While I’m not one of them – yet – I’ve noticed that a lot of book bloggers have storefronts where they sell self-published works, or offer discounts from online booksellers. I’ve often thought that direct sales would be a better way than ebay to get rid of unwanted books – you know, the impulse buys that you read, but don’t really want to keep?

In looking at options – affiliation with a known e-tailer or using local shopping cart services, one of the solutions I came across was Ashop Commerce. While they’re based in Australia, they do business nationwide, and what I like about them is that their product is completely scalable, so whether you have one product, or an entire collection, there’s a level of their service that applies to you.

I also like that they support international currency. Yes, you have to specify your base currency – but they’ll help with conversions. They also allow you to accept credit cards without having to go through all the steps of having your own merchant accounts with Mastercard and Visa, which is always a plus.

Even better, they offer a 10-day free trial period, so you can really get to know the software before making a commitment to it. This is important, because often what you read on the web or on the back of the box doesn’t translate into real-world use.

Ashop may not be the best known shopping cart software, yet, but it is one of the best supported, even including a live chat option for questions their FAQ files don’t address with enough depth.

Ashop truly is e-shopping made easy.