General Settings

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.

When you turn your store off, any store page will be replaced by a message to your customers. You can edit the message by changing the text in the Message Displayed field. You can use simple HTML tags in the text field (e.g. <br>, <b>, etc.).

These settings have to do with the currency & date format used throughout the store.. Specifically:

• Currency sign: Sets the currency symbol displayed on the store. For example: $, €, EUR, etc.
• Decimal format: Sets the decimal format to either the English (1,234,567.89) or Metric (1.234.567,89) standard.
• Date format: Sets the date format to either the DD/MM/YY or MM/DD/YY standard, where D stands for day, M for month and Y for year.

If you are running your ProductCart-powered store outside of the United States and use MS SQL as the database, ask your Web hosting company about the settings used by your MS SQL server. If the server was installed using local settings other than English-US, then the server is likely expecting to save dates in to the database in the DD/MM/YY format and you may need to make a small adjustment to prevent date-related issues.

Many online stores use SSL technology to securely collect confidential information from their customers. If you plan to collect credit card information on your ProductCart store (even if you are using a third-party payment system), you should definitely consider using this technology. Your customers will want to know that the security and privacy of their personal information is safeguarded when placing orders on your store.

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology encrypts data exchanged between a server and a browser. When SSL is used, information is exchanged using the HTTPS protocol instead of the HTTP protocol, where data travels unencrypted. The address of a page delivered using the HTTPS protocol will typically become https://www.myserver.com/mypage.html.

Because data is encrypted before being sent, the speed of the transmission is lower. This is the reason why not all pages of an online store are delivered using HTTPS, but only the ones that collect or display sensitive information, such as the pages where payment information is collected during the check out process.

This is also true with your ProductCart store, which uses SSL during the check out process only for the pages where payment and personal information is entered. If you would like to enforce the use of SSL on other pages, consult the ProductCart Developer's Corner for some information on that topic.

In ProductCart, you may use both a dedicated SSL certificate (issued specifically for your domain name ), or a shared SSL certificate, provided to you by your Web hosting company.

When you use a dedicated SSL certificate, the URL contains your domain name (e.g. https://www.mycompany.com). Dedicated SSL certificates have become quite affordable over the years, and are definitely the recommended way to go. For example, you can order inexpensive ssl certificates here.

Make sure that you order an SSL certificate for the domain name used on your store, including the “www”. For example, if your store is “MyStore.com” and your links (e.g. in search engines) use the “www”, then the SSL certificate should be issued for the domain "www.MyStore.com" and not for "MyStore.com". This is typically the case. If you get a certificate for “MyStore.com” and then try to access that secure site using the "www.MyStore.com" URL, you will receive a warning message indicating that the certificate was issued for a domain that does not match the domain that you are visiting.

A shared SSL certificate typically uses a generic domain name that has been registered by your Web hosting company (e.g. https://server.mycompany.com), together with your account name or number. The exact address changes from one Web hosting provider to another. Check with your Web hosting provider to obtain this information.

We do not recommend the use of shared SSL certificates because there are some technical limitations (see note below). In addition, dedicated SSL certificates have become quite inexpensive and look much more professional to your store visitors (no domain name change when they move to a secure page).

If you use SSL on your online store, check the This Store Uses SSL option, and enter the URL to your secure site. You can instruct ProductCart to switch to a secure page (from HTTP to HTTPS):

• At login/checkout
  This is the recommended option, but you can only use it if you are using a dedicated SSL certificate. Check this option if you want the store to switch to the Secure Socket Layer when customers begin the registration or checkout process. For technical reasons, this option requires that you are using a dedicated SSL certificate. Do not check this option if you are using a shared SSL certificate or the shopping cart will show an error during checkout indicating that the shopping cart is empty.
• On the payment page
  Check this option to have ProductCart switch to SSL before the customer enters payment information. You must select this option if you are using a shared SSL certificate.

Just as a reference, here is a list of companies that issue SSL certificates (prices vary significantly as they include difference services, especially different levels of insurance). Contact these and other SSL certificate providers for more information. Your Web hosting company might also sell SSL certificates directly (and sometimes will give you a deal when you purchase one as you order or upgrade your Web hosting account).

• Comodo (Instant SSL)
• DigiCert
• GeoTrust
• Thawte
• VeriSign

Leave this field blank if you want to use ProductCart's default home page for your store (pc/home.asp). The default home page can be managed from your Control Panel using the Marketing > Manage Home Page feature.

If you don't want to use that page as your store’s home page (e.g. you don’t use featured items), enter the full URL of the page that you would like to use as your storefront instead of the default. This is also the page that Continue Shopping links and buttons point to.

This setting allows you to turn on or off the ability for your customers to save products to a personal Wish List or Saved Products area of their account in the storefront. Customers can place items that they like, but are not ready to buy at that moment, in an idea basket from which they can retrieve them at any time.

The advantage is that when they are ready to order, they don't need to search for those products again. All they have to do is log into their account, select View Saved Products, and add to the shopping cart any products they previously put on their Wish List.

When customers add previously saved products to their shopping cart, ProductCart will check inventory (if inventory levels are tracked) and prices to make sure that the latest product data is taken into account.

• To add a product to their Wish List, users will click on the Add to Wish List button located on every product details page in your store. If the Wish List feature is not active, that button is not displayed. You can change the button using the Settings > Edit Store Buttons feature.
• To add products to the Wish List visitors must register with your store. Otherwise ProductCart will not remember who they are when they try to retrieve their list.

When this feature is active, a Tell a Friend button will appear on the product details page. This feature allows customers to refer other customers to your Web site. A link to the specific product details page on which the customer had clicked on the Tell a Friend button is sent via email, together with any comments the customer decides to write.

Customers do not have to register with your store to be able to use the Tell a Friend feature. However, if they do, they may Reward Points on the referred customer's purchase, if that feature is enabled. For more information about Reward Points, see the corresponding section.

Other store settings >>