We provide the service of developing sites for BigCommerce. We also provide the service of customizing, API integrating and the like for the hosted solution, Interspire.  We do both very well and have had many satisfied clients tell us so. Recently at a sales seminar our sales team had the pleasure of going to, the main sales trainer told us, that there was one thing missing from our site… something to tell people why we are better than others.. he said “Do a little bragging, customers are not always going to call you to find out how great you are so other than your work… people want to read something the SELLS!”. So here are some competitive advantages we wanted to share with you…

1. Be A Part Of has been a BigCommerce Design Partner since the day it was available. We have developed Interspire shopping carts since it launched as Interspire Shopping Cart 3.0 in 2008. We have completed projects ranging from just a few days work to a few months work and have worked on approximately 40 projects using either platform to date. We know this product inside and out. We have created complex modules and changed the inner framework of the site many times.
2. We have NEVER dropped the ball on a client and told them to go get it done somewhere else, we will always make sure that the project gets done based on the specs and quotation; this is who we are as a company and it will never change.
3. We have taken numerous projects on that are the leftovers of other designers. We are passionate about our work and are unlike other companies that say things like “We just feel that our designer cannot meet your needs” and the like.
4. We DO NOT outsource our work to any random company across the world for the lowest price.  We only deal with competent people and pay them accordingly so that your work is done right.
5. We have a skillset in not just the development side of things but we are also able to get top rankings with SEO techniques and programs that have proven to work, and work well. Contact us for details and examples of sites we have hundreds of first page rankings for! *Teaser: our SEO techniques along with Interspire shopping cart increased a clients sales by 240%… and the revenue before launching was not too shabby to say the least!

Contact us for a consult, we would be happy to help!

We have completed Zencart shopping carts, Yahoo shopping carts, Joomla, Drupal and others. Can’t say we have been impressed with any of them. To be honest, not only from a developer point of view, but from our customers point of view, Interspire is the best out there. It’s made to sell and does just that.

Take a look at these features below.It’s amazing what they have to offer.

Interspire – Compare Licensed Editions

see more features here>>>
Compare the different editions for the licensed version of Interspire Shopping Cart below.If you have any questions about features, please contact us.

Call for pricing	Starter	Professional	Ultimate
General Features
60 Day Refund Guarantee
100% Open Source PHP Code
Easily Customize PHP Code
Private Label Capabilities
Number of Products	50 100	500 5,000	100,000 Unlimited
Number of Staff Logins	2	3	20
Sell in Multiple Currencies
Mobile Commerce
Checkout
Secure Checkout
Single Page Checkout
Custom Form Fields
Customer can search and browse order history
Real time customer order tracking
Guest/anonymous checkout option
Forced Registration Checkout
Quote Cart, i.e. Ordering disabled, prices replaced with “Call for Pricing”
Customer Registration
Customer Accounts
Agree to Terms During Checkout
One Click Re-Ordering
Sell Products With Delivery/Event Dates
Order Management
Set Min/Max Order Quantities
Accept Pre-Orders
Sync to Quickbooks
Order Messaging System
Export Orders (CSV/XML)
Global Store Tax Calculation
International Orders
Per Country/State Tax Rates
Order Notification Emails
Order Notifications via SMS
Order Notifications via Windows Live
Order Status Change Emails for Customers
Tracking Number for Orders
Limit Shipping to Certain Countries
Specify Order Handling Fees
Invoices & Packing Slips
Affiliate Conversion Tracking
Bulk Import Tracking Numbers
Supported Payment Methods
Over 50 payment providers supported
Selling/Comparison Integrations
List your products on eBay
Export to BizRate
Export to Shopzilla
Export to Beso
Export to NexTag
Export to PriceGrabber
Export to Shopping.com
Export to MySimon
Supported Shipping Methods
Australia Post
Canada Post
FedEx
Intershipper
UPS
USPS
Flat-Rate Per Country
Flat-Rate Per Order
Free Shipping
Fee Per Item
Ship by Weight
Ship by Order Total
Easy Integration With Other Shipping Methods Via Modules System
Returns Management (RMA)
Customers Can Submit Return Requests from Your Store
Customizable Return Instructions
Customizable Return Reasons
Customizable Return Actions
Advanced Returns Processing
Returns Notifications by Email for Store Owner
Returns Status Update Emails for Customers
Issue Store Credit for Returns
Inventory Control
Per-Product Inventory Levels
Per-Variation Inventory Levels
“Out of Stock” Messages
Low Stock Warning Emails
Easy Inventory Management
Product Management
Sell Physical & Downloadable Products
Photos Per Product	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Bulk Product Editing
Product Variations
Files Per Downloadable Product	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Limit Access to Downloadable Products
Expiry Dates on Downloadable Products
Product Reviews
Product in Multiple Categories
Set Product’s Cost, Retail & Sale Prices
Automatic Thumnail Image Creation
Per-Product Free Shipping
Automatically/Manually Specify a List of Related Products
Per-Product Custom Fields
Specify Sort Order
Choose Different Product Layout Files (HTML)
Full SEO Customization
Hide Pricing Per-Product
Tabs on Product Pages
Customer Management
Advanced Customer Search
Customer Order History
Import Customers (CSV/XML)
Export Customers (CSV/XML)
Store Credits System
Customer Groups w/ Discounts & Access Permissions
Promotions & Marketing
Discount Rules
Banner Management
Integrates With Any Live Chat Software
30 Day Free Trial of LivePerson Express (Exclusive to Interspire customers)
Coupon Codes
Newsletter Subscriptions
Easy Interspire Email Marketer Integration
Easy Interspire Knowledge Manager Integration
Newsletter Subscribers Export (CSV)
Google Products Export
Fully Modular Addons System and Framework
Content Management System
Create Web Pages
Contact Form Creation
Syndicated Web Pages
News Management
Analytics Integration
Google Analytics
Easy Integration With Other Analytics Package Via Modules System
Statistics and Reporting
Store Overview
Top Customers
Best Selling Products
Customer Location (via Google Maps)
Orders by Revenue
Orders by Items Sold
Popular Products
Inventory Reporting
Customer Signups
Revenue Per Customer
Search Statistics
Search Keyword Performance
Search Term Corrections
In-Store Features
Sell Physical & Downloadable Products
Pictures for Products	5	5	5
Wish Lists
Quick Search Box
Order History
Active Order Tracking
Unlimited Billing & Shipping Addresses
Ship to Multiple Addresses
Recently Views Products List
Newsletter Subscriptions
Order Messaging System
Add Multiple Items to Cart at Once
Gift Certificates
Enable/Disable Functionality
Choose Which Gift Certificate Values You Sell
Custom Gift Certificate Values
Expiry Dates
Customizable Themes
Settings, Maintenance & Logging
Built-In Backup System
Remote FTP Backups
Automatic Backups (CRON)
Built-In System Log Files
Database Error Logging
Staff Action Logging
Per-Staff Permissions
Import from CSV
Custom Export Templates
Views (Saved Searches)
Order Views
Customer Views
Product Views
Gift Certificate Views
Return Request Views
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Friendly URLs
Site-Wide Meta Keywords
Site-Wide Meta Description
Category Page Titles
Category Meta Keywords
Category Meta Description
Product Page Titles
Product Meta Keywords
Product Meta Description
Brand Page Titles
Brand Meta Keywords
Brand Meta Description
Web Page Titles
Web Page Meta Keywords
Web Page Meta Description
XHTML/CSS Standards-Based Markup
Store Customization & Layout
Drag and Drop Page Design
100% Template Driven
CSS-Based Layouts
Download New Store Designs from Control Panel
Store Designs to Choose from	20+	20+	20+
Integrate an Existing Store Design Easily
Customize Included Store Designs
Browser-Based HTML & CSS Editor for Store Designs
Localization
Fully Translatable Store
Configure Currency Settings
Configure Number Formatting
Configure Date Formatting
Configure Weight Settings
Configure Measurement Settings
Other Features
Built-In Help Documentation
Inline Help Tips
Browser-Based Installation Wizard
Browser-Based Upgrade Wizard
Customize Email Messages
Built-In WYSIWYG Editor
Customer Address Verification
Get Started

Originally posted at  http://andrewbleakley.com

The two biggest hosted shopping carts (or e-commerce platforms if you want to impress girls)  offer incredible feature’s, years of development and award winning customer service. This review will have to look at how each feature is implemented to split the difference.

Price

Both offer free trials. 14 days for Volusion and 15 days for BigCommerce.

Both start at $24.95 a month – Volusion hide the link in the footer which always concerns me. Neither charge transaction fee’s – take that Shopify

Setup Cost:

Big Commerce is $49.95 to Volusion‘s $49.00 – not worth mentioning except that some Volusion fan boy will cling to it and mess up my comments.

So what price difference’s are there ?

The basic (cheapest plan) at Volusion allows 25 products and 1 Gb or data – BigCommerce give you 100 products and 2 Gb data

On price BigCommerce trumps Volusion.

Look and Feel – Front End

If you have  a designer on board that is going to customize your shop or integrate it into your existing design – skip this section now. I am going to say some truly awful things about the templates in Volusion and if you aren’t going to use them you might as well save yourself the blushing.

READ MORE >>>

With a rapidly growing company out performing  Yahoo Cart, ZenCart and many others, comes new versions of a successful product, BigCommerce!

Mitchell Harper, co-CEO of BigCommerce doesn’t like to spend too much money on product launches for a very good reason: His company has a major product debut every three months or so.

BigCommerce makes e-commerce tools, such as shopping carts, that help businesses process online sales. It’s a fast-moving, competitive space where successful introductions rely on casting a wide net for prospects, including BigCommerce’s previous customers as well as new prospects.

read more >>>

Found this article about our preferred shopping cart solution platform and just wanted to share.

BigCommerce Bring Transparency to Ecommerce

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. That’s what the two co-founders of the shopping cart/ecommerce platform Interspire thought back in 2003. At the time, Mitchell Harper and Eddie Machaalani ran separate software companies. “We were both building content management systems when we met and decided we’d get more done if we joined forces,” recalls Harper.

From the start, Interspire was an international operation. Harper and Machaalani are both based in Australia; Harper had created a software platform for one of Australia’s biggest online computer stores. Harper decided to do the work himself because, in his words, “all of the existing ecommerce software offerings were lacking features or were too hard to use. Eddie was freelancing at the time and was frustrated with off-the-shelf ecommerce software because of its complexity and cost, so that’s where the initial idea came from.”

The word “complexity” is key because, from the start, Harper and Machaalani wanted to create a service that merchants with no technical abilities could use easily. So it’s no surprise that ShoppingCartReviews.com uses the word “slick” repeatedly in its very positive review of the ultimate version of the Interspire Shopping Cart package. That’s exactly what the two former competitors were looking for. “It’s as easy to use as Gmail and doesn’t require a user manual,” says Harper.

read full article

Merchants can now use BigCommerce to sell on eBay and via mobile devices; new version of ecommerce platform also offers integrated social commerce, automated email marketing and many other ways for online merchants to increase site traffic and boost sales.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 30 /PRNewswire/ — BigCommerce, a leading provider of multi-channel ecommerce software for online merchants, today announced the latest release of its ecommerce platform that enables small and mid-sized merchants to sell and promote their products across multiple channels from one integrated platform. With BigCommerce 6.0, merchants can now sell on eBay and via many popular shopping comparison sites, as well as on mobile devices and Facebook® Platform. The new version of BigCommerce also offers advanced email marketing capabilities and allows merchants to easily integrate social commerce into their online stores, in addition to many other features that help merchants drive traffic, boost conversion rates and streamline store operations. BigCommerce provides these enterprise ecommerce features at a small-business price, with packages starting at just $24.95 per month.

“Our customers have told us that the hardest thing to do when it comes to selling online is attracting quality traffic to their ecommerce stores. With BigCommerce 6.0, we’ve integrated traffic-driving tools such as selling on eBay, Shopzilla, Shopping.com, PriceGrabber and Facebook so that our merchants can literally click a few buttons and get their products in front of tens of millions of potential customers,” said Mitchell Harper, co-founder and co-CEO of BigCommerce.

Major new sales and marketing features in BigCommerce 6.0 include:

* eBay Sales Integration: In a matter of minutes, BigCommerce customers can now get their products in front of the massive eBay buying community, while managing the entire process from a single platform. Using BigCommerce, merchants can make their products available for auction or sale on eBay with just a few clicks; when a product is auctioned or sold on eBay, a new order is automatically created in the customer’s BigCommerce store. Customers can process both eBay and regular orders directly from their BigCommerce control panel.
* Social Commerce: In addition to promoting their products to the more than 400 million consumers on Facebook, BigCommerce merchants can now also make their own sites more social by adding “like” buttons for every product in their store and taking advantage of BigCommerce’s integration with Facebook’s open graph personalization profiles. Merchants are now also able to integrate the popular IntenseDebate and Disqus commenting systems into their sites with just a few clicks, enabling site visitors to use their existing social media profiles to login, post and share their product reviews and comments with friends.
* Mobile Commerce: BigCommerce now offers customizable mobile store templates that make it easy to attract new customers looking to buy products on the go. With an iPad-specific mobile store as well as a webkit-based mobile design that looks great on iPhone, Palm Pre and Android devices, BigCommerce enables any store owner to sell products via many of today’s most popular mobile devices.
* Shopping Comparison Integration: BigCommerce merchants can now list their products on shopping comparison sites such as Shopping.com, PriceGrabber, Shopzilla, MySimon, Beso, Bizrate and more. With an affordable pay-per-click model, these sites offer merchants a powerful way to drive thousands of extremely targeted visitors to their online stores.
* Automated Email Marketing: BigCommerce’s new “SmartList” technology allows online merchants to develop and manage a robust email marketing program with little time or effort. For example, merchants can now automate their email list development by creating rules that define how newsletter subscribers and customers are added to their email lists in MailChimp. This means that someone who just purchased an Apple product can be automatically added to an “Apple Customers” list and at the same time removed from the “Non-Customers” list. Merchants can also set up auto-responders and automated promotions in MailChimp to follow up with customers and share a coupon code after their purchase.

In addition to these sales and marketing features, BigCommerce 6.0 also offers new capabilities that streamline the process of operating and managing an ecommerce business:

* Clickstream analytics: New “Customers who viewed this product also viewed…” feature allows merchants to look at the way their site visitors interact with and search for products to increase conversion rates and keep shoppers in their online store longer.
* Integration with Shipworks: Three-click integration with Shipworks allows customers to manage their UPS, USPS and FedEx shipping labels, rates, quotes and packages quickly and easily.
* Pre-order functionality: Accept pre-orders for products and easily find and ship orders containing those items when the products are released.
* Advanced tax rate calculations: Create multiple tax rates which can be “stacked”, a key requirement for companies selling internationally and even dealing with local state and county taxes.
* Minimum/maximum order quantity: Merchants can now set a minimum or maximum order quantity required to purchase each product.
* Picnik.com integration: Edit product photos directly from the BigCommerce control panel using Picnik.com, the world’s most popular web-based image editing software.

“Like salesforce.com did for CRM, BigCommerce is innovating at a pace which other ecommerce platforms simply cannot match. We built useful, innovative features that would typically only be found in seven-figure enterprise offerings like GSI Commerce. These features help our merchants make more money and compete head-on with the Goliaths in their respective industries,” added Harper.

Enterprise Features at a Small Business Price

With packages starting at just $24.95 per month, BigCommerce 6.0 gives tomorrow’s ecommerce leaders an integrated set of advanced capabilities that allow them to quickly and affordably grow their business online.

“The old days of paying more for enterprise features are dead. The Internet, and especially SaaS, has leveled the playing field, and we want all BigCommerce merchants to have access to enterprise-level features that make them more successful, regardless of their industry, budget or experience,” said Eddie Machaalani, co-founder and co-CEO of BigCommerce.

ABOUT BIGCOMMERCE

BigCommerce is the fastest-growing ecommerce software platform in the world. A unique combination of enterprise-level features — including multi-channel retailing, automated email marketing and inventory control — and unmatched ease-of-use make BigCommerce the preferred ecommerce platform for both new and established businesses looking to outsell their competitors, reach their financial goals faster and automate as many business processes as possible. BigCommerce has been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, Practical Ecommerce and Internet Retailer. For more information or to try BigCommerce for free, go to http://www.bigcommerce.com.

SOURCE BigCommerce

As we’re very grateful for the business we’ve gained through Interspire’s hosted platform BigCommerce, we’re always on the lookout for new and great things they’re doing in the industry. Just so happens that they have made www.Inc.com’s 44th fastest growing company.

Considering Interspire started BigCommerce in August 2009 and has had a growth of 5,000%, there has to be something said for their Hosted e-commerce platform.

Read the report>>>

Well…It seems Mitch certainly comes out with some gems of information which is certainly valuable when developing your on-line store.

Profiling your prospective customer is really if one of the many tools you’ll need to measure your conversion of visitors into sales. Really though, it’s in the top 5 of important understandings to on-line marketing. The benefits of customer profiling allows you to really dial in your sales strategies and cart layout and focus more on the quality of sales vs. visitors. For example: say on an average day you sell 10 of one single product based on 100 unique visits. Ideally if you are able to capture the metrics of those who buy that product (they could all be different in their reason for buying, new customers, gift purchases, repeat customers etc…) you can now govern your website, newsletter, blog, facebook and twitter account to cater to more of that one product and customer type and intelligently know why they bought. I know this sounds very brief, but once you get going into measuring your conversations while maximizing profiling you’ll certainly see a much bigger picture.

That said, here’s Mitch’s video…….after watching Mitch’s video, please feel free to give us a call to discuss other main key components to creating a successful on-line store. here’ out BigCommerce Partner page to learn more about How Be A Part Of’s

Why choose Be A Part Of for BigCommerce

Simply put: Our stance is to be the best Internet Development Strategist for you by offering full consulting solutions and take an interest in getting to know your industry. We know you are not “a web guy” and need a solution to compliment your business. Our approach is unique and is results driven and we do this by maximizing our business acumen.

As there are many elements in developing a comprehensive on-line sales machine, without a selling structure you’re no different than anyone else. The following are the four most important elements we’re going to work on with you.

1. SEO. If you’re not being found, how will you sell?
2. USP (unique selling proposition) why you vs. them?
3. Call to action. Utilizing eye mapping and objection handling. If you’re not enticing the buyers mind set, you’re not selling, period!
4. ROI (Return on Investment)

There’s a lot more to be discussed to ensure you get the best solution for your company. To experience why we’re different, click here to speak with your personal Internet Development Strategist.

Customize. Customize. Customize…

We do not use any other cart, period! With so many shopping cart solutions out there, we found the BigCommerce platform to be the best solution. Sure we could custom code any free open source, but BigCommerce has more features, support beyond any others and is continually trying to be the best e-commerce solution on the market.

We are fortunate to have the skills and experience to custom code anything you may need. We can integrate your POS software, warehouse software, custom code calendars, complex calculators and so much more… We’re here to help you gain the best web site you want for your business that will make you money.

Why we’re a partner?

We are an Interspire Partner because we have been selling Interspire solutions since v3.0 came out almost 3 years ago. We have been working on their platform and have seen every version they have brought to market and added their other products and integrate them into solutions that suit you. We are a partner because we get it, we customize it and we love it!

Marketing, SEO and Branding… Whaaa?

You are looking to your BigCommerce web site to be a serious money machine to generate a sustainable income that you can count on. So why would you ever leave the most important part out? We, will find a solution for you that allows us to maintain branding, incorporate SEO and develop a marketing strategy for you… don’t worry if you don’t know what I just said, we will explain it to you and help you along!

Repeat customers with Email Marketing

You’re now generating sales on-line! However, you need the tool(s) to get your message and new inventory out there for repeat customers. The sure fire way is e-mail marketing! To learn more on how to maximize e-mail marketing , give us a call and speak with your personal Internet Development Strategist.

I was asked a question about our relationship with BigCommerce from our new customer – thanks to BigCommerce – where after reading our last posts he mentioned he was unsure if we were able to handle his request as our relationship with BigCommerce is very new, or it appears to be. I answered, “yes, the relationship with BigCommerce is new, but we have been building Interspire shopping carts for almost 3 years now, which is the exact same company and we were approached by BigCommerce to join their BigCommerce Design Network as we were already a partner for their Interspire shoppingcart. Without hesitation, we said yes. We know it and we love it and do not offer any other solutions for e-commerce. Sure we can custom code anything you would like. But Interspire/BigCommerce has done it all, so why reinvent the wheel?

Through the inquires we have received we have found that little know where BigCommerce came from.  So, I felt it would be a good idea to introduce you to the Interspire Shoppingcart, which is the platform BigCommerce is built on. In short, they are the exact same company. Except, BigCommerce is a SaaS (software as a service) and Interspire is best utilized for custom development and programming for elements of your web site which BigCommerce does not allow and you’ll own the license to Interspire. Things like POS software integration, warehouse inventory integration, custom product fields per product, other API’s and so on… are some of the tasks which are limited with BigCommerce. However, if you enjoy the BigCommerce platform Interspire is the exact same, just with customizable freedom.

Who is Interspire

Interspire is a privately owned company which develops content management, shopping cart, knowledge management and email marketing software used by more than 40,000 organizations worldwide including fortune 500 companies (Intel, Shell, GE), enterprise organizations (Virgin, Ubisoft, Monster.com) and also thousands of small/medium businesses and digital agencies. Read more>>>

Who Is BigCommerce

Learn how to sell online with BigCommerce. Start by bookmarking this page. When you complete a step below, click its checkbox and it will be marked as complete.

Choose what you’re going to sell online

The first step is to decide what you’re going to sell online. If you already have a bricks and mortar store then you may simply want to sell your existing products online. Learn more>>>