Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Shopping Carts- Designersi.com
I blogged about Prostores.com and at the time I did not realize that they took a chunk of every sale made. If I had known I wouldn't have reviewed them. Sorry about that, my friendly readers.
I would recommend checking out DesignersI.com. There is a 15 day trial that allows you to try our their software and look at their features. I have been using it and enjoying the flexibility. They have two plans if you want to build it yourself and two if you want have it built for you:
Build-It-Yourself
Professional Plan - (Green 1)$39.95/Month$ 30.00 One time account activation fee
- Build-it-yourself site building tool and email. You can build your 40-page hosted website in no time using the internets most advanced website builder.
- No contracts
- Web hosting included
- 40 Meg Hard Drive Space
- 80 pages
- 10 email addresses
- Webmail
- eMarketing tools
- Search engine optimization
- Site traffic reporting tools
Platinum Plan - (Green 2)$59.95/Month $60.00 One time account activation fee
Build-it-yourself site building tool and email.
- No contracts
- Web hosting included
- 80 Meg Hard Drive Space
- 15 email addresses
- 1000 pages
- Webmail
- eCommerce package
- eMarketing tools
- Search engine optimization
- Site traffic reporting tools
Build-It-For-Me (Orange Plan)
Professional (orange-1) $499.00 One time set-up/design fee$39.95/Month
- No contracts
- Web hosting included
- 40 Meg Hard Drive Space
- 80 pages
- 10 email addresses
- Webmail
- eMarketing tools
- Search engine optimization
- Site traffic reporting tools
- 48 hour turnaround
- Web pros work for you
- Search engine optimization
- 5 web pages designed
- 1 customized header
Platinum Plan - (Orange 2)$749.00 One time set-up/design fee$59.95/
- No contracts
- Web hosting included
- 80 Meg Hard Drive Space
- 15 email addresses
- 1000 pages
- Webmail
- eCommerce package
- eMarketing tools
- Search engine optimization
- Site traffic reporting tools
- Initial store set-up—up to 20 products
- 48 hour turnaround
- Web pros work for you
- Search engine optimization
- 8 web pages designed
- 3 customized headers
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All plans have Ebay and PayPal integration. I have to say that creating pages and subpages is extremely easy. I also love the following features
Store Settings: You can activate your Shopping Cart Indicator and choose when and where you display your Privacy and/or Refund Policies, plus prompt an eNewsletter sign-up at check-out.
Shipping & Tax Zones: Determine your delivery options and calculate shipping and tax costs passed on to your customer at the time of order depending on their geographic location.
Sales & Promotions: Manage sale and discount offers and create promotional codes to extend discounts to preferred customers.
PayPal® Payment Settings: Allow your customers to process transactions through the Internet’s most popular E-Commerce Gateway for small business – PayPal®. With over 50 million users worldwide, PayPal® is the recognized standard on the web, ensuring the highest levels of security and reliability.
eBay® Integration: Sell your products on eBay®, The world's most popular and largest Online Marketplace.
Payment Gateway Settings: They offer numerous gateways to handle online transactions.
Visually Appealing Templates: The templates are nice and classy. Some of the nicest templates I have seen yet.
Military Encryption: I don't think I even need to expand on this.
You can also create newsletters, visitor polls, create captions, easily add your custom logo and manage the layout of the page.
The 15 day trial has allowed me to choose a template and create a store that I can look at and decide if I want to invest in it (and I do). In addition, the templates can be modified to become wider. FTP set up is available.
I have spent the last week reading every review on every shopping cart there is. I have asked advice, I have used trial periods and there is nothing I like more than the Designersi shopping cart web builder. I spoke with one of their managers today and he stressed that superior customer service is what sets their company apart from the others. So if you have a question, call them. You will be surprised at how polite and friendly they are.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Want to open an eStore affordably? There is a new option available...
Ebay has opened ProStores.com. I actually learned about them through CJ. I went to their site and reviewed everything. One thing I have discovered is that when you use companies with a solid economic foundation you tend to get more reliability and more options than other companies are able to offer. ProStores.com offers an interactive tour that details all their features.
I like ProStores because obtaining a shopping cart that is optimizable is CRUCIAL for any ecommerce business! ProStores.com has an SEO manager that is easy to use and it was created for optimum performance.
ProStores offers:
- A 30% discount off the ProStores monthly subscription price following the free trial for eBay Stores sellers.
- A one month free trial for anyone.
- PayPal is intregrated into the site (this is great- I have some clients that have large businesses that way to pay me via PayPal- nice feature)
- Web Site Hosting and Set-Up Tools- step-by-step design wizard- no HTML knowledge needed. You can use templates or create your own through Dreamweaver or use their design services.
- Merchandising and Marketing Tools
- Payment and Order Management Tools
- Inventory Management and Reporting
- Very easy to upload products and create subcategories.
- Cross Promote & Featured Products
- Marketing tools submit your listings to Froogle, Yahoo Shopping, Shopping.com, Shopzilla
- Search Engine Optimization Manager- Makes optimizing EASY for you!
- Ebay Integration
- Email Marketing
- Promotions Tools- Free Shipping, Discounts.
- Easy-to-use shopping cart
- Multiple Payment Options, Payment Gateways and Secure Checkout
- Real-Time Shipping Service Integration
- Order manager- pending orders, completed orders, orders shipping, credits, order history etc.
- Automatically notifies you when you are low on inventory and easy to hide a product when you run out.
- Real-time reports on sales that are also customizable.
- Performance Analysis
- 24/7 Support and Interactive Resources.
As you can see ProStores.com has all the features you need to have a successful online store, but most importantly it is easy to optimize. You do not have to be a pro to optimize your product pages with their SEO manager.
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I know how much it can cost for an optimized shopping cart. I have written numerous articles on why ecommerce businesses need them and the negatives of not having one. Now, it is affordable for everyone- large and small businesses. It is a great idea and a potential money maker for you.
Melissa Fach- Sarasota SEO Copywriter