Is ProStores the right e-commerce solution for you?

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Is using ProStores e-commerce solution right for your business?

For those who are not familiar with ProStores here is a short definition from a ProStores' user for more than four years. ProStores is an e-commerce software platform that is hosted and maintained by ProStores, Inc an eBay company (referred to as ProStores from this point forward) for the end user aka merchant or business in need of an online presence for their sales force and they may only access it via the web which is very popular for smaller to medium size companies in the e-commerce industry.

I have used many open source and other paid shopping cart/e-commerce solutions. There are many successful online stores thriving using ProStores that once started as just tiny speck in the online realm either looking for some extra cash or looking to expand their brick and mortar businesses to a broader base that selling the Internet can provide a company.

Intro to ProStores

Introduction to ProStores by starrfinancial

A basic introduction to ProStores e-commerce shopping cart solution
 

What exactly is ProStores?

ProStores is a top notch e-commerce shopping cart solution

You can add products that you sell such as home decor, auto parts, crocheted dolls, clothes, eBooks or anything that you can sell pretty much via their very user friendly Product section where you as a merchant can add, delete, or update products. They also offer product uploads using csv files in batches up to 10,000 products (roughly) per upload. Any company needing to sell more than 10,000 products should contact ProStores for an appropriate quote, higher product limits and conditions for larger bandwidth.

Credit card and electronic payment processors you can use include top notch processors like PayPal, Authorize.Net, PayPal PayFlow Pro, CyberSource, LinkPoint, Innovative Gateway Processor or QuickBooks Merchant Solutions.

It's like a shopping cart with more ability to customize your store and add as many static or template pages as you need to. It uses templates so you don't have to know a whole lot of coding to make it amazing but some wouldn't hurt.

They do offer over 200 out of the box templates for free that are good for beginners and small companies. For those larger more sophisticated companies ProStores offers a free Certified Training Sessions package your in-house web development teams can use to learn how to make exceptional designs. If you do not have an in house web development team there are over 20 certified designers available and listed on the ProStores website.

We will discuss the good and bad of ProStores as an e-commerce solution for merchants of all sizes. There can be many benefits to expanding your business onto the internet if you are a brick and mortar location and it is becoming increasingly common for some stores to operate only online with no physical branch to visit. Both methods are perfectly acceptable and as technology flourishes beyond our imaginations into reality it is best to investigate your options when deciding how to bring your company up to date with the times and that means finding an e-commerce solution that fits your needs not the other way around.

Often when we want an answer to a question we simply "Google it" but there are literally over 33 million results when you search for "ProStores". How can you possibly be expected to find the answers you are looking for when you have to weed through millions of results. It is especially tough when tons of them are websites advertising another e-commerce solution that uses ProStores somewhere in the title or as a reference therefore it is picked up as being a relative match to your search when it is actually immaterial and not informative at all .

This is a brief incite into ProStores and our goal is to bring you first hand knowledge that can help you make the decision if ProStores is the right e-commerce solution for your business.

Best tips for using this lens

A short little step guide to help you find what you are looking for within the lens.
  • Utilize the table of contents to direct you to the area of our lens that will best help you answer your questions.
  • Share with your friends, family and co-workers by adding a link to us, favorite us, share on facebook, twitter and more.
  • Share your story about your experiences with ProStores right here on this lens. We are listening and we believe that our combined knowledge will help improve ProStores in the future.
  • Existing ProStores' Merchants - Add your existing store(s) to the Popular ProStores Merchants list, check out our group for eBay and ProStores' sellers here and be sure to come by our eBay and ProStores lens here. You may also want to stop by and join our Facebook Fan Page for this lens Prostores Merchants
  • Visit the ProStores' stores featured that appeal to your needs then drop back by and vote on their link(s).
  • Participate in our "ProStores vs. Volusion" duel (a separate lens) and add to the "Pros or Cons List
  • When you have finished please take a moment to vote on the lens at the top. (Voting is a form of Feedback that helps us determine if we are on the right track to helping you with this topic.)

    Please remember to "like" us as well.

Do you know ProStores from a hill of beans?

Test your ProStores knowledge! All question's answers are accurate according to ProStores as of April 7, 2010.

Hot news about ProStores

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List of Pros for ProStores e-commerce solution

Add your "pros" of using ProStores and vote on our list!

Price

The prices for both tiers Professional eCommerce and Professional eCommerce Plus are very competitive with other e-commerce solutions available.1 point

List products directly to eBay

Easily create default templates for listing to eBay for even faster listing abilities. Pulls data from your ProStores products then allows you to edit the listing and even schedule a time to post it. Estimate your costs before you post. Gain direct access to the eBay promotion tools such as Bold, Highlight, Gift, Border, Gallery, and even access to some features no longer shown on eBay directly like Home Page Featured.0 points

Start up time

Depending on your knowledge level setup is fairly easy even for beginners. You can get it all setup within a couple hours to go live with a standard template (they have hundreds to choose from) then if you want to make changes they allow you at least four versions that you can test different styles on before taking them live. You can of course always hire a designer if you need it perfect before you go live.0 points

Plug ins are available

Many of the ProStores certified designers offer plug ins to help add additional features to your site.0 points

xte access

xte access is allowed for using api. Not something everyone needs or knows how to use but very useful to larger companies with large to complex product inventory.0 points

ssml - both pro and con

Use of ssml coding is a pro and a con. The pros are that once you learn this coding it makes life much easier when designing your ProStores site. The easiest way to pull up a products info automatically without direct access to the database.0 points

Import and Export features

Both importing and exporting is fast and fairly painless once you get used to it. Upload thousands of products from an csv file. They provide you with a template (the only drawback is you have to use their format i.e. the order of the columns must match)0 points

eCommerce Solutions Manchester - Web design Blackburn - Websites Lancashire | Web Design Lancashire / Android Apps Developer / Web Development Manchester

Web design Company based in Blackburn, lancashire , We specialise in SEO, SMO and content mangement system websites. We offer bespoke web solutions to clients around the lancashire area.0 points

List of Cons for ProStores e-commerce solution

ssml

For a new ProStores merchant this is probably the hardest part. Learning how to use ssml coding to display what you need to on a site to give it the look and feel you want. Like any other code it can be a simple mistake that brings your whole site down. Most users who edit this code have some html, php, or other coding experience. If not take the time to learn it first and don't be afraid to visit the ProStores discussion board for help.0 points

Support

When I started support was fantastic however I have seen a decline over the past two years. Nothing that effected me so much but I have seen it take others days to get help. My advice just don't wait around call them back and get someones email address that knows something when you get them on the phone so next time you can cut your time in half. And I am amazed they don't offer live chat being an eBay company and all I would think they could afford it and would utilize it.0 points

Outages

It is true they have been down before for hours. Rarely has happened to me. I have been blessed (knock on wood!)0 points

Cost of designers and plug ins

If you use many of them you will find they are good at what they do but you will pay for it. I am a bit shocked at the plug in prices after all many open source solutions give away the plug ins but then again they are open source so you get what you pay for I suppose.0 points

Templates are somewhat boring

I don't think they offer as many good templates as they should. Probably because they have a store where you can buy really nice ones (too high in my book though but I am more of a do it yourself-er).0 points

eBay is taking away 3rd party checkout

eBay is officially stopping 3rd party checkout as of June 30, 2011 including ProStores even though it is an eBay company.0 points

Speak up! Pros? Cons? Neutral? Tell us what you think of ProStores.

We want to discuss the pros and cons of ProStores with everyone but please no spamming! To add a link please use the link submission area of this page.

ProStores Resources

These are some of the resources I have found useful over the years. If you find any that are no longer working please let us know.

ProStores on Twitter It is worth the follow even though they don't post too often they do try to keep you up to date when there are any real issues. Worth following is @ecommerceguy and @mabarro who are both listed on the prostores twitter page.

ProStores Group on Facebook From here you can find other resources for ProStores available on Facebook. It is run by Lin Shearer an eBay creator.

ProStores - an eBay CompanyNaturally takes you directly to ProStores.

One Month Free Trial! ProStores - an eBay Company This is an offer to new ProStores users for one free month of ProStores. I have used this for different clients and in my experience they truly mean free first month. They do not bill you until the month is up. Another nice thing is that if you want to cancel you can do that easily through email or a phone call. So far knock on wood I have not ever had any clients be harassed when leaving and once that included myself for personal reasons I had to close a store I used to run.

Store Front Tools slideshow tool is a nice tool for your ProStores website. Low cost investment for a really nice slideshow tool.

The Squidoo/ProStore tool found at http://www.squidoo.com/prostores/hq doesn't appear to be working the way it originally did however it can help you get a running start on getting your ProStores store its own Squidoo lens.
ProStores Discussion Board - Powered by vBulletin
The ProStores discussion board. Discuss, share, comment and suggest matters of general ProStores interest with other ProStores Merchants.
ProStores on Twitter
Find Prostores on Twitter.com
The ProStores Showcase powered by Squidoo
Squidoo presents: The best marketing tool ever for ProStores sellers.
Welcome, ProStores Sellers! Ready to sell more stuff?
Squidoo makes it easy (and free) for you to set up your own pages promoting your ProStores store. Spotlight your bestselling items, talk about why you're selling t
ProStores Addons and ProStores Plugins (PShelper.com)
ProStores Addons and ProStores Plugins(PShelper.com) - Lensmaster Note: I am impressed with the monthly plug in giveaway that PShelper.com has. For example April 2010 is a Social Media plug in which as we all know is vital to your online success in recent times.
ProStores Custom Design, Web Development and SEO by Neoverve Inc
ProStores design templates and customization extras now available for purchase in the neoverve store.
ProStores Facebook Fan Page
Become a fan of ProStores on Facebook
Prostores Merchants | Facebook
Welcome to the official Facebook Page of ProStores Merchants. Get exclusive content and interact with other Prostores users right from Facebook. Join Facebook to create your own Page or to start connecting with friends.

FREE ProStores store submission and review sites

We have found these particular sites useful in submitting our store to search engines, website directories, and reviews. These are all free to the best of our knowledge.
PShelper.com Free ProStore Review (ProStores Templates and Tools)
Free ProStore Site Review! The most important thing to you as a Merchant is to sell your product. All the features that you want and expect from a shopping cart serve the same ultimate goal, which is to convert an anonymous store browser into a customer. With these things in mind, and a whole lot of research, we have compiled a list of the most common issues to ProStores stores and items that ultimately will prevent your shoppers from converting into a customer.
Merchant Center - Claim a Store - TheFind.com - Shopping Search Reinvented - What can we find for you?
TheFind.com - Shopping Search Reinvented - What can we find for you?
PSDirectory - ProStores Web Stores - Your ProStores Directory and Marketplace
Building a comprehensive directory of all active ProStores Web stores

Submit your ProStores store to our website directory

www.e-shoptimes.info

It is very simple you just visit e-shoptimes.info sign up for free and add your site. Then as time permits we will write a free personal review after we have visited your site. We may make a purchase or we may not depending on if you sell something we can use in order to complete the review. If not we will write the best review we can based on just browsing and testing your site out. Feel free to write your own reviews of other sites while you are there. We encourage any review as long as it is at least 50 words because it helps to increase your chances of being found by internet users.

We have a category just for eBay and Prostores merchants.
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Other helpful ProStores lenses on Squidoo

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Featured ProStores articles

We are pulling together articles that we believe to be informative and accurate regarding ProStores as an e-commerce solution.
Apr 27, 2010 @ 12:00 amProStores 9.3.2 is here...with Analytics! from ProStores Ecommerce Currents
ProStores 9.3.2 is here...with Analytics! With the goal of helping merchants drive on-store sales and manage their business more efficiently, ProStores has released several features in ProStores 9.3.2...
Apr 19, 2010 @ 12:00 amProStores at eBay On Location - Dallas from ProStores Ecommerce Currents
If you plan on taking a trip to Dallas on May 7th or 8th, drop by the Prostores booth and get first hand guidance from the ProStores team on launching your own storefront or ways to improve your exist...
Apr 1, 2010 @ 12:00 amFixing Non-Secure Checkout Images in ProStores from ProStores Ecommerce Currents
ProStores Certified Designer PSHelper.com offers tips on building trust and reducing cart abandonment by fixing non-secure checkout images. If you are getting security warnings at checkout, then follo...
Apr 1, 2010 @ 12:00 amBuilding Ecommerce on Rough Economic Terrain from ProStores Ecommerce Currents
In this recent E-commerce Times article, ProStores Director Alexis Van de Wyer discusses the five of the most important factors to consider when starting an e-commerce store in tough times. Read arti...
Feb 22, 2010 @ 11:00 pmeBay Sellers: Rate Changes In Effect as of March... from ProStores Ecommerce Currents
If you sell on eBay, new rates go into effect on March 30 and all Store Inventory Format listings will automatically become Fixed Price listings.
Feb 21, 2010 @ 11:00 pmIncreasing Your ProStores’ Website Exposure on C... from ProStores Ecommerce Currents
GoDataFeed, a turn-key, Pro-Stores certified Shopping Feed compatible application, shares its guidelines for enhancing CSE performance and improving feed quality.
Feb 21, 2010 @ 11:00 pmConversion Tip: Display Fewer Categories On Your E... from ProStores Ecommerce Currents
Don't confuse or overwhelm your customers with too many categories!
Feb 20, 2010 @ 11:00 pmGet On The ProStores Buzz List! from ProStores Ecommerce Currents
Interested in getting some media coverage for your ProStores business? We'd like to help you make that happen! Our PR team is always looking for new, interesting stories to share with the press.
Oct 14, 2009 @ 12:00 amAdd More to Your Store with ProStores Plug-Ins from ProStores Ecommerce Currents
We've just added over 80 new plug-ins to the ProStores Template and Services Store, with more on the way! Learn more about ProStores Plug-Ins.

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StarrFinancial

I grew up in a small town in Southern Oklahoma and although I live in Northern Oklahoma I rarely get to go back home and visit.
I am a dedicated wife,...
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