A shopfront is an online business profile that is used to tell the story behind a business and sell products, services and events.

Shopfront is intended for new and growing businesses. This means that shopfronts can be started by businesses (or organizations, bands etc) that do not yet exist, have not existed for long, or are small by nature. Shopfront is for building businesses- it is not "another place to advertise" an established business. If you own an established business, click here to find out how to get the most out of Shopfront.

Shopfront Setup

• Manage multiple shopfronts from one account
• Fast, simple shopfront setup wizard. Our What to Bring page lists everything that you will need to create an interesting shopfront for your business.
• Our business startup guide, Slingshot, helps you with everything from forming idea through to maintaining and constantly improving your business.
• Easily find out how to comply with the law

• Receive alerts whenever one of your shopfronts needs attention
• Edit your shopfronts without confusion using our super-simple Control Panel
• Easily hide your shopfront from other users when necessary
• Easily view your shopfront in a new window whilst editing it

Selling

• Sell unlimited products, services and events on your shopfront for free
• Fast, easy item creation wizard
• Upload an image and a enter description for your item.
• COMING SOON: add up to 5 images per item
• COMING SOON: add additional information such as technical specs and manufacturer's details
• Fast, simple checkout for buyers
• Easily turn items "on" or "off" ("off" means item does not appear in your shopfornt or in search results)
• Payments: accept any legal payment method you want. Optionally allow buyer to pay by Paypal (in checkout or after checkout)
• Select which currency to sell in: AUD, USD, CAD, GBP, EUR
• For products:
  
• Define options for your product that buyer will choose in checkout e.g. color: small, medium or large. Ability to change price of the product depending on which option is selected.
• Define extras that user can choose in checkout e.g. "batteries included" or "waterproofed. Ability to change the price of the item for each extra selected e.g. "waterproofed (+$49)"
• Track inventory levels for each product. Choose the stock level at which you want to be notified. Optionally show stock level of a product to buyers. When inventory is depleted, automatically display either "temporarily out of stock" or "product no longer available" to buyers, or just keep selling.
• Ability to display up to 2 additional YouTube videos, images or audio tracks with your product listing.
• For services:
• Display "We quote upon request" or a charge rate e.g. "$30 per hour"
• Display extras for your service e.g. "priority delivery" or "hire of jackhammer". Show the cost of each "extra".
• Display your travel and delivery policy (optional)
• Display your operating hours (optional)
• Users can easily send service enquiries from your shopfront. You will receive them by email.
• Ability to display up to 2 additional YouTube videos, images or audio tracks with your service listing.
• For events:
• Define options for your event that buyer will choose in checkout e.g. seating: general, silver or gold. Ability to change price of the event depending on which option is selected.
  
• Define extras that buyer can choose in checkout e.g. "dinner included" or "backstage pass". Ability to change the price of the event for each extra selected e.g. "dinner included (+$15)"
• Track inventory levels for your tickets. Choose the stock level at which you want to be notified. Optionally show amount of tickets left for an event to buyers. When inventory is depleted, automatically display either "temporarily out of stock" or "product no longer available" to buyers, or just keep selling.
• Ability to display up to 2 additional YouTube videos, images or audio tracks with your event listing.
• View detailed information on all of your current orders. Ability to update order statuses so customers can track their orders. View a running history of an order with times and dates e.g. "Marked "payment sent" by buyer on 2009-03-07 11:00AM"
• View detailed information on all of your completed (archived) orders
• Ability to include shipping in the price of your items, charge a flat rate or use the Australia Post shipping calculator to calculate the shipping cost for each customer. COMING SOON: international shipping calculators.

Shopfront Appearance

• Choose a color scheme for your shopfront. COMING SOON: more customization options
  
• Display your logo, business contact information and business location information on your shopfront (all are optional)
• Display a description of your business on your shopfront
• Gallery: easily add unlimited images, YouTube videos and audio files (songs etc) to your shopfront. Ability to add a title and description for each media item. Users can easily blow up pictures to their full size.
• Simple, clean shopfront design enables users to find out about your business, buy from you and leave feedback without confusion.

Communication

• Easily send and receive private messages to and from customers.
  
• Find your friends, give them feedback about their shopfronts, discuss business, ask questions and be mentored. Do joint ventures and start building a great business network!
• Forums: Ask business questions, read about lessons people have learnt in business, find demand for products and services, find business partners and other help and just chat in general.
• Find other shopfronts, including friends shopfronts

• Choose a unique URL for your shopfront e.g. bakery.shopfront.com or johns.shopfront.com
• Your Shopfront will appear in Google
• Users who view your personal profile will see all of the shopfronts you own. There is a link to your personal profile on your shopfront
• Your Shopfront will appear in Google
• Your items will appear in the Shopfront.com search results
• Users can add your shopfront to their "Favorite Shopfronts" list
• You can advertise your product, service and event listings in the shopfront Shopfront.com banner space (top right of screen)
• Receive reviews and testimonials from people who have done business with you. Optionally display these on your shopfront
• Blog: add blog entries to the blog on your shopfront. Keep the world updated on your business and speak your mind! Get people talking about your business. Easily edit and hide blog entries. Ability to add an image to each blog article and stylize text.
• Our Marketing page provides information on getting your shopfront out there.

We will constantly be improving features and adding new features to the site. At the moment we have built about 10% of what we have planned, and we are always coming up with more ideas. If you have any ideas we would love to hear them!