1. The Chocolate Club
Website Discussion Document
Presented by:
Andrew Cadman

2. Business Background
• The business is a leading player in their market and currently has three main brands:
– The House of Chocolates
– The House of Chocolate
– The Chocolate Club
• The management recognised the importance of the internet and built an initial web
presence for The House of Chocolates using a commercial web development system
(intershop) A second site was developed for The House of Chocolates brand
• The company still recognises the importance of the internet in the company development
strategy but the main business continues to be built around bricks and mortar and mail
order opportunities
• The group is developing rapidly and future developments include:
– New shop opening in Czech Republic (The House of Chocolates)
– Development of Czech language and Russian language sites to support Czech
operation
– Islamic web site being developed for
– Japanese site being developed for
– Chocolate Club web site
2

3. The Chocolate Club
BACKGROUND
The business has recently bought the Chocolate Club (December 2000)
• The club has 47,000 members and is essentially a mail order operation
• Members pay an annual membership fee (depending on level of membership) and are
then entitled to to order products from an exclusive range only available from the club
• Membership rates are:
– Platinum (Life membership) £50 one off fee
– Gold £10 per annum
– Bronze Free
– Honorary Awarded
• The club has captured a particular niche market as it has the exclusive UK licences to
supply not only exclusive chocolate products but:
– Champagne
– Comestibles
– Truffles
• Current members do not get discount and are not communicated with on a regular basis
• Market dynamics are unusual in that:
– Members purchasing not driven by price and or discounts
– Purchases driven by habit/calendar for Christmas, Birthdays, valentines and special
events
• Membership not currently targeted with any promotional activity
3

4. The Chocolate Club
FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
• The club has recently won several contracts to supply products to:
– British Airways Executive Club
– Diners Club
– American Express
• These contracts are based on on-line ordering rather than mail order
• An integral part of the fulfilment for these contacts is to link the customer web sites to a
new chocolate club web site
• The first of the contracts to be put in place will be British Airways Executive Club with an
implementation date of May 2001 although this may be pushed back
4

5. The Chocolate Club
OPPORTUNITIES
• The various licences held do not normally allow discounts to be given on the RRP of
products to the general public, however as members pay for club membership discounts
can now be given to chocolate club members
• In addition, the club is open to overseas members so that product can be supplied to
members in other territories without breaking the licence rules. This is especially pertinent
to the US market (and Japanese) where the product is more expensive than in the UK
• Opportunity exists to really drive business via the new club website in two main areas:
– Landgrab - recruitment of new members across a wider market
• Different age/spending profile
• Promotionally responsive members
• Active on-line shoppers
– Activation - communication with existing members
• Increase number of sales
• Increase “basket value”
• Drive cross sales to additional product
• Develop club loyalty and move members up the loyalty ladder. Retain and
increase activity of the most valuable members
5

6. The Chocolate Club
SITE OBJECTIVES
• Raise awareness of the club within national and international on-line market
• Help develop club identity and brand. Develop trust, confidence and buy in
• Provide an additional opportunity to communicate with existing members and develop
market
• Provide opportunity for new member acquisition
• E-commerce enabled site to drive revenue from UK and international markets
6

7. The Chocolate Club
CONSTRAINTS
The site must:
• Integrate with British Airways, Diners Club and American Express sites
• Allow on-line credit card validation and integration with NatWest
• Have content and design appropriate for the US market
• Be easy to administer and quick to amend in terms of seasonal and country content
7

8. The Chocolate Club
FUNCTIONALITY
The web site and backend systems will provide the following functionality:
• Database driven web site. The majority of the web site, specifically the product
catalogue will be dynamically generated from the database. This will allow seasonal
changes to be made quickly and multiple catalogues/web sites (BA, Diners, Country
versions) to be run from the same base database of products
• Membership Module. The web site will have a member join facility and account enquiry
facility linked to a backend membership system. The membership system will track
member address, contact, type and renewal details etc.
• Purchase History Module. Tracks purchases, manages members discounts, tracks
loyalty points/discounts earned etc. Built to integrate with ipoints/own loyalty system
• Customer Relationship Module. Email system to allow members to be selected,
emailed, responses tracked and promotionally rewarded
8

9. The Chocolate Club
• Shopping Basket & On-line Credit Authorisation. Link to Worldpay & Natwest
Streamline
• Management Information Module. System accessible under password control to
provide statistics on members, purchases etc.
• Administration Module. Bespoke system to allow the database and web site to be
remotely administered
9

10. The Chocolate Club
DESIGN VALUES
• Phase 1 of the site is designed to get a professional, informative and e-commerce
enabled presence on the web.
• The web site will be designed to be:
– simple to navigate site and deliver effective and informative content quickly
– easy to use
– simple to purchase from
– ‘sticky’ and interesting enough to attract visits and re-visits
• Graphic look and fell will be developed specifically for the site but will be based on the
existing colours and logo. The general imagery from the brochure could be used to
develop the site or a completely new ‘on-line’ look could be used. As part of the build
process we will design 2/3 looks for the site and discuss them with you before finally
developing the site in detail
10

11. The Chocolate Club
TECHNICAL APPROACH
• The site will developed using Microsoft SQL 7 database, PHP and flat HTML.
Administration and management information modules will be built using Access, VB and
HTML
• The site will be developed using the shared core functions of Netscape and Explorer to
ensure all components of the site will work when viewed in either browser on a variety of
platforms
• Where possible the use of “plug-ins” (Shockwave, Flash, Real Audio) and Java/Java
Applets will be avoided.
• The site will be designed to still be effective when accessed by browsers on slow dial up
modem links
• Emphasis will be on developing a site which is user friendly, easy to navigate and easy to
use
WHY?
• Despite the increasing sophistication of the web, site owners/developers must not dis-
enfranchise users by creating overly sophisticated and intricate sites
• Experience has shown that sites that deliver useful functionality quickly are more popular
than those based on large and complex graphics. Relevant and timely content is the main
key in attracting and, more importantly, re-attracting visitors
11

12. The Chocolate Club
CONTENT
The site will contain the following broad content:
• Introduction & background to the Chocolate Club
• Member benefits & call to action to join
• Join page & account details page
• Member promotions & special offers
• Online catalogue, product by type, supplier, season etc
• Shopping basket, checkout and credit card authorisation
• Newsletter
• Contact Us
• Help
12

13. Outline Configuration
13

14. Outline Configuration
• Chocolate Club Server. Database & web server combined running within ipoints
facilities managed area in Easynet or other ISP (see Hosting section on slide 16 for these
options in more detail)
• Twickenham Office. Secure and private access via management information system to
database and e-commerce system. The management information system will be written
in HTML and be available from any PC via normal browser software (under strict
password control). Access can be either via normal dial-up or an ADSL (or similar) link
• Cambridge Office. Secure and private access via management information system to
database and e-commerce system. The management information system will be written
in HTML and be available from any PC via normal browser software (under strict
password control). Phase 1 order system involves sending email of confirmed purchase
to Cambridge for fulfilment. Access can be either normal dial-up via or an ADSL (or
similar) link
• Ipoints office. Phase 1 of the systems envisages ipoints administering and maintaining
the web site based on instructions from the Chocolate Club. Future phases will implement
an administration system that can be used by the Chocolate Club to undertake the
majority of the web site and membership system administration
14

15. Outline Costs - Phase 1
1. Development of core backend database with the following modules: £26,950
Product Catalogue
Membership Module
Purchase History Module
Customer Management Module
Shopping Basket
Credit Card payment
Management Information System
The costings are based on the information currently available. The current estimate for
Phase 1 development is 49 days +/- 10%
2. Chocolate Club Web Site Development. The cost will depend on the final content and
functionality agreed but based on our understanding to date, we estimate the costs to be as
follows:
Design £5,500
Database Integration
Email/Information request Forms
Project management, indexing, copy
15

16. Outline Costs - Phase 1
3. Hosting. There are two options for hardware:
Option1: Hosted on ipoints clustered server facility managed £500pcm
by Easynet.
OR
Option2: Separate server supplied by Easynet but setup and £2,500/quarter
managed by ipoints
In addition there will be a monthly charge for maintenance and £250
monitoring by ipoints system staff
16

17. Outline Costs - Phase 1
4. Administration. A fee will be charged based on the level of site maintenance undertaken.
We envisage that this will be seasonal but would suggest charging a monthly retainer fee to
cope with the base work and then charging for additional work on an hourly basis. Because
of the retainer we would discount our normal rate card by 20%.
We are aware that previously the group has had problems with using external resource to
maintain web sites. Using ipoints to administer the system ensures access to our full
technical and customer services team. We will ensure that all changes are implemented
promptly and to an agreed timescale
Phase 2/3 will involve implementing an administration system that can be used remotely by
yourselves but we feel that it would be more cost effective in Phase 1 to use the ipoints
administration services.
Monthly Retainer £300
Rate Card (less 20%) Customer Services £220/day
Graphic Designer £440/day
Analyst/Programmer £440/day
IT Director £900/day
17

18. Outline Costs - Phase 1
5. British Airways. Bespoke catalogue/web site for Executive Club members. Dependent
on exact requirements and any other bespoke content additional English language web
sites/catalogues will cost approximately £2,500-£5,000
18

19. Future Developments
PHASE 2
• Additional linked website/catalogues:
– Diners Club
– American Express
– Czech
– Russia
– Islamic
– Japanese
• Re-engineer The House of Chocolates web site and migrate to Chocolate Club system
PHASE 3
• Remote Administration System to administer database and web sites
• Order/Picking/Fulfilment System
19

20. Traffic Driving
• It is vital that the web site is supported by other marketing collateral, both standard and
electronic
• Standard Collateral Support
– Web site address on all corporate literature
– Web site address on all promotional material, magazine and on all press advertising
– Specialist print advertising to drive traffic to the site
• Electronic Collateral Support
– Registration on all appropriate search engines, portals, and indexes. This is vital and
will need to done on a quarterly basis and will be built into the maintenance costs
– Reciprocal links on affinity group and related sites
20

21. Appendix B - Database Schema
Shipping Options Order Order Line Skin
Member Payment Product
Sales Tax
Cart Cart_Item Catalogue Entry Catalogue Country Language
Sent Email email Template Entry Category Partner
Category
21