Ecommerce Solutions

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Our ecommerce storefront solution software includes the following features:

• UPS Online® Tools

  Exclusive to Merkatis Commerce™, UPS OnLine® Tools provides you and your customers with a whole new set of shipping options, including shipment tracking, real-time shipping rates, signature tracking, address verification, shipping labels and more.

• PayPal® Payflow Pro Integration

  Payflow Pro by PayPal®, a market-leading payment gateway, connects your Merkatis store to your existing PayPal® merchant account. It enables shoppers to complete the checkout process using credit cards & debit cards, in addition to PayPal® payments, without leaving your website. All while being secured by a solid 128-bit SSL encryption.

• Affiliate Management Module

  Our software allows you to create and manage an unlimited number of affiliates. Each affiliate will have a unique URL within your domain to access your site as well as the ability to completely customize the look and feel of their affiliate site.

  Affiliates can be paid a standard commission or a percentage of the total sales from their leads. Reports can be generated to display details about commissions owed and paid for each affiliate.

• Customer Credit Balance System

  Apply unlimited credit and debit transactions through the customer management console, where you can view all transactions as well as the running account balance. Customers can apply their available credit balance to their order total in any amount they choose.

• Customizable Administrator Accounts and Permissions

  Create unlimited administrator accounts and set permissions to maintain different content and have access to certain reports.

• Terms of Service Agreement during Customer Registration

  Have shoppers agree to and accept your own customized Terms of Service during the registration process, and avoid unwanted legality issues.

• Registered Shopper or Unregistered Shopper Checkout

  Our system supports both registered shopper and unregistered shopper quick checkout. Your shoppers can choose to create an account for easy checkout the next time they visit. We will create them an address book and allow them to set preferences on the website as well as receive email newsletters. Those shoppers that don't want to create an account will have no problem checking out as well.

• Google Checkout

  Give customers the option to use Merkatis' intuitive secure checkout process or the fast, convenient and safe Google Checkout. Customers that already have a Google Checkout account simply sign in, using payment and shipping information stored in their account. Customers who do not yet have an account can easily create one.

• Search Engine Optimized

  Our software system uses advanced SEO optimization techniques that allow you to include custom page titles, meta keywords, and meta descriptions on each page. Additionally, using advanced URL rewriting technology, our system makes all your URLs keyword rich which is one of the most important features of a fully search engine optimized website.

• Product Reviews and Ratings System

  Allow your customers to write reviews and rate your products. Customer reviews provide fresh, relevant content that improves your search engine ranking while ratings establish authenticity for potential customers.

• Fully Customizable HTML E-Mail Creation Utility

  You can configure and design your own e-mails without knowing any HTML programming. Use our Microsoft Word-style online editor to create a great looking HTML-based e-mails, to keep your shoppers in the loop. Using dynamic tags to insert custom information such as customer name, shipping info, product purchase info, and much more can be easily controlled from our non-technical administrator console.

• Promotional HTML E-Mail Utility

  Just like all automated emails in our system, you can configure and design your own promotional emails without knowing any HTML programming. Use our Microsoft Word-style online editor to create a great looking promotional or introductory piece. Use our powerful mailing list filters to send out emails only to specific customers, to buyers who have purchased specific products, during a specific time frame and much more.

• Integration with Constant Contact®

  Merkatis is fully capable to interface with your existing Constant Contact® account. Use Constant Contact® to build an email list, send an email newsletter, a high-impact email promotion, an email event invitation, create an online survey, and much more.

• Multi-functional Attribute Types

  Our system supports elaborate attribute handling. There are 3 main types of attributes you can setup, but there are also several settings in terms of display mode for each.

  Merchant Defined Attribute - You may create fully customizable choices for your customers to choose options of a product. These may be presented in dropdown format, radio button format, or as a checkbox at your discretion from our user friendly administrative console. You may also increase or decrease the price based on a choice from this type of attribute as well as increasing or decreasing the shipping weight. As the user selects an item from this type of attribute, the price will dynamically recalculate on the fly without a page refresh. An example of this type of attribute would be "Size of Mattress" when buying a bed. You might have a dropdown with Twin, Full, Queen, and King. When the user chooses King you could add a premium charge of $X.XX dollars and a shipping weight increase of XX lbs.

  Customer Defined Attribute - This type of attribute is a free type text field. We allow either a single line text field or a multi-line text field to be chosen for this attribute. In addition, you may choose to validate what is typed into this field with a regular expression and show a custom error message if the text entered does not meet the validation criteria. An example would be to require a date format in mm/dd/yyyy format, or may want to limit the data entry to XX characters only. The possibilities of validation are endless. This is all done via our user friendly administrator console.

  Image or Document Upload Attribute Type - This type of attribute lets you set certain file types that may be uploaded with a product in a shopping cart order. The file types that are allowed based on this attribute are completely customizable from our non-technical user friendly administrator console and can be different for every one of these you setup. An example of the use of this type of attribute is to upload a logo to be printed on a T-shirt that you would like to add to your cart.

• Custom Attribute Rules

  Our system supports complex custom attribute rules. Enhance the power of our attribute types by adding conditional logic with our easy to use non-technical administrator console. The power of this is endless. Consider this practical example: You have a choice to choose a location of a particular course. The course would be the product, and the locations that the course is given at would be loaded as a merchant defined attribute. Based on the location they chose, an attribute rule would be setup to show the particular dates of that course at that location (these dates would be a second merchant defined attribute). Then if the user chose a certain date for that particular location, then an attribute rule would only show times available in a third merchant defined dropdown attribute. Keep in mind you can use attribute rules to dynamically show any attribute type whether it be a validated free type Customer Defined Attribute, Merchant Defined Attribute, or Image Upload Attribute type.

• Popularity Ranked Searching

  Every time a user purchases a product on the website, the product's popularity ranking increases. Whenever a user performs a search on the website, if no products are returned then the most popular products will display so that your users will never have a blank page in front of them. In addition, when results are displayed for the searches, the most popular products will display first matching that criteria. This will allow your users to find the most interesting products first, rather than having to wade through pages of results to find products of main stream interest.

• Soundex ("Sounds Like") Searching

  In addition to the popularity ranking system, the searching of our system, incorporates state-of-the-art speech patterns recognition. If your user types in "fone" to the search, "phone" and "home" results will be returned as they both sound similar to "fone". Additionally, misspellings will be corrected to some extent. If the user types in "kyte", "kite" will be found.

• Downloadable Products

  Provide your customers with instant access to content they have purchased; from E-Books and digital music files to applications or document files. When multiple attributes are present, the system even allows you to upload separate files for all possible attribute combinations, allowing the customer to create his or her own customized file.

• Unlimited Departments, Categories, Products

  Our software system allows you to create unlimited products, and categories and subcategories so that you can easily organize your e-store.

• Real Time Shipping Rates (UPS, USPS, and FedEx)

  Shipping rates can be calculated in real time based on the size and weight of the product allowing you to more accurately collect shipping charges. Our software can also add a dollar amount or a percentage to the real time rates to guarantee a profit on shipping.

• UPS U.S. Address Validation

  Ensure that customer-entered shipping addresses for the United States are correct at the time of order.

• Merchant Managed Content Pages

  Create an unlimited number of custom content pages for your site. Our rich text content management system allows you to quickly and easily update and add new pages to your site.

• Create Your Own Calendar & Events

  Add custom events to any day of the calendar and even schedule multiple events on the same day. Display all events within the summary calendar view or on a separate event details page. Each event is fully searchable.

• Fully Customizable Menus

  The menu structure is easy to manage and allows you to customize your store to meet your current and future needs. Unlimited menu systems are supported so that there can be many ways to browse your site.

• Product, Vendor Or Storewide Sales

  Set up discounts and sales for particular products, vendors or for your entire e-store. Attract sales by pairing a storewide sale with a promotional e-mail.

• Running Cart Total

  Customers can easily keep track of the total price of all of their products using the cart summary on each page.

• Unlimited Images For Each Product

  Each product on the software system can have multiple images. Showcase all the features of your product by uploading multiple angles and views. You can also add custom text for each image to supply further detail.

• Customizable Image Descriptions

  Each product image in the software system has a description field associated with it. This allows you to explain to your customers exactly what they are seeing.

• Dynamic Tabs

  Easily create as many or as few tabs as you wish to give greater details on your products. Changing tabs happens with AJAX technology so there are no page refreshes involved. All tab content is easily managed from our Microsoft Word style HTML Editor so you don't need to know HTML to create great looking tab content full of graphics and dynamic links or tables.

• Flash Based Product Zoom

  All images are easily zoomed in for a closer look using our proprietary zoom technology. You can zoom in, zoom out, and drag the image around the screen to pinpoint exactly the spot you want to see close up.

• Built In Integration With Merchant Accounts

  Our software seamlessly integrates with authorize.net to provide real time credit card processing on your site.

• Google Analytics

  The system allows merchants the ability to utilize an existing Google Analytics account, a product designed to help produce better search results and track page usages.

• Easy Customer Management

  The customer management screen allows quick and easy access to customer information. Search customers and track order history all in an easy to use interface.

• Simple And Advanced Search

  Each page will include a basic search box which can be used to search your store. Our software system also offers an advanced search that allows your customers more options to find the product they are looking for.

• Fax & PayPal support

  Our software system also supports seamless PayPal integration. Customers who would prefer to fax their orders will find the order summary page makes it very easy for them to fill in their information and print a copy of their order ready to be faxed.

• E-coupons & Gift Certificates

  Create and send out coupons for use on your store. Coupons can be limited to certain products or vendors. Allow customers to purchase gift certificates for use at your e-store. As an added security measure, coupons and gift certificates can be assigned to particular customers.

• Customer Specific Pricing

  Set up customer specific pricing to give a customer or group of customers a discount on the products sold at your store. Quickly set up an employee or preferred customer discount program.

• Customer Address Book

  Each customer can have multiple addresses defined in their address book. Once an address is set up future orders will be as easy as selecting their address.

• Volume Pricing

  Set up volume pricing to give your customers incentive to purchase multiple quantities of a particular item. You can discount multiple items by a set amount, or a percentage of the price.

• Upselling

  Upselling allows you to show the customers the other options that are available to them instead of the current product. The Upselling page is displayed after the customer adds the product to their cart. The page gives them the option to purchase the Upsell product, or to just continue to the cart with their original product.

• Cross Selling

  Each product in our software system can be associated with other products in your e-store. Cross selling allows you to suggest additional products the customer might be interested in purchasing. These products will be displayed on the product page so they can easily be viewed by the customer.

• Wish Lists

  Allow your customers to create and send out wish lists to their friends and family. A useful tool for birthdays and holiday shopping.

• Email A Friend

  Details for any of the products in your e-store can be e-mailed to your friends by simply entering the e-mail address and an optional personal message.

• Bulk Category & Product Input Tool

  Our software system allows you to easily export and import all of your products to a Microsoft Access database. Easily add, and update product options. Then effortlessly synchronize your online store with the updated information.

• Affiliate Tracking & Commission Module

  Our software allows you to create and manage an unlimited number of affiliates. Each affiliate will have a unique URL to access your site. Affiliates can be paid a standard commission or a percentage of the total sales from their leads. Reports can be generated to display details about commissions owed and paid for each affiliate.

• Gift Wrap With Messages

  If you decide to offer gift wrapping our software system will offer the customer the opportunity to select a personal message to include with each gift. You can also charge an additional fee for this service.

• Custom Tax

  Specify the correct tax rates based on countries, states and even local zip codes, allowing for the exact tax rate to be automatically calculated based on a customer's location.

• Department Contacts

  Customize your contact us page by adding multiple departments and department contacts for your users to direct their specific questions.

• Inventory Tracking

  Keep track of inventory with our software system. You customers will be able to see that a product is currently out of stock. You can elect to allow a user to backorder a product or not. The system can even be set up to send you an e-mail alerting you that a product is reaching low stock levels. When an item is out of stock or an item is low in stock, a custom graphic can be defined to display on the product details page drawing more attention to these scenarios. For product attributes (variants) all combinations can be made allowing you to specify unique SKU's.

• Sales Reporting

  Customer sales are calculated and a sales graph is generated. Sales can be viewed based on a variety of time frames and will allow you to see when the majority of your customers are making their purchases.

• Customer Conversion Reporting

  Customers who visit your site are counted and compared to the number of customers who also make a purchase. This information can be used to determine how many of your visitors are finding what they are looking for and making the purchase.

• Unfinished Orders Report

  Customer information is collected during the checkout process. If for any reason the customer decides not to go through with the order the information collected is saved in the unfinished orders report. Use this report to contact customers to find out why they didn't complete the order process. This can turn visitors into customers.

• Site Search Report

  Every time a customer enters a search term on your site it is added to the site search report. Use this report to determine what your customers are looking for, and to direct marketing activities.

• Best Sellers Report

  The best sellers report will give you details about which products are selling the best and can be used to decide which products should be promoted.

• Visitor Summary

  The visitor summary provides an overview of the unique visitors, average purchase amounts, and transaction totals for a specified date range. Additionally the system allows certain IP addresses to be excluded for more accurate site reporting, allowing addresses such as your own not to affect calculated site traffic.

• Page Visit Summary

  This report will allow you to view the number of page views that each product or category has received based on a date range that you specify.

• Multiple Shipping Addresses

  Customers can choose to split up a single order and ship the items to multiple addresses. This allows your customers to make one transaction even if they need to ship to multiple addresses. You can choose to charge an additional fee for each address.

• Premium Shipping

  You can charge an additional amount for premium shipping and put priority customers at the front of the line. When searching through new customer orders you can choose to view only orders with premium shipping.

• Drop Shipping Support

  Sell products without keeping an inventory. Drop shipping will send an e-mail to your vendor notifying them that a product has been purchased, and where this product should be shipped. The system also supports multiple vendors for each order. If the customer places an order that includes multiple vendors, each vendor will be sent a detailed list of the items they supply.

• Value Based Shipping

  Shipping fees can be configured to use desired carriers and methods using the total purchase price as the determining factor in the shipping rates. We allow for a tiered methodology so that for example $0-$49.99 is $5.00 shipping, $50.00-$75.00 is $10.00 shipping, etc. This can be configured differently for each shipping method chosen.

• Image Upload Attribute

  The image upload attribute will allow you to request that your customers upload their own files based on the size and file formats you specify for each product they purchase. These files are available in our management console when viewing the order.

• Volume Pricing

  Set up volume pricing to give your customers incentive to purchase multiple quantities of a particular item. You can discount multiple items by a set amount, or a percentage of the price.

• Attribute Templates

  Customize your own attribute templates for easy of use for other products. When setting up similar products in many cases they will often have the same options available. Creating a template first allows you to save time and the template can be applied to any product and as many times to each product as you wish.

• Weight Sensitive Product Attributes

  Product attributes can add additional weight to your product to make the real time shipping rates as accurate as possible.

• Online Document Manager

  Use the online document manager to quickly and easily upload and manage files of any type used for your e-store.

• QuickBooks Integration (Optional feature available for an additional fee)

  The system has the ability to be integrated with QuickBooks to export all of the system's information quickly and efficiently.

• Shopper-configurable Product Display

  Give your shoppers a choice of how many items they want to see on each page in the category listing and search results pages. We will remember their selection every time they come to the website so they only need to set their preference once. Of course, they may change their selection at any time with the handy choice list on every page.