ZippyCart: Ecommerce Software Reviewed

CoreCommerce Review: Overview

• ZippyCart's Number 1 Ecommerce Suite
  of 2010
• Easy to Use Customization
• Professional Features for Beginner Prices
• Search Engine Friendly
• PCI Compliant Shopping Cart

CoreCommerce is the number one ranked ecommerce solution on ZippyCart, with a ZippyScore of 4.5 out of 5 and a customer score of 4.7 out of 5. CoreCommerce has earned this score because it provides one of the most robust feature sets out there and all for a low monthly hosting fee (as low as $14 per month). CoreCommerce features 6 different packages that vary based on bandwidth, disk space, and the number of products one can host. Their lowest cost package is half the price of comparable solutions that provide the same bandwidth, features, disk space, and product support. You can also test out CoreCommerce by signing up for a 15-day free trial, which doesn't require a credit card or commitment. CoreCommerce is well known for their customer support, with an average 93% customer approval rating. Read the detailed CoreCommerce review below to see what makes this ecommerce solution a go-to choice for merchants everywhere.

CoreCommerce Review: Shopping Cart Report Card

Shopping Cart Feature	ZippyCart Rating Out of 5
Customer Service
Level of Customization
Search Engine Friendliness
Ease of Setup
Range of Tools Available
Ease of Use for Merchant
Ease of Use for Customer
Final Shopping Cart Score	ZippyScore: 4.5 Out of 5!

CoreCommerce Review: Expert Shopping Cart Review

The CoreCommerce ecommerce shopping cart software solution is the creation of Sum Effect Software, Inc, based out of Franklin, Tennessee. Our overall research and feedback from our customer reviews shows CoreCommerce to be the leading ecommerce software solution of 2010! There are dozens of excellent features available in this solution, with new features being added frequently as they receive feedback from customers. In addition to all of the great features, it is also very easy to get up and running once you sign up for your ecommerce package. Getting started does not require advanced technical knowledge or a background in web development. Almost anyone can use the CoreCommerce Easy Design Editor™ to help make their online store match the look and feel of their brand. Overall it is a great ecommerce software solution that works well for anyone looking to replace their existing software, or someone wanting to open a new online store. You can review all of scores of the CoreCommerce ecommerce software in the shopping cart report card above, which will help you determine if this solution will work best for your online store!

Easy Setup Tools and Customization

One thing that makes CoreCommerce stand out from most ecommerce solutions is the ease of setup. While many ecommerce solutions claim to be some of the easiest to use shopping carts, only few actually live up to this claim. CoreCommerce is both easy and fun to setup. When you sign up for CoreCommerce, you are immediately walked through a step by step setup tool which is very intuitive and even includes quick tip popups with encouraging words like "we are happy to get started!" Most of the initial steps center around design, like choosing from one of the CoreCommerce expert designed templates and uploading or quickly designing a logo. Merchants have 4 options for adding a logo to their site which include a "create your own" tool, image logo, flash logo, or a quick text logo tool that matches the logo to your template of choice. CoreCommerce offers a very large assortment of free templates to choose from, and this portfolio is often updated. Merchants can also choose different skins for each template, which means that you have hundreds of options at your disposal that you can then further customize to your needs.

After you have completed all of the steps for setting up your online store, you can move on to customize your storefront. CoreCommerce allows you to change your storefront design in many ways based on your level of comfort. If you are familiar with HTML, you can dive right into the code of your site and alter the HTML and CSS to your desire either by using the WYSIWYG editor or viewing the raw source code. If you aren't as comfortable with code, you can change the CSS of your storefront with the style editor which lets you change all basic CSS settings for every element in your store including fonts and colors, without ever touching code. CoreCommerce also let's you view your store in Design Mode, where you can make changes directly to your store, drag and drop elements of your template, and more.

Another great design feature that CoreCommerce provides is the ability to choose custom buttons for your online store. Many ecommerce solutions have specific buttons associated to each template, but in CoreCommerce, you can choose the style of buttons you want to use independent of your template choice. This provides a great opportunity to improve conversions in your online store by testing different sets of "Add to Cart" buttons until you find the set that converts more visitors into customers.

Future design changes in CoreCommerce are just as easy. Most ecommerce solutions publish your changes immediately following a page save, but if you make a mistake, then your mistake is live for all of your customers to see. CoreCommerce has solved this issue by creating a dev store, which will let you make changes and test them before pushing anything live for the world to see.

Product and Customer Management & Marketing

After you have designed your online store, you can bulk import/export customers, products, and categories from an old cart. CoreCommerce makes this extremely easy if you're moving from Volusion, Yahoo Stores, or Magento, as they have created easy import tools from these three solutions. Once you have added your products through the CoreCommerce admin tool, you will find a variety of great tools to manage them. This includes over 20 reports, product reviews, an add to eBay button, discount rules, custom products, and customizable inventory settings. You will also find it easy to manage customers and market to them. CoreCommerce provides customer groups, discounts, coupons, product feeds, gift registries, reward points,integrated email marketing, and more. If you want to reach customers beyond your CoreCommerce store, you can also create an affiliate system and manage all of your affiliates through the CoreCommerce platform.

Excellent Support and Ecommerce Security

All customer service and support for CoreCommerce happens in the company headquarters and around Nashville, Tennessee. No matter what ecommerce plan you choose from CoreCommerce, you will be able to receive live telephone and chat support, in addition to a 24/7 ticketing system that is built into your store administration interface. There is also a large amount of help documentation, FAQ's, and an online forum to learn more about everything that comes with the CoreCommerce ecommerce software solution. An ecommerce store owner can rest assured that any of their questions can be answered and problems resolved.

Having a secure is a top necessity to help ensure your customers feel safe, and that their data is protected. CoreCommerce will provide your online store with 99.9% up-time, Enterprise hosting with Rackspace, PCI Compliance, and Free shared 128/256-bit encryption SSL. This will allow online shoppers to have a reliable and secure experience on your site, so that you capture as many sales as possible.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tools

Any online store running off of the CoreCommerce platform has built-in SEO tools to ensure that the data and url's are formatted properly for better ranking in search engines. SEO tools include the ability to edit all shopping cart URLs (this feature is by far easiest to access in CoreCommerce above other ecommerce solutions), add alt attributes to images, and edit all meta and title tags across the site. You can also add Google Analytics to your storefront in the "Edit Store Design" section of your admin panel.

Social Media and Mobile Commerce Tools

As the world of ecommerce continues to evolve, more opportunities arise to sell online. CoreCommerce knows this, which is why they continue to be at the forefront of this revolution and work hard to provide merchants with every tool necessary for success. Because of this, CoreCommerce provides a variety of social media tools including the ability to sell directly on Facebook. This is a step up from using a simple facebook app because it integrates directly with your CoreCommerce store. This integration allows you to keep all of your inventory and product management in one place, while reaching out to multiple sales channels. CoreCommerce also makes it easy for you to setup a mobile storefront so that you can reach the growing number of smartphone users that make purchases on the go. These features are very easy to use, but not as easy to find in the CoreCommerce admin panel. To get to the mobile storefront, simply go to store settings (find in the drop down menu under "settings" at the top right corner of your screen) and you'll see a tab for "mobile store". You then just have to turn it on, and you are set! To setup a Facebook store choose "Plug-in Settings" from the main settings drop down menu. In that plugins section you will see a tab for the Facebook store setup tool. Follow the simple process and you will be selling on Facebook within minutes!

CoreCommerce Review: Conclusions

Overall, CoreCommerce has one of the most robust feature sets available in ecommerce software solutions. This, combined with their extremely affordable monthly fees, makes CoreCommerce a highly sought after shopping cart solution. Merchants can rest easy when using CoreCommerce as their store will be in good hands, and they will always be a step ahead of the competition. Review the CoreCommerce feature list and CoreCommerce customer reviews to learn more.