Alpha Software Makes Building an E-Commerce Site ‘Push-Button’ Easy

Nine years after the first online stores appeared, most companies still struggle to do business online. Building and managing an e-commerce site remains a costly, time-consuming, and technically daunting challenge for small, medium, and even large businesses. But with the 2007 holiday season shaping up as the biggest ever for online markets—sales will top $33 billion, up 21 percent over last year, according to Forrester Research—the business imperative has never been greater.

And now, building and managing an e-commerce site has never been easier, thanks to Alpha Software. Today the company unveiled AlphaStore 2007, a complete e-commerce system built on the award-winning Alpha Five Version 8 database, which costs only $199.00 through Dec. 7. AlphaStore 2007 provides everything an individual or organization needs to do business on the Web, because it’s designed around a ready-to-go online store that users can easily customize to market their products and services.

“In just a few hours, anyone with basic computer skills can be selling their products on the Web with a great-looking, secure online store,” says Richard Rabins, Co-Chairman of Alpha Software Inc. “We made AlphaStore easy enough for anyone to use, and powerful enough for professional e-commerce consultants to use as a platform for rapid customization. Organizations can take control of their online fortunes, while professional developers can more efficiently serve clients, because they no longer have to reinvent the wheel.”

The store includes a secure online shopping cart pre-programmed to accept payments via PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. It can also work with any other payment processor or merchant services provider. Users can easily populate their online catalog with product names, item numbers, descriptions, and photos. Built-in search functions make it a snap for customers to find the products they’re looking for and quickly checkout. All of the AlphaStore 2007’s features can be customized—including layouts, styles, colors, fonts, logos, and more—using drag+drop, simple “genies,” and the built-in WYSIWYG Web page editor.

A turnkey e-commerce solution, AlphaStore 2007 provides:

* A Totally Customizable Look & Feel. Choose from 45 professionally designed, color-coordinated style sheets to instantly change the look and feel of your site. No programming or design skills are necessary to change the style of pages, components, headers, logos, photos, links, or anything else. And advanced users will be glad to find they can control virtually all the application’s visual features and behaviors, using Alpha Five’s built-in visual CSS and HTML editors, field validation rules, ActionScripts, xBasic language, and SQL query support.
* Ready-to-Go Shopping Cart with Smart Checkout and Order Tracking. Shoppers will enjoy AlphaStore’s familiar shopping cart metaphor, and standard forms common to all modern online stores. AlphaStore 2007 makes it easy for shoppers to provide their personal, shipping, and payment information; and select from over 10 shipping options, including UPS, FedEx, and the USPS. Shipping and sales tax charges are automatically calculated by user-updatable tables. Built-in payment methods include PayPal and Authorize.Net (for MasterCard, Visa, and American Express). And every form and transaction can be secured using 128-bit SSL encryption, the global standard for secure Internet commerce. Lastly, customers and administrators alike will love AlphaStore’s order tracking, which lets them see open orders, print picking and packing lists, and update orders before they’re shipped.
* Advanced Administration, Reporting, and Royalty-Free Source Code. Products can be added or updated using online forms in the administration section or directly from the desktop. Eight detailed reports are available, including invoices, product lists, vendor reports, picks lists, and packing lists. Custom reports for analysis of specific store data can be created with ease. Lookup lists for shipping and sales tax tables can be directly maintained online. And because 100 percent of the source code is provided on a royalty-free basis, experienced users and professional developers can use AlphaStore 2007 as an application framework to speed design and deployment of robust, scalable Web applications, such as membership systems, church systems, lead management systems, student information systems, HR systems, client managers, inventory tracking, directories, and more.

Alpha Software’s AlphaStore 2007 is available now at the introductory price of $199.00, through Dec. 7, after which it can be purchased at the regular price of $299.00. There are no monthly fees or commission charges. Instant e-commerce hosting is also available through Zebra Host, an authorized Alpha Software partner, starting at $49.95 a month. Discounts are available for a limited time to registered Alpha Software customers who buy any Alpha Software product along with a six-month hosting plan.

For more information on AlphaStore 2007, visit http://www.alphasoftware.com/products/alpha_ecom_2007/. For details on discounted hosting plans, visit Zebrahost at http://www.zebrahost.net/alpha_five_coupon.php.

ABOUT ALPHA SOFTWARE INC.

Since 1982, Alpha Software has been providing developers of all experience levels with award-winning tools and technologies that make it easy to rapidly build robust database and business applications. Today over 1 million developers rely on Alpha Software’s flagship platform, Alpha Five, to build desktop, client-server, distributed, and Web 2.0 applications for organizations of any size—from SOHO to the Fortune 100. Every day, tens of millions of people and businesses rely on applications built in Alpha Five. With the introduction of Alpha Five Version 8 in 2007, Alpha Software sets new standards for speed of development, portability, reporting, and security for database applications of all stripes. The company is privately held, and based in Burlington, Mass. Alpha Software can be found on the Web at http://www.alphasoftware.com.

PRESS RESOURCES

Press contact

KateR {at} GregoryFCA(.)com

Alpha Software Web site

http://www.alphasoftware.com

Alpha Software blog

http://blog.alphasoftware.com

Alpha Store 2007 demo

http://afas.alphasoftware.com/ecommerce/

Alpha Store 2007 download

http://www.alphasoftware.com/products/alpha_ecom_2007/

Alpha Five hosting plans info and discount coupon

http://www.zebrahost.net/alpha_five_coupon.php

Alpha Five Version 8 overview (3 minutes)

http://www.alphasoftware.com/alphafive/video/3min/

Alpha Five Version 8 product tour (7 minutes)

http://www.alphasoftware.com/alphafive/video/7min/

Alpha Five Version 8 tutorials

http://www.alphasoftware.com/alphafive/video/

Alpha Five Version 8 case studies

http://www.alphasoftware.com/alphafive/producttour/casestudies.asp

Alpha Five Version 8 video case studies

http://www.alphasoftware.com/alphafive/producttour/who_02.asp

Contacts

Alpha Software Inc.
Company contact:
Richard Rabins
Co-Chairman
781-229-4500
Richard {at} AlphaSoftware(.)com
or
Press contact:
Gregory FCA
Kate Ritchie
Assistant Account Executive
610-642-8253
KateR {at} GregoryFCA(.)com