There were a multitude of challenges facing us as we set out to improve the shopping and site management functions for Harvard Medical School's publication division. These included some that were easy to identify, like improving product display and cross-selling opportunities. But others were more difficult to address, like maintaining thousands of existing page addresses so search engines would still be able to find pages that had good rankings after we made the transition from statics to dynamic pages.
The first step was redesigning the site to be a better experience for visitors. While the site navigation needed some minor improvements, the shopping experience needed to be completely redesigned. On the previous site, simply steps like adding an item to your cart could take as many as four clicks. We streamlined this process and gave them the additional control and flexibility to better merchandise products throughout the site.
We also added customizable and manageable promotions. This tool allows the team at Harvard Health to create and manage their own special promotions with a wide variety of acceptable parameters. Even though many of these promotions provide a discount, they have helped increase average order values.
Because the new site allows Harvard to sell print, subscriptions, and electronic products side-by-side, we built in two important functions. The first is the online digital library for customers. Now, when someone orders a product that is available digitally (as either HTML or a PDF file), they have are given instant access to that file through their personal online library. This password-protected section eliminates common customer service issues related to lost or incomplete digital downloads. Because these products are fulfilled electronically through the library, they're always available for the customer.
The second major change was dictated by their fulfillment requirements. This custom shopping cart allows them to sell physical printed items that are sent out by their fulfillment company (e.g., printed special health reports, newsletters, etc.) side by side with products that are fulfilled electronically. To facilitate this, we needed to integrate the site tightly with their fulfillment company. In practice, this means that gatekeeping functions (determining if a customer has access to a particular item), order history (to populate the library), order processing (when someone places an order), and order insertion (putting the order into the customer record at the fulfillment company) all needs to happen in real-time. All of these functions are built into the site.
Perhaps the biggest overall change for the site was in the content management system. With their prior shopping solution, they had very little control over some important and basic attributes. Our custom e-commerce solution allows them full control over products, content and descriptions, pricing, cross-selling, and merchandising. Each of these are easily managed through a forms-based administration tool, giving them the control and flexibility necessary to drive increased revenue.