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January/February 2002 | NW REPORT



Products Catalog
Goes Live

Take heart. If you're one of those people who guiltily browse online catalogs, pocketing all the vital information—product, price, store locations—but stopping short of purchasing online, you're still a valued customer in the e-commerce boom.

Using the dynamic features of online catalogs to locate what you're looking for—either by searching for key words or browsing a company's inventory—and then making your purchases by phone, fax, or at a store near you, is how many of us do it. We may be chary about putting our credit card numbers into cyberspace or our workplaces may require us to use purchase orders. But, however we do it, it's valid e-commerce activity, say industry watchers, contributing to some $787 billion in e-commerce trade during a recent three-month period reported by the U.S. Department of Commerce. While the lion's share of this activity is by businesses selling to other businesses, individual consumers are taking increasing advantage of the easy access and convenience of online shopping.

So, point your "shopping cart" down the aisles of the Laboratory's new NWREL Products Catalog Online, www.nwrel.org/comm/catalog/, for some guilt-free window shopping or, if you find the perfect item, easy purchase options. You'll find scores of quality educational resources: publications, videos, compact discs, instructional kits, training materials, posters, and more. When you fill your shopping cart, a multipurpose order form is created, displaying all the ordering information you'll need to purchase your selections online using VISA or MasterCard, or to fax or phone in your order. You decide what's best for you.

The Laboratory's products are now available from these sources:

The Laboratory's most popular products are among those available through the NWREL Products Catalog Online, such as supporting materials for the 6+1 Traits™ writing and reading assessment models, Kathleen Cotton's booklet series on lifelong learning, a guidebook series on operating charter schools, and the It's Just Good Teaching series on mathematics and science instruction.

Always Open for Business

No matter the time zone, anyone can access and place an order from the catalog—continuously updated—at any time. Customers can browse listings that are categorized by topic or search the catalog by key words.

"Our clients typically don't have time during the work day to look to their own professional development," says NWREL Web developer Amber Himes, who collaborated with database designer Greg Leach, "so they usually do this after work and on weekends. Being able to search our products and resources at any time that's convenient for them can make their lives a bit easier."

Himes created the "architecture" for the online catalog, ensuring that customers can find their way around the site easily, guided by prompts and reassured by follow-up e-mail messages that tell them when their order has been received and when it has been filled.

"It can be scary to punch buttons and watch your information seemingly float into cyberspace," says Himes. "There's an issue of trust in e-commerce, and that's why it's very important that we communicate effectively with customers, sending them e-mail confirmations of their orders and when the products have been shipped. Usually, that kind of affirmation is implicit when you're placing your order by phone to a human being. But when you're asking customers to make purchases online, you have to make assurances and let them know, all along the way, what they can expect."

To ensure the security of customers' information, Eugene Story, who manages the Laboratory's information services program, contacted VeriSign, Inc., a leading provider of what is called "trust infrastructure" —Web environments that are secure and protect people's personal information. When a customer purchases an order from the online catalog, her credit card information is passed directly to VeriSign, the Laboratory's bank, and the customer's bank-not to the Laboratory. The Laboratory only receives the information it needs to fulfill and ship the order.

"Since the customer's transaction is routed, processed, and secured by VeriSign to the appropriate financial institutions, there is no need for NWREL to store the customer's credit card data," says Himes. "It creates a more secure ordering environment."

Jerry Kirkpatrick, who led the Laboratory's development and communications for 35 years before recently being promoted to associate executive director (see story), oversaw the development of the online catalog.

"This is a significant development in our ability to serve our customers' needs," says Kirkpatrick, "and we'll continue to broaden its scope so that people can take advantage of the Laboratory's vast inventory of teaching materials and educational resources."

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