A New Breed of Ecommerce Software

E-Commerce Software Needed Fixing. So We Fixed it.

Why should it be hard to sell online? We know that you want a store with all of the features you need to not only run your store, but to promote it as well.

We understand the logistics of selling online, as well as the marketing to go with it - we do it every day from our web site. With Intelligent Solutions eStore, we wanted to build better e-commerce software that you can depend on to run your entire business, and we think we've done just that.

During the development of Intelligent Solutions eStore we talked to thousands of people who run online stores, and the overwhelming majority of them said that current e-commerce software offerings were weak, ugly, complicated or just frustrating to use.

They wanted software that works with them and not the other way around. When it comes to e-commerce you basically have three options:

Option #1 - Open source e-commerce software

From our dealings with store owners who run open source e-commerce software, the general feedback has revolved around four things.

1. Their store designs were too hard to customize. In order to make even basic changes, they had to be familar with HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
   
   
2. When they needed technical support, they had to either post in a community forum and hope for a response from someone who knew about the product, or they had to outsource their support needs to a third party development company.
   
   
3. They were worried about the product's future. Which new features will be added? When? Where do I send my feature requests?
   
   
4. Price. We've talked to hundreds of store owners who decided to go with open source software because it has no up-front cost, but after a few weeks they realized it wasn't really free at all.
   
   They were losing time worrying about bugs. They had to bring in outside designers to customize the look of their store and add features. Some of them even ended up building in-house IT teams just to manage their web site. Hardly cost effective.

With open source e-commerce software you generally have no where to turn when you need support. You're at the mercy of a globally distributed development team who work on the software in their spare time. At best you have access to a community forum where you can post your support questions and cross your fingers that you'll get an answer before you lose your client or your sanity.

Most open source e-commerce software isn't actively updated with new features and very rarely do they follow a product roadmap which is built directly from customer feedback.

How we compare to open source

In relation to the four points noted above, here's how Intelligent Solutions eStore compares to open source e-commerce software:

• Customization - Intelligent Solutions eStore comes with dozens of professionally designed store designs which are all easy to customize without touching a line of HTML, CSS or JavaScript.
  
  It takes just one click to switch between store designs, and you can even enable design mode to re-arrange your store using drag and drop or easily change the text in your store with just a few clicks. You don't have to go hunting for language files or mess around with FTP programs.
  
  As well as using the built-in store designs, you can easily integrate Intelligent Solutions eStore with your existing store's design. Our store designs include very basic HTML and CSS, and no PHP code.
  
  
• Technical Support - We employ dozens of software engineers in the United States and Australia who work on our products every day. They support our tens of thousands of customers, add new features and fix bugs.
  
  Our software is supported by the actual engineers who built the product, and you always have a direct line of contact with our support department. The overwhelming majority of our customers receive not only a reply but also a fix to their problem in just a few hours. That's how serious we are about support.
  
  
• Product Development - If you become an Intelligent Solutions customer, you'll find that your direct feedback and feature requests are built right into Intelligent Solutions eStore. Whenever a customer requests a new feature we have a strict process by which that feature is passed onto our product managers.
  
  When more than a few people request the same feature, that feature is factored into our product roadmap, which is a document we use to workout our product release schedules and updates.
  
  We release a new update to Intelligent Solutions eStore every 8 weeks. Each new update has at least one major feature, at least four new store designs and all reported bugs are fixed. Our product roadmap includes features for the next 5 releases of Intelligent Solutions eStore, and we work on fast, aggressive development cycles.
• Price - Intelligent Solutions eStore is priced in relation to its value for money, the high level of customer support we provide and the constant product development that keeps it ahead of competitors.
  
  We constantly hear from customers that because Intelligent Solutions eStore contains everything they need to sell online, once they're setup they very rarely have to spend money on anything else relating to their store.

Option #2 - Build it yourself

Developing software is not only a difficult, time consuming process, but it can also be very expensive if you don't hire the right people.

We've been building software since 2003 and now employ dozens of software engineers who have hundreds of years of combined experience building commercial-grade software. We follow traditional software practicies and policies used by companies such as Microsoft and Sun to build high-quality, stable software that you can use to run your business.

We are market leaders in the e-commerce, email marketing, content management and knowledge management verticals, and are always adding new features to our software. Because of our close relationships with our customers, many say that we're like an extension of their company, and that's exactly how we like to think of ourselves.

Option #3 - A competing e-commerce package

If you're comparing Intelligent Solutions eStore with another e-commerce package, you should ask yourself these questions:

1. Is the competitors e-commerce package easy to customize? We know from customer feedback that this is generally the biggest question most people have.
   
   Intelligent Solutions eStore comes with dozens of pre-bult store designs and it's easy to customize the design, layout and text in your store without knowing any HTML, CSS or JavaScript.
   
   Intelligent Solutions eStore's design mode feature means even those new to the Internet can fully customize their store in just a few minutes.
   
   
2. Will the competitors e-commerce package grow as we do? If you're a typical retailer you're always adding products to your store. Intelligent Solutions eStore has been optimized at both the database and code levels to be lightning fast.
   
   It doesn't matter if you have 1,000 or 100,000 products - your store will always load in a fraction of a second because our team of database engineers spent months optimizing Intelligent Solutions eStore before it was released.
   
   
3. Does the competitors product include technical support? All Intelligent Solutions customers receive technical support from our highly praised team of software engineers. Every day we receive testimonials from customers telling us just how much they appreciate the efforts our engineers go to for them.
   
   When you become an Intelligent Solutions customer you always have a direct connection with our technical support team. Our engineers both support our customers and work directly on our software, so they know our products inside out.
   
   For you, this means your problems are solvely quickly and properly the first time, so you can spend more time building your business.
   
   
4. Is the competitors company reputable? Intelligent Solutions has over 20,000 customers (including Dell, Intel, Yale University, MediaTemple, etc) and has been in business since 2003. We employ dozens of staff and have offices in North America, Australia, London and Singapore.
   
   We are commited to building great software and will continue to do so for many years to come. We really believe in building software that we would (and do) use ourselves on a daily basis. Our software works the way you do, and not the other way around.

Next Steps

• View the Intelligent Solutions eStore video tour
• Compare product editions to see which one is right for you
• Contact Intelligent Solutions with any questions