Freeware: Free e-commerce/Business Software
Freeware: Free E-Commerce/Business Software
By James Maguire
May 15, 2006
The old proverb says "Seek, and ye shall find," and that's certainly true of free software. The Internet is chock full of freebies: free software for e-commerce, auctions, business management and more. It's all available at the click of a mouse.
You might ask: why is it free? In many cases, the free download is a limited version of a company's premium product. A firm gives away a free version hoping that happy users will upgrade to the paid version.
Or, a company distributes a free program to draw traffic to its site. Sometimes freeware carries ads, so it's actually a source of income for whoever gives it away.
Because offering a freebie is such a popular sales tool, the following list is just the tip of the iceberg. But you'll find a little something for every online business need in this list.
Oh, and if you're looking for the best source for free information about your online store, check out ECommerce Guide (See what I mean? Free stuff often comes with an ad attached!)
Free Software Downloads
On-Site Search
Fusionbot
The company's free on-site search tool has limitations — it indexes no more than 250 pages, and only auto-indexes once a month — but the price is right.
Google On-Site Search
Plenty of small sites use Google's free on-site search tool. But it doesn't offer much control for site owners, and it doesn't allow you to see which words users are searching for.
PicoSearch
If you're willing to include ads along with your on-site search results, the PicoSearch tool is free.
Shopping Carts/E-commerce
osCommerce
A free open source e-commerce platform robust enough to build your entire online storefront. The catch: you'll need some programming skills to get it up and running. (Read more here)
PayPal Shopping Cart/Merchant Account
The payment processing company offers a free shopping cart bundled with a free credit cart account. (Of course, if a shopper makes a purchase on your site, you'll be charged a percentage of the total and a transaction fee.)
Mal's E-commerce
Mal's free shopping cart is popular and easy to use, and has likely prompted many users to upgrade to Mal's $8 a month premium service. You'll need to supply your own credit cart merchant account with the cart. (Read more here)
Vstore
Vstore (for "virtual store") provides everything for a budding merchant: the products, the merchant account, the Web site. It's all free, but it's all completely controlled by Vstore. Merchants earn a modest commission on sales.
AdSense Buddy
A statistics package to help users of Google's popular pay-per-click service manage their campaigns. Monitor your campaign without needing to login to Google.
ViArt Shop
A shopping cart and content management system (CMS), along with an integrated help desk. This free version has database restrictions.
Sequoia Open Source ERP 0.8
This is a Java application, compatible with major operating systems. It's designed to manage an integrated e-commerce, inventory and supply chain infrastructure.
AFCommerce Shopping Cart 2
An open-source store building program. Along with the free storefront software, the company offers its development services, which is presumably how they make money.
Toolbars
Google Toolbar
The search giant's popular toolbar offers at least one piece of business intelligence to users: it allows site owners to find out the relative page rank of competitive sites. Which sites in your category are the top dogs?
Alexa Toolbar
Similar to the Google Toolbar but arguably better for business use. It offers more specific ranking of sites, and it shows some of the sites that link to a given site.
eBay/Auction Tools
Auction Submit
Helps you submit your goods to eBay as well as Yahoo or Amazon.
Turbo Lister
eBay's own basic auction management software.
Auction Speller
This utility provides the most common misspellings of items on eBay. The theory is that these misspelled listings won't be found by many buyers, and so can be bought for a cheaper price. So, for example, it allows buyers to find laptops listed as "labtops."
Counters/Web Analytics
OneStat Hit Counter
More than a simple hit counter, the free OneStat counter provides information about visitors and will track unlimited Web pages.
StatCounter
A free counter that allows you to analyze how visitors use your site.
Comparison Shopping
SmartShopper
Designed to help online shoppers, this desktop tool compares prices from numerous e-tailers.
ActivShopper 1.2
A tool bar plug in for Internet Explorer that compares prices from many e-commerce sites to help users find better prices.
Security
TraceAssure 1.6
This security software prevents fraudulent sites from obtaining your personal data as your enter it in financial and retail sites.
Steganos LockNote
Secure your business documents on your hard drive using LockNote. To access them, double click and enter your password. No password, no access.
Zone Alarm
This firewall monitors dataflow over your Internet connection to guard against hackers. Personal use is free. For businesses the software costs $19.95.
HTML Editors
Alleycode
This free HTML editor claims to be feature rich and enables users at all levels of expertise to build their site.
NVU
Pronounced "N-view," for "new view," this Web authoring tool allows you to build your site without knowledge of HTML.
Tomorrow, we'll look at free software for remote access, photo editors, video conferencing and other tools to build you e-biz on the cheap.
James Maguire is a contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. His column appears every Monday.
Source: Ecommerce-guide.com
By James Maguire
May 15, 2006
The old proverb says "Seek, and ye shall find," and that's certainly true of free software. The Internet is chock full of freebies: free software for e-commerce, auctions, business management and more. It's all available at the click of a mouse.
You might ask: why is it free? In many cases, the free download is a limited version of a company's premium product. A firm gives away a free version hoping that happy users will upgrade to the paid version.
Or, a company distributes a free program to draw traffic to its site. Sometimes freeware carries ads, so it's actually a source of income for whoever gives it away.
Because offering a freebie is such a popular sales tool, the following list is just the tip of the iceberg. But you'll find a little something for every online business need in this list.
Oh, and if you're looking for the best source for free information about your online store, check out ECommerce Guide (See what I mean? Free stuff often comes with an ad attached!)
Free Software Downloads
On-Site Search
Fusionbot
The company's free on-site search tool has limitations — it indexes no more than 250 pages, and only auto-indexes once a month — but the price is right.
Google On-Site Search
Plenty of small sites use Google's free on-site search tool. But it doesn't offer much control for site owners, and it doesn't allow you to see which words users are searching for.
PicoSearch
If you're willing to include ads along with your on-site search results, the PicoSearch tool is free.
Shopping Carts/E-commerce
osCommerce
A free open source e-commerce platform robust enough to build your entire online storefront. The catch: you'll need some programming skills to get it up and running. (Read more here)
PayPal Shopping Cart/Merchant Account
The payment processing company offers a free shopping cart bundled with a free credit cart account. (Of course, if a shopper makes a purchase on your site, you'll be charged a percentage of the total and a transaction fee.)
Mal's E-commerce
Mal's free shopping cart is popular and easy to use, and has likely prompted many users to upgrade to Mal's $8 a month premium service. You'll need to supply your own credit cart merchant account with the cart. (Read more here)
Vstore
Vstore (for "virtual store") provides everything for a budding merchant: the products, the merchant account, the Web site. It's all free, but it's all completely controlled by Vstore. Merchants earn a modest commission on sales.
AdSense Buddy
A statistics package to help users of Google's popular pay-per-click service manage their campaigns. Monitor your campaign without needing to login to Google.
ViArt Shop
A shopping cart and content management system (CMS), along with an integrated help desk. This free version has database restrictions.
Sequoia Open Source ERP 0.8
This is a Java application, compatible with major operating systems. It's designed to manage an integrated e-commerce, inventory and supply chain infrastructure.
AFCommerce Shopping Cart 2
An open-source store building program. Along with the free storefront software, the company offers its development services, which is presumably how they make money.
Toolbars
Google Toolbar
The search giant's popular toolbar offers at least one piece of business intelligence to users: it allows site owners to find out the relative page rank of competitive sites. Which sites in your category are the top dogs?
Alexa Toolbar
Similar to the Google Toolbar but arguably better for business use. It offers more specific ranking of sites, and it shows some of the sites that link to a given site.
eBay/Auction Tools
Auction Submit
Helps you submit your goods to eBay as well as Yahoo or Amazon.
Turbo Lister
eBay's own basic auction management software.
Auction Speller
This utility provides the most common misspellings of items on eBay. The theory is that these misspelled listings won't be found by many buyers, and so can be bought for a cheaper price. So, for example, it allows buyers to find laptops listed as "labtops."
Counters/Web Analytics
OneStat Hit Counter
More than a simple hit counter, the free OneStat counter provides information about visitors and will track unlimited Web pages.
StatCounter
A free counter that allows you to analyze how visitors use your site.
Comparison Shopping
SmartShopper
Designed to help online shoppers, this desktop tool compares prices from numerous e-tailers.
ActivShopper 1.2
A tool bar plug in for Internet Explorer that compares prices from many e-commerce sites to help users find better prices.
Security
TraceAssure 1.6
This security software prevents fraudulent sites from obtaining your personal data as your enter it in financial and retail sites.
Steganos LockNote
Secure your business documents on your hard drive using LockNote. To access them, double click and enter your password. No password, no access.
Zone Alarm
This firewall monitors dataflow over your Internet connection to guard against hackers. Personal use is free. For businesses the software costs $19.95.
HTML Editors
Alleycode
This free HTML editor claims to be feature rich and enables users at all levels of expertise to build their site.
NVU
Pronounced "N-view," for "new view," this Web authoring tool allows you to build your site without knowledge of HTML.
Tomorrow, we'll look at free software for remote access, photo editors, video conferencing and other tools to build you e-biz on the cheap.
James Maguire is a contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. His column appears every Monday.
Source: Ecommerce-guide.com
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