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Apr
12
13 Tricks to better conversions on landing pages
Posted by Lee Conlin on 12 April 2012 04:53 PM

Imrpove your conversions on your visitor landing pages by following some simple guidlines.  Read the article linked below for more information.

http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/articles/13-landing-page-tricks-increase-conversion


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Apr
4
Easter Weekend
Posted by Lee Conlin on 04 April 2012 04:40 PM
As normal EasyWebstore phone and live chat support will be offline over the bankholiday.  Urgent issues can be reported using the emergency SMS number.

Good Friday - 6th April - Closed (Bank Holiday)
Saturday- 7th April - Closed (Weekend)
Sunday- 8th April - Closed (Weekend)
Easter Monday- 9th April - Closed (Bank Holiday)
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Mar
16
Important announcement from Google
Posted by Lee Conlin on 16 March 2012 09:45 AM
You may have received an alert from Google stating that in the near future they will require that all Google Shopping feeds contain shipping and tax information.  You can read the actual announcement from Google at the link at the bottom of this email.

We believe that the current implementation of Google Shopping within the EasyWebstore system already meets the requirements Google have set out in this announcement and no further action is required from us or you.

The announcement: http://merchant-center-announcements.blogspot.com/2012/02/items-may-soon-fail-to-process-due-to.html
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Mar
12
Admin Area Update
Posted by Lee Conlin on 12 March 2012 11:27 AM

We will be putting an update live shortly that will make a key change in the version 3 admin area for all merchants.

If you use a version of Internet Explorer older than 9 (i.e. IE6, 7 or 8) you will see a prompt when logging into the admin area to install a plugin called ChromeFrame.

Google Chrome Frame is an open source plug-in that seamlessly brings Google Chrome's open web technologies and speedy JavaScript engine to Internet Explorer.

With Google Chrome Frame, you can:
  • Start using open web technologies—such as the HTML5 canvas — right away, even technologies that aren't supported in Internet Explorer 6, 7, or 8.
  • Take advantage of JavaScript performance improvements to make your admin area faster and more responsive.

FAQ

Will this happen to users visiting my store?

No!  Absolutely not.  We will never force something like this onto store fronts as it would be a huge turn off.

We may at some point in the future enable store fronts to take advantage of ChromeFrame if it is already installed but we will never prompt visitors to install anything when visiting your stores.

In this update only the admin version 3 side of things is being updated.  No change will be made to your store front.


What is Google Chrome Frame?

Google Chrome Frame is an open source browser plug-in. Users who have the plug-in installed have access to Google Chrome's open web technologies and speedy JavaScript engine when they open pages in the browser.

Google Chrome Frame seamlessly enhances your browsing experience in Internet Explorer. It displays Google Chrome Frame enabled sites using Google Chrome’s rendering technology, giving you access to the latest HTML5 features as well as Google Chrome’s performance and security features without in any way interrupting your usual browser usage.

When Google Chrome Frame is installed, the web just gets better without you having to think about it.


Which browsers and OSes does Google Chrome Frame support?

The Google Chrome Frame plug-in works in Internet Explorer versions 6, 7, 8 and 9.

It works on Windows XP SP2+, Windows Vista and Windows 7.


Does Google Chrome Frame handle the display of all websites when I install it?

No, only sites that explicitly opt-in to using it will take advantage of its capabilities.


If I install Google Chrome Frame will it break any websites I use?

No, Google Chrome Frame only kicks in when a website explicitly requests it. When visiting websites that aren’t Google Chrome Frame enabled, your browsing experience remains completely unchanged.


Do I need to be an Administrator to install Google Chrome Frame?

No. The installer will fall-back to an admin-free installation if the user does not have administrative permission on their computer.


In closing...

Don't be alarmed if you see this prompt pop up when you access your admin area.... it's perfectly safe and (if you're using an older version of IE) actually more secure!
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Mar
9
March 2012 Newsletter: Starting with a bang!
Posted by Lee Conlin on 09 March 2012 04:50 PM

What a beginning!

It’s been a while since I last wrote a newsletter and with good reason... we’ve been so busy!

We’ve got off to an amazing start this year, partly due to our new internal issue tracking system but also due to the constant stream of new ideas and requests generated by our merchants.

More and more merchants are coming to EasyWebstore constantly and we’re thoroughly enjoying the challenges and new ideas they bring.

We have issues!

Don’t worry, it’s a good thing!  We’ve set up a brand new issue tracker internally to help our developers make the most of their valuable time and get things done much more quickly and efficiently.

Going forward, whenever you report a bug, request a feature or even pay for development work it will be added to our internal tracker.

Your support ticket will stay in the “Support” department in a new status “With Developers” and it will be tagged with the issue ID(s) from our internal tracker.

This allows our sparkly new Issue Robot™ to find them and deal with them when they are resolved or updated on our issue tracker.  This will mean that you will get updates much faster once issues are resolved as well as ensuring that if you reply to the ticket your reply will not go unseen.

Issues will be handled in order of priority with the following being a rough guide...
  1. “Blocker” bugs (i.e. stores cannot take payments)
    - These are usually handled as soon as they are reported and very rarely make it onto the tracker.
  2. Critical bugs (i.e. Stores can take payments but bug is affecting sales or major functionality is broken)
  3. Paid development work
  4. Other bugs (i.e. cosmetic / non-critical)
  5. Feature requests - When you submit a feature request or work is added to our tracker for you as a feature request (or “enhancement” as it is known on the tracker) you may see the following block of text in our reply....

Normally this work would be chargeable but as a gesture of good will on this occasion we will carry out at no cost to you. Please understand that the work will be carried out if/when we have any spare capacity and the work will be carried out on a "best efforts" basis. This means we will need you to help by testing changes and reporting any problems. It also means we will be unable to commit to any deadlines and paid work will take our team's priority. If you happy to proceed on this basis please indicate you have read this note in a written reply, if you want a quote and a hard deadline please let us know and we will provide one.


New Stuff

We’ve been busily adding new features to make EasyWebstore the best e-commerce system available.  Here’s a few of the highlights...

For Merchants

Google Shopping

The entire Google Shopping sync has been completely redesigned to ensure that it now works reliably 100% of the time.

As a result all stores that were using the old FTP method (that has not been working since last September due to required fields implemented by Google) have now been migrated to use the new system.

By default such stores will be configured on our Multi-client account and products will be pushed to Google automatically.   You may receive an email from Google informing you that we have “claimed” your domain.  This is nothing to worry about and you should not re-claim it yourself unless you intend to configure a “Custom Integration” with Google shopping in the Version 3 admin area.

Please note that although we will push your products to Google, Google may still reject them if you have not yet filled in the required “unique identifiers”.


Jirafe

No, not the animal... it’s a new e-commerce analytics package that we’ve integrated into stores.

You can activate Jirafe analytics on the Addons page in your admin V3.  Once activated you will be able to view your ecommerce analytics data on the Statistics page in your admin area.


Postcode Anywhere

Ever wanted to have one of those “lookup your address” type features on your store?  Now you can with Postcode Anywhere.

You can activate this feature through the addons page in your Admin V3 area.  This will automatically register you an account with Postcode Anywhere.   Once registered you must purchase credits from them in order to perform address lookups.

Once activated your checkout page will include the Postcode lookup controls on the address fields automatically.  Contact our support team if you would like the look / colours of this to be altered.


Facebook Stores

Yes!  They’re finally here!  Now you can display your EasyWebstore within your Facebook page.

This uses your existing store and CMS so all your sales, products, etc are managed through exactly the same interface as you currently use.  Better still, it’s all tracked via Google Analytics/Jirafe too!

Contact our sales team for information about how to get this enabled for your store!


For Designers

IFRAMEs

Any page on a store can now be displayed within an <iframe> by appending “?ContentOnly=true” to it’s URL


Twitter Bootstrap CSS Framework

Twitter Bootstrap 2 has been added to the Global Files directory.  You can include it in your template by specifying...

@import '../../../Files/bootstrap/less/bootstrap.less';

...at the top of your CSS area.

You will have full access to all of the .less mixins and variables defined in the Twitter Bootstrap .less files.

For the Javascripts you will need to include jQuery and turn on it’s noConflict mode.  Then just include...

<script src="../../../Files/bootstrap/bootstrap.min.js"></script>

... immediately after the jQuery include

For more information on Twitter Bootstrap click here


For Developers

New API Method: GetProductsBySearchTerm

http://www.easywebstore.net/api/docs/ME-Merchant_Api-GetProductsBySearchTerm.htm


New error messages

Many of the methods on the API will now return more useful error messages if something goes wrong.  As usual, if you get an error that doesn’t make sense please contact us and let us know so we can address it.


Bugs that went *splat*

We’ve also been busy squishing all those nasty bugs you’ve been reporting.  Here’s a list...

For Merchants

  • Now able to view “On hold” orders from Orders menu in V3.
  • Pressing [Enter] in store front forms should now behave correctly in all cases.
  • The “Custom Checkout Fields” box in V3 Admin now renders at the correct size.
  • Pressing Enter in Order Search in V3 admin now behaves correctly
  • Continue Shopping link on cart pages now correctly returns to previous category
  • Fixed an issue where in some circumstances you would have to click “Checkout now” twice to make it work
  • Google +1 buttons now specify the URL to be +1’d in Teasers correctly
  • Customer “Order History” will now correctly show only orders that have been checked out (no more carts shown)
  • Google Checkout will now, again, correctly charge VAT on shipping when needed
  • Numerous Excel Uploader fixes

For Designers

  • Fixed AddToCartRelatedProductsAsOptions renders an empty control when RelatedProducts field contains non-existent product codes.
  • ShoppingCartPaymentButton attribute "Text" now working as intended
  • Custom DocType tags are now honoured correctly
  • dotLESS parser will now correctly look in the SupportFileLocation for @import’d .less files

For Developers

  • Fixed DateTime out of range error when creating new product on API with a .Net client

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