What is eCommerce?

e-Commerce is a term for "electronic commerce" meaning sales made over the Internet. eCommerce can be deployed in a number of different ways and isn't restricted to physical products (such as clothing or computers) or virtual products (such as e-books).

e-Commerce can also be used to sell services (such as jobs or remote assistance) or acting as an sales facilitator (such as an online auction house).

What existing systems have Beebware worked on?

For our clients, we have adapted/enhanced the following eCommerce systems:

Interchange
We adapted the Perl based Interchange system for a major industrial tools supply company to help increase sales, improve the search engine visibility of the site (by changing dynamic links with query strings to "static" links) and help improve the general usability of the site.
Noah's Classifieds
Using the PHP based "Noah's Classifieds" software as a base, we constructed a basic "Jobs board" system for a Welsh based recruitment company allowing them to quickly get their name recognised and grow to become the number 1 recruitment website servicing the Cardiff and South Wales area.
osCommerce/ClickCartPro
We have installed and modified the popular PHP eCommerce systems osCommerce and ClickCartPro for a number of customers (ranging from "white goods" appliance retailers, dancewear retailers and childrens clothing online sales) to either accept additional payment systems, improve the search engine visibility or to help tweak the systems to work as the client required.

What experience has Beebware got of eCommerce development?

These are just a few of the e-Commerce systems we have developed from scratch:

Pet Insurance Ordering system
Developed from scratch using PHP, this system allowed customers to enter their post code (which would then be looked up to pre-fill their address) and allow them to enter in details of their pets. Once completed, the customer would then be able to enter their bank details (which will be looked up and validated in real time by the ordering system) before processing the request.
Pay by Text Message ordering system
Utilising a third party SOAP XML based Text messaging system, this PHP driven website allowed customers to place an order online and then pay for their internet web hosting using SMS technology. The system assigned each customer a unique 6 character code which had to be "texted" in to the third party gateway which then notified the 99phost system.
Dedicated Server ordering system
Written from scratch using PHP, MySQL and GPG (GNU Pretty Good Privacy) allowed customers to select the specification of their dedicated web hosting server hardware and the system would check for hardware compatibility in real time. Once the selection had been finalised by the customer, their credit card details were taken and encrypted using GPG in a secure manner before being passed to the sales staff.
Online Support Portal
Integrating with "LogMeIn Rescue", this PHP powered system integrated with a major UK web hosting company allowing their clients to select what assistance they required from their cPanel control panel, take payment via Paypal or Worldpay, and then create the appropriate "LogMeIn Rescue" link.

What payment gateways/systems have Beebware worked on?

We have worked with Paypal, Worldpay and the Protx gateway systems (along with Epoch/PayComEU) to help integrate and enhance clients online websites to accept payments.

Featured Project: Adlive PDF Preflighting System

[Adlive proofing system screenshot]

Developed in 2002, this project utilised a third party Internet Explorer ActiveX component to allow customers of a printing company to "pre-flight" their files ready for printing on their own computers. The ActiveX component would upload an XML summary of the file to the Perl driven website which would check the details against records stored in an Microsoft Access database.

Once the file had been "passed", the user would then be able to upload it to an FTP server which was "watched" by Adlive - once the file had been uploaded, the user would be notified and the file would be placed within their "basket".

After the user had built their "basket", they could then select which of the 6 magazine printing companies the files should be sent to and the files would then be sent via FTP.