2011 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

ShopSite provides merchants with both a hosted shopping cart solution or a licensed option, which makes it a very versatle shopping cart for a variety of ecommerce models. Pricing for ShopSite ranges based on many different factors including hosting partner and features, with the lowest monthly cost being $9 and the highest being $125, or licensed packages starting at a one-time fee of $495 or $1295. There are 3 packages available for ShopSite: ShopSite Starter, ShopSite Manager, and ShopSite Pro, but ShopSite Pro has the best feature set by far and pricing is very competitive when compared to other ecommerce solutions with the same feature set. This ecommerce solution is unique because you can choose between a variety of partners to host your ShopSite shopping cart, which allows you to customize your package slightly by choosing a server with the bandwidth and disk space that meets your needs. To learn more about ShopSite including pros and cons, overall ZippyScore™, and what makes this ecommerce solution stand out, read the ShopSite review below.

ShopSite Review: Shopping Cart Report Card

Shopping Cart Feature	ZippyScore (out of 5.00)	Shopping Cart Feature	ZippyScore (out of 5.00)
Overall Value (15%)	4.16	Customer Service (15%)	3.51
Level of Customization (15%)	3.88	Ease of Use (15%)	3.98
Search Engine Friendliness (10%)	3.95	Range of Tools Available (10%)	4.01
Depth of Reporting Tools (5%)	3.98	Social Media / Social Commerce Integration (5%)	3.76
Mobile Commerce Integration (5%)	4.15	Free Trial Features (5%)	3.75

Overall ZippyScore: 3.91 out of 5.00

Expert Review of ShopSite (2011)

Merchants have a wide variety of ecommerce software solutions that they can choose from when planning to start an online store, and ShopSite is one of those options that merchants have been choosing for over a decade. The ShopSite ecommerce solution is from ShopSite Inc., which is based out of Orem, Utah. Many merchants find the shopping cart software from ShopSite to be one of the easier to use options, and this continues to be true thanks to recent improvements during 2010. The last update of the solution is ShopSite 10 sp2, which debuted in late 2010, and made the ecommerce software even more robust. Improvements that ShopSite made include a new dashboard, addition of new themes, and support for mobile commerce. Additionally ShopSite added social commerce features so customers can follow a merchant on Facebook and Twitter, plus have the option to share their products on those social media channels. In 2011 ShopSite is expected to premier more updates to their ecommerce software solution with version 11, so that merchants will have more tools and features in their arsenal. Merchants interested in ShopSite, should know that there are licensed options available that one can purchase direct, or there are hosted options via ShopSite hosting partners. No matter which option a merchant chooses, they will still have a solid ShopSite shopping cart to power their online store. Below you can read more about the ShopSite ecommerce solution in our expert review, learn more about the software pricing, and all of the great features and tools included.

ShopSite Setup & Design

In terms of set up and design, all ShopSite packages provide merchants with an easy browser based interface which helps ensure things go smoothly. However it is important for merchants to know that some of the features are limited for the ShopSite starter package, but in general not many merchants choose that option. The other packages to choose from are ShopSite Manager or ShopSite Pro, which have all the setup and design tools included, so that merchants will have all they need to start their online store. When merchants first start with ShopSite, they can use their Storebuilding Wizard, which is a good tool to help add products, create pages, and get everything else set up so you can start selling online. After this is complete, merchants can either continue working in the wizard-like interface, or use the ShopSite advanced editing mode which will allow for further customization of your online store. Additionally they have an HTML Editor which allows merchants to edit text fields using a word processor-like interface

Some merchants who are more advanced with HTML and CSS can even try and build a template from scratch when using the ShopSite ecommerce solution, which is a great way to get a completely customized design for an online store. Whereas other merchants utilize the shopping cart software from ShopSite to add ecommerce functionality to their existing website. Regardless of which version of ShopSite you choose, you will need to then choose one of their many hosting partners to host your online store. Merchants who choose a licensed version of ShopSite will be able find their own ecommerce hosting rather than stick with a pre-defined list of ShopSite partners. This allows for unlimited products, as long as the hosting provider can support it. Likewise when merchants choose a hosted version of ShopSite Manager or ShopSite Pro, they can have unlimited products in their online store, provided they choose a ShopSite verified hosting provider that has the bandwidth to accommodate the products.

Overall the design and set up process should not be an obstacle for a merchant who chooses the ShopSite ecommerce solution to power their online store, but it should be noted that some of the designs can look a little dated with ShopSite. If you want your online store to look fresh and professional, you may want to hire a designer to really spruce up one of the ShopSite templates, otherwise your site could look a little out of date.

Marketing & Management With ShopSite

After you set up an online store with all of your products, you need to drive the right visitors to the site so that you can try and convert them into paying customers. This is where marketing comes into place, and ShopSite provides merchant with some decent tools to help with this goal. In terms of SEO, ShopSite has a lot of the basic things that you need like a site map, image alt tags, meta tags, and the option to sync up with Google Base. The ShopSite Starter package is a bit limited when it comes to marketing tools, so merchants should probably review the ShopSite Manager or ShopSite Pro packages, which are more feature rich. These packages allow for merchants to specify unique title text, META keywords, and META descriptions for each page. There are some features that ShopSite's software packages don't include for SEO like the ability to 301 redirect your URLs and manage canonical URLs. These are things that your hosting company will likely provide instead.

When it comes to marketing tools, merchants should focus on ShopSite Pro, as the other versions of the ecommerce software lack the features that merchants desire for their online store. In ShopSite Pro merchants will have useful tools like the ability to cross-sell, up-sell, and other helpful promotional tools. Additionaly ShopSite Pro offers merchants the option to have digital coupons or gift certificates for their online store, which is a great way to increase revenue. The newest version of ShopSite added improved sales reports, so merchants can make sense of which marketing efforts are working best.

Shipping & Checkout With ShopSite

Merchants who use ShopSite Starter, ShopSite Manager, or ShopSite Pro will have all the same features when it comes to the security of an online store. This includes CVV2 Fraud Protection and PABP/PCI-DSS certification, plus a variety of other features which merchants expect in their ecommerce software. Another feature of ShopSite that merchants comment about frequently is that customers can easily see the total cost of their order (including all the tax and shipping details) on the first page of the shopping cart. This can help prevent shopping cart abandonment, which is a common problem that merchants are always looking to combat.

Only ShopSite Pro has all the shipping features that the ecommerce solution offers, so merchants who go with ShopSite Starter or ShopSite Manager will miss out on some features that they may require for their online store. However all ShopSite ecommerce packages come with enough tools and features that a merchant can start selling online.

ShopSite Review: Customer Service & Pricing

Customer service and pricing are a bit unique for ShopSite, as merchants can buy an ecommerce software license direct or opt for a hosted version of the solution via one of ShopSite's hosting partners. Because you will be working with one of many hosting partners to run your ShopSite solution, you will need to checkout the customer support that each hosting partner offers, as they will be the ones helping to answer your questions in the end.

In the case of licensed software, merchants can expect to pay a one-time fee of $495 for ShopSite Manager, or $1295 for the more advanced ShopSite Pro. Those merchants interested in ShopSite Starter will need to partner with a ShopSite hosting partner to use the software, which typically costs $9-$39 per month depending on the hosting solution. If merchants decide to go with a hosted version of ShopSite Manager then they can expect to pay $35 - $75 per month, and with ShopSite Pro merchants should plan on paying $70 - $125. When it comes to value for the money, ShopSite Pro has many features that are comparable to other hosted shopping carts in that price range, but ShopSite Starter and ShopSite Manager have a few less features than one should expect from the price range. As such, if you are looking at paying around $70 per month, then ShopSite Pro is a fantastic solution worth considering. To learn more about ShopSite, visit the ShopSite Customer Reviews section and ShopSite Features Chart here on ZippyCart.