Auctiva Commerce Blog

All -

We’ve been busy at Auctiva Commerce lately and have released a batch of fixes and upgrades. The following items were released live yesterday (Sep. 18).

– Reworked our feed management pages.  IMPORTANT: As part of this update we reworked how we handle the feed file name extensions (.txt, .zip, etc.). It is highly recommended that you confirm that the feed file names we have recorded match what you have registered with the feed engines (Google, Bing, etc.)
– Adjusted the product image Uploader to Accept PNG Files
– Added Image Watermarking
– Added the Allow Backorder field to the Bulk Edit feature
– Added the ability to Link a new order with an existing buyer account
– Added “Second” as a condition type in the Condition field
– Added logic so that the Product Variants URLs in Google feeds contain the variant parameters so the URL directs to the exact variant your buyers are looking for
– Created a new mobile friendly theme that you can opt in to using. This is in beta and will evolve and improve over time
– Reworked the custom shipping type color function so that existing Shipping Types can be assigned a color
– Added the ability to search by last name during the manual order creation flow
– Added a notification when abandoned basket items added to manual orders
– Add ability to sort by SKU and MPN on the Add/Manage Inventory page
– Created an archived order status so you can archive old orders
– Fix to coupon codes for users of gift certificates
– Fix to availability flag for products that are tracked by variant
– Fix to shipping weight calculation on Packing Slip
– Correction to number of images per page on Add/Manage Images
– Fixes for Neo_Nouveaux issues
– Fix to email list import function to allow more than two email lists to be imported
– Fix to Inventory Import from Auctiva
– Adjustment to Shopping.com feed data format to match Shopping.com feed specification

Hopefully these items will make it even easier to manage your store in addition to helping generate sales.

Thx,
Chris

Share This Post

Editor’s note: The following guest blog post comes from Amber Miller, a graphic designer of more than 19 years.

Store Design 101

You have an online store, and—like any other store owner—you are responsible for how the space looks. You need to become an online display artist. But don’t let this intimidate you. The challenge will be rewarding to you and most of all your customers.

It’ll help you create a professional and inviting store that visitors will want to frequent regularly. Here are five tips to get you started.

Tip 1: Consider product placement. Product Placement is key when any store design. People need to see what you are selling before anything else. For this reason, it’s important to display products prominently and above the fold. Yes, it’s good to tell visitors about your store, but resist the temptation to bog down your home page with text. Instead, create an About Us page to tell shoppers how long you’ve been in business and what inspired you to create your online store. Let the home page be a showcase for your items.

Tip 2: Don’t just use any photo. Photos sell products. They show visitors what you offer and the condition of the items, so make sure the product images are professional looking and represent your items accurately. Also, ensure you save them in large enough sizes for the potential buyer to see all the details of your items, and offer multiple views of your products. You want buyers to feel as if they were holding the items right in their hands.
Tip 3: Keep it simple. There was an adage used frequently when I was getting my degree in fine art: “Less is more.” I have found this advice very helpful—and very true in many visual endeavors. Simple designs are beautiful, so keep your store uncluttered and really focus on what you want to feature. Your products should not compete with each other, and potential buyers shouldn’t feel overwhelmed, either, so use white space to let items breathe and don’t use lots of different fonts and colors on your site. Remember, less is more.
Tip 4: Put your best foot forward. Make sure your logo, product descriptions, storefront, font choices, etc. look professional and polished, and be sure that your design choices reflect the tone of the products you are selling. Don’t be overly formal if you offer kids’ toys, for example.

Tip 5: Be visually relevant. If you are going with design trends, make sure you stay current. A great option is to choose classic fonts and design elements that aren’t likely to fall out of style. This way, you won’t have to update your store every few weeks. However, don’t be shy about updating your site’s look from time to time, for instance during the holidays when more visitors are likely to stop by. Creating a holiday-themed design might be what visitors need to make that purchase you want them to make.

Share This Post

All -

As you may have noticed we’ve been busy with updates to Auctiva Commerce lately – we’ve made numerous improvements to help you succeed!

Take a look at just a few of our latest updates below:

– Addition of FeedBackForms.com widget which will allow you to easily gather feedback about your store.

– Update to the optional VAT tax display option to read the taxability flag per product.

– Addition of a new Shipping Label print format so you can easily print simple shipping labels/receipts for your orders.

– Addition of a category filtering feature to the Cross-sell function.

– Addition of Cross and UpSell to Bulk Edit.

– Update to recalculate Taxes if an item is added to an order via the merchant admin.

– Addition of simple search feature to Add/Manage Images area.

– Fix to Store Designer to make custom category pages accessible even when there are many entries in the category list.

– Adjustment to the Keep Shopping button to correctly redirect users to Home page.

– And last, but certainly not least we have released the long anticipated Import/Export tool in beta form. To access it go to: Inventory > Import/Export Inventory (beta)

We’ve also fixed several other bugs and improved some of our existing tools.  Read details about the release and give us feedback on the Auctiva Commerce Forums.  Import/Export specific feedback can also be left Here.

Thx,

Chris

Share This Post

All -

We updated Auctiva Commerce recently – we’ve made improvements to help you market your shop, build your brand, improve your search engine optimization and more! Take a look at just a few of our latest updates below:

– Add past shoppers to e-mail lists. Now you can easily add former buyers to an e-mail list to let them know about upcoming store promotions, new items, or to just remind them to stop by again.

– Specify “from address.” You can now customize the “from” address on the email messages your buyers receive to reinforce the branding of your store.

– Customize packing slips and invoices. Now you can easily add your business logo and custom information to your packing slips and invoices to establish your brand and take your business to the next level.

– Page title additions. The Store Designer Web pages now displays the name of each store page as the page title, improving your search engine optimization and making your shop easier to find.

– Streamlined checkout. We’ve updated the checkout flow so buyers have to opt-in to create a store account when they buy an item, instead of having to opt-out.

We’ve also fixed numerous bugs and improved some of our existing tools. Read complete details about the release on the Auctiva Commerce Forum.
Thx,

Chris

Share This Post

All -

I am pleased to announce that Auctiva Commerce has been upgraded today to include the following features or fixes:

Store Designer related:
=======================
– Fix to correctly include the currencies link on Store Designer themes.
– Fix to the Email List widget to not show Private email lists.
– Fix to the Custom CSS window so that it works properly in IE8.
– Fix to the Recently Viewed Items widget to correctly read and interpret the horizontal property.
– Fix to correctly re-size the main product image on selected Store Designer themes.
– Fix to Store Designer select themes page to prevent theme image load errors.

– Update to add import functionality for Custom Webpages. Now you can import your custom Webpages made with a Classic theme into your Store Designer themes and maintain the same URLs.
– Update to Store Designer to add a JavaScript Widget so that you can now add script to most storefront pages.
– Update to the Store Designer themes default CSS to use absolute image paths vs. relative image paths. This is to correct a scenario where changes made with the Custom CSS tab could cause the relative image paths to be incorrect.
– Update to make the CSS Class property on the Store Designer widgets an Advanced Option controlled by the Advanced Options check-box.

Global:
=======
– Fix to more accurately record Authorize.net refunds and other order transactions.
– Fix to allow for periods and apostrophes in the Manufacturer name.
– Fix to prevent Order Number skipping when an error occurs during the order creation process.
– Fix to prevent an error from being thrown when a State/Province that has a Tax Rule associated to it is deleted.
– Fix to correctly delete associated sub-categories when a category is deleted.
– Fix for Out of Stock messages so that they are available for newly created items.
– Fix to the History and Notes tab to display the proper currency code.

– Update to default to the Advanced Search options on the Orders page.
– Update to add the ability to copy a Shipping method.
– Update to add Maestro card support for UK and other overseas merchants.
– Update to use canonical URL tags to avoid duplicate pages.
– Update to persist the users settings and last position on page when they return to the Orders list from the Order Detail page.
– Update to product display pages to optionally display product prices inclusive and exclusive of VAT.
– Update to add pages and support for Bing Shopping Merchant Center feeds.

Help documentation has been created and/or updated as necessary and as always can be found Here.

Thx – Chris

Share This Post

All -

I am pleased to announce that Auctiva Commerce has been updated to include the following features or fixes:

– Fix to correctly incorporate the Payment by Mail message into Orders.
– Fix for sitemap submission function for Bing and Yahoo.
– Fix to Customer Notes on the Packing Slip.
– Fix to display the currency symbol of the store’s Base Currency on the Bulk Edit page.
– Fix to prevent an error from being thrown when a payment is manually recorded for an order.

– Update to allow special characters to be included in the names of Shipping Methods.
– Update to allow the question mark, British Pound and Euro special characters in Warehouse Names.
– Update to enhance the search functionality of email lists so that users from the eBay Customers list can be found by email address.
– Update to allow you to set and conditionally display out-of-stock and allow backorder messages to buyers.  These are set at a per product level via the Edit Product page in the merchant admin.
– Update to allow the question mark, British Pound and Euro special characters in Item Titles and Category Names.
– Update to allow you to conditionally display the Warehouse Address on the Packing Slip and Invoice.  This option is set per warehouse via the Edit Warehouse page in the merchant admin.

These fixes and updates have been deployed live and where applicable Help and or FAQ documentation has been updated on the Auctiva Commerce Help Site.

Thank you -

Chris

Share This Post

All -

I am pleased to announce that Auctiva Commerce has been updated to include the following features of fixes:

– Fix to USPS shipping to correctly handle packages that are less than one ounce in weight.
– Fix to USPS shipping to correctly set dimensional maximums for Flat Rate box shipping options.
– Fix to display the correct Order Number on the Ship Order page.
– Fix to display the correct currency symbol on the Payments page.
– Fix to display the correct currency symbol on the Order History page.

– Update to add additional filtering options to the Tax Reports page.  With this update you can now filter the Tax Reports by Order Status and/or Payment Status in addition to the previously existing date range filtering.
– Update to allow Packing Slips and Pull Sheets to be printed regardless of shipping status.
– Update to remove link to HTML editor from the Email Templates pages.  The templates can still be edited but the HTML editor was removed as it was causing malformed HTML issues.
– Update to State/Province drop-downs to include a default value other than the first State/Province in the list.
– Update to allow for sorting and reordering of the Countries list.
– Update to add functionality to include support for adding the Tracking Number in the Order Shipped email.  Note that you need to update your Email Template(s) to take advantage of this new functionality.  Instructions on how to update your Email Template can be found Here.
– Update to remove the option to Delete countries from the merchant admin.  They are now made inactive vs. being deleted – this is so they can be easily recovered later if needed.

These fixes and updates have been deployed live and where applicable Help and or FAQ documentation has been updated on the Auctiva Commerce Help Site.
Thank you -

Chris

Share This Post

All -

Auctiva Commerce has been updated today to include the following features of fixes:

– Addition of validation to credit card based payments.  With this feature we will now display an error message on the screen if the buyer does not enter the correct information required to process their credit card; for example if the billing Zip Code is not populated.

– Update to use a drop-down system for the entry of the Billing address during Checkout.

*** IMPORTANT NOTE***  With this update, after selecting the country the buyer will then be provided a drop-down of the States/Provinces for that country, <b>IF</b> there are any States/Provinces defined for that country in your Auctiva Commerce store.  If there are no States/Provinces defined for the selected country the buyer will be able to type in the State/Province name.  By default Auctiva Commerce provides States/Provinces for the following countries:  Australia, Canada, China, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States.  To edit the Countries and/or Provinces available in your store go to Store > Shipping > Countries in your Auctiva Commerce merchant admin.  Be sure to use the correct Country code, Province name and Province code when editing your countries or provinces. This site contains a list of Countries/Country codes and associated Provinces/Province codes and may be a good starting point if you are planning to edit your countries or provinces.  However, please note that this site has not been audited so please verify any updates to your countries or provinces with resources or sites specific to your region.

– Update to the default list of available provinces for the United Kingdom. To coincide with the update to the entry of the Billing address during Checkout noted above, we have updated our default list of United Kingdom provinces to be more comprehensive.

– Addition of an Address Book drop-down to the manual New Order creation flow.  Now, if you create an order in Auctiva Commerce for a customer (for example a phone-in order), if the customer has an account in Auctiva Commerce we will provide the customer’s stored shipping addresses in a drop-down so that you can easily create a complete order.

– Update to the Google Merchant Center feed page.  We have updated the Google Merchant Center feed page to be more user-friendly and streamlined.  With the update the most common Google Merchant Center feed operations should be simpler and easier to perform.  If you have already set up your Google Merchant Center feeds you do not have to update or change anything as we have imported your previous settings into the new page format.  Please note that the “Overwrite Existing Feed File” option is being retired with the new page format; now each time you generate the feed the existing feed file be overwritten.

– Addition of Dashboard webpart to display the status of your Google Merchant Center feed setup.  Since Google is such an important traffic driver we have added a dashboard webpart to let you know the status of your Google Merchant Center feed setup.  The webpart will tell you if your feed is set up and if you have enabled automated nightly submission of your feed.

These fixes and updates have been deployed live and where applicable Help and or FAQ documentation has been updated on the Auctiva Commerce Help Site.

Thank you -

Chris

Share This Post

All -

I am pleased to announce that we recently released a major upgrade to the Auctiva Commerce search function.  We are now utilizing a full text search which provides much more robust and efficient search capabilities.  Your buyers should now find it much easier to locate the items they are looking for in your store(s) – hopefully leading to greater sales for you!!  We are going to continue to work on refining the search function and will be adding further upgrades in the future.

Happy Selling,

Chris

Share This Post

All -

Google has recently introduced a new policy that will require you to verify ownership of your Auctiva Commerce website in order to continue to upload items to Google Merchant Center. For details about the new policy please view the Google Merchant Blog post. You have to complete the verification process by May 18th to avoid problems with your Google Merchant Center products.

To comply with the new procedures you first need to verify site ownership with Google Webmaster Tools, and then claim your site in the Google Merchant Center. To verify site ownership you need to generate a verification code at the Google Webmaster Tools site, and then apply it to your Auctiva Commerce store. The verification code is a long string of random characters and numbers. Once you have the verification code, login to your Auctiva Commerce merchant admin and navigate to Marketing > Search Engine Optimization (SEO) > Meta Data & Google Integration. Paste the verification code in the Site Verification text-box and click Save Verification. Make sure you only paste in the verification code itself without the surrounding quotes or other text. If you have previously verified your Auctiva Commerce site ownership with Google Webmaster Tools you do not have to re-verify.

After you have verified ownership of your Auctiva Commerce store via the above procedure you need to login to the Google Merchant Center and claim your site. To do so sign in to your Google Merchant Center account and click the “Claim this URL” link on your General Settings page.

Thank you -

Chris

Share This Post