Auctiva to Offer non-eBay Stores

As always, Auctionbytes.com has the latest info. I just read their article about Auctiva's new development-- non-eBay stores, coming in Jan. 2009.

Sounds like a great way for an individual seller to set up their own web store, with all the important features -- especially a shopping cart.

Here's some info from Auctiva's website:

• Auctiva Unveils e-Commerce Platform -- Enables free-standing stores for online sellers

"In the past ... we best served sellers by helping them grow their sales on eBay. However, a lot has changed and eBay no longer offers the best opportunities for growth... now is the perfect time for sellers to make the leap to opening their own storefront."

• Auctiva has launched a beta version of an e-commerce platform that will allow merchants to develop full-featured, independent Web stores.
• Auctiva Commerce is in limited release as a test environment, allowing users to set up stores and conduct mock transactions to try out the extensive array of features—which, according to Auctiva Chief Executive Jeff Schlicht, "blow away the features offered through eBay Stores. It's like comparing a bicycle to a Ferrari."

Auctiva Commerce includes an online "wizard" tool that sellers can use to design their sites with features that include:

1. a customizable merchant dashboard
2. unlimited categories, subcategories, products, pages and links
3. inventory controls
4. daily and monthly sales reports
5. a shopping cart
6. a shipping calculator
7. customizable tax codes
8. e-mail marketing tools
9. support for a wide variety of electronic and paper payment methods

This sounds great. I can't wait to see it. If anyone is in the beta test group, leave a comment and let us know what you think, please.

Here's the auctiva comment thread on their site: http://community.auctiva.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5371029503/m/6841049503