Below you'll find answers to commonly asked questions about the Shopping-Q eCommerce Software and our services. If your question is not answered below, please feel free to contact us!
Yes, our servers, network, hosting, and eCommerce software are PCI compliant and meet Visa/MasterCard rules and regulations regarding online security.
What are the steps involved from start to finish?
There are NO long term contacts. You may cancel your store hosting at any time by notifying us at least 3 days in advance of your next scheduled billing date. All accounts requesting cancellation are terminated upon receipt of cancellation request. Cancellation requests submitted before the completion of a billing cycle will not receive a prorated refund.
Yes, you may upgrade your package at any time. A one-time $49.95 upgrade fee applies to each upgrade.
NOTE: If you are upgrading from a subdirectory hosting package to a domain name hosting package , please allow up to 72 hours of possible website downtime for domain name / site setup, domain name transition and Internet name propagation to take place.
There are 4 levels of store hosting available: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Each hosting plan supports a different amount of products in the store as well as other levels of features. For complete information, please visit the Pricing & Packages web page.
Billing and payments are made in advance with hosting paid on monthly basis. Setup fees are a one-time charge and billed at the time your hosting account is first setup. SSL certificate fees are paid annually in advance.
Billing is done in advance and your credit card is charged approximately 1-5 days in advance of the start of your next billing period. If your credit card is declined or has expired, we will notify you via email. Please provide us with a new credit card or expiration date ASAP to avoid service interruption.
Accounts past due over 14 days are removed from our servers and cannot be reactivated. You must sign up for new service and pay the full setup fees associated with the hosting option you choose.
What forms of payment do you accept?
For recurring hosting payments, we accept Visa, Master Card, and American Express.
We accept PayPal payment if you purchase annually in advance; special arrangements must be made.
We do not accept checks or cash.
Can I upgrade my email or storage capacity?
Yes, you can upgrade each for an additional fee per month. Please contact us for more information.
Can I access my store from any computer?
Yes. As long as you have an Internet connection, then you will have access to your store.
Are hosting and e-mail included in the monthly fee?
Subdirectory hosting is included with all plans.
E-mail accounts (up to 20) and domain name hosting are only available when you purchase the add-on Domain Name Hosting Service.
When using subdirectory hosting, we are only hosting your online store while your website (and email) is hosted with another provider (e.g. your current hosting company). Therefore, website hosting and website email are provided by the other provider.
What can you tell me about your data centers?
For more information regarding our data center, please click here.
How long is the Free Trial Store active?
The Free Trial Store will remain active for 14 days. At the end of the free trial period, our servers will automatically delete your Free Trial Store.
Where will the Free Trial Store be located?
The Free Trial Store will be located on one of our high-speed web servers. You will be given Internet access by user name and password to your trial store.
Can I keep my Free Trial Store settings and product data I have already entered?
Yes, you may keep your Free Trial Store's configuration settings, data, images, and products.
When you place your order for store hosting, be sure to indicate that you wish to use your Free Trial Store's data for your live store. Don't forget to tell us the URL (web address) to your Free Trial Store so we know which store's data to copy! There is no charge for this one-time copy service.
IMPORTANT NOTE: since the Free Trial Store is automatically deleted on the 15th day of your trial period, be sure to place your store hosting order before the Free Trial Store is removed from our servers.
I've used my Free Trial Store, and I'm ready to purchase. What's next?
Please go to the Pricing & Packages page and determine which hosting package best suits your needs. Then add the desired package to your shopping cart basket and complete your checkout through the store.
Can I change my skin template design with the Free Trial Store?
Dozens of skin templates are included within the Free Trial Store. Under the Basic Store Administration option on the store's Main Menu, you may instantly change the look of your store by selecting a different skin for your store.
You may not design and upload your own custom skins with a Free Trial Store.
With a live store, custom skin templates can be created and uploaded (special arrangements must be made - please contact us for more information).
What can I do with my Free Trial Store?
The Free Trial Store is a fully functional store and it operates for 14 days. You will have access to the same administration features in your Free Trial Store as you would have in your live store. You will be able to upload product photos and information to the site, as well as set up your shipping rates (by either establishing shipping rates table and methods or by pulling current rates from UPS, and FedEx).
How do I acquire a Free Trial Store?
Please go to our website and click the Free 14-Day Trial link.
My Free Trial Store is ready to go LIVE. What do I do next?
When you are ready to make your store "live" (switch from the Free Trial Store to a live store), go to the Pricing & Packages page on our web site. Then determine which hosting package best suits your needs and place an online order. When you place your order for store hosting, be sure to indicate that you wish to use your Free Trial Store's data for your live store. Don't forget to tell us the URL (web address) to your Free Trial Store so we know which store's data to copy!
There is no charge for this one-time copy service from a Free Trial Store to a new live store.
IMPORTANT NOTE: since the Free Trial Store is automatically deleted on the 15th day of your trial period, be sure to place your store hosting order before the Free Trial Store is removed from our servers.
I've purchased my hosting package. What about SSL?
If your store will be accepting credit cards, it is important to make your store secure in order to protect confidential customer information. People are getting smart about online security. More and more of them are looking for the "padlock icon" and “https” prefix in the address bar of their browser before submitting personal information online. If your store does not have a SSL Certificate, visitors won't see these security indicators and will leave before making a purchase.
To be secure, your store will need SSL (secure sockets layer) active to protect customer credit cards during transmission over the Internet. This protection is done by installing a SSL certificate for the domain name hosting the store. SSL security is required by Visa, Master Card, and American Express.
We use high security 256-bit SSL certificates which are much safer that the 128-bit SSL certificates used by our competition. There really is a difference!
With subdirectory hosting, you do not need to worry about purchasing a SSL certificate for your store. The server on which your store is running already has a SSL certificate installed. With this type of hosting, your store is running on a subdirctory on our domain name. Since our domain name already has a SSL certificate installed, you do not need to purchase one.
If you purchased the Domain Name Hosting Service, you will need to purchase and install a SSL certificate onto your domain name. This must be done AFTER your domain name is installed and running on our server network.
I need an SSL certificate installed on my website/store. What is the procedure?
The cost of a SSL certificate is $99.95 per year. You pay us the annual fee, and then we order, configure, and install the 256-bit SSL certificate (high security) for your domain name which must be running on our servers.
During the order process, you will receive an email from the SSL issuing company asking you to verify the SSL order for your domain and approve it. Once approved, you will receive the SSL certificate via email attachment from the issuing company. You will then need to forward the SSL certificate to us for installation onto your website.
The $99.95 fee we charge covers the cost of the SSL certificate plus our time and expense to configure, order, and install the SSL certificate onto your domain name. Each year, you will need to renew the SSL certificate in order to keep it active.
Can I integrate Shopping-Q into my existing website?
Typically, Shopping-Q is used to build your online store which also acts as your website. Therefore, when you build your store, you are building your entire website - they are one in the same.
Some of our clients host their traditional website elsewhere and when customers want to order, the click a link that takes them over to one of our PCI compliant servers which is hosting their store in a subdirectory. This is the most cost effective solution.
Can I transfer all my data from an existing store or spreadsheet into my Shopping-Q store?
Yes, use of the Shopping-Q Data Import/Export features allows you to import data from a properly formatted tab delimited text file. The import files can be created with a spreadsheet program like Excel or a database program like MS Access. There are many other software choices: any software that has the ability to create tab delimited text files may be used. This is a very common data exchange format.
Also, you can export data from the store, edit it on your computer, and then re-import it to your site with just a few clicks of your mouse.
Can I use Shopping-Q as a stand-alone solution?
Yes. Typically Shopping-Q is utilized as a stand-alone solution for both your website and online store. They are one in the same. The store is the website and vice versa. Therefore, when you build your store, you are building your website.
How long will it take to set up my store?
The number of products you offer will dictate how long it will take to create your store. Fortunately, you can easily upload all your products via our import data feature to save time on larger stores.
For smaller stores, you should be able to build your store in an hour or two. As you become more familiar with the strorefront tools, you will be able to build products and departments faster.
On our end, we require 24-48 hours to process your order and ready your website and storefront.
Does Shopping-Q offer logo creation, button creation, page design or custom programming services?
Yes, we can design your logo, templates, homepage, buttons, etc. For more information, please contact us.
Can Shopping-Q design a custom skin template for my store?
Yes, if you want to have an entirely unique store, simply add our Shopping-Q custom skin design package to your order. Our professional designers and graphic artists will create a custom skin template for you that will set you apart from your competition.
Can I design my own custom skin template?
Our skin templates are a collection of HTML pages, CSS, and standard JPG, GIF, and PNG images. With a live store, custom skin templates may be created and uploaded (special arrangements must be made).
Do I have to know HTML?
No, you can set up a complete store without any HTML knowledge.
However, for those store managers with HTML knowledge, Shopping-Q allows you to further customize the contents of the store. Many of the fields in Shopping-Q allow you to enter HTML commands as part of the field's text. HTML allows you to further customize the look, color, and layout of the store areas.
Shopping-Q includes a built-in HTML editor for those fields that support HTML - using the editor is as easy as using your favorite word processing program.
Do I have to get a merchant account?
No, you can run the store without a merchant account. Paypal is a free alternative solution, but a major drawback is that customers are redirected to the Paypal website during the checkout process as opposed to staying on YOUR website the entire time.
What if I already have a merchant account?
If you already possess a merchant account, check with your bank to ensure it's an Internet merchant account (as opposed to a traditional retail merchant account). It's normally required by your bank that you sign up for a separate merchant account for Internet transactions.
Does Shopping-Q offer merchant accounts?
We don't offer merchant accounts. However, we strongly recommend Costco's Business Membership and their Merchant Account for Internet businesses. Hands down, they have the best rates and lowest fees.
Also, if you plan on processing credit cards in real-time (during customer checkout), then you will need a compatible gateway. We strongly recommend Authorize.net. A "compatible gateway" is only needed if you configure your store to process customer credit card transactions in real-time (as they occur during checkout).
If you simply want the store to save the customer's payment information into its database for later manual processing, then any Internet merchant account with a "virtual terminal" will work. You only need a "compatible" merchant account and "compatible gateway" when processing credit card transactions in real-time (during customer checkout).
What do I need to have in order to process credit card payments online?
You'll need to have an Internet merchant account to process the payment online and an SSL certificate to encrypt the transmitted data. We strongly recommend the Costco Business Merchant accounts and the Authorize.net gateway.
What forms of payment can I accept?
You will have the ability to accept credit cards, checks, PayPal, wire transfers and purchase orders (POs). Shopping-Q is integrated with several major credit card processing gateways including Authorize.net (highly recommended).
Does Shopping-Q track real-time page displays and visitor statistics?
Yes! ShoppingQ tracks store page displays and visitor traffic in real-time. These statistics can be viewed at any time from the storebuilder's Main Menu. Statistics may be displayed for a selected amount of days (last 24 hours up to the last 180 days).
You also have the ability to select what type of report you want: Visitor Page Views By Date, Referring Sites by Date, Top Referring Sites, Most Popular Pages, Top Entry Pages, Top Exit Pages, and Search Engine Referrals.
What type of sales reports are available?
Several sales reports are available and may be used for sales tax reporting. Our reporting system is simple to use yet very flexible.
You have the ability to select a time period (date from/to) and type of order to report (new, processed, cancelled, shipped). In addition, you may limit the report by state, zip code, country, customer, order number, and/or affiliate ID.
The sales report will display both gross sales and taxable totals for cart amount ordered, coupons used, purchased discounts used, order sub-total, shipping cost, sales tax (zip code, state, country), and net sales total.
You may even download your orders to your favorite spreadsheet or database program for creating your own reports.
How will I know when I get an order?
As soon as an order is placed, both you and your customer will receive an order confirmation e-mail. You would then sign onto the storebuilder control panel and process your new orders.
How can I get high placements in the various search engines?
Our software generates meta tags and page titles for use with search engines. It strategically places your keywords, meta tags and product text to help you get ranked.
Static HTML pages may even be generated using your keywords as well as product names in the URLs to provide an extra boost in search engine rankings. Shopping-Q even generates a product site map for submission to search engines.
We highly recommend using Google's "Adwords" system to purchase high keyword placement on their search engine. Regardless of what other people may say, this is the ONLY GUARANTEED method for high search engine placement. It's simple, quick, and not expensive. Free search engine rankings (with high placement) is very difficult to achieve (nearly impossible) for the typical store owner. Google's Adwords really works and is the preferred method to guarantee your online advertising success!
Can Shopping-Q help me sell my products?
Yes, we provide you with a full featured affiliate program, e-mail/newsletter subscription and marketing system, the ability to offer coupons and other discounts, members only store pricing, and customer level special discount pricing.
