SmartCart Support Documentation

Welcome to the SmartCart Ecommerce System Help Manual. The concepts of managing an online store with SmartCart are outlined on this page.

If you have any questions, or need help with SmartCart, you may contact Support for technical assistance.

The first step to selling products online is to activate a SmartCart account. This will establish the SmartCart account as a trial account until the service is ordered. The trial account is completely functional and is set at the SmartCart Pro service level. The account service level can be adjusted at the time the service is ordered.

The SmartCart activation form requires the store contact information: Name of Store, Address, Phone, Fax, Email, etc. This information is displayed to the store's customers on the order receipts and can later be modified (if necessary) in the General Settings located in SmartCart Admin Controls.

A user name and password is required to activate the SmartCart account. The user name is also used in your store's URL.
Example: http://www.smartcart.com/username.

User names and passwords are case sensitive, and only alphanumeric characters should be used. Do not include and spaces or characters such as !,@,#,$,^,&,*,(,)

Passwords should not consist of simple, dictionary words. It is best to use word combinations and/or a combination of letters, numbers and at least one special character. With passwords it is recommended that you use at least one or more special characters such as, !,@,#,$,^,&,*,(,).

Once the initial information has been submitted, you will be asked to check your email. An email is sent to the email address that was submitted with the store information. From the email message is a link to the final review page, then the ecommerce account can be activated by pressing the Setup Store button.

Once your online store has been setup, you can modify the store settings and information from the Administration Area of the ecommerce system. This is explained in further detail in the Administration of SmartCart section.

SmartCart is a hosted ecommerce system that can help companies build and maintain a web store and securely manage online orders. All that is needed to operate SmartCart is a web browser and an internet connection.

There are two ways of using SmartCart to sell your products:
1) Use SmartCart's Catalog Controls to create your online catalog and provide order functionality.
2) Use SmartCart's Buttonmaker to create shopping cart ordering buttons on web pages that you create.

When using SmartCart to create your online catalog, the product information needs to be added to the system. This information can be added manually by entering the data (one product at a time) in SmartCart's Catalog Controls, or all of the product info can be uploaded to the server in the form of a tab delimited text file and published instantly.

Once products have been made available for sale, SmartCart will guide the customer through the order process. Customers will have the ability to establish a Member Account, for even easier future purchases with the web site. All orders are processed securely as SmartCart provides 128 bit SSL encryption to process and transfer critical data.

After an order has been placed, the customer and the store administrator will automatically receive a copy of the order via email. The store administrator can access all of the order details from SmartCart's secure order management area.

When SmartCart is used to create the online catalog, the ecommerce system provides a keyword search feature that allows customers to quickly locate products that they are looking for. The search utility provides quick results and is powerful enough to return search results in seconds, including large-scale stores carrying over 100,000 products.

Dynamic Content Display
The same technology is utilized in SmartCart's dynamic content management display. For those who embrace the versatility of SmartCart, the search utility can be used to group products in various ways. More information on this subject is provided in the Linking to Products section.

When building an online catalog with SmartCart, the ecommerce system will automatically create your online store as the category data and inventory data are added to the site.

Catalog Index
The catalog index is created from the category data, referred to as Departments and Areas in the admin controls, and displays the product index respectively.

Search Results
When clicking from a link on the catalog index, the system will then display the products categorized under the selected link. By default, the page displays a small graphic (if available) of each product, the name of the product and the price. This page is referenced as the "Search Results". If only one product is available under the selected category link, then the system will automatically forward to the product's display page, rather than take the customer through the added step of first viewing the page containing the search results.

Product Display Page
The product display page contains all information provided for the product and the add to cart function. Information featured is the name of product, item number, description, price(s) and ordering selection. If applicable, there is also an area to display related items. This page can also be enhanced if the store administrator uses HTML to embed formatted content and items such as flash, audio links, video links, etc.

When a customer adds an item to their cart, they are then taken to the View Cart page. This page displays the cart contents and provides links to continue shopping, edit quantities, dump cart and checkout.

These functions are made simple with easy to understand symbols such as "+" for add one, "-" for subtract one, and "X" for remove item from cart.

SmartCart provides a quick and simple solution for customers that would like to establish a customer profile (or member account) in your online shopping system. The shopper is prompted to establish a member profile at time of checkout, but it is not required. By establishing a profile, SmartCart will store the customer's name, address, phone, fax, email info so future orders can be submitted easily. The customer will be asked to provide a username and password for their profile settings. The Login link gives customers access to their account info at any time.

Order History
One other advantage to establishing a member profile is the customer will have access to their order history with the online store. Each order that is placed under the profile is saved and is accessible as long as the profile is active in the shopping system.

Member Account Administration and Sales Reports
SmartCart Pro offers a customer management utility that provides access to member data and also provides a sales report for each member. Click Member Account Administration for more info on this utility.

SmartCart provides a Customer Service form that makes it easy for shoppers to contact the store if they have questions or need assistance with an order. Correspondence is sent directly to the store administrator via email.

If the shopper has logged into their account before submitting their query, the shopper's account name will be printed in the email message.

To checkout, the customer is presented with the following options:

1) activate a member profile and checkout
2) log in to existing profile and checkout
3) proceed straight to checkout (no profile)

If the customer has logged into their profile before going to checkout, the system will bypass the checkout options and proceed to display the customer's shipping info and order info. If the information on record is correct, customer then proceeds to the next step of the checkout process.

Review / Shipping Info
In the next step of the checkout process, the customer has another chance to review their order. Final adjustments to the order can be made at this time by selecting Edit Cart.

SmartCart Pro stores contain a coupon / discount option. Customers may submit a coupon code (if available) and redeem coupons on this step of checkout. If the store offers a discount, and the customer has met the minimum ordering requirements to receive the discount, then the discount will automatically appear.

At this time, the customer submits their contact and shipping information. If the billing information is the same, a checkbox selection can be made so the billing info is automatically entered on the next step.

Select Shipping / Payment Info
Upon pressing the Proceed button, the ecommerce system makes a secure SSL connection using 128 bit encryption. The customer is then asked to review their billing info and provide the shipping info (if different from billing info). Next, the customer is asked to make a shipping selection. This will vary based on the store's shipping preferences. If the store uses the shipping calculators available for FedEx, UPS, USPS, DHL, the customer can select from the options made available. If the store uses a shipping calculation based on the number of items purchased, or the amount of the purchase, then the shipping price will be displayed to the customer (no option to select).

Next, the customer is asked to submit their payment info. The payment types offered are set by the store administrator. The shopping system supports Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, Discover, PayPal, E-check, and Payment by Mail options. When paying with credit card, the customer may also be required to submit the CVV info (3 or 4 digit number on back of credit card).

SmartCart provides a field for Special Instructions. This gives the customer a chance to express any additional requests with the order.

Submit Order - Review Receipt
In this step of the order process, the customer submits the order. One of the following actions will occur at this time:

Real Time Credit Card Processing
If the store uses a payment gateway that processes the credit card transaction, such as Authorizenet, Verisign, Bank of America, etc, then the customer will review the order details and submit order. The credit card will be processed at this time and, if approved, the customer will be taken to the final order receipt. If declined, a message will appear to the customer that asks them to review or resubmit payment info.

PayPal Payments
Customers that selected to pay via PayPal will be taken to the PayPal login screen. If customer does not have a Paypal account, they can establish one during the payment process. When paying with PayPal, the customer has the option to choose from the payment types listed in the their PayPal account. Once payment has been submitted, the customer is forwarded to the final order receipt.

Other Payment Processing
If the online store does not process payments in real time, the order information is securely posted to the Order Management Area, where the complete order and payment details can be accessed.

Email Notification
Once the order has been completed, the customer and the store administrator will receive a copy of the order details by email. Only the credit card type and last 4 digits of the credit card are sent by email. The store administrator can access the payment details in the Secure Order Management Area.

Administration of SmartCart

SmartCart's Administrative Interface provides access to all functions and areas used to administer your online store and process order info. The admin console also displays an ecommerce stats window including visitors, page views and sales data.

General Settings

Store Address and Contact Info
The General Settings area provides administration of the store settings. The store address and contact info that is used here is displayed to the customers on the order receipt. The admin email submitted in the area will receive all correspondence for the online store, including order confirmations and customer service submissions.

Receipt Settings
The emailed receipts can be sent in html and plain text format. If you do not wish to receive an emailed copy of every order placed in your shopping system, you can disable this feature from the general settings control for emailed receipts.

Payment Types Accepted
Payment types offered in SmartCart are Visa, MasterCard, Discover, Amex, Payments by Mail, Online Check, and PayPal. If other payment types are required in your online store, you may contact a customer service rep to have these options included in your ecommerce system.

System Display Settings
This area provides control to some shopping system display settings, including the ability to show or hide the logo displayed at the top of the shopping system pages, show or hide the menu control frame, if you want to have the system prompt customers to establish member profiles, and provide a home page URL if your web site's home page is different from your SmartCart home page.

Once changes have been made to the General Settings, click the Submit Changes button to instantly publish the settings to your online store.

Shipping, Currency and Tax Settings

Set Currency Type
This area provides the currency setting for the online store.

State Tax Settings
Provide the abbreviation of the state that sales tax is required in. Commonly, this is the same state that your business resides in. If your business collects sales tax in more than one state, separate the states with a comma. The tax rate information must be submitted in a decimal format. If collecting tax in multiple states, the tax rate must be separated by a comma, and entered in the same order as the state info.

Theme Selector

The Theme Selector offers a variety of pre-designed store templates to use with your SmartCart Ecommerce System. To update your store template, select the template and publish. Your site will be updated instantly.

Style Settings

The Style Settings Manager provides an easy interface to update the style of the online catalog. To update the style settings in SmartCart, make your changes and preview. Once you are satisfied with your changes, publish the style by clicking the Publish button at the bottom of the preview screen. This utility also provides the ability to save styles for backup and/or for future implementation.

Header / Footer / Site Keywords

This feature is used to provide the meta tags thata re embedded into your online store, as well as provide any special messages that need to appear on the order receipts. Simply provide the information that pertains to your online store, then publish to instantly update your site.

Email List Manager

The Mailing List Manager stores the email addresses of customers and store members. This utility also provides the ability to create newsletters and announcements to send to your mailing list.

SmartCart requires the user to opt-in in order to be added to the mailing list. If you manually add a user to the mailing list, they will be sent an email that will provide a link that allows the user to opt-into the mailing list. Users may also remove themselves from the mailing list by clicking the removal link that is automatically appended to the emailed message.

Sending Newsletters and Announcements to Mailing List
First select the type of email you would like to send. Plain text (txt) format will send a plain text email with only text, no graphics. Message will be formatted the same as it displays in the message body. HTML format will activate the HTML editor and will allow you to add graphics and other formatting to the message. Graphics and links will require a full URL path.

After creating the announcement, click Preview Message to preview the email you will send to the list. If modifications are needed, you can go back and update before submitting to the list. To send message, click the Blast Email link located on the preview screen.

Email Members Only or Select List PRO
Pro users will have the ability to email Members Only, Mailing List Only, Both Lists, or email members who have not placed an order in a specified amount of time.

Editing Pages / Logo

Editing Web Pages
To edit the Home Page or About the Company Page, click the Edit Web Pages link located in the admin index. Select the page you would like to edit. Make your changes and preview the updates by clicking the link at the bottom of the preview page. To publish the updates, check the Publish box and your modifications will be instantly published to the site.

This area also supports the template files, site header and site footer. The header displays at the top of the catalog pages and the footer, respectively, displays at the bottom. The header and footer files will support html, graphics, flash, custom menus, etc. Links and Graphics require a full URL path.

Store Logos
Store logos can be uploaded to SmartCart and will display in your online catalog and order receipts. All logo images must be upload in gif format. The site supports a large logo that displays in the online catalog at the top of the pages and a small logo that appears on the order receipt.

Coupon/Discount Manager PRO

SmartCart provides support for both Coupons and Discounts. Coupons require a code to be passed in order to redeem. This code can be entered at checkout, or passed in a link that the customer clicks on to redeem. Discounts are automatically calculated at checkout and do not require a redemption code. The customer simply needs to meet the minimum order requirements to receive the discount.

When activating coupon and discount codes in your online store, it is important to remember that the coupon/discount codes need to contain only alphanumeric characters, like abc123. Spaces, @, #, $, etc should not be used in the discount code or coupon code fields.

Creating Coupons
To create a coupon, provide the coupon information and click Enter Coupon. If providing an expiration date, the coupon will automatically expire. Provide the Coupon Code to allow customer to redeem or provide a link that the customer can click to redeem.

Example Coupon Link:
http://www.smartcart.com/username/cgi/checkcoupon.cgi?discount=COUPON_CODE

Creating Discounts
To create a discount, provide the coupon information and click Enter Discount. After entering discount info, go to Discount Manager and activate the store discount. The ecommerce system will support one active discount at a time.

To add SmartCart to your website, you must first determine how SmartCart will be utilitized. Do you want SmartCart to manage and display your entire website? Or perhaps you just want to have SmartCart provide an online catalog and ecommerce system to your website? Have you created your online catalog but would just like to add secure shopping cart ordering buttons to your pages?

This section of the help manual will cover the topic of linking to products, pages and processes in the SmartCart Ecommerce System when using SmartCart to manage inventory information and create the online catalog. Refer to the ButtonMaker section of the help manual for more information on that type of ecommerce integration.

To add an ecommerce catalog to your website, just place a link to SmartCart from your website. The main site links are outlined below.

SmartCart Main Link: (Frames)
http://www.smartcart.com/username

SmartCart Main Link: (No Frame)
http://www.smartcart.com/username/welcome.htm

SmartCart As Home Page: (Download SmartCart Gateway)
http://www.yourdomainname.com

SmartCart As A Relative Link: (Download SmartCart Gateway)
http://www.yourdomainname.com/smartcart.cgi

Linking to your intro page in SmartCart is the simplest way to add secure online ordering to your website. Reading further into the manual, you will find there are many options to dynamically displaying products in your online store.

When SmartCart automatically creates the online store, the products in the catalog can be accessed by browsing the catalog index and by submitting keyword searches with the search feature. Web developers may also explore the other ways of targeting products groups with SmartCart.

Individual Products
When linking to individual products, the "item_num" variable is passed.

Product Link: (Frames)
http://www.smartcart.com/username/index.cgi?item_num=1234

Product Link: (No Frames)
http://www.smartcart.com/username/cgi/display.cgi?item_num=1234

Relative Domain Link: (Download SmartCart Gateway)
http://www.yourdomainname.com/smartcart.cgi?item_num=1234

Categories
When linking to categories, or Departments and Areas, the "terms" variable is used to pass the Department Name and Area Name string. The Department Name and Area Name are separated with ::
The "&category" string will provide the header text to display on the page. Use a "+" to replace spaces.

Category Link: (Frames)
http://www.smartcart.com/username/index.cgi?terms=Department::Area&category=Header+Text

Category Link: (No Frames)
http://www.smartcart.com/username/cgi/search.cgi?terms=Department::Area&category=Header+Text

Relative Category Link: (Download SmartCart Gateway)
http://www.yourdomainname.com/smartcart.cgi?terms=Department::Area&category=Header+Text

Specials / Sale Items
Use the link examples below to display products in your online store that have been tagged as Special. The "&category" string will provide the header text to display on the page. Use a "+" to replace spaces.

Specials Link: (Frames)
http://www.smartcart.com/username/index.cgi?terms=~&category=Our+Specials

Specials Link: (No Frames)
http://www.smartcart.com/username/cgi/search.cgi?terms=~&category=Our+Specials

Relative Specials Link: (Download SmartCart Gateway)
http://www.yourdomainname.com/smartcart.cgi?terms=~&category=Our+Specials

New Items
Use the link examples below to display products in your online store that have been tagged as New Items. The "&category" string will provide the header text to display on the page. Use a "+" to replace spaces.

New Items Link: (Frames)
http://www.smartcart.com/username/index.cgi?terms=^&category=New+Items

New Items Link: (No Frames)
http://www.smartcart.com/username/cgi/search.cgi?terms=^&category=New+Items

Relative New Items Link: (Download SmartCart Gateway)
http://www.yourdomainname.com/smartcart.cgi?terms=^&category=New+Items

Product Groups
Use the link examples below to display certain products in your online store. The "terms" variable is used to pass item strings (separate items with "+". The "boolean" variable is used to pass more than one item. The "&category" string will provide the header text to display on the page. Use a "+" to replace spaces.

Grouped Link: (Frames)
http://www.smartcart.com/username/index.cgi?terms=001+002&boolean=OR&category=Two+Items

Grouped Link: (No Frames)
http://www.smartcart.com/username/cgi/search.cgi?terms=001+002&boolean=OR&category=Two+Items

Relative Grouped Link: (Download SmartCart Gateway)
http://www.yourdomainname.com/smartcart.cgi?terms=001+002&boolean=OR&category=Two+Items

Hidden Data
SmartCart products can include hidden comment tags in the Product Description Field that can be used to provide links to product groups. Hidden tags are visible in the coding, but not on the webpage. An example of a hidden tag appears like this: <!-- _data_string_ -->

Hidden Data Link: (Frames)
http://www.smartcart.com/username/index.cgi?terms=_data_string_&category=Header+Text

Hidden Data Link: (No Frames)
http://www.smartcart.com/username/cgi/search.cgi?terms=_data_string_&category=Header+Text

Relative Hidden Data Link: (Download SmartCart Gateway)
http://www.yourdomainname.com/smartcart.cgi?_data_string_&category=Header+Text

Append the page filename to the selected URL prefix.

Frames:
http://www.smartcart.com/username/index.cgi?page=

No Frames:
http://www.smartcart.com/username/

Linking from your domain: (Download SmartCart Gateway)
http://www.yourdomainname.com/smartcart.cgi?page=

View Cart

View Cart (Frames)
http://www.smartcart.com/username/index.cgi?page=cgi/viewcart.cgi

View Cart (No Frames)
http://www.smartcart.com/username/cgi/viewcart.cgi

View Cart Relative Link: (Download SmartCart Gateway)
http://www.yourdomainname.com/smartcart.cgi?page=cgi/viewcart.cgi

Checkout

Checkout (Frames)
http://www.smartcart.com/username/index.cgi?page=cgi/option.cgi

Checkout (No Frames)
http://www.smartcart.com/username/cgi/option.cgi

Checkout Relative Link: (Download SmartCart Gateway)
http://www.yourdomainname.com/smartcart.cgi?page=cgi/option.cgi

Add A Shopping Cart Button To A Page

1) Using the ButtonMaker forms, add the product's item number, name, and price. Add shipping weight if you are using the automatic shipping calculators for FedEx, UPS, USPS, or DHL. An entry in the shipping weight field is not required if you base your shipping costs on the price of the order, or the number of items purchased.

2) Select the display type for the button. You can select to show the ordering info with the shopping cart button, or show the ordering button only.

3) Select Preview Button to see the button that will be created. (not a required step)

4) Click Make Button to create the button HTML. Copy and paste the HTML coding into the coding of the web page.

Add Custom Fields

The Button Maker allows the user to add custom fields to the order, if necessary. To add a custom field to your button, please read the following: You can use any type of form selection type with the Buttonmaker, such as text boxes, drop down selection windows, radio buttons, check boxes, etc.

Important: Custom field HTML coding must be added to the button coding within the <FORM> tags (after <FORM> and before </FORM>).

Example:
Name the field as you would like the field header to display when the item is added to the cart.

<select name="Color">
<option>Red</option>
<option>Blue</option>
<option>Green</option>
</select>

Required Fields
If the field is required, use name=required_ and give it the value of your field name. The value must be written exactly as it was written in the name field. If the field is not required selection, you do not need to add this.

<input type=hidden name=required_ value="Color">

Add Other Values

SmartCart provides the following values can be passed along with the shopping cart button code.

category
This value can be used in conjunction with the Coupon Module to discount items in the same category.

Example:
<input type=hidden name=category value="Category_Name">

add_shipping
This value can be passed to add extra shipping to the regular shipping price (for heavy or large shipping packages). A currency sign should not be passed in the value ($ etc).

Example:
<input type=hidden name=add_shipping value="10.00">

Editing Button Code

The button HTML coding can be edited, except for the Item Number, Item Name, Price, Weight and encrypted code. These values are encrypted for security reasons.

The shopping cart button graphic may be edited as well. To do this, you can edit the coding the provides the URL for the button graphic. If you'd like to change the button graphic that is generated by default, you may contact SmartCart Technical Support to have this changed for you.

SmartCart eCommerce Systems have user-friendly system administering tools. The SmartCart Administrative Tools are form-based, for the most part. Just fill in the blanks and away you go! These created functions and processes contain everything you will need to manage and maintain your inventory, customers, sales, and support.

Each store's administration area is located in the /admin folder. You can access this area by typing http://www.smartcart.com/username/admin in your web browser's location bar. You will be required to enter your store's username and password to access these controls.

Once you have successfully logged into the SmartCart administration area, you are presented with a number of main categories.

The main categories for administration are as follows:

System Settings - This category contains all the functions and settings that the system will need to store, remember, and retrieve for later use. These functions include site colors, background, payment methods accepted, shipping services used, store contact information, and more.

Catalog/Inventory – This section is used to build and maintain your catalog and inventory. Here you can easily create new departments, add new subcategories to these departments, add new inventory and maintain or edit any existing pieces of inventory.

System Utilities – This section is used to administer the Blast Emailer, utilities to edit your SmartCart home page and the “About Your Company” page, viewing Order Histories of your members, and a utility to upload your own company logos to the SmartCart.

Other Utilities - This list contains the list of optional modules available for SmartCart. It allows you to research the modules that are currently available.

Other Web Services - This section contains links and information to other services provided by Bizcom, including affordable domain name registration, virtual hosting, site design, and custom programming.

SmartCart makes it easy for you to build your online catalog. This section explains the different functions built into SmartCart and provides detailed instructions for using them. Once you become familiar with the functionality, you will find that maintaining your online catalog will become second nature.

The SmartCart refers to the main categories of your catalog as Departments. Each Department can have it's own sub-categories, or Areas, assigned to them. The very first step in building your online store will be to outline the Departments and Areas and will makeup your store. This categorization is available to the customer as an index for browsing your store (see Creating Catalog Index).

SmartCart does not set any limits in the number of Departments and Areas you can have in your online store, but the standard SmartCart only supports 2 levels of categorization (Department/Area). If more levels are required (Department/Area/Area/Area) a database conversion utility is required, and will support unlimited levels of categorization.

The system requires each product to be categorized. Only the Department level is required.

You will find the Department form in your SmartCart Administration area, under Department Controls. Once you enter this page, you will find two form fields. The first is for entering your Departments into the catalog system. The second field is a select box. As you add Departments to the system, you will see them appear in this select box. This box is used to remove Departments from the system. By simply selecting the department you wish to have removed and clicking the delete button completes the removal of the Department, and any Areas within that Department.

Important: Removing Departments also remove Areas within the Department. Any items categorized by deleted Dept/Areas will not be available in the catalog index, but can be found in by the search engine.

If you maintain your own database and you utilize a Database Conversion Utility for the SmartCart, then all of your inventory categorization will be updated automatically. This also prevents the occurrence of empty categories.

Compiling Catalog is the term given to the generation of your catalog index page. You do not need to compile catalog when you add inventory to the system, only when you add or remove Departments and Areas. When you hit the “Compile Catalog” a new Catalog Index page is created and available at your web store. This index links to all products as categorized by the store administrator.

Note to Internet Explorer Users:
Upon editing your category structure and compiling, the Internet Explorer web browser will sometime display a cached copy of the original page. If you do not see your anticipated changes to this page, try pressing CTRL + Refresh, for a quickly clearing the cache. If a full cache dump is needed, go to Tools (top of browser), then Internet Options. Under the "General" tab, Temporary Internet Files, click Delete Files.

This caching issue has been known to occur in Netscape as well, but by pressing Shift + Reload in your Netscape browser will display a fresh page everytime.

One of the key features of SmartCart is its ease of use and the feature-rich settings and functions available for your inventory control. If you can fill out a form on the Internet, then you already have the know-how for adding inventory to your SmartCart system. Inventory is added from the SmartCart Administration section under “Inventory Controls”. This is the form used to add, edit and remove inventory from your SmartCart database.

The first field you will see is the Edit Item field. This field allows you to pull up an item for editing. Simply by entering its item number into the field, the system will bring up the item, automatically populating all the fields of the form with the current setting of the item. You can easily make changes to the item and republish it, or just simply remove it from the system.

The next group of fields is the form also used for adding new inventory to the system. Fill in the various fields with the information requested, will automatically create your searchable database of inventory and products.

Fields Explained:

Product Number: Item numbers must be alpha-numeric and can contain only dashes. Special characters such as &, %, $, #, @, *, !,^,(, ), “, ‘ , ?, <, >, are not recommended. These characters can cause problems with trying to link to the items.

Product Name: In this field you enter the name of your product. This field is displayed to the customer in the search results, in their cart list when they add the item to their cart, and in the invoice when the customer has checked out.

Description: This is the detailed description for your item. In this description field, you can use HTML. If you are HTML savvy, you can add your own design and unique layouts to your item descriptions. This field gives you the ability to include additional images, links to video, audio, or other web pages.

If you are not familiar with HTML, that's OK, it is not required, just an added option. Here are a few, simple tags that will make your pages format better.

Having some HTML knowledge is very beneficial because your designs and layouts of your item descriptions take on any unique presentation to the shoppers. A nice presentation will definitely assist in providing a higher level of confidence in your customers to do business with your Internet Store.

If you are interested in making any changes to the template of the product display page, please contact a sales representative about this service, or any design service needed.

Mark as Featured:
Here you can select the checkbox(s) to tag the items as a new item and/or an item on special. In the background this adds tags to the items that make it easily for you to link to “New Items” or a link to your “Current Specials”. You can create these links with any image, icon, or text link.

For linking these items, please see Linking to Products.

Adding Images:
This area on the Inventory Controls is for including the product image and alignment, and a small thumbnail image for the Search Results pages.

Large Image: Product images are not hosted at SmartCart, but where you host your website. A full path to the image is required, and must include the http:// before the web site address. Images should be in .gif or .jpg format.
Example: http://www.yoursite.com/images/it123.jpg

Note:This field does not have you be used just for static images. Link in your animated gif files, Flash animations, Real Video, or other such types.

Image Alignment: You must assign an alignment selection for your image.

Alignment Recommendations:
Wide Images should be set to Top Alignment
Tall Images should be set to Right or Left Alignment
Try not to use images that are too large for the page.

Thumbnail Image: Thumbnail images are not hosted at SmartCart, but where you host your website. A full path to the smaller image is required, and must include the http:// before the web site address. Images should be in .gif or .jpg format.
Example: http://www.yoursite.com/images/thm_it123.jpg

Note: Thumbnail images should be different than your large images. Maximum file size should be no larger than 2 k - the smaller file size, the faster the search results page will load. SmartCart displays the thumbnail pictures at 50 pixels wide by 75 pixels high. These size paramenters can be adjusted or removedat no additional charge.

Choose Department:
In this part of the form, you are provided with a select box. This select box is populated with the current Main Departments on the system. This is a required selection, which is why the Main Departments and all Areas should be mapped out in advance and added to the system before adding any inventory. Upon selecting the Main Department for the item, the Choose Area select box automatically updates to show only the areas within the selected department.

Choose Area:
When a Main Department is selected, the Area select box automatically updates to only show those Areas within the selected Department. Simply by selecting a valid Area will properly index the item within this categorization. If you do not want an Area for an item, you can simply leave the Choose Area selection set to “None”.

Pricing, Availability, and Shipping:
This area allows you to enter in your multiple availabilities for each item. It supports
multiple pricing and shipping settings for each availability of the item for sale. The first row availability and price field are the only fields required in this section.

Example:

Notes:
Availability Field: Special characters such as &, %, $, #, @, *, !,^,(, ), “, ‘ , ?, <, >, are not recommended.
Price Field: No $, just numerical value.
Shipping Weight: No fractions, but decimal equivalents are acceptable. This field is only used if you are using the FedEX, Airborne, UPS or USPS tables built in to SmartCart.

If you have a handling fee that is across the board for all items, something to cover handling and maybe packaging and material charges, you will add this in your System Settings. You do not need to add Extra shipping to each of your items. The handling fee here is added "behind the scenes" to any and all shipping charges that the system determines for each order. The customer only sees the shipping options with the handling fee pre-added.

Colors/Sizes Available: If your sizes and selections are not dependent on price that you can place them in this select box. This select box can be used for colors, sizes, etc. This option does not support the ability to change prices for different selection.

Once all of the required fields have been filled out in the Inventory Control form, you can then select to preview your entry. This presents you with a preview of the item you have just entered, exactly as the cart will display it to the customer. If you have any changes and adjustments necessary to the item, you can easily go back one page and make the changes, then submit again for review. Once the item passes your review you can submit to the final step which will add this item to your inventory database, where it is instantly available in your online store.

At the bottom of the Inventory Control page you have a field for items that you wish to delete. Simply by entering in the item number for the item you wish to remove the system will automatically remove the item from the database, completely.

This section of the Administration Controls allows you to adjust all system settings for the system. You can adjust your contact information, where orders are emailed to, handling charges, shipping preferences, payment forms accepted, and more.

General System Settings

Store Name: Your store name as you would like it to appear in the system and on invoices is entered here.

Address and Address: You are provided with two address line fields. The first field is required, the second is not. The second address field is only used, if necessary.

City, State, Zip, and Country: Additional location information, which will appear on all invoices generated by SmartCart.

Voice, Fax, and Toll Free Phone #: These three fields request contact phone numbers for your store. This information is used on all invoices generated by the SmartCart. Only the voice phone field is required.

Email Order To: In this field you enter in only the email address where all orders will be emailed to when processed by the system.

Payment Options: Check the boxes of the various payment options that your business accepts. Selections are available for Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, Payments by Mail, Online Check Payments, and PayPal.

Tax Rate: In this field you enter in the tax rates for each state. This value must be entered in as a decimal value. So, you would enter .065 for 6.5% sales tax. If you entered multiple states in you must enter the rates for each state in the exact same order as the states. For multiple tax rates this list is also comma delimited. Example: .0625, .085, .07125, .0425

Shipping Handling Charge: In this field you can enter the handling charge amount you want added to all shipping charges calculated by the system.

Select Shippers: Here you can check on/off the shipping providers you would like to present on SmartCart. This selection will use the automated shipping table and calculations built into SmartCart. For best accuracy in shipping calculations, this requires that a shipping weight be entered in for each product entered into the system.

The system utilities provide you with other system functions. Here you have access to your Blast Emailer, Edit Webpages controls, View Order Histories, and Uploading Your Logo.

The Blast Emailer allows you to accept email addresses and blast out a newsletter or email message to all the people on your list.

The Blast Emailer comes with functions that allow the store administrator to delete email addresses from the mail list. Additionally, if the recipients would like to remove themselves from the mail list, they are provided with this opportunity on each email they receive. At the bottom of each email is a “remove me from mail list” link. If the customer clicks on this link their email address is removed from the mail list.

When the SmartCart first sets up, you are viewing the default home page. You can make changes to this coding in the Edit Web Pages area in the admin controls. When you arrive to the edit web page form, you can select to either edit your SmartCart Home Page or edit your “About Your Company” page. Select the page you want to edit, and you will see the code that is currently in the page. If you would need to rely on a web editor to make web pages, you can use the HTML editor of your choice (FrontPage, Netscape Composer, Dreamweaver, GoLive and others), View the Source Code generated by the web editor, and then Copy and Paste coding into the Edit pge form. Any images or additional files should include the full URL path for location. Once submitted, you will see a preview of the page. Any adjustments can be made by going back. Once you are ready to publish, the page is instantly made available in your web store.

Note to Internet Explorer Users:
Upon editing your web pages, the Internet Explorer web browser will sometime display a cached copy of the original page when published. If you do not see your anticipated changes to the published page, try pressing CTRL + Refresh, for a quickly clearing the cache. If a full cache dump is needed, go to Tools (top of browser), then Internet Options. Under the "General" tab, Temporary Internet Files, click Delete Files.

This caching issue has been known to occur in Netscape as well, but by pressing Shift + Reload in your Netscape browser will display a fresh page everytime.

In the Vew Order Histories section, you are brought to a list of all the active member accounts on the system. Here, you can select a specific member by their customer ID and view their entire order history with your store. Every order is saved in each member's account. The customer has access to their information only. The Store Administrator has access to all users history reports.

This section allows you to upload your own logo to the SmartCart system. These images need to be valid gif formats. You will be uploading two images to the system, a small smlogo.gif and a larger logo.gif. Simply select which image you are uploading. Then select “Browse” so you can find the image on your hard drive that you will be uploading to the server. It does not matter what the file is called, so long at it is a valid gif image. Clicking the upload button will automatically upload your file. The upload module will rename the file appropriately and place it in the correct place in your SmartCart account.

If you do not want to display any logos, simply use a tiny, transparent gif for these images.

Note to Internet Explorer Users:
Upon uploading your logos, the Internet Explorer web browser will sometime display a cached copy of the SmartCart logo. If you do not see your anticipated changes to the images, try pressing CTRL + Refresh, for a quickly clearing the cache. If a full cache dump is needed, go to Tools (top of browser), then Internet Options. Under the "General" tab, Temporary Internet Files, click Delete Files.

This caching issue has been known to occur in Netscape as well, but by pressing Shift + Reload in your Netscape browser will display a fresh image everytime.

The standard SmartCart comes with everything you need to begin building your web store on the Internet. Because we know "One Size Does Not Fit All' when it comes to eCommerce systems, we offer optional modules and utilities that can boost the effectiveness and meet the needs of your online store. Each module performs a unique function. Selecting your own custom list of modules and utilities allows you to build your online store exactly as you need it.

If you already have a database of inventory, then this module allows you to easily populate and update your entire online catalog with the uploading of your database file. Each conversion utility is customized to fit the structure of your existing database. By simply maintaining your existing database, you can easily update prices, inventory, and categories.

Updating your online store with this utility is just requires a few steps.

1. Save file as specified name (given to you when utility is setup). File must be in a  tab-delimited format.
2. Upload to SmartCart server
3. Go to http://www.smartcart.com/username/admin/format.cgi

Your entire catalog now contains the new information passed to it from your uploaded database file. Entirely updates your entire online store within seconds. Departments and Areas are automatically compiled - no need to do this in the Admin Controls.

Database Conversion Utilities are a special request customization. We build each one custom to the structure of your existing database. Our support team will need to have your database or a small sample of your database to create the databse conversion utility.

For information on Database Conversion Utilities or to order, please contact us.

This module provides reporting and control over all the member accounts on your system. With easy to use and understand forms, you can easily access information on your customers, change their passwords, enable, disable and delete accounts from your system.

The first form you come to in the Member Administration module is the selection of whether you want to see an entire report summary for the members on the system, or select a member by username for a more detailed report. The detailed reports can also be accessed from the report summary. Simply by clicking on the username for the member you are interested in seeing will bring up the detailed report on the member.

On the bottom of each detail page you are offered several controls and functions for the account you are viewing. You can select to view a detailed traffic report and also select to view a summary sales report for each member. You can also perform tasks such as Edit, Disable Account, Enable Account, Delete Account, and Change Password.

This module also come equipped with a “Forgot Your Password” Utility. If the customer forgets their password they can enter in their user name and the system will automatically email their password to the registered email address found in the member's account.

This program allows you to sign up affiliate saleperson(s) for your site. Shoppers and potential affiliates can also request to sign up through an Affiliate Application form in your store.

Affiliate Signup:
http://www.smartcart.com/username/affil-form.htm

The store admin receives the applications for approval and can instantly approve and add any new affiliates with the click of a button.

The traffic that these registered affiliates send to your site all gets logged. The traffic logs contain the affiliate username, the IP number the connection came from, the hostname affiliated with the IP number (if any), the referring URL (so affiliates can track where there hits are working), and the date and time that the visitor came to the site.

Admin Controls for Utility:
http://www.smartcart.com/username/admin/affil-admin.cgi
Affiliate Access to Stats:
http://www.smartcart.com/username/cgi/affil-view.cgi

The traffic that turns into sales, this information is logged as well. The sales log contains the affiliate username, the orderID number, the payment type used, the amount of the sale (minus tax and shipping), and the date and time the transaction took place.

Affiliates can login at anytime to see their current standing on traffic and sales, all in real-time. They simply go to a script that allows them to enter their affiliate username and password and the system will generate a report summary for them. They can also view their sales details and their traffic details, easily from this screen.

The administrator has the same capabilities, and more. The administrator can view individual affiliate information or view an entire report with all affiliates. The admin also has the
capability of easy editing affiliate personal information (including passwords). The admin can also disable or reenable an affiliate's access to reports, edit a line item, or delete an affiliate from the system with the click of a link.

The affiliate logs can be setup to automatically batch out at a set interval, monthly, quarterly, bimonthly, whatever. Or, the administrator can initiate a batch out process with the click of a button. Once the batch out takes place an email is sent to the store admin where he can download the batched out database(s) of information for payment processing internally.

Your affiliates can easily link up their banners, links, images, to your site. They simply appending this to the end of the URL that points to your site.
?ID=pjstarr  (pjstarr representing a valid username on the affiliate system)
If an invalid ID is used, the system will still log it, and will not stop the customer from proceeding with their shopping at your online store.

SmartCart makes it easy for you to import your customer information, orders, and payments right into QuickBooks. Never key in an online order into QuickBooks again! You will have less chance of human error, better order processing efficiency, and automatic history and accountability for all SmartCart transactions. Simply by importing the Intuit Import Format (.iif) files which SmartCart generates will allow QuickBooks to automatically generate invoices, import payments, track paid and unpaid balances, and write customer letters using your QuickBooks data information. Each night, SmartCart runs a process which batches out all the order data for the day. An email is sent to the store administrator where they can retrieve and download their customer data over a secure network connection.

Order and Customer Data Delivery

Each day, SmartCart runs a process which batches out all the orders for the day. An email is sent to the store administrator with secure links to download the data, taht has accumulated in this batch period. There are two files downloaded each day. The names of the files correlate to the datecode-newmembers.iif and the other the datecode-smartcartorders.iif. The first file contains all the customer information, which is imported into QuickBooks and populates all customer data information: full name, address, city, state, zip, phone number, fax number, email, and payment information. The second file contains all the orders for the batch period including: billing info, shipping info, all the items ordered, total charges, shipping charges, and all sales tax information. The email sent to the store administrator contains links to each file.

Here are the common ways for retrieving your daily data securely:
In Internet Explorer, simply right mouse click on each link and select "Save Target As". In Netscape, simply hold down the Shift key while clicking on the link. Either of these actions will begin the Save to Disk process, which will ask you where you would like to save your file. Locate or create this area where you would like to save all of your import files, then click on "Save". Repeat the same process for both files. Once you have both daily files saved to your local drive, you are ready to import into QuickBooks. For ease of management, you will want to create one universal location where you can store all your import files to on your hard drive.

Importing into QuickBooks

Importing into QuickBooks has been made very easy thanks to our friends at Intuit. Simply start up your QuickBooks program. In QuickBooks, you would go to either FILE > IMPORT or the other location you may have is in FILE > UTILITIES > IMPORT. You will have one of the other, not both. Selecting this option will open your files dialog window, asking the location of the file you would like to import. Navigate to the location of the directory that you saved your files into. It does not matter in which order the files are imported, but a good practice would be newmembers.iif first, then smartcart-orders.iif second. Selecting the file you want to import will automatically bring it right into QuickBooks. Repeat the process for both files.

Once both files have been imported into QuickBooks, you will be able to view all new data in several areas. The most important are your Customer: Job list. Here you can easily access all your customer's contact information. The other area of importance is the Accounts Receivables list. Here you can view all the unpaid invoices and select the SmartCart imported payments which need to be applied to open invoices.

To view open and recently imported invoices, just click on the invoice icon in your task bar. This will bring up your invoice list. The invoice list shows the invoices that are marked paid and the invoices that are still due. If you double click on any of the invoices, the invoice clicked on will open up in the invoice screen. Set the "Form Template" to the "Intuit Product Invoice" selection to get the most out of the imported information. Of course, you can still use a custom invoice, the information should still show and present, as you need it.

Applying Payments to Invoices

Even though SmartCart has imported your order invoices and your payments, you still need to apply the payment to their respective invoices after the payments have been cleared, approved or authorized. The way QuickBooks functions makes it so that you cannot create a link between two transactions. For example, if one transaction is an invoice and another transaction is a payment for the invoice, you cannot indicate in the import file that the payment is to be applied to the invoice automatically. To apply the payment, you would wait until you have imported the transactions into QuickBooks. Then, you would go to your Accounts Receivables list and double-click on each imported payment. Review and make certain your information appears correct, and then select the invoice(s) the payment is being applied to. Before saving, make certain you have the correct group for this payment selected. You would either be grouping with Undeposited Funds or you can select to "Deposit To:" any "Bank" account in your accounts list. Once you have made these selections you can click to save and apply the payment to the selected invoice(s). You would then repeat this procedure through all the payments you have already cleared with your merchant account. If you make an error in the "Deposit To:" selection, you can easily come back to this Customer Payment window and change the setting to the correct selection, then save the payment again. This will not add the payment again. This will only change the selected information in the payment.

If you use QuickBooks Merchant Services, you can run and clear your payments right from QuickBooks. Upon clicking to apply the payment, the payment could be automatically processed through Wells Fargo Merchant Services or Chase Merchant Services. More information about this feature is available in your QuickBooks program.

The Coupon Center allows you to create specials for your system and maintain the availability of them.

The easy to use administration form is located at: http://www.smartcart.com/username/admin/coupon.cgi
This will allow you to add, edit and remove special discounts from the system.

The discounts can have various restrictions such as applying to specific products and requiring a minimum purchase amount. You can easily send the discount codes to your customers via a link back to your store. When the customer clicks on the link, it will automatically activate the discount and the SmartCart will automatically apply it to their order upon checkout.

When you first arrive to the Coupon Center Admin, you can select to View and Delete Existing Coupons. Viewing all available coupons in a list format, you can easily select to remove any of them with the click of the DELETE link on each line.

The other selection on the primary form is to Add New Coupons. In Add new Coupons, you are brought to an administration form. This form contains all the fields necessary to add your coupons to the system. The first field is the Coupon Code field. This field will contain the
actual code that will activate this discount and deduct it from the customer's order. The customer will have the ability to enter this code in during checkout, or they could have already activated the discount by clicking on the link from one of your email communications.

The second field is for the Discount Amount. The discount amount is entered in as a flat dollar amount ($5.00) or a percentage value ( 10% ). ONLY ENTER THE VALUE HERE! DO NOT ENTER a description here, this is done in the next field.

The Discount Description field is where you would enter the description the customer will see about this discount. This is where you can place the name of the discount, such as "10% off your entire order", "Customer Appreciation Sale", "$5.00 off widget #24323-5", or anything at all. This description is used to present the discount to the customer and to add the line item in the invoice with the discount applied.

The next fields are all optional:

In the Item Number field,you can enter a specific item on the system that the discount applies to. If the discount applies to all items, then you would leave this field blank. If you do place an entry into this field make certain it is a valid item number in the system. The discount will only be applied if this item number exists in the customer's cart.

The Minimum Amount to Qualify field allows to you enter the dollar amount of any minimum required before the discount is applied. Setting this field to 10.00 will require that the order have at least $10 in total items of purchase before the customer qualifies for the discount. The system will inform the customer of this if they try to checkout with out the required amount. The system will still allow the customer to checkout, but will not apply the discount if they do not meet all the specified parameters that you set in the coupon administration form.

The Expiration Date selection allows you to set the date when the special should expire. After this date the system will not allow the discount to be applied any longer
if the expiration date is passed.

Once discounts are added to the system your customers can begin using them. As long as they meet the valid date parameters for the discount.

The customer can activate the discount in two ways:
1) Once the customer is checking out, they will be presented with a Discount Code field. This is where the customer can enter their discount code into the system. If all parameters pass and verify, then the discount is automatically applied to the order.

2) Another way of applying discounts is by the store administrator sending an email to the customers. This email can contain the special link that will link the customers to your store while activating the discount code automatically. Once the discount code is activated, it
will automatically be added to the order once the customer begins to checkout. Providing that all the required parameters set on the coupon have been met by the order. If not, the customer is presented with a message that would indicate what parameter was not met. From that point they can chose to continue to checkout without the discount or they may go back and add to their cart, or whatever is necessary to validate the special, then proceed to checkout again. To auto-activate the coupon code via a link you would send your customers this link:
http://www.smartcart.com/username/cgi/checkcoupon.cgi?discount=12345abc

12345abc - representing a valid coupon code in the coupon database. The coupon code is case sensitive.