Traditional shop system providers have long focused on new features and are just now slowly re-orienting themselves to the changing landscape.
In the meantime Google, Paypal and Amazon have been working hard to establish a simple alternative where payment processing combines with shopping cart functionality to create a well rounded shop system solution.
Best updates on the Google Checkout solution here. And here an AuctionByte interview from May:
"Google Associate Product Manager Prem Ramaswami (...) says Google Checkout's mission is to create the fastest, safest and most convenient shopping method for buyers, while enabling merchants to set up ecommerce sites with simple point-and-click functionality.
Prem also discusses Google Checkout's new Shopping Cart feature"
The principles aren’t new for Google. Take an essential element like Search which was by many (Google competitors) a portal dependent mechanism (excellently described by John Battelle in “The Search”), and then creatively rethink the entire concept.
A similar approach can now be seen with shopping: Take the shopping cart as a central functional element of shops and shopping portals, rethink the concept, and in the process create new solutions and business models.
Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.
I think you're right about Amazon creating a well-rounded shop system solution. I have a bit of news your readers can use.
The (beta) Amazon WebStore is the best option I can find for my online store, but the documentation is extremely confusing. When I realized I was going to have to figure out everything about the Amazon WebStore by myself, I just went ahead and wrote up what I learned in a helpful organized way, so that others wouldn’t have to suffer (I'm a writer). The "Tutorial Guide to the (beta) Amazon WebStore" is totally free. Your readers can download a 57-page pdf, or read the the Guide, at http://www.webstoreguide.info.
Posted by: Robin | 03/31/2010 at 11:38 PM