Actinic Catalog 5

Whether to use a custom-built ecommerce system or an off-the-shelf package is a decision facing most small businesses wanting to trade online.

This is complicated by the fact that many DIY ecommerce software packages insist on you using their web space. Often, too, you must do all the setting up and editing while online, sometimes under time constraints.

If you want something that doesn't impose these restrictions, you could do worse than consider Actinic's new Catalog, which gives you the freedom to choose your own web host.

As well as being able to take advantage of space from your internet service provider for which you may have already paid, it also means that your entire site is portable to another web host if necessary.

Claiming to be the leading UK ecommerce package, and certainly among the better known, Catalog lets you create and maintain your own ecommerce site, providing a shop window for your products or services.

Additionally, buyers can place secure orders online and you can handle those orders back on your PC as soon as they arrive. Catalog also seems to be well regarded by small businesses in the various forums we sampled.

According to its developer, Catalog is best suited to between 10 and 10,000 product lines (all but everybody then), which can be arranged in sections and sub-sections with any number of levels.

You can also sell extras to your standard products and hide them so that they cannot be bought on their own. As well as entering your product details manually, you can also paste or import information from a suitable text file, including an image file, if appropriate. You can have one hyperlink to either another of your pages or to an external site.

You can choose from a wide number of 'themes' or layouts, which vary the way your information appears on the page. You can choose colour sets independently, and even modify the colours of individual fields and other elements.

Other changes you can make include altering the messages in the header and footer, adding your own logo (easier in some themes than in others), and showing prices with or without VAT.

You can add your own details for things like shipping and handling, delivery schedules, back orders (out of stock) policy, returns policy and guarantees.

Customers make purchases by browsing your catalogue and adding items to the 'shopping cart'. Orders are automatically emailed to you for processing, which can include payment by credit card if required.

Credit card numbers are encrypted in the software using 128-bit encryption when the order is placed and only decrypted after they reach your computer.

Alternatively, Catalog can be integrated with a secure socket layer server or a number of payment service providers which take credit card numbers and carry out the transactions online.

Should you need more sophistication than Catalog provides, there's an upgrade path to Actinic Business at £794, suitable for those wanting to integrate ecommerce with external spreadsheets and databases as well as accounts systems like Sage, QuickBooks 2001 (one way only) and Enterprise Exchequer. You'd also get additional facilities for customer management.

Features:

• Integrated shopping trolley
• Encrypted order processing and reporting
• Payment options
• Drag-and-drop product catalogue management
• Product illustrations
• Stock monitoring
• Email order confirmation to customer
• Full design customisation
• Themed designs

Minimum requirements: Pentium PC; Windows 95, Me, 2000 or NT4; 64Mb Ram; 60Mb hard drive space; SVGA 800 x 600 video; 16-bit colour display; Internet Explorer 5 or later with dial-up or leased line internet access; website with NT or Unix/Linux server; Perl 5 or later; user-writeable CGI scripts.

Contact: Actinic Software 01932 871 000
www.actinic.co.uk

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