Free
Electronic Storefronts
The e-Good, e-Bad, and e-Ugly
Garrett Wasny, CMC | July, 2000
Looking for an easy and low-cost way to build a website for your small
business? The good news is that a host of new electronic storefront services are available which allow you to create virtual stores,
catalogs, and exchanges with virtually no programming experience. Using only your keyboard and browser, you can
point-and-click your way to a slick-looking, revenue-generating website without the hassles and high
costs of e-commerce consultants, software, and hardware. The bad news is that the storefronts are often tricky to navigate, and exasperating
to use -- especially for web novices. Worse, they have zero personality
and may contain hidden charges.
First the positives. At least a dozen storefront services are now available on any web-connected computer to small businesspeople
everywhere. Leading e-store creators include Affinia (http://www.affinia.com/storefronts/),
Bigstep (http://www.bigstep.com),
Bizland (http://www.bizland.com),
Dxshop (http://www.dxshop.com),
eCongo (http://www.econgo.com),
femail (http://www.femail.com),
Freemerchant (http://www.freemerchant.com),
GoLinQ (http://www.golinq.com),
JustWebit
(http://www.justwebit.com), LookSmart Shops
(http://shops.looksmart.com), Vstore
(http://www.vstore.com/), and Xprss
(http://xprss.com/). While the precise offerings vary by vendor, most offer a surprisingly robust
bundle of e-services. The storefronts allow you to do everything from opening up your own store online to setting up real-time credit card
processing to advertising your e-business to tracking results. In some cases, you don’t even need products or services of your own to sell.
Vstore, for example, supplies everything -- merchandise included -- and
offers you dozens of store categories and sub-categories from which to choose including car and mobile electronics, DVD movies, and pet store.
Your mission: market the site, and collect the commissions that generally range between 2% and 15%. Affinia allows you to build your
own customized store and feature products from over 100 name-brand
e-retailers such as Amazon.com, PlanetRx.com, and Toysrus.com. Here, your goal is to drive traffic to the retailer sites where the sale is
actually made, and you receive up to a 20% commission in return.
Now the bad news. Arguably the key strength of these storefronts – the ability to quickly and easily launch a website using
pre-fab templates –
is also its greatest weakness. Although users can choose from a wide
variety of design and color options, the sites reek of a suburban-mall blandness and sameness that will do little to endear themselves to those
who you most want to reach: a techno-savvy, hip web audience. Actually, surfers need only look at the URL to tip them off that this is
one more cookie-cutter e-store. In almost all cases, storefronts only offer sub-level domain-names, not top-level domain names. Say, for
example, your company is called “Acme Enterprises.” Using a storefront,
you couldn’t register your site as http://www.acme.com or http://www.acmeenterprises.com assuming the domains were available. If
you were using the Bizland service, you would be forced to use the URLs of
http://www.acme.bizland.com or http://www.acmeenterprises.bizland.com. The point being that the name
of storefront – Bizland, in this case -- is almost always part of your URL. This makes branding your own unique identity on the web – so
important in today’s gazillion-channel Internet universe – virtually
impossible. The storefronts never let you and your online customers ever forget that you’re not so much an individual business online, as
you are an “affiliate” or “associate” of their particular
Stepford-wives
e-commerce “community.”
The profusion of self-serving ads is another big turn-off. Most storefront vendors run a constant barrage of banner ads either across
the top of your website or as pop-up windows. The ads cannot be turned off, and you have no control over which banners will appear and when.
Also frustrating are the unclear instructions and poor design of some of the website building tools. Even seasoned web explorers may get lost in
the digital construction process, and blunder through a challenging
trial-and-error process before they’re happy with the look and feel of their storefront. Another issue: hidden fees. Some vendors may charge
you for certain transaction features -- the ability to accept credit cards, for example -- while others don’t. To minimize problems or
unexpected surprises, set aside an afternoon or morning to tinker with all the storefront vendors. Experiment with each, read the fine print,
and select the service you find most comfortable to use, and best meets your needs.
While marred by design flaws, a glut of ads, and a strip-mall look and feel, electronic storefronts offer small businesspeople an
easy-to-install and low-cost on-ramp to the digital marketplace. Ideal for tight budgets, these e-services allow the tiniest of companies –
even individuals with little or no e-commerce or web experience – to create their own e-businesses, and join the online revolution at minimal
cost.
Based in Vancouver, Canada Garrett Wasny, CMC, is an
e-commerce trainer and author. His latest book is World
Business Resources.com. Mr. Wasny may be reached at gwasny@direct.ca or Tel:
604/878-4555.
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