Microsoft no longer accepts applications for their bCentral service; they have a new service called Microsoft® Office Live.
The Microsoft Small Business Center website has posted the following statement: “As of November 15, 2006 Microsoft will no longer accept new sign-ups for select Microsoft Online Small Business Services.
These services, previously marketed under the bCentral™ brand, include Appointment Manager, Banner Network Ads, Commerce Manager, Customer Manager, FastCounter Pro, List Builder, Sales Leads, SharePoint®, Submit it!, Traffic Builder, and Web Hosting Packages.”
bCentral Commerce Manager from Microsoft is a good ecommerce service, especially if you'd like to use online marketplaces. bCentral lets you add products easily to Microsoft's Small Business Directory and other online marketplaces. Then you can sell your products from dozens of places, not just your website.
bCentral Commerce Manager hosts your website, but does not offer a merchant account or website building wizards. Instead, you must use Microsoft's FrontPage software to build a website. While FrontPage isn't as simple to use as website building wizards, it's easy to learn. However, adding ecommerce tools to a website built in FrontPage is a time-consuming challenge. Learn how to start your eCommerce site here.
One perk we liked about bCentral were the email notifications; you and your customer receive email notifications each time a product is purchased. If you feel bombarded you can turn this feature off or direct all sales email into a specific sales folder where you can review it only when you need to resolve a problem
You can also set your account to allow customers to track their own orders, saving you time. The sales reports provide enough information to let you see which products are selling and which ones aren't.
Another feature we liked—if you don't have a website and don't care to create one, you can sell products exclusively at Internet marketplaces and auctions. A major drawback to this is that your products will compete against all the rest in the world; on your website they stand alone.
bCentral's catalog manager is easy to use; you can easily build up your product list and product variations without limits.
bCentral is easy to use. You can manage products on your website and products you have in Internet marketplaces. And bCentral keeps track of all your pending orders and statistics; you have complete control of all aspects of your website from one management screen.
Click here to learn how credit card fraud affects you.
Commerce manager shopping cart operates on a secure https server (SSL). The credit card company you go through will offer you more fraud protection tools. To see reviews of top Credit card processing companies, click here.
Installation is not a problem, but you must design your website using Microsoft's FrontPage program. While FrontPage is a fair website building tool, it takes time and effort to learn how to attach ecommerce features correctly.
bCentral offers online chat help. You can ask and receive instant answers. They also offer FAQs, email support, and commerce manager help.
bCentral Commerce is a good shopping cart, but others services would be a better investment for your business. With this service it's easy to get your products on a marketplace site, but that's not enough to set it apart. The bottom line—you can find better services that offer better integration for the same price. Please see our top 3 products: goEmerchant, Volusion and CoreCommerce.
