Online stores asked to shift sites

By ADAM GIFFORD

Esolutions is pulling the plug on one of the earliest attempts to bring electronic commerce to the masses, the Telecom Xtra BusinessBuilder service.

It is encouraging customers to migrate to a less configurable Microsoft solution for a similar price, abandoning whatever look and feel they have built into their sites.

BusinessBuilder, which used electronic storefront software from the German company Intershop Communications, was launched with much hoopla early in 1998.

For a $1250 set-up fee and $179 a month, retailers could list up to 500 products on an online store with secure payment built in. For $499 a month they could list up to 5000 products.

Responsibility for BusinessBuilder moved to esolutions when Telecom, Microsoft and EDS set that organisation up.

Esolutions has told remaining customers, who number fewer than 100, that the server will be switched off on Friday.

Customers were given the option of shifting to an Australian Intershop host, DDSN, or redoing their site in esolutions' new webstorefront format, which is based around Microsoft Commerce Server 2000.

Esolutions' manager for value-added packages, Pauline Sabin, said it was covering the set-up costs of migrating to DDSN or webstorefront.

"We've never had a significant number of customers on BusinessBuilder," she said. "Even though it was template-driven, it required costs to be spent getting a web developer on board and designing a site.

"The new product is very much do-it-yourself. If you can use a computer, you can build your own store."

Ms Sabin said esolutions decided not to upgrade to Intershop 4, which allows greater back end integration, because it was developing the webstorefront system.

"We have a preference to use Microsoft technology. Commerce Server 2000 will allow us to do a lot in future."

To encourage users on to the service, esolutions links to a case study for a Takapuna marine supplies company, Boat Bits.

The original address, www.boatbits.co.nz, still defaults to the original Intershop server at the Xtra marketplace site.

The sophisticated design had to be abandoned for the new site at www.webstorefront.co.nz/boatbits/ in favour of the rigid templates offered by the Microsoft solution.

Even worse is an admission on the site that Boat Bits was not able to copy customer details from the old site, and was asking customers to help rebuild its database.

"From a web developer perspective, I guess webstorefront does not offer the same degree of customisation," said Ms Sabin. "But it's a cost-effective, easy way for businesses to open a store online."