Letting "real people" add their own unsolicited testimonials about a product can be a useful way to boost sales -- it's an important part of what has made Amazon.com a success. But how does an e-commerce entrepreneur add this feature to their site?

Does anybody out there know of any software packages that would allow customers to "rate" or "review" products, and easily integrate into existing shopping cart software? I currently have an online store using Kurant's StoreSense shopping cart.

I probably get at least 10 requests per week from customers who would like to read other customer reviews of items I sell. Unfortunately, Kurant will not support this functionality as soon as I need it... they specified that it's "on their list" but probably at least 2 years away. I sure need this soon to stay competitive!

Veteran Forums member walterweeks recommended Amazon.com Web Services as a possible solution.

Since I have not yet implemented a project using Amazon.com's Web services, that could be an option. From my understanding, you have XML access to their data possibly including customer product ratings. Amazon.com has a free API (application programming interface) that is freely downloadable.

But walterweeks also conceded that it's unlikely that Amazon would allow a Web site to borrow its data without using it for selling.

The only real issue with the API is the end-user license agreement; the data obtained from Amazon.com might have to be used in conjunction with selling actual items. In other words, you might not be able to get the rating information without selling their wares.

But having all of those user ratings ready-made by Amazon.com would be so nice. I'm sure they wouldn't like people taking their data without having an opportunity to make a sale. However, it is probably worth a little bit of investigation.

User GIS1 weighed in as well, suggesting that jen_90069 look into OSCommerce (incidentally the subject of a recent ECommerce-Guide.com profile, and an upcoming in-depth review.)

I am looking for the same type of software, and I have found nothing specific to rating and reviewing products. I know that osCommerce -- an open-source, powerful e-commerce package -- allows users to write reviews, but I don't know of any stand- alone software that does this.

Other members suggested Nexternal, ShopScript and BaskWeb.

Another new poster, site-report, added that custom-building a solution could be the answer.

What shopping cart are you using at the moment? What platform are you using? ASP/PHP? Do you have coding experience?

In reality, adding a review system yourself wouldn't be too difficult if you had some ASP or PHP experience. Assuming that your cart uses a database that you have access to, you could add an additional table, Reviews, with the following fields:

• ID integer autoincrement
• ProductCode - reference to the product being reviewed
• ReviewTitle - the title of the review
• ReviewDetail - detailed of the review
• RatingValue - 1 star, 2 stars, etc
• DateSubmitted - date the review was submitted
• EmailAddress - email address of reviewer
• Status - whether the review has been approved

You would then need a form for visitors to enter this information, a page to process it and store it in the database and a page (or page snippet) to present the reviews for a particular product. You would also need a password protected admin interface to edit, approve, disapprove and delete reviews.

Any experiences or further suggestions to share with jen_90069? Be sure to stop by the forums and share your thoughts on the subject.



Drop Shipping
One of our new members, Dino22, raises the question of how to start an online business by selling good while outsourcing inventory and fulfillment. While the process has different names (ranging from a form of affiliate marketing to drop shipping,) it can be daunting knowing how to get started.

I'm interested in starting an online store. Is it possible to use other vendor's products by picking and choosing specific products to sell on my own site or do I have to use wholesaler distributor's or affiliates? If so, how would I go about it? Thanks!

Veteran member landisnet suggested:

Sure! It's called "drop-shipping". You can fully automate the process or do it manually with email.

Landisnet recommended drop shipping and wholesalers including 123DropShip.com.

But Rational Beaver warned Dino22 about the looming presence of too-good-to-be-true ploys.

Be careful when getting started. There's plenty of great scams out there. You might want to read this thread as well.

Any experiences or further suggestions to share with Dino22? Be sure to stop by the forums and share your thoughts on the subject.