Utilizing a Prepackaged Storefront
The easiest way to create an online store-front is to let
somebody else do it for you.
Several of the big auction services' sites offer prepackaged
web storefronts you can use to sell both auction and nonauction merchandise. The
advantage of using a prepackaged storefront is that all the hard work is done
for you: You put your storefront together by filling out the appropriate forms.
The disadvantage of a prepackaged storefront is that, in many cases, it's not
really your storefront; there aren't a lot of
customization options, and you have to settle for a somewhat generic look and
feel (which means that your store is going to look like every other store
managed by the same servicenot necessarily a good thing).
Still, if you want to launch a storefront without a lot of fuss
and mussand get it up and running in record timethen a prepackaged storefront
service might be for you. We'll look at some of the most popular services
next.
Ándale Stores
Ándale (www.andale.com) lets you build your own storefront on its
service. As you can see in Figure 28.1,
an Ándale Store is similar to an eBay Store, but maybe a bit nicer looking and
somewhat more functional. An Ándale Store can be fully customized with your own
personal color scheme and graphics.
Pricing to open an Ándale Store is $9.95 per month, cheaper
than the $15.95 fee for an eBay Store. You also have to pay Ándale 5% of all
your online sales. These fees cover everything you need to run your storefront;
as with all these third-party services, Ándale provides all the web hosting and
storage space you need for your store.
Ándale also does a little marketing for you. When you open an
Ándale Store, your items are listed on the Froogle, Shopzilla, and Shopping.com
comparison shopping sitesin addition to Ándale's own Ándale Plaza shopping
destination site. It's good exposure, something you don't get with many other
e-commerce services.
ChannelAdvisor
The ChannelAdvisor Stores service (www.channeladvisor.com), which is part of the ChannelAdvisor
Merchant package, helps you incorporate a full-service storefront into your eBay
About Me page or create a more full-featured online storefront, including
integrated checkout and payment services. (Figure 28.2 shows an About Metype store page.) You'll need
to contact the service personally to get a price quote for your particular
needs.
eBay ProStores
I guess eBay got tired of losing business to third-party
storefront services, because in 2005 it launched its own prepackaged storefront
service, dubbed eBay ProStores (www.prostores.com). eBay ProStores offers much the same types
of services that you find at the third-party sites, including domain hosting,
real-time credit card processing, and an e-commerce shopping cart. Figure 28.3 shows a typical ProStores
merchant site.
ProStores offers four different packages for different-sized
businesses. These are detailed in Table
28.1.
Table 28.1. eBay ProStores Packages
| |
ProStores Express |
ProStores Business |
ProStores Advanced |
ProStores Enterprise |
|
Target |
Individual sellers |
Small businesses |
Medium-sized businesses |
Enterprise-sized businesses |
|
Price |
$6.95/month |
$29.95/month |
$74.95/month |
$249.95/month |
|
Transaction fees |
1.5% |
0.5% |
0.5% |
0.5% |
|
Web hosting |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Personalized domain name |
Optional |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Web storage space |
NA |
5 GB |
10 GB |
20 GB |
|
Data transfer limits |
NA |
50 GB/month |
200 GB/month |
400 GB/month |
|
Customizable design templates |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Number of products allowed |
10 |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
|
Shopping cart with SSL checkout |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
PayPal payments accepted |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Real-time credit card processing |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Inventory management |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Drop-shipment management |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
|
Daily submission to shopping comparison sites |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Accounting integration with QuickBooks |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Shipping integration with FedEx, UPS, USPS, and Canada
Post |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Integrated with eBay and eBay Stores |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
The chief advantage to eBay ProStores
over competing services is the seamless integration with regular eBay auctions
and eBay Stores. You can copy your eBay listings directly to your ProStores
product catalog, transfer items from your ProStores inventory to an eBay auction
or eBay Stores listing, display your eBay listings in your ProStores store, and
manage all your eBay listings from your ProStores store. No other e-commerce
service offers this level of eBay integration.
Homestead Storefront
Homestead Storefront (storefront.homestead.com), which is powered by the same
technology that powers eBay ProStores, offers an easy-to-setup solution,
especially for smaller sellers. You get your choice of packages, priced from
$6.99/month to $59.99/month, depending on how many items you want to merchandise
and how much storage space and data transfer you need.
Storefront sites can look quite professional, as you can see in
Figure 28.4. Getting started is as easy
as working through a few wizards.
Infopia
Infopia (www.infopia.com) is one of those companies that cloaks what it
does in a suffocating blanket of business-to-business buzzwords. According to
its website, the Infopia Marketplace Manager "is an all inclusive
multi-channel e-commerce platform." In plain English, that translates into web
storefronts that link to your eBay auctions, like the one in Figure 28.5. (For what it's worth, Infopia drives many of
the big consignment drop-off chains, including Auction Mills and iSold
It.)
A full list of features includes auction-listing creation,
automated communication and feedback, image hosting, email marketing, tracking
and reporting, inventory and order management, and a "smart" shopping cart and
checkout. To determine pricing, you have to contact Infopia for a "no-obligation
assessment" of your needs.
NetStores
NetStores (www.netstores.com) offers a variety of online storefront
services, from shopping-cart integration into your existing website to complete
store-front design. Figure 28.6 shows one
of its online storefronts.
In addition to the shopping cart, you get sales and traffic
reporting, bulk product uploading, web hosting, customizable layouts, real-time
credit card authorization, and a secure checkout system. Prices start at $19.95
per month.
Vendio
Vendio (www.vendio.com)
offers web storefronts as part of its Vendio Stores service. Stores, such as the
one in Figure 28.7, include a free
gallery, mailing-list management, and a fully customizable look and feel. Vendio
also promotes your store items on the Dealio, Froogle, and Shopzilla comparison
shopping sites.
Vendio offers
three different pricing plans, as detailed in Table 28.2. All plans let you list an unlimited number
of items in your store.
Table 28.2. Vendio Stores packages
|
Plan |
Monthly Fee |
Final Value Fee |
|
Bronze |
$4.95 |
1% of selling price ($4.95 max per item) |
|
Silver |
$9.95 |
$0.20 per item sold |
|
Gold |
$14.95 |
$0.10 per item sold |
Yahoo! Small Business
That's right, along with all its search-related services,
Yahoo! offers small business website hosting, too. Yahoo! Small Business is
actually one of the largest hosts for small online retailers, offering
all-in-one e-commerce solutions that link back to the Yahoo! Shopping
marketplace.
Yahoo!'s merchant solutions start at $39.95/month for the
Starter plan, and go up to $299.95 for the Professional level. You get all the
usual features, including integrated shopping cart, credit card processing (via
PayPal), automated shipment processing, easy-to-use site setup wizards, and the
like. Figure 28.8 shows a typical
Yahoo!-powered online store.
Zoovy
Zoovy (www.zoovy.com)
offers its Zoovy Storefront service for online merchants. Figure 28.9 shows a typical Zoovy merchant.
With Zoovy you get order and inventory management, integration
with shipping and payment providers, hundreds of predesigned store layouts, and
the ability to sell your items on eBay and other online marketplaces. Zoovy also
pipes your store inventory for listing on the Froogle, NexTag, PriceGrabber, and
Shopping.com comparison shopping sites. As with several others of these
services, you have to contact the site to get a custom
quote. | 
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