NetDirector™ e-Trade Pro

We have a number of clients at G-Forces who have large product catalogues and / or products that have complex technical features. We are therefore working on a piece of functionality to add to NetDirector e-Trade Pro, our e-commerce software, which will allow online shoppers to easily compare the key features of a number of similar products.

We want to improve the online shopping experience and to replicate the offline shopping world, where a consumer would ask a shop sales person for advice on how different products compare. Online shopping is great for sourcing  masses of product information, but being able to access it in a user friendly format is sometimes difficult.  We want to make it easier for shoppers to find the right product that matches their specific requirements.    

A good example of a product category where this would work well is lawnmowers. There are many different makes and models in the market, many of which are very similar. It is difficult to tell the difference between models and without human interaction with an expert sales assistant, an online shopper could easily make the wrong choice. The end result – customer is not happy and the shop owner’s returns are higher than they should be. And lawnmower returns are not easy to deal with!!! 

The idea is that the online shopper will be able to select products for comparison on one of our e-commerce sites and these products will then be displayed side-by-side in a user friendly format which lists key features and the comparative data for the products displayed.

In the lawnmower example, technical features listed could be engine size, grass bag size, length of cutting blades, power source, accessories etc. Of course, price and availability / delivery details would be necessary. But it would also be nice to include user generated product reviews, expert or ‘Which’ type reviews as well as shopowner recommendations (for eg. ‘our manager recommends this lawnmower for compact, family gardens because….).  

The product comparison functionality is just one of the enhancements that we are working on to improve e-Trade Pro, our e-commerce software package, over the coming months. All software updates are automatically available to e-Trade Pro users. Watch out for further news!