Major version update

minimal-theme-previewYou may have noticed that things have been a little quiet here lately. That’s because we’ve been busy working on a major update to the software, which is pretty huge!

This update includes a complete re-design of the interface, with a lot of attention paid to consistency… so that once you’ve learnt how to do one thing, it’s pretty easy to work out how the rest of the interface works.

There are also a lot of additions to functionality, including the ability to manage products and orders in bulk, as well as the ability to download them.

With this new version, we can also now release the Showtime and Antiqua themes that we’ve mentioned previously. We haven’t been able to release them earlier, as they include functionality that isn’t available in the current release. There’s also a new theme… Minimal. A screenshot of the theme can be seen to the right.

We’re just working through the final testing phase, so it will probably be about two weeks. We’ll post more info here in the coming days/weeks, and send out an email to all store owners when we get closer to the date.

Great review…

We had such a nice review the other day, that I thought I would share it…

“The software has a beautiful feel to it and is laid out so well.  I have tried and used quite a few DIY store builders and I must admit you have impressed me!”

Thankyou!

Automated online payments with Payment Express

Link to http://www.paymentexpress.com.au

Spiffy Stores now accept payments through the Payment Express payment gateway!

Payment Express is a Visa and MasterCard certified solution, developed by DPS, which facilitates electronic payments seamlessly from multiple access points i.e. Web, EFTPOS, Billing, IVR (Interactive Voice Response), CRM, Vending, MOTO (Mail Order / Telephone Order) and Wireless.

DPS are certified with banks in Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Singapore, South Africa, USA and United Kingdom.

Of course Payment Express does require a merchant account, but they have developed a relationship with their banking parters to streamline the application process for you. They are currently offering free setup, with a low $20 a month fee and a 40 cents per transaction charge, making them one of the most affordable payment gateways in Australia.

It’s easy to accept payments through Payment Express in your Spiffy Store. After you’ve signed up with Payment Express, you just go to the “Checkout & Payment” section of your preferences, select “Payment Express” as your payment gateway, and then enter your Payment Express login and password, and it’s all set up for you instantly!

Tiny glitch on the orders list screen

sneak-preview-ordersIf you haven’t noticed that the “show all” link on the Orders page is broken, you’re in the minority.

We’ve received tons of emails letting us know about it. Rest assured that we know it’s broken and it will be fixed very soon.

This little glitch is because of some new features that we’re working on bringing to this screen that should make it a lot clearer when there’s an order that needs your attention.

We’ve focused on whether action needs to be taken on an order, so rather than highlighting the fact that an order, has been paid for, we’re highlighting things like orders that are paid for and not shipped, and new orders that require a payment to be processed.

This, along with some other tweaks should resolve a few issues we’ve seen where orders are left open, items aren’t marked as shipped, and payments not marked as processed. Hopefully it will really help people that have stores with a lot of small orders and small shipments keep on top of their workflow.

Update: 24th May, 2009
This bug has now been fixed!

New dashboard stats coming soon

Dashboard stats sneak preview

We thought we’d give you a sneak preview of the new built-in statistics we’re developing.  The new dashboard statistics are currently being developed in Silverlight, just like the ones you’ve currently got.  The difference however is that these ones are way prettier, and a lot more useful!

I have to confess that I’m a bit obsessed with stats, so can’t wait to launch these.  You will soon have access to all-important conversion rate statistics, as well as a more complete view of where your visitors are coming from, and your most popular pages.

After the new dashboard stats go live, we’ll be developing more comprehensive statistics to allow you to track all kinds of important (and sometimes not so important) stuff!

EDIT:  Before you ask… no we don’t yet know when these will be released!

Shipping notification emails & packing slips

Shipping Notification Email

We’ve been working hard on getting the shipping side of processing your orders sorted out to make it as streamlined as possible for you.

Now, when you mark an order as shipped, a notification email is sent out to the customer to let them know their items are on their way.

You can also add a tracking number so they can track their shipment.  A new Order Shipping Report is also created instead of the old Fulfilment Report, which also allows the printing of Packing Slips.

Very soon you’ll also be able to customise your emails as well, so you’ll be able to completely re-brand all aspects of your store! Check out the preview of the email to the right.

Enjoy!

Support for eWAY payment gateway added

Spiffy Stores can now accept payments through the eWAY payment gateway.

eWAY is the leading Internet payment gateway provider operating in Australia. Connecting your Spiffy Store directly to your bank to process your customers online credit card payment in a few seconds.

Using a payment gateway like eWAY allows your business to securely trade 24/7 all over the globe, truly automating the accepting website payments component of your business, and cutting out the pain of manually processing transactions.

It’s also super-easy to use eWAY as your gateway provider.  After you’ve signed up with eWay, you just go to the “Checkout & Payment” section of your preferences, select eWAY as your payment gateway, and then enter your eWAY customer number.  You’re then ready to start accepting real-time credit card payments!

Resending a Lost Order Confirmation Email

Every time a customer places an order, they are sent an Order Confirmation email showing them what they’ve ordered.

From time to time, email messages get lost or misplaced. Now you can resend a lost Order Notification to the customer from the Order page. Just go to the order and you’ll find a new link called “Email Order Notification”.

Just click on the link to resend the lost Order Notification.

New order management controls

Log in to your store, and check out our new Orders List! We’ve got a whole new look, with an easy-to-see Shipping Status.

Sort your Orders by clicking on the Column Headers. Click again to reverse the order.  You can do bulk operations by ticking the boxes against each order. Close 50 orders in one easy step!

Filter out orders you don’t want to see by selecting one or more of the filter options in the side-bar.