Learn More About The NetPS Breakthrough!

Introduction To NetPS
The NetPS Customer Experience
“myPlants” Feature
Fitting NetPS Into Your Website
NetPS Options
NetPS Pricing
Order Your NetPS Now!
NetPS License Agreement

Introduction To NetPS

You’re probably familiar with Northscaping’s Landscape Plant Search. It’s grown to become one of the most popular online resources for northern gardeners, homeowners, home landscapers, and even landscape design professionals to identify hardy plants for their landscaping and gardening needs. It's serving nearly a million visitors each year!

Now imagine that you could harness this same technology and put it onto your website, so that your customers were able to search through the hundreds of plants carried by your business to find the ideal plants for their landscaping and gardening needs, right from the comfort of their own homes, 24 hours a day, even when your store is closed. Now take it one step further, and imagine that they could build up a list of their desired plants and quantities, print it out, and bring it into your business, where you could either fill their order, give them pricing, or show them to the actual plants.

That’s exactly what Northscaping has done, and we’ve called this breakthrough NetPS. You now have a way to turn your website from a passive brochure into an interactive powerhouse, a wealth of information for your valued customers. You have a resource that is as knowledgeable and powerful as your best horticultural professional on staff. Your customers can make more informed choices, selecting the right plants for the right applications, driving up satisfaction and driving down warranty costs.

Why is this a breakthrough for your customers? They will spend hours on your website marveling at this tool and accessing your inventory in a way that’s both fun and informative at the same time, even in the off-season when the plants aren't on your shelves. They will see photos of the plants at maturity and with their finest attributes on display. And most importantly, they will know that you really care about them and their needs, and through your website they will develop trust and confidence in you as a source of knowledge. The credibility of your business will skyrocket in their minds, and they will reward you with their loyalty.

The NetPS Customer Experience

Northscaping’s pioneering Landscape Plant Search was 5 years in the making, and has been perfected beyond our wildest dreams. The very same search engine powers NetPS, so you know it’s going to thrill your customers just the same!

Here’s what happens in a typical user interaction. Your customers will access your own customized search page through your website. They can search for plants using specific keywords or phrases, a series of up to 36 different search parameters (advanced search option) which include detailed plant characteristics, landscape attributes, ornamental features and site conditions, or a combination of keywords and parameters. The NetPS engine will consult a database of over 4,000 trees, shrubs, groundcovers, roses, perennials, ornamental grasses and ferns, which have been cross-referenced to your specific catalogue of plants, and test 89 different parameters for each plant to produce a set of results that best matches their search criteria.

The results are prioritized according to relevance, and each result includes a snapshot of key plant information along with a thumbnail photograph of that very plant. Yes, this search uses cultivars to differentiate the results, not just species - your customers will see distinctive photos of each and every cultivar! They can click on any of the results to bring up a detailed information page for each plant, which includes important characteristics from the database accompanied by between 1 and 3 photos. And the results only show plants that you carry!

And as if that weren’t enough, have a look at the awesome “myPlants” feature!

“myPlants” Feature

Here’s an incredible new addition that was NOT in the Northscaping Landscape Plant Search. Your customers can build their own individual and personalized list of plants from their search results simply by clicking on the “myPlants” checkbox beside each. They can add plants to their list, they can remove them at any time, and they can even set order quantities. They can use this feature to refine their search, to filter their selections after searching, or to generate a plant list which they can then print out and bring into your business to request a quote, see the plants, or place an order.

So not only are your customers able to search through your current catalogue of plants, but they are able to build up a list of their selections as they search. They can fill out an order for an entire landscape plan or garden design based on the plants available at your business! It sure beats skimming through hundreds of pages of paper brochures or scrolling through thousands of boring online lists, doesn’t it? And best of all, this is not online shopping, it's "pre-shopping" - NetPS leads customers into your store, because that's where you're at your best.

Fitting NetPS Into Your Website

NetPS is not a packaged application that you physically purchase to run on your own web server; it is a database-driven technology hosted by Northscaping and which resides on our server. You pay for an annual license to operate the technology, and we run it for you.

Even though NetPS is driven by the powerful Northscaping Landscape Plant Search technology, it’s designed not to resemble Northscaping at all! This has been designed to be YOUR search, on YOUR website, with YOUR colors, graphics and corporate identity. The only people who need to know that Northscaping is involved are you, us, and a little tag at the bottom of the pages - just in case someone else is interested!

It’s actually quite easy to configure your own NetPS internet plant search application if you know a little about HTML coding (i.e. web programming). There are numerous settings that can be tailored to your own identity; text fonts, sizes and colors; background colors, bars and images; single or dual-column layouts, alternating row colors, and more. The plant search is very easy to set up as a stand-alone web page, but you can also frame the search application in your own HTML code (which we strongly encourage) to make it blend seamlessly into your company's website.

Your existing website will require some minor modifications to properly integrate the NetPS application. At a minimum, you'll need to add a link in your site menu which leads your customers to your plant search application. You should also consider adding a splash promo introducing and promoting the new service. You must also cross-reference your current plant catalogue against the NetPS database listings, initially and whenever your stock changes; we recommend updating your list at least once per year with the new season's catalogue.

If you're web-savvy or have a good relationship with your current web developer, you can configure your plant search and make the necessary modifications to your website yourself online with relative ease. If not, don't fret - we're here to help! We’d be happy to perform any of these services on your behalf for a nominal charge. It would also be our pleasure to cross-reference your catalogue data, again for a nominal fee. The choice is always yours!

NetPS Options

NetPS comes as a basic configuration, with three primary options; the Advanced Search option, the “myPlants” plant list feature, and the Plant Data Customization tool. Obviously, we’re going to try and encourage you to go for “the works”, because this is where the NetPS technology will really make your website excel!

Here's what you'll get with each option;

'Basic' package includes:

'myPlants' feature includes:

'Advanced Search' option includes:

'Plant Data Customization' tool includes:

NetPS Pricing

Prices do not include applicable taxes

*Plant catalog data entry fee only applies if Northscaping is requested to load plant inventory; all customers have free and open access to cross-reference their own inventory at any time at no charge.

**Plant adder fee waived for all plants accompanied by high quality photo with unrestricted access.

Order Your NetPS Now!

How do you order your NetPS application? Click here to send us an e-mail, and we’ll step you through the setup process. You'll be surprised at just how quickly you can go from having a one-way "brochure" website to a totally interactive powerhouse that your customers will love!

Don't wait for your competition to be the first in your market area offering this technology to your customers - Order Today!

NetPS License Agreement

As part of our ongoing commitment to customer protection, Northscaping requires all NetPS customers to agree to and accept the following license agreement as an integral part of the formal sales contract. Click here to view or print a copy of the agreement (in Adobe PDF format).