New User and Basic FAQsQ1: How does Americart work? A1: You have your website anywhere on the Internet containing your products. You add our html tags to your pages. When customers click "add to cart", the product information is tracked on our server. When they click "check out", the order is checked for correct field entry, and sent to you via email. You then process the order as if it were a conventional phone order.
Q2: How do I sign up? A2: Visit the setup guide. Step one has a link to our account configuration form. When you have filled out this form, you've effectively signed up, and your account is created.
Q3: What do the orders I receive through Americart look like? A3: They are nicely formatted, summarized and itemized. They are suitable for filing, and also make great invoices to include in the box you send your customer. You can see an example here.
Q4: Why are some or all digits of the credit card number missing from the emailed order? A4: They are stripped for security since email is non-secure. You retrieve those digits on the "LASTSIX" page at: https://www.cartserver.com/sc/lastsix.html
Q5: I have a merchant account and a credit card machine. Will I still use that to get paid for the orders I get through Americart? A5: You may do that if you wish. By default, Americart sends the order information to you for processing the charges as you are accustomed.
Q6: Is there a limit to the number of items I can have for sale at my website, or any extra charge if I have a large product line? A6: No. Since the cart server only sees items a shopper actually adds to the cart, the number of items you are selling is not relevant. This is a significant advantage over our competitors who charge extra if you grow your product line.
Q7: I had a customer call me who said they placed an order, but I have not received the email yet. What's wrong with your mail server? A7: Nothing. We attempt to deliver orders as soon as they occur, but deliveries are sometimes deferred or rejected by your ISP's (Internet Service Provider) mail server. If they are simply deferred, we queue them for later attempts. If rejected, we cannot attempt automatic re-delivery. When this happens, we will make an effort to notify you, but your primary source of investigating these problems is the "LASTSIX" page: https://www.cartserver.com/sc/lastsix.html There you can view a listing of all your orders and have copies remailed to you. If they still do not arrive, you can be pretty sure there is a problem with your email address. This should be investigated with your ISP and resolved ASAP. It is imperative you have a functional email address at all times. In the interim, you may wish to Reconfigure your Americart account with a different email address and try again.
Q8: I really like the cart. Can I buy my own copy? A8: No. We are set-up as a service, and that model works well for both us and our customers. They bypass all the hassles of tinkering with CGI, plus get all the benefits of "no effort" upgrade. Since our server is faster than virtually all our customer's servers, you receive better performance.
Q9: Am I charged a "per transaction" fee? A9: No, not for Americart orders. Success costs nothing extra at Americart. You pay one low rate, and all Americart features are included. (Americart service does not include Credit card merchant accounts).
Q10: Do I have to register upfront, or contact anyone at Americart to start using the cart? A10: No. You can configure a cart, add the html tags to your pages, and be up and running all without contacting anyone. This level of automation helps two ways; no waiting around for someone to "turn you on", and the self-serve method is so efficient that we can offer the Americart for a very small fee, which includes the cost of the "secure" server.
Q12: What is the "no risk" policy at Americart? A12: We offer a month of "no risk" service. When you create your account, you will receive an invoice via email. You will then have thirty days to evaluate Americart and remit payment or decline service. If you decide Americart isn't a good fit for you, simply cancel and pay nothing. No risk at all, except your time to try our system.
Q13: My second statement of account came due too soon. Why is that? A13: We bill all trial accounts 30 days in arrears so clients receive the maximum time (a bit over a month) to decide if they wish to use our service before sending payment. When you become a paid subscriber, our system switches you to advance payment, as is common in subscriptions/utilities, etc. In effect, your bill appears to come too soon although no time is actually lost. We realize that the system may seem a little confusing, but it was devised with your convenience in mind, to allow you time to make your decision.
Q14: How long does it take to get a test page of my products working? A14: If you have moderate html experience, you can read the step-by-step guide and fill out the cart configuration form in about forty minutes. Don't agonize too much over the configuration form since it is easy to change your settings. Have fun with it!
Q15: My web server does not allow cgi programs, can I still use Americart? A15: Yes. All CGI is executed on our server. All you need are standard html pages.
Q16: I don't have any html experience, can I still add Americart products to my website? A16: Sure! Just use our shopping cart code snippet generator. Simply fill in the pertinent details about your products, and our code generator will create Americart buttons and links that you can copy and paste directly onto your pages.
Q17: What if I get stuck trying to get things working? A17: Don't get frustrated, get help! We offer a reasonable amount of free application assistance through email support. We want you to be successful. Email us at support@cartserver.com
Q18: If I want to copy your html files in the sample pages, how do I do that so that I can edit them later on my computer? And does that work for any site? A18: With the page loaded in Netscape, pull down file...save as... then pick a folder on your computer to save the file in. Edit resulting file with any text editor. Images will likely break since they are "relative" references. To save the images also, put mouse over picture, click and hold with right button, and select "save as", then put in same folder (directory) as the html you saved. Yes, it works for any page.
Q19: Is it possible to download the selected text or html code from your site rather than a whole page? A19: You can cut and paste whatever
you want. On a given page, if you want to save
a paragraph or two, Just use your left mouse button
(hold it down) to highlight the text you want,
then hit <ctrl>c (hold down control...hit
c). That will "copy" it.
Then you can open up an Editor (Notepad?), and
hit <ctrl>v
to paste it into your edit window. (This is solely
for use with Americart as a client of our services.
All other use is strictly forbidden).
Q20: I don't have my website yet. Can I get started without one? A20: Yes. Just save a demo page to your local disk, and edit it to contain your specific information. To test it with Netscape, do a file...open file, and select your html filename. You can do all your testing right on your own system. For the shopping cart to work, you must be connected on-line to your ISP.
Q21: I am going to change my website/domain name address soon. Is it possible to install your shopping cart and use it, then later change the website/domain name address (URL)? Or do I need a permanent URL? A21: You do not need a permanent URL, or in fact, any URL at all for testing purposes. The tie that binds your pages to your cart account is the cart-id embedded in your pages.
Q22: Where do I download the graphic files that were mentioned on Step 3 of the Setup Guide? A22: Visit the Theme Sampler
page, then click on one of the graphics in the
color scheme you like best. Go to the page containing
them all. From that point, just do a RIGHT click,
then "save image as..." to
save to your local drive with your other gifs. |
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Website Layout IssuesQ23: Will Americart handle my site that uses frames? A23: Yes. Americart works
very well with (or without) frames.
Q24: I use Microsoft Front Page to develop my site. Can Americart work with this? A24: Yes. There is a separate section in the FAQ for this topic.
Q25: Can we have our logo on the shopping cart display? A25: Yes. There are several layout and appearance options in the cart configuration form. Using these, you can achieve any look you want.
Q26: My site uses a search engine to search a database and return products for sale. Will Americart work with this? A26: Americart is particularly suited to this application. Just modify the engine to return the cart tags in addition to the product information. Several of our clients are having great success with this.
Q27: I want to use a regular "text" submit button instead of a graphic for my "add to cart" function. Can I? A27: Yes, it can be done.
There are some page caching issues to avoid the
second time the shopper clicks a text form submit
button. Avoid that by adding javascript which
generates a random value to trick the shopper
browser into always sending the page to cartserver.
Q28: I'd like to use a plain text link or a simple graphic link as an "add to cart" button. Can I?
A28: Yes. Simple text links
can be used to add a product that has no options
to the shopping cart.
Q29: I want to have my "view cart" and "checkout now" functions built-in to an image map or as simple text links. Is this possible? A29: Yes. We support both of
those functions via image map, graphical button,
or simple text link. Set up your image map in
the usual way, and have the particular section
link as follows: |
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How to Tag Your Pages For AmericartQ30: How do I tag an item for use by Americart? A30: There are a lot of variants,
but the basic method uses a very simple form
submitted to our server:
Q31: What is that up-arrow character that is inside the "item" variable? A31: That is the ^ character,
and we use it to separate different fields combined
into a single variable. "item" contains
10 separate fields, the first five of which are
mandatory:
Q32: How can I allow different sizes of a given item? A32: Examples are in the demo
pages, but here is a sample of html code you'd
put inside the form tags:
Q33: All options variables are named op1, op2, etc. Why is that? A33: That is true for regular single item method tags. The cart ignores all variables it does not recognize. Currently, it looks at: "item", and "op1", "op2",..."op43", "op44"
Q34: Some options in the demo pages are mentioned inside the "item" variable and some are not. Why? A34: Options can be one of
two classes, simple, or special. Special options are those which effect the price or quantity of an item. To use them properly, you must have the option name listed in the appropriate field of the "item" variable so Americart will know what to do with the data sent. Regardless of simple or special, they are still named op1-44. See below and in the demo pages to see how to get op vars to modify item prices and quantities.
Q35: How do I use a special option to allow customers to put more than one of a certain item into their cart at a time? A35: Let's say someone wanted
100 feet of rope. Putting 1 foot in and increasing
quantity 99 times would be ridiculous, and so
we offer the following:
Q36: One of my options affects the price of the item. How do I tag that? A36: List the option affecting
price in the cost field of the item variable:
Q37: I want to offer more than one option affecting price. Can I do that? A37: Yes. List options affecting
price in the cost field of the item variable:
Q38: I'm selling yards of carpet, not each of carpet. How do I change my unit of measure? A38: We offer both a default
unit of measure and a line item unit of measure "override" for
that "oddball" product. In the cart
configuration form, select what you want your
normal unit of measure to be. Most choose "ea.".
If you need something different for a certain
item, you must encode it into the item variable:
Q39: One of my options lowers the cost. How do I code that? A39: Just put in a negative
value for the cost:
Q40: I need to allow personalization of an item, and I have three lines of text which can be added. How can that be coded for readability in the cart? A40: Yes. Separate the text
boxes with hidden labels. Line 1: <input type=text name=op2> Note 1: Including <br> in a variable value sent to the cart is a special case. It will cause the cart display to drop the description down to the next line for readability, and in the emailed order will map back out to a carriage return. Note 2: The hidden "nodash" variable being set to a space will cause the cart to NOT use the default dash character as the separator between op values appended to the description field. Since we are using <br>, having dashes also would not look good.
Q41: I want to use the quote (") symbol in my description, but it messes up the item variable. Is there a workaround? A41: Use " instead.
Q42: Can I create a single pull down that will
effect more than one product variable? A42: Instead of having the <select> pull down be an "op" variable
modifying the hidden "item" variable,
use the item variable itself as the select. That
way you can change all fields at once, even making
a single pull down to allow an entire list of
totally different products to be chosen for adding
to the cart. The code would be like this:
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Using Order Manager as a back end for AmericartThis FAQ chapter covers automated solutions for being more efficient in dealing with order data and order fulfillment issues. Back Office Q41: We're starting to get a lot of orders, which is great, but we are having troubles keeping up with the processing end of things AFTER the sale is made. Can you help? A41: There is a very nice, comprehensive third party solution which supports Americart. It will make receipts, packing slips, mailing labels, you name it. Read all about it at the Stone Edge Technologies, Inc. OrderManager overview page. It will pay for itself quickly if you have much volume, and has a 30 day money back guarantee. Testimonial from an Americart client: We just can not say enough about Order Manager. The virtual credit card terminal has cut our processing time by 75% and freed up a phone line that was constantly busy with credit card processing. And that is just the beginning. The Purchase Order and Inventory portion of OM has helped us trim our warehouse stock and increased our cash flow. We now know where everything is and how much is on the way. The invoicing is so finely tuned that we now take for granted a task that used to drive us mad. We are truly excited about 2003 and the power we have because of OM. The continuous updates and enhancements to the program are incredible. You guys are always ready to make adjustments and create new things to make our business easier and more efficient. I could go on and on about OM but one thing is certain: there is no way we could have grown this much, this fast, without Order Manager. Thanks now and in the future, Jack
Q42: I've got OrderManager, is there anything special I need to do at Americart? A42: Order Manager depends on having the Americart CSV data fields in certain places. we've got it all figured out though, so all you need to do is to write to us and let us know you want to be switched to being "OrderManager compatible". We'll take care of the rest!
Q43: How long does it take to get an Americart account setup for Order Manager? A43: If you are using only the standard system checkout forms available in the cart configuration, we can get you switched to Order Manager compliant checkout forms the same day usually. If you are using custom checkout forms already, things can be more complicated, since the special things about your custom forms will have to be migrated into the Order Manager compliant checkout forms. |
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Q&A on the cart configuration formNote: The configuration form is self documenting, but there are some things that need mentioning, so here they are. Q44: Where is the Americart Configuration from located? A44: https://www.americart.com/login.php Then click the Edit Cart Settings from the left navigation bar. Q45: The email you send to the customer after they have ordered is ok, but I want to send them more information regarding delivery, URLs, and other information. Can I set this up in the configuration form? A45: That's possible, but not in the cart configuration
form. You'll need to upload your confirmation
message to the server using the Custom Acknowledgement
upload form: https://www.cartserver.com/sc/customack.html
Q46: I need to send orders to multiple addresses besides just the orders address and the admin address. Can I? A46: Yes. In the box for your orders address,
you can add multiple addresses. Use a comma and
then a space to separate the addresses. Be sure
to place a test order to verify delivery, as
you should after all such configuration changes. |
