BUSINESS STRATEGY

Over the past seven chapters we’ve discussed the in’s and out’s of creating an adult toy store, similar to the one at NileXxX.com. We’ve discussed the planning, the credit card transactions, the design and navigation, the strategy, and even some legal mumbo-jumbo.BUSINESS STRATEGY

Over the past seven chapters we’ve discussed the in’s and out’s of creating an adult toy store, similar to the one at NileXxX.com. We’ve discussed the planning, the credit card transactions, the design and navigation, the strategy, and even some legal mumbo-jumbo. Now we get to the heart and soul of any functioning adult toy store: the product database and search engine. This chapter may be a little more technical than the previous chapters, but this chapter is also what separates the amateur toy stores from the professional ones.

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6] [Part 7]

THE ENGINE

As a proprietor of an adult toy store, you are going to have a LOT of products. For example, NileXXX.com currently has over 8,300 different items. Your store will most likely carry vibrators, lingerie, pocket pussies, love dolls, DVDs, whips, leather, and what ever else.

Creating an individual HTML page for each item is insane. Thus, we enter the world of database-driven websites. In order to create them, you need to know a little something about a programming language (or hire someone who does; I personally used the consultants at OnTheOutskirts.com). There are many options: asp, jsp, php, cgi, and others.

NileXXX.com is programmed in CGI and contains a delimited database originating out of Excel. There are three main components of the functionality – the database file, the search program, and the dynamic results page. This week, we will closely examine the first component.

THE DATABASE

If you’ve ever worked with Excel, you have a basic understanding of what your adult toy store database may look like. Each row is comprised of an item, and each column is comprised of data concerning that item. Obviously, the more rows and columns you have, the larger your database will be. As I write this, the NileXXX.com database has 8,314 rows and 9 columns. It is 714 KB large.

A properly designed database takes some forethought. It should be easy to add products (we’re typically adding new products almost every day), and it should contain enough data about each product to be both informative to the shopper and functional to the search program. As an example, I will look at a random item row from the NileXXX.com database. For ease of reading, I will number the COLUMNS of the entry. Remember, all of this information appears on one ROW in the actual database:

1)Z
2)Vibrators
3)
4)Blue Devil
5)PD 1604-14
6)PD1604-14.jpg
7)Soft and silky. Multi-speed vibration. Multi-speed rotation. Clitoral stimulation. Free samples of Moist lubricant and toy cleaner included.
8)
9)26.59

Column #1 is the sequential indicator. CGI has a function called “sort” which allows search engine results to be organized based upon a variable. I used the alphabet as this variable but you can also use numbers. (There are only 10 numbers and there are 52 letters, including capitals, so the alphabet affords you more flexibility). Therefore, a product item with a “Z” comes after a product item with a “Y” in my database (as long as both items fulfill the other search requirements). This is just a simple method of arranging results from the database and I have this column in here because I knew the program would be written in CGI. It is necessary to know what language you are going to use as you design your database for this very reason.

Column #2 is the product category. Simple enough. All categories are plural so that they appear in results for “vibrator” as well as for “vibrators.” There’s a way to program a search to account for plurals, but why bother? Let’s try to make this as easy as possible.

Column #3 is a placeholder. The NileXXX.com database doesn’t currently use this column, but it’s there in case we need it down the line.

Column #4 is the name of the product.

Column #5 is the ID number of the product. Whether you will be operating a warehouse of items or utilizing drop-shipping with a wholesaler, this field will be necessary.

Column #6 is the image ID. This is the name of the item’s picture on our server.

Column #7 is the product description.

Column #8 appears to be another placeholder, but is actually an element of the database that simply remains empty for this particular item. It is the “specifics” field and contains size and color information for our clothing items. Since the vibrator only comes in one size and color, this field is blank for this particular item.

Column #9 is the price.

The NileXXX.com database contains 8,313 additional product rows with an equal amount of information. Can you see why creating a HTML webpage for each product would be impossibly daunting? But by utilizing a database, your adult toy store’s inventory is organized in such a way that manipulating it behind the scene takes minutes rather than weeks.

Once you have a database created, you need to save it to your server in whatever format your search program requires. The search engine will then quickly browse the contents of your database and extract just the items that fulfill a search requirement entered by the shopper. That information will than be presented dynamically in a format that is visually appealing.

The search engine and dynamic pages are the next two components of the functional adult toy store, and the topics of future articles. If I haven’t confused you yet, you will certainly enjoy them. But, on the other hand, if this article flew over your head, there is still hope for your adult store. Many current toy stores offer affiliate programs where they offer you a percentage of their profit and in return, you get to take advantage of their product database, search engine, and dynamic pages.

NileXXX.com has such a franchise program which offers 50% commissions. It’s free to join and you can open your own adult toy store in minutes. Sign up at http://nilexxx.com/store.htm or come back next time to learn how to do it yourself.

Article written by Richard at NileXXX.com, home to the world’s sexiest selection of adult toys, DVDs, and clothing.

BUSINESS STRATEGY

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