eCommerce Starter Kit

If you are a startup e-biz I would steer clear of this offering from Macmillan. The product licensure was sold to Macmillan from its original developer "Boomerang Software" over two years ago and Boomerang no longer provides support for the product. Its hosting requirements are rather strict, and I found much of it complicated, particularly for the beginner. Dynamic pages were also VERY difficult to adapt from their pre-set templates. Boomerang designed this product to be used in conjunction with merchant handler "securepay.com". Once you design your e-commerce site using the software, a wizard directs you to apply for a merchant account setup with securepay which costs hundreds of dollars, leaving you with little or no choice to shop around for another, less costly payment gateway. I also found several curious programming errors in the product. The instructional documentation was frought with typos and poorly printed illustrations. My advice would be to save your money, and keep shopping.

Don't you wish they'd provide at least some kind of productdescription on these things. Here's the skinny, you have to pay [website] to host your site or it's useless. Here's what's written on thebox: 1) Standard package: [price]; 2)Advanced Package: [price]. Youget Online E-Commerce support; Secure server with a 100 MB storagearea; Multiple e-mail accounts; 15 days of free demo hosting to testyour site before going "live"; 30 days of free hosting from[web site]. The only thing I found worthwhile about it is the bookthat comes with it, "Poor Richard's Guide to E-Commerce."So, check out [web site] first and make sure it's what you want.

BizBlast's StoreFront Wizard allows small-business owners to quickly and easily build a store on the Web. The Wizard creates a catalog with an unlimited number of products, sorted by categories, as well as Welcome, Contact, and FAQ pages. Secure transmission of information ensures customer privacy and protects against fraud. Merchants can process credit card payments online or offline. Stores can be integrated into a merchant's existing Web site to provide a consistent look and feel.