Tucows announced via the OpenSRS blog last week the availability of a new service for its domain name resellers. Called simply OpenSRS Storefront, it is a hosted, turnkey e-commerce system provisioned to accept and handle orders for affiliate domain name sales.

OpenSRS Storefront is available now to existing resellers as a 'technology preview' version. The preview has a limited list of TLDs for sale, and fewer features than the upcoming official launch. The service's FAQ says the full launch will happen on the first of December.

On the blog are two screencasts, for the buyer and reseller aspects of Storefront. Some of the features illustrated in the videos included: domain name search with name suggestions and premium domains; WHOIS privacy which is free and enabled by default; a full-featured portfolio manager for buyers; and other add-on services such as DNS and forwarding.

Naturally, it does checkout processing, for which OpenSRS is collecting an additional 6 percent on resellers' net sales made through Storefront sites, according to the service's FAQ. There is no other recurring fee for using Storefront, the FAQ says, and no setup fee, aside from the initial reseller activation fee charged to all new resellers.

Comments on the FAQ range from generally positive, to ambivalent. Some users are surprised by the 6 percent payment processing fee, although some of those also said that with a few more features, the fee would be more reasonable.

For more information, see the FAQ and the preview announcement at the OpenSRS blog.

News report compiled by Nathan Hawks