eHarlequin.com was launched in 2000, with the mission of providing romance lovers with a safe and engaging place to escape the day-to-day pressures of a busy lifestyle, to interact with like-minded romance readers, and to purchase romance novels with ease and comfort. Through a wide array of relationship-oriented articles, interactive games, and discussion groups, plus a comprehensive coverage of romance authors and huge selection of romance novels, this site has become the ultimate destination for romantic escape on the Internet. eHarlequin books are sold in more than 100 international markets and translated into more than 23 languages around the world.

The Business Challenge

For the ongoing initiative to improve and upgrade the eHarlequin bookstore, McFadyen Solutions was chosen to implement a new “free shipping” offer for online customers. This promotion was targeted to customers with a shopping cart containing more items worth more than a configurable threshold value. For these customers, the shipping costs of the order would be waived. The modification to the existing checkout process included a display of the promotion activation message if the current shopping cart contained items totaling more that the threshold value, or displaying the amount still required in the order to activate the promotion. Changes were also required for the order summary and confirmation emails to show the customer the free shipping promotion had been applied. For the configuration of the promotion, the business users needed to be able to easily specify and manage a start and end date, purchase threshold value, product exclusions, and the terms of the promotion.

The Return on Investment

The new business promotion was implemented on time and within the budget specified. Business analysis showed an increase of sales as a result of the promotion, providing increased revenue that surpassed the amount lost due to lack of shipping fees in the customers order. The administration interface for this new promotion was flexible and effective for managing the business requirements, as well as expandable for future efforts in the continuing upgrade effort of the eHarlequin bookstore.

The Technology

• Modification of existing commerce components for ATG Dynamo v4.1.0 Commerce Server
• Modification of existing order process flow, shopping cart JHTML pages
• Development of promotional management control components, accessed through admin interface
• Creation of database tables to hold track new promotional data
• Creation of promotional metrics display interface