ECommerce Questions

[kerifinn]

Hello. My name is Keri and I have an exsisting website that I would love to switch to BV. My first question is, How many products can we put on our website. The company that we use for our database for our products and customers, is not providing very good customer service. We have a little over 30,000 products in our catalog. We can get a quaterly update through a CSV file. I hope there is something that you can do or suggest in this matter. Your product sounds wonderful and I would love to purchase it. The second question that I have is, Do you have a tool to track commissions for our sales reps? The third question is, Can BV work with Quickbooks? Last but not least is, We sell products to the government and we need a special filter for certain items that are made in certain countries, Does BV offer anything of the sort? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I am sure I will think of more questions as the day goes on. Thank you for your time.

[Girlonthehill]

Re: ECommerce Questions

Hello. My name is Keri and I have an exsisting website that I would love to switch to BV. My first question is, How many products can we put on our website. The company that we use for our database for our products and customers, is not providing very good customer service. We have a little over 30,000 products in our catalog. We can get a quaterly update through a CSV file. I hope there is something that you can do or suggest in this matter. Your product sounds wonderful and I would love to purchase it. The second question that I have is, Do you have a tool to track commissions for our sales reps? The third question is, Can BV work with Quickbooks? Last but not least is, We sell products to the government and we need a special filter for certain items that are made in certain countries, Does BV offer anything of the sort? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I am sure I will think of more questions as the day goes on. Thank you for your time.

Hi Keri, I think it may be worth your while checking out SohoLaunch - we have a forum that discusses it (about two thirds down on the forum main page). It's an online e-commerce website builder available to you once you have signed up for your VH account.

Here's an intro and some tutorials about SohoLaunch. http://www.vodahost.com/soholaunch.htm

[islandcrazy]

Re: ECommerce Questions

Welcom Keri. I am no expert, but Amanda is right, you will need to investigate Soholaunch for the answers to your questions. BV can be used to build your website, but you have to have a shopping cart to do all the things you are asking about. Voda hosting offers Soholaunch (site builder AND shopping cart) as well as other carts that can work WITH BV...such as OScommerce (which sounds like the kind of powerful cart you need) but there are other carts you can use with BV too,like Zen Cart and Cart Manager. Vodahosting doesn't answer the kinds of questions you are asking about the "bookeeping" and administrative tasks you need...those are answered by the shopping cart "company" you choose.

Check out Soholaunch and OScommerce websites and then the other carts directly. Good luck! Shopping cart shopping is HARD!!!!! there are so many variables!

[Vasili]

Re: ECommerce Questions

OsCommerce, the capable e-commerce solution included in every VodaHost account is most definitely the cart and inventory system you should focus your attention on.

The amount of inventory you have indicated suggests that your classification and categorization needs will not be met with Soholaunch, but more ably migrated with osCommerce (OSC does not limit sub-categories, for example, whereas Soholaunch limits sub's to 6). Additionnally, the compliance requirements and "filters" (unique SKU and govenrment classification recognition methods) that you will need to implement are already available as "plug-ins" from the vast library of added php scripts and modifications at the official OSC Support Websites.

Both carts support and seamlessly operate with QuickBooks Pro/Enterprise, and are simple to manage from that end.

Because OsCommerce is a 3rd party product included free with every VodaHost account, limited support is available in the VodaHost Forums. You should, however, peruse the official OSC website (take a look at their showcase of completed websites) and their wonderful Support Forums to learn more as you plan your migration. And in particular, you can also beginn to create a "list" of plug-ins you feel you will require to better plan the overall organization of your cart and site.

Having VodaHost as your provider is a decision you will be completely satisfied with for many years to come.

We look forward to working with you!

[kerifinn]

Re: ECommerce Questions

Thank you everyone for your prompt reply. I do have one more question though. When you check out from the osCommerce shopping cart, where does the order go. can it go directly to our distributor or does it come to us? Thanks Again and have a pleasant and restful evening.

[Vasili]

Re: ECommerce Questions

That is a simple "shopping cart function" for all carts process the order upon the commands you set up: either as an email-Commerce (the customer sees what they believe is a real-time Invoice, but it is in fact emailed to you to process off-line), or processed within whatever gateway you indicate (the platform available through your own Merchant Credit Card processor > your bank, Verisign, PayPal, etc.), and even third-party fulfillment (such as to a distributor as mentioned). It's your choice!

You should continue through the OSC website, under Features, and stroll through the tutorials on Transaction Processing to see your options.