Apsona is an internet service for managing and reporting on your shopping cart's data.
It maintains a local database within your Apsona account. To work with your data,
it connects over the internet to your shopping cart application (only when, of course, you tell it to)
and downloads the cart's data into the local database.
It then provides its features on this local copy. Consequently:
- Apsona never modifies your operational data in the shopping cart application, so there is no risk of error.
- Since Apsona connects directly to your shopping cart, it can use all the data it finds there (or at least the sections of data that you allow it to use). For example, it can download and use all data from the last three years, even though you just signed up for the service this week. Many other competing products are based on a page-specific script that you must install, and such products will only use the data records created after you sign up for them. This makes Apsona's results more reliable and effective.
- Apsona's copy of the data is available as a backup in case you need it.
- Install a small add-on into your Zen Cart or osCommerce system (you can download this add-on). This is a one-time operation and typically takes just a few minutes.
- Sign in to Apsona and provide your shopping cart URL, login and password. Apsona then connects to the add-on, downloads your data records and populates your Apsona account's database. This process typically takes a few minutes.
Each time you initiate this connection, Apsona automatically downloads the records you specify and updates its local store. There is no need for any manual processing, unlike other similar products that might require messing with CSV file downloads and manually importing data.