There are major differences between GoCommerced Ecommerce Solution and other software providers. Here are the three most common problems new shop owners face and do not expect;

1) Many companies are literally only offering the shopping cart, not a fully functioning website. New ecommerce customers may not realise this when they are buying and it's often too late once you have started working on it. You may not even realise until you have done a lot of work just how limited this is. You are expected to already have a basic website and then have the knowledge to link these together.

2) Avoid the "Shop in a box" providers - who will only be giving you a one off software version, they then charge for updates. If your computer is not compatible with their software or there are bugs then it's usually too bad. They are quite technical and often difficult to set up unless you have a reasonable amount of knowledge initially.

3) Developing an ecommerce business combining an online shop, with customisable features, and a quality Admin Centre from scratch will cost you valuable time and wasted money without giving you the professional edge an online service provider of ecommerce can give you without all the hassle. Besides the development costs that can run in to many thousands of pounds, you would also need monthly hosting fees which end up more than GoCommerced Ecommerce Solution's total monthly fees without all the advantages.

4) Lastly, GoCommerced is a professional ecommerce company specialising in ecommerce web sites. Providing a total solution to online selling. Most companies will only provide you with a basic version of what we do. Most "shopping cart providers" are hosting companies that "resell" ecommerce software (often oscommerce). Ours is built, updated, maintained and supplied directly to you by us.

5) Not all online businesses succeed!
Its a sad fact that only around 50% of online business will succeed beyond 5 years, and those that fail often give up trying or stop making money within 2 years. There are many reasons for this: Lack of drive and determination, a poor product, constant out of date info, overexpansion, lack of planning, no capital, an unwillingness to spend on marketing, and thats just for starters. Any one aspect could be the key to success or failure. Site owners can fail to apply all the 'vital basics' in the way they should - specifically to 'their' business. Capital is also key.

We have met companies that have spent many thousands on a website only to fail. Consider this in conjunction with the fact that as a company able to spend such a large amount, possibly on both the site setup and the people they had to run the day to day routines - they still failed. They invested heavily without any guarantee that it will work. This is fine for a company that can swallow a large investment failure - but what if you get a bank loan, or you're using your savings - not an option is it! To Sell online, you need to maintain control over every aspect of your e-business: Stock control, customer relations, search engine promotion advice, stat reports and invoicing. We have reasearched your needs and know them well. We have built this product with all the basics of the need to succeed. We also kept it affordable without excessive start up costs... but its a great solution, and do not let the low price put you off - make it an advantage.

When it comes to the success of any new business, you -- the business owner -- are ultimately the "secret" to your success. For many successful business owners, failure was never an option. Armed with drive, determination, and a positive mindset, these individuals view any setback as only an opportunity to learn and grow. Most self-made millionaires possess average intelligence. What sets them apart is their openness to new knowledge and their willingness to learn whatever it takes to succeed.

10 'Off-the-cuff' GoCommerced Advantages:
General user and tech support via Live Support, e-mail, call-back, forums and phone.
Forums for users to chat, swap links etc
A versatile system that allows you complete control
No limiting contract - we don't even ask for 1 days notice!
Advanced and ever-improving technology with free upgrades
Search engine friendly store structure
Affordable monthly payments that are fixed each month
Hints and tips on the development of your store
SEO advice that is spot on!

Yes - GoCommerced software is not only the shopping cart, it's the full online store. It enables you to manage every aspect of your website. Including information pages, home page, design, inventory, delivery costs, payment and checkout information through to stock control, daily invoice and despatch routines, and more. All within one easy to follow web based admin panel. Your shopping cart contains a custom page creator that allows users to add unlimited custom information pages easily. The shop is integrated so there is no need for additional software packages. In fact, its your shop, your office and your store, all in one.

Definitely! The unique storefront layout makes it easy for your customers to reach their desired product destinations. This is important because studies have shown if users can't find what they are looking for (in 15 seconds or 3 or less clicks)...they simply click to the next site in the search engine. You can create a site that navigates without an effort.

GoCommerced Ecommerce Solution enables your customers to add, edit and delete products (from the shopping cart) easily. They are not immediately taken away from the page they are browsing each time they add an item. They simply go to their cart to make any amendments they wish to make. Customers can keep shopping and adding products without moving away from their current shopping page. Converting browsing customers to sales quicker.

Your store will have your own normal domain like this: www.yourdomain.com. Your store will NOT be an extension of the GoCommerced domain. GoCommerced Ecommerce Solution will also provide you with a free temporary domain address to get your started without interrupting your current site.. you can then be linked up to your domain name as soon as you are ready to go.

Not yet. GoCommerced are currently in development of a variety of alterntive solutions for those customers who do not require an ecommerce solution. At this moment GoCommerced Ecommerce Solution is not geared for downloadable and digital products. We are currently finalising development of the following new solutions that will be available during 2009:    Downloadable goods -  Leasing Goods -  Websites without ecommerce - Forums. (Info upon request)

GoCommerced offers a single affordable price plan to accommodate any size business.
- The price is £29.99 per month - every month. In addition to this there is a one-time only setup fee.

The price provides you with store set up, support, reliable hosting, merchant facility integration, all standard features, and all future upgrades and backups to the solution. There are absolutely no hidden costs such as per transaction fees, or anything else. You can cancel your GoCommerced service at any time without providing even a day's notice.

There are additional costs for the following additional software products and services if required, but are not a required part of the ecommerce product: Domain name registration and management, Live Support, Emailer, Frrogle Uploader, Site Map Generators, Additional Design Services. See our payment page for details.

Yes - there is a global 10% discount on all subsequent sites. Your first paid for site is at the full rate and the additional sites are discounted. The additional sites must be owned by the same person and cannot be a relative or friend I'm afraid.

NO - NONE AT ALL! If GoCommerced does not meet your desires in an ecommerce solution for any reason, you can cancel your online store immediately. Be very careful of companies that require you to sign a fixed term contract! There should be no reason for this whatsoever.

You can cancel your solution without notice at any time if you are not satisfied with your product. You will receive a full refund of any unused service for the current month. Cancellation notice must be confirmed by us as proof of receipt. If you do not receive an acknowledgement from us then we may not have received your cancellation, therefore please contact us directly asap. To avoid any likeliness of this being done by someone other than the person that bought the solution, we insist that this is confirmed by the buyer (owner) of the site via the email address that they registered with. Notification from any other person is not considered valid.

Firstly register for your site. We will receive your application that tells us everything we need to know. Whilst we are setting up your site, which can take anything from a few minutes to a few hours, take a look at the demo. You will instantly receive a confirmation of payment and all set up information will follow via a separate email. This will contain the necessary links and login details to get started.

Once your site is setup by us you can go into your new website Admin Control Panel and start to learn the easy process of building your site. Any problems, and you can contect us via any one of our many support options. You can then start work!

It take's less than an hour to add a few products to the system and to familiarize yourself with the shopping cart program. General product entry will take approximately one to two minutes per product depending if you have their descriptions ready. Setting up information pages etc will take as long as it takes you to type in the information. The site will come to you with inserted dummy information that you can edit or delete- this makes feeling your way around the logics of it much easier.

You have to have a starting point... but you don't want the restriction of not being able to change it - so how and where do you start? All the sites that are initially provided have the basics of a template 'look' but they are NOT templates. All elements can be changed, deleted, added to etc in every respect. We give you a full site including some basics already set up - simply to give you some initial outlines. They are basic, unfussy and the text are bits of advice and key pointers. You will be amazed how easily you can change everything and will soon be looking at the exact site you want. So, basically we give you an initial setup site to work with. Easy Wysiwyg editors and easy content area's make re-designing your site a dream.

Once you have your site you can change your: layout - margins - menu, account login, search box and shopping cart placements, or take off what you don't want - text, fonts and background colours - style - colours - showcases etc etc etc.

It's important that you realise this is not a template in any way, simply that we have (for the want of a better way of explaining this) 'filled-in' the blanks to get you going quicker. The alternative is sending you something totally blank - which is not necessary, and the dummy information does help to provide that immediate understanding.

None. Our shopping cart software is complete and controlled by you from a single web-based control panel. You maintain the ability to control your e-business from any computer connected to the Internet, anywhere in the world. There are no installations,  plug-ins or downloads.

Yes - many companies sell products that are repetitive... The bulk upload option on product setup allows you to upload just one or many items at the same time. It will repeat the same image and description etc for each one and allow you to change things like the title, price etc and then upload them all to the shop at once.

There are many such options within the store setup, including stock control, brands and suppliers and a lot more. The features list provides a basic run down on these. However, please fell free to Contact Us if you need to know anything specific that you are unsure about.

Yes, you can have up to 10 email accounts under your domain names. These can be added and modified directly and links for these plus tutorial help are provided...

Yes, you can point multiple domain names and use these to set up email accounts as well. There is a small additional admin fee for doing this. Additional admin fees only exist for a few additional services not automatically included in setup. These fees, along with other information can be found under Terms & Conditions

GoCommerced is an application service provider meaning we always host your shopping cart on our extremely reliable dedicated servers. When you're with GoCommerced your store will have a guaranteed 99.9% uptime with real-time backups. There are no options to hosting this yourself. This form of setting up an online store works out far more affordable, reliable and secure than hosting your own store.

When you add up; hosting, security, managing uptime, adding upgrades, fixing bugs, basic seo, receiving up to date advice, plus a whole host of other things that may be essential like providing easy to manage support, queries, the help and advice that you get from us... it really does not make sense to use any alternative option - not even a free one, as you just will not get this (plus more) for your hard earned money.

On top of this, having a shopping cart software which doesn't provide you a sufficient ROI, it make sense to go with an affordable managed shopping cart software.

Absolutely - totally! Your admin area provides you with the tools to modify every aspect  from site colors and fonts to text and layout. You can change products, categories, delivery options, discounts, payment types, product descriptions and much, much more... gosh - could we go on here!! GoCommerced Ecommerce Solution enable you to add, edit and delete at will. This can be done from any computer connected to the Internet in the world! No software to install.

The only time you will need to contact GoCommerced once you understand the basics is to have a leisurely chat with one of our totally bored support staff!

Your store is always unique to you because we do not make you start with a template - we purely provide you with the basics and information you need to get started and to create this - which is easy, logical, versatile and complete... and will have you jumping for joy in no time!

There is no need to understand any HTML to use GoCommerced Ecommerce Solution. You are provided with all the tools (e.g. WYSIWYG editor) to build or maintain your store.

The WYSIWYG editor comes with a function for you to see your code in html too - for those clever people that like to have a mess about with the code. But its there if you want it, not if you don't. Wysiwyg editors are very similar to the editors used in Microsoft Word etc. They are never quite as fluent, but come pretty close. The icons on the editor tell you what they do, so you can simply click around, get the look you are trying to achieve and click the update button.

Even though it absolutely is not necessary to understand code at all we do provide a html help tutorial with some basics included. If you eventually manage to grasp a little html knowledge along the way this can be very useful to you. Those of you that have some understanding of it will already realise this, and be happy to know that you can insert code this way too. For those of you that don't, be assured, it will not matter one iota!

You generally don't need it - but the answer is... yes, and no. We don't need to you see - the solution does not require the custom design that many solutions or web options need, as every website takes on its appearance according to what you want, and is therefore unique to you anyway.

Setting up your colours, images, text content and header on your Home page for example is straightforward with us. You have to have your banner and images available, and know what your text should be - which is fairly obvious, but once you know what you want, then it isn't at all necessary to use a third party for help in any way. However...

Sometimes you want someone else to do the work of setting up your colours, front page images and layout design. It may be that you feel your skills of creating a good colour scheme or deciding on your images etc are limited or that you feel that you would just like to have this bit done for you so you can get on with uploading your product. For this reason there are packages available that range from setting up a colour scheme and including a basic header, right up to including a flashy header. Details are available via your Admin Control Panel once you are a registered customer. These services are affordable and are a one-off charge. If you would like to consider these services at the same time as registering your site, simply call us. Our number is available on our contact page. We also provide a page that includes basic logo's & headers where we can change the text and colours to your own choices and slot that right into your website for you. These are very cheap and are fine to use forever or until you decide what header you want to use. They are generally fairly simple, cheerful and do the job perfectly well.

We offer a wide range of help and support that includes;

• Live Support
• Email
• Telephone
• Forums
• MSN
• Skype
• Call-back facility
• One-2-One sessions
• Tutorials
• Helps, Tips & Advice section

One-2-one sessions can be arranged for dedicated and intensive help to get going. A one-2-one session can be arranged using our contact form via the tutorial. One of these sessions is offered to all new customers within the first month. These facilities are available daily Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm (4pm Friday).

Where a customer specifically needs weekend support, this can be arranged via telephone. A time would be agreed between the support area and the customer. This must be restricted to important issues or where a new customer requires help. One-2-One sessions cannot be arranged for weekends.

Staff are actively involved in the forums at a wide variety of times to be on hand for any questions that might turn up there.

Built into our solution is; Live support to provide real time help to your own customers. An emailer to send out promotions. Built-in Priority Support system. One-button click to resend a copy invoice. Auto emails throughout your processing. Some of these facililities are free within the system and the Extra's pack includes additional software that costs a few pounds per month extra. This allows you to decide which additional Extra's software you want, and to exclude the ones you do not want. We also include customer care help and advice throughout our tutorials.

A good website means that your customers are happy anyway. You can improve anything and everything if you understand your system thoroughly. Our tutorials provide you with everything you need to know about setting up and running your web site.

The text tutorials are literally pages of written help manuals separated into categories and then into the actual pages you are working on. The interactive tutorials are help and advice for specific area's on a small video with narrative... sometimes useful if you feel it necessary to go through both. They are often very slightly different in content and the way the information is delivered.

The tutorials are updated regularly, but every now and then you may come across one that has not been updated yet inline with any changes or updates on our features. However, the basic page and logic remains the same and differences are often only a slight visual difference on the page.

No problem whatsoever - it is often a good idea in this situation to give us a call and make an arrangement for a time when we can dedicate an extra time span for you to iron out any concerns you have. The newcomer to ecommerce often worries about things that once shown suddenly appear very easy - and that's a much better frame of mind, so of course we want to help you.

If you are struggling with something fairly cosmetic, we can probably pop into your site and sort that out for you in minutes. If its a feature you are struggling with, we can talk you through this. Either way - there isn't anything that will arise that cannot be sorted out easily.

The Trade, Retail or Both features are simple and make a site extra versatile. They provide options where customers that are trade can see prices with a discounted sum if you want them to. You can also add a further discounted % should their order be over a certain value.

You control if a customer is allowed to be considered as a trade customer or not via your Customer Database by simply checking a box on their Customer Registration details. Only once a customer logs in can they see any difference - that's if you have included a reduction % for them. As they shop, additional increased reductions can also kick in. This is also a very useful function in other respects too, and you soon learn to manipulate functions to best suit your own business.

You can have customers that are trade, retail or both. The merchant can tag a customer as a Trade/B2B client so when they next log into the storefront they will see different prices for products to that of a retail customer. Equally, there is no need or requirement to use this function at all. Like all our features, it's optional.

Every order is received into your Customer Database Orders section - a really nice and easy to understand page that then allows you to simply click onto this and away you go!

The Customer Database is a very versatile and logical area where you will spend most of your time once you are setup and running. For this reason we have incorporated a superb priority query feature, an easy way to duplicate and auto send copy invoices, see a customers total orders to date, a fully searchable database and a wealth of additional customer features that make your day-to-day routines easy .

Your shopping cart has a built in feature that allows customers to log in and view the status of an order, change their registered details and more. This feature significantly reduces call volume and enhances customer support. They can then send you a query attached to that order if they need to - which is highlighted for you in your database, not allowing you to miss anything.

There is no need for a merchant account when using GoCommerced to start your store. GoCommerced ecommerce software is fully interfaced with Pay Pal, WorldPay and many other systems. If we are not already integrated with your choice of payment system we will incorporate this for you and it will be ready in time for your site launch.

If you wish to accept credit cards without a 3rd party payment processing company you will  need a merchant account. Over 85% of all online purchases are made with credit cards, we strongly recommend you accept them when starting out. Worldpay is an online provider that is becoming increasingly popular, especially with new businesses where they are unable to provide their banks with trading history.

GoCommerced is directly integrated with most major banks and with all of the major and reputable gateway providers. As we say, if your required payment option is not included yet, then this can be incorporated for you without a problem.

Yes - You can use almost any pre-existing merchant account or gateway to process your orders online with your GoCommerced shopping cart. Any services not yet integrated can be upon request.

The GoCommerced online shopping cart provides 1024 bit Secure Socket Layer protection free of charge. This is the highest industry-standard encryption to transmit credit card information securely on its way from the shopper to our computers, and from our computers to you, the merchant. This is securing your checkout as well as your admin panel.

Yes. Your ecommerce store 'Senior Admin Area' has multilevel password control. This prevents administration and sales staff from accessing private information you may need to secure. It also prevents the possibility of a member of staff playing with areas they do not understand. This area is called Senior Admin and includes both access right controls and it is also the area that includes your invoices from us.

To be visible on the internet, you need to be indexed by search engines and create ways to get customers to your store.

Your GoCommerced shopping cart is a fully optimized to be search engine friendly. Web site promotion will help you get noticed by search engines, optimisation of keywords, pay-per-click search engine campains, newsgroups, forums and newsletters are just a few options. These are all important to create a successful e-business. We will provide you with the information you need to get customers.

There is little or no point in owning a store and expecting customers to find you without you doing something. Yes, the SEO friendly store will help of course, but you need to understand the basics to get ahead still further and, more importantly, faster. For this reason we include a lot of additional information to this end. The more time and energy you are able to apply to this, the better. We do not make charges for web promotion - we give you the knowledge to do this yourself and take the mystery out of expensive SEO.

Your store has excellent statistic and analysis facilities that reports to a log where your traffic is coming from, the details of those visitors and when they are on your site. This helps you to determine when and where you should market your store to get the best sales results.

Yes, GoCommerced is UK based, but provides their software to merchants in the United Kingdom (UK) United States (US) Canada and Australia. Anywhere where the currency is € (Euro), $ (dollar), or £ (Pound).

IE 5.5 to IE 7
IE 8 **
Netscape
Safari (Mac browser)
Mozilla Firefox
Opera
Chrome (Google Browser)
Any Gecko Browsers
Webkit Browsers
Java Platform Browsers
Konqueror
SeaMonkey

** IE 8 is still undergoing final testing at this time (July 09).
Work will continue on any issues reported for IE 8 and at this time cannot guarantee it is 100% compatible.

Browsers developed before the inception of Windows XP/NT2000 will also function but certain features may function incorrectly (this is due to the use of technology that was not available at the time these browser were developed).

It is always recommended that you use the most up to date browser possible for safe internet browsing as newer browsers include better security features and functionality.

Javascript must also be enabled in your web browser for many features of our web site Admin Control Panel.

Cookies will be reuired for the front end shopping cart.

Yes - you can see details of this here

We run both an Affiliate Programme and a Recommmend-A-Friend scheme. The rules vary slightly, but both have generous payment commissions. There are additional benefits to the Affiliate scheme, like the option of renting a GoCom Basic/Ad Website at a much reduced fee.