Saturday, October 11, 2008
Set up shop online
Setting up an online store doesn't have to be difficult or expensive at least not if you use Imsi's Web Business Builder. It offers an all-in-one way to create an online store that's both easy and cost-effective, though it does have some limitations.
The program is similar to a Wysiwyg HTML editor, such as Microsoft FrontPage, but adds extra features (including support for SSL encryption) that make it ideal for creating basic e-commerce sites.
The included five-step tutorial makes it simple for Web newbies to build a site. It walks the user through the whole process, from creating pages through publishing them to an ISP's server.
For more advanced users who want to go at their own pace, Business Builder's templates can help. First, choose from 30 design templates to define the site's look and feel. Styles include generic looks, such as colorful shapes and wood-grain backgrounds, as well as theme-oriented options on topics such as sports and food. Next, specify a page's content by assigning it a type, such as Blank Page, Online Store, Form Page, or Secure Area. Each page type has its own wizard, which pops up and displays the forms you'll need for certain tasks. The Online Store wizard, for example, automatically calls up the forms you need to create product categories.
Business Builder can also generate pages for a customer survey or a discussion group and password-protect restricted areas of your site. The product's Preview mode even lets you test all your site's features before you unleash them on the public.
Whether you sell trading cards or diamonds, Business Builder stores all your inventory information in a proprietary back-end database. While the database lets you easily add new products manually, you can import information only from an ODBC-compliant data source, such as Microsoft Access, Excel, FoxPro, and SQL Server. As a result, your data must already be in an ODBC-compliant database, or you'll need to export it to one before you can send it to Business Builder.
Once you've finished your site, Web Business Builder helps you publish it. Certain ISPs, such as MindSpring, UUNet, and Getus.net, are preconfigured for file transfer. If you have an account with one of these companies, the program can immediately call your provider and transfer your files. If your ISP isn't on Imsi's list, you'll need to contact your provider and request its FTP protocol information. You must also find out whether your ISP can support Business Builder's included CGI scripts and the secure server capabilities that the program requires.
Web Business Builder does provide an affordable, easy-to-use package. It may lose some of its appeal to those who already use a non-ODBC compliant database, but first-time site builders and Excel, Access, and FoxPro users will find it a useful tool for putting their business online.
