So,
you are interested in setting up your own
business with a database-driven website.
You probably have thoroughly tested this
website and have concluded that this website
is indeed an impressive display of website
design. And you should have concluded that,
unlike the other companies that you have
contacted, this website operates like how
you would expect a sophisticated database
driven website should run. There might be
some differences on how you would envision
your website to work, but the bottom line
is that you should want to create a website
that once designed, like in any store environment,
all you would have to do to maintain the
store, is continually define and update
the control of your inventory, which would
be reflected in the database that you create.
A
couple of years ago, I too wanted a website
for a store environment. I contacted a number
of companies who said they specialized in
setting up an online store. My experience
with these companies ended up in total disappointment.
I was required to use their online procedures
to create my web pages, individually, one
at a time, and use other online procedures
to build a database, one product at a time.
That would be fine if you were limited to
a few dozen, or maybe up to a hundred products
to sell. This turned out to be a ridiculous
and futile method of creating an online store.
Needless to say, I eventually abandoned this
enterprise. Unfortunately, I spent a lot of
money and more importantly, I wasted a lot
of valuable time on a wasted effort.
This
website is designed to operate with the sole
purpose to create a web market environment
and to give the consumer a completely user
friendly platform to order their products
with total ease and comfort in a stress free
transaction process. The person to best take
advantage of a website designed like this
one would probably already own a brick and
mortar operation, i.e. a physical site. The
customer, from this operation, would already
have a well defined database of products,
and all the information needed to define those
products. He would have that information available
to be processed into a database program such
as Microsoft Access.
That
is not to say that an enterprising person/organization
starting from scratch couldn't effectively
develop a database of products to sell in
the newly designed store, but it would require
his generating a database of products, sometimes
a daunting task.
The
inventory can then be defined and maintained
away from the website, with all the flexibility
that a database manager software program provides.
When the data is manipulated and or updated,
then the data is uploaded back up to the Server.
The store as a result is modified to reflect
the changes in your updated information. For
example, if you want to expand your product
line, you would only need to add the new records
to your database and now you have extended
your product line on your website. In this
manner, the website software is fixed and
flexible to generate pages from the new data
as well as the old product data.
The
server model is ASP, and the scripting language
is VBScript. The pages are designed to access
the database for each product and utilize
the information, depending on the page display
requirements.
So,
you should have, to maintain the site, an
employee with the capability to maintain a
database using Microsoft Access. He would
be your website manager. If the website design
needs to be changed, only then would you need
to have us modify the website software.
The
storefront operation, Marquee Office Solutions,
has a database product base of about 2,000
products for approximately 10,000 different
machine. Also, because of the way the Office
Product Industry identifies its products,
the products are referenced as well by the
machines that the products are used in and
by manufacturer's product number. So the database
is structured to access the products by machine
and by the product id.
Most
types of stores that sell a large number of
different items can be operated online in
a manner similar to the method implemented
by Marquee Office Solutions. The basic design
can be utilized in any new store that is developed.
But the new store can be implemented with
its own unique feel and display dependent
on the requirements of that store's operations.
If
you are indeed interested in pursuing the
development of a sophisticated database driven
website and you do have the capability and
desire to maintain your own website, and have
the resources to fund the operation and maintenance
of your own website, please contact me with
the email link below. I am only interested
in serious inquiries, so please list as much
information about yourself, your business,
and any pertinent information that will determine
your capability to engage in a venture such
as this.
Email
Link
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