• Seeking to provide the best of Internet Commerce Solutions to our subscribers, Spec.Net is pleased to present ICentral's ShopSite software solution. Upon thorough evaluation, we have found ShopSite to be a cost-effective and dependable solution for many of our customers who desire to conduct business on the web.

• These products feature quick setup and an easy-to-use interface. Primarily intended for small to medium sized catalog commerce, ShopSite should be ideal for many Spec.Net clients.

• ShopSite Pro is a secure, online store-creation and management application designed to meet the needs of site developers and merchants who are seeking to build a professional, yet affordable storefront. In addition to its site creation and management tools and secure shopping basket, ShopSite Pro includes real-time credit card authorization, a site search engine, detailed sales and traffic statistics, plus features that make handling large product databases (2000 products and above) easier and more efficient.

• ShopSite is an online store creation system that allows merchants to build and maintain catalogs of products to sell on the Internet. It includes tools for site creation and management, sales and traffic statistics, secure encrypted transactions, and online order fulfillment.

Customization Features for the
Professional Site Developer

• By linking to the ShopSite Pro Orders-CGI interface, experienced developers can create custom programs, such as delivering order information real-time to a fulfillment house or querying an inventory database to insure that the product being requested is in stock.

• Smart HTML enables developers to embed ShopSite commands into regular HTML code. With this feature, custom HTML pages can contain ShopSite managed product information. As a result, merchants can make day-to-day merchande changes to product information from ShopSite's easy-to-use back office interface. When done editing, hit the "update" button, then the software will automatically update the areas containing the smart HTML codes.

Advanced Merchandising Tools

• Merchants can better define and refine advertising and co-marketing strategies using the information provided by StatsPlus on sales and traffic activity.
  
• Merchants with high-traffic stores, and a merchant bank account, can now offer secure, real-time credit card authorization to their shoppers, then submit credit card orders over the net for processing.

• Site Search enables shoppers to quickly find what they are looking for from among 100s or 1000s of products within a single site, then purchase right from the search "results" page.
  
• Pro's advanced order features give merchants several techniques for motivating customers to purchase one item over another based on price or discounts offered, and forwarding "heavy" shoppers by applying a discount based on total dollars ordered.
  

Pro Features Highlights

• Real-Time Credit Card Authorization/Processing
  - ShopSite Pro easily links to Online Analysis' secure, fast online credit card authorization and processing service. ONA offers a special pricing plan available to ShopSite merchants only
  (seehttp://www.shopsite.com/help/payment.merchant.html).
  
• Site Search
  - The engine searches the ShopSite products database, presenting all matches on a separate "results" page. Customers see each products name, price, description, a hot link to each product and an order button. The shopper can act on impulse right from the results page.
  
• Product Selector
  - Using the new "product selector" feature, merchants can quickly find the right product item from among thousands of items when working with the products databases from within ShopSite Pro's back office.
  
• Orders CGI
  - Using the ShopSite Pro "Order Information" CGI, experienced developers can create custom order handling features, such as a custom program that delivers order information real-time to a fulfillment house or queries an inventory database to insure that the product being requested is in stock.
  
• StatsPlus
  - Improve the statistical analysis of your site. Know what's hot and what's not among today's visitors. Get detailed reports about who visited and what they saw.
  

Advanced Order Options for Shoppers

• Order another
  - Enables the customer, right from the order page, to request another incident of an item but apply different options, such as color, size, and quantity to this line item.
  
• Shopper Discount
  - Enables the merchant to configure a dollar-based discount table in the back office that can be automatically applied to the shopper's merchandise total at the time of check out.
  
• Value-based Order Options
  - Enables the merchants to apply a discount or a premium to the base-price of a specific item, based on the pull-down menu option selected.
  
• PowerEditPlus
  - By modifying one entry on the PowerEdit screen, a change can be applied to all selected pages or products.
  
• Smart HTML
  - For designers accustomed to using popular HTML page layout tools, this feature enables you to link existing ShopSite Pro database information, such as price, description, SKU, and product name, into your existing pages, using HTML-like tags. Designers can take full advantage of cool HTML tools, yet retain the ease-of-management that comes from maintaining product information within ShopSite databases.
  
• Enhanced Store Re-Gen
  - Only information that has been changed is updated. Additionally, a "checkpoint" log keeps track of the update process, enabling the update process to startup where it left off in event of a disconnect or server time-out.
  

Built with Merchants and
Site Designers in Mind

• ShopSite Manager is for the small-to-medium sized business manager who wants to begin marketing and selling products on the Internet, or who currently has a Web site, but wants to take the next step of selling products online. For Web site designers, it reduces the many tedious tasks involved in maintaining a Web site, allowing them to concentrate on pure design. It empowers merchants, not only allowing them to make small changes without a design's help, but even allowing them to build an entire site without knowing HTML.
  
• ShopSite Manager has a simple, intuitive interface and provides features comparable to high-end commerce packages at a fraction of the price. Rather than spending several hours each day keeping the site's content fresh, a user can spend a few minutes with the ShopSite Manager. New users can familiarize themselves with the software in the course of an afternoon. A site can be significantly customized using ShopSite Manager, so advanced users can display information in creative ways by typing there own HTML into the appropriate text fields. More than a Web page editor, ShopSite Manager keeps product and sales information in databases. Change the price of a product in the database and ShopSite Manager will automatically regenerate HTML. ShopSite Manager also integrates CGI scripts into the site, such as a shopping basket and visitor statistics, so you can take advantage of them without being a techno-geek.

Store Creation and Management Tools

• Easy Data Entry Screens
  - The ShopSite interface is simple to use - no harder than normal browsing on the Internet.
  
• Internationalization, Phase I
  - Everything the shopper sees can be in their native language (symbols as well as text).
  
• Easy Embed
  - Apply the ShopSite order button to existing HTML pages and automatically tap the power of ShopSite's secure shopping cart capabilities.
  
• Cross-platform
  - Client only needs a standard Web browser. No extra software or plug-ins are necessary.
  
• Remote Management
  - Storefronts and catalogs can be maintained from anywhere on the Internet.
  
• No HTML necessary
  - Creating the right layout is easy with our forms-based interface. Makes site creation and maintenance quick and easy.
  
• Templates
  - Balancing ease-of-use with flexibility in design, site designers can choose from several page and product layout templates.
  
• Virtually Unlimited pages/products/graphics
  - Storefronts or catalogs may contain a theoretical limit of 2 gigabytes of data, which does not include images or external files. A practical limit, based on manageability of the site, is up to 2000 items in the product database.
  
• Unlimited Shoppers
  - Spec.Net does not limit the number of customers who may access, use, or purchase from an online store. For all practical purposes, there may be an unlimited number of concurrent users in any shopping activity.
  
• Immediate media upload
  - Add graphics, sounds, movies, or other media materials easily using the immediate upload features in Netscape Navigator. No FTP is necessary.
  
• Media Library Manager
  - View, name, and set up media (including graphics, sounds, or movies )in the Media Manager.
  
• Online Help
  - Software usability questions are answered quickly and easily via context-sensitive links from within the software with ICentral's online help system.
  
• Database uploader
  - Build a store in one step. Create a database of products and page information offline, import to ShopSite via a tab-delimited file uploaded through the browser or FTP.
  
• Global Settings
  - Enables designers and mall operators to customize their ShopSite environment.Special settings include the ability to add your own company logo and phone number at the bottom of each page and to add a special icon on the final "Thank You" page that links the shopper back to your mall or a Web page of your choice.
  

Shopper Security

• Secure Credit Card Handling
  - The system takes advantage of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security on Spec.Net's servers, protecting both shoppers and merchants while sensitive information is intransit over the Internet. Credit card numbers are then encrypted when stored on the server.
• Secure Back Office
  - All changes are done in a password protected back office.
  

Sales and Marketing Tools

• Statistics
  - Monitor daily visitor counts and sales.
  
• Email notification of orders
  - Placing an order immediately triggers an email receipt to the customer confirming the order, and an email to the merchant, so he is instantly notified when sales are made.

• Online Order Tracking
  - Orders are stored online for merchant reference as long as necessary. Viewing and deleting orders takes place within the back office.
  
• Register your store for free
  - Registered stores are listed for free at ShopSite Marketplace, a showcase of more than 175 stores. Visit ShopSite Marketplace.

Order Fulfillment Tools

• Shopping Basket
  - Allows customers to place orders online, in a secure, easy, and fast environment. ShopSite Manager's basket uses a unique cookies/IP combination tracking system.
  
• Automated Credit Card Clearing
  - Support for real-time credit card authorization.

• Customizable Payment, Shipping, and Tax Options
  - Merchants can set their own prices for shipping and tax, and decide which credit cards (or other forms of payment) they want. Currently 25 different tax rates can be set by the user.
  

Server Features

• Optimized Application
  - ShopSite Manager uses only about 4MB of hard disk space. The code has been highly optimized for maximum efficiency and minimum bandwidth usage. Including graphics and other files, the average store typically takes up less than 10MB.

System Requirements

• Runs on Spec.Net's server and only requires you to run a Netscape browser (in order to take advantage of all of its features).