2010 ShopSite Review: Overview

• Hosted & Licensed Shopping Cart
• Unique OrderAnywhere Feature
• Affiliate & Email Marketing Tools
• Very Robust Feature Set for ShopSite Pro
• Affordable Starter Package For Beginners

Note: This is an older review of ShopSite done in 2010. To see the latest about what this ecommerce solution has to offer, check out our 2011 ShopSite review.

Expert Review of ShopSite

The ShopSite shopping cart software solution has been helping merchants sell online for many years as a trusted ecommerce company based out of Orem, UT. ShopSite claims to be the easiest-to-use shopping cart software for small to medium-sized businesses, and it is clear after using their merchant demo that their storefront software is in fact, very easy to use. Now on version 10, ShopSite has recently made enhancements to this current version to ensure that it has more robust features for their ecommerce merchants. Running an online store with ShopSite is very simple and affordable when using their starter package which can support up to 15 products and acts as a very basic shopping cart. However, most people choose ShopSite for their ecommerce software needs, leading them to choose ShopSite Manager or ShopSite Pro, as these are more feature rich solutions. Ecommerce merchants can either pay a onetime license fee to own ShopSite Manager or ShopSite Pro, or merchants can choose to go with a ShopSite hosting partner and pay a monthly hosted fee instead. Either option you choose will allow you to start using the ShopSite shopping cart software solution right away for your ecommerce business. Below is a further review of the ShopSite shopping cart software solution, including details about features, tools, and pricing.

ShopSite Review: Setting Up Your Online Store

Building an ecommerce store with ShopSite is easy, as you can use their browser based interface which is accessible anywhere you can get online. The starter package has a lot of limitations as it is intended for merchants just entering the ecommerce space with under 15 products to sell, so it is best to review ShopSite Manager or ShopSite Pro packages which have more flexibility for building a great ecommerce store. You can easily customize the shop by picking out various style elements like your fonts, colors, and drop down menus. ShopSite also offers an HTML Editor which allows you to edit text fields direct, in addition to Global Layout Customization which makes it easy to keep the design uniform across the site.

ShopSite merchants typically use one of three approaches in order to set up and customize their online store. The first approach is to use the free templates and adjust things with the WYSIWYG editor. Another approach is to build a new template from scratch or modify the HTML and CSS to fully customize the store. Finally a merchant can just add order button links to their existing website to create an online store.

When you purchase a licensed or hosted version of ShopSite Manager or ShopSite Pro, you can sell unlimited products and display up to 20 images on each product information page. One important thing to note is that the ShopSite Manager and Pro software doesn’t limit products, but your server may, so keep this in mind when choosing a hosting partner for your ShopSite storefront. Uploading your products into your ShopSite ecommerce store is simple, and can be easily accomplished in a variety of ways depending on how you have your product data. This includes bulk uploads, XML uploads, and more. Finally, to expand your product base, you can tap into drop shipping via Doba, as the ShopSite ecommerce software is integrated with them as a partner.

ShopSite Review: Customer Marketing & Management

Once you have the products in your store, you need to focus on driving traffic to your ecommerce site and using the ShopSite ecommerce software merchandising tools to convert visitors into paying customers. ShopSite Pro has all the up-sell, cross-sell, promotional tools and merchandising features that an ecommerce merchant would need to be successful. However those who go with ShopSite Manager will miss out on a number of great features like gift certificates, digital coupons, and cross-sell tools. In terms of commerce tools, you will find that both ShopSite Manager and ShopSite Pro provide near identical offerings, with the only difference being that you can do selectable surcharges with ShopSite Pro.

There are also a number of SEO tools to help drive more customers to your online store powered by ShopSite. These include: Static pages, page and product names, image alt tags, meta tags, site map, and Google Base (submit to Google).

One of the most unique tools that ShopSite provides its merchants is the OrderAnywhere feature, which allows you to commerce-enable existing websites. This feature makes ShopSite stand out from the crowd as it allows you to reach customers on any websites that wish to host this "add to cart" button. The OrderAnywhere feature lets you choose what products from your online store you wish to sell on other sites. After choosing this, a few lines of code will be generated that you can copy and paste into any website you own that mentions the product. This will place an "add to cart" button next to the product, and any purchases will be routed through your online store.

ShopSite Review: Secure Checkout & Shipping

Overall with ShopSite Manager or ShopSite Pro, your customers will experience a safe, secure, and smooth checkout from the ecommerce shopping cart. ShopSite has a PABP/PCI-DSS certification, CVV2 Fraud Protection, and Human Order Validation as options with all of their ecommerce packages. ShopSite also makes it easy for your customers to see how secure your online store is, by placing a "ShopSite Highest Security" image on the checkout page. Beyond security, ShopSite helps to decrease customer abandonment by placing the order total on the first page of checkout and including a mini cart (otherwise known as "always on screen shopping cart") on every page of your storefront.

Customers will also have a variety of shipping options to choose from when finalizing a purchase from a ShopSite shopping cart. As a merchant, you will know that your orders are safe with real-time UPS address validation, rates, and shipping quotes. You can choose between FedEx, USPS, and UPS for shipping, print out labels, and set a variety of shipping, handling, and tax rules for your products as well.

ShopSite Review: Customer Service & Costs

If you get stuck along the way using the ShopSite ecommerce software, then you can refer to their extensive help documentation online that should have almost every answer you would need. This includes Context-Sensitive Help, which helps guide you through the process of using your online store. Through Context-Sensitive Help, question mark icons will appear on various pages of your admin panel. When you click on them, you will find helpful information related to the step you are currently on. Other help options like the ones below can be found at merchant support. These tools include video tutorials, live chat during business hours, a user forum, knowledgebase, newsletter tips, FAQs, and you can even seek guidance through Twitter and Facebook. Should you decide to work with a ShopSite hosting partner, then you might have additional help and support from that provider as well.

The ShopSite shopping cart software solution has a licensed or hosted option available that will suit the needs of almost any small to medium-sized businesses. If you want to test things out with the ShopSite starter package, then you have to go to one of their hosting partners where your fees will be roughly $9-$39 per month depending on how much bandwidth you need. Those merchants wanting to step it up with ShopSite can get the manager license for a onetime fee of $495, or pay $35-$75 per month for the hosted version. Merchants needing the full set of features and tools from ShopSite will want to review the Pro package which can be purchased via a onetime license fee of $1295, or monthly fees of $70-$125 per month. To learn more about ShopSite, visit the ShopSite Customer Reviews section and ShopSite Features Chart here on ZippyCart.