Wednesday, October 19, 2005
My Online Store
Well, the search for an online store site was long, confusing and arduous (for tech-stupid me anyway).
There was yahoo stores which just cost too much (monthly fees of US$40 as well as 1.5% transaction fee as well as whatever charges there were for your credit card processer or ebay). These stores also didn't let you have a bank direct or cheque payment option (I guess that made it hard for them to monitor their transaction fees) which I didn't like.
There was the local puppy.com.my or hileytech option which costs a whopping M$2,500 for 1 year + hosting - and I wasn't clear whether this included from scratch development of the site or not... anyway, I think they are an Open Source Commerce based provider - open source means free for those that are tech-dumb like me.
There was of course the Ebay option, but heck, I already have the lelong store so why not stick with that. And anyway, as everyone knows, ebay more or less requires Paypal - and Malaysians get the really short end of the stick with that.
So finally I found Vstore. It's a Canadian company, relatively new (well, aren't all web ventures, really), that provides free online store services to everyone. They give you the store front and you just fill in the blanks, click click click.
They host your pictures free, they host your site free (well, there are small adds if you're on the free server).
Of course, if you want extras (for example, limitless categories, your own unique name - ie ends with a ".com" instead of a ".vstore") you have to upgrade to Premium. But heck, upgrading only cost me less than half of what Hileytech was charging, and they don't have transaction charges. Plus I was more comfortable with what I was getting with vstore (I know, I damn unpatriotic lor).
There are limitations - takes a little bit of time getting used to the admin side of the program, and takes a while to load because the servers are not local. But hopefully, as the company gets more established it will upgrade their servers and increase server speed.
On the other hand, their replies to questions and trouble shooting is really really fast and friendly. And they have an active forum for vstore users too.
All in all, I'm happy with their service and highly recommend it. What do you think ? - Femchoices Store
Now I just have to get that credit card thing sorted out (ugh more fees)
There was yahoo stores which just cost too much (monthly fees of US$40 as well as 1.5% transaction fee as well as whatever charges there were for your credit card processer or ebay). These stores also didn't let you have a bank direct or cheque payment option (I guess that made it hard for them to monitor their transaction fees) which I didn't like.
There was the local puppy.com.my or hileytech option which costs a whopping M$2,500 for 1 year + hosting - and I wasn't clear whether this included from scratch development of the site or not... anyway, I think they are an Open Source Commerce based provider - open source means free for those that are tech-dumb like me.
There was of course the Ebay option, but heck, I already have the lelong store so why not stick with that. And anyway, as everyone knows, ebay more or less requires Paypal - and Malaysians get the really short end of the stick with that.
So finally I found Vstore. It's a Canadian company, relatively new (well, aren't all web ventures, really), that provides free online store services to everyone. They give you the store front and you just fill in the blanks, click click click.
They host your pictures free, they host your site free (well, there are small adds if you're on the free server).
Of course, if you want extras (for example, limitless categories, your own unique name - ie ends with a ".com" instead of a ".vstore") you have to upgrade to Premium. But heck, upgrading only cost me less than half of what Hileytech was charging, and they don't have transaction charges. Plus I was more comfortable with what I was getting with vstore (I know, I damn unpatriotic lor).
There are limitations - takes a little bit of time getting used to the admin side of the program, and takes a while to load because the servers are not local. But hopefully, as the company gets more established it will upgrade their servers and increase server speed.
On the other hand, their replies to questions and trouble shooting is really really fast and friendly. And they have an active forum for vstore users too.
All in all, I'm happy with their service and highly recommend it. What do you think ? - Femchoices Store
Now I just have to get that credit card thing sorted out (ugh more fees)
