Flexible Storefront Solution
Is Easy on ISPs

Quick to install, easy to configuration, and highly automated, this package takes care of the mechanics, leaving ISPs with time to do more important things—like marketing.

by Nelson King

Hosting online stores is a way for ISPs to cash in on e-commerce, although it's by no means a free pot of gold. For one thing, there's a lot of competition; for another, setting up and operating online store hosting is not trivial. That's why Breakthrough Software's ShopZone Web is an important product to consider. It's a well-rounded package for ISPs hosting small to medium-size online stores that is tops in ease of use for both merchants and the host ISP.

ShopZone Web installs on an ISP Web server very quickly. We were able to install and configure a Windows NT environment in less than an hour. ShopZone supports most major operating systems and runs CGI, NSAPI, or ISAPI processes, as appropriate. ShopZone can be connected to an LDAP server for centralized user authentication. It uses its own database management, but support for Oracle is an option.

Easy, flexible configuration
After installation, the product provides two web pages—one for the ISP administrator, the other for merchants—that act as the starting point for setup. As an ISP, you go to the administrator page to set up the packages you will offer merchants. ShopZone has four default packages:

• Kiosk
• Store Front
• Full Store
• Anchor Store

You can add to (or subtract from) these, set the features that will be available in each, and set the pricing.

One of the best things about ShopZone is that it offers enough options for the ISP to be creative with pricing, features, and restrictions (such as the number of items a store can sell) without becoming overly complex to administer. The user interface for these options is intuitive and it's easy to make changes. You can add features such as online discussion groups, upload/download of customer information, and a variety of payment options for store customers. Once the packages are configured and billing procedures established, ShopZone will track store activity and merchant fees. There is considerable room for customization of subscriber billing, plus support for ISP billing systems.

Prospective storeowners typically come to the ISP's Web site and begin with the Demo Store Web page. (This can be branded either for ShopZone or with the ISPs own logo.) After a brief registration, the merchant can start the Store Creation Wizard to develop a demonstration store, usually with a limited number of days for trial.

Smooth storefront setup
Breathrough's goal was to make the creation of an online store as painless as possible, and they've pretty much achieved this. At the same time, ShopZone stores are not lacking in features that are found on more elaborate (and expensive) storefront development packages. This includes important configuration items such as automatic calculation of taxes from tables and multiple shipping options. While the demo store product catalog is typically entered manually, a merchant can upload catalog products and customer information from an external database. This feature is usually part of the more advanced store packages. Sales and discount options are available for products and product categories, which provides flexibility in developing in-store promotions.

The appearance of a store is largely determined in the Store Creation Wizard, where a merchant can select from 66 Web page styles. The selected style is cascaded to all the other pages of the store including the product catalog. The Web pages can be changed with the built-in editor (which is not WYSIWIG), or pages can be imported from other sources. With a little bit of HTML knowledge, using the template styles as a base, we were able to achieve a satisfying store appearance without much additional labor.

Back-office support
In the Store Creation Wizard (and in more detail at the Store Administration Center) a merchant can select shipping options and tax tables, credit card support (ShopZone supports MasterCard, Visa, Amex, Discover, check, money order, and purchase order). As a matter of security, ShopZone encrypts transactions with a storeowner key, which is necessary especially if you don't use a credit processing service. With this a merchant can receive the orders by email and process them manually. Supported payment processing services include CardService, CyberCash, Verifone VPOS, ClearCommerce, ICVerify, and AuthorizeNet.

While the merchant's task of creating a store is not difficult, ShopZone does have rough edges, for example if you make a mistake like entering a non-numeric character in a price field, the resulting error message also forces the loss of other information already entered.

ShopZone Web creates a very complete but no frills online store that covers the bases from product catalogs to order processing and store administration. While other similar software might offer more features in a particular aspect of store operation—for example Virtual Spin Internet Store has more elaborate store statistics and reporting—ShopZone doesn't leave anything out (which many do). The major benefit is that a hosted subscriber can have a very solid online store without requiring direct supervision or support from the ISP. (Not that the ISP shouldn't be able to field questions and provide support.)

Now that we have "free" online store hosting (where the business model is based on something other than merchant fees), the competition for merchant business is even tougher. That makes ShopZone Web's ease of use a competitive edge. ShopZone takes care of most of the mechanics, and leaves an ISP with time to do more important things, like marketing and developing value-added services that will make the online store hosting profitable.

Product Info:
ShopZone Web Edition
Platforms: Solaris, Linux, HPUX 11, Windows NT, Cobalt
Browser: Netscape Navigator 3.0, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01
Price: starting at $30,000 for 50 stores (licenses)

Vendor: Breakthrough Software, Inc.
2610 North First Street,
Suite C San Jose, Calif. 95134
408-321-9300

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