Case Study: www.lovethinks.com
Overview: Established by John Van Epp, Ph.D., Love Thinks, LLC is an organization that distributes educational programs designed to teach participants how to build and strengthen relationships both before and after marriage. The organization teaches two courses – the PICK course for singles and the marriage LINKS program for couples.
Goal: Love Thinks sought a solution that enabled it to incorporate its site content with an online store. The store needed to be able to recognize a user’s credentials and, based on his or her login information, display the product catalog appropriate to that individual. Then, when an individual placed an order, the site was required to determine whether or not the user was eligible to receive a discount and to apply the discount if applicable. In addition, the organization’s ecommerce solution was required to include shopping cart and credit card processing capabilities, as well as the availability of a new payment method indicating an additional payer. Finally, the site needed to include a database management solution that organized customers into databases based on the program(s) of their interest.
Solution: Chad Allan Consulting provided the following elements to accomplish Love Thinks, LLC’s ecommerce goals:
Dynamic Product Catalog: Chad Allan built Love Thinks, LLC’s ecommerce site such that it would display one of a number of product catalogs based on a user’s login credentials. Thus, Love Thinks instructors are able to view a unique product catalog that differs from the product catalog viewable by consumers.
Purchase Options: Chad Allan designed Love Thinks, LLC’s solution such that if a user logs into Love Thinks’ site as an instructor, then when that individual makes a purchase from Love Thinks’ ecommerce store, the site automatically applies the instructor discount to that individual’s order. Additionally, Chad Allan created a new purchase option specifically for Love Thinks’ site that enables customers to specify that another payer will pay for that individual’s purchase. Therefore, instead of paying for their own materials out of their own pockets, Love Thinks’ customers can choose to select their items for purchase and indicate that some other individual(s), or sponsor(s), will pay for their orders. Chad Allan incorporated this new functionality into its checkout technology so that Love Thinks customers can either submit their payments with their orders or choose to indicate a sponsor or sponsors as the party or parties to be billed. If a Love Thinks customer indicates that his or her order will be paid for by a sponsor, then once the order has been placed, the site automatically emails Love Thinks, the customer making the purchase, and his or her sponsor.
Database Management Assistance: Prior to employing Chad Allan’s solution, Love Thinks had to manually enter its customers into databases corresponding to the program(s) of their interest. Thanks to Chad Allan’s solution, customers are automatically filtered into one of three Love Thinks databases, based on their interest in either the PICK program, the LINK program, or both programs.
Results: Love Thinks manages all of its product catalogs, databases, and purchase options via its website. The organization possesses a total solution that makes browsing and purchasing from its site dramatically more convenient for its customers.