ShopSite Inc. releases version 6.0 of its leading e-commerce shopping cart applications - New Products - Product Announcement

Information Superhighways Newsletter, Feb, 2002

ShopSite Inc., a provider of easy-to-use Web catalog software, released version 6.0 of ShopSite, the company's advanced e-commerce shopping cart application. ShopSite is available in three different applications: ShopSite Pro, ShopSite Manager and ShopSite Starter.

Two major features that have been added to ShopSite Pro v6.0 include United Parcel Service's Rates and Service Selection tool and National Processing Company's processing credit card payment gateway. In addition, fraud prevention features, electronic couponing, digital downloads and improved performance capabilities have all been added to Shop Site Pro v6.0. Pricing for ShopSite Pro v.6.0 is $1,295 for a one-time/license fee. Monthly fees are also available.

ShopSite Pro v6.0 includes the following new features:

- UPS Rates and Service Selection enables online shoppers to compare, price and select UPS shipping services to best fit their needs and budget. This feature occurs on the first check-out screen and gives online merchants real-time UPS published shipping charges at the point of order entry, eliminating the need to estimate shipping charges.

- Merchant Account Application and Credit Card Payment Gateway from NPC allows an e-retailer to apply online for a merchant account and use a credit card payment gateway all from one vendor.

- Fraud Prevention measures now include having the shopper supply the 3-4-digit credit card code (e.g. located on the back of Visa cards) to help ensure the shopper actually has the physical card in hard.

- Electronic Couponing enables merchants to directly target customers by e-mailing a coupon link or code for a specific promotion. B-coupons will include a specific percentage or dollar amount off a product, group of products, or the entire order.

-Digital Downloads allow merchants to sell software, audio books, video clips, and pictures on their shopping sites. This can open new revenue streams and product segments for online merchants.

-Downloadable Orders into Intuit's QuickBooks allows for near real-time data keeping, immediate display of orders, and an easy-to-use accounting system for online merchants.

-Improved performance made possible by shrinking the file size of ShopSite to one-tenth the size of previous versions, providing faster updates to the site while reducing the amount of disk space required by ShopSite.

ShopSite Manager v6.0 has been enhanced with the following features: UPS Rates and Service Selection, fraud prevention measures, merchant account application and credit card payment gateway from NPC, product search, and improved performance. Pricing for ShopSite Manager v6.0 is $495.00 for a one-time licensing fee. A monthly fee is available as well.

ShopSite Starter v6.0 is only available through an Internet service provider (ISP) and includes fraud prevention measures, the credit card payment gateway from NPC, improved performance and reduced footprint. The pricing for ShopSite Starter v6.0 is generally less than $5.00 per month and is usually included in monthly hosting fees from an ISP.

According to Hills, statistics show that a large number of electronic shopping carts are abandoned once the online shopper finally sees what the shipping costs are estimated to be. "By integrating UPS Rates and Service Selection OnLine Tool into our e-commerce shopping cart applications, shoppers do not have to wait to find out about the shipping costs, rather they get the shipping cost on the initial order screen," Hills said.

"We are pleased ShopSite has integrated UPS Rates and Service Selection into ShopSite to provide better customer service by quickening and simplifying the ordering process for the consumer," said David Gittings, UPS director of e-commerce marketing. FamilyCow.com, a provider of practical tools to help protect families against TV obscenity and Internet pornography, has been using ShopSite's v6.0 beta-version live for more than a month because of its digital download feature. Now customers can easily download software products from FamilyCow.com with this added new feature.

"We chose ShopSite's v6.0 because its digital download feature is more intuitive and easier to use than any other product on the market," said Britt Muhlig, president of FamilyCow.com. "We are very pleased with the product so far and plan on continuing to use it for our e-commerce site."

ShopSite v6.0 is designed to help small- to medium-sized businesses quickly set up an online store with e-commerce and shopping cart services. The software is server-based so merchants do not have to download any software and can manage their store via the Web. Businesses can also use ShopSite v6.0 to add a shopping cart to an existing Web site. ShopSite v6.0 is sold through ISPs worldwide. ShopSite, Inc. has more than 200 hosting partners, including Aspre, AT&T, Biziand, Infinet, Lexiconn, Verio, and YourHost.com. ShopSite's partners have provided tens of thousands of ShopSite stores to merchants.