ProStores Enhances Its Shopping Cart, Inventory Management and Other e-Commerce Options in Latest Release

Release date: October 05, 2005  /  Print This     RSS    

SAN JOSE, CALIF., October 5, 2005 – New and enhanced inventory management capabilities, expanded shopping-cart options, integration with eBay tools, and more flexibility for images are among some of the new features in ProStores 6.0, the newest version of the Web storefront solution released today. ProStores, an eBay company, enables small and medium-size businesses to establish full-featured, customized e-commerce sites quickly and cost effectively, providing products from the basic ten-item Express tier up to unlimited Business, Advanced or Enterprise stores.

“The 6.0 ProStores incorporates feedback from our merchants and reflects the expanded features they seek,” said Chris Tsakalakis, senior director of stores and platforms for eBay Inc. “We’ve extended some advanced functions into lower product tiers and have made the shopping experience even easier and more flexible at all levels.”

Inventory management is one of the new version’s key enhancements, available in the Express and Business tiers. While the initial ProStores solution, launched in July 2005, offered inventory management for Advanced and Enterprise packages, the new release enables Express store owners to list a small inventory of up to ten unique items. In the Business tier, owners now are able to indicate the exact quantities of each item that are available. With higher tiers, store owners can list quantities by a variety of attributes, such as size or color.

The ease of the shopping experience has been improved to allow for fast and easy customer checkout, enabling shoppers to purchase on the site without registering. The store owner now can choose to require registration, allow anonymous checkout or let the customer decide. The registration feature aids returning or regular shoppers and automatically recalls their billing and shipping information.

The shopping experience has been made easier by allowing users to access their shopping cart from anywhere on the site and providing the ability to add and delete items easily. Shoppers also can enter a ZIP code to see the shipping cost of an item prior to checkout.

For store owners, displaying products is simplified by a new feature that automatically generates a thumbnail version of the uploaded product photo.

Integration of ProStores with eBay Stores also has been enhanced, allowing owners to import numerous photos of a particular product from eBay. As before, only one photo will show in the catalog, but links to the other photos will appear within the description area.

Recognizing the crucial importance of search-engine optimization for e-commerce sites, ProStores 6.0 includes extensive tips for merchants to help them improve their store’s position in search-engine results. It also offers the option of letting ProStores automatically optimize the site’s design templates, product pages and search results.

Quick reference guides to aid ProStores owners’ business decisions by offering them cross-marketing information have been added to the site. The guides explain how eBay and comparison shopping sites work so merchants can decide if they want to link their listings to such sites.

Because all ProStores sites and all software related to ProStores are hosted on ProStores’ own servers, every merchant site will be upgraded automatically and without additional charge when version 6.0 is loaded on its application servers. Store owners will be notified of upgrades through an e-mail newsletter and through a message that appears in the control panel where store owners log on to their sites.

Additional ProStores upgrades are scheduled to be launched every quarter through 2006, with the next release planned for February.

About ProStores

ProStores, an eBay Company, allows small- and medium-sized businesses to create a professional online store, customized with their own branding and domain name. ProStores became an eBay company in November 2004, followed by eBay’s acquisition of Kurant’s StoreSense technology in January 2005. For more information about ProStores visit www.prostores.com.

About eBay Inc.

Founded in 1995, eBay pioneers communities built on commerce, sustained by trust, and inspired by opportunity. eBay enables ecommerce on a local, national and international basis with an array of websites – including the eBay Marketplace, PayPal, Kijiji, Rent.com and Shopping.com – that bring together millions of buyers and sellers every day.