Posts filed under 'free e-commerce'
New E-commerce Web Service Makes It Easy For Small Business to Move to the Web
New E-commerce Web Service Makes It Easy For Small Business to Move to the Web
For small business owners, moving to e-commerce brings complexity and some confusion. There is a steep learning curve, and e-commerce technology can be intimidating for the beginner. Not with FastCommerce.com: by simply signing up, the small business entreprenuer automatically generates a professsional web-store. And the service is entirely free for the first fifty products.
San Mateo, California (PRWEB) November 8, 2007
The demand for small business e-commerce technology is rapidly increasing as small business owners move to the web to capture more business. With on-line sales growing at a tremendous pace, small business entrepreneurs need to adopt successful technologies that will enable them to quickly set up and operate an on-line e-commerce store. But this first step brings with it the challenge of finding the right solution.; even the right solution may have a great deal of product complexity, and a steep learning curve. A new and growing e-commerce platform, FastCommerce.com, has been designed to automate these first steps into e-commerce.
The FastCommerce.com e-commerce web service has been designed to get small business owners up quickly with an on-line store to begin selling right away. A simple one-step registration automatically generates a complete and professional web-store. New customers also gain access to their own web-based e-commerce management module or dashboard to process orders, manage accounts, select pre-set payment options such as PayPal, with Google check-out coming soon.
By signing up with the FastCommerce e-commerce service, new clients have everything they need to run a complete online business. Clients simply enter their zip code and shipping rates for UPS and FedEx are automatically calculated in the shopping cart. Enter an email address and an email auto-responder for the customer order confirmation is automatically activated. A client can create a product, go to their store front, add to cart: they can then register, complete the purchase, and go to their email box: a professionally formatted order confirmation email will be there waiting for them.
There are dozens of easy automation features built into the FastCommerce.com e-commerce application. For example, there a dozen reports, including a “quick link’ feature that give a real time view of 10 top selling products and ten most popular products by page views. The FastCommerce.com applications have been designed to be easy to use, with a very short learning curve. As Charles Han, CEO of FastCommerce.com states, “Our goal was to build a compelling small business e-commerce application, and then give it away. We have a lot of experience building web-based small-business applications, but here the aim was to simplify and automate the process: no one goes to YouTube.com looking for a set of instructions on how to use it.”
FastCommerce.com is the latest in Web 2.0 web-services that are web-based, easy to use and low cost. By simply signing up small business owners have access to low cost e-commerce applications that are also feature rich and well designed. With no risk, and low cost, small business owners can build an on-line business without having to worry about operating costs, or incremental pricing for features. For starters, FastCommerce.com is a free ecommerce service, full access to the service is free up to the first fifty products. Optional features will be presented as a menu: the client is free to select only those features that are targeted to their business needs.
The feedback to the service, both the product and the small business pricing, has been tremendous. Additional features in the near-term will be a set of templates designed to give customers complete control over the homepage in terms of content and branding. FastCommerce.com is dedicated to building state of the art small business applications at small business prices.
About Fastcommerce
Fastcommerce.com provides business management software to small businesses, delivered on demand as a service via the web on a free or paid monthly subscription basis. We provide small businesses with a complete fully integrated package that run their entire operations, from inventory control, sales, marketing, support, online catalog, e-commerce, backend order processing and built-in UPS and Fedex shipping tools.
The only requirement to use our software is an internet connection. Unlike a traditional software company, our small business customers do not need to buy and maintain expensive software and hardware.
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Add comment November 8, 2007
FastCommerce Small Business Ecommerce Offers Business Opportunities for Website Designers
Web Design Firms Can Now Offer Free eCommerce by FastCommerce.com as an Additional Service to Increase Revenue
Small website design firms can now offer the e-commerce system by FastCommerce.com as an additional service to drive revenue from new and existing clients. FastCommerce is a complete e-commerce that is offered at no or low cost. At virtually no risk, design firms can offer to set-up web storefronts for small business entrepreneurs looking to sell online.
San Mateo, CA, September 27, 2007 –(PR.com)– Web design firms have emerged as a fast growing client base for the free e-commerce applications offered by FastCommerce.com. The FastCommerce e-commerce system is easy to set-up, easy to use, and is offered at no or low cost. There is no risk to start, and in return web design firms get a state of the art, high performance ecommerce system to use as an additional product offering to boost revenue.
Small business design firms have been quick to sense a new and potentially lucrative business opportunity. Traditionally, web design has been only a part of a total ecommerce operation, a small part of the total software needs of the small business entrepreneur looking to sell online. Small business online retailers have traditionally used a number of diverse software programs to successfully run an ecommerce company. As e-commerce applications move to the web small business online retailers have greater access to single-system e-commerce services. FastCommerce.com is a powerful, low-cost Web 2.0 version of this new model.
FastCommerce.com has all the tools a small business needs to sell online. By simply signing up, online retailers have access to a full suite of tools that include an online store, online product catalogue, shopping cart, auto-email responder for order and shipping confirmation, as well as back office tools for order capture and processing, account maintenance in addition to automatic shipping calculations for USPS, USP and FedEx. Paypal will soon be offered as a payment option, and credit card transactions can be set up on the site through authorise.net.
But the FastCommerce.com ecommerce tools are free up to 250 products. By simply signing up, web design firms can quickly master the tools of setting up a complete online store, and then offer it to their clients as a service or product. Small business online retail continues to grow at an astonishing pace, and the FastCommerce.com ecommerce webstore has all the tools that small online retailers need to be successful.
The FastCommerce.com represents a new tool for website designers to offer to their established client base looking to extend their e-commerce capabilities. “We are finding the website designers have lots of clients require updates to their ecommerce systems” says Charles Han, FastCommerce.com CEO, “By simply learning the FastCommerce.com system, they can revisit their clients with a powerful and inexpensive ecommerce solution. For lack of time, many online retailers will be looking to third-party providers to set it up. And because it is easy to set up, and low cost, it’s a win-win.”
FastCommerce.com is also offering free additional training to all web designers looking to utilize the free e-commerce service to expand their business. Topics will include how to set up the store, and how to go live, setting up the store as a sub-domain of the existing website, etc. And since the FastCommerce.com e-commerce system is easy to use, website designers will find it easy to train their clients on the system to get them up and running quickly.
The response to the FastCommerce.com ecommerce system for small online retailers has been impressive. Small business retailers have been tremendously excited by having access to high caliber e-commerce software at little or no cost.
Fastcommerce.com provides business management software to small businesses, delivered on demand as a service via the web on a free or paid monthly subscription basis. We provide small businesses with a complete, fully integrated package that helps run their entire operations, including inventory control, sales and marketing, support, online catalogs, e-commerce, backend order processing, and built-in UPS and Fedex shipping tools.
The only requirement to use our software is an internet connection. Unlike a traditional software company, our small business customers do not need to buy and maintain expensive software and hardware.
4 comments September 27, 2007
STRATEGIES TO SUCCEED ONLINE: THE NEW YORK TIMES NOW HAS A SMALL BUSINESS SECTION
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Strategies to Succeed Online
PUTTING a small business online used to be a relatively simple matter: buy the domain names that matched your company’s identity, set up a Web server and send out a press release and a few e-mail messages. No more.
These days, a Web site may not even be the best place to start promoting your products or services. Instead, you can consider setting up a blog, participating in social-networking communities like Facebook and creating a storefront in virtual worlds like Second Life to get the buzz going.
“We launched our company in May 2006 with a blog, not a Web site,” said Jody DeVere, the president of AskPatty.com, an advice site that helps women find car showrooms and repair shops that are friendly to them. “Our blog has been the driving force of our branding effort and become the way we find our readers and our customers.”
Earlier this year, AskPatty created a virtual coffee shop at the online community site Second Life, where people can swap tips and stories. That move turned out to be a gold mine for the company. “The women in Second Life are the ultimate power Internet users, and are very comfortable doing business online,” Ms. DeVere said. “Plus, it is a very cost-effective way to reach lots of people.”
The good news is that there are many sites that act as hosts for individual and corporate blogs at no cost. The three largest and most popular are WordPress, Google’s Blogger.com and Six Apart’s Typepad.com.
Any of these services is fine for most small businesses’ needs, said John Patrick, a former I.B.M. vice president for Internet technology, who is a consultant and a member of several Internet companies’ boards.
The important thing is to develop a lively and attractive Web presence, Mr. Patrick said, and to update it often. “You want to have an active and ongoing online discussion with your customers and suppliers,” he said. Pick topics that can be informative, and don’t shy away from controversy, but address it head-on, he continued, adding, “You want to give customers a recommended course of action and make them feel like they have a direct channel to your company.”
An active blog helps draw visitors to a corporate Web site and can improve a company’s search rankings, said Tristan Louis, an Internet consultant who is a blogger himself and an expert on Web technology. “Blogging isn’t just about promoting you or your business,” he said. Instead, he recommended that corporate blogs focus on a niche or industry segment and become an authority by publishing advice and commentary on it.
Once the blog is up and running, its reach can be extended by using so-called syndication tools — provided by the blogging sites — that generate “feeds,” to which customers can subscribe. Feeds are notifications that tell you when new content has been added, like comments and posts. Given the work involved, many businesses now have staff members whose responsibilities include maintaining Internet activities like blogs and online storefronts.
“The old ways of hiring a public relations firm and putting out press releases just don’t cut it anymore,” Mr. Patrick said. “Today’s businesses have to be more hands-on, grass roots, interactive and maintain this flow of continuous communications.”
Besides having a person responsible for online communities and communications, businesses must strive to develop a more conversational approach that includes everyone from the chief executive to the mailroom clerk. More than merely participating in social networks like Facebook and MySpace, that means answering e-mail, too.
In addition, corporations should make use of e-mail distribution lists (also called Listservs or groups) to stay in touch regularly with their customers, employees and suppliers. Running such lists used to require software that was sophisticated, expensive and quirky. Now there are popular services sponsored by Yahoo (groups.yahoo.com), Microsoft (groups.msn.com) and Google (google.com/groups) that offer free distribution-list programs.
What a company should not be doing is spending lots of money on dot-com speculators, buying specialized software or even paying for the services of Web developers.
As Ms. DeVere said: “A new business doesn’t have the money to build a brand and pay for advertising. The biggest investment is your time, and these tools require a lot of that, but they can really pay off.”
4 comments September 27, 2007
Website Designers Offer FastCommerce as a Value-added Service
Web design firms have emerged as a fast growing client base for the free e-commerce applications offered by FastCommerce.com. The FastCommerce e-commerce system is easy to set-up, easy to use, and is offered at no or low cost. There is no risk to start, and in return web design firms get a state of the art, high performance ecommerce system to use as an additional product offering to drive revenue.
Small business design firms have been quick to sense a new and potentially lucrative business opportunity. Traditionally, web design has been only a part of a total ecommerce operation, a small part of the total software needs of the small business entrepreneur looking to sell online. Small business online retailers have traditionally used a number of diverse software programs to successfully run an ecommerce company. As e-commerce applications move to the web small business online retailers have greater access to single-system e-commerce services. FastCommerce.com is a powerful, low-cost Web 2.0 version of this new model.
FastCommerce.com has all the tools a small business needs to sell online. By simply signing up, online retailers have access to a full suite of tools that include an online store, online product catalogue, shopping cart, auto-email responder for order and shipping confirmation, as well as back office tools for order capture and processing, account maintenance in addition to automatic shipping calculations for USPS, USP and FedEx. Paypal will soon be offered as a payment option, and credit card transactions can be set up on the site through authorise.net.
But the FastCommerce.com ecommerce tools are free up to 250 products. By simply signing up, web design firms can quickly master the tools of setting up a complete online store, and then offer it to their clients as a service or product. Small business online retail continues to grow at an astonishing pace, and the FastCommerce.com ecommerce webstore has all the tools that small online retailers need to be successful.
The FastCommerce.com represents a new tool for website designers to offer to their established client base looking to extend their e-commerce capabilities. ”We are finding the website designers have lots of clients require updates to their ecommerce systems” says Charles Han, FastCommerce.com CEO, ”By simply learning the FastCommerce.com system, they can revisit their clients with a powerful and inexpensive ecommerce solution. For lack of time, many online retailers will be looking to third-party providers to set it up. And because it is easy to set up, and low cost, it is win-win.”
1 comment September 26, 2007
FASTCOMMERCE.COM IS WEB 2.0 ECOMMERCE SOFTWARE
FastCommerce.com is WEB 2.0 Ecommerce Software
Web 2.0 is simply software delivered over the web, via an Internet connection. But the big deal in Web 2.0 ecommerce solutions is that web-based ecommerce software now rivals in-house solutions in features and functions, and also in speed. A web-based application is great if it only does one thing like email, less great if it runs the whole of your business, right? Guess again.
Among the number of trends driving innovation in ecommerce software is the development of WEB 2.0 technologies that not only deliver low-cost ecommerce applications, but deliver speed and performance as well. Speed for the online store customer as they roam an ecommerce site, and speed for all the ecommerce utilities that drive the business end of the ecommerce software.
The ultimate goal of WEB 2.0 ecommerce software is to replace in-house and legacy systems with ecommerce web applications that offer the same features and functions, but at lower costs. Web applications can also be updated on an ongoing basis so that the Web 2.0 ecommerce application incorporates the best possible ecommerce web applications available at any time.
Google, and now Microsoft, are now offering many applications as web 2.0 applications. The FastCommerce.com ecommerce solution delivers ecommerce applications on this same model. We’ve developed an ecommerce software that enables small to medium sized business to have access to a single-system that can run the whole of their online store and online business are one application, delivered over the web, delivered at and no or low cost. FastCommerce.com’s Web 2.0 ecommerce includes a website, online product catalog with related products, order capture and order processing, a shopping cart, contact and customer management, as well as shipping, inventory and more.
All the tools are there in a high performance and inexpensive ecommerce solution that will let small business grow their online stores while not having to worry about costly investments, or having an in-house IT department. With the FastCommerce.com Web 2.0 software, Internet retailers can focus on running an ecommerce business, on customer service, not on hardware and software support.
FastCommerce.com will being rapidly developing products and features to its main ecommerce software: the goal is not simply to be an ecommerce shopping cart provider, but a platform that gathers together all the features and functions (for example, ERP) that a small business need to run the whole of their business. FastCommerce.com is a small business ecommerce utility that is pure Internet Web 2.0 in easy of use, speed and performance, and at low or no cost for businesses large and small.
About Fastcommerce
Fastcommerce.com provides business management software to small businesses, delivered on demand as a service via the web on a free or paid monthly subscription basis. We provide small businesses with a complete fully integrated package that run their entire operations, from inventory control, sales, marketing, support, online catalog, e-commerce, backend order processing and built-in UPS and Fedex shipping tools.
The only requirement to use our software is an internet connection. Unlike
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1 comment October 13, 2007