ShopZone SiteBuilder

Breakthrough Software launches storefront 'incubator': instant Web site tool for small and midsize businesses migrating to Web-based commerce.

by Ted Stevenson
Managing Editor ISP-Planet
[December 30, 1999]

Breakthrough Software, Inc. recently announced the rollout of ShopZone SiteBuilder, a browser-based Web site creation tool that will be available free to ISPs and Web hosting providers that use ShopZone as their commerce-enabling platform.

Employing the same approach as the company's ShopZone Professional and ShopZone Web Edition storefront building packages, SiteBuilder allows owners of small and midsize businesses to create a Web presence with a few mouse clicks. [Click to read an in-depth review of ShopZone Web Edition.]

Click and go
The core of the product is a flexible set of Web site templates. Following browser-based entry of some basic information about the business, the builder clicks a button. SiteBuilder then goes into action, generating a full complement of linked Web pages—including a home page, an About page, FAQ, Events, Management Bios, Contact Us, News and PR, Employment Opportunities, and many more.

The product's PowerEdit feature lets site builders customize pages as necessary, but no HTML knowledge is required at any point in the process.

When the business is ready to commerce-enable the site, Breakthrough's ShopZone software plugs right in, producing a near-instant Web storefront. This gives sites built using the browser-based SiteBuilder a smooth, natural upgrade path to live Web commerce.

What's in it for us?
A self-service tool from signup to site creation to ongoing management, the SiteBuilder program is low- or no-maintenance way for ISPs and hosting providers to attract new business—albeit nonpaying business at the outset. The working assumption, of course, is that once small/midsize business customers have been drawn into the fold with no-cost Web sites, they will fairly quickly turn into paying e-commerce customers.

ShopZone SiteBuilder is available on the Solaris, Windows NT, HPUX, Linux, Cobalt, and IRIX platforms.

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