Selling Science on the Web
SciTech International, an early Internet convert, now has fully integrated e-commerce
Since SciTech International’s software products are aimed at the scientific, engineering and technical end-user from Boeing to the National Institutes of Health, it was a natural for the company to be an early convert to selling on the Web. “It was a natural fit since our target customers—scientists and engineers—were the first users of the Internet for research,” says Barry Moltz, president of the 6-year-old firm which sells software and other technical computing tools. Moltz, a former IBM employee who co-founded the Chicago-based company in 1993 with another former IBMer, explains that traffic and sales from the site have steadily grown due to the fact that the firm’s customers, long accustomed to surfing the Web, made the transition to e-commerce more quickly and more easily than some other types of online shoppers.
SciTech put its first full catalog up on the Web in 1995. But back when it got its start marketing online, Moltz recalls, “It was a static-type thing. We basically just put our catalog pages up.”
The site has been through five major revisions since then as Internet technology and the needs of SciTech’s customers have advanced. Today, the site is updated daily and features a total of 10,000 SKUs.
Transferring a Portion of Its Business from Print to the Web
When SciTech got its feet wet in the catalog business, it had one big catalog featuring a cross-section of technical products from software for scientists to computing tools for engineers. As its customer base grew, it decided to address its major customer markets individually. Thus, three separate catalogs targeting the science, engineering and academic communities were born. SciTech now mails millions of copies of its different catalog titles per year.
“Throughout 1997 and 1998, despite increasing the number of catalogs we mail, our daily Web visits began to exceed our daily number of inbound calls for the first time,” says Moltz.
“The importance of this trend was easy to miss. While inbound calls are clearly correlated to the number of catalogs mailed, the Web traffic was growing at double-digit monthly rates as we gave increasing options to our visitors,” he says. Despite the success of the Web, SciTech isn’t planning to reduce or increase the number of catalogs it mails.
Similar to the way its print catalogs began as one and then separated into separate editions, the Web site (www.scitechint.com) now hosts a number of individual product-specific online catalogs.
“The SciTech site is segmented into four major portals: Science, Academic, Engineering and K-12 Education,” says Moltz—plus there is an online bookstore featuring 1,000 technical titles.
Venture onto the site and you find it resembles a series of sub-sites specific to each of the industries it serves, all tied to one corporate home page. On the home page—just below a copy line stating, “Order from our online catalogs, 24 hours a day”—are five big buttons in bold type to direct visitors to each of the online catalogs and the bookstore. Each button also has a one- or two-sentence description of what visitors will find there.
Then there are separate home pages for each catalog with easy-to-follow online shopping and ordering instructions, information on Web site security and details on how to join the mailing list or even order a print catalog. Moltz says, “We’ve segmented the site this way to target visitors narrowly so that the products and the banner ads each visitor sees are highly relevant to his or her job.”
In addition, SciTech tries to take advantage of cross-sell opportunities, where appropriate. Most product listings suggest other products the visitor may want to consider purchasing—for instance, books or software.
Affiliate Marketing
As part of SciTech’s ongoing “affiliates” program, the Web site is linked to many of the individual software developer companies SciTech has vendor agreements with. In addition, it also has links to trade associations within the industries it serves, such as the Association of Mechanical Engineers.
Moltz says as a result of the traffic generated by affiliate relationships, plus traffic from its print catalogs, SciTech has not yet had to invest in renting keywords on other portals or search engines.
The corporate home page has information on how to become a SciTech Affiliate, along with a button to click to learn how to become a “Business Partner.” Business partners (software developers whose products SciTech sells) can fill out a form online to request that SciTech carry their goods. The section even includes advice on getting the most out of a relationship with SciTech, for instance, “Treat our sales department like an extension of your own sales team.”
Fulfilling Orders Off the Web
Originally, SciTech’s Web orders were handled manually. “We basically printed out orders placed online and then re-keyed them,” Moltz admits.
SciTech had been using MACS (Mail Order and Cataloging System) from Smith-Gardner for its catalog fulfillment since April 1998. In December 1998, it upgraded to the WebOrder module, allowing for back-end integration, which in turn enables customers to see if their orders have shipped. SciTech now uses e-mail to follow up on its orders. MACS allows for this. SciTech is also using outbound e-mail campaigns to increase the contacts with prospects and offer products based on their profiles.
Moltz explains that the site is fully integrated into the back-end MACS system which manages order entry, customer service, purchasing, warehouse, A/R, A/P and G/L. Thus, he says, “An order placed on our Web site is processed in a fully automated manner as if the order was called in by phone and handled by an account rep.”
The order processing is real time and orders can be shipped immediately after credit approval. The most recent site upgrade now allows customers to use a password to check the status of their orders and receive the UPS or FedEx tracking number for their packages. All orders are secured by VeriSign.
Behind the Scenes
The SciTech site is entirely database-driven. The catalogs’ product information changes daily as the central database is updated with new pricing, versions and descriptions. “We can turn on or off banners, listings or products by making changes to a central database without redesigning the HTML page,” Moltz explains.
The total number of templates (pages with programming) on the site is low, making maintenance and upgrading the site easy, he adds.
SciTech hosts its own site in house. Among the tools it uses are NT, IIS, ColdFusion, Access, MACS and WebTrends. According to Moltz, up time is extremely high. The set-up even includes an offline order processing system as back-up.
Such a solid infrastructure or backbone means the SciTech site is strong and reliable enough that the company has been able to get into the fulfillment business, a trend seen recently among print catalogers.
For handling fulfillment for software vendors’ upgrades, SciTech charges a percentage of sales, not per piece. This sideline business has grown from 10 to 200 orders per day.
