Frequently Asked
Questions About PDG Software's
Ecommerce Shopping Cart Software
- What does PDG Software offer?
- What are the costs of PDG Commerce? Are
there monthly fees?
- Does PDG Software offer any kind of
guarantee?
- How does PDG’s ecommerce software
compare to a Yahoo! Store? An EBay Store?
- Can I implement a PDG Software
application while my current site stays live?
- Can I use my own domain name with my
PDG Software enabled store? Do my customers ever have to
leave my site?
- How will potential shoppers find my
site?
- What makes PDG Software’s shopping cart
solutions search engine friendly?
- What will happen to my site’s search
engine listings if I use a PDG Software product?
- How am I notified of a new order? Do I
receive an automatic e-mail?
- Can I accept credit cards without
having to use an Internet payment gateway? Can I process
transactions offline via my existing credit card
terminal?
- How much flexibility do I have for
calculating shipping costs?
- Can I offer wholesale v/s retail
pricing?
- How does the PDG Commerce shopping
cart work with QuickBooks? QuickBooks Point of Sale?
- How much design flexibility will I
have with a PDG Software storefront?
- Can I sell soft goods (electronic
goods) using PDG?
- Am I able to import an existing
database or Excel spreadsheet that contains all of my
product information into PDG?
- Tech support
1- What does PDG Software offer?
PDG Software offers shopping cart software that makes
displaying your products, processing sales, and managing
your web orders fast and simple. Put simply,
We make
it easy for you to take other people’s money. PDG
has been providing best of class shopping cart software
since 1997. As ecommerce in general has evolved, so have
PDG’s applications. PDG has consistently been a trendsetter
with offering our merchants new ways to market their
products, simplify the transaction process for their
customers, and improve the overall success of their online
business. Our solutions have been optimized to bring
you the best in search engine friendly shopping cart design.
With PDG Software, you can sell more, while saving both time
and money.
While PDG Software’s solutions have been proven time and
time again to be the key to many merchants’ success, it is
the level of customer service and technical support that
really makes PDG stand out from other ecommerce solution
providers. Our goal is to see your store succeed. We are ready, willing, and able to make sure you’re getting the
most out of the numerous features within our solutions.
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2- What are the
costs of PDG Commerce? Are there monthly fees?
All PDG Software applications are sold with a
lifetime license that allows you to use the purchased
version for the life of your website. The one-time cost for
PDG Commerce Version 5 ranges from $599.00-$1,799.00. The
purchase price includes the ability to use all functionality
available within the software, including our built-in
services and tools (e.g. shipping tools, direct integrations
with the numerous payment gateway services supported by PDG,
QuickBooks/QuickBooks Point of Sale Synchronizations, etc.).
At PDG, we don't believe in the "nickel and dime" philosophy
that is practiced by many other ecommerce providers, so any
features you see listed will be available regardless of the
PDG Commerce package you choose.
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3- Do you offer any kind of guarantee?
Better than any "money back guarantee", we allow evaluating
customers to utilize the software for 30-days risk-free. The
30-day evaluation includes installation of the software to
your website and our premium tech support service (this does
not include any work we do to the cart or website for you
other than initial installation of the software). During the
30-day trial, you will work with the fully functional
software (no features blocked!), and can therefore keep all
of the work performed during the trial once your purchase is
made. If for any reason you don't find PDG Software's
solutions to be the perfect fit for your business, you owe
us nothing. We'll even remove the software from your website
for you, no questions asked. We're pretty sure that if you
try it, you'll like it.
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4- How does PDG’s ecommerce software
compare to a Yahoo! Store? An EBay Store?
Aside from the obvious benefit of you owning the license
for your PDG Software product and having the flexibility to
host with your own preferred host, there are many other
major advantages that PDG offers over Yahoo! Stores or an
EBay store. The success of a webstore is often dependant on
the merchant's ability to customize the storefront to the
specific needs of their business. With PDG, you're not
locked in to any specific design. You may customize the look
and feel, as well as the operational elements of the store,
to match your precise needs. The purchasing customer will
remain on your site throughout the transaction, allowing you
unequaled flexibility compared to a Yahoo! or EBay store.
PDG merchants will also add considerably to their bottom
line as PDG does not charge any monthly fees, any percentage
of revenues/profits, or any sort of transaction fees.
Lastly, the quality of PDG's technical support staff is
second to none. Fast, knowledgeable, and courteous support
is a phone call away. PDG does not outsource any of our
product development or support, so you'll have the
opportunity to speak directly with our knowledgeable staff
members.
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5- Can I implement a PDG Software
application while my current site stays live?
Yes! Whether you have the software installed directly to
your existing webserver, or choose to implement the software
on a separate development server, you may test and implement
the software without any impact on your existing site. Once
development is complete, you can easily replace existing
pages with your new content that incorporates PDG. If moving
from a development server to a production server, we'll
provide exact details on how to move the software, making
the transition quick and simple. Or, we can do it all for
you!
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6- Can I use my own domain name with my
PDG Software enabled store? Do my customers ever have to
leave my site?
With PDG Software's solutions, the software is licensed
directly to your domain name. You may host the software with
the compatible host of your choice (no special "PDG enabled"
hosting required). The entire transaction takes place on
your server and your customers are never directed to PDG's
or any other network. Please keep in mind that for us (ktwebdesigns.com)
to do work for you we do require that you host with us.
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7- How will potential shoppers find my
site?
PDG Software's search engine friendly shopping cart design
will make sure that any search engine spiders and bots
navigating your site are easily able to crawl all pages of
the site, with a clear indication of what each page offers.
Additionally, the built-in affiliate tracking ability within
PDG's applications will allow you to build a linking
strategy that will notify you immediately of where a sale
originated, and if desired, to provide a direct commission
or other compensation to the referrer. Additionally, our
software is directly compatible with a number of 3rd party
affiliate services and softwares, allowing you to expand
this functionality with real-time stats for referrers,
automated payouts, and more.
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8- What makes PDG Software’s shopping
cart solutions search engine friendly?
PDG's solutions allow you to control virtually all elements
of your pages. Visible content, meta tags, page titles, and
more can be customized to include the exact information you
desire. This allows the engines to easily determine what
each page of your site is about, exactly where each
individual product can be found, and in turn provide this
information to their users within their search results.
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9- What will happen to my site’s search
engine listings if I use a PDG Software product?
A major advantage of PDG's applications is that you do not
have to replace your existing pages with pages created by
our software. While this option does exist for new merchants
who would enjoy the benefits of a dynamic webstore,
established merchants with pages already indexed and well
positioned within the search engines can simply insert "add
to cart", "view cart", and other ecommerce related links
directly onto their current pages.
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10- How am I notified of a new order? Do
I receive an automatic e-mail?
Upon completion of an order, your PDG application will
immediately send an e-mail to you detailing the products
ordered, customer contact and address information, selected
shipping method, and all other details needed to package and
ship their order. The customer receives a similar e-mail,
confirming the details of the order. In addition to the
e-mail confirmation, PDG's applications also have the
ability to create text, comma-delimited, and XML order files
on the webserver, which can be used to import your order
data into countless third party programs.
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11- Can I accept credit cards without
having to use an Internet payment gateway? Can I process
transactions offline via my existing credit card terminal?
Yes, PDG Software's solutions allow you to collect and store
credit card data for manual processing. To help protect the
security of this information, PDG has incorporated PGP
encryption compatibility into the software so that this data
is stored and transmitted in a secure and encrypted format.
Once you have received and decrypted the credit card
information, you can then enter sales directly into your
credit card terminal.
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12- How much flexibility do I have for
calculating shipping costs with PDG Software?
With thousands of merchants utilizing our software, many of
whom have been running their PDG enabled stores for over 9
years, we realize that accurate shipping estimates are
extremely important in converting ecommerce sales. An
inflated or inaccurate shipping estimate can quickly lead to
a user abandoning the purchasing process and searching for
another provider. As a result, PDG has put a tremendous
amount of development time towards providing one of the most
flexible and configurable shipping interfaces available
within any ecommerce solution.
Merchants may choose to use any combination of tools that
include real time rates for UPS and USPS, custom tables that
charged based on weight, quantity, or subtotal of products
purchased, additional "per item" shipping costs, discounts
based on users exceeding a certain threshold or users
belonging to a certain customer group, and merchant defined
handling fees. For merchants shipping with UPS, the software
also includes functionality that allows you to validate the
customer's address, create and print shipping labels, and
track their purchases in transit directly from the
merchant's site.
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13- Can I offer wholesale v/s retail
pricing?
Yes. PDG Shopping Cart allows you to offer different price
points for your products based on a discount code provided
by the purchasing customer. PDG Commerce provides this same
ability, as well as the option to tie the alternate price
points to the customer's id/password for the store.
Additionally, PDG Commerce allows you to define different
discount options to different users based on their status.
For example, a merchant may want offer a "buy 3 and save
20%" discount to retail customers, without extending this
same discount to wholesale customers already receiving
preferred pricing. PDG Commerce also allows merchants to
discount shipping costs for select groups of users.
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14- How does
the PDG Commerce shopping cart work with QuickBooks?
QuickBooks Point of Sale?
PDG Commerce provides the top-rated QuickBooks shopping
cart/webstore integration offered today. PDG Commerce syncs
directly with your QuickBooks or QuickBooks Point of Sale
company file to synchronize products, pricing, inventory and
other product data within QuickBooks directly with the
webstore. In addition, PDG Commerce will automatically
replicate all webstore transactions directly into
QuickBooks, with the option for the merchant to choose their
desired QuickBooks transaction type (e.g. Invoice, Sales
Order, Sales Receipt, etc.).
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15- How much design flexibility will I
have with a PDG Software storefront?
PDG Software's applications can easily be customized to
match the look and feel of any site, and without requiring
any modifications to .asp, .php, or other complicated
scripting files. PDG uses HTML templates that the merchant
can build from scratch, or customize any of those provided
by PDG. The HTML files can incorporate the merchant's own
HTML, JavaScript, Flash, CSS, and even existing .php or .asp
includes (e.g. header.php that creates navigation menu)
directly into their PDG generated pages. Merchants
interested in incorporating their existing sites look and
feel into their PDG application may do so by modifying the
provided HTML files, creating their own HTML templates, or
inquiring about PDG's "Customize Complete" integration
service.
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16- Can I sell softgoods (electronic
goods / downloadable files) using PDG?
Yes, PDG's applications provide direct softgoods support
that allows merchants to distribute downloadable files such
as PDF's, audio/video files, software
applications/installers, and more immediately upon
completion of the order. The merchant is able to secure
these downloads by providing a time limit and a limit on the
number of downloads, preventing the download access from
being shared with unauthorized users. Merchants needing to
provide dynamic licenses, pins, etc. may also use their PDG
application to link directly to their own server side
scripts to populate this information into the PDG generated
"thank you" page and customer e-mails (e.g. "The
license/unlock/pin code for your purchase is [XXXX]").
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17- Am I able to import an existing
database or Excel spreadsheet that contains all of my
product information into PDG?
Yes, you can
import an existing list of products directly within the
software's web based control panel. You may import
comma-delimited (.csv) text files created from virtually any
spreadsheet or database application. In addition to the
basic product listing, merchants may also import product
options, discounts, categories, and more.
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18 - Tech Support
- FREE as long as you are hosting your website with us
-
www.ktwebdesigns.com
- There are FREE video tutorials available too!
- OR you can pay per incident, per 6 months or per
year through the PDGsoft website
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