An integrated mechanism to manage data relative to the main entities involved in a transaction:

• Supplier/Manufacturers
• Products
• Salespersons
• Shopowner
• Clients

1. For each of these entities, the management of forms to:
   • create a new entity (data entry)
   • edit an existing entity (data entry)
   • search within the entities from point of view of the site visitor (searching for products...) and the site owner (internal management purposes)
   • special forms to edit entities in large batches, such as for editing the status of inventory availability or product visibility on the site can be added.
2. Naturally, the content management systems allow site creators to design both standard and innovative search mechanisms from which clients can browse and pick products/services to purchase from.

3. Shopping cart management
   • assembly of purchase items in a basket per user
   • possibility to checkOut items on a per manufacturer basis (a more sophisticated and expensive option) which caters to different shipping, payment and minimum conditions for each manufacturer
   • capturing of data via https pages
   • credit card transaction processing is *not* a standard service in that each financial institution establishes its own interface criteria and proper software needs to be written for each such instance. The tailored software required is small, as the task is well defined and factored otu of the checkout process.
   • issuance of confirmation eMails to site owner, clients, salespersons and manufacturers are possible. The base service has designed by default the issuance of mails to site owner and client.
4. Data for back office activities
   • transaction data can be archived and aggregated for medium terms (days or week depending on volumes) in order to allow the preparation of:
     • transaction reports, as audit trails
     • aggregation of data and statistic processing, for reporting requirements
     Note: all such reports are to be considered on an ad hoc basis, as the desired data and presentation varies wildly in terms of needs and perception. Reports cane be made available on the web, via email or as downloaded tab delimited files.
5. Other services
   • management of client data as a form of club membership, allowing the:
     • maintenance of personal data on the server (excluding credit card data)
     • issuance of newsletters and bulletins
     • handling of product reviews
     • tracking of site visits and purchase histories.