OS Commerce – Helping Out the Little guys

Executive Summary

eCommerce platforms are being commoditized. Enterprise level solutions are coming down in price and new open source solutions are being made available to anyone with an internet connection for free.

The most robust of these open source solutions is OS Commerce (OSC) – a community driven eCommerce solution that is flexible, scalable, and user friendly. As eCommerce becomes even more a part of mainstream retail, OSC will provide businesses of all shapes and sizes with the functionality and capabilities of the big boys. This brief examines some of the advantages of OS Commerce and provides insights into how it can help your business.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Maybe so, but you CAN get an eCommerce platform for nothing. Offered for free at www.oscommerce.com, this eCommerce solution provides tons of bells and whistles and provides a user friendly interface to manage the administrative portions of the store. The code is based in the PHP scripting language and runs on the Apache web server – a user also needs access to a SQL database to initially upload the files that manage the categories and products within the admin section.

Now that sounds complicated, but really anyone can do it with some concentrated effort. Much of the documentation online regarding OS is very thorough and provides step by step plans on how to get your store up and running. Any newbie to this type of work will likely come across some roadblocks, but the OS Commerce community forums are only a click away to start trouble shooting.

The solution is community driven, meaning that like minded OSCers are ready to help out their peers with answers to posted questions. Yes, at times this can be extremely frustrating waiting for an answer, but it is very rewarding to overcome a technology bug on your own.

Contribute to the Cause

The best part of OSC is the number of contributions that can be added to your site at any time. Again, there is no cost for these enhancements and upgrades – just the need to be patient in your installations. In most cases, contributions are located on the OS commerce community section and are downloadable via zip files. After opening the file, read the “read me” file which will walk you through the file additions, subtractions, and code changes needed to make your enhancement work properly. If you explore the OS platform be sure to upgrade with the following contributions.

Ultimate SEO URL’s by Chemo

This cool contribution allows the site owner to create static URL’s out of a database driven site. This will dramatically help in search saturation as more pages are able to be indexed. Its no secret that search spiders like traditional urls better than ones that are dynamic and this contribution helps achieve that.

Easy Populate

No need to input product data manually, this contribution allows you to import data from a basic excel file into your store. A true timesaver!

Featured Products

If you have an ecommerce store – certain products are more attractive to sell than others. This contribution allows you to tailor the featured products that you want to showcase within both your home and category pages.

Final Thoughts on OSC

Myself, I am a marketer. But after learning OS I really feel like I have some programmer blood in me! This platform is easy to use and perfect for a small to medium size business in getting online. Yes, there will be headaches along the way but stay with it and you will overcome them and soon have an ecommerce store to bring you in a new revenue stream.

Craig Smith is the founder of Trinity Insight LLC – a management consulting firm for the E-Commerce sector.

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Grab the Share in Emerging International Trade Market

It is almost established fact that the moment your business crosses the geographical boundaries it is ready to get big boost. International trade is just not selling to few more customers. Everybody now is aware of globalization.

If you just look at the daily household goods, it is likely some if not all, will have been produced overseas, and if not, chances are that imported components would have been used by indigenous manufacturer to produce that stuff locally.

You know that Olympics is going to be held in China. China would be requiring to import lot of stuff especially in real estate business. Why not explore to identify the requirements for construction business in China?

On line sites and portals can help you identify details of importers and exporters as well as products in demand. A leading trade house, based in Ludhiana, India, specializes in selling to his client base in UK by sourcing the wares from Dubai.

If you are a newbie exporter or importer, starting a small setup to export is not expensive proposition any more. No need to have large godowns, extra structure and not even to have your own portal too. You can always log on to a trade portal and register your products and services for free.

Here you would be able to get free account where to post your products and services for free. From news and analysis on latest trend in exports, imports, currency fluctuation and travel experiences, you can all find it here. In the forums, you can log in your query and get an answer or help other fellow merchants by answering their queries.

Author, R S Chawla is a CFO and webmaster of http://www.b2blounge.com, a free to register portal for trade and services.

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E-Commerce – Perception Versus Reality

Electronic commerce over the Internet is predicted to grow at an ever-increasing rate over the next few years, with on-line sales already heading for several billion. Yet, instant gratification is still the current perception of e-commerce on the Internet to the world at large. A profusion of web-sites announce, “Three steps to build your website” – “Use our Shopping Cart Wizard and be selling on the Internet in a few minutes” – “Free templates” – “Free Hosting” – “Complete web-sites ‘Only $199′ – “Four million e-mail addresses only $24.95″ – “Search engine submissions to 2,000 search engines only $19.95″. So, the myth is perpetuated.

One would think the numerous Dot.com’s that consumed millions of investment dollars to no avail on the flawed premise that “build it and they will come” would have blunted this perception but no. It persists. Supported by large commercial entities selling their version of Dot.com heaven in volume. The very latest in digital direct marketing. Display ‘x’ messages and ‘y’ viewers will buy. Good old-fashioned marketing math for deep pockets and an infrastructure plus investors that still support such an approach. And like digital lemmings other web-sites with smaller pockets blindly follow.

Particularly in the building of e-commerce web sites, automation reigns. Each competing player offering fewer and fewer steps to build and establish an e-commerce presence using readily available templates. Be on-line and selling within “Minutes or Hours” is the cry.

These automated efforts designed by programmers and technical gurus cheerfully suspend business reality. Corporate identities become blurred, merchandising fragmented, marketing messages distorted and expectations enhanced. In effect the perfect recipe for corporate disaster.

The reality of e-commerce on the Internet is that it mimics business in the real world. The Internet is a different sales medium with direct sales and retail characteristics, yet it still requires strategic business planning, budgeting, clearly defined expectations and a realistic return on investment.

A reality-based question must be asked. Would you expect to open a retail store overnight with little or no planning? Especially when the store came in only eight colours, five window display types, potentially insufficient shelf space and was located in a new sub-division, unknown, unfinished and unmapped. Mmm!.. No!

So! Why suspend reality when choosing to conduct business on the Internet? Perhaps many business managers not fully understanding the technicalities of the Internet allow technical consultants with little business background to guide them.

Why should an e-commerce website not be carefully integrated into any existing or future business with the same attention to detail that any other business operation would require?

It is absolutely necessary that reality be enforced if companies wish to be successful utilizing this new business medium. As more businesses understand that the Internet is an extension of their marketing strategy and an effective business solution to increase revenues, reduce certain costs and increase bottom line profitability, current perceptions will more closely match reality.

Remember! The technical considerations of conducting business on the Internet must support your business decisions not the reverse. Plan your business and then build your Internet operation to support that plan, budget and objective. Determine your consultant’s business experience. Their perception could distort your reality. – John Shenton

John Shenton B.Eng., President with many years of International experience, living, building and operating companies within the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and Canada, creating market presence and increasing sales throughout domestic and International markets worldwide.

John has also participated in the start-up and growth of several companies in the technological, marketing, distribution and Internet industries, and has served as a board member and mentor to a number of other start-up and established firms.

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The 10 Keys To E-Commerce Success

1. People tend to click more often when specifically told to do so.
CLICK HERE to download the secret to my success! No, really. Please… One day when talking to a friend of mine through removing some spyware from his computer, I asked how he thought he got it. “I don’t know…” he quickly replied…”I guess I clicked on something that told me to click on it.”… I do recall reading somewhere that 10% of us turn our brains off when we get online. If you want someone to buy something, don’t just tell them to buy it, tell them exactly how to buy it.

2. Most people can’t remember more than seven things at once
There is a reason US phone numbers are 7 digits long – 10 if you include the area code… Humans are pattern driven creatures. We like 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 4 weeks in a month, 12 months in a year… and so on. The more patterns we make as humans, the more our mind can relate different things. However, for the most of us, the patterns cannot be too complex. Don’t confuse your customers. Give them details. Allow them to form the pattern in their mind. Then tell them to buy your product.

3. Research shows that web readers scan pages before they read anything, meaning they may leave your site if it doesn’t grab their attention.
In the dial up days, I used to tell people they had 30 seconds to make an impression on a visitor. Now, it’s a micro-fraction of that. The latest study indicated that a website had 3 seconds to deliver the content to the user, and that a user would make up their minds within 1 second. 1/2 second if that user was a female – seriously. It’s what I call the “ummm”. A site loads, a user says, “Ummm…” and that’s followed by a “yes” or a “no”. As soon as that scan is done with, the user knows if they feel comfortable on your site. If you use highlighting and bolding of keywords on your site – say about 7 of them per fold – and you tell the customer what to do within those 7 highlighted or bolded words… your site has more of a chance of converting a visitor into a customer.

4. Most buyers complete their purchase-related search engine research two or more weeks before they buy.
Two weeks. 14 days. 2 sets of 7 days. If your site doesn’t make a lasting impression with the user – even visually – they won’t be back. And if they don’t come back, you don’t make the sale.

Not too long ago, I was doing some reasearch on a particular subject. I had found a very good source, and shared it with a colleague of mine. About two weeks later, we were discussing the subject again. I hadn’t book marked the page, and couldn’t recall the name of the site. What I did recall was the pattern of the layout. I remembered the red and blue colors, with the yellow highlighted price. When I again found that pattern, I recalled more information about that website.

Had that site not grabbed my attention, and given me a few key items to remember, they would have lost a sale. Needless to say, they got my business.

5. People are more likely to read a headline that is followed by a blurb
This week I was driving by a steak house. I thought, “yeah.. I might like a steak tonight… but, there are some other restraunts on this road…” As I got closer to the steak house, the smell of that wood burning grill assaulted my senses… “Wow, I gotta have a steak, right now!” Was my next thought…. What changed my mind? The blurb after the headline. The restraunt itself wasn’t enough to get the sale – but those guys aren’t fools – they know how to get a customer in the door. The same holds true for any attention grabbing headline – without any more information, it’s just a headline. Without that smell, a steak is just a piece of dead cow.

6. The top five search terms of all time are: Pam Anderson, Dragonball, Pokemon, Britney Spears, and WWE
To me, knowing what people are looking for is key. It’s how you found this site. It’s why you’re reading, or listening to me right now. It’s why you’ll purchase the products I endorse or produce for MLMEruption.com. But knowing those top 5 search terms also tells me that I’m going to have to be creative with my headlines, give my customers good, memorable information that doesn’t overwhelm them, and give them clear instructions on what to do on my site.

7. The three-click rule states that any page in a site should be accessible in three clicks
You’ve heard me say it before – A confused mind always says “No”. So does a bored one. We’re living in the Information Management age. If you can’t give your customers what they want in a quick and easy fashion, you won’t have a customer to worry about. A few years back there was a big lawsuit between two major .com’s about the concept of the “one click checkout”… why? Because they knew then what I am telling you now. You have to make it easy. Easy to use. Easy to attract. Easy to remember. Easy to understand. Easy.

8. The average user will click 12 times before leaving a site
We all want above average users on our websites, right? I know I do. If the average user clicks 12 times on a website, and any page should be no more than 3 clicks away, you can safely reason that a visitor will visit 3 or 4 pages of your website. Without your site being easy, attractive, memorable, and clear… you’ll just lose that visitor. When you have some time, take the grocery store poll. It’s a fun one. Go into several different grocery stores in your town. Make note of where the milk is located. Chances are, you’ll find the milk in the back corner. Not the easiest place to get to. You have to walk past all that other stuff. Then you have to walk past all that stuff again on your way out. Chances are pretty high that you’ll pick something up on the way to or from the milk before you check out. The exact same principle holds true for e-commerce. If you present your visitor with something to purchase on each page, chances are very high that those 12 clicks will lead to a sale.

9. Saturdays and Wednesdays are the most popular day of the week to surf the Web
These are the two days that you want your email to land in your newsreaders inbox. It’s the two days you want to test market a new sales item. It’s the two days you should do whatever it takes to double your daily e-commerce income. Not to say you can slack off the other days…. it’s just important to know when the customers are out there. Your logs might indicate that you have higher traffic on other days, but generally speaking, Saturdays and Wednesdays are prime.

10. Twenty percent of Americans admit to buying products they learned about in E-Mail
Proper email marketing works. If you have the users permission to send them a commercially based email, and that email arrives in their inbox on a Wednesday or Saturday, with an attention grabbing headline followed by a well written blurb that doesn’t confuse them, yet tells them exactly what to do – chances are high that you’ll see a good return on that email.

Some time last year, an associate and I decided to publish a sales report. This report was the result of several months worth of work, and could have been considered a little edgy by some. Our e-mail blast went out on a Friday night, so that it would be sitting in peoples in-boxes on Saturday. The initial email was written quite well, and was a very honest, memorable, clear, and direct message. Sales of our report started Friday night. They did not end until six weeks later. In fact, I can ammend that date, as just two weeks ago we got another request for the report. Seems someone just got around to opening that email.

So, the 10 Keys to E-Commerce Success: Make it Direct. Make it Simple.Make it Grab their attention. Make it Memorable. Make it Meaningful. Make it Relative. Make is Easy. Make it Clear. Make it Timely. Make it Convenient. The one thing they all have in common: You have to make it.

For MLMEruption.com, this is Phil Foster – The Trusted Voice of MLM.

http://www.mlmeruption.com

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Advantages of Data Center Colocation

In today’s fiercely competitive environment, any business – small, medium or large – can succeed only if it maintains business continuity, which in turn, is mostly dependent on automated data handling systems. In the wake of recent natural and other calamities, companies have increased their investments in highly secure storage and retrieval systems for their data.

For companies whose core business is not IT, it makes better business sense to outsource the storage and maintenance of these systems. This strategy allows them to save time and money while harnessing the power of IT as a force multiplier for their core business.

What is a data center? A data center is simply a room that facilitates the storage and management, of servers and other computing equipment of any company in a precision-controlled environment. But for small and medium businesses, an in-house data center is an expensive proposition in many ways:

* High initial investment in space and equipment

* High day-to-day

management costs

* Hiring and retaining personnel to maintain

the data center

* High cost of upgrading technology and acquiring

newer services

In this scenario, it becomes far more economical to outsource this service to a colocation data center.

What is colocation? A colocation (also known less popularly as ‘co-location’) data center is a facility where the servers and other computing equipment belonging to different companies share space. Each company’s equipment is physically secured in a wire cage or cabinet with high security locking systems.

Why colocation? Colocation offers businesses several advantages with regard to time and money.

* You don’t have to worry about recurring capital costs if you

are upgrading since you can rent more space (or give up space if you are

downsizing)

* You are saved the expense of hiring and training

your own personnel to operate and maintain your systems. If you have to

upgrade, having your own personnel means additional training costs or paying

outside consultants.

Who uses colocation data centers? The answer is: almost any company whose business continuity is dependent on smooth access to flow of data and for whom system downtime is not an option.

* Web-based e-commerce companies use the colocation data center facilities

to ensure a safe environment for their equipment, plus economical and redundant

connections to the Internet

* Major non-IT entrepreneurs use the facility for economic data storage and

management, as well as safety from disasters

* Telecommunication companies use colocation data center facilities to exchange

traffic with other telcos and also to provide reliable access to potential

clients

Facilities at Colocation Data Centers Colocation data centers offer physical space on lease to customers for housing their servers and other computing devices. You install your servers and/or other telecommunication equipment in the physical space leased from the data center. The leased space is typically comprised of either full cabinets or portions of a cabinet measured in Rack Units or RU (1RU corresponds to 1.75 vertical inches of space). Much larger spaces, like a caged section of a room or complete private rooms or suites, are also available depending on your requirements.

All leased space is supported by:

* Precision-controlled air-conditioning systems

with incorporated redundancy

* 24×7 power back-up systems for all equipment to

ensure zero downtime or minimal disruption in operations due to power failure

* High-capacity, reliable power generators

* State-of-the-art fire detection and suppression systems to guard against

potential losses due to fire

* Sophisticated onsite security through surveillance cameras and advanced

biometric systems to prevent unauthorized entry

* Networking equipment including state-of-the-art, fully redundant high-end

switches and routers, BGP4 routing for optimal path selection and full redundancy,

etc

Most colocation centers also offer SLAs (service level agreements) to support a host of computer and networking services like server reboots, software updates, hardware repairs / replacements, disaster recovery, etc.

Advantages of colocation

* Financial Gains: Small and medium companies have a lot

to gain by opting for colocation. For one, there is an enormous amount of

money to be saved (between 25%-75%) on infrastructure, technology and human

resources. This leaves them free to concentrate on their core business areas.

* Better Connectivity: Acquiring and maintaining a T1 line

or a fiber optic line to connect your networks is an expensive proposition.

Moreover, if your ISP turns out to be unreliable, you could lose valuable

business. Provisioning a T1 or fiber optic line at a colocation data center

is economical and most centers support multiple ISPs through fiber optic

lines or VSAT. Also, colocating mission critical servers at data centers

with fully redundant network connections ensures that business critical applications

will always run smoothly.

* Easy disaster recovery: Data centers also create disaster

recovery sites. In the event of a snag with the primary server, the entire

network automatically switches to an alternate mirrored site within a few

minutes. So outsourcing disaster recovery also costs much less than what

it would to set it up in-house.

* Improved Network security: Most data centers offer state-of-the-art

network security, including fully updated firewalls / IDS applications to

detect and prevent unauthorized intrusions into their clients’ systems. They

employ qualified technical personnel with certifications like CCNA and MCSE

to monitor the networks 24X7 and alert clients of any potential trouble.

In the wake of disasters like 9/11 and other natural disasters, depending on a single office to keep business-critical applications running is risky. Most companies are now taking steps to plan for such events by implementing a disaster recovery plans that include colocation facilities inside internet data centers. Data centers provide the best data management, system maintenance and up-to-date security services without the issues that accompany owning and operating a similar facility.

By utilizing collocation services in a data center facility, you will realize an immediate benefit in terms of costs saving and improved redundancy.

John Tourloukis is the founder of Fast PC Networks, we provide Colocation and Disaster Recovery Services

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