osCommerce iPhone Applications

Expand your market
Mobile applications are quickly becoming a large percentage of the way purchases are made online. Making sure you are visible through these channels can greatly benefit your business.

Get your store added to the iPhone App List
We handle the submission to Apple, so your Native eCommerce store App get’s added quickly to the apple/iTunes database.

Seamless Integration
Your store will be ported seamlessly to either a Native iPhone App or iPhone Web App. No extra things to update or change. Your current product and customer database will be used, so all of your shipping, payment, and product info will update across multiple platforms automatically.

For more information, questions, or comments, please call today @ (800) 961-7427

E-Commerce Software in Action, by Peter Prestipino, Editor-in-Chief

“Despite the economic downturn that has affected everyone from Madison Avenue to Main Street, the state of the e-commerce industry (despite a noticeable dip in transactions and sales) has remained strong, thanks to continued improvements in technology. Internet retailers that have adopted “best of breed” solutions are expecting big profits in the coming years.

Online retail in both the U.S. and Western Europe is poised for serious growth over the next five years, according to two new forecasts by Forrester Research Inc. U.S. online retail will grow at a 10 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years to reach nearly $249 billion by 2014.

It can sometimes seem as though there are as many vendors of e-commerce software as there are merchants on the Web. So, understanding the solutions available and the top-tier providers in their respective areas will spur you into action and help you come to a decision that will positively impact the bottom line of your retail endeavor on the Web. What follows are several areas for e-commerce improvements and enhancements for your website, and some vendors who are leading the charge.

Product Placement: Savvy e-commerce Web professionals understand that to succeed online they need to occupy as much virtual shelf space as possible. ChannelAdvisor supports the mission of Internet retail marketers by offering an on-demand software solution that automates the often labor-intensive manual functions related to distributing products across multiple channels (particularly useful for merchants with hundreds of thousands of SKU’s). The software optimizes campaigns to drive shoppers to products and convert browsers into buyers. ChannelAdvisor works with premium marketplaces and search and shopping services as eBay, Amazon, Overstock, Shopping.com, Nextag and, of course, Google, Yahoo! and Bing.

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E-Commerce Statistics to Share
Launch a new e-commerce venture today and you might be met with some skepticism by friends, colleagues and investors. Fear not; e-commerce isn’t a trend but now a way of life. In the U.S., Web shopping will account for 8 percent of total sales by 2014. More importantly, 53 percent of total retail sales in the U.S. will be influenced by e-commerce, as consumers increasingly use the Internet to research products before purchasing.

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Hard Data: Many people in the e-commerce business make decisions that are not based on empirical data. As you can imagine, that can be a big mistake. The Web offers an opportunity to gather data in real time and make informed decisions immediately, based on that information. By testing variations of landing pages, product descriptions, search results and buy-flows, SiteSpect allows marketers to fine-tune every aspect of their website on a segmentby- segment basis. Optimizing marketing effectiveness through A/B testing, multivariate testing and behavioral targeting offers the ability to tweak nearly every element on a website (particularly useful for merchants) on a case-by-case basis.

Mobile E-commerce: Shopping cart software vendor Volusion took a rather bold step into the mobile world recently with its launch of Volusion mCommerce; a way for its customers to optimize their online stores for consumers who are smartphone-shopping. Volusion customers (including small retailers that typically do not have access to mobile- optimization capabilities) can enable a setting in their store’s administration panel. Shoppers who navigate to any Volusionpowered site using an iPhone will automatically have access to the mobileoptimized version.

In an age where mobile devices are nearing ubiquity, choosing an e-commerce software solution that does not offer some level of mobile compatibility could dampen sales. “Volusion mCommerce allows my customers to view my site in a convenient, snapshot version,” said Andrea Bridges of RepeatPossessions. com. “The popularity of Twitter and other social media platforms is proving that time and space are limited, and people are expecting the kind of simplified interface Volusion is providing. Volusion mCommerce makes shopping more convenient for my customers and will provide me with a revenue boost.”

User Experience: One of the key concerns for e-commerce developers is how end-user experience is impacted. Since small modifications can result in big changes, on-demand Web application experience management solutions provided by the likes of Gomez help businesses ensure the most seamless of Web experiences for e-commerce shoppers. Recently, Gomez released an upgraded platform that measures the response time of both mobile and Web applications. The load testing solution tests how mobile sites, applications and infrastructure (thanks in part to its acquisition by Compuware) respond under peak traffic conditions and then measure the mobile end-user experience. “As applications are increasingly built from multiple third-party components and accessed via an expanding choice of browsers and mobile devices, preventing and resolving Web performance problems becomes exponentially greater and more time-consuming,” said Imad Mouline, CTO, Gomez division. “The upgraded Gomez platform addresses all these issues, helping businesses spend less time troubleshooting and more time delivering great Web and mobile experiences.”

Reviews and Testimonials: Few things spark sales more than positive user reviews of your products and services. Founded in 2005, Austin, Texas-based Bazaarvoice provides a hosted social commerce application for featuring user-generated content such as ratings, reviews, answers and stories to manufacturer and retailer sites. These reviews are intended to help jumpstart word-of-mouth and viral marketing and big companies have taken notice. Brooks Brothers, for example, introduced the ratings and reviews solution from Bazaarvoice in October 2009, and encourages its shoppers to review the products they purchase. The review solicitation e-mail, which typically goes out one week after a purchase online or in a store, has the highest open rate of all e-mails sent by the company. Brooks Brothers plans to bring relevant star ratings and review content into its spring catalog and upcoming e-mail campaigns. Brooks Brothers also plans to integrate Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews into future social networking and mobile shopping initiatives.

Much more goes into success with e-commerce than simply choosing the right shopping cart and merchant account provider. As you can see, there are many e-commerce solutions available on the market that go beyond supporting marketing endeavors, but create a clear and distinct separation from you and your competition.”

If you want to set up an ecommerce site for your business then you should be ready to part with a considerable amount of money for setting up an ecommerce website. Many business owners hesitate to take their business online because of the costs involved. We need to find cost effective solutions to meet our ecommerce website needs. One of the best ways of dealing with this problem is to find a free osCommerce template that can be customized to suit our specific needs.

Making use of free ecommerce software will bring down our costs dramatically. We can even get ecommerce hosted solution that matches our needs. These are some of the ways of cutting down the costs involved in setting up an ecommerce website.

We can find our free osCommerce templates at Ezosc.com. We will not only find free osCommerce template here, we can also download the entire ecommerce software free of cost. This software will take care of both the frontend and the backend needs of our ecommerce site. There are hundreds of free osCommerce templates available here. These templates can be further customized to meet our specific needs. Ezosc.com uses STS system template for osCommerce.

The free ecommerce software that we find here provides comprehensive ecommerce solution. We will be able to accept all types of billing solutions, provide multiple shipping options and set up multiple payment options. Normally when we download free ecommerce software online, they will have a number of limitations and number of drawbacks. We will not face such problems with the ecommerce software that we download at Ezosc.com. They provide highly customizable, flawless ecommerce solutions. We do not have to spend thousands of dollars in setting up our custom ecommerce stores. Ezosc.com has over 15 years of experience in providing ecommerce solutions to small, medium and large companies. We can take advantage of their experience by downloading their free ecommerce software and free osCommerce template.

Ezosc.com also offers ecommerce hosted solution for busy entrepreneurs who cannot be bothered dealing with multiple companies for their website and for hosting. At Ezosc.com, we get all in one ecommerce hosted solutions that meet all our ecommerce needs seamlessly.

You will be able to download the ecommerce software at www.ezosc.com. You can either go for free ecommerce solution or for paid hosted ecommerce solutions. The hosted ecommerce solutions are very competitively priced and they come with a host of useful features. You can download your free ecommerce software in just few clicks. The free ecommerce software is easy to install and it can be installed by any one. You need not be a programmer to have your software installed. The ecommerce software comes with installation instructions that are easy to follow.

The hosted solutions come with the SEO friendly URL feature, which is very important to rank well in the search engines. By far, this is the cheapest and the most reliable ecommerce solution that you can find online. For downloading your free copy of the ecommerce software visit www.ezosc.com.

This software comes with over a hundred free templates to make the design process easier. You can build simple interfaces that are both functional and user-friendly. As providing an easy experience for the end-user is extremely important in e-commerce, ezOSC is an ideal choice.

It is also very easy to use, both for the beginner user as well as the experienced developer. The software is fully compatible with PHP 4 and PHP 5, and uses an osCommerce framework to make the management of your business easy and seamless.

You can have an unlimited number of products, and can easily add, remove, or edit entries quickly and whenever necessary. A well-designed structure also makes it possible to display products in relevant categories.

To increase customer confidence, all transactions are handled securely using SSL. Also included is a feature where customers can leave comments and feedback about your products; this type of feature has been shown to be instrumental in increasing consumer confidence and generate higher sales.

As for payment options, there are easy interfaces to include many different types of online payment processing, such as PayPal, Authorize.net, iPayment, and 2Checkout. If you would prefer to use offline payment methods, ezOSC provides many options to allow this, such as check, money order, or offline credit card processing.

ezOSC Free is also completely multilingual, so that customers speaking English, German, or Spanish should have no trouble purchasing your products. Other languages are also available.

If you are ready to start making real money on the Internet, and are ready to choose e-commerce software, you can do no better than ezOSC.

The time people spend on developing software just gets it out the door. The effort that people spend on getting software to be applicable to a business takes a lot of time and money in order to make the software work. It takes communication with the a vast amount of ebusinesses that are diverse in their products, services and operations. It takes a team to create the software that is committed to constant revisions in the programming and a team that lacks an ego (very hard to find). And finally it takes a commitment to success that will post a challenge to the bottom line that you have worked for in the aforementioned points. That just so happens to be our mission statement and the thesis of this article.

There is a cost to all these operating expenses and to keep the software up to date…… and get this BUG FREE, you need to have revenue coming in the door, just like your client’s stores. This of it all this way; if you are not in the business model of making money, how do you expect to make a business software that makes your clients money?

Let’s take a look of some of the software that is out there.

osCommerce - Yes osCommerce is everywhere. It is the basis of ZenCart, CubeCart, C.R.E. Loaded, XCart, Magento, OSMax, and the list goes on. Some of this software you pay for, which is great! Others are for free and are nothings but problems for what they promise and how they falls short of their expectations. osCommerce is on hosting packages as a free install and there are a plenty of people out there pushing it on their clients as if it is easy to modify without an idea of programming. Without proper knowledge of programming the store isn’t going to give you the edge over your competition and the aesthetics of the site will make your delivery in the way of images and site layout look horrendous.

osCMax - If you want to host it somewhere else, good luck. It is free software, just as long as you host it with their company. So you are stuck. As a business owner you want options, and that just eliminates a major ability to more, if you are unhappy with your store and want to go somewhere else.

Magento - Extremely heavy and ridden with bugs. We do repairs on their store, upgrades, and additions with contributions. And it is a huge headache to get any of it done. The one thing that stands out is that it takes forever to test the store due to the load time, due to the heavy and cumbersome software. What does this all equal? More down time, because your store isn’t functioning for a longer period of time, which means that you are not making money. More money now has to be spent to fix that problems and get them corrected, and you will spend more money on the corrections, rather than have a working right from the start. This is software that boast a ton of features, but what good are they if the software does not work.

Now that you have an idea of what to look for in online shopping cart software, take a look around, see who answers the phone at the programming companies for the software, what options you have, and the reviews on the software.

More and more, online software is becoming the prevalent way to manage data and business. Keeping your information online and running certain parts of your business online, they all require resources from a server, just as your PC does. So ask yourself, “Why do I run my business with a computer that is five to ten years old?”

Now ask yourself, “Why would anyone have a server that is five to ten years old?” There’s plenty of companies out there that have them. And there are even more people that buy into these companies, that have businesses that rely on the web for revenue. And you see them a lot more than you think. Script errors, slow page loads, and sites that just don’t perform up to snuff are some of the symptoms. What is the result of this….? Loss of revenue.

So what do you do so you don’t have a business that is losing you money 24/7 365? Think about what you pay for is what you get, just like anything else in life. A great example of all of this is when you register a domain name at GoDaddy.com. They offer you hosting for a year for a very low price. Now, how many times does the page not load while you are on GoDaddy’s site? They use Windows servers, which are great for an intranet set up, but not for the web, which Linux servers are great for. Why does GoDaddy have this kind of hosting set up for their own site?

Cause they are a domain registrar and they are great at it, nothing more.

They also have reseller programs as well and the affiliates will offer all the services GoDaddy has. This really can get someone started off on the wrong foot. Not only do you have a site hosted on a server that doesn’t have the proper software, configuration, and resources, but also you will have a hell of a time trying to get a hold of the reseller.

There are other companies out there that are even a bigger problem, and they are flat out hosting companies. 1and1.com to call out one of them we have had to bring web sites over to our servers, because of the total lack of software, proper configuration, resources and technical knowledge from the company itself.

So now comes the next question, “What do I do to get a server that will be able to handle my business’ needs?”

Call around. Easy as that. First you’ll talk to sales and they usually answer the phone pretty quickly, but then you need to try to get a hold of support. If they do even have a phone number, see if they answer. The cheap priced hosting companies are not going to have a phone number. So any of your questions, you’ll have to send an e-mail and wait for Mumbai or some little kid in a Chinese sweat shop to wake up and get back to you on them.

Of course we are going to promote our own premium hosting services for your business. We have put together a great deal of depth of knowledge into our systems, to deliver a hosting solution that is on the cuff of the latest technology. We don’t even use your typical web servers, we use systems that are loaded to the max with memory, disc space, and the latest software and configurations. Minus the software and configurations, we can use them for gaming servers as well.

With all this in mind, you have a little bit to go on when you are looking for your platform for your business to be supported by. Good luck and please feel free to contact us with any questions.

Add Images To Box Headings in osCommerce

• Introduction
• Solution
  • Heading Text Replacement
  • Use Of Cascading Style Sheets

Introduction

Images can be added to each box displayed in the left and right side columns, where the same image is used for all boxes or where different images are used for different boxes.

Solution

• Heading Text Replacement
• Use Of Cascading Style Sheets

Heading Text Replacement

The simple method of having images in the box heading is to replace the heading text value with an image.

This can be done by editing the main language file in the includes/languages/ directory, for example includes/languages/english.php.

To replace the Categories box heading with an image, the heading title definition of BOX_HEADING_CATEGORIES will need to be changed from:

To:

Use Of Cascading Style Sheets

The advanced method of having images in the box heading is to create CSS definitions for each box where an image is to be shown.

The following example concentrates on the Categories box and needs the following three files to be modified:

includes/classes/boxes.php
includes/boxes/categories.php
stylesheet.css

The following code should be added to includes/classes/boxes.php at the very bottom of the page right before the ending ?> tag:

The code above creates a new class called infoBoxHeadingCategories which will be used in the Categories box.

The following code in includes/boxes/categories.php:

should be replaced with:

As the new infoBoxHeadingCategories class uses a new stylesheet definition just for the Categories box, the following needs to be added to the stylesheet.css file:

This new class in the stylesheet can have the font, size, spacing, etc. set according to css styles.

If you’re more learned in social networking, some of your day’s activities may have consisted of stumbling one of your blog posts, digging a couple articles, posting a bulletin, changing your status update and retweeting a Guy Kawasaki article. However, did you know that no matter what your social media experience, that you can optimize your social networking profiles so that more people can find you?

Just as if you were doing search engine optimization for your website, the first thing you must do to optimize your social media networks is to research. You have to find a niche and decide what keywords you want to use. Try to use as specific as keywords as possible and narrow in on these. The longer the keyword you can focus in on, the more likely you’re going to be found. For example, “discounted hotels in Midtown Atlanta” is going to offer you a much better chance of getting found then just “hotels.”

Next, of course you want to start implementing SEO to your social networks. One thing to keep in mind is that when including links on your social networking profiles, like Twitter, these sites often put a “no follow” attribute on the link. This basically means that most search engines will ignore the link when filtering through content.

Although some of your social networking profiles and information can be found in general search engines, you are ultimately optimizing to be found within that particular social network’s search engine. Twitter for example is quickly becoming known for it’s search box that provides up-to-the-minute search results. With Facebook, although it can be difficult to optimize the information in your profile, you can optimize the titles for search.

Ultimately, the important thing is to first research how to optimize each of your social networks. How to optimize your Twitter profile and posts is going to be completely different then how to optimize your StumbleUpon profile.

Secondly, and here’s the kicker, you have to deliver quality content that engages users. Optimizing your social networks for search engines won’t mean a thing if users don’t take action. Don’t create repetitive titles and posts that strike users as another marketing ploy. You have to give users a reason to friend you or follow you.

Once you’ve gained the trust of that network, only then can you successfully optimize your social media outlets.