Today we have added a new payment method for our Web-store-buddy shopping cart application and our Web-form-buddy payment forms application.

The new payment option is for payments “on account“. With this option your customer is asked to supply a purchase order number and the name of the purchasing organization when placing the order. If you wish you can choose to display a message such as  “This payment option is only available for approved accounts“.

If your store is based in the European Union, Web-store-buddy can now validate VAT registration numbers “in real time“. This makes it possible to avoid charging unnecessary tax to companies in other EU countries. This is how it works:

• If your business is set up to charge VAT, and if you deal with customers from other EU member states, Web-store-buddy will allow those customers to enter their VAT number and organisation name.
• Web-store-buddy will validate the VAT number against the online EU VAT Information Exchange System database (http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/vieshome.do).
• Provided it is a valid number, sales tax will not be charged.

The style of URL included in the Web-store-buddy shopping cart button code has now changed to one that is “domain-friendly“.  That means that as your customers use your shopping cart they will see your domain in their browser’s address bar, whereas previously it was “www.smallgreentree.net“.

For example, if your domain is “some-domain.biz“, the old code would include a  URL such as this:

http://www.smallgreentree.net/cgi-bin/123456.cgi

With the new code style it would be like this:

http://some-domain-biz.cgi-data.com/store/123456.cgi

If you are still using the old style of code, it is still supported. However you can if you like easily upgrade to the new version. Just navigate to “store design” >> “shopping cart buttons” on your control panel.

The only thing to keep in mind is that if you decide to change, you must switch ALL instances of the old code style in your web pages  over to the new URL. Otherwise your shopping cart won’t work properly. In other words it’s a great opportunity for your favourite “search & replace” text tool to show what it’s made of!

(And in case you’re looking for just such a tool, and you’re running Windows, why not check out http://www.funduc.com/search_replace.htm. We’ve used it for years, and it’s excellent).

Today we have added electronic funds transfer as a new payment method for both Web-form-buddy payment forms and the Web-store-buddy shopping cart.

The idea is that you can enter your bank account details on your control panel, and then if you enable this payment method your customer will be provided with bank transfer instructions. If you accept payments from abroad, there is an option to provide the special instructions that the bank may require for those (such as SWIFT code number or IBAN number).

One slight problem with electronic funds transfers is that unless your customer provides a unique reference number with the transaction, you may find it difficult to figure out who a payment is from. To prevent that from happening Web-form-buddy and Web-store-buddy advise your customer to quote the unique transaction reference with the payment.

We have now completed the integration of  Google Checkout with Web-store-buddy.

The aim of Google Checkout is to try to make it as easy as possible for your customers to purchase from your store using a single user name and password. This fits in neatly with Web-store-buddy as, unlike most other shopping cart systems, Web-store-buddy does not force shoppers to create accounts with yet more user names and passwords.  So if this has the effect of making your shoppers’ experience more comfortable and hassle-free, then it is surely likely to help you increase sales and customer loyalty.

if you use Web-form-buddy for secure forms or archived forms, the data is available at our secure portal www.buddydata.com.

Likewise, if you use our Web-store-buddy search engine friendly shopping cart, your store orders are available from buddydata.com.

Up until now, the same password would grant access to the control panel and to buddydata.com. And that stays the same – your  primary password gets you into both locations.

What’s new is that we have added an option to create an additional password that grants access to buddydata only – not to the control panel. This means that access for administrative staff can be kept separate from webmaster access.

The Web-store-buddy control panel has now been completely upgraded to the same style as Web-form-buddy. This makes it much more manageable for us, and – hopefully – much better for you dear customer!

We have an additional payment method now for Web-form-buddy and Web-store-buddy :   payment by money order.

The next one we’ll be looking to add is Google Checkout.

A while back we added the capability to have an offer coupon.  In other words the Web-store-buddy shopping cart allows the customer to enter a special code you have supplied them which qualifies the customer for, say, a 10% discount.

This has been working very well, so we’ve now added some more features:

• You can have regular (non-coupon) offers that apply to all shoppers.
• You can have multiple coupon or regular offers running at the same time
• You can set a minimum order value that qualifies for the offer
• You can set a start date and an expiry date for the offer

Examples might be:

“Save 10% on all orders over $100 in November!”

Or

“Enter voucher code ABC001 to get $15 off!”

We have now added support for Google Anaytics E-Commerce Tracking to Web-store-buddy.

Google analytics is both very powerful and free! When combined with Web-store-buddy you can get really useful e-commerce statistics – including revenue, conversion rates, average order value, product performance, transactions, visits to purchase, days to purchase, etc.

To enable Google Analytics with Web-store-buddy, all you need do is enter your Google Analytics ID on your control panel and you’re done.