Volusion Custom eCommerce Case Study - AMP/Cherokee

Volusion Custom eCommerce Case Study - AMP / Cherokee

Company profile:

AMP / Cherokee, provides sales and rentals of environmental testing equipment.

Business Situation

• The client, AMP/Cherokee, wanted an application that would enable their customers to select environmental-testing equipment rental items for a specif rental period in the Volusion shopping cart.
• The current Volusion platform does not offer this type of functionality; Nexus Software Systems was tasked with the development of a custom application.
• Prior to the development AMP/Cherokee customers had to call the company directly to calculate price of the rental of a particular piece of testing equipment.

Goals and Objectives

AMP/Cherokee wants to be an industry leader, of companies providing sales and rental of environmental testing equipment. Their current situation does not allow their customers to take advantage of their rental services, using the online functionality of their website. A goal of pursuing the services of a custom web development company for the development of a custom application; has therefore become necessary.

Due to the limitations of the current Volusion Platform, certain modifications to the existing shopping cart are not possible; therefore, a custom rental system with all of the features desired by the company; will need to be created, in order for them to be able to attain their goals and objectives.

Technical Situation 

• Presently, to have the price calculated for renting a particular piece of testing equipment, AMP/Cherokee customers must contact the company by phone; and an employee has to manually create a quote before one can be given.
• The existing Volusion shopping cart was not set-up to reflect the needed changes, and as a result a custom shopping cart would also need to be developed.

Solution 

• With the development and implementation of this unique, enhanced, and highly-functional application; customers are now be able to find an easy and convenient way to determine the cost of their rental equipment, directly on AMP/Cherokee’s website.
• This application provides functionality that enable customers the ability to choose the duration of the rental period; and then calculate the price using a multi-option date-range calculator.

Home Page Functionality:

Featured Products Slider - was created for the client to be able to manually edit the slider interface with images and text insertion.

Checkout Page Functionality:

• Order Summary' details appear on the 'Checkout' page.

Category Page Functionality:

Specific elements for different rental options were added to each 'Category Page':

• Custom fields: "Base Rental Rate", "Daily Rental Rate" & "Retail Price"
• Checkboxes were added for specific options on certain items, including:
• “Rent”, “Buy”, or “Buy Used” option. (Customer has to choose one option, prior to adding an item to the cart).

An "Order Request Cart" was developed, containing the following features:

• Rental and Retail commerce calculations.."
• A “User Reference” field with default customer name and date, and “User Reference” field.
• A user-editable “User Reference” field, to determine the accuracy of an order prior going to Checkout.

A “Delivery Date” Calendar was added:

• The selected date pre-populates retail and rental items in the cart 'on-click'.

Custom Delivery Date fields were added:

• The “Delivery Date” field to be user editable, prior to going to 'Checkout'.
• The "Rental Days” field , giving the user the ability to edit the "# of Rental Days” field; prior to going to 'Checkout'.

Automatic pre-population of rental items in the shopping cart, with “# of Rental Days”.

The following 'Modified Shopping Cart' items were implemented:

Unit Price columns were added:

• "Retail Price/Base" & "Daily Rental" Rental Rates.
• Quantity.
• ‘Rental Days’ column (for rental items, entries can be updated by user and are individually editable).

Total Item Price:

• For rental items: based on calculations using: “Base Rental Rate”, “Daily Rental Rate, “# of Rental Days” & “Quantity”.
• For retail items: based on calculations using: "Retail Price” & "Quantity”.
• A “Delete” checkbox, for deleting individual items.
• A prompt that reminds users upon trying to checkout, of any required fields that may be missing.
• A function to have an automatic email sent to customers, confirming the submission of an order request.
• Order requests are submitted as 'Pending' in the Administration Process Order screen.

Mobile Functionality:

• The mobile application needed to possess the same functionality as the web based pages.
• Mobile Navigation was added, making easy access to pages and products; via back & forward buttons on each screen.

All of the current Volusion functionality and system features needed to be available to both AMP/Cherokee and its customers, after the implementation of the eCommerce Custom Development.

• The default website needed to maintain its Volusion system response times, after the eCommerce Custom Development was implemented.
• eCommerce Website Custom Development needed to be able to handle both Rental and Retail functionality.
• Customization of the existing eCommerce template that had already been provided by Volusion to AMP-Cherokee needed to be considered.
• Site-wide Pricing - needed to be visible to account holder only. “Login” had to appear in the price fields for non-account visitors.

Web Design:

Category pages and the 'Order Request Cart' required modifications in the following areas:

• Grid boxes needed to be aligned.
• Category photos needed to utilize a consistent size.
• Text attributes for product titles & descriptions.
• Graphic elements needed to be added to the calculator, to enhance appearance.

Click here to learn more about custom Volusion eCommerce web development

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