E-commerce for publishers

Why a special solution?

Publishers require special e-commerce solutions to handle their subscriptions, series, reservations and sales of digital content. Newspaper publishers in particular, whose main business is in selling subscriptions and single issues, frequently supplemented by organising events (seminars, workshops, talks, conferences etc.), often find that their needs are not met by standard e-commerce solutions.

silver.solutions has dealt intensively with the requirements of publishers and their use of e-commerce. To make it easy for publishers to switch to electronic trading, silver.solutions works closely with knk Business software AG in producing a simple and compact standard e-commerce solution just for them. The tried-and-tested e-commerce solution silver.e-shop (formerly silver.basic) is linked to the industry solution knkVerlag as standard to cover publishers' basic requirements. The Web Connector handles the link between knkVerlag and their online shops.

The industry solution knkVerlag has proved itself to the many publishers who use it. knkVerlag uses Microsoft Dynamics NAV to offer all the functions of a powerful ERP for small and medium-sized companies that also covers the particular needs of publishers.

eCommerce-Lösung für Verlage

Which firms can use the e-commerce solution?

Our e-commerce solution is basically suitable for all publishers that use knkVerlag and aim to offer their products online.

What are the advantages over a standard online shop?

Linking up knkVerlag to the e-commerce solution silver.e-shop will be producing a standard package ready-optimised to the needs of publishers. Together, both components give full play to their strengths. Special functions do not have to be specially implemented, which makes for a simpler and faster online shop setup compared to other shop systems.

silver.e-shop is based on eZ Publish, a powerful web content management system used to set up complete portal solutions with wide-ranging editorial content. The eZ Flow add-on provides further interesting functions for designing media portals, such as the option of feeding in time-controlled content or rotations based on certain criteria. Open interfaces, meanwhile, make it easy to include content from other systems.

Which functions will be of particular interest?

Product data imports from Navision. The basic functionality supports the following product types and their special features: books and general articles, subscriptions, magazine series and their single issues
Support in identifying duplicates in Navision when creating debtors.
Real-time information from Navision, e.g. prices, availability and reference numbers.
Various payment providers can be connected.
Orders possible for both anonymous and registered users.
History incl. open reservations, subscription agreements, event participation lists and invoice documents for books, subscriptions, single-issue sales and events.
Opens the way to an extensive portal solution.

Can the e-commerce solution also provide paid content?

The issue of paid content is gaining steadily in importance for magazine and specialist publishers. Targeted marketing, from single specialist articles all the way to entire journals in digital form, enables penetration of new target groups (e.g. internationally) and can also serve as a tool in retaining existing customers.

The e-commerce solution from silver.solutions will be including options of offering digital content alongside other products too. This ensures that content can only be downloaded once payment has been received. Downloads can also be limited to a maximum number of attempts. If required, various payment systems that have become established for very small sums can be linked to the system (credit-based downloads, mobile phone payments, micro-payment services and the like).

How are special requirements catered for?

Additional modules for adding to the basic program, including links to Libri, KNO and Runge, integration of the knkVerlag ads and event module, and connections to other systems are possible at any time. Both knkVerlag and silver.e-shop are designed to cater to individual special requirements. When selecting software, silver.solutions values open interfaces and the use of established business standards. All this guarantees a durable solution and extensibility. We will be happy to advise you and check the feasibility of your requirements.