osCommerce Blog - osCommerce solutions for business

osCommerce Marketplace for osCommerce Developers and store owners

August 3rd, 2008

DataLink UK Ltd (trading as Holbi) is considering launching new Online Marketplace for osCommerce Developers and osCommerce store owners. The Marketplace will allow store owners posting their Requests for Quotations, and osCommerce Developers will be able to place bids with their comments and price estimates.

Categories of services will include: osCommerce Custom Development, osCommerce Design, osCommerce Hosting, Translation, osCommerce module installation, and so on.

We will invite all osCommerce individual developers and companies to join our osCommerce Marketplace.

Further updates will be published in this blog. We plan to launch the site in September 2008. Please email us (info@holbi.co.uk) if you would like to join the osCommerce Marketplace now.

Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments Off

Future of osCommerce

August 3rd, 2008

osCommerce is about 8 years old now - quite a respectful age for a software product. Many businesses use osCommerce for their Internet sales. And it works pretty well, and supports their growth. But the “official” version developed by osCommerce.com is out of date and, on its own, can not compete with the present day’s rivals, such as Magento and X-Cart, and others.

We share strong beliefs in the 3.0 version of osCommerce, but realistically - upgrade to the latest (not yet available!) version will look more like re-development of an existing web site for almost any online business relying on osCommerce today. More than that - the features that are to be released in version 3.0 - at least from the store owner’s point of view - are already available in other Ecommerce solutions and new osCommerce will just catch up with them.

So, why do we believe in osCommerce and why do we offer it to our customers? There are three main reasons here. Quite simple ones.

Our experience in providing businesses with Ecommerce solutions of various scale based on osCommerce is the first reason. We know a LOT about how to build successful online stores. Our customers shared their knowledge with us during all 6 years since we have created our first osCommerce site. And we have accumulated it to be able to re-use that experience again and again.

Community of osCommerce developers is the second reason. It not only produces great add-ons to osCommerce, but also offers help to everyone - a developer or a store owner - in case assistance or just an advice is needed. Support is always there. Even if the osCommerce team will not produce a new version in the next year or two (and it has been like that already for the last several years) - the osCommerce community will keep moving the project forward.

Total flexibility is the third reason. We just like it, and use it on every custom project to provide our own customers with Ecommerce solutions tailored to fit their exact needs.

These are the three reasons why we keep using osCommerce for almost all our projects, and why we believe in its future. We believe the osCommerce project will continue to develop further, providing flexible and successful solutions to the business.

Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »

Holbi: osCommerce Sales people needed!

July 1st, 2008

DataLink UK Ltd (trading as Holbi) is one of the UK’s leading osCommerce development companies. We are also strong in Europe, USA, and Australia.

As the business keeps growing every year, and actually every month, we are looking forward to welcoming new staff with strong Sales skills to process leads we receive from all over the world and convert those leads into sales, and our new customers into returning customers.

We will provide a decent paycheque according to a certain fixed rate and commission payable off each sale.

You can work from home, or from the nearest Starbucks. You can wear a suit, or shorts. You can live anywhere in the UK, or Ireland. You can spend 8 hours each working day, or just 2 hours - we only care about the results and not the time you spend to achieve them. We welcome new team members of any race, sex, type, etc - we only care about your ability to do your job well, and our ability to reward you for this well!

Our only requirements are: strong sales skills, communication skills (phone, email), ability to travel (95% within the UK, 5% - continental Europe, though maybe even less than 5%) and meet the customers in person. NO COLD CALLS - you always deal with customers who ARE WILLING to buy!

We will provide full training and make sure you never run out of sale leads. You will provide sales, and together we will achieve a lot!

Please contact us at info@holbi.co.uk or call 0800 0112569

We look forward to working with you!

P.S. If you live in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, anywhere else in Europe, or in USA, or in South America - please still let us know if you’re interested, as we might have a need in local Sales people in those regions very soon as well!

Posted in Miscellaneous, osCommerce News | Comments Off

Administration via email, and also SAP B1 and osCommerce integration

June 30th, 2008

Last week we were visiting a customer in their London office. Besides being quite a successful company in their industry, they are also well known for creativity in both business and, apparently, office administration.

They have excellent coffee there, and also the cup is big enough so it indeed works and keeps you awake even if you left home before 6:45 to catch the train.

But the most amazing is how one asks their office assistant to bring this coffee! To not interrupt the meeting you will be asked for whether you drink black or white coffee, how much sugar you take, etc - and then an EMAIL will be sent to the assistant’s address. Amazingly enough it works faster and better than anything we have seen before - your coffee is ready in less than 4 minutes, is of THE RIGHT temperature, and tastes great!

Besides all this coffee stuff - yes, of course we are creating an osCommerce based solution for that company, and hope to have it launched early July 2008. One interesting feature there will be its integration with SAP B1. Orders get downloaded from osCommerce and then get imported into SAP B1 in CSV format. Also, product information is exported from SAP B1 and then being imported into osCommerce.

If you rely on SAP B1 to manage your business, and would like to get your Ecommerce sorted - feel free to contact us (info@holbi.co.uk or info@datalinkuk.com) and we will come up with a solution!

P.S. Why is it always coffee that is considered to be a good idea to drink in the morning? Orange juice works even better!

Posted in Miscellaneous, osCommerce Modules and Services | Comments Off

Somerford Mini goes osCommerce

June 30th, 2008

DataLink UK’s partner, Insight Global, have completed the development of Somerford Mini’s online spares shop. Based on the original Somerford Mini Catalogues the shop takes you through the products in a informative and interactive way that assists you in finding the right part for your Classic Mini. Iniatially the shop has been launched with just Body Panels.

Working with DataLink UK who supplied specialist connection software we have provided a shopping system where prices are updated in real time from Sage.

Visit www.somerfordmini.co.uk/eshop

DataLink UK Ltd develops products to integrate online Ecommerce systems with Accounting and Business Management software. Our software products save you significant time and minimise the chance of error through the automation of essential business processes; saved time that you can reinvest into your business!

Posted in osCommerce News | No Comments »

osCommerce connected with Amazon

June 30th, 2008

DataLink UK Ltd (trading as Holbi) has started creating a solution that allows osCommerce store owners connecting their online stores and their Amazon accounts.

Our solution will make it possible to:

a) publish products from osCommerce catalogue on Amazon market place

b) download order and customer data from Amazon into osCommerce for further processing and for keeping stock levels up to date in osCommerce (or an ERP solution)

osCommerce connection with Amazon will be especially useful for small, medium, and large retailers who sell their products via multiple channels and receive from over 30 orders daily.

The “osCommerce DataLink for Amazon”, as we call it, will work automatically, on schedule, and will not require any customisations once it has been configured on the web server.

Prices will start from £1,400 ex of VAT one off fee, although alternative pricing models (monthly payments, 12 months contract) are being considered by our Marketing Department.

We will publish more information about this product as soon as it goes live. We expect the Beta version to be ready before August 2008.

Additionally, Amazon DataLink for Sage, Mamut, MYOB and QuickBooks solutions will be implemented in the future!

Please feel free to contact us by sending an email to info@holbi.co.uk if you have any interest in our “osCommerce DataLink for Amazon” or if you’d like to request additional features.

Posted in osCommerce News, osCommerce Modules and Services | No Comments »

Spares2you.co.uk - appliance spares business based on osCommerce (by Holbi)

May 26th, 2008

Spares2you specializes in on-line selling of spares and accessories for a host of vacuum cleaners from such famous and respectful manufacturers as Miele Spares, Sebo Spares, Numatic Spares, Dyson Spares and many others. They offer not only spares, but also high quality vacuum cleaners from manufactures above as well as from VAX Spares, Polti Spares, etc.
In 2006 they started selling security products like Timeguard spares; later, they introduced good Roberts Radios along with Roberts spares. Moreover, they are one of the main suppliers of Simplex kettles in the UK. Also, Spares2you has recently started to sell caravan spares and accessories.

Their bestsellers are:
Miele bags fjm,
Active air clean filter SF-AAC 30,
Miele Turbobrush S300,
Active HEPA filter Miele,
Dyson Stair tool,
Roberts Robi Radio, and many others.