Mercantec
SoftCart
You may have read about
Mercantec, Inc., a provider of open retail electronic commerce
solutions in the May issue of GSQ magazine. They are the creators of
the SoftCart virtual store software that enables merchants to market
and sell goods and services via the Web. They've partnered with more
than 85 Internet Service Providers and Web hosting service providers,
including GTE Internetworking, Hiway Technologies, MindSpring, and
PSINet to offer e-commerce solutions to merchants.
Mercantec has been
working feverishly and recently released an upgrade to the product,
SoftCart 4.0 virtual software, which is available for
$100/month. Merchants with a current license or support agreement for
SoftCart 3.0 or higher can request a complimentary upgrade from
Mercantec.
They've also announced
three new commerce products to complement the company's SoftCart 4.0
virtual software: SoftCart Start-Up, SoftCart Lite and SoftCart
Suite. The products represent a complete line of commerce solutions
that support merchants with any level of expertise, and commerce
sites with any level of complexity.
The SoftCart family
gives ISPs and Web hosting providers the ability to offer a range of
solutions to fit the specific needs of their customers, while
providing an easy growth path to support the evolution of their
customers' commerce sites. The suite is equipped with integrated
store creation tools and templates, an open API-based architecture,
flexible merchandising options, and support for a variety of payment
systems.
SoftCart
Start-Up
Designed for those new
to the Web or new to electronic commerce, SoftCart Start-Up provides
an easy, low-cost way for merchants to build and manage a small
commerce site. Offered exclusively through Mercantec's ISP and Web
hosting partners, SoftCart Start-Up is an entry-level application
that offers browser-based store creation and supports up to 10
products.
SoftCart
Lite
SoftCart Start-Up is
easily upgradeable to SoftCart Lite to support growth of commerce
sites. SoftCart Lite is for small to medium-sized stores with up to
100 products, and includes support for any third party HTML creation
tool, in addition to the integrated store construction wizard and
templates. SoftCart Lite also supports a wide variety of off-line and
on-line payment options. As the next step in the evolution of a
merchant's commerce site, SoftCart Lite can easily be upgraded to
SoftCart 4.0 or SoftCart Suite.
SoftCart
Suite
SoftCart Suite offers
small to medium-sized merchants a turnkey, integrated electronic
commerce solution that includes a drop ship fulfillment module, a
link to Intuit QuickBooks® accounting system, and the merchant's
choice of several on-line payment systems. Like SoftCart 4.0,
SoftCart Suite supports an unlimited number of
products.
"The electronic commerce
market is maturing, and ëone-size fits all' solutions no longer
support the diverse requirements of today's merchants," stated
Harriet Bury, director of product management for Mercantec. "With the
SoftCart family, we've created a way for ISPs, Web developers, and
systems integrators to support the current and future commerce
requirements of all of their customers, large or small. And because
these products are all based on the same core technology with an open
architecture, merchants can employ an evolutionary, not
revolutionary, approach to commerce."
Price and
Availability
SoftCart Start-Up,
SoftCart Lite, and SoftCart Suite are all available immediately
through Mercantec's ISP and Web hosting partners. Suggested retail
prices are:
Product
MSRP
SoftCart Start-Up See
ISP
SoftCart Lite
$50.00/month
SoftCart 4.0
$100.00/month
SoftCart Suite
$165.00/month
The open architecture of
the SoftCart family of products allows them to easily integrate into
a merchant's existing business systems, including accounting,
inventory, order entry, payment and fulfillment
systems.
For more information
about Mercantec see the May issue of GSQ or visit
http://www.mercantec.com.
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