If you are going to run an online store, the first step is to get people to visit your site in the first place. That’s a huge challenge, to be sure, but the greater challenge is to convince these visitors to become buyers. If they don’t buy anything, you don’t make any money.
Providing you with a comprehensive e-store solution is the new Interspire Shopping Cart. If the name Interspire sounds familiar, that’s because this isn’t the first review that they’ve ordered.
You remember Mitchell Harper, right? He’s the guy behind such products as SendStudio NX. The Interspire Shopping Cart comes from the same pedigree.
A Complete Online Store from Interspire
In considering the creation of your online store, you may feel compelled to get software from a variety of sources. You may go with one company for the layout of your site, another to handle the customer database, and yet another to handle the checkout process. Why go through all that hassle when this shopping cart software from Interspire can handle it all?
While it may be known as the Interspire Shopping Cart, the software package is actually a comprehensive solution that handles every aspect of the online shopping experience. It’s not quite plug-and-play, as you’ll need to populate your site with products and such, but everything you need is there.
Features Beyond the Checkout
Among some of the notable features found within the Interspire Shopping Cart software are the following:
- Drag and drop layout customization
- Multiple logins with permissions
- Refunds and store credits
- Per-product inventory control
- Over 30 store designs to choose from
- Sell in multiple currencies
- Suggested products and wish lists
- Export to Intuit QuickBooks
- Single page checkout
- Integration with PayPal, Google, UPS, FedEx, etc.
- Trackable coupon codes and bulk discounting
- Full content management system
To get a much better sense of what you can expect from this ecommerce software, be sure to check out the video tour. It walks through a lot of features from both the perspective of the shopper and the shop owner.
Looking at the User Control Panel
As with other Interspire products, the administration panel is both clean and robust. All of the key navigation is found through the links near the top of the page, sifting through all the different sections of the online interface. There is no need to download anything to your computer, because everything (including site design) is browser-based.
Because the Interspire Shopping Cart has so many features, however, novice users may be overwhelmed with everything that this software package can do. It will certainly take some time to get accustomed to finding everything that you need, but the Interspire staff is always there to help.
Different Versions for Different Needs
The Interspire Shopping Cart is available in three different versions. One of the biggest differences between the Starter, Professional, and Ultimate versions of the Shopping Cart are the number of products that they can handle. The Starter gives you enough room for 100 products, whereas the Ultimate has room for an unlimited number of products.
Most of the critical features, like single page checkout, are available with all three versions, but the Starter does not have Quickbooks synchronization, XML order export, SMS order notifications, or an integrated RMA system, among other features. If you find that your chosen version is inadequate for your needs, you can always send Interspire a note saying that you’d like to upgrade.
You can also try the free online demo to test drive the software before buying.
How Much Does It Cost?
Interspire caters to people who are serious about making money online and its products are priced accordingly. This is no fly-by-night operation and they stand by their products with a money-back guarantee.
Interspire Shopping Cart is currently available in download form, so you’ll need to run it from your own web server. The Starter Edition, Professional Edition, and Ultimate Edition go for $295, $995, and $1795, respectively. A hosted version is also in the works.
Yes, this may sound like a lot of money for some “simple” software, but Interspire Shopping Cart is anything but simple. It offers everything that you need to open the virtual doors to your online store, including inventory control, website design, and, well, a shopping cart. If you consider how much it would cost to get these separately, Interspire’s solution starts to sound a lot more reasonable.
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