Cart of the Week: GravityMarket

There are extra than 500 on-line buying carts. And every week we characteristic one, interviewing each the cart’s developer and a buyer. “Cart of the Week” isn’t a assessment or an analysis, however moderately a chance to find out about a buying cart from the individuals who construct it and use it.

This week, we’ll hear from Jody Okay. Hartwig, director of e-business for Acumium LLC. The corporate is predicated in Madison, Wis., and it produces GravityMarket, an ecommerce platform. In line with Hartwig, greater than 100 web sites have been constructed on GravityMarket because the cart was first developed.

We’ll additionally hear from a GravityMarket buyer, Michael Feiman, director of selling for PoolDawg, an online retailer that sells pool cues and billiards equipment.

Sensible eCommerce: Please present some common background on the cart.

Jody Hartwig

Jody Hartwig: “GravityMarket was first developed in early 2000 as an open-source ecommerce answer. Our greatest differentiator then and now’s the ‘search friendliness’ of the platform. We’ve got ‘baked in’ search optimization techniques.

“The software program combines strong product merchandising with streamlined retail operations to provide our purchasers one of the best platform on which to handle and develop their on-line retail companies. It gives integration with transport distributors like FedEx and UPS for real-time transport prices, and handles safe bank card transactions with varied cost gateways. GravityMarket additionally features a safe and user-friendly administrative interface which permits straightforward administration of web site content material.

“An enormous differentiator between us and different ecommerce platforms is the customized integration we implement on behalf of our purchasers. To us, it’s all about serving to our purchasers succeed, and so we work ‘smarter’ to tie in to back-end accounting and achievement programs. GravityMarket handles the safety and practical particulars in order that retailers can concentrate on what they do greatest, managing and delivering their product line.”

PeC: Is it hosted, licensed, or each?

Hartwig: “The platform is an open-source software program. We don’t cost licensing charges. As a substitute, as a part of each implementation, we offer the total supply code and embody a license to make use of the platform, however not distribute it. We additionally provide full-service internet hosting with the platform.”

PeC: How a lot does GravityMarket value?

Hartwig: “A customized web site, developed on the GravityMarket ecommerce platform runs, on common, about $50,000. This contains all the usual platform performance plus the customized branding, order/product integration, and different customized modifications.”

PeC: What’s your organization doing to develop into PCI compliant?

Hartwig: “Whereas we should not have an official PCI certification for the platform basically, most of our purchasers have day by day PCI scans accomplished and are deemed compliant. We even have a course of in place to assessment and examine any reported compliance points.”

PeC: What are the cart’s greatest strengths?

Hartwig: “GravityMarket is search pleasant from the bottom up. Our purchasers spend much less time optimizing the positioning for pure search rankings, in order that they have extra time to concentrate on merchandising and gross sales conversion. Our customized strategy to the web site constructing course of additionally signifies that our purchasers’ websites incorporate one of the best in ecommerce performance, customer-specific branding, usability and back-end integration.”

ListenListen to Jody Hartwig focus on the origins of GravityMarket, and provide recommendation for on-line retailers.

PeC: What are a few of its weaknesses?

Hartwig: “As a result of GravityMarket is a fully-customized answer it makes it arduous for potential purchasers to check it ‘apples to apples’ with different ecommerce platforms.”

PeC: What plans do you’ve for future cart growth?

Hartwig: “We sometimes plan in 12-month cycles for our platform enhancements. Nonetheless, we’re continuously including concepts to the combination [based on conversations with] our purchasers and different ecommerce firms we work together with. Present plans for brand spanking new modules embody an optimized cell model and a brand new, strong GravityMarket loyalty program.”

PeC: How would your cart assist an ecommerce service provider, versus the cart she or he is utilizing now?

Hartwig: “Most prospects come to us as a result of they’re dissatisfied or have outgrown their present ecommerce web sites. They’re typically pissed off with their pure search rankings and the inflexibility of their present platforms. Ecommerce retailers want the power to customise their website in the feel and appear in addition to performance, sometimes within the space of tighter integration with their inner back-end programs. GravityMarket gives a search-friendly front-end website, driving site visitors and gross sales, with customized integration, making it straightforward for our purchasers to meet buyer orders.”

PeC: Another ideas for our readers, who’re primarily ecommerce retailers?

Hartwig: “Profitable ecommerce isn’t just about one factor. To be a profitable on-line retailer, you should drive site visitors to your web site, present a quick, straightforward website expertise, convert that person expertise right into a sale, and shut the loop with distinctive customer support. The GravityMarket platform permits all of those.”

A Buyer’s View

Michael Feiman is director of selling for PoolDawg, an internet retailer based mostly in Lafayette, Colo. that makes use of the GravityMarket buying cart. The positioning sells quite a lot of billiards and recreation provides, together with pool cues and cue instances, darts, poker site furnishings, and different recreation equipment, with round 3,000 merchandise accessible on-line. Feiman gives his feedback and opinions about GravityMarket beneath.

PeC: How lengthy has your organization been utilizing GravityMarket?

Michael Feiman

Michael Feiman: “We began working with the GravityMarket platform within the fall of 2006. The cart offered us with an easy-to-administer platform that meshed properly with our present stock administration system. As well as, GravityMarket supplied quite a lot of key benefits from a SEO standpoint that proved to considerably enhance our general search visibility.”

PeC: What are the cart’s greatest strengths?

Feiman: “GravityMarket’s greatest energy is in administration. As a result of we outsource nearly all of our IT growth and integration, it was important that the system was straightforward to handle for a non-tech group of individuals.

“As well as, we’ve discovered that the cart scales fairly properly, as we’ve made quite a lot of adjustments and enhancements over time. The cart presents straightforward integration with quite a few cost suppliers, permitting us to supply bank cards, PayPal, Invoice Me Later, and eBillme as cost choices. The cart additionally works fantastically with SLI Techniques, our search software program supplier.”

PeC: How may the cart enhance?

Feiman: “Whereas the software program is clearly fairly straightforward to customise, I’d prefer to see extra plug-in customization choices.”

PeC: How would GravityMarket enhance one other service provider’s enterprise?

Feiman: “Search engine visibility. I’m not a programmer, so I can’t inform you precisely what Acumium has completed to realize this, however I can inform you that we now have web page 1 and web page 2 visibility for over 90 p.c of our most vital key phrases throughout Google, Yahoo! and Bing.”

PeC: Do you propose on persevering with to make use of the cart?

Feiman: “Completely.”

PeC: Another ideas for our readers regarding the cart?

Feiman: “On the subject of deciding on a buying cart, you should discover the one which’s going to work greatest to your particular wants. This may fluctuate from firm to firm, however in our case, GravityMarket was an ideal match.”

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