Rainbow to span channel with ecommerce service
Online services vendor Rainbow E-commerce was set to launch today in the UK to sell low-cost ecommerce services to SMEs via the channel.
Online services vendor Rainbow E-commerce was set to launch today in the UK to sell low-cost ecommerce services to SMEs via the channel.
Rainbow will offer a template-based Internet storefront, credit card processing and a basic order-management system based on technology from US ecommerce software vendor Intershop.
A basic site will sell for a £59 setup fee and £59 per month rental, rising to £99 for larger, more complex sites. In return for reselling this service, Rainbow will give resellers commissions of up to 35 per cent.
Brian Williams, managing director of Rainbow, said: "If a reseller sells 100 of these, it could be receiving a £3500 cheque from me every month." The service is aimed at small businesses with no technical skills, he added.
"Resellers can go in, possibly sell an Internet connection and some hardware, and help the customer through the process of setting up a site. The best thing about it for resellers is that we provide a stepping stone for them to move into the ecommerce market," he said.
Andrew Williams, sales director of AT Business Systems, which has signed up to resell the service, said: "We're hoping to make a lot of complementary sales from this. Companies will need to distribute information from their Web store internally, print-off and send order confirmations, and so on."
Williams said he believes a high proportion of his customers will be interested in the service.
Brian Williams said his experience in previous jobs, such as setting up 3Com's UK channel, has taught him how to do business with resellers. "This one's what we call a no-brainer: recurring revenue, no investment needed to start selling, and no stock. I'll even provide all the paperwork," he said.
In the long term Rainbow plans to introduce more sophisticated services to ensure customers don't outgrow their sites. Andrew Williams said one thing Rainbow needed to make clear was how resellers could integrate the site with any back-end software customers may already have.
To help generate traffic for its customers, Rainbow intends to develop a portal site, goshopatE.com, to act as a virtual shopping centre.
Williams said he will start marketing the portal with banner ads at other popular sites, as soon as Rainbow has enough customers to make the portal worth visiting.