Frequently Asked Questions
Here you will find answers to frequently asked questions regarding our integrated ecommerce solution.
You can also consult our brand new knowledgebase.
If you have a question and don't find the answer here please contact us for a quick answer.
Pricing
How much does it cost?
What do I get for my money?
If the software is open source, what am I paying for?
Will it cost me more when my business grows?
Can I cancel when I want?
Hosting
Can I use my own domain name?
What if I don't have a domain name?
Can I use this solution in conjunction with my website?
Can I manage my on-line shop from anywhere?
Are email addresses included in the price?
Is it easy to upgrade?
Is the hosting secure?
Setup
How long does it take before I can use my shop?
Do I need any technical knowledge to set up my shop?
Can I integrate this solution with my existing website?
Can I import data from other sources?
Can I secure my shop with an SSL certificate?
Design
Can I change the look and feel of my shop?
Can I change the overall design?
Can 1st4webshops help me with designing my shop?
Order Processing
Do I need a merchant account?
Do I need a PayPal account?
What payment types can I accept?
Can I take recurring payments?
Do I need an SSL certificate to take payments
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Can I optimise my shop for search engines?
Can 1st4webshops help me with SEO?
Shop Operations
What happens when I get an order?
How do I know how sales are going?
Mailing List Manager
How does this work with my shop?
Can I import addresses from other sources?
Will my list members have to opt-in again?
How many lists can I have?
Autoresponders
How do these work with my shop?
Can I import addresses?
How many autoresponders can I have?
Affiliate Program
How does this work with my shop?
Can I control my commissions?
Can I control the cookies?
How many affiliates can I have?
Answers
Pricing
Our integrated ecommerce solution includes the complete set of features and is scalable so it can grow as your business grows. The 'Standard' solution comprises 1GB of disk space and 10GB/Month bandwidth, more than enough to satisfy the requirements of most on-line store owners. If you need more disk space then our 'Premium' solution gives you 3GB. Please see our pricing here. If your business grows and you require more disk space and/or more bandwidth then you can easily upgrade for a small increase in cost. Please contact us with your requirements.
Our integrated ecommerce solution is built using 3 leading open source applications: Zen Cart, phplist and Infinite Responder that we have brought together to create an integrated solution. We set up and host the solution on our servers along with the database and email accounts required for operation so you get a fully functional, integrated ecommerce solution allowing you to sell your products on-line, build your mailing lists and stay in touch with clients and prospects via autoresponder series. On top of this we offer you support and will be there to answer your questions and help you if you need it.
If the software is open source, what am I paying for?
The software powering this solution is open source, hence free to use. What you are paying for is the hosting and ongoing support.
Will it cost me more when my business grows?
That depends on the nature of the products you sell and the amount of traffic your shop generates. If your business grows and your products are such that you stay within the 1GB of disk space and 1GB/Month bandwidth then it will not cost you more. If the nature of your products is such, e.g. large PDF, video or audio downloads, then more products will increase the amount of disk space you require to store them on the server and increased sales will increase the amount of bandwidth used when your customers download them. If this causes you to require more than 1GB disk space and/or 1GB/Month bandwidth then you will need to upgrade for a small increase in cost. Please contact us for details.
Yes. We want to make it easy for people to start their own on-line shop without the fear of taking a significant financial hit if it doesn't work out. To achieve this we offer our integrated ecommerce solution on a 3 month basis. When you sign up you pay for 3 months. If things don't work out you can cancel at any time before the end of the 3rd month simply by sending us an email or giving us a call. As our prices are so small we do not make any refunds. This helps us to keep our processes simple and our costs down meaning we can keep our prices small.
Hosting
Yes. If you have a domain name you want to use for your shop we can set up hosting for this domain name on our servers. We will provide you with the name server names so you can enter these into the record you have with your registrar for this domain name so it will point to your shop on our server.
What if I don't have a domain name?
If you don't have a domain name you want to use for your shop or your domain name is currently used for your site hosted on another server, we can set up hosting for your shop on our servers using a name chosen by you as a subdomain of 1st4webshops.com e.g. my-domain-name.1st4webshops.com.
Can I use this solution in conjunction with my website?
Yes. If you already have a website we can set up your shop as described in the answer to 'What if I don't have a domain name?' above and you can then simply point to your shop either from a link in the main menu or links from the pages on your site.
Can I manage my on-line shop from anywhere?
Yes. All administrator access is web based so as long as you have an Internet connection and your usernames and passwords to hand you can manage your shop.
Are email addresses included in the price?
Yes. All email addresses necessary for operating your shop and handling mailing list and autoresponder bounces are included.
Yes. If you need to upgrade we can arrange this quickly for a small increase in fees.
Yes. Our servers are with a reputable company and situated in the Melbourne datacentre in Manchester Technopark. See details.
Setup
How long does it take before I can use my shop?
Once we have received your payment it will take us a couple of hours maximum to set up your account on our servers. Once it is set up we will email you with all links, usernames and passwords and you can begin using your shop right away. Please be aware that setting up your account on our servers is a manual rather then an automated task so this time frame can be longer outside regular UK office hours, weekends and public holidays. We will email you on receipt of your payment indicating when you can expect your account to be set up.
Do I need any technical knowledge to set up my shop?
No. Everything you need to do to brand your shop with your logo, set up products, upload files etc. can be done via clicking buttons and working with text/HTML editors.
Can I integrate this solution with my existing website?
Yes. If you already have a website you can simply point to your shop either from a link in the main menu or links from the pages on your site.
Can I import data from other sources?
Yes. You can import email addresses exported from other applications as csv files. There are video tutorials showing how to do this.
Can I secure my shop with an SSL certificate?
Yes. You can source this certificate yourself or we can help you. Once you have your certificate we will need to install this for you. Please contact us for pricing. To secure your shop with an SSL certificate requires that it has its own dedicated IP address. To avoid any downtime due to IP address change it is best to advise us of your desire to purchase and install an SSL certificate at the point of order.
Design
Can I change the look and feel of my shop?
Yes. You can upload your own logo that will automatically appear in the header of your shop, mailing list manager and autoresponder. You can change the position of any of the sideboxes, or even whether they are visible or not, and control all the advert positions from the admin side of your shop. There are also 22 templates for you to choose from.
Can I change the overall design?
It is possible to change the overall design. Please contact us for details.
Can 1st4webshops help me with designing my shop?
Yes. If you are looking for a specific design we can help you. Please contact us for details.
Order Processing
No. You don't need a merchant account. Our integrated ecommerce solution comes with, amongst others, modules for PayPal Website Payment Standard, Website Payment Pro, Express Checkout and Google Checkout. The advantage of using PayPal & Google Checkout is that they handle all credit card information on their servers removing the requirement for your shop to comply with some strict requirements regarding the collection, storage and use of credit card information. If you use PayPal Website Payment Standard there are no monthly fees, meaning you only pay when you make a sale, and their commissions on sales are not excessive. Website Payment Pro and Express Checkout carry monthly fees payable to PayPal.
No. If you have a merchant account you don't need a PayPal account. If you want to use PayPal as your payment handler then you do need a PayPal account. If you want to use PayPal as your payment handler you will need either a Premium or Business account.
What payment types can I accept?
You have the possibility to accept a number of payment types including bank transfer, payment against invoice etc. though the most commonly used are credit card and PayPal payments via the PayPal module.
Can I take recurring payments?
Currently it is not possible to set your shop up to send recurring payment data to your payment processor. Depending on your payment processor it may be possible to set up recurring payments.
Do I need an SSL certificate to take payments?
No. You do not need an SSL certificate to accept payments as, when the payment is made, the customer is transferred to the payment processor's server which has its own certificate and the transaction is secure. We do however recommend you to install an SSL certificate as this can increase customer confidence when shopping and protects the data they enter when registering etc.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Can I optimise my shop for search engines?
Yes. You can set the page title, keywords and descriptions individually for each category and product as well as ensuring the keywords appear in the product description so you have full control over SEO for your products.
Can 1st4webshops help me with SEO?
Yes we can help you with SEO. Please contact us for details.
Shop Operations
What happens when I get an order?
When an order is placed the shop owner will receive a copy of the order confirmation email sent to the customer. You will also receive a payment notification from PayPal if you are using PayPal as your payment processor.
How do I know how sales are going?
There are a number of reports available to you on the admin side so you can keep track of orders and sales.
Mailing List Manager
How does this work with my shop?
When a customer makes a purchase their details are entered into a 'Customers' list and also into one or more 'Product' lists depending on which products they purchased, even if these products are free. This allows you to email all you customers or select which to email depending on the products they purchased.
Can I import addresses from other sources?
Yes. Email address, name and other information can be imported using csv files created by the export of data from other applications. There are video tutorials showing how to do this.
Will my list members have to opt-in again?
No. It is not necessary to have your list members opt-in again when you import them into the mailing list manager. This is a great advantage when moving a list from another provider as you don't lose half your list.
In principle unlimited, though we do expect there could be practical issues if the number of lists was many hundreds or thousands and with a large number of lists, users, messages and bounces there will be an implication on disk space.
Autoresponders
How do these work with my shop?
You can create many autoresponder series with many messages in each and assign up to 3 autoresponders to each product. When a customer purchases a product to which one or more autoresponders is assigned, their name and email details will be added to that autoresponder and they will begin to receive the messages in the series. You have full control over the message content and the timing when the messages go out. There are video tutorials showing how to do this.
Yes. Email address, name and other information can be imported using csv files created by the export of data from other applications. There are video tutorials showing how to do this.
How many autoresponders can I have?
In principle unlimited, though we do expect there could be practical issues if the number of lists was many hundreds or thousands and with a large number of lists and messages there will be an implication on disk space.
Affiliate Program
How does this work with my shop?
You set up your affiliate program to include the categories or products you want to offer to your affiliates and with a default commission rate that will be applied to all new affiliates you authorise after they sign up. There is a help page explaining how to do this.
Authorised affiliates are automatically assigned an affiliate ID that forms part of their affiliate link which is available to them via the affiliate link on your shop once they have logged in. Affiliates promote your products using this link and any potential customer arriving at your shop via such a link will have a cookie set in their browser, if their broswer allows the setting of cookies. If it does not, then a temporary cookie is set for the duration of the session. Any sales made whilst the cookie is set will be attributed to the affiliate who's ID is in the cookie and the appropriate commission will be recorded in their account along with the details of the sale.
Yes. You have full control over your commission rates. You can set commission rates globally, by category, by product or by affiliate. There is a powerful override system whereby you can cause, for example, a particular product's commission rate to override all other rates or a particular affiliate's commission rate to override all other rates. There is a help page explaining how to do this.
Yes. You have full control over the cookies you set. You can set the duration cookies remain active globally or by affiliate. There is a powerful override system whereby you can cause, for example, the duration a particular affiliate's cookies remain active to override the global setting. You can also cause an affiliate's cookie to be removed from the client's browser the next time they visit using that affiliate's link. There is a help page explaining how to do this.
How many affiliates can I have?
In principle you can have as many as you want though we do expect there could be practical issues if the number of affiliates was many hundreds or thousands as there will be an implication on disk space.
