Shop Right
Together, Verio and ShopSite form an effective team and integrating ShopSite into its hosting solutions was a brilliant move on the part of Verio. ShopSite is intuitive and easy to use and allows anyone to use the entry-level "Starter" version to build a basic site. The process involves selecting a template that defines a look and feel; customizing a few color combinations; adding products and related information and then publishing the site. The resulting sites are attractive and professional.

Once a site is live, managing it via ShopSite is equally straight-forward. For this, ShopSite offers clear menus and screens to edit products, view sales, monitor statistics and more. And beyond tools to quickly build and publish online stores, there are powerful customization features in higher order ShopSite versions that will appeal to advanced users.

ShopSite offers an intuitive means to create and publish an e-commerce site and manage the sales process. (Click for larger image.)

Meanwhile, ShopSite handles all the e-commerce tasks associated with setting up and running a Web shop. It conducts secure online transactions; integrates with Google Checkout, as well as supports Visa CISP/PABP validation, PayPal and eBay auctions. It also works with Fedex to handle shipping. In addition, ShopSite offers sophisticated features such as product searches, pricing that's based on volume, customer registration and more.

The ShopSite shopping cart comes as part of Verio's E-Commerce Hosting Plans that include: eStorefront Starter, Estorefront for Windows, eStorefront Business, eStorefront Manager and eStorefront Professional. With three different versions of ShopSite: Starter, Manager and Pro and Verio's various hosting plans, the mix is often confusing. But as you would expect, the higher the hosting plan, the more sophisticated the ShopSite version and the stronger the e-commerce selling and management features.

Starting Out
As the name implies, Verio's entry level hosting service, eStorefront Starter, which comes with 5.0 GB of space and is priced at $20.95 per month, is designed for businesses that are beginning to sell goods online. The higher version eStorefront Business offers 10.0 GB of space and is priced at $28.95 per month. Both services are limited to 15 products. Estorefront for Windows, offers 20.0 GB of space and comparable e-commerce limitations with support for ASP.NET 2.0 and is priced at $24.95 per month.

Verio's new plans offer flexibility and room to grow. (Click for larger image.)

All three entry-level plans come with the ShopSite Starter shopping cart and support a number of popular processing gateways and services that include: PayPal, Authorize.Net, and WorldPay. If you're testing the online waters, these plans are a good beginning option.

Managing the Business
With each ascending level, you can not only sell more products and use more pages to tell customers about them, you gain additional management and pricing capabilities and more powerful tools to control the look and feel of your online catalog. The next level eStorefront Manager E-commerce comes with ShopSite Manager, which allows you to search for products to make adjustments or update prices. And if you want to incorporate online sales into Intuit's QuickBooks, you can download order information into the accounting program.

"Manager" also offers conveniences for shoppers. You can choose whether customers view a confirmation page to review their orders and payment information before final check-out. And once an order is placed, the system can send them e-mail receipts.

Mark of the Pro
At the high-end, Verio's eStorefront Professional E-commerce hosting plan comes with ShopSite Pro, which encompasses all of the features found in ShopSite Manager and comes with more robust features. Instead of changing prices individually, ShopSite Pro can edit the prices of several items at once. Simply highlight the products, select the "edit universally" option and type in a discount rate (say 10 percent). ShopSite automatically calculates the new prices and updates the catalog.

An inventory tracking module sends you e-mail alerts when products are low in stock and can limit sales so you don't oversell limited-edition products or those that you are phasing out. It also supports quantity discounts.

Another stand-out feature creates coupons for products or entire orders and ties discounts to minimum orders. Coupons may be attached to outgoing e-mails, displayed in banner ads or placed on pages within an online store. The system also supports coupon codes so customers may type them in on shopping cart screens and apply them.

Customers can register with ShopSite Pro to make ordering faster as the system can recall their shipping addresses and preferred payment methods. You can also assign customers to different customer groups and distribute discounts as you wish.

Beyond Verio's family of e-commerce hosting plans that rely on ShopSite, the company also offers various plans to design and build Web sites for clients that start at $199 down and $34.95 per month (with a 12 month commitment). Verio also offers a wide range of Web hosting solutions that can accommodate just about any business.

What's in e-Store?
For your e-commerce and online catalog needs, you probably can't go wrong with Verio as it offers a wide range of hosting services that rely on the comprehensive ShopSite shopping cart. Verio wisely chose not to reinvent the e-commerce wheel so it could concentrate on its hosting services.

By the way, a Web search on Verio revealed that some subscribers have been less than happy with the service. This could be a vocal minority or an indication of a problem. However, Verio was announced as a runner up in Small Business Computing's "Best Products of the Year" for Web hosting provider, a positive sign, and this reviewer found the product to be worthy. eStorefront Starter is priced at $20.95 per month. Estorefront for Windows is priced at $24.95 per month. eStorefront Business is priced at $28.95 per month. eStorefront Manager is priced at $44.95 per month. eStorefront Professional is priced at $74.95 per month.