Cart of the Week: LiveMerchant by BB Design

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

This week, we’ll hear from Bradley T. Bansner, president and net software developer for BB Design, the corporate behind LiveMerchant on-line buying cart. The online design and growth firm is predicated in Wenersville, Penn., and presently serves roughly 30 ecommerce retailers.

We’ll additionally hear from a LiveMerchant buyer, Peter Schenk. He’s the president and CEO of PCE Well being & Health, a Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah-based firm that sells LifeSpan train tools and well being membership memberships. Schenk stated, on common, the web site processes about 850 gross sales per 30 days through LiveMerchant.

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

Brad Bansner

Brad Bansner: “LiveMerchant was initially launched in 1999. It was created to satisfy a necessity for an admin interface for an ecommerce web site I used to be creating for my father’s stamp-collecting enterprise, and the unique website remains to be in operation in the present day. I quickly realized that the {custom} admin screens I had created might be branded and reused for different shopper web sites. I developed a server-wide system that used and reused numerous scripts and code along with {custom} programming to permit me to rapidly and effectively develop {custom} buying carts for different shoppers, and I named this assortment of ecommerce instruments LiveMerchant.

“Coming from a graphic design background, I felt it was vital for the consumer expertise to be fully seamless when shifting from the web site to the buying cart and checkout pages. Customizing off-the-shelf buying carts appeared both troublesome or unattainable; or required studying via loads of documentation to be taught the interface screens. A lot of my new enterprise in the present day comes from shoppers who share this frustration.

“LiveMerchant fills the necessity for a distinct segment market: shoppers who need somebody to easily make issues work and make it look good. LiveMerchant is just not an add-on part to a web site, it’s straight built-in with the web site’s product catalogs. Actually, it’s the total web site. This is the reason we make the excellence between a buying cart product that you’d buy or subscribe to, versus a custom-programmed resolution equivalent to LiveMerchant.

“There are primary buying cart features which might be built-in. Nonetheless, we will customise the screens to offer nearly any function a shopper needs. We like to think about LiveMerchant as a hybrid between an off-the-shelf buying cart product and a very personalized resolution. Some shoppers require little or no customization whereas others are almost full overhauls, and this flexibility is our benefit.”

PeC: Is it hosted, licensed, or each?

Bansner: “Hosted. Nonetheless, we are going to often set up the cart on a shopper’s server for the appropriate undertaking. LiveMerchant requires a Microsoft internet hosting atmosphere.”

PeC: How a lot does LiveMerchant value?

Bansner: “The everyday vary is $360 to $720 per yr, with no transaction charges. [There are, however, ongoing design fees and customization fees.] This consists of the LiveMerchant buying cart in addition to web site internet hosting, a MS SQL database, visitors statistics, and extra. There’s a one-time web site growth price, which varies relying on the shopper’s wants.”

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

Bansner: “We now have a 3rd celebration marketing consultant, ServPure Inc., that assists with safety on our personal servers. We additionally work to maintain up with PCI DSS necessities. The fundamental purpose is to retailer as little delicate knowledge on our servers as doable, and for as brief a time period. Right now, we have now no rapid plans to use to Visa’s World Record of PCI/DSS Service Suppliers.”

ListenListen to Brad Bansner focus on the beginnings of BB Design and LiveMerchant buying cart.

PeC: What are the cart’s largest strengths?

Bansner: “Seamless integration to an present web site with complete customization potential, with out the shopper having to be taught a sophisticated system or take care of advanced admin interface screens.”

PeC: What are a few of its weaknesses?

Bansner: “It’s not for firms who need to ‘do it your self.’ As a result of it’s a {custom} buying cart, it doesn’t have loads of flexibility for the typical consumer, however we offer customization for our shoppers when wanted. We now have only a few customers in comparison with most different buying carts, however once more it is a product designed for a distinct segment market fairly than for the lots.”

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

Bansner: “Most enhancements come from shopper options or from the necessities of latest web site initiatives. As an example, we simply did an improve to the mixing with QuickBooks. However, presently, we’re caught up on new developments.”

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

Bansner: “We’re a great match for somebody who’s annoyed with making an attempt to keep up their very own buying cart or receiving poor technical assist. We deal with all of the technical particulars, set up and programming.”

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

Bansner: “We undoubtedly aren’t for everybody, however lots of our shoppers (and clients of our shoppers) have stated the buying cart and checkout system are the best they’ve ever used on any web site.”

A Buyer’s View

Peter Schenk is CEO and president of PCE Well being & Health. The corporate sells health tools and well being membership memberships on-line through LiveMerchant ecommerce software program, and Schenk offers his feedback and opinions concerning the cart beneath.

PeC: How lengthy has your organization been utilizing LiveMerchant?

Peter Schenk

Peter Schenk: “LiveMerchant has been our solely buying cart since 2003 once we started promoting health tools on to customers. We selected it as a result of the software program is highly effective, versatile, easy-to-use and inexpensive. We have been additionally on the lookout for an order administration system on the time, and the buying cart built-in with the LiveMerchant database was additionally a promoting function.”

PeC: What are the cart’s largest strengths?

Schenk: “The LiveMerchant buying cart offers our clients with an easy-to-use, dependable, safe on-line buying expertise. Purchasing cart net web page URLs all embody the identify of our net retailer and combine transparently with our web site. It provides to shopper confidence to know the buying cart is an extension of our website. Client confidence can also be boosted as a result of LiveMerchant is an Authorize.Internet-certified buying cart.”

PeC: How may the cart enhance?

Schenk: “Our buying cart is already extremely personalized to satisfy our wants, and there are not any main enhancements to be made presently. When an enchancment is required, we merely work with BB Design to reinforce the cart.”

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

Schenk: “Any enterprise on the lookout for a versatile, customizable buying cart resolution with a whole back-end administration system ought to take into account LiveMerchant.”

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

Schenk: “We plan to proceed utilizing it indefinitely. As our enterprise grows and Web gross sales develop, BB Design has been attentive to customise the cart and supporting order administration system to satisfy our wants.”

PeC: Another ideas for our readers in regards to the cart?

Schenk: “The system has confirmed to be correct, dependable and safe. Enhancements have been made through the years to make checkout easier and simpler for patrons to make use of.”

Different LiveMerchant Websites

• Lenora Dame
• Cherrystone
• Oxia
• Thorn Hill Vineyards