Internet Product Catalog and Internet Online Store (SAP Library

Internet Product Catalog and Internet Online Store

Use

There are two R/3 Internet Application Components which are based on the Product Catalog functionality:

Product Catalog

Online Store

In both components, customers can browse through the products offered online, either by clicking through the product groups or by using a search mechanism. Current pricing information is shown for each product.

The interactive online store also integrates customer data creation, order entry, and credit card payments capability. The online store is a virtual retail store, fully able to support sales transactions over the Internet.

Sales orders entered via the online store are assigned to the sales area contained in the R/3 Product Catalog basic data.

Integration

Both Product Catalog and Online Store Internet Application Components (LO-MD-AM) use a standard Internet browser interface (for example, Microsoft Internet Explorer^®).

An Internet product catalog consists of several shops (similar to store departments) so that customers can navigate more easily to find the products they want. Within the shops, product groups are presented; these correspond to the layout areas underneath the shops. Consequently, the layout hierarchy for an Internet catalog must have at least two layout area levels: one for shop nodes and the other for the product groups. (There can be several product group nodes attached to a single shop).

Level 1: Shop (for example, women’s clothing, consumer electronics, produce). You could also think of this level as a store department.

Level 2 (and higher): Product groups (for example, women’s blouses, TVs, fruit)

In Internet catalogs and online stores, you can assign texts and documents to shop layout areas and to articles, but not to product group nodes. Documents can include large pictures, small pictures, or audio files, which are managed by the Document Management System. For more information on these kinds of files, see Customizing under Logistics - General ® Logistics Basic Data: Product Catalog.

For generic articles, documents and texts assigned to the generic article itself are used, not those assigned to the variants.

Customers can choose to register with your business. They enter only their address data, and this triggers the creation of Customer master records in R/3.

Customers choose a payment option: invoice, credit card, or COD (Cash on Delivery). Invoices are handled as normal billing documents in R/3. If the customer choose to pay by credit card, the credit card data is checked and, if valid, the system allows the transaction to proceed.