Comparison Chart of "Free" E-Commerce Platforms
Prepared by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, August 22, 2000|
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FreeMerchant |
Bigstep |
eCongo |
GoLinQ |
|
Site templates |
Headers and footers for each section and page. 24 font faces |
Basic 4 layouts, 12 colors schemes. Advanced 20 layouts, many color schemes. Font selections. Upload logo. |
11 attractive styles, each with several color scheme choices and headline font faces. May upload logo. |
Has 8 templates and 4 navigation styles, dated appearance. Can build from scratch. |
|
Basic webpage options |
Flexible but limited customization of page. Can edit some elements in headers and footers. |
Very strong webpage building wizards. Templates for about us, contact us, surveys, FAQ, map, PR, and custom. Can paste in HTML. Helpful content suggestions. |
FAQ, Help, and Return policy, but pages have no special features or suggested content. |
Word-like StorelinQ Builder is very powerful. Can edit HTML code or use editor for exact look. Templates for our offerings, our policies pages. |
|
Contact us page? |
No |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
|
HTML access? |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Designers can opt for complete HTML design freedom in template and pages. |
|
Individual picture upload? |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Individual domain name allowed? |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
|
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FreeMerchant |
Bigstep |
eCongo |
GoLinQ |
|
Catalog Section |
Categories, subcategories, and products. Products can be placed on any page. Good product flexibility. Products can be hidden, placed on sale. |
Section and item pages to build hierarchy. Products can be placed on any page. Products can be hidden, placed on sale. |
Department, category, and item pages. Items can have thumbnails. Items can only be displayed in one department or category. Products can be hidden, placed on sale. |
Limited flexibility. Requires store to use predetermined top-level and second-level categories. Products can be featured. |
|
Inventory |
Yes, crude |
No |
No |
Yes, crude |
|
Product options? |
Yes, allows several options per item, but all are the same price. Also allows text box for name or initials. |
No |
Yes. allows several options per item, but all are the same price. Shares attribute library with other products. |
No, but each product item can specify an optional size and color |
|
Shipping calculation |
Flat fee, determined by merchant at shipping, or uses APIs from UPS, FedEx, and USPS plus handling fee. |
Weight, per item, and total sales price. |
Per item (can be overridden for individual products). |
Uses UPS API plus handling fee in US. Other is crude. |
|
Database upload |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
|
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FreeMerchant |
Bigstep |
eCongo |
GoLinQ |
|
Credit Card Contractor |
US Merchant Systems |
CardService International |
NTB Merchant Services and First Data |
Total Merchant Services (TMS) |
|
Payment gateway |
IntelliPay and Authorize.net |
CardService International |
First Data |
Included with merchant account |
|
Contractor exclusive? |
No |
Yes |
Yes, for real-time processing |
Yes |
|
Set-up fee |
"Purchase" for $399, if not "leased" |
No |
None until 9/15/00 |
No |
|
Termination fee |
Did not see one, but lease terms would have one. |
$300 unless 30 days notice each 6 six month term. |
No |
$150 if cancelled in less than 12 months. |
|
Monthly fees |
$29.99 if 2 yr lease, $19.95 if 3 yr lease |
$24.95 |
$19 processing fee + $10 gateway fee |
$10 gateway fee, $10 statement fee |
|
Discount rate |
2.69% |
2.35% |
2.49% |
2.40% |
|
Transaction fee |
35 cents ($20/month minimum) |
20 cents |
30 cents |
35 cents |
|
Other fees |
$10 monthly statement fee |
15 cent/day "batch header" fee |
$15 monthly minimum in transaction fees |
$25 monthly minimum in transaction fees |
|
International Merchants? |
Yes, through PlanetPayment.com |
No |
Required to have corporate presence in US, US bank, federal tax ID, etc. |
No |
|
International Buyers? |
Yes. Can be changed for other currencies, languages. |
No |
Yes. 5 currencies, metric and Imperial measures. |
Yes, but poor shipping support. Can use high bit languages such as Chinese and Japanese. |
|
|
FreeMerchant |
Bigstep |
eCongo |
GoLinQ |
|
Shipping calculation |
Flat fee, calc at time of shipping, or APIs from USPS, FedEx, and UPS plus handling fee. |
Merchant-entered tables. Weight, items, or price. |
Allows USPS, UPS, FedEx and others, but only on a per item basis. Inflexible. |
Uses UPS API plus a handling fee. Other methods weakly supported. |
|
Sales tax |
Handled by FreeMerchant, updated monthly. |
Merchant-entered tables. To ZIP if needed. |
Calculates a single percentage for merchant's home state or province. |
Set tax by state, designate whether shipping is taxed. |
|
Merchant policy? |
Yes |
Excellent in guiding merchants to set up policies. |
Yes, but no suggestions offered. |
Yes, but no suggestions offered. |
|
Order management |
Excellent system and e-mail confirmation messages. |
Strong system tracks orders as new, pre-authorized, shipped, denied, cancelled, authorized, refund, or sale. |
Strong system tracks orders as open, shipped, declined, backordered, or void. E-mails customer at shipping with tracking number. Customer can view order status online. Cannot do partial shipments. |
Helpful system sorts by in progress or shipped. Allows entry of date shipped, tracking number, etc. for customer viewing. |
|
Search engine submission |
AltaVista, Excite, HotBot, Go Network, and Northern Light. |
Excite, AltaVista, Lycos. Info on directories such as Yahoo. |
Lycos, Excite, AltaVista, Webcrawler, and MSN. |
AltaVista, Infoseek, HotBot, Excite, Lycos, Webcrawler. |
|
E-mail to customer database? |
Yes, up to 500 customers without special permission. |
Yes. Owner can group and add names. |
No |
Yes |
|
Reporting |
Crude |
5 reports of aggregated totals. Poor. |
Order system and daily e-mail shows current orders, pending, etc. |
Minimal reports by day, week, and month. |
|
|
FreeMerchant |
Bigstep |
eCongo |
GoLinQ |
|
Host branding |
None on website. |
Link and logo at top left of every page. |
Link and logo at bottom of every page and at bottom of customer e-mails. Must use econgo.com URL. |
Small link at bottom of page. |
|
Revenue Model |
Advertising on merchant interface and revenue-sharing, plus future for fee options. |
Future for fee services. Advertising on merchant interface and revenue-sharing with business partners. |
Share in revenues from credit card transactions, Revenue-share from offering third party services. Advertising on merchant interface. |
Charge 2.5% of transactions of $1000 or less, 1% of transaction balance over $1000. Also advertising on member sites. |
|
Advertising on site |
Only if desired by siteowner, as revenue-share. |
No |
Yes, scrolling messages, some reserved for merchant. |
Yes, banner ads, some reserved for merchant. |
|
Other features |
Easy submission to eBay, coupons, export to QuickBooks, banner exchange. |
|
Ad exchanges with other eCongo merchants. |
Allows high bit languages such as Chinese and Japanese. Customer support available through LivePerson. Cross-sell with other businesses on GoLinQ's mall. |
