l
etely test) three high-end commerce-server suites from Microsoft, Netscape, and Open Market (see the sidebar "High-End Commerce Servers").
If you don't mind paying the higher price tag of $4995, NetConsult Communications' Intershop Online was the most versatile and the easiest to use of the three packages that we tested. However, Merchant Builder from the Internet Factory and iCat's Electronic Commerce Suite have plenty to offer beyond their lower cost.
All three products we tested mix a Web server to host the Web storefront with a database (or database access) to keep track of products, fold in support for Internet commerce and security protocols, season with site management and creation tools, and garnish well with Web-page templates. Choosing the best storefront package depends greatly on where you place the intersection of product features with your needs.
Paying the Piper
Taking care of business on the Web is complicated by the openness of the Interne
t. You don't want customers sending credit-card numbers to you in the clear. The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol originated by Netscape has become the de facto standard for encrypting TCP streams (e.g., HTTP sessions) using the de facto cryptographic standard, the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) patented public-key algorithms. Another standard that servers widely support is S-HTTP, which you can use to encrypt individual Web transfers -- although there aren't many browsers that support S-HTTP.
Encryption isn't enough protection, though, so Visa and MasterCard, along with software and hardware vendors, have cooperated on the Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) specification for on-line commerce. Using public-key-encrypted digital signatures, SET aims to protect transactions and reduce fraud.
All-purpose storefront packages should support all these standards, even though final approval of the SET standard isn't expected before summer. In the meantime, SSL and S-HTTP are handy for securely transmitti
ng information products as well as credit-card numbers, even though most credit-card issuers are urging their cardholders to do business only when using SET.
Third-party services such as CyberCash (see the sidebar "Secure Internet Credit-Card Processing") and VeriFone are offering secure credit-card services that verify a customer as a cardholder and send credit authorization to the merchant. This method relieves the merchant of responsibility for maintaining and securing credit-card numbers, while assuring that the cardholder is indeed the one making the purchase. All three storefront products support CyberCash as a secure payment method, as well as SSL and S-HTTP.
Some companies are also setting up shipping and tax-calculation tie-in products to assist in automating the transaction. For example, Taxware International offers sales-tax verification via a database of tax jurisdictions keyed by ZIP code.
Servers at Your Service
You can't have a Web store without a Web server
, but not everyone has the time to shop around, install, and manage a separate Web-server product. For convenience, all three storefront packages integrate a Web server into the package, but they also make it possible to set up shop using third-party servers such as Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) or Netscape's Enterprise Server.
A Web-browsing shopper experiences storefronts simply as Web sites whose sole purpose is selling products. Generally, the store is structured hierarchically, with the home page acting as the point of entry. Graphical and textual links lead potential customers into the various screens of the site. Just as real stores are divided into departments by product category, you can design virtual stores with product category screens to make it easy to locate products. Instead of asking a clerk how to find a given product, the customer can query the product database. All three products offer predesigned storefronts and other templates, such as virtual shopping carts, to kee
p track of what a shopper buys and keep a running tally during each "visit" to the store.
There's not much point in having a store if you can't stock it with products. Web storefronts use database services to keep product information up to date and easy to get at. All the storefront
products tested
for this report link to databases to store and retrieve product, customer, and order information. You manage product information with either special administration forms in the database server or administrative Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) templates.
Danger: Construction Ahead
We found three prerequisites to setting up and running a Web storefront:
* Windows NT Server 4.0.
It's just plain easier to use than version 3.5x, and because it includes IIS, it's that much more convenient. Before installing any Web-storefront package, however, you should know how to start and stop NT services, set up TCP/IP networking, configure and administer IIS
, and administer security services in both NT and IIS.
* ODBC and database servers.
Two of the storefront packages tested install and configure Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) access on installation. While the iCat package lacks ODBC support at the time of this writing, it's expected for the release in February. Although installation in the other packages is automated, we recommend that you have a working knowledge of whatever database- server software you'll be managing the store with.
* HTML.
You can't make omelets without breaking some eggs, and you can't build a Web site without putting together some HTML. The good news is that these storefront packages require only the most basic knowledge of HTML, though more sophisticated customization requires more HTML coding and design experience.
Choosing Web-storefront software ultimately comes down to a decision about features and how they will help solve your store's particular problems. Therefore, specifying store
front requirements up front is the most important part of your selection process.
iCat Electronic Commerce Suite 2.1.2
As its name implies, iCat is a catalog/storefront creation tool for the Internet. The suite includes iCat Commerce Publisher (a catalog development and administration module), iCat Commerce Exchange (for order processing), and iCat Commerce Player (CD-ROM catalog creation).
ICat is the only product in the evaluation that supports the creation of both CD-ROM- and Internet-based catalogs. It comes with the widest array of HTML templates for choosing how your storefront/catalog will appear to shoppers. It is also the only product that runs on the Mac, as well as various flavors of Unix and NT.
With a solid documentation-and-tutorial package, iCat would have been easier to use if it allowed remote administration through the standard Web-browser interface -- an improvement due in the February update. The company says that it will also fix the lack of ODBC suppo
rt in the February release. For its database services, iCat includes the single-user version of Acius's 4D database engine, binding all administration and development work to the server itself. Remote storefront management over a network means buying Acius's 4D Server package.
Intershop Online 1.1.4
Just as in real life, managing things such as inventory, sales, accounts, and suppliers in a Web store can be a hassle. The better your database tools, the easier that task is. Intershop Online comes with ODBC support as well as Sybase's SQL database server 11, which explains not only its higher price tag but its higher scores for ease of use and versatility. With a strong set of back-office functions and built-in manager templates for administering catalog/storefront, product, order, inventory, supplier, and customer functions, Intershop Online eases day-to-day management of the Web store.
The basic store template is substantial and comes with extra functions such as a discount mech
anism that lets the store manager automatically reduce price tags. The current product supports applying price discounts on a time basis. The next version will feature dynamic promotions based on customer information. NetConsult plans to release it this spring. This is a powerful feature, and the other companies also plan to add it to their programs.
Intershop Online is also the only product that can create storefronts in four languages: English, French, German, and Norwegian. You only have to rewrite the copy in each language; the database schema remains the same. The admin mode lets you choose a language from a pop-up menu, and the copy for that language is stored in one part of the database. The designer doesn't fiddle with where the HTML and data files for each language are stored, and the user simply clicks on a button to toggle between languages.
Secure remote administration via a Web browser and strong sales analysis and reporting functions round out the package. Though Intershop Online mak
es a strong showing, it is not perfect. Installation under NT is marred by a seeming bias toward version 3.5x and against version 4.0. Also, priced at $4995 for NT and $7995 for various Unix flavors, Intershop Online may be too costly a program for shoestring operators, but it does include the Sybase SQL database server.
Merchant Builder 2.0
Merchant Builder offers less in the area of predesigned storefront options than the other programs, but its Web server, Commerce Builder, supports chat rooms as well as standard Internet services. Also included is the Internet Factory's SMX command language and sample code for adding Java applets or ActiveX controls to storefronts.
Merchant Builder lacks its own full-fledged database server. Instead, it uses a Microsoft Access database that you can populate with your own data. You design stores so that they can be "compiled" to minimize the amount of traffic to and from the database. Alternatively, you can hook up the storefront to any ODBC-
compliant database for better performance.
The Site Magic development tool from the Internet Factory provides the basic building blocks for and comes with Merchant Builder. Its SMX language includes database access along with Internet- and Web-based functions, and it simplifies building customized store applications. Merchant Builder is available only for NT, though you can administer it remotely through a standard Web browser.
Merchant Builder's chat service can support an open, informal forum for customers, as well as SSL-secured one-to-one conversations. Access to groups can also be controlled by memberships that you administer through the server.
Picking a Winner
Building on the Web can be as costly as building in the real world: It's not unusual for companies to spend hundreds of thousands for a Web storefront, once costs for hardware, software, network expenses, consulting, and content creation are tallied. Picking the right software for your Web store means deciding
which features and functions are "must haves" and which are superfluous; focusing on software cost alone could be counterproductive.
Product Information
iCat Electronic Commerce Suite 2.1.2..........$1,495
iCat Corp.
Seattle, WA
Phone: (206) 623-0977
Fax: (800) 558-4228
Internet:
http://www.icat.com
Circle 1033 on Inquiry Card.
Hanging Out an Internet Shingle
