Intuit, a small business solution provider of such tools as Quickbooks and Turbo Tax, also has a great turn-key ecommerce product, SimpleStore. It is a way to turn your webpage into an online store, which can be used in conjunction with an existing Intuit website builder tool. Similar to the many other ecommerce software providers out there, Intuit SimpleStore gives a user the following:
- A Personalized Domain
- Easy to use design templates
- Ability to sell up to 100 products
- Email accounts
- Reports
- Disk space and Bandwidth
- Web payment and shopping cart
As of December 5, 2011, it added a new Facebook feature, free for existing Intuit websites customers. SimpleStore for Facebook allows a user to sync their merchant website to their business’ Facebook page. It adds a tab to the right-hand side of the Facebook menu and visitors can click the “store” tab and begin to shop immediately. The Facebook store and the website store are one in the same, so all updates made to the actual web-based store are automatically shown on the Facebook page. One of the major benefits of the syncing is allowing customers to make shopping cart payments directly on Facebook.
SimpleStore Pros:
SimpleStore offers the typical features of an ecommerce solution, with the exception of the new Facebook syncing tool. This is a real competitive solution for an entrepreneur looking to sell to customers at every possible entry point. In addition, users get Intuit’s live customer service. So any issues that may pop-up can quickly be resolved.
SimpleStore Cons:
In order to use SimpleStore and its seamless Facebook application, a user must already subscribe to
Intuit’s website services in addition to the SimpleStore service. A basic website cost with Intuit starts at the $7.99 per month range. The SimpleStore ecommerce solution would not be compatible with another web service provider like GoDaddy. So unlike an ecommerce provider like Fortune3, which allows you to use their ecommerce platform wherever your website is hosted, SimpleStore only works with an Intuit website. This could prove a deal breaker for those who already have a current website they are happy with.
SimpleStore Costs:
SimpleStore offers a free 30-day trial and then becomes $34.98 per month. This doesn’t include any additional website hosting costs for using Intuit website services, which you must subscribe with Intuit. The SimpleStore for Facebook feature comes free with any Intuit Websites subscription.
