e-commerce

Making money on the Net has proven elusive to many businesses, even as Dell leads the way, with sales of millions of dollars per day.

Check out the following e-commerce solutions.
JustAddCommerce for Microsoft FrontPage instantly adds SSL-secured shopping cart systems to any existing Web sites. This technology is designed to give the small- to medium-sized company all the features of a high-priced electronic commerce system for a fraction of the cost. These features include secured order transmission, built-in shipping options, automatic tax calculation, a customizable checkout form, and foreign currency symbols. JustAddCommerce requires no HTML programming and is compatible with any type of server or Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Demo versions for for FrontPage 97/98 and FrontPage 2000 are available at officeupdate.microsoft.com. See these pages for additional details about the demo.

For additional information on Rich Media Technologies or other products Rich Media Technologies develops, visit Rich Media Technologies.

ecBuilder from Multiactive Software (www.ecbuilder.com/products/pro/index.html) is one of the least expensive e-commerce solutions available, starting at under C$100 for the basic version, or under $500 for the Pro edition. Trial versions of this Windows-based product are available for free download.

ECware Pro is another e-commerce product for Windows with a freely downloadable demo version. According to the company, the demo of the US$995 single-user edition has no limitations -- it is the full, uncut version. (5-pack, 10-pack and "enterprise" editions are also available. The company has posted a demonstration website to show how the program works.

Non-Stick CartEase (www.cartease.com) is a US$149 e-commerce template for Allaire's Cold Fusion web application server. CartEase is designed as a single distributor system, making it inappropriate for some tasks. The fact that source code is included makes it attractive to those seeking a custom solution, though.

iCat: www.icat.com - One of the early leaders, this service became a division of Intel in 1998, where it languished until Feb. of 2001, when the chip giant discontinued the service. The service, which Intel sold directly to customers and indirectly through ASPs (application service providers), failed to gain needed critical mass among small and medium-size businesses and, in the "dot com crunch" market environment of early 2001, just wasn't a strong enough contender to justify further investment.

Indeed, the product was rather limited for what a multiple product/multiple merchant environment might want to do. Despite its ASP model, where vendors were able to manage their store by simply paying iCat a monthly fee (as low as $100/year) and manage their store directly from a login screen on iCat's website, the program's architecture may have been its downfall. iCat was rooted in CGI -- a potential liability, as CGI code is notorious for not scaling well to large customer bases.

ShopMaster 2 is a shareware program built for the Web Developer who needs to set up and run a pro-looking Web Catalog or 'Shopping Cart' - but wants to run it from their own Web Site rather than a dedicated Commerce Server.
In daily use on over 2000 Web Sites world-wide, Shopmaster is a proven system with a high reputation for speed and stability.

Shopmaster uses 'pure' Javascript as its core language. The scripts are maintained via a 'point and click' interface from the program, for which no script knowledge is required. For advanced users, the checkout form has built-in editor/debugging facility.

The company classifies ShopMaster as 'true' shareware. As with most other solutions listed here, a free trial version is available. The program download is a fully-functional 30-day trial, with no features crippled or disabled during the trial period. After 30 days the program will not 'Save' - at which point a registration is required to continue using the program.

Intershop: www.intershop.com  This program is suitable for setting up a small Internet shop to sell multiple product from multiple merchants such as books or other items. Intershop has a reasonable hosting license program. But they are working from a proprietary database which may make it difficult to interface with your existing content. The database is Sybase and therefore accessible through ODBC from other web (editorial) applications. A recent review in PCWEEK said that it was one of the more powerful mid range applications on the market, but concluded that you need an experienced web designer to get anywhere with this product.

Openmarket: www.shopsite.com OpenMarket comes highly recommended by a few developers in town, mostly because of its fast time to market. Check for the availability of a hosting version.

We haven't yet tested an e-commerce product from ACM Business called Online Shop Creator, but ACM spokesperson John Lam maintains it is one of the best priced and easiest to use online shop creating programs. Lam says users can create their own Internet Shopping Malls for $79. It's at http://www.acmworld.com/onlineshop/

Microsoft Commerce Server could also fit the bill, however, licensing is expensive and the product is made more to be part of an enterprise solution (tied in with accounting, etc., etc.).

Dave Carter, Microsoft's Marketing Manager, Internet Platforms Division adds: "The two payment vendors I know about that seem to want business from a variety of customers (not just the big corporations) are Mpact Immedia & Caledon Card Services." Carter says Mpact was recently purchased by Emergis (www.emergis.com). Caledon is www.ccsinc.on.ca.

He also notes that some solutions, such as the packages from IBM and Open Market, primarily build payment gateways for large corporations to connect to the banks. Microsoft's SiteServer software, he says, will work with most of the popular gateways like Veriphone (HP) and Cybercash.

Merchant Accounts and transaction processing gateways
A number of companies, such as Whistler, BC-based ParaData, act as transaction processing gateways, but do not provide merchant services accounts. To use one of these transaction processing gateways, you still need to go to your bank(s) and set up merchant services accounts for Visa, MasterCard and/or any other credit card services you wish to offer. This typically involves specifying that you want a "Telephone order/card not present" account, which, in turn typically requires a security deposit. Royal Bank, for example charges about $5000 for a security deposit for a Visa merchant account when "high risk" transactions are expected. You'd have to pay a second security deposit at a different bank, for a MasterCard account, although costs are typically a bit lower.

An alternative to this process is to use the services of a company that provides merchant services, and takes a per-transaction or flat fee. http://www.atretail.com/ is one such example, but there are many others. The Canadian company beanstream.com offers "Master Merchant Services," providing payment processing services directly to merchants and through private branding to authorized retail partners (e.g., other ISPs).
Another alternative is through ScotiaBank (http://www.scotiawebstore.com/). This well-known Canadian banking institution offers a service that, for a $150 setup fee and monthly payments of C$99-$149, depending on the size of the store you require, delivers online payment processing facilities to your business -- without requiring a "high risk" bond. There are, however, some extra costs to this "easy" solution. In addition to this monthly fee, merchants will be charged a 25 cent per-transaction fee. At this writing, the ScotiaWeb store Merchant Visa Discount rate is 3.25%.

A further alternative is echarge (www.echarge.com) the computer-based equivalent of the 1-900 number, where the phone company adds the charge to the purchaser's phone bill and transactions are handled without requiring a credit card at all. As statistics show that up to 76 percent of the public in North America are hesitant to give out credit card information over the Internet, this could be a viable alternative. There are, however, currently some significant limitations to the echarge system. For starters, the company only supports "soft products" -- in other words, those goods that can be downloaded or otherwise transferred over the Net. As well, explained eCharge spokesperson John Walker, eCharge currently works only with dial-up connections. Network, cable modem and ADSL users will have to wait for an upgraded version of the service. In western Canada, eCharge is a division of BC Tel/Telus.

Costs and Risks
E-tailers are 12 times as likely to be hit by credit card fraud as their bricks-and-mortar counterparts, according to a recent study by market researcher GartnerGroup of Stamford, Conn. The survey found that Web merchants spend nearly four times as much as offline retailers to resolve and process chargebacks resulting from fraud. The study found that e-tailers pay higher transaction fees, too.

For Further Reading:

• The Globe and Mail: E-shopping in Canada
• The Globe and Mail: Internet rings up 'puny' sales: Canadians lag U.S. as on-line purchases account for only 0.2% of overall private sector spending.
• AllNetDevices: A new study shows that many users are frustrated with their first attempts at mobile e-commerce. [Nov. 18, 2000]
• TechDirt: Simple Messaging Service advertising apparently works too well. [Nov. 18, 2000]