What is Vesatile Virtual Vending (VVV)?
General Overview
The VVV virtual store software system was developed
with the intent of providing a front end for a retail ordering system
that is intuitive to use for the customer and secure. It is
implemented around the http protocol. This decision was made because
of the protocol's flexibility, the cross-platform compatibility that
such a protocol ensures, and the rapidly growing number of users with
access to http clients (also referred to as browsers). While it
was originally developed for the retail grocery market, it has evolved
into a generic server, easily adapted to any online ordering system.
How is VVV different from other online vendors?
- There are online shops springing up all over the Internet,
selling everything from condoms to hot sauce to jewelry. What we
have found is that most of these online shops are selling novelty
items and obscure gifts. Most of all, they have a very small inventory
of items for sale.
- VVV is different in that it was designed for large inventories.
While the database is not in the public domain, we have set up a sample
shop of over 20,000 items in 680 different categories. The VVV handles
this as easily as it does the small inventory of the Wanes demo. The
interface is designed to make it easy for the user to find what they
are looking for quickly and to browse through the categories in an
orderly manner.
Security:
- Security is a major issue that any retailer who wishes to
implement an online store must tackle. The VVV system was designed
with security issues in mind. While ideally any user should be able
to visit the store without preregistration, just as he can walk into
any real retail store, in reality there is no way to make a retail
server on the Internet secure and still allow this. It was concluded
that there is no failsafe method of validating a user's identity (and
hence the validity of any order he or she places) without first
assigning that individual a customer id and password for accessing the
system. Until such a method is in place, the VVV system has adopted
the security measure that millions of computers on the Internet now
use to validate users when they log in. A database of users with
their id, password, full name, address, etc is maintained. The
password is stored in encrypted form.
- Since the http protocol has no inherent method of keeping
track of who is logged in and validated as a customer, this part of
the implementation is built into the VVV server. Upon being "logged
in" to the system (by typing in a valid id and password pair), a user
is assigned a code (herefore referred to as a "cookie"), that is used
to identify the user as being valid. This code is valid for exactly
one protocol request (herefore referred to as a "get"). With each
get, the user is assigned a new cookie. The chances of guessing a
valid cookie at any given time are so miniscule as to be unworthy of
further analysis. A mechanism is in place to detect when the user has
pressed the BACK or FORWARD buttons on his browser, and the user is
given a chance to recover. Thus a balance between "user-friendliness"
and security is maintained.
- Another feature of the VVV system is to eject inactive users
after a set time of inactivity has passed. In the current version
this is 3 1/2 minutes. An ejected user who logs back into the system
within two hours is given the option to continue where he left off.
After the two hours has passed, all record of his order is erased.
The automatic ejection feature is in place to prevent inactive
customers from consuming system resources (memory) and also as a
security measure.
- It is said that "There is more chance of getting your
Credit Card number stolen by giving it to a waiter in a restaurant,
than sending it over the internet." We concur with this statement, so
VVV is capable of accomodating "on the fly" credit card transactions.
The virtual store "owner" is, of course, the responsible agent in this
case and we encourage them to disclaim these so called "security
problems", and offer the customer a phone number to call if they have
concerns in this area. We are watching for the development of secure
http (shttp) transaction development and will implement that protocol
as soon as it is possible to do so.
- VVV stores are now ECASH enabled. For information on ecash
and how it enables secure monetary transactions, visit the
DigiCash ECASH home page.
Setup and Maintenance of a Retail Store
- VVV was designed to make it easy to set up a retail
ordering system. The style of the menus that are presented for users
to browse can be changed to suit the taste of the business which
wishes to implement a vending system. For a base setup, all that is
required are two databases of information. One contains information
on the products being vended, including fields for item numbers (UPC
code in the case of a Grocery Retailer), category codes, prices, and
descriptions. The second database lays out the hierarchy of
categories. The magic of VVV is that it takes these two simple
databases and produces an attractive store. When prices or
inventories change, an updated database is submitted and the store
reflects the changes. To dress up a store, pictures in
gif format can be added and will automatically be inserted into the
proper locations.
- To keep the cost of entry into the online market to a
minimum we encourage retailers to create their own databases.
Alternatively we can set them up for you. If you already have
a computerized database of your products, as most businesses today do,
contact us. It is very likely that we can use your existing data.
Order Submission
- The means of order submission is not predetermined. That
is, the semantics of submitting an order are not an integral part of
the sytem. Some possibilites of actions upon order submission include
printing the order on a line-printer, emailing the order to a
particular branch, or appending the order to a text file. It is
possible to have the order submitted to a particular location of a
chain, such as a pizza delivery business with multiple stores. This
part of the the system was not developed with any specific
implementation in place so that an effective solution can be developed
that fits the retailer's needs.
Miscellaneous Features
- As stated above, the VVV system was designed with ease-of-use
as one of it's top priorities. If a customer does not find the system
easy to use, he will not bother to learn it but continue shopping in
more conventional ways. The target customer for this system is a
computer user, but not neccessarily a computer expert. The following
ideas and features were put into the implementation:
Navigation
Users must be able to easily navigate through the store to
find they are looking for. For this reason, categories of the store
are laid out into a logical hierarchy. For example a grocery store
may have sections for dairy, meat, and bakery products. Under the
dairy section there may be milk, cheese, and yogurt sections. These
can be further subdivided to accommodate as large an inventory of
saleable items as desired. This is all set up in the single category
database as described above. The user is provided with simple icons
that allow quick movement from point to point in the store. For those
vendors that have an extremely large number of items to offer, we can
implement search engines which will allow users to quickly find
exactly what they are looking for.
Shopping Lists
Using a computer to shop affords the user a big advantage
over going to the market. The VVV has a facility which allows users
to browse the store and find items that they are interested in. If
they don't want to make the purchase just then, they can store the
order for retrieval on their next visit. In the case of a grocery
store, people may want to save a list of the items they buy most of
the time. Then when they visit the store they can simply add items
to or remove items from their order. The customer saves a great deal
of time by doing so.
Accommodating Slow Links
For those users who have a slow network connection, for example
SLIP connections, VVV provides an option for the user to choose
whether or not he would like to view the graphics. The intention here
is to prevent customers from becoming discouraged if the loading of
graphics slows things down too much. We've also accommodated those
users who use the Lynx text-based WWW browser. These users will see
buttons like this: [ Submit Your Order ], instead of the graphical
icons.
How Can I get MY Business Online?
- VVV is distributed
exclusively through BizNet
Technologies whom you may contact directly from the VVV Demo
Wanes Online Grocery, or from
this form.
Generally, VVV is a Client-server application which serves
the httpd daemon the information it needs to bring your "Store" to
your customers. You may lease space and the software from BizNet.
To the VVV Home Page
To the Demo, Wane's Online Grocery