These questions are asked frequently by prospective clients. If you have a question about anything, please feel free to call us at 239-481-9789, or contact us by email.
What does it take to run the online store site?
It really doesn't take a whole lot of technical ability to run an Strictly Stores online store.
The more experience that you have will alllow you to do more with your site.
Essentially, you should be familiar with how auction sites work in general, HTML source code, and be able to FTP (transfer files).
We are happy to teach you what you need to know during training.
What are the keys for success for an online store?
The big question. Obviously the whole point of running a site is to make it a profitable experience.
It's been our observation that it really comes down to 4 key points.
- 1. Strong First Impression to site visitors with Professional Graphics and Design.
- 2. Online Store software with the appropriate features, and easy to use.
- 3. Products are available to sell.
- 4. Buyers are present to purchase the items for sale.
By working with us, points 1 and 2 are certainly taken care of. Our professional design is included with the Getting Started Package, and will certainly please both you and your visitors. Our online store software is used every day across the many sites using our software. But the key points are really do you have items for the site, and people to buy them? Without items for sale and people to buy them, your site will never succeed. Talk to us about this as we have definite ideas that can help you.
Do I have to host on your servers?
Yes, it is required to host your site on our servers. The site includes
access to the online store program, but does not include source code.
That's how we can keep our prices so low. By hosting on our servers you
will receive free upgrades to the program and our watchful eyes over
your site and your data.
But I already have a website?
Thats OK, you have two options. You can move your domain to our servers,
where we can host that for you and insert the online store into your
existing site. OR, you can leave your site where it is, and use links
in your navigation to switch to the auction server. We can configure
the online store to look exactly like your original site if you wish.
People would never know they left your website.
What type of servers host the sites?
The servers vary, but all of our servers are configured with at least 2 Gig of Memory, dual Gig processors and Ultra 2 SCSI drives running Raid.
The servers are Unix, running Apache and Red Hat.
What about backups?
We highly recommend that you perform a backup of your web pages,
templates, images and so forth that are used on our servers.
We also backup changed files daily to a separate server, and
weekly perform a complete backup.
What happens if I exceed my allotted bandwidth or server space?
The biggest fear people have is that their site will be disabled if these
limits are exceeded. That is NOT the case. Your site will continue to
operate. We will review your account and contact you to discuss a plan
of action.
Do I have to link back to anything?
Your site is self contained, meaning that all of the links included in
the navigation are set by you, and we do not require any links back to
us as the software provider.
Featured Sites
Clean Sweep Auctions has been with Auction Express and Strictly Stores since 2000. Clean Sweep runs monthly auctions of high end sportscards and memorabilia, with 4 major auctions per year. Clean sweep also uses our online store software to sell more than 25,000 items online. To make this possible, we have created a custom listing process for Clean Sweep that allows them to export their inventory from the own database, and update the inventory automatically.
Strictly Mint Vintage Sportscards is our own Online Store, running the Ultimate Sportscard Store package. Strictly Mint has an inventory of over 20,000 cards online, and posts store inventory directly to eBay. The Strictly Mint store communicates with the eBay store, running items concurrently and updating each store as itrems are sold.
My Dolly Dearest is one of the premeire vintage doll sellers anywhere, and has been with us from the very beginning back in 1997.
Vanity Fair Prints has been with us since 2001. Originally running our Auction Express Software, vanity Fair Prints found that their inventory was more suited to an online store. The conversion was a success, and vanity Fair Prints is going strong!
Beanies 4 You has been with us since the early days as a seller on our Strictly Bids auction site, then as a hosted website. In 2003 Beanies 4 You converted to the Online Store software, with amazing results. The Beanies 4 You store calculates shipping with a connection to the USPS server, and also transacts it's credit card payments directly with Authorize.net.
