While the IT and communications trade show sponsored by Invex Computer last week didn’t bring many novelties, one notable exception was the large number of e-commerce solutions presented at the event.
The solutions ranged from pure packaged software to customized e-shop building services. Simple database-generated e-commerce products were the cheapest of the solutions displayed, and the entry-level designs are considered appropriate for many businesses in the small but rapidly growing field of e-commerce in Eastern Europe.
Czech company Zoner Software demonstrated a more mature solution dubbed InShop. It is a combination of packaged software driving the client side of the e-commerce engine, with a server-based database access solution responsible for features such as the security of transactions, the connection with a warehouse.
Merchants who choose InShop can either run the server side of e-shop on the machine of the ISP, or they can use application hosting directly on site of Zoner. This type of solution is half way to a virtual hypermarket.
Several companies in the Czech Republic are in the early phases of developing vast virtual malls and hypermarket projects. The ventures include the nation’s largest system integrator, PVT, as well as the eCity consortium formed by Expandia Bank, mobile operator RadioMobil and state telecommmunication monopoly SPT Telecom.
eCity was started in March as a game: virtual money for virtual goods. It relaunched during Invex trade fair as a real e-commerce operation. Vendors at the Czech virtual mall include Nike, Reebok, Sony,Timex, Toshiba, and CK Fischer, nation’s largest travel agent.
The show took place on October 4 to 8 in Brno, Czech Republic.
