By Paul Lang, Editor, Sell It!
July 19th, 2000

See Also   How to Build a Web Store for FREE   How to choose mailing list management software   How to Grow Your Web Business   How to Accept Credit Cards without a Merchant Account   How To Develop Online Products That Sell   How to Change Your Web Hosting Service (ISP)   How to Deal with Disgruntled Customers   How to Get Top Search Engine Positioning   How to Beat Credit Card Fraud   How to Design an Affiliate Program   How to Accept Credit Card Payments   How to Choose a Shopping Cart

Although Web based commerce is still relatively new, the software that makes it all possible has already moved through three distinct phases:

Phase 1: At first, there was no complete Web storefront packages available and the Web commerce pioneers had to create stores either by lashing together a number of tools from different vendors or by creating their own scripts.

Phase 2: A whole new breed of storefront building solutions was launched, such as iCat Web Store and Yahoo! Store. These packages aimed to provide Web merchants with all the tools they needed to build and run a Web store, albeit at a fairly high price.

Phase 3: The competition between the many new storefront building packages grew significantly with the introduction of an increasing number of free store building solutions.

Not surprisingly, these free solutions have proved very attractive, particularly to small businesses, and the most popular services have quickly signed up thousands of Web merchants.

If you're thinking about taking your business online, you may well be tempted to take advantage of these free solutions yourself. However, just like any other business decision, you need to take the time to ensure that this type of service is appropriate for your business, and then to choose the solution that best meets your needs.

I have to say upfront that in general I am not too keen on these free services. I belong to the "no such thing as a free lunch" school of thought: after all, these free commerce providers need to make their money somehow.

So what are the problems with these free services? Here are some of the things you need to look out for:

1. Advertising: some free commerce services make their money by placing ads in your store. Not only can these ads be distracting to your customers (after all, you want them to focus on your sales message and not on some flashing graphic) you usually have no control over what products are advertised, so you may end up carrying ads for one of your competitors!

2. Hidden costs: most of these ”free” solutions only offer a limited number of services free and then make charges for what they define as “value added services”, for example online credit card processing. Sometimes they'll insist that you use their merchant account provider whose rates may not be the most competitive, so your “free” store may end up costing you a lot more than a paid-for store would with lower processing costs.

3. Strict terms and conditions: the Terms of Service for free commerce providers tend to be fairly restrictive. For example, they may prohibit you from placing links on your site to any other Web site. They are also usually fairly one sided (in the provider's favour of course!): for example, they may allow the provider to close your store at any time without giving you any reason, notice or compensation.

4. Limited capabilities: some of the free solutions lack the range or depth of tools that the paid-for services provide. For example, they may not provide a detailed reporting system or may have limited customisation options.

If you've checked out the above points and your happy that a free e-commerce solution is right for you, then go ahead and sign up. However, and this is very important, before making a final decision ensure that the service is capable of meeting your needs both today and in two years time. The last thing you want to have to do is to completely re-build your Web store with a new provider just because you've outgrown the services that a free solution offers.

To help you with your selection, here is a list of some of the main free commerce solution providers along with a summary of the services they offer:

Important: the information in these tables is current at the time of writing. It is, of course, subject to change and you should contact the service provider to check that these details are still accurate. In particular credit card processing rates are guidelines only and actual rates will vary dependant on the nature of your business, credit history etc.

Bigstep.com

eCongo

freemerchant.com

Mal's E-Commerce