E-commerce Software - ProductCart Encyclopedia productcart

2Checkout (2CO)

2008-05-19T09:36:25-07:00

2Checkout (2CO) is one of the many payment gateways supported by ProductCart. Overview When you select 2Checkout as your payment gateway, customers will temporarily leave your online store to submit their payment information. They will be taken back to your Web site once the transaction has been approved.

The ProductCart Control Panel

2008-03-28T14:52:55-07:00

Accessing your store's Control Panel After activating your store, the Control Panel log in page will automatically be displayed. This is your entry point into the administration area of your online store. To load the same page at a later time, bookmark the following URL in your browser.

ACH Direct

2010-08-27T05:00:20-07:00

ACH Direct FIXME - This section is being updated.

Activating your store: ProductCart Setup Wizard

2010-07-30T16:24:25-07:00

Before you run the ProductCart Setup Wizard, make sure that you have: Upload the ProductCart files to your storeDecided on which database to useSet folder permissionsObtained a valid ProductCart license If you've done all of the above, load the following page, where “YourStore.com” is the domain name of your e-commerce Web site (remember that you might have renamed the productcart folder)

Activating Express Checkout (ProductCart v4 and up)

2009-12-04T13:36:34-07:00

Whats New In v4 [PayPal Express Checkout] ProductCart v4.0 SP3 and above include “Accelerated Boarding” for PayPal Express Checkout: this allows you (the merchant) to turn on Express Checkout with just a couple of clicks, even if you don't have a PayPal account yet. You will need to setup a PayPal account only after you get the first order paid for through Express Checkout.

Activating Website Payments Pro / Express Checkout

2009-12-04T00:27:38-07:00

Express CheckoutWebsite Payments Pro To activate Website Payments Pro in ProductCart follow these steps: CreateVerifyCustomers who don't have an existing PayPal account:Customers who already have a Personal or Premier account:Upgrade your AccountUpgrade NowApplyOverviewConfigureAPI CredentialsAPIAPIProfileAPI AccessRequest API CredentialsAPI signatureAPISubmitAPI UsernamePasswordAPI Sig…

Activating Website Payments Pro (ProductCart v4 and up)

2010-07-10T17:19:50-07:00

Adding a Payment Option

2008-03-28T16:00:21-07:00

To add a payment option, select Add New Option from the Payments menu. As Mentioned earlier in this chapter, payment options can be divided into two categories: Real-time.Non real-time

ProductCart Add-on's

2008-03-31T15:12:56-07:00

Visit the Early Impact Web site for a description of available ProductCart Add-on's, demo stores, features, etc. Here you will find links to documentation for each ProductCart Add-on. Apparel Add-onConflict Management Add-oneBay Add-onQuickBooks Add-on

Adding and Editing Affiliates

2010-08-27T05:00:18-07:00

There are two ways to add a new affiliate to your store: you can add an affiliate account or let affiliates sign up on their own, in your storefront. Affiliate sign-up in the storefront You can let affiliates sign up on their own by providing them access to a special page in your storefront called ”NewAffa.asp” and located in the ”pc” folder. You can obtain the exact link to this page through the Marketing > Generate Store Links feature in the Control Panel.

Managing Affiliates in ProductCart

2010-09-03T15:13:35-07:00

About Running an Affiliate Program Affiliate marketing is what has been behind the success of many of the largest online stores in the world. Are there other Web sites on the Internet that may be interested in promoting your products, or just talking about them? If the answer is yes, then it may be a good idea for you to set up an affiliate program.

Viewing and Paying Affiliate Commissions

2010-09-05T21:44:55-07:00

Viewing Sales & Commissions Reports Once new affiliates have been added to the system, you will be able to view information about them, edit their profiles, render an account active or inactive, and view sales commissions and payment history reports. To do so, select View/Modify Affiliates from the Affiliates menu. A page similar to the one shown below will be displayed.

Authorize.Net

2009-08-05T11:39:35-07:00

A Certified Authorize.Net Shopping Cart ProductCart meets all requirements for the Authorize.Net Shopping Cart Certification, demonstrating that the shopping cart complies with the high performance and security standards of the Authorize.Net Payment Gateway. ProductCart has been a certified Authorize.net shopping cart for many years, and has undergone the process of re-certification as well, further confirming the high quality of the integration with this popular payment gateway.

Beanstream

2008-10-20T17:49:23-07:00

Beanstream FIXME - This section is currently being updated.

BluePay

2008-10-15T17:28:58-07:00

BluePay ---------- Before activating BluePay in your ProductCart Control Panel, you will need to obtain a Secret Key from the payment gateway. To do so, log into your BluePay v2 account and follow these steps: ---------- ---------- • Under “Administration” click on “Accounts/List”

Configuring a Real-Time Payment Option

2008-10-12T13:26:55-07:00

Overview To add a new real-time payment option, select Add New Payment Option from the Payments menu, and then click on Real time credit card processing.... The window that will be displayed will list real-time payment methods that have already been configured, and will allow you to add a new one.

Managing Content Pages in ProductCart v3

2009-10-22T16:25:14-07:00

Adding and editing Content Pages To access this feature, select Settings > Manage Content Pages from the Control Panel navigation menu. Click on Add New Content Page to add a new page. Built-in HTML editor Use the built-in HTML editor to create the page or copy text or HTML code from another program.

Managing Content Pages in ProductCart v4

2010-03-16T00:40:27-07:00

The ability to create, manage, and display non-catalog pages (pages that are not products, categories, etc.) on your ProductCart-powered ecommerce store was significantly improved with ProductCart v4. Among the new features: ... [Manage Content Pages]

Copyright Information

2008-03-08T06:20:52-07:00

Copyright © 2001-2008 Early Impact, Inc. All rights reserved. ProductCart® is a registered mark of Early Impact, Inc. ProductCart, its source code and graphical interface, the ProductCart logo, this document, Early Impact, the Early Impact logo are property of Early Impact, Inc. and are protected by US and International copyright laws.

Acknowledgments

2010-08-27T05:00:17-07:00

Limited areas of ProductCart v1.0's original store database and small portions of its storefront source code were based on open source e-commerce software developed by Comersus. For more information on Comersus, please visit the company's Web site.

Special Customer Fields

2010-08-27T05:00:18-07:00

What they are You can add an unlimited number of custom input fields to your store's registration and checkout pages. For example, some stores may require their customers to provide their Tax ID before allowing them to checkout, while others might need to store a “Reseller” or “Account” number.

Importing Customers with the Customer Import Wizard

2008-12-04T02:22:14-07:00

Overview ProductCart includes the ability to import customer information from an existing customer database so that you can quickly add it to your e-commerce store. This feature can be useful in a variety of circumstances, and specifically in the following two scenarios:

Adding a New Customer in the Control Panel

2010-08-27T05:00:18-07:00

Registering customers in advance The ability to add a new customer right from your Control Panel may be useful to you especially when you are dealing with existing customers that want to start shopping online: resellers, distributors, frequent customers, etc. Indeed, you can make it easier for all of these customers to use your online store by using this feature to register them in advance.

Newsletter Wizard

2010-02-12T17:23:25-07:00

Overview ProductCart makes it easy to send messages to targeted customer lists with the new Newsletter Wizard. Using Newsletter Wizard you can build filtered customer lists (e.g. only customers that purchased a certain product, or within a certain date range, etc.), then send a targeted message to it, in text or HTML format. You can also, easily test the message before sending it to the entire list.

Customer Pricing Categories: unlimited pricing levels

2008-12-18T06:55:06-07:00

Great flexibility in managing prices Pricing categories is definitely one of the most powerful, innovative features that was introduced with ProductCart version 3. It gives you tremendous flexibility in pricing your products as it allows you to setup an unlimited number of categories and assign customers to them. The pricing scenarios that your store can support are now as many as you’d like. For instance:

Customer Account Area: built-in customer service

2010-02-03T16:52:59-07:00

Customer Service on Your Store Your store automatically provides your customer with dynamically updated information regarding their past orders. It also allows them to view order details in a printer-friendly format, repeat an order, and post comments or upload files related to an order. In addition, it contains features to let them edit their account information, add and edit multiple shipping addresses, and use the “Wish List” feature of ProductCart, if you enabled it.

Guest vs. Registered Customers

2010-07-19T14:42:30-07:00

Overview ProductCart v4 supports the ability for customers to checkout as “guests”. This results in the following scenarios: ProductCart v4.1 allows you to change directly in the Control Panel how the store behaves in terms of allowing or not allowing Guest Checkout. There are three options for Guest Checkout: enabled, allowed, and disabled. Read more about these stores settings.

Retail vs. Wholesale Customers

2008-09-02T06:49:52-07:00

How to set the customer type ProductCart supports two main customer types: retail and wholesale customers. It also supports unlimited Pricing Categories, a feature that is discussed separately. For now, keep in mind that a pricing category can have “wholesale privileges”, which means that the customer is considered a wholesale customer when it comes to features such as payment options or applicable discounts.

Viewing Customer Information

2010-07-19T14:41:39-07:00

Locating a customer To locate a customer, select Customers > Locate a Customer. You can perform your search using a number of filters. You can also browse all registered customers by clicking on View All. A list of customers matching your search criteria will be shown: you can then sort them by last name, phone number, company name, or customer type (wholesale vs. retail customers). The customer type column shows not only whether the customer is a retail vs. wholesale customer, but also the pr…

CyberSource

2010-04-19T15:47:49-07:00

Server-side System Requirements To use CyberSource with your ProductCart-powered store, you will need to ensure that the Web server that is hosting your store has the necessary software installed. Specifically: APIASPURL If you are hosting your store with a third-party, contact your Web hosting company and ask them if they already support CyberSource. Otherwise, provide them with the information listed above.

ECHO

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

Once you have created an account with Echo (), log into the Control panel and fill out the following fields on the Add New Real Time Payment Option page. Merchant IDMerchant PINPINTransaction TypeProcessing FeePayment Name For testing purposes, you can use the following credit card number (note that this credit card number and expiration change over time: check with Echo for an updated one if this does not work or has expired).

Editing Rights

2010-08-27T05:00:17-07:00

You have the rights to make changes to ProductCart's Active Server Pages source code within the terms of the End User License Agreement.

ProductCart End User License Agreement

2009-10-07T13:47:14-07:00

THIS AGREEMENT REGULATES YOUR USE OF THIS SOFTWARE. PLEASE READ CAREFULLY. YOUR USE OF THIS SOFTWARE IMPLIES THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD AND AGREED TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET HEREIN. THIS AGREEMENT EXPRESSES THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS ON WHICH YOU MAY USE EARLY IMPACT'S PRODUCTCART SOFTWARE PROGRAMS AND ASSOCIATED DOCUMENTATION THAT EARLY IMPACT, INC (“EARLY IMPACT” or “LICENSOR”) OR ONE OF EARLY IMPACT'S AUTHORIZED RESELLERS IS FURNISHING OR MAKING AVAILABLE TO YOU WITH THIS AGREEMENT (C…

eWay

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

ProductCart integrates with two payment systems offered by eWay: XML PaymentsSSLShared Payment PageSSL Once you have created an account with eWay and received your Customer ID, return to ProductCart, log into the Control Panel and select Payment Options > Add New Options > Real-time credit card processing... to load the Add Real-Time Payment Option form.

Advanced Category Export (Reverse Import Wizard)

2010-08-27T05:00:20-07:00

What it does To export categories, select Reports > Custom Data Export > Advanced Category Export (Reverse Import Wizard). This feature allows you to export category information, and it does so in a format that can easily be re-imported into ProductCart using. This way you can easily export fields that you need to update, edit them, and then import them back into your store using the Category Import Wizard.

Exporting for re-import (Reverse Import Wizard)

2010-08-27T05:00:18-07:00

What it does To access the “Export for Re-import” feature, select Reports > Custom Data Export > Export products for re-import. This feature allows you to export product information so that it can easily be re-imported into ProductCart. This way you can easily export fields that you need to update, edit them, and then import them back into your store using the Import Wizard.

Exporting Data to Other Applications

2008-04-20T08:08:29-07:00

Connecting your shopping cart software to other applications can make managing your store - and especially processing orders - much more efficient. ProductCart contains several features to help you easily export information. Exporting shipping addresses to UPSExporting shipping addresses to USPSExporting orders to QuickBooksExporting orders and synchronizing inventory with the StoneEdge Order ManagerExporting targeted e-mail lists to the MailUp Newsletter Management system In addition, the Pro…

Exporting Customers to a UPS.com Address Book

2010-08-27T05:00:18-07:00

Overview ProductCart gives you the ability to export customer addresses in a format that can be imported into the Address Book that is part of your account at UPS.com. By allowing you to quickly populate your UPS Address Book, this feature will speed up the process of shipping packages via UPS for those ProductCart users that process their shipments by using the tools at UPS.com.

Exporting Customer Addresses to USPS Shipping Assistant

2008-04-20T07:53:18-07:00

This feature allows you to avoid having to re-enter shipping information if you use the USPS Shipping Assistant to ship your Web orders. ProductCart exports a CSV file that is formatted for use with the Shipping Assistant. Export Information “”“”FTP“”“” About the Shipping Assistant USPS Shipping Assistant® is a free desktop computer program that allows to create labels (domestic, international, Merchandise Return and custom forms), ship packages, compare rates, calculate estimated delivery …

ProductCart XML Tools (XML API)

2010-08-20T10:03:41-07:00

Overview ProductCart features a complete suite of XML tools that make it easier for a developer to integrate ProductCart with a third-party system. Heavily documented methods allow for the retrieval and the posting of information in XML format. For instance, an external application will be able to update inventory or retrieve the latest orders via XML.

Exporting Information from your Store

2010-05-20T10:39:41-07:00

ProductCart allows you to export a variety of data from your e-commerce store, including products, categories, orders, sales, etc. In some cases, you can export the information in HTML, CSV, or MS Excel format. MS Excel will be shown as an available option only if ProductCart is able to successfully detect the presence of the application on the server. If MS Excel is not installed on the server, this option will be hidden (or a message will indicate that MS Excel does not appear to be installed)…

Fast Transact

2008-10-15T14:32:15-07:00

Fast Transact ---------- Before activating Fast Transact in the Control Panel, you will need to configure a series of settings in the Fast Transact administration system. Under “Setup”, you'll find an option for “Browse Sites”. Typically there will be a default site already set up for your account. Some customization will be necessary to set up a smooth payment system. Click on “config” next to the default website, or choose a short site tag, website name, and URL, choose “Add Site”, and then …

FastCharge

2008-10-15T14:16:01-07:00

FastCharge To use FastCharge with your ProductCart-powered store, you will need to ensure that the Web server that is hosting your store has the necessary software installed. The software is part of the “Distribution Package” that can be downloaded from this page:

SSL Certificates

2008-05-12T09:22:23-07:00

Here is a partial list of companies that provide SSL certificates. We are an official COMODO reseller (Instant SSL certificates). COMODO SSLThawteVeriSignDigiCertGeoTrust For more information on using SSL with product cart view the SSL section of General Settings

Custom Input Fields

2009-10-04T18:20:25-07:00

Feature Details When you add a Custom Input Field to a product, these are the properties that you can set. Text to display “”Field type Text fieldLength of fieldMaximum charsText arealength of fieldMaximum charsRequired [Custom Input Fields allow you to collect information from customers]

Installation: choosing and setting up your ProductCart database

2010-08-26T10:49:53-07:00

Using a MS® SQL vs. Access database You can use ProductCart either with a Microsoft Access or a MS SQL database. MySQL or Oracle databases are not supported. There is no price difference based on which database you use in terms of your ProductCart license.

Installation: setting folder permissions

2009-10-28T21:16:27-07:00

Required folder permissions Now that the productcart folder with all of its sub-folders has been uploaded to your Web server, you will need to edit the permissions so that ProductCart can write and delete files in many of those folders. ProductCart needs special permissions to do so because it saves all kinds of documents (e.g. logs, export and import documents, images, etc.) and sometimes deletes files as well (e.g. when re-creating the files that store frequently used store settings).

Installation: finding and uploading the ProductCart files

2008-10-23T12:22:23-07:00

Overview Before you can start using ProductCart, the software must be installed on your server and activated. You will not be able to log into your ProductCart-powered store's Control Panel and use the software to run your storefront unless it has been successfully activated.

Internet Secure

2008-10-13T15:43:31-07:00

Enabling InternetSecure as your payment gateway in ProductCart is very simple. Select: Payment Options > Add New Options > Real-time credit card processing... to load the Add Real-Time Payment Option form. Select Internet Secure from the list of available payment gateways, and you will be taken to a section of the page where you can configure your settings:

iTransact

2009-04-29T10:03:34-07:00

iTransact To integrate ProductCart with iTransact first log into the iTransact Control Panel. The only setting that ProductCart requires to be configured is the “Post-Back URL”. This variable needs to be set to the following value:

Obtaining a ProductCart license

2009-10-08T14:27:50-07:00

You can purchase a ProductCart license from the Early Impact Software Store or through an Early Impact reseller (e.g. as part of a comprehensive e-commerce solution). A ProductCart license consists of the following information: License KeyTemporary User IDTemporary Password To activate ProductCart, you will also need the e-mail address that was used when making the purchase (or your Partner ID if you are a ProductCart Reseller).

How ProductCart is licensed

2010-08-21T22:02:22-07:00

ProductCart Licensing Model ProductCart is licensed on a per-store basis. A store is defined by: This translates into the following, basic rule: one ProductCart License Key can only be used to run one commercial store. You cannot use the same License Key to run multiple commercial stores. Additional licenses are required if you want to run multiple stores, and discounts are available.

Link Point

2008-08-06T08:22:32-07:00

Link Point LinkPoint ConnectLink Point API

LinkPoint API

2009-07-06T14:17:19-07:00

Account Type LinkPoint is now the First Data Global Gateway. Contact your LinkPoint representative and make sure your account is set up for the Global Gateway API. You should confirm this before proceeding as some customers reported problems that originated in an account type that was not correct.

LinkPoint Connect

2009-09-01T13:51:05-07:00

LinkPoint Configuration You can easily setup ProductCart to work with LinkPoint Connect (formerly LinkPoint Basic). When your account is set up on the LinkPoint Payment Gateway, you will receive an introductory email “Welcome to LinkPoint HTML” the following information is included in this email (print the welcome letter and store it in the same place):

Setting up a ProductCart-powered store on desktop

2008-08-06T14:32:19-07:00

Overview You can host a ProductCart-powered store on your desktop or laptop for testing or development purposes. Windows XP Professional You can run a ProductCart-powered store on a PC running Microsoft® Windows XP Professional. You cannot run ProductCart (or any other ASP application) on Windows XP Home Edition.

Managing Countries and States/Provinces

2009-01-04T06:32:58-07:00

Overview In ProductCart every drop-down menu that lists states and countries both in the storefront and in the Control Panel is database driven. ProductCart's database includes a table for Countries and a table for States. Use the Manage Countries and Manage States features to add/edit/remove items to/from those tables, and to establish a relationship between them.

Manage Help Desk

2008-04-18T05:25:21-07:00

Overview To help you better communicate with your customers, ProductCart is equipped with a customized version of Early Impact's Bugs Manager issue tracking and project management software. This means that you can now count on a customer relationship management system to help you more productively manage customer service on your store.

Managing Search Fields

2009-12-23T10:05:31-07:00

Understanding Custom Search Fields The following information applies to ProductCart version 3.5 and above. Previous versions contained a limitation to 3 Custom Search Fields per product, and the features ”Drill Down Navigation” and “Search Field Mappings” were not available.

Manage Best Sellers

2009-09-01T15:04:32-07:00

Overview The Manage Best Sellers page works similarly to the Manage Home Page feature. This page controls the way Best Sellers are shown in the storefront (pc/showbestsellers.asp). Control Panel Tools You can find the Manage Best Sellers page under:

Cross Selling

2009-10-16T09:49:46-07:00

FIXME - some of the screen shots on this page were not sized correctly and must be updated Overview ProductCart gives you the ability to cross-sell items on your store. Cross-selling can help you increase your sales by presenting customers that are in the process of buying a certain product with a number of related products in which they may also be interested. Most large e-commerce stores use this marketing tool, and in a variety of ways. ProductCart v3 and above also allow you to create pro…

Discounts by Code (Electronic Coupons)

2010-07-16T18:27:22-07:00

Overview In this section (and in other areas of this User Guide) we use the terms “electronic coupons”, “coupons” and “discounts by code” interchangeably to describe the same feature. The purpose of the feature is to apply a discount to an order other than creating tiered pricing (see Quantity Discounts for information on tiered pricing) or promotions (v4 only).

Manage Featured Products

2010-04-12T00:29:27-07:00

Overview Featured products are shown on the “home page” (pc/home.asp) and on the “featured product” (pc/showfeatured.asp) page in your storefront. You can make a product a “featured” product by using this page, when adding or modifying a product, or when changing the properties of multiple products at once using the Global Changes feature. You can also set this property when you are importing products.

Generate Microsoft Bing Cashback Data Feed

2009-10-29T19:04:08-07:00

ProductCart version 3.5 and above allow you to create a data feed for Microsoft® Bing® cashback system. Microsoft Bing was previously name “Live Search”. Registering and Activating From the Marketing menu, select Generate Cashback File. Follow these steps:

Generate Google Base Data File (Google Products Search)

2010-07-08T21:22:53-07:00

Posting Products to Google Product Search (formerly 'Froogle') Basically, “Products Search” is a product index within the larger Google Base database. You will need a Google account to submit products and content to Google Base. More information about uploading data to Google Products Search. ProductCart will create the Google Base file for you. You will then need to register it with Google.

Generate (Get Store) Links

2010-03-02T12:55:03-07:00

Let’s say that you want to add a “Search the Product Catalog” link on the “About Us” page of your Web site. The “About Us” page is likely a static HTML page that describes what your company is about (or maybe a dynamic page created by using the Manage Content Pages feature). The “Search” page, instead, is a dynamic page generated by ProductCart. How do you link the former to the latter? You need to know where the search page is located and what its file name is. This is what the Generate Link se…

Create a NexTag product data feed

2010-05-20T10:47:55-07:00

Overview For information about making your products available on NexTag, please see Creating the data feed To create a data feed for NexTag, select Marketing > Generate File for... > NexTag.

Generate a Sitemap

2010-07-09T00:09:30-07:00

Google, Yahoo!, Live.com and sitemaps Many search engines including Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft's Live.com have agreed on a common format that Web sites can use to submit an index of the pages that they should include in their index of those Web sites. To learn more about sitemaps and the XML sitemap protocol, please visit: sitemaps.org

Generate Store Map

2010-03-11T22:19:20-07:00

Why creating a Store Map The Generate Store Map feature consists of the ability to dynamically generate an HTML store map that will include a list of categories, their subcategories, and the products that they contain, organized in a “site map” type of layout. This feature will help you create a static category tree to be used anywhere on your Web site. It can give your customers an alternative way to browse your online store, and at the same time help you improve your search engine rankings.…

Create a Yahoo! Search Marketing product data feed

2010-08-27T05:00:20-07:00

Overview For information about Yahoo! Search Marketing data feeds, please see Creating the data feed To create a data feed for Yahoo! Search Marketing, select Marketing > Generate File for... > Yahoo!.

Manage Home Page

2009-10-13T16:21:27-07:00

Overview This area of the Control Panel allows you to select which products to show on ProductCart's default home page (pc/home.asp). The default home page can shows a list of featured products, specials, best sellers, new arrivals, and other information, based on your settings. It can also highlight a particular product (e.g. “Product of the Week”).

Manage New Arrivals

2008-05-07T06:04:45-07:00

The Marketing > Manage New Arrivals page works similarly to the Manage Best Sellers feature. It controls the way New Arrivals are shown in the storefront (pc/shownewarrivals.asp). All the features available on the page are the same as the ones described for Manage Best Sellers, with exception to the following difference:

Manage Promotions

2009-12-04T16:31:41-07:00

Overview New in ProductCart v4 is the ability to create promotions such as “Buy Two, Get One Free”, or “Buy one pair, get the next 50% off”, etc. You can access this useful feature from the Marketing menu: Marketing > Manage Promotions Adding a New Promotion [Adding a new promotion in ProductCart v4]

Quantity Discounts

2010-08-07T13:47:12-07:00

Overview ProductCart allows you to associate tiered prices with any of your products. In other words, you can charge your customers different prices for different quantity levels. The price can also vary depending on whether the buyer is a retail or wholesale customer. You can create unlimited quantity discount tiers for each product in your product catalog. You can define quantity discounts at two different levels:

Manage Recently Reviewed Products

2010-08-27T05:00:20-07:00

Overview A new feature introduced with ProductCart v4 is the abililty to show to your customers a list of products for which reviews were recently written. The storefront page that lists recently reviewed products is called ”showRecentlyReviewed.asp”.

Reward Points

2010-07-21T00:04:54-07:00

This is a large topic. Please refer to the subsequent subheadings. OverviewConfiguring and Using Reward PointsGeneral SettingsAssigning Points to ProductsViewing PointsUsing PointsRewards for Reviews

Reward Points

2008-06-10T21:20:56-07:00

Assigning Points to Products You can assign points to products in the following ways: Reward Pointsproduct detailsItalic TextReward PointsAssign Points to Multiple Products at OnceReward Points start pageUpdate You have the option to assign points to all products based on two criteria:

Reward Points

2010-01-29T16:52:09-07:00

Configuring & Using "Reward Points" The first step in using ProductCart's Reward Points module is to configure its general settings using the Marketing > Manage Reward Points > General Settings link in the ProductCart Control Panel. Before proceeding, please review the following definitions, which will be used throughout this chapter.

Reward Points

2010-03-28T17:02:03-07:00

General Settings The General Settings allows you to configure the following properties: [Reward Points shown on the product details page]Program is Active product details page“”Reward PointsReward PointsAssigning Points to ProductsPoints Definition “”“”Conversion Rate Referral Points flat valuepercentageTell a FriendStore Settings > General SettingsTell a Friend... viewprd.asp?idproduct=203&refby=363

Reward Points

2010-07-01T14:53:15-07:00

Overview ProductCart’s Reward Points module allows merchants to promote customer loyalty and increase sales by rewarding customers for purchases and for referring other customers. The system allows store administrators to implement a marketing program that mimics the airline industry’s popular ‘miles’ program. Customers earn points while making purchases or referring other customers, then redeem points for discounts and free merchandise.

Using Reward Points

2009-10-08T14:00:55-07:00

How Reward Points are redeemed Whenever a customer has a positive “Reward Points” balance, he/she can use points to apply a discount on a new purchase. The discount that is applied to the purchase is determined by the equation: points used * conversion rate

Accruing & Viewing Reward Points

2009-10-13T15:36:31-07:00

Overview When the program is active, customers will accrue points as they purchase products on your store, and when referring customers that make a purchase, if your store is using this feature. Customers are notified of the number of points accrued with a purchase on the order verification page (before submitting payment information) and in the order confirmation e-mail (after an order is processed). They can also view the number of accrued points by logging into their account, and clicking…

Manage Specials

2009-09-01T15:08:23-07:00

Specials are shown on the “home page” (pc/home.asp) and on the Specials page (pc/showspecials.asp) in your storefront. You can make a product a “special” product by using this page, when adding or modifying a product, when importing products, or when changing the properties of multiple products at once using the Global Changes feature.

Moneris eSelect Plus

2008-05-30T16:29:58-07:00

Moneris eSelect Plus The integration of Moneris eSelect Plus payment gateway has been updated in v3.5. Users of previous versions of ProductCart must review the following information and update their settings to continue using Moneris on their stores.

Batch Processing Orders

2010-04-29T16:11:34-07:00

Processing Multiple Orders at Once ProductCart allows you to process multiple orders at once using its batch processing feature. To batch process pending orders, select Orders > Batch Process Orders. The Batch Process Orders page displays all pending orders, unless they have been previously removed from the batch processing list (see below for more details).

Batch Shipping Orders

2010-08-27T05:00:20-07:00

If you need to ship multiple orders at once, ProductCart allows you to batch ship them all at once. This feature can help you add shipping information to processed orders in a much faster way. You have two ways of adding shipping information to multiple orders.

Editing an Order

2009-04-01T13:22:51-07:00

About Editing Orders A useful feature when processing orders is the ability for the store administrator to edit orders after they have been placed. This allows you to easily accommodate scenarios such as... ......... The updated order details will be shown throughout the store, including the order details page in the customer’s account area. Orders can be edited regardless of their status. Orders that have already been processed (i.e. funds have been collected, the order confirmation e-mail h…

Importing 'Order Shipped' Information

2010-08-27T05:00:20-07:00

Overview Busy stores that process a large number of orders every day will appreciate this feature. It allows you to quickly import 'Order Shipped' information into your store, so that customer accounts can be quickly updated with details on how and when the orders where shipped. In addition, customers are automatically notified via an “Order Shipped” e-mail.

Locating an Order

2010-08-27T05:00:20-07:00

If your store receives a large amount of orders, you can search for a specific order using the Orders > Locate an Order feature. The page is divided into 4 sections. In the top section ProductCart lists a summary of orders received that day. The other three sections of the page allow you to look for an order using a variety of filters.

Shipping Orders in One vs. Multiple Shipments

2008-05-19T02:54:41-07:00

When multiple shipments exist There are different scenarios in which an order might need to be shipped in multiple shipments. Oversize items When you flag a product as being “oversized”, ProductCart automatically considers it a separate shipment when it goes to calculate shipping charges for the order. This happens regardless of whether the product packaging dimensions really match the “Oversized” definition according to shipping companies such as FedEx and UPS. If the product does not end…

Understanding the Payment Status

2008-10-14T02:00:41-07:00

ProductCart v3 and above In ProductCart v3 and above the payment status is managed and reported separately from the processing status. For example, for whatever reason you might decide to process an order (send the confirmation email, ship the products, provide a license key for a software download, etc.) even if payment has not been collected for that order (e.g. a customer that pays you “Net 30”).

Processing an Order

2010-05-28T18:16:23-07:00

The Order Details Page Once you have located the order that you would like to process, click on the View & Process link to load the Process Order page. This page containing details on the order itself (products purchased, discounts used, customer information, payment information, shipping details, etc.) and tools to process and edit it.

Purging Credit Card Numbers

2008-10-23T11:14:05-07:00

ProductCart only saves credit card numbers to the store database, in an encrypted format, in the following scenarios: view a list If these scenarios encrypted credit card numbers have been stored in the database. The card security code is never saved, as explained here.

Managing Returns

2010-08-27T05:00:20-07:00

How Returns Work in a ProductCart-powered Store ProductCart contains a full-featured module to handle product returns. The system supports partial or full returns, and allows the customer to be directly involved in the process. Specifically, returning an order now includes the following steps.

Shipping and Drop-Shipping an Order

2008-11-04T11:05:07-07:00

The documentation on this page covers v3.5 and above Shipping an Order In order to ship an order, the order first needs to be processed. Once an order's status has been changed to Processed, the Shipping Center Tab section of the View & Process Order page will display the available shipping methods.

Understanding the Order Status

2010-07-19T14:47:04-07:00

Overview ProductCart includes a number of advanced order management tools. They include an Order Details page that contains lots of order-specific information organized in easy-to-access tabs, the ability for the store administrator to fully edit an order after it has been placed, a batch processing feature that allows you to easily process multiple orders at once, a useful system to issue and process RMAs (Return Manufacturer Authorization), and many more.

Viewing Recent Orders

2008-10-16T08:28:05-07:00

There are different ways to see recent orders in your ProductCart Control Panel. menu.aspOrders > Locate an OrderOrders > View All Orders You can change the date filter (e.g. to display all orders in the last 30 days) using the From and To fields at the bottom of the page. Make sure to respect the date format mm/dd/yy. You can also filter orders by status (e.g. only display pending orders).

How this User Guide is organized

2010-08-27T05:00:17-07:00

This Chapter covers general information about ProductCart and Early Impact, and explains what the system requirements are for running a ProductCart-powered store. Chapter 2 provides detailed information about installing and activating ProductCart on your Web server. If it seems intimidating, considering hiring Early Impact or an Early Impact reseller to perform the installation for you. The cost is typically very low and it might save you some time.

Using Website Payments Pro with ProductCart

2010-04-12T19:11:15-07:00

Overview PayPal offers several different payment systems under the same “umbrella”. For a comparison among the payment systems offered by PayPal, please visit: This section focuses on PayPal Website Payments Pro (sign up). This payment system allows you to

Paradata

2008-10-13T15:40:59-07:00

Web Server Requirements To use Paradata with your ProductCart-powered store, you will need to ensure that the Web server that is hosting your store has the Paradata server component (PayGateway.dll) registered on the server. The component and the installation instructions can be obtained free of charge from the following address:

Running ProductCart on a Server with Parent Paths Disabled

2008-12-03T09:33:46-07:00

Overview Unfortunately there is a server setting on Windows server that creates a bit of an headache for businesses running ASP applications. It’s called “Parent Paths”. In a nutshell, an application like ProductCart uses the dot-dot-slash (”../”) notation (i.e. parent paths) to load “include” files (files that are dynamically included into another file when the latter is parsed by the Web server) from a variety of other files. Sometimes Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) is setup so…

Pay Junction - QuickLink

2008-05-19T08:16:58-07:00

Pay Junction - QuickLink Like PayFlow Pro, Pay Junction requires a client program to reside on your web server. If you do not have the ability to install applications on your Web server, you may ask your host to install it. If you host declines, then you should opt to go with a payment gateway that does not require a client program.

PayFlow Link

2009-12-08T17:53:55-07:00

PayFlow Link To setup ProductCart to work with Payflow Link gateway account, first log into the Paypal Account Manager then click on “Service Settings” , then select “Configuration” under Payflow Link. Here you will be bale to customize your form for collecting customer data. ProductCart requires the settings at the top of the page under “Form Configuration” to be set as follows.

PayFlow Pro

2010-03-09T18:10:23-07:00

SDK Installation Required Unlike PayFlow Link, PayFlow Pro requires a client program to reside on your web server. If you do not have the ability to install applications on your Web server, you may ask your host to install it. If you host declines, then you should opt to go with PayFlow Link.

An Overview of Payment Processing Scenarios

2010-01-30T18:10:28-07:00

The Payment Options module allows you to define how customers will be able to pay for an order. You can offer one or more payment options. ProductCart allows you to define a variety of real time and non-real time payment methods. In addition, you can restrict certain payment methods to wholesale customers only.

Custom Cards: Debit Cards, Store Cards, etc.

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

About this feature ProductCart also features support for custom payment methods that require you to collect multiple pieces of information from the customer. This feature is useful to stores that offer credit card-like payment options, such as debit cards, store cards, and similar payment systems. In this document we will refer to these payment methods as Custom Cards.

Modifying a Payment Option

2008-10-12T13:19:00-07:00

To modify an existing payment option select View/Modify Payment Options from the Payments menu. You will be shown a list of the payment options that are currently active. Click on the Modify button to edit an option. Click on the Disable icon to disable a payment option that is currently active. If you disable a real-time payment gateway, you can enable it again at any time.

Orders with a 0 Amount

2008-10-12T13:11:14-07:00

It can happen that an order’s total is zero. Specifically, if the product is free, there is no shipping involved, and no taxes, then the order total is zero. This can be the result of a free product (product’s price is zero), or the application of a discount that renders the product’s price equal to zero.

Configuring Offline Credit Card Processing

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

No Payment Gateway Involved Common to all non real-time payment options is the fact that no money is exchanged at the time the order is processed. You will collect the money at a later point: COD, or Net 30, or by processing a credit card offline. Processing a credit card offline means collecting credit card information from a customer in a secure way, processing it manually outside of ProductCart (e.g. via your POS system), and removing the credit card information from the store database as s…

Ordering Payment Options

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

During the checkout process, customers select a payment option by choosing one of the options that you have made available to them in your store. Payment options are displayed in a drop-down menu on the Order Verification page (pc/orderVerify.asp).

Other Non Real-Time Payment Options

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

You can offer your customers other non real-time or offline payment options, such as payment terms for wholesale customers. To add a custom payment option to your store, select Add New Payment Option from the Payments menu, and then click on Offline credit cards, check, Net 30, etc. The top part of the page includes settings for offline credit card processing. Scroll to the lower part of the window to configure a new, offline payment option.

PayPal

2009-12-08T18:04:14-07:00

PayPal Supported PayPal payment systems PayPal Website Payments StandardPayPal Website Payments Pro (US)PayPal Express Checkout (US)PayPal Website Payments Pro (UK)PayPal Express Checkout (UK)PayPal PayFlow ProPayPal PayFlow Link What's the difference? Website Payments Standard Website Payments Pro Direct paymentsExpress CheckoutPayflow Payment Gateway Payflow ProPayflow Link

Using PayPal Website Payments Pro & Express Checkout

2010-07-10T17:16:50-07:00

Table of Contents [PayPal Express Checkout] Overview Using Website Payments Pro with ProductCartProductCart v3ProductCart v4 or higherProductCart v3ProductCart v4 or higherProductCart Control Panel Settings for WPPTesting Website Payments Pro: using the SandboxSwitching between Test and Live ModePayPal Website Payments Pro in your StorefrontTwo alternative payment optionsDo I have control on the Express Checkout button?Can I use other PayPal logos?Can/should I use PayPal Buy Now buttons?Other…

PayPal Website Payments Pro (UK)

2010-08-27T05:00:20-07:00

FIXME - This page is under construction.

PayPal Website Payments Standard

2010-07-06T14:35:56-07:00

Configuring your PayPal account Before you can use PayPal Website Payments Standard as a payment option, you will need a PayPal account. If you don’t already have a PayPal account, you can quickly create a Personal or Business Account online at the following address:

PayPal Website Payments Pro in your Storefront

2010-07-06T23:47:26-07:00

Two alternative payment options PayPal WPP includes two separate payment system, which result into two different payment options available to your customers: Express Checkout and Direct Payment. How are these payment options presented to your customers?

ProductCart & PCI Compliance

2009-10-21T11:59:45-07:00

Internet merchants are required to be compliant with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) cardholder data security requirements. Using a quality e-commerce application like ProductCart can help you achieve this goal. ProductCart v4 ProductCart v4 is PA-DSS Validated ProductCart v4 received official PA-DSS validation from the PCI Security Standards Council in October of 2009. PA-DSS stands for Payment Application Data Security Standards.

Processing PayPal orders in ProductCart

2010-08-27T05:00:20-07:00

Processing PayPal orders in ProductCart Synchronization between ProductCart and PayPal The steps involved in the order fulfillment process are nearly identical when orders are placed using PayPal as they are when orders are placed using another payment option available in your ProductCart powered store. Assuming that you setup PayPal to authorize orders, but not to charge them automatically (recommended), when an order is placed using PayPal:

ProductCart User Guide

2010-08-30T15:47:09-07:00

Chapter 1: Introduction to ProductCart Welcome to ProductCart®How this User Guide is organizedSkill Requirements: Using & Customizing Your StoreSystem RequirementsTechnical Support and Updates PolicyAbout Early ImpactProductCart LicensingCopyright InformationEditing RightsAcknowledgmentsProductCart End User License AgreementIdentifying the version of ProductCart Chapter 2: Getting Started Installation: finding and uploading the ProductCart filesInstallation: choosing and setting up your database…

Adding a New Product

2010-07-10T16:09:24-07:00

Adding and Editing Individual Products ProductCart includes many ways to add and edit multiple products at once, such the Product Import Wizard and the Global Changes features. Of course, you can also add and edit individual products, and that's what this section of the ProductCart WIKI focuses on.

Managing Brands

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

Another great feature in ProductCart is the ability for the store administrator to associate products with brands. Assigning a product to a brand has the following effect on your store: pc/viewPrd.aspShow brand on product details pagepc/search.asp“”“”pc/viewbrands.asp To add, edit, or remove brands select Manage Brands from the Products menu. When adding a brand, simply enter the brand name and the image file name for its logo (if you plan to use brand logos on your store). If not, leave that …

Adding and Editing Categories

2009-03-24T05:22:33-07:00

Definitions Product categories allow you to organize your product catalog and make it easier for customers to browse through your on-line store. With ProductCart you can create multiple categories and subcategories, and assign a product to an unlimited number of categories and subcategories .

Cloning an Existing Category

2010-09-03T13:58:44-07:00

Overview ProductCart offers you a quick way to duplicate (clone) an entire Category Tree (including Sub Categories). For example, you could setup a category tree for “Men's Clothing” that looks something like this: Men's Clothing Business Casual Formal Suits, Shirts, Accessories, ... Jeans, T-shirts, Sweaters, ... Weddings, ... Now you need to set up “Women's Clothing” and the category tree is very similar...

Importing Product Categories

2008-12-04T02:22:57-07:00

Overview The Category Import Wizard allows you to import category information into your ProductCart-powered store, allowing you to potentially add hundreds of categories to your store database in a few, easy steps. You will be able to quickly import categories, sub-categories, and all of the many category-specific settings supported by ProductCart.

Managing Existing Categories

2009-04-24T08:16:02-07:00

Top Level Categories To modify an existing category or subcategory select Products > Manage Categories a list of all existing top-level categories is displayed. These categories are in the root of your store catalog. Finding and Editing a Category To locate a category or subcategory (useful especially if you have a large number of categories and category levels), click on Find a Category. A category search form will be displayed.

Custom Fields

2008-10-08T10:04:46-07:00

Custom product fields give you additional flexibility in managing your store. In a nutshell, you can add custom fields to a product to collect or display additional product information, and allow your customers to further interact with the store. ProductCart supports two types of custom fields:

Managing Custom Fields on Multiple Products

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

Adding To or Removing From Multiple Products If you need to edit or remove custom fields from more than one product at a time, there is a faster way to do so, rather using the Add/Edit Product pages. From the Control Panel navigation, select Products > Manage Custom Fields.

Managing Drop-Shippers

2010-07-19T11:30:48-07:00

What Drop-Shippers Do Many Internet stores do not maintain an inventory of all the products they sell. Many stores use third parties to stock products and fulfill orders. These companies is what we refer to as Drop-Shippers. ProductCart allows you to create Drop-Shippers, associate products with them, and manage orders in a way that assumes that those products will not be shipped directly by you, but rather by the drop-shipper.

Duplicating an Existing Product

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

ProductCart offers you a quick way to add a product that shares most details with another product already in your store catalog. From the Products menu, select Locate a Product to view a list of products in your store. On the search results page, locate the product that you would like to duplicate, and then click on Clone.

Modifying a Product

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

Modifying Individual Products You can locate the product that needs to be modified by searching for it using the Locate a Product feature. Once you have located the product, click on Details to view and modify product properties such as name, prices, descriptions, images, etc. The form that is loaded is very similar to the Add New Product form. Refer to that section of this WIKI for more information on each form field.

Global Changes: Changing Multiple Products at Once

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

What it Does ProductCart makes it easy and fast for store administrators to change product-specific across multiple products at the same time. To access this feature, select Global Changes from the Products menu. The window is divided into two sections, which are described below.

Importing Products

2010-06-09T11:11:10-07:00

Adding and Updating Products in Bulk Many Internet stores feature product catalogs that include hundreds and sometimes thousands of products. For this reason, ProductCart includes a powerful Product Import Wizard, which allows you to quickly populate your product catalog (database) by importing information from an existing product database or data file. The Product Import Wizard:

Locating and Editing Products

2009-02-10T10:53:57-07:00

AJAX-powered Search ProductCart includes a sophisticated, AJAX-enhanced product search feature that will allow you to quickly locate products in your store database. To perform a product search, select Locate a Product from the Products menu. Use one or more of the search filters displayed on the page to narrow your search. As you select a filter, ProductCart will query your store database “in the background” and show you a preview of the results. You will notice text towards the top of the p…

Product Options

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

Option Groups and Attributes A product may be available in different sizes, colors, etc. Customers select these options (if any) on the product details page before adding a product to the shopping cart. ProductCart allows you to assign an unlimited number of option “groups” to your products, and each group can include an unlimited number of “attributes”.

Getting ready to add new products

2009-03-03T09:37:50-07:00

Products can be added to your store database individually or in bulk, using the Product Import Wizard. The is also true for the categories that will contain your products. If you have more than just a few products and categories, a good strategy is often the following:

Product Reviews

2010-07-27T23:10:02-07:00

About Product Reviews ProductCart includes a system that allows customer to rate and review products on your store, and allows you to manage, check, approve, and reject those reviews. You can turn off and on this feature on a storewide basis, or for individual products. You can allow reviews to be immediately posted on your Web store, or set up the system so that each review has to be approved before it is shown in the storefront. Here is an example of how product reviews can look on your stor…

Reviewing a Sample Product Details Page

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

FIXME = Screen shots needed To summarize many of the features that can be applied to a product in your catalog, let’s look at a sample product details page created by ProductCart (technically, the file is called pc/viewPrd.asp). Starting from the top, you will notice the product name, the part number (SKU), the weight, the brand which links to a page showing all other products assigned to the same brand, and the current inventory level. Then the short product description is shown, with a link t…

Managing Suppliers

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

ProductCart allows you to create Suppliers and associate products with them. Suppliers are different from Brands in that the same supplier (e.g. a large wholesale distributor) might represent and supply you with product by different vendors (brands).

Updating Inventory Levels

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

How ProductCart Adjusts Inventory Levels ProductCart automatically keeps inventory levels updated for you. When you add a new product to your product catalog, you have the ability to specify the initial inventory level. As orders are submitted for a particular product, the inventory level for that product is adjusted accordingly.

Updating Product Prices

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

While the Global Changes feature can help you quickly change prices when the price change is consistent for N products (e.g. increase by 5% all retail prices in category XYZ), it doesn’t help when the price changes differ from product to product. In that case, you have three options:

PsiGate

2008-11-15T23:08:48-07:00

Available Integration Methods There are three ways to integrate ProductCart with PsiGate: XMLHTMLDLL Before using the third integration method, inquire with your Web hosting company to ensure the DDL is installed on the server. Let's look at the settings specific to each integration method, and the ones that are shared across all three of them.

About Real-Time Credit Card Processing

2009-04-22T03:21:50-07:00

With ProductCart you can accept credit cards on your store by setting up either a real-time or non real-time payment option. The following is a brief overview about real-time credit carding on the Internet. When credit cards are processed in real-time on the Internet,credit card information provided by the customer during checkout process is typically passed to a service service called a “payment gateway”. Payment gateways connect the online store with a credit card processor, on one side, and…

Control Panel User Activity Logs

2010-08-27T05:00:18-07:00

[Control Panel activity reports] From the Reports menu click on View Control Panel Logs to have access to the following information: whowhenwhat These reports, for example, can help you find out whether there were any unsuccessful login attempts (i.e. somebody that was trying to login), and which IP addresses were involved.

Other Reports

2010-08-27T05:00:18-07:00

Other Reports Under “Reports > Other Reports” you will find other reports that are being gradually added to the system. RMA Requests RMA stands for Return Merchandise Authorization. The acronym is often used in the United States by retailers to indicate the authorization number that is given to a customer to identify a return. The customer is typically asked to place that number on the package that is returned to the retailer, so that it can be easily linked to the return request.

Generating Sales Reports

2010-08-27T05:00:18-07:00

Overview Generating reports helps you keep track of your store sales, view customer activity, and integrate with other applications by exporting information. You can generate a variety of reports, and export selected fields in MS Excel or comma separated format for use with other applications, such as your spreadsheet or accounting software.

Saved Shopping Carts Statistics

2010-08-27T05:00:20-07:00

What information it provides This report provides aggregate, monthly statistics on: When carts are saved Shopping carts are saved automatically when customers add items to the shopping cart page and visit the shopping cart page (viewcart.asp). If they add items to the cart, but checkout (or leave the store) without visiting the shopping cart page (e.g. they click on a “Checkout” text link or button in your store navigation), the shopping cart is not saved.

Saved Shopping Carts

2010-06-14T01:55:14-07:00

The issue: "lost" shopping cart ProductCart uses “sessions” to store information while a customer goes through the checkout process. A session is basically a small piece of the Web server's memory. Using sessions instead of saving information immediately to the store database ensures fast access to that information (to retrieve it and update it).

Setting a Script Timeout

2010-01-28T17:56:23-07:00

Setting a Script Timeout Occasionally, a ProductCart script will time out due to the fact that the default value set on a Windows server under IIS is only 90 seconds, as described here:

Adding Search Fields

2008-09-09T23:35:13-07:00

Drill-down Navigation Widget (category search fields)

2010-01-28T15:54:25-07:00

Overview ProductCart v3.5 supports “drill-down” navigation, which is a popular, user-friendly way to browse a category that contains products that share some of their “properties”. For example, if you browse the “Laptops” category on large electronics stores on the Internet, you are often presented with filters that are specific to that category and that allow you to easily narrow down (drill down) the list of products (e.g. Screen Size, Memory, Hard Drive Size, Windows vs Mac, etc.).…

Protection of sensitive information

2009-10-05T16:30:32-07:00

Overview At Early Impact we are very committed to doing all we can to protect the privacy of your customers' information, as well as the security of your store. To this extent, we have equipped ProductCart with features aimed at minimizing the chances of unauthorized access to any confidential information, as well as with features that ensure that sensitive information is properly managed when stored in the system database.

Security Recommendations

2009-12-11T10:44:47-07:00

We strongly encourage you to use the following security precautions to minimize the chance of unauthorized access to your ProductCart Control Panel and store database. It is especially important that confidential information such as FTP credentials and ProductCart Control Panel credentials are (1) regularly changed; (2) always changed after being shared with ANY third party.

Canonical URLs (BETA)

2010-07-26T13:38:27-07:00

Overview For an overview of what a canonical URL is and does, please see this Google Webmaster article: Installation Canonical URLs are built into ProductCart v4.1. If you are running v4.1, there is nothing to install.

Hiring an Search Engine Optimization consultant

2010-08-27T05:00:17-07:00

There are those that believe that Search Engine Optimization is a complete waste of time: you should just have a good Web site (technically well designed, rich in content, etc.) and not worry about it. There is certainly truth to this statement, but if you are spending thousands of dollars on Pay Per Click because you are not getting any decent rankings, then hiring a consultant might make sense.

SEO-friendly Content Pages

2009-09-10T19:57:42-07:00

Content Pages and Keyword-rich URLs The SEO files support keyword-rich URLs for Content Pages beginning with version 3.51. If you are running version 3.51, download the latest search engine friendly URL files here and then read this article about properly linking to them in your navigation.

Search Engines and Dynamic Pages

2010-07-26T04:21:40-07:00

Do search engines index dynamic pages? We often receive messages from ProductCart users that are concerned about whether or not the product details pages in their ProductCart-powered stores will be spidered and indexed by search engines. Some people are under the wrong impression that search engine spiders like GoogleBot will ignore pages that include a query string (e.g. viewPrd.asp?idcategory=20&idproduct=131).

Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide and ProductCart

2009-01-12T06:20:32-07:00

About Google's SEO Starter Guide First released to the public in November of 2008, Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide is a must read for anyone that wants to rank well on Google. That means pretty much everyone we can think of :-) The Guide goes through a series of topics, making recommendations on what Web site owners should do to make sure that their pages can be properly and effectively indexed. Below we are going to indicate, for each of the topics discussed in the Guide, h…

Dynamic and User-Defined Meta Tags

2010-07-26T10:18:06-07:00

About Meta Tags and Search Engines Meta Tags certainly do not carry the kind of importance that they used to have years ago. Today most search engines ignore the Keywords Meta Tag, and - according to most experts – Google's page ranking algorithm ignores both the Keywords and the Description Meta Tags.

Search Engine Optimization and Store Design

2010-08-27T05:00:17-07:00

FIXME: this section needs to be expanded. Overview There is one thing that is at the top of the list for any business that has an online presence: making sure that their e-commerce store is found in search engines when customers look for keywords that are related to the products and services sold on the store.

Keyword-rich and SEO optimized URLs in ProductCart

2010-07-30T11:37:47-07:00

There is a big debate on whether keyword-rich URLs help your search engine rankings (see some search results on this topic). They probably don't hurt. It's probably sensible to think that it is helpful to a search engine spider to see in the URL keywords that are related to the content on the page. It's one more confirmation that the page contains stuff that's related to those keywords.

Search Engine Optimization on a ProductCart-powered store

2010-01-28T17:24:33-07:00

What can you do to help your Web store rank better in the organic search results of today's major search engines? For example: are there features in ProductCart that can help you get more of your store pages indexed with Google? And what can you do to improve their rankings? Here you will find a series of articles to help you with these important tasks.

Manage Blackout Dates

2008-04-18T03:08:37-07:00

This feature works in conjunction with the Delivery Date & Time Checkout Option feature to allow you to notify the customer of dates that may not be selected during checkout. For example, a catering company may not provide its services on certain holidays. Therefore the customer should not be able to select those dates during checkout.

Store Buttons

2008-10-21T00:49:13-07:00

How To Customize Store Buttons You can customize the appearance of your shopping cart buttons by generating new buttons in your preferred graphics program and uploading new buttons to your Web server. From the Settings menu, select Edit Store Buttons.

Checkout Options

2010-07-19T14:44:19-07:00

ProductCart allows the store administrator to use a variety of custom checkout options to add information to the order details. The Checkout Options page is divided into different sections, which you find listed in the Table of Contents for this page.

Store Settings: Company Details

2010-08-27T05:00:17-07:00

When you first activate ProductCart and log into the Control Panel you will be automatically taken to the Company Details tab of the Store Settings page. Company Information Company or store name and address appear on many shopping cart pages and on most e-mail messages sent to customers. Your address will also appear on order invoices and other documents automatically formatted by the shopping cart. .. This address is NOT used by the shipping component when calculating shipping rates: to…

Manage Content Pages

2009-10-22T16:20:41-07:00

A built-in content management system ProductCart allows you to create and manage your own Content Pages - such as “About Us” , “Customer Service”, etc. - directly from the Control Panel. In other words, ProductCart includes a basic content management system that allows you to create and manage any number of Web pages, without using an external HTML editor.

Display Settings

2009-11-08T20:48:06-07:00

Overview ProductCart gives you plenty of options to change the way products and categories are displayed. As always, changes made on this page are reflected in real-time in your storefront. So a good way to familiarize yourself with ProductCart's display settings – once you have added a few categories and products to your store – is to keep two browser windows open: change the Display Settings in one window and see how that affects the storefront in the other browser window.

E-mail Settings

2009-01-09T02:55:15-07:00

Introduction E-mail is a very important part of your online store: the store administrator is notified via e-mail when a new order is placed; existing customers are kept up-to-date on the status of an order through e-mail messages; other customers that forgot their log-in information can be reminded by e-mail of their lost passwords; and more.

Update Encryption Key

2010-08-27T05:00:20-07:00

PCI (Protection of Cardholder Information) standards require that you generate a new encryption key at least once a year. You must perform this task annually to maintain PCI compliance, and you can use this feature in ProductCart to do so. When you generate a new encryption key:

General Settings

2009-12-10T17:05:31-07:00

Turn Store On/Off There may be times when you need to temporarily turn your entire store off for maintenance. For example, you should always turn your store off before performing a software update. To turn your store off, check the Turn Store Off option and click on the Update Settings button at the bottom of the page.

Manage Gift Certificates

2009-10-09T12:04:22-07:00

Understanding Gift Certificates ProductCart allows you to professionally handle the sale of Gift Certificates on your store. The system supports both electronic and physical gift certificates. To add a new Gift Certificate, or view a list of existing Gift Certificates, select Settings > Manage Gift Certificates. A link to the same feature is also available from the Products menu.

Manage Gift Registries

2008-12-11T09:00:35-07:00

Gift Registry Basics ProductCart has many advanced features that allow both your customers and the store administrator to create, edit, add products to and purchase products from a gift registry. Customers can create and manage their gift registries, or you can help them directly from the Control Panel by having access to features that are very similar to what they have access to from their storefront account menu.

Manage Gift Wrapping

2009-10-01T10:54:12-07:00

Gift Wrapping Options and Product Exclusions ProductCart allows you to offer your customers multiple gift wrapping options as they checkout. Customers will be able to select among the wrapping options available to them by viewing a graphical example of each wrapping option (if you provide one). They will also be able to add a note to go with the wrapped gift. In order to offer gift wrapping on your store, you will need to turn the feature on and configure a number of settings. By default, Gift…

Store Icons

2008-11-17T03:27:38-07:00

Similar to what you can do with your store's buttons, you can customize the appearance of your shopping cart icons by uploading new icons to your Web server. From the Settings menu, select Edit Store Icons. Here is a list of the store icons that you can customize in ProductCart:

Manage Users: Adding New Control Panel Users

2008-12-12T10:54:01-07:00

ProductCart allows the store administrator to add additional Control Panel users, each with access rights that can be limited to specific areas of the Control Panel. There is no limit to the number of Control Panel users that you can setup. For example, let’s assume that the store administrator needed help with processing online orders: he/she can now create a new Control Panel user whose access rights are limited to the “Manage Orders” area of the Control Panel.

Editing the Control Panel Master User

2010-08-27T05:00:18-07:00

When you activated ProductCart, you were asked to provide the temporary user ID and password that were given to you at the time of purchase. How to update the Master User You can change the user ID and password at any time by selecting Update Master User from the Settings menu.

Miscellaneous Settings

2010-07-19T16:20:48-07:00

On the fifth and last tab of the Order Settings page you can set the following properties. Hide Category drop-down on Advanced Search page On stores with a large amount of categories and category levels, it is recommended that you set this option to Yes to improve the speed at which the advanced search page (search.asp) loads in the storefront. If set to No (default), the advanced search page included a Filter by Category drop-down menu. Try both settings and see if the performance of the adv…

Settings related to orders and customers

2010-02-07T22:35:23-07:00

Ability to Order These settings affect whether or not products can be bought from your Web catalog and what the requirements for your customers' orders should be. The first three settings have to do with store-wide ordering restrictions, which allow you to use your store as an online catalog instead of an online store. For example, if you select Only wholesale customers, retail customers will be able to browse the catalog, but not place orders (“Buy” or “Add to Cart” buttons won't be displayed…

Search Options

2009-12-02T00:15:44-07:00

ProductCart allows the store administrator to adjust search performance based on the number of products in their database. For instance, the option Max Search Results can limit search results so pages load faster. Read more about this feature and other new features below.

Advanced Security Settings

2009-12-14T05:06:10-07:00

Overview ProductCart contains a set of features aimed at helping a ProductCart-powered store minimize the chances of a successful, script-based attack against the store. For example, a hacker may write a script that fills the User Name and Password fields in the Control Panel login page automatically, resubmitting the form with new values when access is denied.

Store Settings

2010-08-27T05:00:17-07:00

The Settings menu in the Control Panel navigation bar allows you to configure general settings that affect your entire store. Some of these settings, such as those that pertain to how products and categories should be displayed in your storefront can then be overwritten individually at the product or category level.

Adding Shipping Options

2008-08-28T16:44:56-07:00

Adding Shipping Options FIXME This page is under active construction To start adding shipping options, select Add or View Shipping Services from the Shipping menu. ProductCart will guide you through the process of adding one or more dynamic shipping providers, and/or custom shipping options through a Wizard-style interface.

Canada Post

2009-11-09T12:54:22-07:00

To activate Canada Post as one of the shipping providers used by your store, follow the steps outlined below. Registration and Activation RegistrationRequest “Sell Online Direct Connection”XML“”Edit Shipping ProfileActivate Canada Posthttp://sellonline.canadapost.ca:30000URL Shipping Settings Service Selection. Packaging Type The shipping options summary page will display a list of the Canada Post shipping services that you have selected w…

Custom Shipping Options

2009-03-06T16:17:27-07:00

Shipping Options You Create ProductCart supports a variety of custom shipping options based on the weight, quantity, or total dollar amount of products ordered. Custom shipping options can be used in combination with the shipping rates dynamically provided by one or more of the supported shipping providers. Of course, they can also be used on their own.

Shipping: Integration with Endicia

2010-06-16T13:48:28-07:00

[ProductCart is now integrated with Endicia]ProductCart v4.1 features an integration with the Endicia service, which allows merchants that ship orders through the USPS to print labels that include postage right from the ProductCart Control Panel. Without the Endicia integration, ProductCart merchants can print USPS shipping labels, but they do not include postage, which must then be applied to the package separately.

Federal Express

2009-03-30T04:33:54-07:00

Integration with the FedEx® API The integration with Federal Express® was completely rewritten in ProductCart v3. ProductCart is now fully integrated with the FedEx® API, which means that your customers will be able to obtain real-time shipping rates for their orders – if FedEx is active – and you will be able to fully process shipments right from within the ProductCart Control Panel, including the printing of shipping labels.

Shipping Options

2009-11-25T11:13:04-07:00

Overview ProductCart includes a sophisticated shipping component. ProductCart can calculate shipping charges in two ways: by connecting to one or more shipping providers (UPS, FedEx, USPS, Canada Post), or by using custom shipping rates that you define. The integration with UPS and FedEx has been officially approved by the two shipping companies.

No Shipping Rates Returned

2008-11-14T18:13:47-07:00

What Could Cause This Scenario It might happen at times that no shipping rates are shown to a customer during checkout. There are many reasons why this may occur. It some cases, it could be a configuration problem on your side (e.g. you configured a certain shipping provider to only show a specific shipping option that is not available for delivery to the address that the customer entered). In other cases, a shipping provider’s server may be unavailable to respond to the shopping cart’s reques…

Ordering & Displaying Shipping Options

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

During the checkout process, your customers will see a list of available shipping options, organized in tabs (new in version 3.5). An example is shown below. You can specify which shipping provide will be shown first (on the first tab) using the Select a default shipping provider drop-down on the Shipping > Shipping Settings page. This drop-down is not shown when there is only one shipping provider active in the store.

Shipping Oversized Items with UPS, FedEx and USPS

2008-10-13T07:15:51-07:00

Why This is Useful ProductCart gives you the ability to accurately calculate shipping charges on oversized items. For example, a “shipping supplies” store that sells bubble wrap would be undercharging customers if it calculated shipping charges based on the weight of the order, due to the large physical dimensions of the box that contains the bubble wrap. Similarly, a gallery that sells large paintings would find itself in the same situation.

Previewing Shipping Options

2010-08-27T05:00:19-07:00

If your store has one or more shipping options setup, customers will be able to obtain an estimate of the shipping charges for their order before registering an account with your store or logging into an existing account. A text link located at the bottom of the shopping cart page (pc/viewCart.asp) loads a pop-up window that allows the customer to enter a deliver address, and then provides a list of shipping options available for delivery to that address, along with the corresponding charges.

UPS®

2010-03-10T11:11:01-07:00

Available UPS® Online Tools The integration of the UPS Online® Tools within ProductCart has been officially tested and approved by UPS, which provides you with the piece of mind of knowing that rates are calculated accurately, and gives your customers additional features such as the ability to dynamically track shipped orders right from within your store.

United States Postal Service (USPS)

2010-08-20T18:01:53-07:00

Registration and Activation To activate the US Postal Service as one of the shipping providers used by your store, follow the steps outlined below. Registration URLAPI“”“” Switch to Production Mode Contact USPS at the address specified in the e-mail message that you received after registering and ask them to switch your account to production mode. Include the following information:

Skill Requirements: Using & Customizing Your Store

2010-08-27T05:00:17-07:00

Overview Installing ProductCart on your Web server requires familiarity with things like using an FTP program to move files between your desktop and your Web site, and configuring your Web hosting account to set directory permissions and establish a connection to a database. Consider purchasing an installation service from Early Impact or an Early Impact reseller if you would rather not have to go through the installation steps, which are detailed in Chapter 2.

Styling the ProductCart storefront with Cascading Style Sheets

2009-12-04T10:51:10-07:00

ProductCart and CSS Cascading Style Sheets are a powerful tool that can help you efficiently and precisely control the look of your Web pages from a central location. ProductCart v3 and above use of cascading style sheets throughout the storefront. Compared to previous versions of ProductCart, virtually all tags where removed and replaced with a number of different classes. Styles were also added to many other elements of the interface.

ProductCart's default storefront

2009-10-13T19:23:07-07:00

When to customize the store design ProductCart allows you to create a completely customized design for your store. You can either integrate ProductCart with the design that you are already using on your Web site, or create a completely new one. There are virtually no limitation is doing so. Your store will merge seamlessly with the design that you will choose for it.

Integrating ProductCart with your own store design

2010-09-02T16:03:26-07:00

Overview Many e-commerce applications limit your ability to customize the look & feel of your online store, therefore preventing you from blending store pages with the rest of your Web site. ProductCart doesn't. ProductCart allows you to build an online store that will merge seamlessly with your Web site. And full support for Cascading Style Sheets in ProductCart v3 and above gives you even more control on the way your store will look.

Styling "One Page Checkout"

2010-07-13T12:52:48-07:00

Overview The checkout process in ProductCart v4 was redesigned completely compared to previous version of ProductCart. An AJAX-driven, “one page checkout” system was added to ProductCart with the objective to simplify, speed up, and visually improve the checkout process. We will refer to it as OPC, which stands for “One Page Checkout”.

Adding store elements to your design

2010-08-27T05:00:17-07:00

To further integrate your Web store's graphical interface with ProductCart, you can add a number of static and dynamic elements (or code snippets) to header.asp and footer.asp. By static, we mean an interface element that doesn't change depending on what the user or the store manager does (e.g. a search box). By dynamic, we refer to an interface element that does change.

Editing Text in your Storefront & selected E-mails

2009-07-08T19:41:35-07:00

Where text strings are stored Where does the text “Product of the Month!” that appears on the home page (home.asp) come from? And how can you change it? Most of the text messages, links, form field descriptions and other text strings that you see in your storefront are not hard-coded in the ASP source code of the shopping cart pages, but rather “fed” to these pages by a few, external files.

Supported Payment Gateways

2009-04-29T11:01:42-07:00

FIXME - This section is currently being updated. We are reviewing and updating information on each supported payment gateway. We apologize for the inconvenience. ProductCart supports many payment gateways. If you do not find the one you prefer then it is possible to add a new payment gateway of your choice.

Using a Tax Data File

2009-08-04T01:05:43-07:00

This section applies mostly to US merchants, although you can use this feature of ProductCart outside of the US too if you can apply tax rates based on the customer’s postal code. Overview It is important to understand when you are required to collect sales tax in your Internet store, and for which states. Most online sellers collect tax only in the state(s) where they have a “nexus”, or physical presence. The definition of nexus varies from state to state, but can include employees, agents, …

Setting a Product as Tax-Exempt

2010-08-27T05:00:18-07:00

In many countries there are products and services on which taxes are not applied. In the United States, for example, you are not required to charge taxes if you are selling services (e.g. a legal consultation, graphic design services, etc.). You are also typically not required to pay sales taxes on products that are delivered electronically to your customers, as long as no physical product (e.g. a CD, a manual, etc.) is shipped to the customer.

Manually Adding a Tax Rate

2009-06-30T17:15:19-07:00

Manually Adding a Tax Rate Overview When you cannot or do not want to use a tax database to calculate taxes on your orders, ProductCart allows you to manually enter tax rates and charge taxes based on the customer’s location (but not necessarily his or her postal code), products, or a specified geographic zone.

Tax settings: an overview

2010-08-27T05:00:18-07:00

In the United States, taxation of online sales is typically handled as follows: same stateout-of-state ProductCart also supports country-based taxation for international stores. Canadian stores can now display federal and local taxes separately (other stores in other countries that require this, can do so as well, of course). Independently of the tax settings configured using the Tax Option module, you can set a product or service as tax-exempt when adding or modifying a product.

Calculating the Value Added Tax (VAT)

2010-01-02T11:51:29-07:00

Calculating the Value Added Tax (VAT) ProductCart v2.7 and above allow you to show your customers the VAT (Value Added Tax) on the products that they are purchasing (product details page) and on the order total (order details page). In some countries, such as Australia, this is called GST (Goods and Services Tax).

Displaying VAT ID and/or International ID on Invoices and Customer Emails

2008-06-11T15:28:48-07:00

New in ProductCart v3.5 VAT enabled stores can capture a customer VAT ID and/or International ID. We understand that some stores will need these details displayed on Invoices and Order Processing Emails, but many stores will have privacy requirements. As such, the VAT ID and International ID are not displayed on Invoices or Emails by default. Follow the instructions in this article display this information.

Tax Settings - Location or product-based sales tax

2009-04-11T19:50:17-07:00

FIXME - Section under construction Kickoff comment: Most locations with a sales tax exempt specific items from sales tax. Food and drugs are often tax exempt. Exemption for food may not include all edible or drinkable products. Candy and carbonated beverages are taxed but granola bars and fruit juices might be exempt. The details vary from location to location.

Tax Settings - VAT (Value Added Tax)

2010-08-27T05:00:18-07:00

FIXME - Section under construction

Triple Deal

2008-10-13T22:46:22-07:00

Similarly to what happens with PayPal Payments Standard, when you select Triple Deal as your payment gateway, customers will temporarily leave your Web site to submit their payment information. When customers click on the Continue button after verifying the correctness of the order on your store, they will first be presented with a page where they can review their billing address and will then temporarily leave your Web site to be taken to a secure payment form located on the Triple Deal site. …

USAePay

2008-10-20T15:51:58-07:00

USAePay To use USAePay with your ProductCart-powered store, you will need to ensure that the Web server that is hosting your store has the USAePay XCharge component installed. The software can be downloaded free of charge from this page:

Using Website Payments Pro

2010-07-10T17:15:33-07:00

The following applies to ProductCart v3.1 and above. We always recommend that you are running the latest version of our shopping cart software. Features The integration of PayPal Website Payments Pro was substantially updated in v3.1. The system was also officially re-certified by PayPal. Among the new features:

viaKLIX

2008-10-21T01:00:32-07:00

viaKLIX Enabling your viaKLIX account in ProductCart is simple. First, log into your viaKLIX administration area and review the following two settings: Auto-Pend“”“”“”Auto-Settle“”“” ProductCart is setup by default to keep all the orders “pending” in the shopping cart when a transaction is approved by viaKLIX. After you “un-pend” transactions in the viaKLIX administration area, you will need to go back to the ProductCart Control Panel and process the corresponding orders either one by one or by…

Virtual Merchant

2010-04-09T11:27:42-07:00

Virtual Merchant is one of the many payment gateways supported by ProductCart. FIXME - This page is still under construction Virtual Merchant Setup Check List In the Virtual Merchant administration area: HTTPHTTPPINMake sure that you have the “Sales Tax Required” check box unchecked“”“”“” In the ProductCart Control Panel:

Welcome to ProductCart

2008-03-08T06:07:31-07:00

Developed by California-based Early Impact, ProductCart® is a suite of e-commerce shopping carts that small- and medium-sized businesses use to build and manage a professional Internet storefront. This shopping cart software is the result of years of experience designing and developing Internet applications. A lot of time was spent trying to determine how to best combine advanced functionality and ease of use. ProductCart is the result of these efforts. It offers both powerful e-commerce featu…

Identifying the Version of ProductCart

2009-02-02T10:20:07-07:00

The Control Panel Home page (menu.asp) identifies which version of ProductCart you are running near the top left corner of the screen. ProductCart vn.nnxxx n.nnxxxppdbacm There is not identifier added when the QuickBooks and MailUp files add-on's are in use.

WorldPay – Select Junior

2008-06-04T08:04:13-07:00

WorldPay – Select Junior Similarly to what happens with PayPal Payments Standard, when you select WorldPay as your payment gateway, customers will temporarily leave your Web site to submit their payment information. When customers click on the Continue button after verifying the correctness of the order on your store, they will temporarily leave your Web site and will be taken to a secure payment form located on the WorldPay Web site (see image below). The billing address is passed to the paym…