MerchandiZer Reviewer's Comments
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Our #3 ranked ecommerce software and "TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award" winner is MerchandiZer Basic from Seamless Technology Inc. MerchandiZer Basic takes care of your hosting, website design and shopping cart needs, but doesn't offer credit card services—you'll have to pick your own credit processing company to take credit card orders online. Click to visit our Credit Card Processing Review website.
Though MerchandiZer is slightly more expensive than our higher-ranked picks, MerchandiZer offers some powerful website building tools. If you want to take the time to build an intricate, custom ecommerce site, this may be the service that suits you best. Learn how to start your eCommerce site here.
MerchandiZer Screenshots. Click to Enlarge
Feature Set:
MerchandiZer offers plenty of features to help grow your online store. They have several sales and affiliate reports as well as website traffic tracking tools to monitor visitors on your website.
Figuring shipping costs and customizing shipping for your customers is automatic with MerchandiZer's versatile shipping tools. MerchandiZer offers choices that will match your customers' needs, including partial shipments, restricted shipping locations, and figuring shipping costs by weight or by price.
While shipping options are unlimited, MerchandiZer does limit the number of products you can sell online. But the 500 product limit is generous for the basic service.
MerchandiZer allows you excellent website customization tools. You can tailor the look and feel of your store. (If a wide range of website choices intimidates you, this may not be your best alternative for website building.)
MerchandiZer's hosting package allows you 50MB (megabytes) of storage and 1GB (gigabyte) of bandwidth—both generous data allowances for new websites.
Ease of Use:
Though navigating the MerchandiZer system is easy for those with some computer experience, MerchandiZer's wide array of professional, custom options may overwhelm computer novices.
The title bar across the top lets you select from different categories, then a list of options within that category will appear on the left side of the screen. Make your selection, and it appears front and center. Then you can begin building your site. Some complex website tools require you to look at the online help manual, but the manual is well-written.
Ease of Setup:
MerchandiZer uses browser-based administration, so you can make changes to your ecommerce site from any computer—work or home. MerchandiZer has simple wizards that walk you through all the steps of setting up your online store. Select a template and within a half hour or so you will have a basic website up and running.
Help/Documentation:
MerchandiZer Pro's help is excellent. The online manual lets you point and click at different titles to see more information. The MerchandiZer website also offers How-To tips, a forum, and a help desk. They have free telephone support and email support for the first 30 days; after that they charge a fee.
Fraud Protection:
Click here to learn how credit card fraud affects you.
Summary:
MerchandiZer provides you with a secure https server (SSL) for transactions. They also require potential customers enter the CVV2 value (printed on the back of most credit cards). This helps ensure that your customer has the card. (Thieves often have just the credit card number—not the plastic credit card—so they don't have access to the code stamped on the surface.)
The credit card company you choose will offer more fraud protection tools. To see reviews of the Top Ten Credit Card Processing Companies, click here.
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