Project ReportOn

E-commerce Analysis of Volusion.com

Associate Degree Program(Semester-III)

Uzair Haider - M1f13ASOC0014

Supervised by: Prof. Adnan Faisal Khan

University of Central Punjab

Table of Contents

Introduction...........................................................................................................................................4

Business Models, Revenue Models and Business Processes...................................................................4

Technology Infrastructure......................................................................................................................6

Web Marketing Strategies.....................................................................................................................9

Web Server Hardware and Software...................................................................................................13

Security Techniques & issues...............................................................................................................19

Payment Systems for Electronic Commerce.........................................................................................24

References...........................................................................................................................................26

IntroductionVolusion, a company that allows merchants to create an end to end e-commerce store online, has raised $35 million in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank. It was founded in January 1, 1999. This is the first outside funding for Volusion in the company’s ten year history. Volusion is a leader in ecommerce solutions for online businesses. Volusion’s software allows anyone to build a fully functioning ecommerce site and includes the ability to control the design of the site, merchandising of products, SEO and social media, as well as payments and processing. Currently, Volusion has 40,000 customers who made more than $2.8 billion in sales last year, and has processed $12 billion in sales. Customers include Disney, Motorola, Chicago Tribune, and 3M.Volusion’s newest offering, Mozu, is targeted at mid-market to enterprise companies. CEO Clay Olivier tells me that the platform was built with API-first architecture for customization and integration with other applications, and software. He adds that Mozu will have a usage based pricing model, and will be providing mobile and web support. As for why Olivier decided to raise debt, he says that he wanted to add value from investors without dilution. And the credit facility will be used to help market and expand Mozu, and prepare the company for a potential IPO in the next year or so.Volusion competes with the giant in the space, Shopify, which just raised $100 million in funding. Other competitors include BigCommerce, eBay’s Magento. And interestingly, there seems to be a trend of online blending with offline when it comes to commerce. Shopify has transitioned from becoming an online e-commerce platform, to adding in-store commerce capabilities as well. Because Magento is owned by eBay, there are interesting tie-ins with in-store technologies via PayPal. [1]

Business Models, Revenue Models and Business ProcessesBusiness model is a plan for the successful operation of a business, identifying sources of revenue, the intended customer base, products, and details of financing. The revenue model is a key component of the business model. It primarily identifies what product or service will be created in order to generate revenues and the ways in which the product or service will be sold. A business process is a collection of linked tasks which find their end in the delivery of a service or product to a client. A business process has also been defined as a set of activities and tasks that, once completed, will accomplish an organizational goal. One of the reasons why this platform is so popular among store owners is the fact they have many features built directly into the dashboard, in other words you don’t need to purchase costly add-ons through a separate app store. With the deal of the day feature you can quickly encourage customers to keep checking back. The feature enables store owners to pick a product and offer a limited discount; you can even display a countdown timer to inspire shoppers to purchase the product before it is too late. Another feature that will help retain customers is the MyRewards program; this system allows them to gain points whenever they complete a purchase through your store. These points can then be redeemed at a later time. With the live and abandoned carts feature, storeowners can quickly gain an overview of which clients are currently completing an order, as well as which clients have abandoned their cart. Volusion encourages you to send emails to the customers who have abandoned their carts, however unlike other platforms that offer

this as an automatic process, you need to send these emails manually, and if you have a lot of customers then this can quickly become a rather time consuming process.

If you are away from your computer, then you can monitor your store on the go. This is

thanks to their native iOS and Android apps that allow you to check incoming orders as well

as keep tabs on inventory levels.

One feature that I personally became a fan of is the fact that you can process phone orders

directly from the dashboard. In other words, if you have a contact number listed on your site,

then customers can call you and place their order in person, all you need to do is open the

console and enter the required information. While Shopify offers something similar with their

POS solution, they don’t offer processing of phone orders directly from within the admin

panel.

Volusion Ease of Use

The first time I entered the dashboard I was pretty impressed, the interface is clean and easy

on the eyes, more importantly it is simple to navigate.

Unlike most companies, this platform doesn’t really come with a setup wizard; instead they

offer a quick getting started site, which pretty much just links you to the different areas of the

dashboard. The guide however doesn’t deliver any form of support on just how to get started.

Personally, I believe it is best if companies offer some form of tutorial at least for beginners,

you can always opt out but at least the option should be there.

Most other competitors such as BigCommerce and Shopify have a setup wizard; in fact most

companies I have reviewed provide this service. One part I really do like is the fact that most

input fields come with a question mark icon next to them, once you click this icon additional

information is revealed about the field. What I like about this is the fact I feel I am constantly

learning something without necessarily having to navigate to the support section. [2]

Technology InfrastructureSteve Krebsbach, Vice President of Information Technology, leads the Volusion IT and Operations teams, with responsibility for engineering and operating Volusion’s robust cloud infrastructure and ensuring the organization exceeds its Service Level Agreements.Steve brings a wealth of experience running large-scale SaaS/Managed Service environments operating at Carrier-Grade Service Levels. From 1990 to 2012, he held executive IT positions at several leading technology companies like AT&T Wireless, InfoSpace and Motricity, including roles as Senior Director of Data Center Operations, Network Services, Telephony, Infrastructure Engineering and Network Operations. Steve drives high performance cultures through Six Sigma and ITIL methodologies. Below is the letter which is written by Volusion’s VP of Information Technology.

“Our technology team is hard at work preparing your store for the holidays. Read on to learn more about a key milestone and other actions we’re taking to help you become more successful online.

2012 has been a year of phenomenal growth for Volusion. After joining Volusion just a little over 90 days ago, I’ve witnessed firsthand the fast-moving and passionate energy that fuels each and every member of our team. From an IT standpoint, we’re focused on helping you become more successful by deploying superior technology and building a world-class infrastructure operations team.You may remember that in early August, we notified you of important network maintenance intended to prepare your online store for the holidays. These upgrades were planned in response to the phenomenal holiday season we experienced in 2011 and the record-breaking year we’re anticipating for 2012.According to a recent report from eMarketer, online holiday shopping is expected to account for nearly a quarter of retail ecommerce sales for 2012. US retail ecommerce holiday sales are anticipated to reach $54.5 billion in 2012, a 16.8% increase over last year. Volusion merchants need to be prepared to handle the surge of holiday traffic to their online stores, and I’m excited to share that as of August 20, we accomplished a key milestone in the project by successfully increasing our total network capacity by 10x.This increase was a major step in a multi-phase upgrade project to prepare our stores for the holidays, and far exceeds any estimates of traffic we anticipate for our merchants. Even more, this enhancement is already showing measurable improvements in capacity, stability and reliability for our merchants’ stores. In fact, we’ve seen up to a 33% lift in performance on customer sites since completing the upgrade.In addition to increasing network capacity by 10x, we’ve accomplished the following items to ensure that you experience a seamless holiday selling season:

Added more virtual servers, database servers and optimized our storage Doubled our storage IO Doubled our server memory Hired over 17 critical IT positions in the last 120 days, with more hires planned for

Q4Finally, we’re making great progress in building out our new data center facility. At this point, our infrastructure build outs are nearing completion and we’re beginning to deploy and test various applications. The new data center will be introduced over the next year, and we’re working on this project in tandem with the significant improvements in our current environments listed above.We’re excited about the improvements that these actions will bring for our merchants and are looking forward to a successful holiday season ahead. We’re continuously focused on ways to deliver the most sophisticated and cutting-edge technology to our customers and our team will continue to deliver impactful solutions to power your online business.There’s never been a more exciting time to sell online, and we thank you for choosing Volusion.Sincerely,-Steve Krebsbach, VP of Information Technology, Volusion “[3]

Volusion updates technology platform after power outageVolusion Inc. launched a new version of its e-commerce platform this week, with new features including enlarged product images and the ability to list items for sale on eBay.com.“Customers have been asking us for improvements to their workflow and improvements to usability,” Jason Woosley, vice president of product, says in a video posted on the company’s web site this week announcing version 13 of the Volusion e-commerce technology platform. “V13 is our vehicle to get that into our customers’ hands.”The promise of the new platform, however, coincided with a problem that left some e-commerce sites on its existing platform offline earlier this week. A denial of service attack, or DoS, knocked out one online store of a Volusion client on Tuesday, the company said. Volusion information technology staff then quarantined the site to protect Volusion’s overall infrastructure, which is distributed in a software-as-a-service model shared by multiple retailers.In a DoS attack, an excessive amount of traffic is purposely sent to a web site in an attempt to overwhelm its infrastructure and prevent it from operating.“The attack resulted in sporadic service interruption for a very small number of merchants while the targeted store was being moved to quarantine,” the spokeswoman says. “Functionality was returned to stores in less than 20 minutes.” Volusion didn’t provide more information about the attack.Volusion has experienced repeated power outages in recent months, a trend that has elicited a large number of critical comments by Volusion clients posted on Facebook, Twitter and InternetRetailer.com, and has prompted Volusion CEO Clay Olivier to post a note on the company’s web site last month promising system upgrades. Three retailers that contacted Internet Retailer this week but asked to remain anonymous say their sites experienced periods of being offline earlier this week. One retailer says that his e-commerce site was down twice earlier this month, and that it was offline for an hour on Aug.

7. “These outages are only getting worse,” he says. He adds that Volusion has also blamed prior outages on DoS attacks.To help sites on the Volusion platform handle additional traffic, Volusion plans to increase its network capacity tenfold this month, the spokeswoman says.The extra capacity should provide smoother operations on Volusion’s new e-commerce platform. Other new features on V13 include the ability to make product ratings that appear on a Volusion client’s e-commerce site to also appear in the same retailer’s paid ads on Google. In addition, retailers on V13 will be able to administer their web page content from mobile devices, including smart phones and tablet computers.V13 is available now to new Volusion clients. Existing clients’ e-commerce sites will be upgraded to the new version over the coming weeks, Volusion says.Volusion has more than a dozen clients listed in the Internet Retailer Second 500 and two in the Internet Retailer Top 500.[4]

Steve Krebsbach, VP of Information Technology,   Volusion

Web Marketing StrategiesAll pricing tiers come with advanced SEO built right into the store. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a set of best practices involving website design and layout intended to increase the likelihood that visitors find a website by searching for its content via search engines (e.g. Google, Bing, and Yahoo!).Thanks to SEO optimization, you can quickly earn snippet displays where potential shoppers can quickly see things such as star ratings, product pricing and stock status directly from the search engine results. Similar to Shopify and BigCommerce you can easily sell your products through your own personalized Facebook store.This means that while customers are looking through their feeds they can view and purchase your products without ever having to leave Facebook. Another way of reaching more clients is through their integration with Amazon. When people search for a product on Amazon your products will appear in their search, and you can easily start selling products through the online store. Similarly, you can sell your products through eBay; this allows you to reach over 100 million new potential customers. You can easily manage inventory of both Amazon and eBay directly from your Volusion dashboard.[5] As an online business owner, properly configured SEO will increase your chances of being found by shoppers, which should increase your chances of generating sales.Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, isn’t just useful. It’s absolutely necessary in today’s ever-expanding digital market. But here’s something you may not have known: Volusion

software was specifically designed to help you with your SEO. It’s true; our stores have built-in SEO features that are designed to boost your search rankings. So how do you start reaping the benefits?Here are four things you absolutely must do to get started with SEO in our software:1. Make sure you have SEO Friendly URLs enabledThe first thing you need to do is check the Enable SEO Friendly URLs box in your store admin. You can find this feature under the SEO Friendly URLs section of Marketing > SEO.

Once here, either check the Enable Search Engine Friendly URLs box or make sure it’s already checked.

After that, click Save near the bottom of the page, congratulations! You’ve revved up your store’s SEO engine.Wait, what are “SEO Friendly URLs?” Without enabling this feature, your URLs look something like this: www.myvolusionstore.com/product_details.asp?ID=cnss597. Kinda ugly, aren’t they?

Once you check the Enable SEO Friendly URLs option, however, your URLs are automatically rewritten so they appear in simple, static forms like www.myvolusionstore.com/Cozy-Night-Sheet-Set-p/cnss597.htm. Now the URLs look a lot nicer, use keywords, and, more importantly, are easily indexed by search engines. 2. Create or update your store’s Meta informationThe next step is to explore the Meta Info section, which is where you can edit or assign your Meta tags, Meta descriptions and Meta keywords for all of your store’s .asp pages. You can find this page within your store admin at Marketing > SEO. Conveniently enough, it’ll be the very first section you see.

Remember: Meta tags, Meta descriptions and Meta keywords are purely for SEO purposes, so your customers will never see them.When you look at the Add Meta Tags section, the default selection is Default Values, which is exactly what you want to fill out. Your default values are super handy because once you’ve set your default information; it’ll populate Meta data for every page with blank SEO fields. This is particularly useful because you won’t have to go through each .asp page separately to set individual tags. 3. Create or update your products’ Meta informationVolusion software is also built to help optimize each of your products for search engines. To access your products SEO information, click on Inventory > Products.

Once you get there, click on the Product Code of the product you’d like to optimize. On the Product page, scroll down and click the Advanced Info heading to expand the section

By default, the Search Engine Optimization tab is selected, and you’ll be able to edit your Product URL Text, Photo Alt Text, Meta Tag Titles, Meta Tag Descriptions and Meta Tag Keywords.If you’re unsure of what some of those terms mean, click on the green skittle button next to the term and a dialogue box will show up and tell you more about each field and how it affects your SEO value. For most stores, we recommend that you focus a good amount of your SEO efforts on the individual product-level. (Exceptions include stores with one product, such as a “as seen on TV” product, or very few products.)

Note: Don’t forget to optimize your imagesThe images you use in your online store are more than just a pretty face; they can actually help improve your store’s SEO. And when it comes to optimizing your images, nothing is more important than filling out the Photo Alt Text.

In your Photo Alt Text field, you’ll want to write a detailed description of your product in plain English. Something like “Free-Trade Bamboo Chair with Silver Accents” instead of “bamboochair2974738i5sig” so search engines can easily locate your keywords. To maximize your images’ SEO benefit, we recommend that you do this for every single product image. When it comes to uploading them, you can either pace yourself and tackle a few a days, or upload them in bulk our Import/Export tool. 4. Check on your progressSEO takes time, but once it’s been long enough for your campaign to take effect (anywhere from two weeks to six months depending on your campaign), there’s no better way to check your progress than through the eyes of an objective third party. In this case, our impartial judge is who is? Domain tools, a public domain lookup that can give you information on your SEO success.Visit the site, enter your domain name and click the “lookup” button. Then, click on the Site Profile tab, which is where you can see how well your SEO is working by looking at the “SEO Score.” Your score will be a percentage that ranges from 0 to 100. Think of the scale like your typical elementary school grading system: 80% and above, you’re doing great, 60% to 70%, not bad. Anything else, well, you know the deal. If your score is less than ideal, don’t get discouraged! As a general rule, SEO is pretty difficult to get the hang of. It will take a long time and a lot of dedication,  SEO reading and practice to really learn the trade. If you don’t have the time to devote to learning SEO but really want an increase in your effectiveness, it’d be best to hire an SEO professional to help you out. [6]

Web Server Hardware and Software

Automated Newsletters The newsletters are a great way to spread promotions and keep customers coming back. Fortunately, Volusion has automated newsletters that can be emailed to customers that opt in.

Additionally, their easy to use wizard guides users through the process of creating and sending their first newsletter. There are several options that can be manipulated; including newsletter subjects, descriptions, and the ability to target specific customers.

Sample Deal of the Day

Deal of the Day  Enabling the “deal of the day” is a great way of keeping customers coming back and attracting new ones. This option allows store owners to offer a certain product that is advertised on the homepage or sidebar. The deal of the day is catchy and shows the time when the deal will expire or run out of stock.MyRewards The Volusion shopping cart goes above and beyond by offering a point system known as “MyRewards.” This system rewards customers for shopping at your store and allows them to rack up and redeem these points for future purchases. The store owner has full control over the point system and can disable the system altogether.Affiliate Program  The affiliate program might not be a feature that all store owners need. Generally, an affiliate program can bring leads to the store and increase overall sales, considering that you have a large product base and decent commission rates for the affiliates. This program is not recommended for small stores.Live and Abandoned CartsThis feature enables store owners to view a complete list of live and abandoned carts and send follow-up emails to customers that abandoned their shopping carts. However, the follow-up emails have to be manually sent to customers and might end up costing you a lot of time, if you have tons of abandoned carts. Nonetheless, this feature will definitely bring back some of those lost sales. Fortunately, their abandoned cart feature is free and it is available of all of their plans.Free Trial PeriodAs of today, Volusion is offering a 14 day free trial. The free trial asks for your name, phone number, email address, and phone number, but does not require a credit card. During these two weeks, you are free to design and configure your online store. However, you are not

allowed to launch your online store until you enter a valid credit card and choose one of their monthly plans.I am a big fan of “no credit card required” because you are not attaching and committing yourself to anything. So sign up for a free trial and give them a try, if you do not like it, simply cancel it. Cost of VolusionLike BigCommerce and Shopify, Volusion’s pricing structure will meet the needs of most store owners, both large and small. Their plans start at an industry best of $15/mo. The only thing that I do not like about Volusion is bandwidth limitations. All of their plans come with limited bandwidth and this is the reason that draws users away from them. However, if you sign up for a plan that has enough bandwidth, you shouldn’t worry about it.Here is a better look at their plans:Mini Plan – $15/mo., 100 products, unlimited storage, 1 GB of bandwidth, no transaction fees, and online support.Plus Plan – $35/mo., 1,000 products, unlimited storage, 3 GB of bandwidth, no transaction fees, and online & phone support.Pro Plan – $75/mo., 10,000 products, unlimited storage, 10 GB of bandwidth, no transaction fees, and priority support.Premium Plan – $135/mo., unlimited products, unlimited storage, 35 GB of bandwidth, no transaction fees, priority support, and a dedicated account manager. 

Volusion PlansNote: Volusion charges $7 per gigabyte for going over your monthly bandwidth.For the ones that are wondering, the Premium plan is their best overall plan for medium and large stores. It costs $135/mo. for unlimited products and storage, along with a massive 35 GB of traffic. The plan does not limit any features and comes with a dedicated account manager and priority support. It is a bit pricey but I feel that these additional features offered will be useful, especially to people that are just starting out.Shopping Cart FeaturesIn terms of features, Volusion offers a wide range of standard features, both built in and obtained through their plug-in section. Additionally, their standard features cover several key categories such as store management, search engine optimization, marketing, and others.Here is a brief look at some of their standard features:

Designing Your Store – Includes website builder with free and premium templates. Upload custom logos and favicons. Complete control over HTML and CSS files. 

Managing Your Store – Store orders are processed through the admin dashboard. Other than the checkout page, the entire store is mobile ready. Full control over inventory. All plans entitle you to several email accounts. 

Configuring Products – Unlimited product options, images, and videos. vZoom technology for product images. Import and export products in bulk. Sell physical products, downloads, services, and more.

Marketing Your Store – Sell on Facebook, Amazon, and eBay. Run Enable promotions using the “daily deal” feature and offer discounts and coupons to customers. Built-in newsletters. Keep customers coming back with MyRewards and an enticing affiliate program. Customer reviews and social sharing buttons.

Optimizing Your Store (SEO) – Advanced SEO tools enable you to control META tags, headings, and keywords. Product ratings are featured on search engines.

Tracking and Reporting Tools – Volusion provides store owners with tons of reports on sales, visitors, and conversion rates. You can also view best selling products and top customers.

Payments, Taxes, and Shipping – Accepts payments on your store using PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, money orders, checks, and more. Automatic or manual tax calculations. Shipping rates can be in real-time, flat-rate, fixed-rate, or free. 

Hosting and Securing Your Store – Average uptime of 99.9%. Hosted on SaaS servers. Level 1 PCI certified. 

Quick Launch WizardVolusion automatically creates an online store for you and loads it with sample products, categories, and pages. There is a “quick start wizard” that guides users through a simple process of choosing a template, adding products, and uploading a logo.Yes, the wizard is simple and convenient, but I would strongly recommend that you add inventory through the regular products tab as it gives you more control over product options.

Adding ProductsAs mentioned earlier, products and categories are automatically added for you so that you see how everything works. These products can be deleted. I found it simple to add real products to the store. The wizard that guides you through creating products is organized into three sections; basic info, image management, and advanced info. This is a plus for all the newbies out there that are creating products for the first time.

Adding Products on Volusion Furthermore, their advanced info section is the place to optimize products for search engines, create product specific sales and discounts, add custom shipping rates, enable recurring billing, and maintain product inventory levels. Most of these sections are great for users looking for different options for individual products.Volusion TemplatesOkay, most of you are probably wondering about their template selection. Honestly, I was surprised by the amount of templates that they offers, both free and premium. Most of the templates are professional and ready for an ecommerce store. Additionally, Volusion offers templates for over ten industries including apparel, electronics, and home and garden.

Volusion’s Free TemplatesFurthermore, all of their templates can be edited using HTML and CSS. I could be wrong, but I was not able to find a function to upload a custom template or even to download and edit one of their templates offline. While most newbie’s will not care about this option, I feel that advanced users will find it helpful to have the ability to upload custom templates or at least edit them offline.Adding a Custom Domain to VolusionIn terms of search engine optimization (SEO) and for a better customer experience, you should always obtain a custom domain to use with the online store. Yes, it is an extra cost, but it is vital for the success of the store. Generally, the default Volusion store will have the following URL, http://storename.volusion.com/.  I will be the first to say that you DO NOT want your store URL to look like that.For the ones that prefer their default URL, there are no additional steps to complete. However, the ones that want to have a user friendly store; it is easy to point the store to a custom domain. To do this, simply log into your “My Volusion” dashboard and the DNS records should be on the left. Now, log into the place where the domain was purchased and update the name servers.That is it; you now have the store pointing to a custom domain. If you do not have a domain and would like to register one, NameCheap has domains starting at $3.98/yr.Apps and ExtrasNeed extra features? For the ones that end up needing a bit more than what is offered, Volusion offers additional features in their app store. In terms of selection, they have both free and premium third party plug-ins in the app store. Furthermore, all of these plug-ins are easily installed and integrated with your online store.

Volusion’s App Store The above image shows what you can expect to find in their app store.

Better Business Rating and Social MediaVolusion has kept an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau since 2001. Having an A+ rating with the BBB might not mean much to most, but it can give you a general view of what you can expect in terms of service and support.

A+ Rating with the BBBThe company has over 37,000 Facebook likes and over 33,000 Twitter followers. Looking at their social media profiles, there is nothing that would make me not recommend their shopping cart. Obviously, there will always be mixed reviews on their software. [7]

Security Techniques & issuesAs online security takes center stage in the public eye, Volusion has been proactively working to beef up its security. Let’s take a look inside the Volusion security.

Cyber security has deservedly become a hot topic in the public arena, and the subject particularly resonates here at Volusion. As the internet continues to weave itself into more and more angles of our everyday lives, so does the opportunity for cybercriminals to take advantage of our reliance on the digital space. And while we’ve all heard the stories of cyber

warfare between world governments, what isn’t as high profile is the amount of attacks against ecommerce sites, especially in North America.In fact, Trustwave’s latest Global Security Report indicates that the retail industry is now the top target for cybercriminals, with ecommerce attacks emerging as a rapidly growing trend. This rise in attacks is tied to the increase in popularity of online shopping, which provides a treasure trove of credit card information for those looking to maliciously obtain it. This aspect in itself is a major cause for concern, and SaaS providers, particularly those in the ecommerce space, have been required to rapidly respond.Of equally high concern is the increase in the amount and severity of Denial of Service (DoS) attacks aimed at websites across the globe. Over the past few months, we’ve witnessed the most notorious DoS attacks in history – some of which crippled the websites of major financial institutions, including Wells Fargo, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase. It’s important to note that DoS attacks aren’t deployed with the intent to access credit card information, but are still a key component of a truly comprehensive online security strategy.Just last month, the biggest cyber attack in history was launched, causing severe latency in internet speeds across Europe. The scary aspect of that particular attack was its nature: instead of attacking a specific server, this one went after the actual backbone of the internet’s infrastructure. Even more, the attacks were pointing up to 300 gigabits/second at its targets, which can overwhelm even the most sophisticated internet service provider’s infrastructure.Because of this, Volusion has invested millions of dollars and thousands of hours to beef up our infrastructure to make merchant’s sites more secure and less vulnerable to cybercriminals. To us, PCI compliance is a small piece of the security puzzle – that’s why we’ve taken extra steps to enhance performance and protect our merchants’ most sensitive data.Here’s what we’ve done and continue to do to keep our customers as safe as we can. Volusion’s ongoing security effortsThere’s a cycle of upgrades and enhancements that we must make as a SaaS provider to ensure top performance, increased capacity and improved security on an ongoing basis. In order to do so, there are three main areas I’ve made a focus for us to achieve our goals from a hosting and security standpoint: technology, processes and people.Technology: Building a digital fortressOver the years, we’ve learned a lot about hosting, even enduring some performance growing pains along the way. Because of these lessons, we’re now in a prime position to leverage our experience to enhance our environment for optimal performance.One of the main takeaways we’ve seen across the industry is that a hosting provider is only as good as the technology that powers its infrastructure. This is why we’ve invested multiple millions in capital expenditures to provide the safest and most reliable hosting that we can. In fact, we’ve gone above and beyond what an average hosting provider has to offer, creating a security infrastructure that is 15 layers deep, with plans to add two more layers in the near feature. In this day and age, each layer counts.Picture these layers as a digital fortress, providing multiple levels of protection and fail-safes from any type of attack. For example, we use a two-tier DDoS defense solution, which includes both cloud-based and on-premise solutions, designed to handle a variety of different and complex DDoS attack types. We’ve also implemented edge routers, which leverage

Access Control Lists (ACLs) to mitigate attacks by only allowing authorized traffic, while still providing efficient processing by security devices within the network.Additionally, we use multiple layer 7 firewalls to improve our ability to block potential attacks. These firewalls inspect traffic, only allowing accepted traffic to hosts. The firewall also can identify traffic that matches known attack signatures (updated daily) and can dynamically block its access to our hosts.Beyond blocking and defending against malicious traffic, we’ve set up our infrastructure in a way that helps fortify your most sensitive data. To begin, we leverage network segmentation and security zoning, meaning that we separate our network into segments to control what traffic traverses between those segments. This assures that any security threats that do get through are localized, and their potential impact remains minimal. Our security zoning makes it difficult for an attacker to go from systems in one zone to another, and it can slow the spread of viruses and worms.We use a similar approach to separate our customers’ website functionality into two tiers: a web application tier and a data tier. The web application tier contains the functionality of their sites, including images, content, etc. This tier does not contain critical customer data. The data tier, on the other hand, is where confidential information is stored, and it resides in the most secure part of the company network.In addition to the design and layout of our infrastructure, we also leverage several host-based security elements, including:OS Based Security Configurations: We follow industry best practices when configuring the OS running on the hosts to ensure they’re secure, which means that we regularly configure, verify and monitor operating systems to provide protection from attacks targeting vulnerabilities in the OS.Application-Based Security Configurations: We follow industry best practices when configuring the applications running on the hosts to ensure they’re secure.Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware: We use a highly rated anti-virus / anti-malware solution to scan for known threats. This includes scans performed on a scheduled basis as well as scans of all files as they are accessed.Vulnerability Scanning: We use a variety of scanning tools to inspect hosts and web applications for any signs they may be vulnerable to attack. These include commercial and open source tools that are recognized as best of breed. Scans are performed on a scheduled basis as well as prior to any significant changes to detect issues prior to release.File Integrity Monitoring: Any changes to critical system files and directories will be identified in real time and generate alerts, preventing attackers from adding or modifying files.Event Monitoring and Correlation: Hosts communicate system, security and application events in real time to an event correlation engine which can identify patterns to indicate potential malicious activity. Alerts from this engine are sent to the Securities Operation Center (SOC) and the information security team.Redundancy, Failover and High Availability: This infrastructure is constructed to be highly available and each layer has a pair of devices to ensure that if one fails the other picks up the traffic seamlessly with no impact on the customer’s environment.By keeping our hosting infrastructure in-house, we’re in the unique position to enhance and invest in the technology that powers operations from behind the scenes. Because of this, we

have the flexibility to go beyond what an average hosting provider has to offer, with the ability to make changes and respond immediately.Technology is clearly one of the most critical components when it comes to security, and we’ve done our part to ensure that we provide best-in-breed tools and capabilities for our merchants.Processes: Ongoing assessment, analysis and monitoringSecurity isn’t just a one-time occurrence – it’s something that we must continuously and relentlessly address. Even the most advanced technology falls short without ongoing assessment, analysis and monitoring, which is where effective processes make all the difference.Here’s a brief look into their in-house security personnel and processes:Information Security Team

Analyze system behavior for suspicious activities Perform internal security assessments

Security Operations Center (SOC) 24×7 monitoring of systems and infrastructure Respond to alerts/anomalous behavior

Computing Security Incident Response Team Develop and implement best of breed incident response strategies Respond to computing security incident reports and activities

External auditors Perform industry accepted compliance audits Perform external black box penetration testing

Beyond these in-depth processes, we believe that security begins at the product level. That’s why, with each and every product enhancement, our IT team conducts rigorous quality assurance (QA) testing in regards to security. If a threat or vulnerability is detected during this process, we send the enhancement in question back to the Development team for reworking and revision. Then the security QA begins all over again.We’re firm believers that security is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s easier to simply prep your hosting facilities for a yearly external audit. But to truly stay ahead of changing security threats, you have to analyze and value each and every step of the race.People: Placing your security in good handsOf course, technology and processes can’t work together without the direction from the most important part of our security measures: Volusion’s growing team of experienced and dedicated IT professionals. Over the past year, we’ve tripled our IT team to enhance our hosting, performance and security capabilities. In fact, we’ve hired several IT roles that are solely dedicated to security protections.Our IT hires come from a wide range of professional backgrounds, many of whom have worked for the world’s top hosting and technology companies. Add that to a strong foundational team of members that have worked with the Volusion platform for many, many years. And yes, we’ve even got ex-Military Security personnel on staff.We encourage our IT team to continue their professional growth, including the pursuit and achievement of industry-endorsed certifications. And of equal importance, our work environment is structured for the highest level of collaboration possible – by allowing these

experts to openly share their knowledge, we’re much more agile in making improvements and making responses as quickly and efficiently as possible.I’m excited and very proud to lead this team as we address the security needs of an expanding organization and increasingly complex ecommerce industry. Rest assured that the safety and performance of each of our customers’ sites are in good hands.This three-pronged approach to security has allowed us to overcome the increasingly difficult challenges that any hosting provider must address. By combining the effects of powerful technology, rigorous security process and an experienced, professional team, we’re in a much more stable and confident place from a security standpoint.What these efforts mean for our customersWhen other ecommerce providers settle for the minimum requirements, you might ask why we would invest so many resources into our hosting infrastructure. It’s simple: we have no other choice. With the frequency and severity of attacks increasing across our industry, it’s our absolute obligation to protect the data and performance that powers our thousands of online stores.As a result of these investments, our merchants can focus on what they do best: managing and growing their businesses. By allowing us to handle the security aspect, Volusion storeowners receive multiple benefits, regardless of what plan they’re on or what type of product they’re selling:

Enormous cost savings: To independently acquire the amount of protections we’ve put in place, one would have to make large investments in technology and IT staffing to meet their needs. Beyond that, hosting providers charge more for each additional security enhancement that’s utilized, which quickly adds up upon ordering more from the security menu. With Volusion, for one affordable cost, all of our merchants reap the benefits of the time and financial resources that we’ve leveraged.

Time efficiencies: For merchants looking to manage their own hosting (such as those using open source solutions), it takes a lot of time and effort to address the security concerns in today’s world. In order to achieve a similar structure of layered security, one would have to manage multiple vendors, all with differing technologies and integration issues. Even more, we keep up with all of the latest security developments so that you’re not stuck poring over the latest news impacting the industry.

Removal of guesswork: Even if an online business owner is using an ecommerce solution with outsourced hosting, there are several questions and details that must be addressed by their provider when selecting specific aspects of hosting. For example, when an ecommerce provider outsources their hosting, they’re fully dependent on their hosting provider to assemble and acquire the right hardware and infrastructure for their needs. In other words, if the ecommerce provider doesn’t ask the right questions, their ecommerce merchants don’t get the right tools needed for protection.

Increased security: Naturally, one of the most obvious benefits to our in-house hosting efforts and investments is heightened security. Because we have full control over our infrastructure, we can quickly make enhancements to our systems and immediately respond. With outsourced hosting, an ecommerce provider is dependent on their hosting provider to address and respond to potential attacks or issues. Also, outsourced hosting and/or independent merchant hosting typically doesn’t afford the sheer level of security protections we’ve put in place, often due to cost restrictions.

At the end of the day, these benefits are why we’re so committed to making our merchants’ sites as secure as we can. Quite simply, we don’t think its right for customers to have to worry about security details, on top of the hundreds of decisions a business owner must make to help expand their presence. “It’s been my mission since day one of joining Volusion to ensure that our merchants can enjoy the peace of mind that comes with using a solution that’s dedicated to the utmost of security. It has been my privilege to work closely with my incredibly talented IT team to achieve this mission, and to see the fruits of our labor being passed along to our customers.Because when you boil down all of this time and technology to its core, it’s all about letting Volusion storeowners forge their business ahead without being afraid of what’s lurking on the internet. Happy selling!-Steve Krebsbach, Vice President of Information Technology, Volusion” [8]

Payment Systems for Electronic Commerce

Payment wise you can accept payments from more than 30 different processors; these include PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.Net, which is a popular payment processor in Europe. You can also sign up for a Merchant account and accept credit cards directly through Volusion.

The company doesn’t charge any transaction fees; however, as with most other platforms you still need to pay a transaction fee for accepting third party processors. If you sign up for the “in house” payment processor, called Volusion Merchant Services, then the standard rate for transactions is 2.17% whereas it would be 2.9% if you were using PayPal. One negative point about the Merchant account is the fact that you must be a United States citizen in order to sign up for the plan, this pretty much rules out 96% of the world’s population. In defense of Volusion this is the same if you sign up with merchant accounts on competing platforms such as Core Commerce, if you want to use a program that offers a merchant account to international citizens then you should sign up with 3dcart.

Ecommerce Platform Comparison: Volusion Feature GradePricing (Base prices are relatively standard)

B

Easy User Interface B+No Transaction Fees ANo Outright Setup Fees A24/7 Customer Support ADaily Deal Feature (Allows you to promote specials on a daily basis)

B+

Mobile Store Integration B+Facebook/Social Media Store And Tools

B

Free Design Templates [(around 100 total) available; Premium Design Templates (230+ total) available for purchase ($50-$895)]

B

Free Trial (14 Day) BVolusion Customer SupportVolusion offers some of the best support in the industry. The company provides 24/7 live support via phone, chat, or email, to all pricing plans, except for the mini plan who only

receive online support. Furthermore, Gold and Platinum members get priority support, which translates, into shorter wait times.

I decided to give their live chat support a try and asked a few questions about their security measures, my questions were answered in a professional manner within minutes and much to my delight within 30 minutes of the chat I was actually contacted over the phone by a member of their support staff. He asked if I needed any additional support, he gladly clarified any questions I had. He even sent me an email with more information. After having contacted more than 10 different ecommerce platforms in the past, I must say this is the first time I have ever received a follow-up call. The company also offers access to an extensive knowledge base filled with video tutorials and articles to help you get your store up and running. In addition to their video tutorials they also operate a YouTube channel and a community forum. For the developers among their users, they also offer access to a Dev Wiki, where you can find code samples that can easily be incorporated into your storefront. Since the first review, Volusion has continued adding members to their support team; this in return helps reduce the wait time and improves customer satisfaction. [9]

References1) http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/13/eyeing-an-ipo-e-commerce-software-company-

volusion-raises-35m-to-take-on-shopify/2) http://ecommerce-platforms.com/ecommerce-reviews/the-ultimate-volusion-ecommerce-

review3) http://onlinebusiness.volusion.com/articles/letter-from-volusions-vp-of-information-

technology/4) https://www.internetretailer.com/2012/08/10/volusion-launches-new-platform-after-

power-outage5) http://ecommerce-platforms.com/ecommerce-reviews/the-ultimate-volusion-ecommerce-

review6) http://onlinebusiness.volusion.com/articles/seo-checklist-4-must-do-actions-for-volusion-

beginners/7) http://ecommercesoftwarereviews.net/volusion-review/ 8) http://onlinebusiness.volusion.com/articles/volusion-takes-security-seriously-and-so-

should-you/9) http://ecommerce-platforms.com/ecommerce-reviews/the-ultimate-volusion-ecommerce-

review