Cart of the Week: nsCommerceSpace by Community Options
There are almost 600 on-line procuring carts. And every week we characteristic one, interviewing each the cart’s developer and a buyer. “Cart of the Week” just isn’t a assessment or an analysis, however quite a possibility to study a procuring cart from the individuals who construct it and use it.
This week, we’ll hear from Navin Ganeshan, senior director of product technique with Community Options, an online providers firm primarily based in Herndon, Va. and Belleville, Sick. Community Options acquired a web-based procuring cart in 2006 referred to as MonsterCommerce, and renamed it nsCommerceSpace, this week’s featured cart. (See “Associated Articles,” beneath.) The nsCommerceSpace ecommerce platform at the moment serves roughly 10,000 customers.
We’ll additionally hear from an nsCommerceSpace buyer, Steve Leugers. He’s president of UptempoAir, a Cleveland, Ohio-based on-line retailer that sells athletic and basketball sneakers, with roughly $1.2 million in gross income through the cart.
Sensible eCommerce: Please present some basic background on the cart.
Navin Ganeshan
Navin Ganeshan: “Initially referred to as MonsterCommerce, it was created by an ecommerce service provider who was annoyed by her cart and capabilities. Her internet developer couldn’t make enhancements to her buyer cart quick sufficient. She and her associate grew the corporate to be one of many high carts, they usually bought the corporate to Community Options in 2006.
“Right this moment, now we have included it into our broad portfolio of options for small companies. This can be a good match as a result of now we have a bunch of different safety and advertising and marketing providers that are perfect for rising on-line retailers.”
PEC: Is it hosted, licensed, or each?
Ganeshan: “Hosted.”
PEC: How a lot does nsCommerceSpace value?
Ganeshan: “Packages begin at $26.95 per 30 days for 25 merchandise; $49.95 per 30 days for 300 merchandise; and $99.95 per 30 days for 100,000 merchandise. There are not any transaction charges at any stage.”
PEC: What’s your organization doing to turn into PCI compliant?
Ganeshan: “We’re PCI licensed by Visa® U.S.A. Cardholder Data Safety Program (CISP), and we’re additionally SAS-70 licensed (an audit certification for transaction safety).” [Editor’s Note: Network Solutions is named on Visa’s global list of PCI DSS validated service providers.]
PEC: What are the cart’s greatest strengths?
Ganeshan: “All variations of the cart include e-mail, a website, a shared SSL certificates, and different options that allow a one-stop resolution. Nearly all cart options can be found at every value level, so on-line retailers actually have a possibility to experiment and develop their enterprise. Retailers solely must improve as their product catalogs develop.
“We even have our procuring portal, MonsterMarketplace, which we use to drive visitors to our clients’ shops. For a lot of retailers, it may possibly really drive as much as 20 p.c of their general visitors. We course of $2 billion of transactions yearly and supply 13 completely different cost gateways.”
PEC: What are a few of its weaknesses?
Ganeshan: “A few of the options which are appreciated by our extra superior customers will be intimidating to new customers. So, it’s a problem for us to supply a constant however simple interface that caters to all ranges of person. We’re centered on making the complete expertise simple for everybody. ‘Ease-of-use’ is not only a precedence for our ecommerce packages, we view it as a key model differentiator as nicely.”
ListenListen to Navin Ganeshan talk about Community Options’ acquisition of MonsterCommerce, and future traits that he sees for ecommerce.
PEC: What plans do you will have for future cart growth?
Ganeshan: “Our greatest areas of focus (along with ease-of-use) are syndication and advertising and marketing of merchandise via new channels. We’re engaged on efforts to faucet into extra channels for product promotion and syndication. We at the moment help Buying.com, Shopzilla, Google Base and MonsterMarketplace, however we will probably be increasing to quite a few different procuring portals.
“We even have a social media advertising and marketing roadmap that may allow retailers to market their merchandise utilizing Fb pages and broadcast informative updates and promotions through Twitter.
“One other main space of differentiation for us will probably be our cell technique. We will probably be permitting retailers to construct out cell storefronts as extensions to their on-line shops. Our clients additionally will have the ability to use cell administration apps to watch and handle their on-line shops.”
PEC: How would your cart assist an ecommerce service provider, versus the cart she or he is utilizing now?
Ganeshan: “In a variety of circumstances, it may possibly in all probability save retailers cash, since we don’t cost per transaction. Secondly, its built-in advertising and marketing options, in addition to our broad set of search engine advertising and marketing providers, can be utilized to drive extra leads and gross sales. And, the cart‘s broad integration capabilities work seamlessly with the providers retailers could already use, comparable to QuickBooks, Google Checkout, PayPal, and different cost gateways.”
PEC: Another ideas for our readers, who’re primarily ecommerce retailers?
Ganeshan: “Your retailer is only the start, and a superb residence base. It’s actually vital for retailers to deal with all of the avenues they’ve for advertising and marketing their merchandise, together with directories and procuring portals, social media channels and cell units.”
A Buyer’s View
Steve Leugers is president of UptempoAir, a web-based retailer that sells athletic sneakers through nsCommerceSpace. Leugers offers his feedback and opinions concerning the cart beneath.
PEC: How lengthy has your organization been utilizing nsCommerceSpace?
Steve Leugers
Steve Leugers: “Since 2003. It was referred to as MonsterCommerce again then, and we selected it as a result of it was the best to make use of and the best to arrange on the time.”
PEC: What are the cart’s greatest strengths?
Leugers: “The quickness of it–not simply pace itself, however the quantity of steps it takes on checkout. Clients don’t wish to spend an excessive amount of time on-line as soon as they determine what they wish to purchase. The nsCommerceSpace checkout course of is quite fast, and also you don’t want as many pages to take a look at as another carts.”
“I additionally like the flexibility to configure it to the place we’d like it to be. There may be some flexibility in product descriptions and different areas.”
PEC: How might the cart enhance?
Leugers: “I want we had entry to the cart itself and the coding, as a result of there are a few issues we needed to do this we are able to’t. For instance, we use Google Checkout and PayPal, and we want the PayPal button on high and the Google Checkout button on the underside, however we are able to’t change it.”
PEC: How would nsCommerceSpace enhance one other service provider’s enterprise?
Leugers: “Community Options on the whole does a variety of selling of merchandise, so simply by being on the platform, retailers get a variety of publicity. The cart goes hand-in-hand with the opposite options the corporate offers. For instance, SEO is in-built routinely—you don’t need to do the whole lot manually–you set the product in and it creates the Web optimization-friendly URL.
“However, the pace of the cart is why I prefer it a lot. In case you try as a visitor (you don’t need to have an account) it’s the identical as when you log into your account. There are not any further steps.”
PEC: Do you propose on persevering with to make use of the cart?
Leugers: “Sure, most undoubtedly. I don’t foresee us utilizing one other cart in any respect. They’re all the time updating and placing out new additions, they’re all the time attempting to enhance it.”
PEC: Another ideas for our readers regarding the cart?
Leugers: “The customer support is basically good. You’ll be able to name them at 7:00 within the morning and get any individual on the telephone. On this enterprise that may be very useful when a serious drawback occurs. Additionally, there was no unscheduled downtime in in all probability a 12 months.”
Different nsCommerceSpace Websites
- Perpetual Child
- Kodiak Sports activities
- MartiniArt.com
- Seat Sack
