June 6, 2006

ProStores - For those who want to SELL online

ProStores, an eBay company, is an ecommerce solution for businesses who want to sell online. Since it's owned by eBay, if you are an eBay seller - I'd think that it's got some pretty good integration into eBay already. With this newest release - version 7.0 - the latest version allows ProStores merchants to set up and customize the design of their online stores more easily, streamline listing to the eBay marketplace, offer multiple shipping options to their customers and promote more products on a store¬?s home page.

ProStores used to be StoreSense, owned by Kurant - which I liked a lot.

Today, Affinity Internet provider of ecommerce, online marketing, and web site building tools announced a newly launched WebStore solution powered by ProStores.

Yahoo provides ecommerce solutions as well and their pricing is competitive with ProStores. In looking at the features of Yahoo's and ProStores - they are very similar. I think you'll only find the differences when you take the time to use each product, set things up and sell!

"?We continue to listen to our merchants and improve the ProStores product based on their input. In version 7.0, we've added the functionality that our store owners tell us they value most," said Chris Tsakalakis, vice president of advanced solutions for eBay Inc. "The new features in ProStores 7.0 will help our merchants easily design their stores the way they want, save time listing to eBay and keep customers coming back by creating a better shopping experience."

I have not had a chance to test ProStores out for myself but it appears to be a powerful ecommerce tool. The press release reads - Subscription fees for ProStores sites are very affordable, starting at $6.95 per month for Express, with a 1.5% successful transaction fee. ProStores Business, the most popular tier, costs $29.95 per month, Advanced is $74.95 and Enterprise is $249.95, each with a 0.5% transaction fee. Each progressive tier offers sellers advanced functionality and design options.

For enhanced product promotion on their Web sites, ProStores 7.0 allows merchants to display up to five feature products or categories on the home page or choose to have images alternate randomly so that a different product or category is showcased every time the page is refreshed. ProStores 7.0 also makes the storewide-sale promotion feature -- including free shipping or percent-off sales on all store inventory -- available at the Business tier, a feature previously only available to Advanced and Enterprise tier subscribers.

New shipping options are part of ProStores 7.0, allowing merchants to offer multiple shipping carriers to their customers¬?including USPS, FedEx, UPS, and Canada Post.

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