We have been working on the final development stages of the new website that will replace our existing static htm page site at www.divesports.com.  Brad is handling the primary development work on the new site and his eye for style and appearance is clearly better than mine.  I can’t wait to finish the last steps so we can finally retire the old site and give our customers access to our store with all of the technology of the Web 2.0 revolution.

At the current moment, we are finalizing all of the help text, the informational articles, and publishing the last of the products in our catalog.  Our biggest obstacle now is the transition to a new credit card processing routine.  The credit card gateway we are currently using is not sufficient for the new site.  When we launch the new site, we will have the top credit card authentication and security technology available to anyone on the Internet.  We are really excited about this new security protocol, but the work to put it in place is daunting.

We are also working on the final stages of our website customer contact and communication protocols.  We will have real-time live chat available on the new site, customers will have the capability to review any previous orders, print their own copies of invoices, and many other capabilities that define the whole concept of using the internet to talk WITH our customers instead of talking TO them.

Ease of use will probably be the biggest change in our new website.  While we have been successful with the old one, it will simply be daunted by the customer-friendly nature of the new site.

Stay tuned to further information about the new site.  We are only a few weeks away from the launch and I hope to be able to post some screen shots on this blog prior to our actual launch.  Thanks for your support, your time, and your past support of our little dive store.  We hope 2008 will bring you even more value as you choose Dive Sports to be your local scuba store, no matter where you live.

Phil Ellis

Dive Sports - You Local Scuba Store, No Matter Where You Live!