How many items can I have on my website?
	How many email addresses do I get?
	What domain name can I have?
	What is the very least I need to be able to sell items online with my Futurestore website?
	Can I operate a Futurestore Site without a Merchant Account?
	How secure is the order taking procedure, do you use a 'Secure Server'?
	What other costs are there?
	Can I incur any additional charges?
	When and from where can I use my control panel?
	How secure is my control panel?
	I already have a domain name registered, can I transfer it for use with my Futurestore?
	How long does it take to get my Futurestore up and running?
	What if I require an area of my site that isn't covered in the standard Futurestore features?

How many items can I have on my website?
Futurestore is different from most other suppliers of ecommerce websites in that it doesn't charge you per item. What you get is a block (roughly 19 megabytes) of webspace to use for your database and any associated images.  What that means is that you could accommodate about 500 items in your site if you used 38K bytes for each item's images, or 1000 items if you used 19K.  But it's up to you how you use this space. If for instance your business wouldn't need an image of the item, then you could store many thousands of items in that same amount of space. If your number of items starts to out-grow the amount of space then you can simply order some extra space, for which there will be a small yearly charge. You can see at any time, through your control panel, how much webspace your site is currently consuming.

How many email addresses do I get?
You get twelve email addresses with your site one of which is automatically set-up as sales@yoursite.co.uk.

What domain name can I have?
What country your business is based in partially affects what name you can have. If you are a business based in the United Kingdom then you can a name that ends in .co.uk , for example www.yourname.co.uk , if you are based in Germany then you can have a domain name like www.yourname.de . Additionally, you can have a domain name like www.yourname.com and it doesn't matter where you business is based. There are other type of domain name, for instance www.yourname.org or www.yourname.ltd.uk . Call us if you have a domain name query or click here for a more in depth explanation of the domain naming system. Just one more thing, you will find that a lot of domain names are already  registered and it may be that you can't have the name you want, especially if you are looking for a www.yourname.com . Click here to search which domain names are already registered and whether yours is free.

What is the very least I need to be able to sell items online with my Futurestore website?
You need just three things to be able to start selling online with a Futurestore site. You will need a computer that has access to the internet, an email address (any one will do - Freeserve, Hotmail, Bigfoot, etc.) and lastly you will need a Merchant Account with which you can currently process Credit/Debit card orders. If you want to include images of your items online then you will require a scanner or a digital camera to get your images on to your PC and ready for uploading.

Can I operate a Futurestore Site without a Merchant Account?
Futurestore was developed to be totally controllable by you and one of the features is the ability to turn off the e-commerce feature. For example, if you were a yacht broker then you may not have too many visitors who wanted to buy a yacht online! You may require your Futurestore site to provide a rich set of information about your goods and then for any prospective customer to contact by telephone or email.

How secure is the order taking procedure, do you use a 'Secure Server'?
Every Futurestore site processes orders only through a 'Secure Server' connection. We use Secure Server Certificates supplied by Thawte (www.thawte.com) a partner of Verisign (www.verisign.com) the biggest certificate issuing authority in the world. A secure server connection means that any information, including names and credit card numbers, that passes between the visitors computer and your site is encrypted and couldn't be read by anybody either accidentally or purposely.

What other costs are there?
There are no other charges in your first year, unless you require additional webspace or overage, apart from your initial set-up charge. There is a yearly hosting charge which you will be invoiced for after your first year which currently stands at UKŁ199 + vat.

Can I incur any additional charges?
There are only two ways to incur additional charges. Firstly, you may require extra webspace if you have a very large database of items and associated images. This extra space can be purchased at a cost of UKŁ99 + vat per year for 20 megabytes. Also, you get an allowance of how much information you serve to your visitors per month. This currently stands at 1 Gigabyte per month and should be adequate for all but the very busiest of sites. It shouldn't concern you if you start getting near the limit of this allowance as more visitors to your site almost certainly means more sales!

When and from where can I use my control panel?
You can use your control panel at any time and from any computer connected to the internet from anywhere in the world.

How secure is my control panel?
You can only get access to your site's control panel by knowing the current valid username and password. You can change your password yourself anytime and as often as you wish. Additionally and for added security, if you leave your computer unattended while logged in then after about 20 minutes your secure session will expire and you will have to log in again.

I already have a domain name registered, can I transfer it for use with my Futurestore?
If you are the registered keeper of that domain name then there should be no reason why we can't use it for your Futurestore site. However, some of the 'Free' domain name registration companies register your domain name under there name and will want to charge you to release that name to you. All these 'Free' domain name registration companies have there own set of rules and charges for transferring names. If you purchase a Futurestore however, we will be only too pleased to negotiate the transfer for you.

How long does it take to get my Futurestore up and running?
Most of our sites take an average of just four weeks to get online.  The transfer of an existing domain name can sometimes delay this process however. When the site becomes accessible on the internet then you will spend some time entering descriptions and images for your goods before you wish to launch your site to the public.

What if I require an area of my site that isn't covered in the standard Futurestore features?
If you decide to purchase the 'Regular' version of FutureStore (priced at Ł1,999 +vat) then you will have up to 20 additional pages/sections to your site that each have textual content and an image that you control, and that you can change when you wish, as often as you wish. We set-up these pages with names that you choose when we set your site up initially. For instance perhaps you wanted an 'Events' page that could give details of which events you'll be appearing at and when or how about a page detailing any awards you have won or maybe a list of your key staff or maybe....