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Questions
Common Technical Questions
What is E-Commerce?
Electronic Commerce is a convenient and affordable way to
sell products or services online. E-Commerce software and service such as Mercantec SoftCart
and CyberCash enables individuals to maintain an online business while performing
transactions right from the Web.
What steps should I
take to utilize E-Commerce?
First, choose a WebXess E-Commerce hosting package. E-Pro
suits stores carrying 1-10 products, E-Corp suits stores carrying up to 100 products, and
the E-Enterprise plan supports an endless number of products. Second, follow the easy
instructions given in SoftCart to create your new web site. Once your site is
created, decide on a processing method of either offline or real-time
processing. Both processing methods require you to have a Merchant Account before you may
begin selling. If you are processing real-time, then you must also acquire a Card
Processing Service (i.e. Cybercash). Once you have completed these few steps, you can
concentrate on marketing your site and receiving orders.
What is Online Payment Processing?
When a customer purchases products from your site with a
credit card, you or your site software will request approval that the card is valid and
that sufficient funds are available in the customer’s account for the purchase. On
approval, the bank will reply with an authorization number and the order will be
officially "captured". In the next step, the merchandise or service is sent to
the customer and the Merchant informs the bank where the Merchant Account is held. The
bank then deposits funds into the Merchant Account as the customer’s account is
debited the cost of the products. The bank of your Merchant Account will remove the
necessary service fees and complete the transaction.
Offline processing entails some labor on the part of
the Merchant, but is easiest to adapt an existing business. In this case, a
business’s current credit card processor will suffice.
Real-time processing requires little or no intervention
by the Merchant, and is ideal for businesses in need of processing hundreds of orders per
month. Credit Card numbers are received through the Internet and cleared by CyberCash
online processing.
What is a Merchant
Account?
All merchants of all sizes and types of business must open
a Merchant Account in order to receive credit card orders and clear the transactions. The
Merchant Account acts as the deposit location for the customer’s money. The bank that
you choose to house your Merchant Account will take a small percentage of the sale as a
service fee. This fee is extracted at the point of each sale.
What are the
Benefits of E-commerce?
There are two main advantages to selling within an online
store. Number One, the overhead cost of an E-commerce web site is generally much
less than the cost of a physical storefront. Number two, you have the ability to
reach customers all over the world rather than being limited to a certain geographical
location.
General Technical Questions
How should I get
started in building my Store?
Be sure to fill out the licensing agreement when you log on
to your Store Manager (StoreMgr) the very first time, so that Mercantec can send you the
hard copy of their user guide and provide you a url to download the encryption program.
You may also download the user guide via http://www.mercantec.com/products/download/sc50.html
in the meantime.
Regardless if you are planning to create a custom store or
insert SoftCart’s tags into an existing web site, it is recommended that you should
first use SoftCart’s StoreBuilder (for details instructions, please refer to SoftCart
User’s guide) to create your store for the very first time. This way, you can be
familiar with how SoftCart works. Many times, it is easier to modify an existing Store
Template than to create one from scratch. You may also modify the default template one (1)
page at a time and use the "Store Generate" function to generate the site to
make sure your custom template is working properly before you have made all the changes.
For a Web designer that wishes to insert SoftCart’s
tags into an existing site, the Store Builder can also provide a good example of how
SoftCart’s tags work. You may simply review the .html files that Store Builder
generated (in your htdocs/scstore/ folder) for you and it should provide you a better
understanding of how you should insert the custom tags on your existing site (you may also
find more information in the SoftCart User’s guide and the Technical Reference
Guide).
After I
generated my Store, my site was created within my htdocs/scstore/ folder. I want my
visitors to access my site via http://www.domain.com NOT http://www.domain.com/scstore/,
can I change that?
By default, SoftCart Pagegenerator creates all of the store
files and stores them within the htdocs/scstore/ folder. This is because if you already
have an existing web site the generated files may over-write your existing files. This
method also allows Merchants to have a non-SoftCart site up while still working on the new
Store. There are two different methods to over come the issue about visitors not being
able to access your store via: http://www.domain.com
I. (Recommended for all users)
You may simply copy the index.html file within your
htdocs/scstore/ folder and store it within your htdocs/ folder. You may need to modify
some of the image paths on your index.html page, so that your images can load properly.
II. (Recommended for all users)
Simply create a custom index.html page that contains a
refresh tag (see below example), ftp this file to your htdocs/ folder. When your visitors
access your site via http://www.domain.com your custom page can automatically
re-direct the traffic to enter your Store immediately. The instructions are below:
Edit your index.html document and within the <head>
and </head> tags, insert the following:
<meta HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" Content="0;
URL=(copy enter store url and place it here)">
Example:
<head>
<meta HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" Content="0;
URL=http://www.mystore.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/scstore/shophome.html?E+scstore">
</head>
III.* (For Advanced users only)
Advanced developers may specify where SoftCart should
generate the store files. Once you are ready to put your Store live, you may change these
settings by editing the file found within your cgi-local/scstore.cfg locate the line:
"StoreDir / scstore" and replace it with "StoreDir / " (ie. To
generate the page to the root web folder, htdocs/). Please be sure to modify the
scstore.cfg file with care, the format should always be tab delimited and it should be
downloaded or uploaded via ASCII mode (do NOT set your ftp program with auto-detect).
How can I create
sub-categories with SoftCart?
Sub-categories are not supported in SoftCart's Page
Generator program by default.
The easiest way to create sub-categories within SoftCart is
to create your own index page with your categories on it, then link it to the statically
generated SoftCart category pages (which would act as the sub-categories). These pages are
labeled:
c-(your category here).html
and should be located within your htdocs/scstore/ folder. Make sure there is still an
"enter store" page before this one though, so that a cart ID will be assigned to
the shopper. This requires some customization on the merchant or their developer's part,
but should produce the desired effect.
Example:
A Merchant that is selling movies online and wishes to
create a first level of categories: DVD, VCD (video CD), and VHS. Under each
category, there should be sub-categories – Comedy, Action, and Drama.
The Merchant should first create their own index page that contains a link to the 3
categories: DVD, VHS, and VCD.
Within the Store Manager, they may then create the categories: DVD-Comedy, DVD-Action,
DVD-Drama, VCD-Comedy, VCD-Action, VCD-Drama, VHS-Comedy, VHS-Action, and VHS-Drama
and input the products' information under each category. Once the Store is generated, the
merchant may edit the link on their custom Category page to link to the Sub-Categories
(ie. C-DVD-Comedy.html should be the sub-category page for DVD-comedy; this page should be
generated within scstore/ by default).
How do I sort
my SoftCart Categories or Products?
SoftCart by default cannot sort the Categories or Products
once they have been entered into the Store Manager. SoftCart inputs the most recently
added info to the bottom of the list. Here is a manual work-around for this obstacle:
If you are familiar with FTP, you may transfer the product
or category database to your local machine and save it in a tab-delimited, ASCII text
format such as Access. Sort the list alphabetically or whichever way you desire. Save the
file and upload it back to the server to the products directory. You will need to utilize
this process each time you add a new product or category to your database if you do not
want the new information appended to the bottom of the list.
The directory path for these databases is:
merchant/shopdata/products/product4.pdb for products and
.../product.cdb for categories.
If the merchant is not familiar with FTP, there is
currently no alternative to manipulating this database; however, WebXess is currently
working on a database sorting function that can be done via a web browser. This should be
released by approximately March, 2001.
I’m
currently using a different host for my SoftCart site. Do I need to rebuild everything
from scratch if I am swicthing to you?
No, There are easier ways to transfer files from your
current host and get your site up and running. The information below assumes
you currently have a functional SoftCart site and have full FTP (file transfer protocol,
for more information about FTP, please refer to our FTP Tutorial)
access to your current account on the different host.
*Important note: Please be sure NOT
to download any SoftCart executable files or configruation files within your
cgi-bin or cgi-local folder at your current ISP/Web host unless you are absolutely
certain the file you download will NOT have any conflict with
our Server. You can always check with us via support@webxess.net
before transferring these files. (Please do not email any files.)
A.Downloading your Products and Category database
FTP to your account on your ISP/Web Host server, locate the
folder that contains your product database (the directory path for this database is
normally: merchant/shopdata/products/
--However, this may differ for each Service Provider; depending on how your current host
has set up SoftCart, some dig-around within the directory may be necessary)
Download all of the files within the products/ folder, most
of these files should start with product4., *Note, be sure to download
these files via ASCII (do not use the auto detect function for your FTP program).
You may then ftp to your account on our server (refer to
the account setup notice email for FTP address, userid and password). Select the folder
merchant/shopdata/products/ and upload all of the product4. files you previously
downloaded via ASCII format.
Your product database has now been transferred to our
server!
B Downloading your shipping and sales Tax information
FTP to your account on your current ISP/Web host server,
locate the folder that contains your shipping and sales tax files. It should be: merchant/shopdata/salestax/
and merchant/shopdata/shipping/
Download all of the files found in the above folders, it is
recommended to download these files into two separate folders on your computer (to
eliminate confusion). You may then ftp to your account on our (new host) server and upload
all of the salestax files to your merchant/shopdata/salestax/ folder and your shipping
files to your merchant/shopdata/shipping/ folder.
If you have previously customized your files within your
merchant/shopdata/template/ folder, you will need to follow the above instructions to
download the file(s) within this folder and re-upload the file(s) to the same folder on
our server. Otherwise, you may skip this step.
C Store design and lay out
If you are using one of SoftCart’s default
template to generate your store and you did not customize this template sets on your
current host, you may skip this step and proceed to section E.
If you were using the method to insert SoftCart’s
tags to your existing sites previously, please skip to section D.
For customers that had previously created a custom
template, please FTP to your current host and locate your custom template files within
your merchant/SmPageGen/ folder. You should find the folder that contains
your custom template within merchant/SmPageGen/ (ie. merchant/SmPageGen/mytemplate/).
Please download all of the files within this custom folder along with the .cfg file
that was located within your
merchant/SmPageGen/ folder. The file name of your .cfg file should be the same as the
folder, (ie. if your folder is named "mytemplate" the .cfg file should be
"mytemplate.cfg").
You may then ftp to our server and locate the folder:
merchant/SmPageGen/ and upload the .cfg (template configuration) file via ASCII upload.
You may then create the custom folder within your merchant/SmPageGen/ and upload all of
your custom templates to this folder via ASCII upload.
Please proceed to section F. after this step.
D. Transferring existing Web Site content (for customers
that inserted SoftCart’s tags to an existing site on their previous host)
You will need to locate the web site folders (ie. htdocs/
--on some hosts the main folder you logon via ftp is the root web folder). You may then
download all of your files via Binary transfer or Auto-detect (ie. .htm .html and image
files) to your computer. Once the download is completed, please ftp to our server and
change folder name to htdocs/ and upload all of your files via Binary transfer or
auto-detect. Please be sure to keep the directory structure as found on your previous
host. Then proceed to section F. after this step.
E. Transferring product images and thumbnail files
FTP to your current host and locate the folder where your
store files are generate--
ie. scstore (it should be the same as the Store Name), within this folder, you should find
two separate folders – graphics and images. Download all of the
files (*note: be sure to use Binary mode or Auto-detect) within these two
folders to your computer (you may want to separate them into two separate locations on
your computer to reduce confusion). Once the download is completed, open an FTP session to
our server and change directory to htdocs/scstore/, you should be able to find two
separate folders – graphics and images. FTP upload via Binary mode
or Auto-detect all of your graphic files you had previously downloaded to the graphics
folder and your image files to your images folder. This should complete the transfer of
your products' images.
F. Log on to your StoreMgr
Please logon to your StoreMgr on our server via the logon
information we provided you when we first setup your account (via email). Under the
"Store Admin" page, type in the basic information as it appears on the StoreMgr
at your previous host, you may also want to setup the online and offline email as well via
the StoreMgr. If you have selected CyberCash for a payment module, please be sure to setup
your payment system via your StoreMgr as well (you may simply copy the existing
information via the StoreMgr of your current host to the StoreMgr on our server).
G. Assigning Encryption Key
We assume you are using the computer that has the SoftCart
Encryption program installed and has previously generated an encryption key. If you have
not done this previously, please follow the instructions on the SoftCart
User’s Guide – Security Option P. 61
Within your "StoreMgr", please select
"Security" – "Manage Encryption keys" via the computer that had
previous generated the encryption key. From the Keys menu, select "upload a public
key"; select the public key you created previously; and upload to your StoreMgr.
Please be sure to assign the key as well.
For customers that are using "inserting SoftCart's
tags for an existing web site" after you have completed this step, your site should
be functional! For other customers please proceed to section H.
H. Generate your Store
Logon to your StoreMgr, select "Site Design &
Generation". Under the template set drop-down list box, select the custom template
(if you have a custom template) or the template sets you wish to use. Select the Site page
and the Catalog Navigation scheme from your previous settings (on your previous
host) and click on the "Generate Site" button. Your site should be generated and
you should be able to access your Store via:
http://www.yourdomain.com/scstore/
or http://ipaddress/scstore/ (if your domain name has not been
transferred to us yet).
The above information is a summary of steps which you
may perform to transfer your site; you may also want to review the Mercantec SoftCart
documentation for detailed information. If you are having any problems with the above
instructions, please feel free to contact us at: support@webxess.net
and be sure to provide us the domain name of your account and the details of the problems,
so that we can assist you to make your site transfer as smoothly as possible.
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