Features list and comparisons
All ShopFactory e-commerce solutions have a rich set of features to make e-Commerce easy for you. From integrated shopping cart software to software to import products and manage orders.

Since 1995 we have continuously developed and improved ShopFactory for you, based on feedback from website developers, shop owners and their customers. Click on one of the links below to see which features are included in the different  e-commerce software versions.

 

General

Save time and nerves with ShopFactory's easy set-up. Just install ShopFactory on your Windows PC and start building your shop with point and click ease. Publish it with the included publishing tool and wait for your orders to start rolling in. Then maintain your orders with SalesManager. There is no server side installation required. You can create your own shop even if you know nothing about servers or website programming.

  Pro | Gold
Faster and easier. Create complete website including e-Commerce functionality with point and click ease Yes Yes
Integrated CMS system for easy management of website content and product data. Yes Yes
 Improved publishing — only publish what you need

Yes

Yes

Large number of new and professionally designed website themes can be customized with point and click ease Yes Yes
Shops run on any server as soon as published (uploaded) to the server with the integrated publishing tool. Yes Yes
No installation required. ShopFactory shops require no complex server side installations, unlike most other e-commerce solutions. Just publish your shop to any server with the integrated publisher to start accepting orders immediately. Yes Yes
Free secure order processing allows you to accept orders as soon as your shop has been published Yes Yes
Quickly create your shop on any Windows platform from Windows 98 upwards and then publish to your server with the integrated publishing tool — much easier then building a shop online and you have all the data. Yes Yes
Automatic server clean-up function: removes pages and products from your server when they are deleted or disabled. Yes Yes
Automatic update alert when new versions released Yes Yes
Automatic PHP support — ShopFactory detects if your server supports PHP and automatically enables PHP search for faster search results. No PHP setup required. Yes Yes
Patented security prevents fraudulent manipulation of order details, such as a customer changing a product price. Yes Yes
Enable/Disable Search function Yes Yes
Require customers to agree to Terms and Conditions Yes Yes
Under Construction Alert — can be enabled to allow customer to know about updating or building activities
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Yes Yes


Page Details

ShopFactory allows you to add pages and sub pages at the click of a button — making creating and maintaining a website structure a breeze. Of course you can also temporarily disable pages .

Pro | Gold
Multiple new page themes to select from Yes Yes
Apply different page themes to different pages Yes Yes
Support for different product/paragraph styles Yes Yes
Unlimited pages Yes Yes
Unlimited page levels (sub-pages) Yes Yes
Improved: Sort pages by drag and drop Yes Yes
Enable and disable pages Yes Yes
Title, Introduction, Description, Footer support Yes Yes
Link box support to link to other pages, products and websites Yes Yes
Add banner link function Yes Yes
Add HTML code function for counters and tracking systems Yes Yes
Multiple indexes for better navigation Yes Yes
Exclude pages from Index Yes Yes
Search Engine optimization support Yes Yes
Automatic page division based on adjustable product limit per page Yes Yes
Improved WYSIWIG editing
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Yes Yes


Product Details

ShopFactory makes adding Products easy — and helps you to display them in the best possible light. Now you can build shops faster and get better sales results with professional product displays.

Pro | Gold
Unlimited products Yes Yes
Unlimited categories Yes Yes
Unlimited category levels Yes Yes
Title, Introduction, Description, Longer Description, Highlights and Teaser fields for product details Yes Yes
Unlimited products Yes Yes
Unlimited options and choices (variations) such as colours, sizes, or add-on options Yes Yes
Product bundling Yes Yes
Select from different display styles for different pages Yes Yes
Link Products to "More Details" pages to provide unlimited information. Yes Yes
Link product to external information resources Yes Yes
Link product to larger images, sound and video files Yes Yes
Create option templates such as shoe sizes for quick option generation Yes Yes
Cross promotions (promote similar or related products) Yes Yes
Automatic generation of picture thumbnail with link to larger image Yes Yes
Add Picture Frames to Product images to improve their looks Yes Yes
Improved product slideshow with unlimited images Yes Yes
Display prices depending on membership and reseller settings* Yes Yes
Highlight products in Link boxes Yes Yes
Promote products on any page No Yes
Stock control on product and option level (see Inventory) Yes Yes
Allow or disallow buying of out of stock products Yes Yes
Temporarily hide products Yes Yes
Disable buying function for products Yes Yes
Base price support Yes Yes
Select from different product display styles Yes Yes
Link to shipping charges from each product (required by law in some countries) Yes Yes
List products in multiple categories Yes Yes
Put products on Special (see also discount functions) Yes Yes
Various product discounts (see also discount functions) Yes Yes
Product teaser promotion, such as “Bestseller” Yes Yes
List of Features Yes Yes
Special handling or shipping costs on product level Yes Yes
Automatic tax assignment based on Tax settings Yes Yes
Set product category for Internet searches Yes Yes
Define Quantity unit Yes Yes
Allow purchasing decimal quantities, such as 1.5 meters Yes Yes
Set Manufacturer Yes Yes
Enter product codes Yes Yes
EAN/UCC-13 support Yes Yes
Define minimum order quantity Yes Yes
Define maximum order quantity
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Yes Yes

Discount Functions

Offering discounts helps you boost your sales. So of course ShopFactory contains the largest amount of discount options available. After all, boosting sales is what selling online is all about.

Pro | Gold
Shop wide discounts by percentage (Reduce all products by 10% for example) Yes Yes
Shop wide discount on customer order total (Spend $100 or more and get a 10% discount) Yes Yes
Product level discount by price (set a fixed discounted price) Yes Yes
Product level discount by percentage (reduce product price by a set percentage) Yes Yes
Product level discount by quantity (set a lower price for larger quantities) Yes Yes
Buy some, get some free. (Buy 2, get 1 free or Buy 3, get 2 free) No Yes
Buy one, get another product free No Yes
Set Product discounts on Product only or on product and options Yes Yes
Highlight product discounts Yes Yes
Product discount message Yes Yes
Promote next Discount level (alerts customers to quantity discounts applying if they order more) No Yes
Schedule discount events by time and date No Yes
Reseller purchasing discount (displays lower prices to resellers after login)* Yes Yes
Membership discounts ((displays lower prices to members after login)* Yes Yes
Discount Vouchers* Yes Yes
Gift Vouchers * Yes Yes
Free shipping for members* Yes Yes
Discounts for repeat customers*
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Yes Yes


Promotions

When you run an online shop, promoting it and your products is what will get you the sales. By telling people about your shop or customers about related products you build up your sales. So based on the experience of merchants of ShopFactory we have added the functions you really need to become successful.

Pro | Gold
Highlighted Discounts Yes Yes
Many discount types (see also Discount Functions) Yes Yes
Discount Vouchers * Yes Yes
Gift Vouchers * Yes Yes
Up-selling (if you buy 3 more, you will get a discount) No Yes
Link directly to a product or page from other locations such as email or external websites No Yes
Timed Discounts (automatically expire or repeat discounts at certain times) No Yes
Newsletter mailing list generation support No Yes
Email list generation based on customer preference No Yes
Email list generation based on items purchased by customer No Yes
Email list generation based on location of customer No Yes
Integrated Mail-out module in SalesManager No Yes
Link Boxes — link from any product or page to any other products or pages to highlight a relationship or promote specific products Yes Yes
Membership Points rewards Yes Yes
List your products on santu, eBay and froogle No Yes
Search Engine compatible (See also Search Engine Optimization) Yes Yes
Advertising tracking — find out how many orders are generated by your advertising campaigns *
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Yes Yes

Inventory

Save time with ShopFactory by easily importing products into your shop and maintaining them with ShopFactory.

Pro | Gold
Import basic product details from existing Databases with ImportWizard Yes Yes
Import virtually any product data including options and choices with Import Wizard Pro No Yes
Stock control on Product level Yes Yes
Stock control on Option and choice (variants) level No Yes
Automatically combine catalogue number of a product with a selected option check stock levels (such as a T-Shirt and its colours: T45-green) No Yes
Manually update stock levels Yes Yes
Automatically update Stock levels when orders are placed* No Yes
Real-time Display of available stock levels No Yes
Exact or Traffic Light Stock level display No Yes
Shop wide “Out of Stock” message Yes Yes
Product level “Out of Stock” message (For example to state a delivery time) Yes Yes
Define Minimum Purchase Price Total (how much a customer must spend at least to place an order) Yes Yes
Define maximum Purchase Price Total (the maximum value of an order you accept via the Internet) Yes Yes
Manage orders with SalesManager
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Yes Yes


Sales Analysis and tracking

Being on top of your sales and resellers requires analysis and tracking tools. ShopFactory either includes or is compatible with Services which allow you to stay on top.

Pro | Gold
Receive order by email Yes Yes
Automatic fraud alerts for high risk orders No Yes
Search all order data by customer, order number, products ordered, regions and more ^ No Yes
Create order statistics based on number of orders, regions, best selling products and more ^ No Yes
Worst selling products, time frames ^ No Yes
Track Affiliated Reseller sales and commission payments* Yes Yes
Track Network sales for up to Five Levels* No Yes
Track Reseller discounts* Yes Yes
Track member purchases* No Yes
Track advertising results by profitability* No Yes
Export order data into backend systems such as Sage 50 and QuickBooks via XML feed* Yes Yes
Generate email lists based on order searches for email advertising or newsletters^*
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No Yes


Making it easy for customers

Convert more website visitors into buying customers by making buying easy for them and giving them a feeling of security. ShopFactory does it for you to help you boost your profits.

Pro | Gold
Easy website navigation Yes Yes
Fast adding of items to Shopping Cart for faster customer feedback Yes Yes
Automatic updating of Order Total based on products in Shopping Cart Yes Yes
Automatic tax and shipping costs calculations prior to check-out (see also Tax and Shipping) Yes Yes
Secure easy two step order process with patented fraud protection Yes Yes
Secure-Feel check-out process (being secure and feeling secure are two different things)* Yes Yes
Membership support with welcome message and special product discounts* Yes Yes
Free shipping for members* Yes Yes
Reseller support with different prices for different resellers * Yes Yes
Recover Password function for members and resellers Yes Yes
Integrated Blog allows keeping customers and resellers up to date. Yes Yes
Automatic remembering of customer details for easy check-out Yes Yes
Restore shopping cart function for repeat visitors Yes Yes
Integrated search for products and content (Basic search and configurable PHP Power Search) Yes Yes
Add to Favourites list Yes Yes
Email to a Friend function Yes Yes
Related Product link support Yes Yes
Calculate shipping and taxes prior to check-out Yes Yes
Automatic Base-price calculation support Yes Yes
Automatic currency conversions Yes Yes
Real-time order tracking support* Yes Yes
Support for real-time stock control (See also Inventory and Sales)* Yes Yes
Customizable email order confirmations Yes Yes
Allow customer to disable Order confirmation Yes Yes
Printable order page Yes Yes
Adjust order quantities in Shopping Cart Yes Yes
Link to Products from Shopping Cart Yes Yes
Customizable order form Yes Yes
Opt-In newsletter support Yes Yes
Customizable Thank you Page to say thank you after an order has been placed
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Yes Yes

Design and Layout

The look of your website will affect your success. By buying ShopFactory you get a large number of professionally designed modern templates — to make sure you look your best. And ShopFactory's point and click customization functions make customizing a theme so easy, anyone can do it.

Pro | Gold
Select from a large number of professionally designed modern Website Design Themes and download more themes from online. Each theme is fully customizable Yes Yes
Many Website Themes with Flash support for improved looks and customization Yes Yes
Select Page Themes independently of Website Theme Yes Yes
Use different Page Themes for different pages Yes Yes
Select different product display themes for different pages Yes Yes
Select from different Website Navigation styles Yes Yes
Point and Click easy Theme customization — without programming skills you can completely change the look of your website theme in no time. Yes Yes
Point and click easy customization of Navigation styles Yes Yes
Save customized Themes as new Website or Page Themes No Yes
Point and click design image replacement Yes Yes
Automatic picture resizing and transparency management for design and product images Yes Yes
Add Picture Frames to product and paragraph images Yes Yes
Automatic anti-alias management for design images and picture frames Yes Yes
Automatic creation of Thumbnail images with link to larger picture based on image size supported by page themes and product styles. Yes Yes
Banner Advertising support Yes Yes
Include HTML code Yes Yes
Automatic management of Linked pages (Page and Product Links re-adjusted if page is moved or deleted) Yes Yes
HTML code access to create your own themes Yes Yes
PHP search with AJAX powered results display to match results page to website theme Yes Yes
Ajax Blog integration to ensure matching website theme design Yes Yes
Ajax integrated order processing gateway to ensure gateway design matches website theme
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Yes Yes

Shipping

ShopFactory can quickly calculate shipping costs for your customers before they check out. This is a legal requirement in many countries. You can use the online calculators provided by companies such as UPS, USPS, FedEx and others, or set up your own shipping charges quickly and easily.

Pro | Gold
Real-time shipping cost calculation based on customer’s location prior to check-out Yes Yes
Automatically retrieve shipping charges from UPS, USPS, DHL Yes Yes
Link to Shipping charges from each product Yes Yes
Free Shipping Yes Yes
Free shipping above a set order value Yes Yes
Free shipping above a set order value per region Yes Yes
One Price For all Yes Yes
One Price per Shipping Region Yes Yes
Charge shipping costs per product Yes Yes
Create unlimited Shipping methods Yes Yes
Apply different shipping methods to different regions such as Local, Domestic and International Yes Yes
Limit Regions you ship products to Yes Yes
Apply different shipping costs to different shipping methods Yes Yes
Create custom shipping regions Yes Yes
Charge shipping costs based on shipping provider Yes Yes
Charge shipping costs based on Weight Yes Yes
Charge shipping costs based on Order Total Yes Yes
Charge shipping costs based on Quantity ordered Yes Yes
Charge shipping costs based on exact value or by range Yes Yes
Apply additional handling/freight/packaging costs Yes Yes
Set maximum weight for boxes Yes Yes
Apply handling/freight/packaging charges per box Yes Yes
Set handling/freight/packaging charges on a product level Yes Yes
Real-time shipping charge calculation for customers Yes Yes
Allow customers to select shipping methods Yes Yes
Immediately deliver downloadable goods such as software or images after approved payments (ESD)* Yes Yes
Free shipping for members*
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Yes Yes

Tax

Nobody likes likes paying taxes — but if you have a shop you still have to charge them in many countries. ShopFactory makes it easy for you to add and manage taxes, and automatically displays them to your customers. Of course if they don't have to pay tax, ShopFactory takes care of this, too.

Pro | Gold
Real-time tax calculation for customers Yes Yes
Tax calculation based on customer location Yes Yes
Automatically assign taxes to products Yes Yes
Set up different taxes for different products Yes Yes
Set up different taxes for different regions Yes Yes
Apply multiple taxes to products Yes Yes
Support for tax exempted customers Yes Yes
Automatic validity check of European tax exemption numbers Yes Yes
European mixed tax calculation for shipping charges when ordering products with different taxes Yes Yes
Ability to create a services tax applying to shipping and handling charges Yes Yes
Easy update function for products when taxes change Yes Yes
GST/PST/HST tax calculations for Canada Yes Yes
Can automatically insert Tax display and notices when legally required
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Yes Yes

Payment Gateways and Methods

The more options your customers have to pay, the more you will sell. With ShopFactory you can accept any payment methods — from Amex to Paypal. Many methods are pre-set, and you can of course also create your own methods. You can even combine multiple Real-time Payment Processors with your own manual approval methods.

  Pro | Gold
Free secure order processing (manual payment approval) Yes Yes
Secure 2-Step check-out process Yes Yes
Large number of predefined payment methods Yes Yes
Create your own payment methods Yes Yes
Accept any payment method, including PayPal, iDeal, ELV Yes Yes
Accept payment manually or in real-time Yes Yes
Compatible with many real-time payment processors such as GlobeCharge, Authorize.Net, WorldPay and others Yes Yes
Combine multiple real-time payment processors with manual payment approval methods depending on payment method selected Yes Yes
Supports real-time e-check processing Yes Yes
Accept payments in any currency Yes Yes
PayPal support Yes Yes
Automatic currency conversion Yes Yes
Display payment gateway inside your website or as separate window Yes Yes
Multilingual ordering process
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No Yes

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

ShopFactory helps you being listed highly in Search Engines by providing you with the tools you need to optimize your website for Search Engines. And the higher you get listed, the more customers you will get.

Pro | Gold
Website map allows search engines to easily index website Yes Yes
Google search map to allow improved indexing by Google Yes Yes
Static pages for easy search engine readability Yes Yes
Fixed URLs Yes Yes
Define your own page file names No Yes
Search engine friendly URLs Yes Yes
Meta Tags for all categories and website pages Yes Yes
Automatic Meta Tag generation based on category names and introductions Yes Yes
Alt Tags support Yes Yes
Automatic Headline generation for product titles
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Yes Yes


Server Compatibility

You already have enough work on your hands — so having to worry about servers should not be your problem. With ShopFactory it isn't.

Pro | Gold
Shops created with ShopFactory run on any server — regardless of platform Yes Yes
No installation required — just publish your website and start selling Yes Yes
PHP 4 and 5 support for improved website search functionality (auto-installs as part of publishing, if PHP is supported) Yes Yes
Multi-lingual (Requires International Language Link Add-on)
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Yes Yes


Online order management*

ShopFactory is compatible with GlobeCharge, to allow you to manage your orders online and gives you access to many services to help you make selling online more efficient and profitable.

Pro | Gold
Review orders from anywhere in the world Yes Yes
Approve orders from anywhere in the word Yes Yes
Apply membership settings Yes Yes
Automatically deliver digital goods Yes Yes
Allow customers to track orders (ESD) Yes Yes
Manage Resellers and Members Yes Yes
Update payment and shipping settings Yes Yes
Manually Review high risk orders Yes Yes
Create e-mail lists to keep in touch with customers
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Yes Yes


Security

The more secure your customers feel, the more they will buy from you. Research has made this abundantly clear. ShopFactory provides Free Secure Order Processing, and is also compatible with GlobeCharge's Secure Feel Order processing which can boost your sales by five to ten percent.

Pro | Gold
Secure 2 stage checkout process Yes Yes
Feel-Secure check-out design Yes Yes
Full SSL support Yes Yes
Patented product data protection Yes Yes
Ability to hide prices from non members* Yes Yes
Ability to limit price display or reduced prices only to resellers or members* Yes Yes
SiteLoc Password protection – limit access only to password holders Yes Yes
Fraud protection support alerts to high risk orders based on custom settings* Yes Yes
Security check to verify customer location compared to claimed location in order * Yes Yes
Exclude high risk countries from ordering * Yes Yes
Customer data can be encrypted Yes Yes
PGP support for email orders Yes Yes
No server-side storing of payment data for approved orders Yes Yes
Ability to send orders to multiple email addresses
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Yes Yes


International support

If you sell online, you can have customers from all around the world. The easier you make buying for them, the better your sales will be. ShopFactory has all the tools you need to sell to customers all around the world.

Pro | Gold
 Multi-language editor. The ShopFactory shop builder comes in a number of different languages, including English, Spanish, German, Dutch, French and Italian. Yes Yes
Create shops in any language. ShopFactory comes with more than 30 languages pre-set to make shop creation easy in any language. Yes Yes
Navigation in multiple languages. Let your customers navigate your shop in the language of their choice (does not include translation of shop content). # Yes Yes
Multi-language support. Create shops in multiple languages # Yes Yes
Translation editor # Yes Yes
XLIF XML translation support for exporting and importing translation data # Yes Yes
Only translate what you want. Switch off pages or products you don’t want to translate on a per language basis or use the main language to be displayed for all non-translated items. # Yes Yes
Automatic customer language detection. # Yes Yes
Multi-Currency support Yes Yes
Automatic currency conversion for product prices and totals in shop Yes Yes
Supports taxes for any country, state or region, different taxes for different regions, multiple taxes per product. Yes Yes
International shipping calculation support – set different prices and cost calculation methods for different regions. Yes Yes
International payment methods support — supports payment methods all around the world *
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Yes Yes


Support for Backend systems

ShopFactory shops can be integrated with numerous backend systems to allow you to easily integrate your online shop into the workflow of your business.

Pro | Gold
GlobeCharge * Yes Yes
Integrated SalesManager for Order management Yes Yes
QuickBooks (English speaking countries) # * Yes Yes
Sage Line 50 # * Yes Yes
Lexware * Yes Yes
XML order data stream can be imported into any backend system support XML import functions * Yes Yes
CSV order data can be imported into any backend system supporting CSV import Yes Yes
Customizable CSV order export function in SalesManager Pro via CSV template format editing ^ Yes Yes
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