A sneak peek at the new OpenSRS Storefront

Since OpenSRS launched back in 1999, we’ve offered a couple of ways for our resellers to sell domain names and related services. First, there is the Reseller Web Interface (RWI) which provides a browser-based sales and management interface. Second, there is our Application Programming Interface (API) that allows resellers to integrate domain sales and management into their own systems.

Starting today, we’re ready to tell you about a third way to sell through OpenSRS – a hosted storefront.

We’re rolling out our new OpenSRS Storefront solution as a “technology preview” in advance of its official launch in a few weeks. If you want to roll up your sleeves and try it out, later today, there will be a link in the RWI for you that will provision a ‘live’ working Storefront interface. You can also try Storefront in the Horizon Test Environment – it’s there already.

We’ve put together a list of frequently asked questions that will, we hope, answer most of the questions you might have about how Storefront works.

There are a few things that distinguish the OpenSRS Storefront from competing hosted reseller-in-a-box offerings. The Internet has changed dramatically over the past few years with the arrival of what has become known as “Web 2.0.” Our Storefront really reflects those changes.

Back in 1999, people looking to buy domain names were generally fairly tech-savvy individuals who knew how to code HTML or manage their own server. Or they were companies with IT departments that could make sure that the website that new domain name was pointing to worked properly.

Today, anyone and everyone wants to be online. Tools like hosted blogs, photo sharing sites and MySpace deliver on the promise of making it easy to establish and maintain an online identity. Our Storefront further extends this and makes it easy for everyone to find, buy, own and manage their own domain name, regardless of technical experience.

It’s really a domain name sales site for the Web 2.0 age and we think it represents the way domain names will be sold in the coming years.

Here’s a look at the end-user experience:

For current Resellers, there’s no fee to pay, or contract to sign. Just click the link in the RWI, when it appears later today, and your storefront will be created and you’ll be able to start customizing it right away.

We expect that many of you will want to see for yourself what Storefront looks like on the back end. To get you started, we have a screencast showing how to get your Storefront provisioned, and what you’ll find once you log into the Storefront Manager.

We’ll have more information on Storefront in the coming weeks.

martin

Great news! Now streamline and overhaul the whole backend in the same way (the UI of the backend should recieve some love, too), add country tlds to the storefront, allow localization of the storefront. once it’s localizable we will definitly deploy it. and provide decent api samples in php! it should be really easy for developers to develop something like the storefront in php.
http://gembiz.co.uk brian portlock

Very interesting. Three questions…

1. What about country domains such as .uk or .ie?
2. How is payment handled?
3. What about currencies other than dollars?
Dudi

The major problem with your services is that they are not cost effective. Our customers go to GoDaddy and buy domain.com in a lower price. The storefront is not the problem. The price you charge is.
http://www Infinity

So, nice announcement. But, why not a complete announcement? No cost for the storefront. But I assume that there is a cost per transaction?? How much is the transaction cost?
Vince

This looks great! How will Platypus customers use this?
James Koole

@brian/@infinity – there’s an FAQ at http://opensrs.com/blog/2008/11/opensrs-storefront-faq/ that will answer most of those questions. I’ll add it to this post to make sure everyone sees it.

Specifically, ccTLDs will be added by December 1st.

Payments are handled by us through our payment gateway and are subject to a 6% fee. Other currencies I don’t have an answer for, but I’ll get one for you.

Storefront access is included for Resellers just like the API and RWI is included. As mentioned, transactions processed via Storefront are subject to a 6% payment processing fee above the standard Wholesale costs.
Alex

When will the reseller interface be outfitted with a new design? It’s still stuck in the 90s! =]

-Alex
Michael Grant

Yes, I agree too on price! I’ve lost ALL my SSL certificate clients because of OpenSRS’s pricing and we have a steady out-flow of domain names too now.

When I see other folks out there selling a domain name + a year’s hosting for less than what I can buy a domain for in OpenSRS, there’s a problem somewhere.

When I asked OpenSRS about this, I was told that I should take a risk and take a loss the first year in hopes to capture the renewal at a higher price. I don’t think so.
Manuel

looks good but:

1: can it deal with other currencies.
2: How will resellers take thier money from the system?
Nikolas Dafopoulos

How will renewals fit into the Storefront system.

If a customer registers the domain through the storefront can he renew it through the storefront the next year?

Will the storefront send a renewal remider?
Liam

@Manuel – Resellers will be paid out by check at the end of the month if the balance in their account is greater than $50. As for other currencies, right now it’s US dollars only, but that’s something we’ll consider. Thanks for the suggestions.

@Nikolas – Renewal messages will be sent by Storefront just as they are with any domain in the OpenSRS system.
henry

Pls your comments on previou posts also regarding price. I am questioning myself the same question, you are far from being competative ih Godaddy
http://widgetygoodness.com Ivan Pope

Will existing RWI registrations be available through this system?
What about transfers in – can we do that?
http://widgetygoodness.com Ivan Pope

“Premium Domain Names – Resellers earn the standard 10% commission on Premium Names provisioned through Storefront; however, 6% of the full domain purchase price will be held back to cover the payment processing fee levied on all Storefront transactions, thereby crediting the Reseller’s account a gross commission of 4% on the sale of a Premium Name.”

So, if I sell a $1000 Premium name for you, my commission is $100. However, you then charge processing fee on the entire $1000 @ 6%, i.e. $60 – leaving me 4% or 40$.

Surely it would be fairer to only charge the processing fee on my commission – i.e. $6 rather than $60 – seeing as I don’t set the price or get the majority of the fee.
I’m not going out of my way to sell these for you at 4% for a premium product!
James Koole

@Ivan – Short answer for both questions is ‘not yet, but soon’.

Resellers will be able to convert existing RWI managed domain registrations into Storefront managed domains in the near future.

Transfers in will likely come at the same time as that as the two are somewhat related on the back end.
http://mail@rcthosting.com Paul

There’ll need to be UK formating before I could use it. Sterling £ prices shown to the end user and UK data formats on the webpage and in any reminder emails.

What appears on the end users bank statement/credit card bill as the payment to company? OpenSRS, the reseller, or some combination like OpenSRS (resellername)?
James Koole

@Paul – the credit card statement will show SHOPCO along with your chosen store name. It’s white label as you’d expect from us.

As for the UK formatting, thanks for the feedback – we’ll definitely consider implementing anything that would make things easier or more useful for Resellers.
http://puresource.com Herbert Samuels

The pricing is the major difficulty we experience in reselling Tucows domain names. The general public is able to purchase domains at a lower cost from several other domain registrars than we can as Tucows resellers. Net effect: we can’t compete on price for a product that is viewed as a commodity. This is not a good situation.

So, in response one can decide to add value to the commodity item through add-on services, etc.
This can be achieved when one sells domain names via their own storefront. However, since the new storefront decouples the sale of domain names from sales of our other products and services there is no way to add value (at sale time) to this commodity item for which our cost is higher than our competitors’ retail price.

So, it’s nice to have a streamlined purchasing process but the prices have to come down or we either can’t use the storefront, or use it and sell at an uncompetitive price, relying on the customers’ ignorance of the competitive landscape, or sell ourselves out of business.
Tim

Will blogware and website builder ever be sold and managed through the storefront system?
Sheldon

Nice try, but too little, too late to compete. I make a more being a Godaddy reseller than I do with OpenSRS pricing. Good thing I make the bulk of my income consulting…
http://dahili.net Dahili Network

This looks great, but
How about language support?

We are operate in Turkey and Turkic republics.
Nick Sugden

I don’t like the branding options. They are pre-set colours and don’t match with our brand. It would have been better to just allow colours to be altered, some set layouts (rather than styles) and a logo to be uploaded rather than have pre-set styles. More effective and probably simpler for you to deploy.
Frank Turnout

Initial post:
” – the credit card statement will show SHOPCO along with your chosen store name. It’s white label as you’d expect from us.”

This is confusing…the store front, which many clients would see, has your Tucows logo which can’t be removed. The image at the top of this page showing the store front has the bottom cut off…perhaps because that is where your logo is?

Services purchased through OpenSRS/Tucows have never been white lable or transparent; and over the years this lack of transparency has become more blatant, especially considering that you have chosen to provide the same services as your Resellers, to the general public.

This is the same trend that has occured many times over the past 15+ years…offer a service (or software, usually free)…promise transparency for the users who have their own clients…begin offering competing services, and then integrate the services in a way that the users’ clients can easily compare your pricing and services.

Do you remember when Everyone.net was offering free services with ‘transparency’? Then they started offering value added services; then came the helpful items (like your store front) which made it obvious who was really providing the services; and pretty soon they started offering competing services. For some time now, they have operated under EV1, and are a full blown hosting service. Of course that was after they sent out announcements of this change to all of their users…including their now competitive users’ clients.

I hate to say it, but I see Tucows heading in the same direction. You are working on new ways to integrate your Resellers’ clients (like email, spam, blog services, billing system, and now a storefront); but you have not been working on the things that your Resellers care about…domain name and digital certificate pricing and options; an easy to implement API that does not require using multiple services that you offer, etc. Geotrust is offering many products, yet nothing has changed on your end for many years…still the same options and pricing, and basically the same interface for ordering.

We have appreciated being with Tucows almost since the beginning, but more and more we have to wonder about the wisdom of staying with that decision. And it seems that many other Resellers may also be concerned about this.

Dare I say it? “The ball is in your court.”
http://www.terraprime.co.uk Philip Walsh

Ok so I got all excited when I seen the mail telling me about this but now that I have looked at it I have noticed a few issues:-

1, You need to allow us to charge for our hosting services and other bits (we make almost nothing from domain names and most people dont simply sell domains)

2, Having only the US $ is not allowing other sellers outside the US to use the service unless we sell as US prices and this can look odd to our customers.

3, we should be able to select how payments are processed, ie google, paypal or other, 6% charge is way over the top.

4, It is totally not suited to most of our site designs so this needs a major fixing.

5, the option to host it on our own servers and make changes to it would be much better.

It is good that you have started to move towards helpig us to sell things but what would be even better is if you also ticked all the above boxes.
http://www.terraprime.co.uk Philip Walsh

p.s people want to see our company name not shopco? tey will ask who are shopco and then attempt to have the paytment reversed from there banks.
http://www.opensrs.com/ Ken Schafer – OpenSRS

First off, thanks to everyone for all the interest and the great feedback and questions!

I’ll do a bunch of separate comments now to address things that Liam and JamesK haven’t yet.

Cheers,

Ken.
http://www.opensrs.com/ Ken Schafer – OpenSRS

@Mitch @1 – Thanks!

“…streamline and overhaul the whole backend in the same way…”

We’re actively working on that. I know it’s WAY overdue but 2009 will definitely be the year this happens.

“…add country tlds…”

Coming in December.

“…allow localization of the storefront…

That’s on the list. My guess is we’ll be adding more services (Email, Personal Names, and maybe SSL) first and then tackling localization.

“…and provide decent api samples in php!…”

We know we need to do this. No promises on when. If folks want to take it on as a community open source project while waiting for us, that’s cool too.

Cheers,

Ken.
http://www.opensrs.com/ Ken Schafer – OpenSRS

@Dudi @3 – Thanks!

“The major problem with your services is that they are not cost effective.”

Price isn’t the only thing that motivates customers. Great service, an easy-to-use interface, no high-pressure upselling – these are all things people appreciate along with a fair price.

Some of your competitors will use domain registration as a loss leader and that can be challenging if your customers are comparing on price alone. Having said that, lots of our resellers are very successful without being the lowest price on the Net.

Finally, because of our cost plus pricing we have THE lowest price on the Internet for .net domains and we also pass along price promotions from registries that other registrars do not pass along to their resellers.

Cheers,

Ken.
Ken Schafer

@Vince @5 – “How will Platypus customers use this?”

No immediate plans but I’m sure the Platypus team (www.ispbilling.com) will definitely be thinking about that as we move out of Preview.

Cheers,

Ken.
Ken Schafer

@Ivan @14 -

“…Surely it would be fairer to only charge the processing fee on my commission…”

We’re pretty constrained in terms of what we can do. We have to pay credit card fees on the entire amount and we need to pay the person selling the domain so what looks like a really high-ticket items doesn’t get quite as much in your wallet as it looks like it will at first.

On the other hand, in the example, you’re making FORTY DOLLARS off one domain sale! You’re customer is also likely to be a loyal one as our experience with resellers who are selling Premium Domains is that those customers are more serious about their business and more willing to spend to benefit from building a web presence.

Cheers,

Ken.
Ken Schafer

@Herbert @18 said “…since the new storefront decouples the sale of domain names from sales of our other products and services there is no way to add value…

That’s true.

The Storefront is meant as a stand-alone option which many resellers have asked us for. If you need to integrate sale, provisioning and management of domains with other services you offer then the API is the way to go.

Cheers,

Ken.
Ken Schafer

@Tim @19 said “…Will blogware and website builder ever be sold and managed through the storefront…”

Sorry, no. Both of those services, while still supported are no longer actively being sold by OpenSRS and we do not plan on adding them to the Storefront.

Cheers,

Ken.
Ken Schafer

@Nick @22 said “…I don’t like the branding options…”

There will be more themes in the future with each theme having several colour variations. We’re hopeful that most resellers can find a good if not exact match to their branding this way.

We’re talking about offering advanced branding options at some point but want to get more experience on what works and doesn’t work before opening up that option.

Thanks for the feedback though!

Cheers,

Ken.
Brian

Can clients login to the storefront interface with their existing credentials, or do they need to create a new login?
Ken Schafer

@Frank @23:

We are somewhat constrained in what appears on the credit card statement because we ARE in fact the company taking payment. So we have to show some brand that represents us on the statement and on the site.

You said “the store front, which many clients would see, has your Tucows logo which can’t be removed.”

This is optional and can be turned off in your Storefront Manager via the RWI. We need to keep SOME references to OpenSRS and Tucows because we are the registrar and taking payment – those are legal requirements and we’ve worked to minimize their impact on the experience you provide your customers. If we COULD be completely invisible we would be.

You also said “…Geotrust is offering many products, yet nothing has changed on your end for many years…still the same options and pricing…”

We’re looking to add new SSL options in 2009.

Thanks for the feedback!

Cheers,

Ken.
Ken Schafer

@Philip @24: Storefront is definitely a HOSTED option. The features you’re asking for would really make this a very different offering.

If you need to integrate other services into the order process, or what to customize heavily, or prefer to use your own payment gateway then developing to the API is the way to go.

Storefront won’t fit all resellers’ needs but many will find this useful. Sounds like it won’t be a fit for you, which is cool because the API can get you where you need.

Cheers,

Ken.
Ken Schafer

@Brian @34: This is a new interface with a different customer data model from the “Managed Web Interface” that your current customers might log into. If you moved domains here you’d need to give them new log-in information. That functionality isn’t in place yet but when it is we’ll document how to approach this.

In general our expectation is that Storefront will be for NEW customers and not for managing current customers. We’ll be doing a refresh of the Managed Web Interface in the 2009 using a lot of what we’re learning from building and rolling out the Storefront.

Cheers,

Ken.
Brian

I really like the idea of this service. The dealkiller for me may be the lack of Paypal payments. Most of my customers currently pay by Paypal. I would love to continue that and be able to specify my Paypal account in the Storefront configuration. Since I’d be paying the Paypal fees, I’d expect to pay less than 6%, of course! Any chance of this?
Brian

I really don’t want to manage two different systems. If I switch over to the Storefront, I would want to be able to move all my existing customers over.

We are relatively low volume (though I would like to change that). I’ve been using the API, but never got around to implementing most of the features. The Storefront is definitely what I’ve been looking for, and I would want to be able to have existing customers use it for renewals and new registrations.
Brian

Sorry to post so many comments.

Minor nit. On the FAQ page, you need to remember to automatically replace “Brand URL” with my brand, or the customers are going to get very confused.

In the glossary, your definition of “hostname” is incorrect. It should say something like “an address within the domain, such as http://www.example.com“
Ken Schafer

@Brian @38: We’re looking into PayPal, but no official announcement today.

@Brian @38: OK, I hear you. That makes perfect sense. Can I have Liam (the Product Manager for Storefront) give you a shout to get some feedback on this? Anyone else feel this is important for you to use Storefront?

@ Brian @39: Thanks!

Cheers,

Ken.
http://yahoo.com Jason

what an utter and complete waste of tucows resources. Did you ask your resellers if they wanted this? GoDADDY and ENOM are WAYYYYYY ahead and much lower priced. Why not bring the reseller interface into the 21st century and focus on what tucows used to do best – wholesale domains
Brian

@Ken, yes, feel free to have Liam drop me an e-mail brian at hawthorne dot org. If he wants to talk by phone, he can drop me an e-mail and I’ll send him my cell phone number.

Hope we can get this working, I’ve been waiting for something like this ever since I took over managing the domain business from my (more technically oriented) business partner.
Brian

Of course, transfers in will be pretty important, but I see from your comment above that those would come at the same time.
Brian

And, perhaps the MOST important question: How do we get paid? If the incoming credit card payments (less the 6%) go on our OpenSRS account, how do we get money out???

I don’t see anything under either RWI or the Storefront that lets me specify a transfer TO my bank account.
Liam

@Brian @44: Storefront commissions are paid monthly, one month in arrears. Checks will be cut on or around the last day of the month. Commission checks are only generated if you’ve earned at least $50.00 in that pay period. If the minimum hasn’t been earned in a particular month, monies earned are carried over until the minimum is met.

The first commission check for OpenSRS Storefront will be calculated the last week of January 2009, paying out commission earned on new registrations during this “preview” and the month of December.

Details can be found in the current Master Services Agreement available at http://opensrs.com/resources/contracts/.
Ken Schafer

@Jason @42: Sounds like this isn’t for you.

I think we – out of the box – do some things better than our competitors. We’re definitely also missing functionality and options they have. But remember, this is a preview of a new service that we plan on further developing over time – by no means are we done with this and our end-goal is definitely for this to be the best domain storefront available anywhere.

Cheers,

Ken.
http://www.beatnikpad.com/ neil

Nice job on the screencasts, folks!
Tim

I too would like to be able to migrate my customers over to the Storefront rather than continue to maintain a custom interface.

I certainly cannot present both tools on my domain as customers will continue to try to log into the Storefront with their Manage username and password – and when that does not work they will call or email me.

I don’t need those extra support calls.

Please give us a way to migrate users over.

-t
http://seaport.shopco.com Dave Reinhardt

I could not purchase a domain name.
System rejected two different valid credit cards.

Will we be able to migrate users over?
James Koole

@Dave – we’ll be in touch via email to look into the purchase issue you raise. As for migrating users, yes, that is something that is very much on the horizon.
http://www.best1hosting.com Tim Langen

Very nice but the setup is not allowing me to edit the pricing saying i must wait 24 hours and it has now been more than 48.
John Roche

I also am getting the ‘Wait 24 hours” message a couple of days after setting this up.

ALSO: please allow access to the CSS file for customizing the site – this would be a quick and dirty way to get better integration with our own sites at little cost.
James Koole

@Tim and @John – both support and development have been made aware of this issue. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
Terry

Ok, so if I’m getting this right my existing customers wont be able to manage their accounts from the storefront, they will have to use the manage dot opensrs site, is that correct?

And a second question, will I be able to manage the accounts registered through the storefront in the existing RWI or will I have to use the storefront or that?
http://opensrs.com James McNally

@Terry, your first point is correct in that you will still need to manage your existing customers in the RWI.

Accounts registered through Storefront are basically self-serve accounts and you can’t really “manage” them since they are paying directly for their own services. You can manage accounts in the RWI because you are paying for services on their behalf.
Liam

@Terry @55. Further to James McNally’s response, while in “Preview” mode, OpenSRS Storefront supports new registrations only.

We will allow you to pull in existing domains registered through our API or the RWI before the end of January 2009.

-Liam
http://www.tcconcepts.com Fred

Well, I for one am happy with this move. No, I didn’t ask for it . . . but I like it! You are right, there’s more to domain name registration than price.

I would only add my voice to those calling for a way to migrate existing clients over. In connection, the ability for us resellers to manage these accounts (as currently in the RWI) should be a simple matter of setting us up as some kind of superusers, where we simply have more authoritative access than the domain owner.

One other suggested feature. Let us set an amount to remain in our account as a balance for reseller-managed purchases.

Get these things knocked out (migration, management, and reseller balances) and I think I could ditch the RWI altogether.

Thanks

Fred
Liam

@Fred @58. Thanks for the feedback on Storefront.

“migrating existing clients over…”

As mentioned above, we’ll introduce this functionality by the end of January 2009.

“setting us up as some kind of superusers…”

Storefront’s Domain Manager is an easy-to-use end-user tool that you provide to your customers, complete with in line help. This as a *big* improvement over the current manage domain tool we provide. The end goal here is to give non-technical (and tech savvy) users an interface that they can use to manage and renew the domain services you provide them.

“maintaining a balance for reseller-managed purchase…”

You can do this today. Using Storefront does not prohibit you from keeping funds on balance for RWI or API managed domains.

-Liam
Nikolas Dafopoulos

When purchasing a domain it doesn’t show the currency of the purcahse price anywhere.

I assume it is in US$, but it should state that somewhere.

We are a Canadian reseller and our clients will assume our prices are in Canadian dollars.

Ther seems to be no option on the store front manager to state that the price is in US$
http://lordmatt.co.uk Lord Matt

I love you. This is great. I would express just how great but no one wants to hear that much praise.

You rock and roll.

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