post, Express Post, Private Courier.
Carrier
Enter the Carrier that corresponds to the delivery option. For example, Standard Post could be your Australia Post carrier, Private Courier could be a carrier company of your choosing or your own delivery vehicle.
Return to the Top
Step 8 – Filters
To help users narrow down their search for a particular item, the e-commerce catalogue can be configured to include filters.
Show Price Filter
This may be switched on for B2B/B2R applications and B2C applications separately.
The Price Filter Label lets you configure the word that appears on the web page e.g. Filter by Price, Filter by Budget.
Global Filters
These filters apply to all products across all indexes in the catalogue.
Enter the filter label (the descriptive word that appears on the web page), and enter the source of the filter data. The data comes from the Product Master details.
Index Filters
These filters apply to the Index the e-commerce user is currently viewing in the catalogue. For example, if most of your catalogue contains gender neutral items, but a few sub-indexes may be considered gender specific, you can set a ‘Gender’ filter.
Enter the Product index, filter label and filter data source. The data comes from the Product Master details. You can set up Custom Data and use that as a source of filter data.
Technical note: To use a field as a B2x filter, the field must be tagged for reporting, filter and have a validation type and file mask set.
Step 9 – Dynamic Indexes
Where Product Indexes contain a fixed set of Products, Dynamic Indexes are product indexes that are built according to certain data criteria.
Contract Price List Dynamic Product Index
This index is built from items the Customer currently has a Contract Price for.
Items on Sale Dynamic Product Index
This index is built from items that have a current ‘Specials’ price.
Recently viewed Dynamic Product Index
This index is built from the products the user has recently looked at in the Product Detail view page.
Order Forms Dynamic Product Index
This index is built from the Order Forms listed against the Customer’s Details and the products contained on those order forms. If nothing is entered here, Order Forms does not appear as a feature in the B2B e-Commerce portal.
Clearance Items Index
This index is built from products flagged as ‘Clearance Items’.
Favourites
The ‘Favourites’ feature lets an eCommerce user tag products they often buy, so that these can be grouped together in the catalogue under a separate index.
Favourites Dynamic Product Index
This index is built from products the user has tagged as a favourite.
Save Favourites by
Your B2B portal may be accessed by your customers by one user or several users.
By choosing ‘Customer’ here, all users logging in to your portal see the same favourite items.
By choosing ‘User’ here, each user logging in to your portal see their own list of favourite items.
Favourites Icon
The clickable favourite icon can be a Star or Heart.
Favourites Colour
The colour of the favourite icon can be red or green.