Hello everyone,

I just wanted to take a few moments to let everyone know what we’ve been working on with Shopping Cart Creator. There’s a lot of news, plus a nice surprise for anyone who can read all the way through this massive post

Right now, we’re wrapping up a big, big update on Shopping Cart Creator! (It’s version 3.5, and it’s currently running in beta.) We took your comments and suggestions and created something we feel will work for everyone. The new version will contain a full tax manager, as well as the ability to add custom pages and footers. That means you can now create “About the Company” and “Legals” pages from within Shopping Cart Creator. And with the custom footer functionality, you can use your favorite Web analytics program to keep track of your shop visitors. We made changes to the shipping module, allowing for more customized shipping options, and added PayPal Website Payment Standard so your customers can pay with a credit card even if they don’t have a PayPal account.


http://www.coffeecup.com/files/images/shopping-cart-tax.PNG

http://www.coffeecup.com/files/images/shopping-cart-pages.png

http://www.coffeecup.com/files/images/shop-settings-paypal.png

http://www.coffeecup.com/files/images/shipping-settings.png

A lot of you have asked for a specific page to display your shop categories. You got it! And not only that, we’ve also given you some snazzy configuration options that allow you to feature products on specific pages.

http://www.coffeecup.com/files/images/shopping-cart-pages2.png

http://www.coffeecup.com/files/images/shop-settings.png


Shopping Cart Creator has always been very search-engine friendly, since it automatically took the product titles and short descriptions and used them as alt tags and meta descriptions. The new version takes this one step further by letting you enter meta data for your various main pages. How findable you will be now!

Last but not least, we added an undo/redo function. You might think this was easy, but for a complicated program like Shopping Cart Creator, it was actually a pretty big addition.

As for some of the other functions people have been asking for (inventory management, shipping APIs, coupon codes and other payment options, etc.), we’re going to incorporate them into a separate module or program. Our reasoning for this is simple: We want to keep Shopping Cart Creator easy to use, and many of these advanced features would make the program more difficult.

Here’s an example: A lot of these complicated features require a database or advanced transaction logging on the server. This is handled by the payment gateway in the current and upcoming versions of Shopping Cart Creator — easy as pie. If we were to add this to the program, our users would suddenly have to worry about installing, accessing, and managing a database — a lot more intimidating.

A bit more about inventory management and digital downloads: Implementing these features is actually harder than you’d think. It would require some sort of text or MySQL database, and when adding any sort of database functionality, you greatly increase the complexity of the program. We need to implement this feature in a way that all users will easily be able to set it up, regardless of their skill levels. We also need to make sure that all inventory calculations are properly adjusted only after payment is made. We want to make sure the inventory is accurate if an order is placed but for one reason or another it cannot be completed.

With all that in mind, we think the best compromise is putting the more complicated functions in a separate add-on or program. That way, beginners can still easily create and manage shops and advanced users can have the control they want. Everybody wins!

So the good news is, yes, we are working on inventory management, shipping APIs, and coupon codes and other payment options (including offline payments). They’ll just be available in a separate module or program.

More good news: We are working on subcategories, variable pricing (the black shirt is more expensive then the green one — duh!), store search, and more. And no worries, these features will be here before the end of summer, and everybody (especially existing users) will still be able to easily afford it.

Wow, I’m not done yet — it looks like this is going to be my longest post ever All right, the rumors are true: One of the most ambitious items we’ve been working on is a piece of designer software that makes themes for Shopping Cart Creator. Some of you have already tried it, and the initial feedback has been very positive. Give us about two more months to perfect it, and it’ll blow your minds.

I am sure I’m forgetting a couple of things here (maybe even a major one)! After all, this upgrade is so big, and I am getting older When the new release comes out, feel free to go on a little feature hunt and discover all the cool new things you can do.

Oh, and here’s some good news: To celebrate all the above, we decided to give you a treat. We designed five cool themes for Shopping Cart Creator v3.5 AND Shopping Cart Designer that you can download for free ( http://www.coffeecup.com/files/miscella … Themes.zip ). You can brag about this to your family and friends, but don’t forget to download them here because they’ll only be available until we release version 3.5. You will not be able to use them just yet, so hold on to them for the release.

http://www.coffeecup.com/files/images/themes-settings.png

So now you all know what and what not to expect. If you have any other wishes, ideas, kudos, or whatever, now is the time to speak!

Wow! Thank you

Sounds wonderful, thanks!

Hi Scott

Many thanks, great news, particularly the addition of the Paypal Standard payment process.

Fantastic! Questions:

Is this a free upgrade? :-) I only bought SC a little while ago, so am not too keen on having to find more money so soon?

Are we all able to try out the Themes Creator, and if so, where/how? Or is it just selected beta testers you're using?

Thank you!

kewl...thanks.

This will be a free upgrade to all registered users. How cool is that !

You can't use these themes until 3.5 is released, so download them now. Once the new version comes out, these themes will be removed.

I too have only recently bought the current version. I wouldnt be looking to pay again for the above features when ive only just paid for the one ive got.

Please read my earlier post Kevin

Looking good; just hope we won't end up paying the same again, especially as I only bought the current version a couple of months ago and have been struggling ever since to create a shop that does not look like every other one (really hope the new designer element will make it easier to make fonts smaller, etc.)

From what I can see, this is a proper bringing-up-to-date revision, though, so guess we'll all just have the wear the extra cost to prove our loyalty