A: Yes you can. In place of the " $ " sign, you can use any currency symbol. RetailCart can be run anywhere in the world!

NOTE: You cannot use multiple currencies

A: If you already have a homepage, this is where you would input your URL.

If you do not currently have a homepage you can put something in here temporarily.

NOTE: If you do not have hosting, our parent company Virtual Focus offers competitive hosting packages. Please have a look.

A: Adding a logo is very easy. Go to Shopping Cart > Store Appearance > Scroll down to Images.

From here, if you have Catalog Manager and have already uploaded a logo to the Image Manager, just click on Browse next to logo and update.

If you DO NOT have Catalog Manager, you will need to upload your logo somewhere. Type in the exact URL to the logo in the logo field.

NOTE: You do not need to use basepath. Though if you do use it, please type in a base path to your where your images are located. Then you need only type in the filename below.

A: This depends on what buttons you are talking about. The buttons available to be changed can be found at: Shopping Cart > Store Appearance > Scroll down to Images

There are two ways to add your own buttons.

Without Catalog Manager: Go to the images section in Store Appearance. If all of your buttons are located in one place just type in the base path URL to it (eg:http://www.yourdomain.com/images/).

Now you need only to type in the image filenames in the below fields. If you don't use the Base Path type in the exact URL to it.

If you have Catalog Manager: If you have already uploaded images to the Image Manager (Catalog Manager > Images). Just click "Browse" and insert the image.

A: Our designers worked hard on the templates and you don't like it?! Don't worry, we have 11 different templates to choose from.

Go to Shopping Cart > Store Appearance. Here, you will be able to select from a list of Graphic Schemes. You are given a preview of of a graphic scheme when you select one. If you are satisfied with one, hit Use Default Colors then press Update.

NOTE: If you have uploaded any custom templates they will be erased and reverted to a new default

A: Lets say you have all your button images stored online in one place. All you need to do is type in the URL to where all these images are located. EG: http://www.mydomain.com/images/

With that, you need only type in the filenames to the buttons you want to use in the below fields.

A: We've implemented a new tax rate setup which is easier than using Regular Expressions.

HOW TO:

1. Login > Go to Shopping Cart > Tax Rates > Add Tax Area
2. Type in the "Tax Area Name:" for example "CA Tax"Click "Add State", the page should refresh and a drop down list of states will appearSelect your state, enter your tax rate under "Tax Rates" further down the pagePress "Update"
3. Presto! You just made a simple taxation for the entire state of California

A: (Beginners tax setup click here)

For illustration on how to setup tax please click on "Setup Guide" above then select which service you use and skip to Page 2.

Geographical tax jurisdictions (states, provinces, cities or counties.) are defined with a list of postal codes (zip codes in the USA). To have the shopping cart calculate and collect taxes for orders sent to a particular tax jurisdiction, you must first define it as a tax area.

Your store may need to collect taxes for more than one tax area. For example, you may need to collect taxes at different tax rates for orders sent to both Kansas and Colorado because you have physical stores in both states. If so, you will need to create more than one tax area.

Each tax area has a name. This name is used as the label for the tax item in your store's shopping cart, so an appropriate name might be "KS Sales Tax".

Each tax area may include one postal code or a range of postal codes. Individual postal codes must be included in only one tax area.

When creating the tax area you can enter a single postal code in each Postal Codes in Area field, or you can use a special format (regular expression ) for the postal code so that a single entry matches a range of codes.

• In a regular expression that defines a Postal Area use ^ to anchor the start of the string, for example ^7.* will match any zip code beginning with 7 and ^67.* will match all strings starting with 67.
• Period (.) matches any character, and asterisk (*) matches any number of the previous expression. So to match all postal codes that begin with 67, one possible regular expression is ^67.*
• Square brackets [ ] are used to enclose several characters for a match such as [135], or a range of characters like [0-9]. Both of the following regular expressions match 67200 through 67209, ^6720[0123456789] and ^6720[0-9]

For each Tax Class, enter the appropriate rate as a decimal value without a percent sign, for example 3 for 3% or 7.5 for 7.5%.

A: RetailCart supports nearly all of the above curriers' rates. Go to Shopping Cart > Shipping Rates. From here click on the drop down and scroll to the very bottom. The last three methods use actual shipping API's. Select one and add it.

The next screen is pretty self explanatory. You can put a "0" amount in any of the dollar fields if you do not use them.

To get a detailed list of what each shipping method does and how to set them up click on the "Help" link located under the page heading.

A: "Restrict Shipping" is an exciting new feature that will not only enable you to restrict shipping to certain states or countries, but it is also shipping method specific-meaning you can restrict shipping to certain places for a particular shipping method.

HOW TO:

1. Go to Shopping Cart > Shipping Rates > Add Shipping ( if you have not already )
2. After you've setup your shipping perameters, click Set Shipping Restrictions
3. Simply select ( or multiple select ) countries/states and click the right arrow key to move a country/state over to the right

Now customers cannot use this particular shipping method to ship to any country/state that is on the right hand list

A: Initially payment options are not set, so when you first sign up for an account (trial or not) you will need to go to Shopping Cart > Payment Options.

From here, select the different types of credit cards you acccept. Next, you need to decide if you will process cards in real-time or through your own transaction equipment.

Own transaction equipment: If you have your own equipment to process credit cards, find where it says "Merchant's Transaction Equipment" and check the checkbox under "Credit Card". Then press Update.

Real-Time: If you have a merchant account compatible with RetailCart you can insert the username/password etc. in the fields below. Do not check "Merchant's Transaction Equipment".

A: We support the following gateways: LinkPoint(Card Services), Authorize.net, VeriSign(PayFlowPro, PayByCheck).

If you don't have any of these you could possibly attach an Authorize.net gateway to your existing merchant account. Please call us for more details.(888-216-1431)

If you do not have a merchant account and would like to acquire one, please call our toll-free number to speak to one of our representatives to help you set one up (888-216-1431). Ideally, you can just click on the merchant account banner on the left of the screen for more information and to sign up.

A: You can set up your store to accept one or more payment methods:

• On-line credit cards via Linkpoint and AuthorizeNet payment processors

• On-line credit cards via your own credit card transaction equipment

• Electronic checks via Linkpoint and AuthorizeNet

• Electronic checks via your own electronic check transaction equipment

• Credit card via fax

• Credit card via postal mail

• Check via postal mail

• Purchase orders

• COD

A: This determines how long a cookie is active in a customer's computer. It is measured in hours.

For example, if you set it to 1, when a customer adds a product to his cart and comes back to the computer within 1 hour, the product will still be in the cart. If he checkouts later than 1 hour then the cookie will be deleted from his computer and he has to add the product again.

A: By default, your shopping cart uses secure forms for checkout. The browser encrypts all checkout information, including credit card numbers, before sending it to the shopping cart server.

If you need to support browsers that do not handle secure forms, check "Offer buyer insecure checkout forms". Your store customers will be offered an option to select either secure or insecure communications at checkout time. (Credit card numbers, etc. are NOT secure when the buyer chooses insecure checkout.)

A: This could be caused by two things:

1. Frames; if you use them the lock icon will not appear on the browser. The cart will still be secure.
2. Images; if you customized the templates and added an image to a secure template that was not linked correctly the lock icon will not appear. The page will still be secure, but the image will not.

To remedy this you will need to add the following URL in front of the image URL/Path.

https://www.ares-server.com/Ares/SecureImage.asp?img=

Example:

https://www.ares-server.com/Ares/SecureImage.asp?img=http://www.yourdomain.com/images/myimage.jpg

NOTE: If you are linking to an external file, a javascript file, a flash file or anything else you will need to do this to the URL of the file also.

A: If your store uses Catalog Manager for products, only products that have been entered in the product database can be purchased when this option is unchecked. To allow products that are defined on an HTML page, but are not in the product database, check this option.

If you allow this option you should also check for trusted domains.

A: To minimize the danger of fraud you should limit the domain names where an order for your store can originate. The trusted domain for your store should be set to the domain name for your store, for example http://www.myownstore.com. Checking this option and entering your trusted domain restricts use of your store's shopping cart to requests coming from your actual store.

The shopping cart server itself is always a trusted domain for orders.

Setting this option does not restrict a customer's access to your store in any way. Each order is checked to verify that the order actually came from your store. An order for your store that originates from a web page on any other domain will be flagged when you process the order. On the Orders - Process Order page for the order received from a server that is not on your trusted domain list, there will be a red-flag message:

Order placed from domain(s) not in your Trusted Domain list:
http://www.hackercity.com/anypage.html

If you see this message, the order did not come from your store site.

A: Go to Shopping Cart > Discounts. Remember, you can create as many discounts as you need. To offer a discount to one particular customer either create a customer category that contains only one customer or use a coupon. Once you've selected the type of discount to offer you will go to another page, here just fill in the blanks. Please read below for a description of what each field is.

• Discount Name is the descriptive name for the discount.

• Applies To specifies which products receive the discount. Discounts can apply to any single product or any group of products. For a single product, enter the exact ProductID. For a group of products, enter a regular expression that matches the products. Use the regular expression .* in Applies To to specify all products.

• Check the Active checkbox to turn a particular discount on and off.

• Select which Customer Category receives the discount. (The default customer category is "All Customers", which is the only customer category available when your store does not subscribe to the Buyer Registration service.)

• A single Discount definition can contain different discounts that are applied at different breakpoints. Create as many breakpoints as you need with Add Breakpoint.

• Breakpoint is the threshold quantity where the discount applies. To offer discounts on all quantities, the first breakpoint should be 1. When a discount applies to more than one product, the breakpoint quantity is the total number of all matching items in the cart. For example when the breakpoint is 5, the discount would be earned when 2 of one qualifying item and 3 of another are in the cart.

• Type is the method used for calculating the discount: Percent (percent off), Fixed Amount (same amount subtracted from each item), or Cost (change price to new amount in cart).

• Amount is the amount of the discount. When Type is Percent, then Amount is a value between 0 and 100. When type is Fixed Amount, Amount can be any value greater than zero. A Fixed Amount discount amount should not be greater than the smallest priced item. When Type is Cost, then amount is the new item price when the item is placed into the cart.

A: Discounts can be applied to any group of Products and offered to any Customer Category. You can create discounts by filling in a form on the Discounts page, or by importing discounts from a file. If you have a large number of discounts it may be easier to manage them by importing them from a file.

Discounts are based on the quantity of items being purchased. To offer a price break based on the total amount in a shopping cart use a coupon. Both a discount and a coupon can be applied to the same cart, so be careful when you offer both to the same customer at the same time for the same products.

A: You can add almost any affiliate program that uses HTML to track. For example if your affiliate program uses a transparent single pixel "img src" tag to track-it can be used.

It is impossible for us to know every affiliate program that will work, so if you are unsure go ahead and try the affiliate program. It won't hurt the cart any for you to test it out.

A: If you use the Catalog Manager, you do not need to write any HTML code to add a product to your store's shopping cart. However, if you subscribe to the Shopping Cart Service without Catalog Manager you must include some special coding in your HTML product pages(on your site) and one page order templates to place orders.

To make this task easier, use the Generate HTML page to create the code you need. You can then copy and paste this code into your store's HTML product pages or one page order templates.

HTML code for each store action can be generated as either Form tags or Href tags. (Form tags and Href tags are just different methods for passing information from one web page to another. )

Either style will work for your store, however a Form tag is the better choice when you have several options for products, or when the product option string is long.

If you want to learn more about HTML Form tags and Href tags, check out a good paper or on-line HTML guide. O'Reilly publishes some of the best web reference books. You might look at "Web Design in a Nutshell" or "Learning Web Design", both by Jennifer Niederst.

A: One page order pages are single web pages that contain product description, product selection, billing/shipping and payment options on the same page. You might have several one page order pages in your store.

A one page order never displays the shopping cart. Use one page orders when the entire purchase transaction occurs on a single web page, for example:

• Merchants that offer a single product

• Special offer pages

• Subscription order pages

You can create as many different one page order pages as you need. When the default one page order template needs to be modified to better suit your requirements, go to Advanced Features - Custom Templates to import a new one that you have created.

• Use Add One Page Order to create a new order page.

• To search for existing one page orders, enter its name and click Search. Use asterisk (*) as a wildcard for searching, or a blank field to match all one page order names.

• To edit an existing one page order, use its Edit button.

• To delete a one page order, use its Delete button.

• To delete multiple one page orders with a single command, use the Delete Orders button to display a selection page. Choose one or more one page orders and click Delete.

Add One Page Order Using Catalog Manager

If you subscribe to Catalog Manager to manage your product information you can quickly create a new one page order by selecting an item to place on the page. After clicking Add One Page Order:

• Enter a name for the one page order.

• Select which one page order template to use.

• Select one or more products to place on the page.

• Click Update to save your changes and display the URL for your newly defined one page order

Add One Page Order For Shopping Cart Store

If your store uses the shopping cart, but not Catalog Manager, or if you want to create a one page order for a product that is not in your catalog, you must create a new customized one page order template for each product.

• Modify the sample one page order template for shopping cart stores.

• Modify this template to include text, images, and the tags needed to identify a product for purchase. Do this on your local system. You can use an HTML editing tool or edit the HTML code directly in a simple text editor like notepad.

• Import this customized one page order template, giving it a descriptive name, on the Advanced Features - Custom Templates page.

• Go to Shopping Cart - One Page Orders and click Add One Page Order.

• Enter a descriptive name for this order page.

• Select your newly customized one page order template.

• Click Update to save your changes and display the URL for your newly defined one page order.

If your one page order is for a product that is not in your product catalog in a catalog store, you must also check Allow Products Not In Product Catalog on the Shopping Cart - Security Options page. You should also set Check for Trusted Domains when you allow products that are not in your product catalog, so that only pages originating from your store's web server will be accepted..

Customized One Page Order Template for Shopping Cart Store

Each one page order uses a different, customized version of the sample one page order template, since the product information itself is included in the template. To customize the template for a product:

• Add the HTML code for the product title, description, price and picture

• Modify some HTML tags that tell the shopping cart which product is being purchased

Modifying Template For One Page Orders

Place the product description HTML code above the

Within the

You must include at least the productID, description, quantity and the individual item price tags for the product. For a complete list of tags click here.

Here's a sample of the code required to identify a product.

     <input name="ProductID" value="MYPROD1" type="hidden">
     <input name="Quantity" value="1" type="hidden">
     <input name="Description" value="Product Name" type="hidden">
     <input name="Price" value="150" type="hidden">

If your product has options, insert the option selection form tags after the required product tags above. (If there are several different options to select, name them Option 1, Option 2, etc.) A selection list requires code like this:

      Small Medium Large