Goals
Manor AG is Switzerland’s largest chain of department stores. With more than 75 stores in all linguistic regions, the Manor network extends across the whole of Switzerland. More than 1 million users of the Manorkarte, the company’s own paycard, make Manor one of the largest card providers in Switzerland.

The decision to relaunch the Manor website after 2 years was based on the following reasons, among others:

With the implementation of CommonSpot Content Server, the previously static website was to become easier to update and more dynamic.

Numerous online shops were meant to be integrated into a single heterogeneous e-commerce solution. The goal was to combine the company’s own product management system with solutions from external providers on the Internet.

The new Web site was meant to reduce to a minimum the previous differences in presentation between product lines that had some items available online and others that did not.

The new site had to be adapted to the current Manor marketing strategy and to enable active communication with the customer as well as one-to-one marketing activities.

Following a 5-month strategy and design phase, the project duration encompassed an additional 6 months of development. The result is a comprehensive platform in the business-to-consumer area that not only standardizes and simplifies e-commerce, but also promotes the marketing strategy and offers the customer a wide-ranging variety of information and activities. 

Development was conducted jointly by Silversite AG and Itheca Holding AG. Silversite was responsible for the overall strategy and design as well as for visualization and front-end technology. Itheca meanwhile had the task of developing the interface between the shop and the product management system.

In the end, a solution was created that integrates proven technology and results in an attractive shopping experience for the customer with a combination e-commerce and information platform. The back-end solution was adapted 100% to Manor’s requirements so that only marginal logistical and structural adaptations were needed.

Solution
The implemented solution sets new standards in the Internet retail business. It bridges the gap to unite the online shop, product presentation, online marketing activities and Manor’s company platform in one place. The Manor Web site is probably the most highly-developed online retail presence that is not primarily based on an online shop.

The solution was developed entirely in Macromedia ColdFusion and is based on PaperThin's CommonSpot Content Server content management solution, and the Shopcreator e-commerce solution developed by Silversite. By precisely adapting these systems to the client’s needs and by expanding them with additional modules, a comprehensive tool was created for the easy administration of Manor’s trilingual website.

Design & Navigation
The site is oriented around Manor’s corporate identity, thereby guaranteeing positive identification on the Web. In addition, a high priority was placed on intuitive user guidance, with the goal of introducing the user as closely as possible to the in-store shopping experience.

Content Management
The CommonSpot content management system enables the Webmaster to create individual pages, position various promotions, publicize vacant positions, administer contests, generate e-cards and a whole lot more. The complex newsletter covers everything and, in addition to various features, can be custom-designed for different customer segments.

Marketing
The entire Website is geared towards the interests and needs of the user. That means that promotions can be coupled with the user’s interests and weighted accordingly. Offers can be aimed at different groups, thereby supporting offline as well as online efforts. This complex system delivers 1-to-1 marketing between the customer and Manor.

Product Catalog & Promotions
The site gives Manor options for presenting non-e-commerce offers from the product management system differently. Catalogs on specific themes, for example, are generated directly from the product management system. The marketing department can define catalogs manually, and product promotions can be designated and evaluated using a simple “select” procedure.

Shop in Shop
In addition to its own product management system, Manor and its partners also have numerous product databases. More thematic areas can be added later to the wine shop and software & games shop currently available. The customer has a single shopping basket that extracts the relevant data from all of the systems and totals everything only once. This creates that department-store feeling with e-commerce, while at the same time allowing Manor to implement the same logistics for several shops.

XML Interface
The XML interface uses state-of-the-art technology to connect the e-commerce front-end with the various product management systems and databases. Its architecture enables the coupling of additional systems, making future expansions easy.

Technology
The entire Web site, including the e-commerce solution and the content management software, were developed in Macromedia ColdFusion. The data are stored in MS-SQL 2000 databases.

The solution is based on 5 Windows 2000 servers, 2 of which are used as Web servers and 2 as database servers. They are accessed by a load balancer that distributes the traffic and ensures optimum performance. The fifth server is a mail server that is used to send out more than 30,000 newsletters.

On the back d, the shop is fed by the XML interface developed by Itheca, which is also integrated with the web servers.

This Case Study was authored by PaperThin Partner Silversite AG.