Cuíca Central Product Requirements Document
Last updated – EFL - 10/30/01
Previous update – Ed Owen – 11/22/99
Summary
Cuíca Central is a Web-based system that allows merchants and traffic sites to establish, track, and schedule e-commerce promotions and advertising.
Merchants can use Cuíca Central to locate traffic site partners that meet their specific needs in terms of ad context, revenue sharing terms, placement, etc. They can then review the effectiveness of current and past promotions and ads through a reporting system that provides the number of users who visited, purchased, etc.
Traffic sites can use Cuíca Central to manage their sites’ inventory of ad and promotional spaces and to locate merchants to purchase those spaces based on their specific context and other requirements. They can also review the performance of given promotions through the reporting system.
Cuíca Central consists of two main conceptual parts: (1) CuícaPromo, where merchants and traffic sites define their promotions and advertising inventories; and (2) CuícaMarket, where merchants and traffic sites manage and automate the buying and selling of promotions.
Vocabulary
In order to ensure clarity, this document will use the following terms in very specific ways:
· a merchant — refers to an e-commerce vendor of any kind; that is, a site with items it wishes to sell online; e.g. Amazon.com
· a traffic site — refers to a site that by virtue of its user traffic can sell promotional and advertising space; e.g. The Washington Post
· a promotion — refers to a piece of advertising displayed on a Web site, typically offering a discount on a merchant’s products to visitors of a traffic site
· a slot — a unique advertising location on a traffic site that can display promotions
· a deal — the agreement between a merchant and a traffic site to display a given promotion in a given slot under certain terms and conditions
· a bid — the first step in creating a deal: a request made by a merchant to display a promotion on a traffic site under certain terms and conditions
· acceptance/rejection of a bid — the second step in creating a deal: traffic sites agree or refuse to display a given promotion in a particular slot
· finalizing — final step in creating a deal: a merchant finalizes a bid that has been accepted by a traffic site, thus confirming it as a deal; the promotion then enters the Cuíca system to be served on traffic site pages
· active — refers to a deal that is currently underway and affecting the promotions displayed on a traffic site
· expired — refers to a bid that did not receive a response from a traffic site within the designated time, or to a deal that is no longer active
1. Overview of Deal-Making Process on Cuíca Central
1. Using CuícaPromo, a traffic site creates an inventory of the slots available on its site.
2. Using CuícaPromo, a merchant creates an inventory of promotions.
3. In the CuícaMarket, a merchant creates a bid and either (a) submits it directly to a specific traffic site, or (b) places the bid into general circulation in the CuícaMarket for automated matching with an appropriate traffic site.
4. With either method (a) or (b), the merchant’s bid is matched with a traffic site, who is alerted to the bid via e-mail.
5. The traffic site enters CuícaMarket and reviews the merchant’s bid.
6. If the traffic site accepts the bid, the merchant is notified via e-mail.
7. If the merchant subsequently finalizes the bid, the deal is complete and it becomes active at the specified date and time.
Merchants and traffic sites can choose to have steps 4 through 7 occur automatically without the need for explicit acceptance and finalization along the way.
2
Merchant-Specific Functionality
2.1 Set Up Profile/Default Bid Parameters (CuícaPromo)
2.1.1 Merchants will fill out a profile establishing certain baseline characteristics for their dealings on Cuíca Central:
1. Cuíca taxonomy context(s) of the merchant’s site (e.g. “Sports > Aerobic > Martial Arts”)
2. For each of up to five different traffic site taxonomy contexts, the desired:
a. % of revenue share,
b. per sale bounty, and/or
c. first time buyer premium
3. Whether or not willing to finalize deals automatically when matched in the CuícaMarket
4. The ability to automatically finalize can be constrained to bids meeting only specific criteria (to be spelled out further in the future)
5. Taxonomies of traffic sites they wish to completely exclude; or, taxonomies of traffic sites they want to the exclusion of all others
6.
Default values for all of the
input fields when making a bid
2.1.2
Merchants can modify or update their profile at any
time.
2.2 View/Construct/Maintain Promotion Inventory (CuícaPromo)
2.2.1 Merchants create an inventory of promotions in CuícaPromo.
1. They can then review the overall inventory,
2. view the definition of any given promotion,
3. update the properties of a particular promotion, and
4. remove promotions.
2.2.2 For each promotion, the merchant specifies the following information:
1. Merchant’s name for the promotion
2. Category within the CuícaTaxonomy for the promotion (i.e. “Sports > Aerobic > Martial Arts>books”)
3. Special offer to traffic site users:
a. merchant picks from a pre-defined list of “% off” discounts, or can specify a specific percentage
b. discounts can be limited to first-time customers if desired
4. Ad graphic:
a. merchant-uploaded, or
b. automatically generated by Cuíca Central based upon supplied merchant logo artwork
5. Destination
URL where customer goes when promotion is clicked
2.3 Make Bid (CuícaMarket)
2.3.1 Merchants define the parameters of a deal they wish to conclude with a traffic site (default values are drawn from the merchant’s profile):
1. Merchant-specified name for deal
2. Name of promotion defined in CuícaPromo
3. Traffic site(s) to send the bid to; this can include:
a. specific traffic sites picked from the list of traffic sites already set up in the CuícaPromo system
b. all traffic sites matching the promotion’s CuicaTaxonomy category or
c. all traffic sites matching a specified CuicaTaxonomy category
d. all traffic sites in the CuícaPromo system
e. a traffic site not currently set up in the CuícaPromo system, in which case the traffic site’s e-mail address is entered and an e-mail is sent inviting that traffic site to set themselves up in CuícaPromo in order to receive the merchant’s bid
4. The taxonomy contexts desired for the promotion on the traffic site, use one of the following:
a. Default to picking the Traffic Sites’s Promotion Slots that match the Merchant’s category selected in (3) above or the Promotion’s category if one is not selected.
b. Use a specified category for selecting the Traffic Site’s promotion slots.
5. Display frequency for the promotion:
a. a specific number of impressions over a specific period of time, or
b. a specific percentage of page views over a specific period of time
6. Size and placement requirements for the promotion:
a. merchant chooses from four arbitrary sizes
b. merchant can specify one of nine standard placements, “other” non-standard placement, or placement in “any” available slot
c.
merchant can further specify if placement “above the
fold” is required
7. Revenue share arrangement:
a. specific percentage share of revenue (either pre- or post-discount),
b. specific dollar bounty per sale, and/or
c. specific dollar premium for first-time buyer
8. Start time and date for ad
a. can be specified relative to when deal finalized; e.g. start deal on next business day after finalized
b. limits can be placed on relative start times; e.g. deal must start no later than a given calendar date even if relative
9. Deadline (time and date) for response from traffic site (optional; if desired, bids can never expire)
10. Notes field
for merchant to add any other comments or stipulations
2.3.2
In addition to sending bids to specific traffic sites
or to the CuícaMarket, merchants can also save a bid without making it
available to traffic sites. It can then be put into circulation at a later
date.
2.4 Review/Edit/Cancel Bids & Deals (CuícaMarket)
2.4.1 Merchants can review all bids and deals, current and past.
1. A summary list of bids/deals will provide access to individual bids/deals in detail.
2. This detailed view will allow merchants to update and edit any aspect of a bid that has not yet been accepted by a traffic site. Bids that have been accepted or finalized can be viewed but not edited. (Note that the Cuíca system must prevent bids from being accepted while they are being edited.)
3. In addition to all of the items entered by merchants when they bid a promotion, this view would also show the following:
a.
Traffic site(s) that have accepted the bid, and whether
the merchant has in turn approved the deal
2.4.2 The bid/deal summary list can be filtered and sorted by any of the following criteria:
a. Deal name
b. Start time and date
c. Traffic site(s) proposed
d. Traffic site taxonomy context(s)
e. Status of bid/deal; one of the following conditions:
I not bid — saved bid not yet made available for traffic sites
II bid — sent to traffic sites but not yet accepted by any traffic site
III accepted — accepted by one or more traffic sites, ready to be finalized
IV accepted (oversold) — accepted by one or more traffic sites but believed by Cuíca to be in an oversold slot; ready to be finalized
V rejected — rejected by all possible traffic sites
VI active — deal underway
VII expired — deal has run its course, bid failed to be accepted by the merchant’s deadline, or accepted bid failed to be finalized by traffic site’s deadline
2.4.3 Merchants can “clone” a bid in order to quickly make a new bid similar to a previous one (useful if a bid has expired and the merchant wants to propose the same thing again, for example).
2.4.4 Merchants can cancel any un-expired bid or active deal at any time.
2.4.5
Merchants can hide expired bids and deals in summary
lists.
2.5 Test Promotion / View Traffic Site Inventory (CuícaMarket)
1. Merchants can test the viability of a promotion without making an actual bid by defining all the elements of a bid and then just choosing to “test” it in the CuícaMarket. This would produce a list of matching traffic site slots without actually initiating the deal-making process.
2.
Merchants can also browse the slot inventories of
participating Cuíca traffic sites in order to get a sense of what opportunities
exist. Their view of the inventories would be similar to the summary view
described below in the “Traffic Site-Specific Functionality” section.
3. Merchants could view only the number and types of available slots, not what deals are currently active for given slots.
2.6 Finalize Deals (CuícaMarket)
1. If not set up for automatic deal-making, merchants must manually finalize deals when their bids are accepted by traffic sites.
2. Merchants will be able to see all of the information about a traffic site and the slot for the deal.
3. The merchant can finalize or cancel the accepted bid. Finalized deals become active in the system.
4.
Traffic sites can specify a
deadline by which accepted bids must be finalized.
2.7 Create Reports (CuícaMarket)
2.7.1 Merchants can prepare reports that will allow them to evaluate the efficacy of various promotions. Types of reports available:
1. Impressions, clicks, and click rate; would include a breakdown by
a. simple clicks on the promotion
b. consumers reaching the buy page
c. consumers reaching the thank you page
2. Conversion rate
3. Revenue share/bounty due to traffic sites
4. New customers
5. Each of the above reports can be narrowed by the following criteria:
a. Time period (date or hour range) and frequency (daily, weekly, or monthly)
b. Traffic site
c. Taxonomy context
d. Deal name
e. Deal discount
f. Promotion placement
g. Promotion display frequency
6. Reports
can total and sub-total where appropriate
2.7.2 Reports can be downloaded in comma-separated-value format.
3
Traffic Site-Specific Functionality
3.1 Set Up Profile/Default Parameters (CuícaPromo)
3.1.1 Traffic sites will fill out a profile establishing certain baseline characteristics for their dealings on Cuíca Central:
1. Taxonomy contexts of merchant sites they wish to completely exclude; or, taxonomy contexts of merchant sites they want to the exclusion of all others
2. Whether or not willing to accept bids automatically when matched in the CuícaMarket
a. The ability to automatically accept can be constrained to bids meeting only specific criteria (to be spelled out further in the future)
3. Whether
or not merchants can see what slot inventory is available
3.1.2
Traffic sites can modify or update their profile at any
time.
3.2 View/Construct/Maintain Promotion Slot Inventory (CuícaPromo)
3.2.1 Traffic sites have a mechanism to enter into CuícaPromo a definition of each of the slots on their site.
1. They can then review the overall inventory, view the definition of any given slot, update the definition of a particular slot, and remove slots.
3.2.2 Traffic sites provide the following information for each slot on their site:
1. Traffic site-supplied name for slot
2. URL for slot (for traffic site or merchant convenience only, not used by Cuíca)
3. Taxonomy contexts for the slot
4. Size of the slot (one of four standard sizes)
5. Location of slot on page (one of the nine standard locations, or “other”)
6. Estimated number of impressions/page views the slot can deliver, with weekday and weekend daily averages; Cuíca system will also report most recent actual figures
7. Minimum revenue share and/or bounty required
8. Time/date
boundaries for slot (e.g., a slot might be on a page that only appears during
specific calendar months or seasons)
3.2.3 During this “construction” of a slot, traffic sites will be able to navigate their site while viewing the CuícaPromo page, facilitating slot definition.
1. In this version, CuícaPromo will make no provision to give traffic sites a way to organize their slots in a hierarchy that matches their site structure. Slots can only be distinguished by their name and the taxonomy contexts.
3.2.4 Once slots are defined, a summary list of slot inventory will provide access to detailed information on individual slots. The summary list can be filtered and sorted by any of the following criteria:
1. Slot name
2. Slot URL
3. Slot taxonomy contexts
4. Deals active for the slot
5. Percentage
of slot impressions sold
3.2.5 The detail view of a slot will display all of the items entered by traffic sites when they define a slot, plus the following:
1. Deals active for the slot
2. Detailed information for each of these deals can be called up from this view
3. Percentage
of slot impressions sold
3.2.6 A traffic site can cancel any deal active for a slot at any time.
3.3 Review Bids from Merchants (CuícaMarket)
3.3.1 In the CuícaMarket, traffic sites can view all unexpired bids from merchants that match the slot definitions on the traffic sites.
1. A summary view of merchant bids will display the following information (list can be filtered and sorted by any of these fields):
a. Merchant’s promotion name
b. Start time and date
c. Traffic site taxonomy contexts desired by merchant
d. Name(s) of traffic site slots that match taxonomy contexts
e.
Deadline for response from traffic site
2. The full detailed information on a bid is accessible from the summary view.
3. Traffic sites can take the following actions on a merchant bid:
a. Accept it
I the traffic site can optionally specify a deadline by which the accepted bid must be finalized by the merchant
II upon acceptance, the Cuíca system will verify that the given slot can meet the terms (impressions, dates, etc.) of the bid; if a slot appears to be oversold, the CuícaMarket will warn the traffic site, who can choose to ignore the warning; merchants will be warned if their bid is accepted for an oversold slot
b. Reject it
I traffic sites can optionally pick pre-canned reasons why rejected
II a custom comment field can be used to suggest counter-offers with different terms
3.4 Review Past Deals (CuícaMarket)
3.5 Create Reports (CuícaMarket)
3.5.1 Traffic sites can review all deals that have expired for their slots.
3.5.2 Traffic sites can prepare reports that will allow them to evaluate the performance of various slots. Types of reports available:
1. Impressions, clicks, and click rate; would include a breakdown by
a. simple clicks on the promotion
b. consumers reaching the buy page
c. consumers reaching the thank you page
2. Conversion rate for merchants
3. Revenue share/bounty earned from merchants
4. New
customers generated for merchants
3.5.3 Each of the above reports can be narrowed by the following criteria:
1. Time period (date or hour range) and frequency (daily, weekly, or monthly)
2. Merchant
3. Taxonomy context
4. Deal name
5. Deal discount
6. Promotion placement
7. Promotion
display frequency
3.5.4 Reports can total and sub-total where appropriate.
3.5.5
Reports can be downloaded in comma-separated-value
format.
4
General Functionality
4.1 Account Sign-Up & User Log-in
1. Cuíca Central will be hosted by a secure, password-protected Web server.
2. Merchants and traffic sites will be set up for corporate accounts by Cuíca salespeople, who will provide one login and password for each corporate account. Once logged in, users will:
3. Specify whether a merchant or traffic site account (if a user wants both, it requires two separate accounts)
4. Provide primary contact name, e-mail, phone, title (this address receives notifications from the system)
5. Provide secondary contact name, e-mail, phone, title
6. Set e-mail notification preferences
7. Provide company name, address
8. Provide appropriate billing information
9. Upload company logo graphic (for potential use in automatic ad graphic creation)
10. Create as
many specific users as desired under the corporate account
4.2 Audit Trail
1. Each transaction in the system will need to be recorded so that traffic sites and merchants can retrace the steps of when and who took what actions regarding deals.
4.3 E-mail Notification
1. Whenever a bid is sent, a notification is sent to the target traffic site via e-mail. The traffic site is directed to the CuícaMarket to review the bid as described above. Only one such notification message will be sent until the traffic site visits the CuícaMarket, even if more bids are received in that time.
2. When a bid is accepted by a traffic site, the merchant receives notification via e-mail. The merchant is directed to CuícaMarket to respond.
3. When a deal is finalized, both merchant and traffic site receive a notification message. This notification can be disabled by the user if desired.
4.4 Taxonomy System
1. Merchants and traffic sites will be able to suggest additions or changes to the Cuíca taxonomy, but only Cuíca will be able to change the taxonomy.
4.5 Glossary / Help System
1. Each major section of the Cuíca Central site will have comprehensive help and a glossary of terms.
5 Minimum Platform Requirements
Internet Explorer 5.x for Windows (98/NT 4/2000)