Objectives:

Use the Internet as a way to increase business and access customers that would normally not have access to the physical store. 

• Establish a web presence with 24x7 availability

• Use the Web to drive foot traffic to the store

• Use the Web to generate mail order sales to The Gift Shoppe

• Use the Web/Email to proactively communicate with customers and supply information, prices and special promotional information.
  

Establishing a web presence provides two major benefits to a vendor. First, it allows the vendor to be visible to both local and non-local potential customers.  Second, it also allows the vendor to be “open” 24x7, so customers can browse and purchase at any time.

The web also allows the display of newly arrived or special promotion material and can, with the use of Emailed announcements and newsletters, ‘push’ this information out to a mailing list of interested parties.  By targeting the list (local vs. mail-order, children's gifts vs. corporate gift givers), these promotions can be used to drive foot traffic to the retail store or make sales via the Internet.

In addition to availability, a web-store allows the display of items and work that may not be physically located in the store.  For example, wall murals at a customer's home can be displayed on the web as an example of work that has been and can be done.  Special artwork on items that are being delivered to customers can also be photographed and also used to generate similar business without the need to have a sample on-hand.

Other markets can also be developed.  While a corporate gift market might not drive foot traffic to the store, this type of merchandise could find a market via the Web. The site allows gift baskets and related merchandise to be viewed, customized and ordered.  This could be done via a different site with a more business-like look and feel, with it's own address, (for example www.thegiftshoppe.com/corporate) or just as a button off the main home page as suggested in this proposal (or both).

Specific Benefit of Building/Maintaining a website for The Gift Shoppe

• Expands market for Product to US wide (or World wide)

• Allows the display of customized products (to generate similar repeat business) after they have been delivered to customers.

• Allows through photographs on site to show the products in the customers environment

• Allows the creation of a postal and e-mailing list for monthly reminders

• Allows the development of a birthday list for pre-birthday reminders.

• Allows movement into the Corporate Gift Market

• Allows links to and from complimentary vendors sites

• Opens market to people who would not likely be foot shoppers

Tracking Success:

As with any endeavor, there needs to be a method to track the success of the enterprise.  At the end, the bottom line will be the business's bottom line, but there should also be a method of determining the Web effort's contribution.  The website itself can be enable to track the number of “hits” (a hit is somebody viewing the page – it could be a new visitor or a repeat visitor and doesn't necessarily mean a sale will be made).  Sales generated only via the web should also be easy enough to track, as they will generate an Email, which can be tallied at the time the order is fulfilled.  The results of Emailing to drive foot traffic are also important, if trickier to track.  A promotional code or discount could be implement as a way to track this.

 Required Tasks for site development:

• The design of a commercial website which will catalog and sell product is a sizable project and needs to be undertaken as two different efforts. 

• The first effort is the design and coding of the site, establishing the framework that the information will fit into, allows the access and information to be passed to and received from the site visitor. 

• The second effort is the selection and development of the content.  This is the product to display, the images (photos) themselves and the captions for them, along with other messages the company would like to provide to the view (store philosophies, specials, promotions, etc).

• These efforts are best handled in parallel.  Once a visual design and raw framework are developed, the content can be created and plugged in.  At this stage, this raw prototype can be edited and refined toward a final product.

The following is a breakdown of the responsibilities for this projects design.

Required Tasks /Kamena & Associates:

• Arrange for registration of domain name “thegiftshoppe.net”

• This is estimated to be about $35/Year.  Can be done by Kamena & Associates and billed or can be done by The Gift Shoppe.

• Arrange for hosting server space. (This is the computer with a 24x7 Internet connection that holds the code for you page.  It needs to be robust enough to handle the traffic the site generates.)

• Agree on visual look/design of site.

• Develop a website framework and prototype.

• Create Photography for site as required for cataloging and display.  For the purposes of this proposal for web design, the photography is a separate issue/task.

• Develop Mailing lists from collected contacts.

• Develop and execute e-mailings.

• Plan and execute site overhauls.

• “How to find our website” flyer for counter display

• Maintain site going forward.

• Manage e-mailings as required (expect at least monthly – with “specials” for seasonal or holiday announcements).

• Posting the website under keywords to the major search engines, like Yahoo, Netscape, Alta vista, Google and so on. 
  
  
  

Required Support from The Gift Shoppe:

• Registration of thegiftshoppe.net (can be done by Kamena & Associates and billed, if desired-see above)

• Commitment to hosting space (most hosting companies will require a year's commitment)

• Agree on visual look/design of site

• Development of content:

• Copy (text) for all screens and product captions – detailed below

• Catalog of included items

• Categorization of all items (to break it out into pages)

• Design suitable for scanning of any custom graphics to be included – should be on white paper and no bigger then 8.5 x 14 inches (or photograph-able, like murals)

• Collect information to develop the mailing list for both paper and Email list.

• Mailing list – Development of periodic content for Newsletter/Promotional

Design Considerations:

“How your audience” is the first role of any type of communication endeavor and the rule also applies to websites.  In order to effectively design the site, we need to know what the market is.  This market can be defined two ways, as:

The Market for Goods:

• Upscale market for expensive gifts.

• Adults buying gifts for children/infants.

• Quality seasonal decorations

• Event planners (Weddings/Bar/Bat-Mitzvahs)

• Corporate Markets for gifts/gift baskets
  

The Market for Websites:

• Buyers in the above list that are not located near the store

• Buyers in the above list that are located near the store (and maybe want to see what's new)

• Buyers ‘pulled’ to the site with promotional materials

• Buyers that prefer the web for shopping

Other Market Considerations:

• Develop website with inexperienced web users in mind as this will most likely be the majority of the traffic

• Develop “How to find out website” flyer for display on the counter or in a mailing

• Develop corporate page for users who are more web-literate

Parameters:

• Owner/Operator is low computer literate and will not be handling any technical issues.

• Kamena & Associates will be required to develop and maintain the site.

• Product is very visual and will require a good deal of photography. Image files should be kept small to improve transfer speed.
  

Tasks per proposal:

• Develop HTML code for www.thegiftshoppe.net.  Incorporate provided materials and images and provide ongoing maintenance.

The following section defines the Design by pages:

Homepage – www.thegiftshoppe.net

• This is the page that will be first viewed when the visitor comes to the site.

• This page should be splashy, but also quick to load.  A graphic can be used here if it is optimized down to 72dpi for quick loading.An image map table would allow one big interlaced GIF or PNG to be used, allowing that “button” were part of the graphics.

This site should allow the user to drill down to the desired information, hence the available options should be “top level” type of things.  The following should be considered (listed in no particular order).

How to contact us
Information about the store location with a map or Email address for electronic contact

• A fairly simple page, formatted for printing.  There are Email links for sending electronic Emails along with phone and fax numbers.  Also, there is a street address along with short written directions (heading east on 80, heading north on 287) and a map of the area.

• This screen will also display an image of the store (inside/outside) to both help visitors find it and to establish as a “real” business and not something run out of somebody's garage.

• Information provided on page:

• Name of store

• Street address, city, state, zip

• Phone Number/Fax Number

• Email address

• Directions – Written

• Map of area (including local highways)

• Page is sized to fit on one page if printed (for easy viewing in the car if visiting).

What K&A needs from The Gift Shoppe’s;

Nothing at this time.

How to Order

• This a page that gives the details about purchasing, Credit cards accepted, shipping policies, delivery times and so on.
  The purpose of this page is to inform the customer what information is required to place an order.  Since the web page will generate orders via Email, Email will need to be checked at least once a day or maybe more.

• Since we will not be setting up a “shopping cart” section, it will be necessary to get certain information from the customer to process the sale as a “phone order.” Some customers may not be comfortable with Emailing credit card information. 

• A good process might be Emailing requested information and following up with a phone call to a customer supplied number to get the credit card info and to confirm the order details.

• When the volume from this kind of transaction gets to be to much, we can discuss the implementation of a “shopping cart” that would allow the collection of all info, including credit cards, via a secure server connection (also called encrypted).

• There may always be a few customers that do want to provide Credit Card info in an Internet environment – they should always be allowed the phone option.

• Also, information about Gift Certificates can be place here.

What K&A will need from The Gift Shoppe’s:

• List of accepted credit cards

• Description of Policy for Check (needs to clear before shipping, etc)

• Shipping policies

• Shipping Costs

• Delivery Times

• A list of requirements to define artwork

• Details about Gift Certificates

• Any other ordering specific information this is required

About our Designs

• This is the page that shows samples of the artwork themes that are available (bows, balloons, animals, sports, etc.)

• This is the page where customers will be able to view samples of the standard artwork themes that are readily available.  This can be done it one of two ways. 

• First, the artwork can be shown against a white background, essentially a picture.  This is the most desirable.  See (http://www.writeongifts.com/shop/designs.html). 

• Second, this can be shown with images of items where the artwork theme was used.  This would seem to be less desirable on the design page, but could be used on item description pages.

What K&A needs from The Gift Shoppe’s;

• A list of all the artwork themes by name

• A piece of artwork to demonstrate each theme

• Any lettering style options, which are available for names.

Gifts for Children

• This would jump to another page that would be an index of gift categories for children.  These would in turn jump to another page with specifics about a type of item.

• This first page is a header page for Children's gifts and does not display items.  What the visitor to the site will see is a list or menu of available options (which can use the example graphics that were put together for the prototype).  By click on this option buttons, the user can drill down to whatever they wish to see.

• Please Note: You may also want to break this into pages for Children's gifts (ages 2 and up) and Infant or Newborn Gifts or something similar.

• Show products in their final environment and Gift Shoppe is making plans with certain customers to photograph in their homes (with children).  This will allow us to create a very sophisticated look, where visitors to the site can click on an item in a larger photo and be taken to information about that item.
  
  

 What K&A needs from The Gift Shoppe;

A list of the item categories to list under Children's Gifts.

These could include:

• Jewelry Boxes
• Table and Chair sets
• Rocking Chairs
• Cradles
• Step Stools
• Ceramic Pigs (Piggy Banks)
• Toy Boxes
• Book Shelves
• Metal Lockers
• Toy Carts
• Grandfather Clocks
• Rocking Horses
• Seats
• Foot Lockers
• Clothing Trees

Each category of items will generate an additional page, which needs the following:

List of items for the page: (for example)

• Wooden Rocking Horse (in Pine)

• Wooden Rocking Horse (in Cherry)

• Wooden Rocking Horse (in white enamel)

• Wooden Rocking Horse with yarn mane and tail

• Plastic Rocking Horse

Each Item in this list needs the following:

• Description caption – This is what will appear as the text with the picture and will describe the product.  This can also be used as a “selling” spot, describing the benefits more that the product itself (Your child will love it!” in addition to "it's made out of Pine.”

• Image (photo) – I understand that these will need to be developed.  You might start thinking about what you want (front shot, side shot, will need three views, etc.) so that I can plan out the placement.

• Options (colors, sizes) -

• Shipping weight or fee – You may wish to put the weight (an estimate, at least) or just say that you will change a flat amount to ship this item.  This may be better on smaller items that go via the US Postal service, as they don't charge for distance.  Bigger items that go UPS are better given with weight.  On the “How to place and order page” we can tell the customer that can be informed

• Special packaging requirements

• Delivery time (for artwork)

• Costs

A completed example of this information and a format is on the next page and might look like this:

Sample Item Form

Gifts for Adults
This is the section with gifts for adults.  Like the children's menu, types of gifts are listed as links to pages with more details.  If there is an effort in place to do “corporate” gift basket type things, these lists could be “gifts for the home” and “Executive gifts”

This is the page that puts aside a page for non-child gifts.  This could include.

• Non-juvenile sports related gifts (the football piggy bank)

• Corporate gift baskets

• Magazine Racks

• Lanterns

• Jewelry Boxes (non-juvenile)

• Non-seasonal specific decorations

This information should be in the same format (same form) as the children's gifts.

What K&A needs from The Gift Shoppe’s;

Forms for each item

Seasonal Items
A list that points to gifts based on the season.  Holiday decorations, summer toys and so on.

This section may be developed now or development can moved to a later date (as you will miss the Christmas holiday season for this year).  You can also use it to have an “after the season” clearance sale.

You may want to immediately start thinking about other seasons/holidays that may be used to promote holiday items.  Each of these would have their own page, developed as needed (remember lead time).

• News Years

• Valentines day

• Mother's Day

• Easter

• Passover

• Spring

• Start of Baseball season

• Graduation

• Father's Day

• Summer

• July 4th

• Back to School

• Start of Football season

• Halloween

• Thanksgiving

• Christmas

• Chanukah
  
  Items should be listed on the same form as previously discussed.
  
  

What K&A needs from The Gift Shoppe’s;

Forms for each item 

Event Planning 
A page with gifts suitable for shower and wedding favors, planning supplies and bridal/grooms party gifts.

This page should be a little bit different that the others.  If can be broken into

• Gifts for Bride and Grooms

• Gifts for Attendants

• Favors

• Special decorations and centerpieces

• Invitations and paper goods

• Signs and special artwork

• Christening gifts or dresses

• While much of the information is the same as listed on the form, there will be some items that require special columns for quantity pricing.
  

What K&A needs from The Gift Shoppe’s;

A list of categories that you can or wish to support

A list of items for the categories

Forms for the items in the categories

Murals and Custom Artwork
Samples of custom murals and designs, with instructions to call for quotes and further details

This page will be different from the “items” type of page.  Since this is custom work and priced by quote, some or all of the following information would be needed to build a page.

• Current plan is to show completed murals in their final environment and The Gift Shoppe has photos of or is making plans with certain customers to photograph current and past projects.

• A price range (for ex. $300-500? for a single, 8x10 wall) with a note that it would depend on complexity of the design and required materials.

• An Artist's Bio

• Materials used.

• Past Project Sample pictures

• Reference Letters or quotes from previous recipients

• Area that you will travel in

• Typical time to complete

• What the customer would need to do to prepare (move furniture, remove wall paper, spackle, paint the wall white, etc.)

• A note about what comes next (artwork can be covered with a coat of white sealer paint and repaint if you move, or when the design is outgrown, etc.)

• Any other information you would think is important.

May we recommend…
This is a drill down section of gifts for the “inexperienced” gift buyers.  For example, Gifts for newborns might list a few appropriate items (for overwhelmed new-uncles and such who are more comfortable on the web than in the store).

• Call this the Father, Brothers, new Uncles/Godfathers shopping page!

• This is a miniature catalog that allows the person new to this kind of gift buying a limited selection based on a few parameters.  Such as:

• For a newly born girl, we would recommend (and list with links four or five items)

• For a boy aged 3-5, we could recommended

• Seasonal recommendation – For Mothers day, for new baby gifts, etc.

• These can start off with a core set and add items that may be considered seasonal or special purchases (or clearance or slow-moving inventory).

• Details for each recommended item would be driven off the items normal page.

Links

• This is a page of links to websites outside of The Gift Shoppe’s.  This could be related services or friendly, complimentary vendors

• K&A can provide some general links – you may wish to provide some more specific links with local vendors or complimentary services (flowers, caterer, etc).

Emailed Announcements

For customers that are regularly on the Internet and receiving Email (almost anybody in a corporate environment), one very effective means to communicate and increase share-of-mind, is the use or periodic e-mailings.

These can be in the form of a Newsletter (or just a personal letter from the owner) and can include pictures or web-jumpers (a string of text with a click to go to the web page code “under” it.)

You should consider:

• A monthly newsletter with new products or sales to keep your store in the customer's mind.

• A special newsletter regarding special events (upcoming graduations, Mothers Days and so on)

• An individual newsletter to remind folks who purchased a gift for a birthday this year that the birthday is coming up again (a birthday reminder!)

• A corporate newsletter about special gifts for promotions, bonuses and recognition.

• In addition to information about products, you can include:

• Special events where you may have been (such as a sponsor of some event in the community that donated a door prize or something similar)

• Sales or specials (perhaps after season to clear inventory

• Special hours for holidays

• Delivery reminders

• Notification that pick-ups are ready

• Contests (like a guess the jelly beans in the Jar) to get folks into the store.
  
  

A note about junk Email

The law about Junk Email (or spam) requires that each message sent out give the recipient a way to remove them selves from the list and receive no further Emails.  This can easily be added to each mailing.

Sites for similar vendors in similar markets (found on a quick web search) that you may wish to review.

http://www.moekate.com/

http://www.neatstuffgifts.com/

NEAT STUFF

1725 Route 27  Somerset, NJ 08873

Tel: (800)586-9278   Fax: (732)846-9796

http://www.kalis.com/

http://www.kiddiedepot.com/

1061 Willis Avenue

Albertson, NY

Phone: 516-248-0206

www.writeongifts.com

Main Street

Denville, NJ