Review: ShopSite 6.0 New Features

Note: This review focuses on the major additions since ver 5.0.1. For a full review of features see my review of ShopSite SC 4.1, 10/15/99 (www.wilsonweb.com/wct3/shopsite-sc-41.cfm). See a list of features for Manager and Pro versions on the ShopSite website (www.shopsite.com/scchecklist.html).

ShopSite was hoping for great things when the company was purchased in 1998 by Open Market. Over the next year or two, ShopSite TX was developed for Open Market's sophisticated Transact platform, but few US hosting services supported Transact. Improvements to ShopSite SC (the stand-alone "shopping cart" version) were only minor. The fine product I had used to set up online stores for many clients seemed to have stalled.

Then last fall, ShopSite was bought back from Open Market by its original development team headed by CEO David Hills, and they began to make changes. Version 6.0 includes substantial enhancements and demonstrates to me that ShopSite is on the improvement track again. Here are the newest features:

Setup Wizard

I decided to try the improved set-up wizard that led me through a 9-step set-up process. The wizard succeeds admirably in its task of helping a novice set up an online store without much initial instruction. The wizard is clear and simple, without trying to wow the novice with extra features that would cause information overload at this point. Unfortunately, basic choices for color scheme and layout are, if not exactly "ugly," then, could be called "unsophisticated." ShopSite needs new designers. Fortunately, ShopSite can be configured to a great variety of designs by pasting HTML code into the header and footer boxes, but this takes a developer, not a novice.

Inventory Tracking

Inventory tracking was added to ShopSite Pro with the 5.0 version. It is not complex, but decrements the inventory count for every product sold. ShopSite alerts the storeowner via e-mail when the stock is getting low for a particular product, when the stock is depleted, and whenever a shopper tries to purchase an out-of-stock item. You can also customize the message that appears in the shopping cart when a shopper tries to order an out-of-stock item.

Product Searching

The Pro version has long had a product search feature, but version 6.0 now offers a search tool for Manager as well as improvements for Pro. It is fairly sophisticated, allowing the index to drop "stop words" (common words such as "the" and "as" that can slow the search). You can also configure the search page, number of results, length of result description, fields to be indexed, advanced search features, help page URL, etc. The larger the number of products you have in your store, the more valuable this feature becomes.

Order Form

Version 6.0 adds several important elements to the order form in both Manager and Pro versions.

A minimum order amount can now be specified for either the subtotal or total, and a message can be customized for shoppers who try to check out with less than the minimum dollar amount. This is important since storeowners can easily lose money trying to fulfill tiny orders.

The new version gives you an option to allow the shopper to select from a drop-down list of states and provinces. This might be important to merchants who only sell to certain countries.

The order form now includes an "add to e-mail list" box that gives the shopper a way to opt-in or opt-out when ordering -- an important addition in the present era of permission marketing.

In a major change to both Manager and Pro, sales tax can now be calculated by ZIP code. The default US table is preconfigured for each state and can be altered for special situations. California, for example, is configured as: "90???, 91???, 92???,93???, 94???, 95???, 960??, 961??, 962??, 963??, 964??, 965??, 966??". This sort of flexibility helps merchants in states like New York, which might have a different tax for customers in every county. Merchants in municipalities that have both a city and a state sales tax or those that need to collect tax in several states where they have a presence or "nexus" will appreciate this, too.

To increase security, the merchant can now optionally require the CVV2 digits that sometimes appear on the back of a Visa credit card. Since hackers who are not in possession of the actual card cannot easily guess this code, it adds to a merchant's fraud protection.

Payment Gateways

Version 6.0 has added two payment gateways: VirtualPAY and E-Commerce Exchange, in addition to AuthorizeNet and VeriSign Payment Systems (PayFlow Pro product). They no longer offer CyberCash (which was acquired by VeriSign) and ClickPay (which was acquired by WorldPay) that were on the ver. 5.0.1 menu, though merchants previously using these gateways can continue to do so. The new payment gateway options must both be bundled with a merchant credit card account. Unfortunately, only NPC's terms and prices were clearly stated on the website.

• National Processing Company (NPC), VirtualPAY. The Merchant Credit Card Account incurs the following fees: Application fee $50 (twice those offered through Yahoo! Store and Bigstep.com, but still quite reasonable). Discount rate 2.30% (excellent), inquiry (transaction) fee, 25¢, statement fee $10/mo., and monthly minimum $25.00. The VirtualPAY payment gateway fee is $25 (with no set-up fee).
• E-commerce Exchange's QuickCommerce bundles a merchant credit card account with the Authorize.net payment gateway. There is a gateway license fee and merchant applicant fee of $595. Fees are: bank statement fee $10/month, monthly minimum (of discount rate charges) $15, discount rate 2.49%, transaction fee 30¢ (which includes optional AVS), and a $10/month gateway access fee.

Shipping

ShopSite has always had a rather flexible shipping calculation system. But with Version 6.0 they are adding a direct UPS shipping calculation for both Manager and Pro versions. The system connects directly to UPS to determine the actual shipping charges from a given ZIP code to any US address and many overseas locations. The set-up screen allows the merchant to select which UPS shipping services the merchant will offer as well as a selection of which countries the merchant will ship to. You can select all of the UPS countries, or only some of those countries for shipping. Unfortunately, it is difficult to add a handling fee with the UPS calculation system to cover packing materials and labor. Pro users can add it as a surcharge, but Manager users have no recourse.

Digital Downloads

A major addition to ShopSite Pro is the ability to sell and immediately deliver digital product downloads. This has involved several changes in the product database. (1) You now designate whether a product is "tangible" or "download." (2) You can indicate "no shipping charges" on a particular product, which allows you to sell both tangible and digital goods without the previous confusion. (3) You either indicate a file that has already been uploaded into the store's data download directory or another URL where the buyer can go to download the file.

When you use the feature to store files in the data download directory, you can specify for how long a period the file will be available for download (in days and hours), as well as how many download attempts you will allow. This protects you from a buyer giving the URL to his friends to download. If the buyer has a problem in downloading, the storeowner can send him new keys from the "show order" screen.

ShopSite also gives you flexibility to transmit the unique download URLs at different points in the transaction: (1) in the thank you screen, (2) in the thank you confirmation e-mail, or (3) when you bill the order after making sure the credit card information is valid. I expect to use method #3 in order to avoid credit card fraud, which is greater with downloadable products than tangible products. For example, I don't allow "free" e-mail addresses from hotmail.com or yahoo.com when someone purchases an e-book, and I always check the e-mail address to see if it is congruent with the address, country, and other information before e-mailing the download URL and password.

While the ShopSite digital download system doesn't include a method to automatically assign serial numbers and unlock keys for software products, their download system will be a great boon to e-book publishers such as myself.

Coupons

Another major addition to ShopSite Pro is the ability to offer and accept coupons. Here is the kind of information needed when you set up a coupon. (1) coupon name, (2) which products it is good for (all or limited to a specific product), (3) the coupon discount (specify either a percent discount or a dollar amount), (4) the minimum cart value (the coupon might be set to be active only for orders over $100 or orders of 3 or more products), (5) the coupon expiration date, and (6) a specific product or index page where shoppers are directed after the coupon is registered. The redirection is quite seamless, so the shopper only sees the final page where they can order the product(s) they desire, and then find the coupon waiting for them when the shopping cart screen appears.

The coupon can be distributed to customers in two ways: (1) a coupon number that the shopper must enter in the final checkout step, or a long URL. Here is an example of the latter:

This kind URL can be hidden easily under a hyperlink in an HTML newsletter. Text newsletter publishers should either use a coupon number or set up some kind of redirect script, such as Ron Wooley's free LnkinLite (www.dtp-aus.com/cgiscript/lnkinlte.shtml) so that a shorter URL can be included in a text message.

Coupons give storeowners powerful marketing tools. They enable many kinds of limited-time offers to particular audiences and provide greater incentive to act quickly while the special offer is still good.

Order Download to QuickBooks

One of the weaknesses of ShopSite SC versions was the lack of order management tools for the merchant, despite their website's claim of "secure order management" (which actually refers to secure viewing, billing, and downloading of orders, not real management). The third-party StoneEdge Order Manager (www.stoneedge.com/OrderManager.htm) provides an excellent desktop solution with great flexibility and leverage for ShopSite merchants. Now ShopSite Manager and Pro allow merchants to download orders in a format that is easily imported by QuickBooks, the most popular small business accounting package. While QuickBooks' order management abilities aren't as great as the StoneEdge solution, they'll be adequate for many ShopSite merchants. This is an important addition that allows merchants to connect their online sales to real-world fulfillment.

Other Features

The OrderAnywhere feature has been available for several versions to disclose the HTML code that underlies a product order button. This feature enables the merchant to put order buttons on any website -- not just pages within the ShopSite store. Version 6.0 allows Pro users to include the product SKU in this code, not just the sequential product number. This way, order buttons can be automatically generated for placement on pages from a merchant's database, rather than first figuring out the product number -- a small but valuable change.

ShopSite claims improved performance with the new version by shrinking the file size to half that of previous versions.

For some time ShopSite has allowed developers to prepare customer templates that indicate exactly where in a page layout that data fields are to be placed. This enables a developer to completely customize the look and feel of product displays, and allows different displays for different classes of products. These templates can be referenced in a drop-down menu on the product page, which the storeowner can use when adding new products. The storeowner only needs to know the name of the template to use, not the HTML that the developer sets up ahead of time. Version 6.0 allows Pro users to upload these templates directly from a web browser, rather than by FTP.

How Competitive is ShopSite 6.0?

Version 6.0 goes a long way to making ShopSite SC competitive with the current leaders in e-commerce software for small to medium businesses. It still lacks a customer interface that allows checking of order status, an important feature for B2B applications (only available currently in the TX versions). It also lacks an easy way to inform customers that an order has been shipped and to give them the UPS tracking number.

However, ShopSite is very easy for storeowners to use, and now includes important features that make it competitive again with Miva Merchant and Yahoo! Store. ShopSite Manager retails with many hosting services for $495 while Pro is $1295. The basic Miva product is comparable with Manager's price, but with the third-party add-ons necessary to duplicate some of ShopSite Pro's features, the price would be pretty comparable -- and ShopSite is much easier to set up.

Yahoo! Store has no initial set-up costs but charges a percentage of each sale and a small monthly charge for each product listed, plus a monthly hosting fee (but no payment gateway fee). There is no way to compare a ShopSite store with the visibility of a Yahoo! Store for certain kinds of retail products offered on Yahoo! Shopping. But once you've paid for a ShopSite store, your only ongoing costs would be a hosting fee and a gateway fee. Many merchants -- including me -- would rather pay up front and avoid the Yahoo! Store percent of sale fees that increase costs for successful merchants.

ShopSite is back in the ball game, and I, for one, am very glad.