X-Cart forums

[Stephen Hatton]

Hi All

Here is an interesting link if you have time to watch the streaming video from the university (it is 70+ minutes).

It explains M$ and what the consumer expects these days.

As store owners and "Developers" (modifying, testing and debugging our carts), we need to heed these words of wisdom.

http://stanford-online.stanford.edu/courses/ee380/030416-ee380-100.asx

Watch and Learn.

As an Electronics Engineer, I fully understand the principles and consumer demands - the software industry is just learning how demanding they are.

MAKE THE NEXT VERSION A NEW NUMBER (V5.0) AND LEAVE YOUR CHANGE HISTORY BEHIND WITH THE OLD VERSIONS - QUALITY PAYS IN MANY WAYS (customer satisfaction, shop owner satisfaction, recommendations, repeat business, purchasing more add-ons because they are tested and work properly, etc.)

Regards
Ing. Stephen Hatton

[cherie]

Here are my experiences during import/export of products.

While exporting products, if I encounter an error, it did not remember any of the checkboxes, so I have to check everything I want over again. It would be nice if it remembered from the previous screen. Even nicer if it remembered next time I wanted to export products. It is so nice that importing now remembers the previous import settings.

I like how the exported data is saved (pack) for later retrieval.

I tried importing products exported from 4.0. After waiting a while it finally comes back with "The path you have specified is wrong or you have not access to write to the specified path." It is now set to Server for source and shows "/u/svowl/public_html/eshop_main/files/import.csv" for the path. But I specified a file to upload from my computer. My import files was >2G which I know is bad and is the cause for the failure. Maybe a different error would be good.

After importing a smaller file, there was no message that anything was successfully or unsuccessfully imported. It just took me back to the import/export data screen. The last import log had no import information. This appears to be caused by not specifying [PRODUCT] on the first line and properly formatting the column headings. Maybe an error saying such would be good.

I like the use of "var" to hold cache, tmp, and logs. The named log files and log rolling is very nice. So are the Logging Options. While these are nice, nothing was logged that indicates why this was not working. I even turned on all the logging options.

It didn't allow an import from 4.0 export data since it had the Distribution, Product_Type, and Product_Options columns. It would be nice if it just disregarded columns that don't exist in the new products table. Or if it was optional. I'd also like to be able to import product data from 4.0 to 4.1 without being required for it to be part of the cart upgrade. It seems the data format is not backwards compatable. This would not be good. Maybe an additional tool that does just this?

During import, it didn't like my native Excel .csv which has ^M instead of real line breaks. It would be nice if the cart could deal with this on import.

[Alltribes]

I have a simple request for the sear4ch function: keyword exclusion.

Here's an example: I sell turquoise jewelry. Some of this turquoise comes from Copper Mountain. So when I look up "copper bracelets", 99% of what I get is turquoise.

It would be a huge help if I could search for "copper bracelet -mountain" and exclude all the results that contain the word mountain.

[youngvet1]

I request that in the checkout you make a seperate step in the begining that ask user is they are a registered customer or a new customer.
Because how you have it now with the login above the address is very very confusing to the average customer. I have already asked a couple firends and relatives and ALL of them were confused by this.

The first step should be like barnesandnoble.com or amazon.com or many many other sites.

It is better to have 1 extra simple fast step than to combine in a confusing way.

[NuAlpha]

Originally Posted by Alltribes

I have a simple request for the sear4ch function: keyword exclusion.

Oddly no one has ever attempted keyword exclusion on our site, probably from lack of knowledge of the concept's use in general.

[NuAlpha]

Originally Posted by youngvet1

I request that in the checkout you make a seperate step in the begining that ask user is they are a registered customer or a new customer.

This sounds like a winning idea. I'd second the addition of such a step to the checkout process, though it might be nice to keep the seperation optional in case anyone else thinks differently about how they'd like those checkout steps to be presented.

[Light Speed]

Originally Posted by NuAlpha

This sounds like a winning idea. I'd second the addition of such a step to the checkout process, though it might be nice to keep the seperation optional in case anyone else thinks differently about how they'd like those checkout steps to be presented.

Yes!! This is now the standard way to do it and customers are used to this. Seems like X-Cart is the only cart left to not go this route.

[Light Speed]

I would like the site to send out an email to retail customers two weeks after their completed order asking them to give a review on the product with a link in the email to a review page for that product.

Monster commerce does that.

Really helps increase reviews so new customers can see what previous customers thought of your products.

[flyingsaucer]

I am now having my checkout system modified to match the smartbargains.com checkout style. Very easy, only two steps. It includes all the elements of x-cart checkout but in a very clean way.

Once you click checkout button, it presents you email and password screen, and there is a checkbox that says something like "I am a new customer" and if you select it, it allows you to create a password in next step.

In next (second) step, you have the cartsummary to the left, and to the right you have shipping options, address and payment all in one page.

Notice how they have the notes, and billing sections collapsed using DHTML and you can expand if you need to.

Bottomline is, they are a multimillion dollar company and they have dedicated people to find out what frustrates customers and how to hide the less usable elements, like billing address or notes and make things easier for customers.

No need to reinvent the wheel.

I wish x-cart people have done something similar as a fast checkout module.

[youngvet1]

This is a nice checkout, but the problem i see with it is-- how would you cleanly design multiple payment options.

You could possibly have
credit card as the defualt option then next to it have other options gift certificate...

then if a user selects one of those options it will change the area below it.

But one thing i think people agree on is that there need to be that seperate step asking if a user is a registered customer or a new customer, as people have mentioned this is the standard adopted by most major online retailers.