Web Storefronts & e-Commerce

Our merchant web hosting plan is the basis for building a commercial high-volume web store; however there are several other pieces that are required in order to get your e-store open for business.  The diagram below shows an outline of the steps

The first and most important decision that will need to be made is the choice of software that will be used to run the on-line store.  Typically these packages have similar features, and are designed to provide (at a minimum) the following services:

• An on-line catalog with searching capabilities
• A shopping cart that lets customers order items
• A payment gateway interface, so that credit cards can be accepted
• An order tracking module so that customers can track the status of their orders

Web store software varies greatly in price and capabilities, with higher priced packages offering additional features, such as integration with your internal accounting system or the ability to send out newsletters and perform other marketing-related activities.

NWD Hosting provides a selection of web storefront packages designed to meet a wide range of requirements and budgets. The list below summarizes our offerings:

• CubeCart™
• osCommerce
• ZenCart
• Interchange™
• MIVA Merchant™

CubeCart provides basic, easy-to-use functionality that will proivde most of the basic features that a merchant would need in order to set up an on-line store.  The application is easy to customize the look of using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and provides back-end connections to most popular payment gateways.  Templates and additional functionality are available from a variety of sources.  More information about CubeCart is available on-line at www.cubecart.com.  CubeCart is a commercial product, although it is provided for free by its publisher as long as their copyright information is displayed.  To get a copy without the copyright banners costs less than $90.00.

The second two packages on the list are based on open source projects, and are quite commonly and widely available from different web hosting companies.  All of these packages provide a solid foundation for building an on-line business, and can be easily customized through the use of templates that can be purchased from a wide variety of sources.  Of the two open source packages, ZenCart is the more sophisticated and polished package being a customized and enhanced version of osCommerce.

Interchange™ is a much more complicated package than either osCommerce or ZenCart and is designed for merchants who either have correspondingly larger stores, or who need additional flexibility in how products are sold to their customers.  Interchange™ has been developed over the last seven years, and is currently in its fifth major release.  More information about Interchange™ along with an on-line demonstration can be found at www.icdevgroup.org.

The CubeCart, osCommerce, ZenCart, and Interchange products can be used with either our Premium or Merchant web hosting plans.

MIVA Merchant™ is a complete electronic storefront and e-commerce management system that allows any merchant to be able to easily maintain everything necessary to be able to service their customers over the Internet.  It comes complete with built-in shopping cart and payment processing, along with a flexible extensible architecture that allows merchants to customize their store with add-in modules.  MIVA Merchant™ has the ability to natively exchange information with popular accounting packages such as Intuit QuickBooks™ and Microsoft Small Business Financials.

Read a review of MIVA Merchant 5™ in ecommerce-guide.com

Since MIVA Merchant™ is a commercial product, it must be licensed.  There are two options for licensing, both of which provide the same functionality, but allow for different options in terms of paying for the software:

• Leased license option - This full MIVA Merchant™ license is offered on a monthly rental basis, and is yours to use while your store is hosted with NWD Hosting.  It provides all the benefits of MIVA Merchant™ with a low up-front cost.  The license key is non-transferable, and remains the property of NWD Hosting should your store be transferred to another hosting company.  This license does not include the cost of MIVA Merchant™ upgrades or add-on modules.  (Price:  $25.00 / per month)
• Owned license option - This full MIVA Merchant™ license is offered for sale, and is your property.  This license can be transferred to should you decided to transfer your store to another web hosting company.  Although more expensive initially, over time this is a less expensive way to purchase MIVA Merchant™.  (Price:  $695.00 / one-time)

Due to the nature of how MIVA Merchant™ works, it can only be used with our Merchant web hosting plan.

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