Web shop features

Official Protx Partner

We are approved development partners of payment processing experts, Protx. To sign up for their services, please follow this link:

Our web shop features can be as simple or as extensive as you need them and, with complete customisation, can develop and grow as your specific needs do.

Starting out with a simple-featured web shop is the sensible approach for a new retail business, when staff, product and order numbers are minimal. However, as times passes and your business grows, you'll find that your original web shop features no longer do what you need them to do. Things are taking longer and your web shop becomes a hassle to manage. You're going to need a new web shop design.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a web shop that grows features as and when you need them, without the need or expense of a complete re-design? Once we have designed your initial web shop, we can add new features quickly and easily. For example, you may start out with standard order processing when order numbers are low. As order numbers increase, however, you may wish to upgrade to our more automated and streamlined Advanced Order Processing Console, which can be added to your web shop features at any time. As is the nature of our customised web shop engine, these features can all be tailored exactly to your needs as and when you add them to your web shop.

Perfect for small business, perfect for big business.

Web shop standard feature checklist

Our standard web shop features will give you enough functionality to get started with your new online shopping venture.

Web shop feature	Included
Custom web shop design, layout and branding
SQL Server Database Faster and more reliable than MS Access
Search-engine-friendly URLS Improves the indexing of your web shop
Product catalogue (unlimited in size)
Product details pages One for each product you sell, with unlimited images
Related products
Intelligent product search
Category browsing (unlimited categories)
Up to ten static pages For example, 'Home page', 'About us', 'Contact us'...
Basket and checkout
Secure online payments We are partners with card-processing provider, Protx.
Order confirmation emails
Top selling items list
Cross-browser and search-engine-friendly Tested in IE6, IE7 and Firefox 2
Customer login and order tracking
One year hosting on our dedicated server
Administration Suite, including:
Full product management Flexible enough to deal with any product type
Basic stock control
Order management
Fraud protection rules
Customer management
Send newsletters
Discount campaign managment
Sales reports
Google Analytics For analysing website visitor statistics
Contact Management System Edit static page content through your browser
Domain name
Free telephone and email support
Free bug-fixing Only when hosted on our server

Web shop optional features

We can design and develop any web shop feature you require, but here is a list of suggested optional features and upgrades to start you off.

Price Breaks

Set up price breaks for customers buying in larger volumes from your web shop.  Different prices come in to effect based on quantities purchased.

Advanced Order Management

Deferred payments (charge customer's card at time of shipping).
One-click refunds (refunds amounts back to card used in order).
Advanced transaction management.
Take additional payments at the click of a button. This is handy for when you handle returned items where the exchange is of a higher value.
Order Processing Console.

Please note that this web shop feature requires Protx used as payment provider.

Fully-Integrated Payments

In our standard web shop, when a customer goes to the payment stage, they are redirected to a Protx page where they must enter their credit card details. Your logo is still displayed and it all works seamlessly, but the look and feel of the payment page does not match with that of your web shop. This can be overcome by taking the card details directly on your website and then sending these for processing to Protx in the background. This is the more professional approach for your web shop, but does require you to purchase an SSL Certificate. We will purchase an SSL certificate on your behalf and in your business' name, so you will actually own it. An SSL certificate ensures the right level of security is administrated for the time your customers are entering their card details. If your web shop features an SSL certificate, your customers will see a padlock symbol in their web browser.

Opting for this web shop feature also allows you to display a seal of authenticity from the SSL certificate provider and provides your customers with a guarantee that you are who you say you are and therefore giving them confidence to purchase.

You also gain your own unique IP address as this is required to enable your SSL certificate on our server.

Please note that this web shop feature requires Advanced Order Management and an SSL certificate.

Advanced Stock Control

Let the web shop manage your stock levels and automatically generate orders to give to your suppliers. You set the re-order levels and the web shop keeps your stock levels at the right level, prompting you to order more of any item that goes out of stock or falls below your re-order level. Includes reports to help you calculate your expenditure.

Cost Tracking

Allow the web shop to track your expenditure by recording all stock cost price values and generating on-the-fly reports detailing gross profit. Also allows you to manage and sustain the correct markup percentage for each of your products. Makes your end of year accounts a doddle!

Please note that this web shop feature requires Advanced Stock Control.

Telephone Order Facility

Use your web shop to manage telephone orders. From experience, many customers still prefer to order by telephone. This web shop feature allows you easily take an order over the telephone and take payment accordingly. Orders taken in this manner are flagged in your order management tools, so you can track them and differentiate between them.

Barcode Scanner Integration

Plug a cordless barcode scanner into your PC and greatly reduce the administrative time of checking in new stock to the web shop. This also allows you to perform stock checks much more efficiently.

Please note that this web shop feature requires Advanced Stock Control.

Data Feed Export

Integrate your web shop with the likes of Pricerunner, Kelkoo and Shopping.com so that your products are kept up-to-date on a nightly basis. Any changes you make to your web shop products will be subsequently reflected on the third party website automatically. You also get the facility to exclude products from the feed for times when you want certain products to be sold exclusively from your site.

Multiple Country Presence

Use your web shop across multiple regions of the world.  For example, have one site in the UK and another in Australia. Each is a separate web shop in its own right, but they're seamlessly linked together from your customers point-of-view.

Monthly Web Shop Maintenance Services

In addition to the physical functionality of your web shop, we can also carry out certain monthly services.

Google Adwords Campaign Management

Google Adwords can be an extremely effective way of getting high-volume, targeted traffic, particularly when your website is new and doesn't yet have the PageRank required for good organic rankings. This facility is a powerful tool that allows your website to be advertised alongside the Google search results, and is paid for on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis, whereby you pay a small fee every time someone clicks on your advert.

These adverts have proven to be both very popular and very successful, but can be time-consuming to set up and manage, especially if you have no experience in what makes a good advert. The good news is that we can manage this service for you. All you have to do is a agree a fixed monthly budget that we can use on your behalf and we'll start increasing traffic flow to your website! In return for this service, we charge a small percentage of your monthly budget and you're free to stop at any time.

Search Engine Optimisation

Once your web shop is launched, we can provide a monthly SEO report containing analysis of your chosen keywords and their performance in the search engines, particularly Google. Also included as part of this service are weekly XML sitemap uploads to Google, which should allow your web shop to be more comprehensively indexed. With more pages indexed, your search engine rankings should improve.

In addition, we will provide free telephone advice and guidance for improving your search engine rankings and will co-operate with any third-party SEO specialist you may employ to manage your web shop's SEO.