Kurant StoreSense is the easiest and most sophisticated shopping cart software the CRN Test Center has ever reviewed. Kurant offers four online store types--Starter, Standard, Professional and Professional Plus. The Starter store is perfect for merchants who are just getting started and are unsure about doing commerce over the Internet. Regardless of which of the four store types merchants build, they can upgrade to a higher store with a click of a button.
With just a few steps through a wizard, small merchants can be up and running with a simple e-commerce Web site within minutes. Once a store is built, merchants can begin managing their entire store in the software's administrator pane. Administrators can edit product descriptions and prices, track orders and process different types of payments. StoreSense integrates with eBay and is the only shopping cart software certified by the online marketplace. Through any of StoreSense's store types, merchants can post products from their online store directly onto eBay.
 MARIO MOREJON Technical Editor |
One of the most powerful StoreSense features is the integrated payment and shipping methods. The StoreSense system supports internal processing of most major credit cards, checks and money orders, PayPal and WorldPay. Having the PayPal feature allows smaller merchants who might not be able to get a merchant account with a credit card company to participate in e-commerce. Kurant leaves it up to hosting resellers to choose what payment methods to make available to merchants. For U.S.-based resellers, for instance, it does not make sense to open WorldPay to their merchants since it is primarily used in Europe. Payment settings do have to be global, so resellers can select features based on pre-determined groups or even individual merchants.
Intuit has certified StoreSense to work with QuickBooks so merchants can integrate QuickBooks with the Standard, Professional and Professional Plus store types. For other accounting systems or any other third-party application, Kurant has made an SDK available, and Kurant resellers have successfully integrated Great Plains with StoreSense. Kurant also matches up resellers that have special integration needs with other resellers that already have that expertise in a particular area.
Kurant is channel-friendly since it only sells its StoreSense software to hosting resellers. When merchants call Kurant, they can only get advice as to which store is appropriate for them and then they are sent to a reseller that will support their needs. When Kurant delivers StoreSense to hosting resellers, it is a complete product. All of the integration with QuickBooks, eBay, UPS and Federal Express as well as all payment gateways are prepackaged.
Kurant's StoreSense Starter store starts at $9.95 per month. Kurant sells StoreSense through wholesalers, resellers that sell directly to SMBs and through referrals to resellers that want to target the SMB market but do not have the resources to develop the infrastructure. In that instance, channel partners can offer revenue sharing or provide a cost basis for each merchant. To become a StoreSense wholesaler or reseller, Kurant asks for a minimum sales commitment.
The average reseller margin varies depending on the number of configurations and price points per store types, and resellers can earn up to 85 percent margin on each store per month. Kurant has two dedicated channel Web sites-- one for developers and the other to support resellers. As Kurant continues to add features and functionality to StoreSense, the new upgrades will be made available to all resellers and merchants that they are hosting as part of the monthly service fee.
Kurant gives merchants the option to build StoreSense Web sites or embed stores into existing sites and use the software as an e-commerce engine for merchants who do not want to lose their original Web site investment. StoreSense allows them to add to existing Web sites without eliminating any functionality. When linking to another Web site, merchants have to point to all existing pages located at their original URLs. StoreSense can do this for the home page, product pages, "About Us" and general customer-service pages. The store-building wizard automates that process in one of the first steps when building a store. This feature allows resellers to attract merchants who have an online presence but are not yet involved in e-commerce.
StoreSense automates product uploading using a couple of batch methods. Merchants can upload products manually, import records using spreadsheets or text files and a QuickBooks database.
CHANNEL PROGRAM SNAPSHOTS
Paradata Systems, Skipjack Financial Services, Website Pros
> KURANT STORESENSE
COMPANY: Kurant
San Francisco
(888) 463-2696
www.kurant.com
HOSTED BY: Cari.net, Dynamic Concepts, Homestead Technologies, iPayment, NeoVerve,
TECH RATING: 
CHANNEL RATING:
Note: Vendors can earn up to five stars for technical merit and five for their channel program. If the average of these two scores is four stars or greater, the product earns CRN Test Center Recommended status.
