No. You can use
Commerce Manager to sell products directly across existing
Internet marketplaces and auctions. The Commerce Manager
Product Gallery is one of the quickest ways to display
products on the Internet, and it requires neither a personal
Web site nor any additional tools.
Q.
What is the
Product Gallery feature in Commerce Manager?
A.
The Product Gallery
feature in Commerce Manager can be used to create an online
shopping area of your products. Using simple on-screen
instructions to create an online product catalog, add the
Product Gallery marketplace and list products on your
Gallery. Commerce Manager will then automatically create an
Internet address that allows your customers to access and
buy your products.
Q.
Does Commerce
Manager provide secure transactions for my customers?
A.
Every customer
visiting your Web site to purchase goods uses Commerce
Manager's security-enhanced shopping cart and payment
system.
Q.
How can I use
Microsoft FrontPage and Commerce Manager together?
A.
There are two ways
to use Microsoft FrontPage with Commerce Manager:
•
You can
create a link from your FrontPage-based Web page to your
Commerce Manager Product Gallery. Your shoppers will
click the link and be able to view and purchase products
directly from your Gallery.
•
After subscribing to Microsoft Commerce Manager, you
can download the Commerce Manager add-in for free.
After you install the add-in, you can use FrontPage
in conjunction with Commerce Manager to create
customized e-commerce Web sites that help you link
your site to your e-commerce site.
Q.
I have the
Microsoft FrontPage Commerce Manager add-in and I noticed it
takes a long time to upload my product information. Is there
any way to speed up this process?
A.
In response to high
user interest, the Commerce Manager add-in for FrontPage has
been upgraded. The current version, Version 2, is faster and
easier to use than the previous version, Version 1. Even
with the improvements, the time it takes the wizard to do
its work depends on your Internet connection speed and on
the capability of your computer. Very large catalogs will
take longer to retrieve and generate.
Use the following table to estimate how long it will take to
retrieve product data from Commerce Manager:
T1 (1,000 Kbps)
DSL (512 Kbps)
ISDN (128 Kbps)
56.6 Kbps
50 products
10 sec
23 sec
45 sec
100 products>
8 sec
19 sec
28 sec
250 products
16 sec
28 sec
1 min 30 sec
500 products
18 sec
28 sec
3 min 29 sec
1,000 products
32 sec
55 sec
6 min 22 sec
The times shown in the table below are for generating final
catalog pages, based on a Pentium II with a 400-MHz
processor and 128 MB of memory. If your computer is faster
or slower than the test computer, your times will differ
from the examples below.
Products Generation Time:
Products
Generation Time
50 products
40 sec
100 products
1 min 20 sec
250 products
4 min 33 sec
500 products
17 min 10 sec
1,000 products
1 hr 4 min 12 sec
Q.
Is there a limit to
the number of products I can have in my catalog?
A.
You can include up
to 10,000 items in your online catalog.
Q.
How do coupons
work?
A.
1.
You create the coupon
and advertise it to your customers. Each coupon includes
a unique coupon code that you create.
2.
Your customers
enter the coupon code in the shopping cart during
checkout.
3.
Commerce Manager
applies the discounts you've specified for that
coupon and charges your customer the discounted
price.
4.
Details of the
coupon used in that order are included as a separate
line item in the shopping cart, invoices, and online
order status page.
Q.
What types of
coupons can be created?
A.
You can create
coupons that allow your customers to redeem:
•
A
dollar amount off the order (for example, $10 off the
order)
•
A
percentage off the order (for example, 10% off the
order)
•
Free shipping (you select which shipping method you
wish to offer free shipping on)
•
Combined: dollar amount off the order and free
shipping (for example, $10 off the order and free
ground shipping)
•
Combined: percentage off the order and free shipping
(for example, 10% off the order and free ground
shipping)
In addition to the above scenarios, you can specify that the
coupon applies to certain products only. For example, if you
wish to run a special on your shoes, you can create a coupon
that applies to just those products. Specific scenarios
include:
•
A
dollar amount off selected products. You choose which
products are eligible for the discount. The shopping
cart will require that at least one of those products be
purchased for the order to be eligible to use that
coupon. NOTE: If the cost of the product is less
than the offer made in the coupon, then the shopping
cart will deduct up to the original cost of the product.
For example, if you create a coupon for $10 off all
shoes, and your customer adds a $5 pair of shoes to the
cart, then the order subtotal will be $0, not -$5.
•
A
percentage off selected products (for example, 10%
off all shoes). You choose which products are
eligible for this discount. The shopping cart will
deduct the specified percentage off of those
products only. Products in the cart that are not
eligible will be offered at the full price.
•
Free shipping can be offered with each of the above
scenarios as well.
Q.
How do I give
coupons to my customers?
A.
For your customers
to redeem coupons in your shopping cart, they will need the
coupon code. A coupon code is a unique code that you assign
to each of the coupons you create. You can include the
coupon code in email that you send to your customers, post
it on your Web site, include it in a physical mailing, or
propagate it by word of mouth. When your customers place an
order with you, they will enter the coupon code in the
shopping cart during the checkout process to redeem the
offer. When advertising your coupon, you should make the
terms of your coupon clear, such as any purchase minimums or
which products are valid for that particular offer.
