BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Simon Watts has spent time and cash to create his website construction kit. The basic design – and clever back-end updating system – was created for Wheelspin Cycles but has now been rolled out for any IBD to customise and treat as their own.
The package features a self-managed online product database where products can be cloned to enable faster input of product data. Each product item can have an associated image uploaded with it which is automatically sized and thumbnailed by the system. There’s a ‘blocks’ creation tool which can drops up to six text blocks onto the homepage to draw attention to news or special offers.
There’s a handy mailing-list programme which enables email marketing to subscribers. This attracts a fee of 25p per 100 emails sent, with credits being purchased in advance.
The initial setup and creation of the static areas of the site (workshop, terms&conditions
T&C, privacy policy and so forth) costs £250 with a monthly hosting and subscription
fee of £75.
Because of some nifty bits of proprietary coding by Watts, all sites have to reside on the Siwis server.
Early adopters of the system need to input their own products into the back-end database but, according to Watts, phase two of the system will include access to a large central database of constantly-upated product from which users will be able to select for their own site, rather than having to upload all products individually.
There’s a demo at http://store.siwis-demos.co.uk/
To have a play with the administration back-end, contact Watts for a username and password.
Tel 01709 511766
