Getting Started With Volusion 2011

Transcription

1 Getting Started With Volusion 2011

2 The primary purpose of this guide is to welcome our new merchants to Volusion. This is to help you through the initial Volusion e-commerce system setup process. Those of you who are new to Volusion may have questions about how to best get their store set up and ready for customers. This guide will walk you through the basics of configuring Volusion from initial store settings to creating products, and evens some SEO basics. Additionally, it will cover what to do after you purchase your store and once it s ready for setup. This is also a good reference point for you 14-day trial users looking to test the system before they prior to purchase. Once you re done with this guide, be sure to read the complete Volusion Manual for a more in-depth description of settings, tips and tricks. Getting Started with Volusion

3 What Do You Do First? If you haven t already done so, we recommend signing up for a 14-day free trial of our Volusion 2011 system. You can do so at absolutely no cost and with no obligations! All monthly solutions come with our award-winning 24/7 customer support to help you with store setup and more. If you don t already own a domain name, you can purchase one from Volusion. You ll need to own a domain name to use with your online store. Sign up for an SSL certificate. This can be done at the time you purchase your hosting plane or later. Once you purchase your Volusion store, you ll receive two s. The first will simply be your order confirmation. The second will come once your order has been processed and our developers have set up your site on the servers. This will include your login information and passwords. The second usually arrives within 24 hours after your purchase. If you have any questions regarding the purchase of an online store, hosting plan, domain name, or SSL, please feel free to contact one of our expert consultants at Getting Started with Volusion

4 Getting Started When you first log on to your Volusion store you should see the Settings > Resources page. (When you see something like Settings > Resources in this manual it s our way of saying that this is the page displayed when you click on Settings in the top menu bar and Resources in the bar below that.) This is the start of your journey into Volusion, a journey of just four steps. 1. Design your store 2. Create Categories 3. Add Products 4. View Your Store You should watch the videos and click the Learn More buttons for each step and then dive in by clicking the Get Started button. By the time you reach Step 4 you should have some idea about how to put together your online store. Of course there s more to setting up and running a successful ecommerce store than this payments, shipping, vendors and customers, but following these steps will introduce you to the basics of how to use the software and give you the confidence to explore further. Getting Started with Volusion

5 Introducing the Volusion Admin Page Once you ve logged into your Volusion store s admin account, you ll be directed to the Admin Page. This page contains all of the links and settings you ll need to set up and configure your Volusion store. The Admin Page is divided into several sub-pages, all accessible from the main navigation menu near the top of the Admin Page. Simply click on the name of one of the six admin areas, then click on the required page in the menu to access that particular part of your Volusion store. Navigating the Admin Page The Volusion Admin Page is divided into six main sections. These are as follows: Getting Started with Volusion

6 Orders This menu provides access to new and past orders from customers and functions, such as RMA processing, phone order generation and point-of-sale checkout. Reports This menu allows you to create reports to manage your store financial sales and marketing ROI reports. Inventory This menu lists all settings required to configure products and categories in your store. It also displays the products database table, import/export functions, as well as vendor and warehouse settings. Marketing Use this menu to create special marketing elements for your store. You can add discounts, coupons and newsletters, as well as access SEO functions. Getting Started with Volusion

7 Customers The pages under this menu allow you to view and manage information for customers, administrators and more. Here you can also set up and administer the Customer Relations Management system. Design This menu provides access to various pages where you can customize your store s look and feel. You can customize your store logo, template design and even edit the content of HTML and CSS files within your store. Additional access is located in the top right-hand corner of the screen next to your admin name. These links are: Storefront Clicking this link opens your storefront in a separate browser tab, showing you a preview of your updates. Settings This dropdown menu gives you access to the various settings pages that are used to set basic information about your store such as the company details, how you want to handle shipping, currency, tax, security, plus the config variables that enable you to fine tune your store and activate many advanced functions. Getting Started with Volusion

8 Support Clicking this gives you access to Volusion release notes, the Volusion Knowledge Base, Training Videos and Manual and the My Volusion page. Log out Click here if you need to log out of your store. Managing the Dashboard You may have noticed that immediately upon login, you were directed to a section of the Admin Page that acts as a store dashboard. This is the Administration Dashboard. Its main purpose is to give you a snapshot of how your store is performing. On the left side of the page are graphic reports, showing orders, top products and categories and the latest trends on your site. To access the dashboard at any time, either click on the Volusion icon in the top left part of Admin or click on Home in the breadcrumb trail. Orders The Orders graph shows the value of orders over the last week, month or 3 months as selected. You can click on the View Orders link to open the Orders > Process Orders page. Moving the cursor over the graph will show individual dates, and exact sales for those dates. Top 5 Products and Categories These graphs show the top five best selling products and categories for the last day, week or month. Moving the cursor over each of these will show product/category name and the value of sales for that product or category. Trends This report shows orders and sales for today and yesterday and the percentage change in these figures. Click the View Reports link to go to the Reports > Reporting page. Also on this page you will find quick links to the support site, links to the latest Volusion blog articles and a simple To Do list. Getting Started with Volusion

9 Getting Started Checklist For new merchants, the following checklist provides a guide on how to set up your new store. Note that some of these steps cover topics from configuring product settings to marketing your online store. Each step is categorized as required, recommended and optional. Follow the steps below to quickly set up your Volusion store. Step-By-Step Priority Key Steps Required Recommended Optional Step 1: Store Settings Step 2: Settings Configure company settings Activate shipping settings Configure tax settings Set payment types Payment gateway registration/method to collect funds Set currency settings Set up accounts (whether with Volusion or a third party) and plug in the s in your admin area in Settings >Company FTP account setup Step 3: Design Set up store logos Choose a store template Update your site content to represent your company Step 4: Categories, Products & Options Create categories Create products Set up product options Importing and exporting Step 5: Marketing Search engine optimization Create sales promotions/coupons Create newsletters Getting Started with Volusion

10 Step 6: Advanced Marketing Submit your sitemap to Google Market products with AdWords Market via MySpace or Facebook Register with Google Base Blog Your store Using your store s Affiliates system Step 7: Reporting Sign up with Google Analytics Register for a Google Webmaster Tools Account Register with more advanced, paid-for analytics services Ready to get started? The following sections of this guide will describe each of the above steps in detail. That way you can go from being a new Volusion store owner to becoming an expert in no time flat. Let s go for it! Getting Started with Volusion

11 Step 1: Store Settings The very first step is to log into your store s Admin Area and provide some basic information about your business. This information will make up the basis for how your store is presented to your visitors. It also enables some of the store s automated functions, such as order notification s, shipping calculations and more. Configure Company Settings The Company settings interface will help guide you through the initial steps to making your store live. Here, you ll enter basic information into the Company settings form. The following will explain how to set up this form. Setting Up the Company Page The Company page can be found in the Admin Page by clicking on Settings in the upper right corner and then clicking the Company link in the dropdown menu.. The Company Information header contains the following fields: Getting Started with Volusion

12 Company Name Company Address Domain Name Time Zone Enter your company s name here (e.g. My E-Store or Specialty Widgets Online ).. Note that this field will define the company name as it will appear on various documents your store generates, including order confirmation and shipping notifications. Enter your company s billing address in these fields. This may differ from the shipping address entered on the Volusion Shipping page, but should match exactly the address you use for tax purposes. Enter the primary address for customers to contact your company with here. Note that this address will correspond to the Send Us Feedback link that will be displayed on your storefront. By default, this address will be listed in the from field for every generated by your storefront. Using this setting, you can pick the domain name you want to register your Volusion store under. This allows the choice of which domain name registered with the Volusion account will apply to the store. By default, this setting displays the temporary server trust address the store is hosted at. If you have a domain name through Volusion, once that domain is processed, you can select the domain name within this field. However, if you purchased a domain name through a 3rd party service (such as Godaddy.com), the domain must be forwarded to Volusion s domain name servers. Please see more details in the Tips and Tricks section in the complete Volusion manual.. Select your time zone from the dropdown menu. This will be reflected in all of your store s timestamps. Here, you can also set your store to automatically update for daylight savings time. More Settings Explained Company Name More Settings Below Company Name, you ll find a link labeled, More. Click on this link to display two additional settings to define names for the Volusion store. The first, Legal Company Name is a field that defines an additional name for your business. Getting Started with Volusion

13 The second field, Website Title is a very important setting. This field will define the name of your storefront (as it appears in the storefront header) if you choose to use simple text for your website logo. More Settings Located below the main field, this extra settings dialog allows you to associate distinct addresses associated with your store to specific purposes. Getting Started with Volusion

14 Initially, the settings default to your store s primary . You can fine-tune these settings in the following ways: Additional Settings Send Order Notifications To CC Orders to Send Billing s From Send Affiliate Applications To When a new order is generated an notification can be delivered to your preferred address. This field defines which address these order notifications are sent to. This field allows for a secondary address for order notifications to be sent to. Note Order Notifications should only be delivered to users associated with your store. This field will be the primary address all recurring payment notifications directed to the merchant will be sent to. For security purposes, customers wishing to sign up to your store s affiliate program requires that you grant these customer accounts that access. When a customer clicks the link to become an affiliate in your store, an notification will be sent to you. Edit Terms and Conditions When visitors sign up for a customer account at your store, the customer will automatically view a basic set of legal terms and conditions, covering use of their account. This link gives you access to review and edit the terms of service that are surfaced to your customers. You re welcome to use the set of terms provided by default or simply create your own. Do note that this field contains some programming variables such as $(CompanyNameLegal). These variables allow the system to automatically refer to merchant-defined fields within this page when displaying the terms of service. We don t recommend removing or modifying these variables within the text. Getting Started with Volusion

15 Activate Shipping Settings Shipping is a vital element of ecommerce, so you want to ensure your store is set up correctly. The next step is to get your store ready to fulfill those orders by setting up shipping options. The Shipping Settings This section discusses the basic shipping settings. The more advanced settings within the shipping configuration will be discussed in the Volusion Manual. Log in to your admin area. Then, clicking on Settings in the upper right corner and then clicking the Shipping link in the dropdown menu. You should now be at the Shipping Settings page. Getting Started with Volusion

16 Here you can configure your basic shipping settings, using the form fields provided. This page is divided into Ship to Countries, Shipping Origin, Choose Carriers, More Shipping Options and Test Shipping Rates sections. Let s take a look at each section below: Ship to Countries Select the countries to which you d like to ship. Most countries are already configured. Simply highlight a country in the inactive list and click the left arrow button to make that country active within the store. Getting Started with Volusion

17 Note that to ship to an entire country there is no need to add both the country and then all of that country s states/provinces to the active list. To manually update your store s internal list of countries or states and provinces, or to add a location that is not yet configured, click on Edit Countries or Edit States. Shipping Origin Enter your business address and contact information. You must enter a valid shipping address in this field. The information entered here is used to calculate live rates for shipping providers you re registered with. If you re shipping from a remote warehouse or using a third-party fulfillment/shipping service, in addition to your shipping origin information, enable the Use a different origin for calculating shipping rates checkbox. Then, enter the shipping information of the warehouse or fulfillment center you ll use in the yellow popup. This defines the business base location, while creating a separate origin for proper shipping rate calculation. Choose Carriers Simply choose the tab corresponding to one of the many shipping carriers Volusion integrates with. Within each tab, check any shipping methods you want to provide to your customers. You can click the pencil edit icon to change any shipping method. This is useful when you want to set a minimum and maximum order price or order weight on a shipping Getting Started with Volusion

18 method. It s also to apply a shipping method to a country and/or state, which you will need to do for any method you want to activate. You can read more on editing and adding shipping methods later in this manual. Some carriers (particularly Canada Post, FedEx, UPS and USPS) provide live rate registration. You can register with these services to receive live shipping rates from your preferred carriers. To register for live rates from these carriers, click on the link next to the company logo and follow the instructions displayed. Royal Mail Users Volusion provides live rate integration for Royal Mail through Parcel Force. No API registration is required for Royal Mail users. Simply enable any of the available Royal Mail shipping methods in this page to engage live rate integration with Royal Mail. More Settings and Testing Rates This should cover the basics for setting up your store s shipping methods. However, there are plenty more shipping options. Using the More Shipping Settings link, you can configure specific, global settings for your shipping rates calculations, such as allowing tax to be applied to shipping. Getting Started with Volusion

19 You can also test your shipping settings using the Test Shipping Rates link on this page. These settings will be discussed in more detail in the Advanced Settings section of the Volusion Manual. But first, let s learn how to configure your store s sales tax. Configure Tax Settings Depending on your location or country, you may be required to charge your customers certain taxes on goods and services. Whether this is state sales tax, consumption tax, VAT or other, you can configure your store to automatically process tax charges for various regions and locales. This article will guide you through configuring tax settings in Volusion 2011, and show you other tax-related functions featured in the Volusion system. Getting Started with Volusion

20 Using the Volusion Tax Settings Page Log in to your admin area. Navigate to the Tax Settings Page by clicking on Settings in the upper right corner and then clicking the Tax link in the dropdown menu. You will see a tax table that will contain any existing tax rules for your store. You can click on the Edit link next to any tax setting to update it or click on the Add button near the top of the table to add a new setting. You can also indicate whether or not you are based in the United States with the radio option. For U.S.-Based Merchants Note that your store s tax rate is set to California by default. 1. Use the Add or Edit links to update taxes charged to customers in other states. 2. You can enter a 5-digit zip code to apply the tax setting to a specific area within the state. 3. Enter a name for your tax rate into the Base Tax Title field and enter a numeric value into the accompanying rate text box to define your tax rate. (For example, enter 7.85 into this field if your region s sales tax rate is 7.85%.) 4. Click Save when finished. For International-Merchants Note that automatically, the tax page will be set up for a store based in the United States. If your store isn t based in the United States, answer No to the Are you based in the United States? prompt. Getting Started with Volusion

21 A dropdown menu is displayed so you can configure how types of VAT and GST taxes appear on your storefront. These tax types are applicable to some countries such as the UK, Canada and Australia (discussed below). Below the Tax Settings Add header, set the Region Country you want to apply the tax to and choose the appropriate state/ province. Set the tax rate title (the name of the tax as it will be displayed to your customers) and the actual rate of the tax to be applied. For those who have enabled VAT or GST taxes, additional tax rates settings will be configurable: Tax 2, and Tax 3. You can specifically configure these taxes to govern how VAT or other taxes will behave. These settings will be discussed in further detail below Click Save and you re ready to charge tax based on the setting just applied. If you need to further configure your store s tax rate or charge tax for multiple regions, postal codes or states/provinces, click on Add (near the top of the tax table) to continue. Note that you ll have to create an individual rate for every region or location you need to collect tax for. There is no limit to the number of tax rules you can set up in Volusion. Value-Added Tax and Goods & Services Tax settings If your region requires VAT or GST, you may need to set how those taxes are displayed to your customers in relation to product prices. If you answer No to the Are you based in the United States option, you will activate an additional dropdown menu. This dropdown menu will allow you to choose how VAT and/or GST are applied to order costs and how it s displayed to your customers. The default setting is Disable VAT. Set your tax display options as needed and click Save. Note This option can also be accessed from the Tax Settings link within the Tax Advanced Settings. Getting Started with Volusion

22 Changing the way GST or VAT prices are displayed If you want to tailor the exact wording of how these taxes are displayed, you can edit the text displayed. For example instead of a price showing as A$16.78 Inc GST you can change this to A$16.78 including GST. To do so: 1. Go to Design > Site Content. 2. Select Page Text from the Article Type dropdown. 3. When the table refreshes, select Global from the Category dropdown. 4. Scroll down to the bottom of the table. Here you will find Articles , which contain the text that is displayed for VAT and GST related prices. 5. Edit these as appropriate. Be careful not to delete or alter the "{0}" and "{1}" field variables as these are needed to show the before and after tax prices. 6. Click Save. Importing Tax Settings As mentioned above, your Volusion store can support an unlimited number of tax settings. Depending on location, your tax settings may just include one or many entries in your tax table. If you re required to create many different tax entries within your store, you can use the Import/Export feature to quickly add tax settings to your tax table. To do this, configure at least one entry into your tax table. Then use the Export Wizard to export your store s tax table to a CSV file. You can then edit this file within a spreadsheet application of your choice, such as Microsoft Excel. You can quickly modify the export CSV file to include additional tax settings. When finished, save your changes to the CSV file, and then use the Import Wizard to import the file into your store for a tax table update. Your Volusion store is now configured and ready to charge tax on orders at the rates you have programmed. There are several additional settings you may need to become familiar with especially if you plan to sell products that are tax-exempt or other special circumstances that may affect how your store charges tax. For information on and for a complete list of tax settings, check out the Tax section of the Advanced Settings section of the Volusion Manual. Set Payment Types The next step is to configure what payment methods your store will accept and how the store will process those payments. This section will explain how to set up payment settings in regard to credit card payment services such as MasterCard and connecting your store with a dedicated payment processing gateway to handle incoming credit transactions. Getting Started with Volusion

23 Click on Settings in the upper right corner and then clicking the Payment link in the dropdown menu. This page is divided into three major sections Accepted Payment, Payment Gateways and Credit Card Storage Policies. More advanced settings will be discussed later. Configuring Payment Methods This section defines which payment options you ll accept from your customers. To access and configure these settings: 1. On the Payment page, under the Accepted Payment heading, click the checkbox next to your preferred payment method(s) to enable that option for your customers. 2. Complete any additional fields displayed 3. Click Save at the bottom of the page to make your store updates. Note Most electronic payment gateways support all major payment methods but we recommend that you contact payment gateway providers regarding which methods can be used. If you select PayPal as a payment type, you will need to enter the address registered with your PayPal account. This address must be entered into the Payment Methods field marked, PayPal Address. If you select Google as a payment type you will need to enter your Google Checkout Merchant ID and Merchant Key. Getting Started with Volusion

24 Payment Gateway Registration The first major decisions when it comes to your store s operations will be made right here: Which electronic payment gateway will you use to process incoming payments to your store? Ideally, you ll want a payment gateway that operates in the same region as your business, provides many features (e.g. authorizing, capturing, crediting and voiding payments) and is a reliable, stable platform to process customer payments. For U.S.-based merchants, the answer to this question is simple! Volusion Merchant Services provide a full-featured, stable and affordable payment platform. Select Click here to learn more in the Payment Gateways section or go to for more information. For those based outside of the United States, there are many gateways you can integrate with. Gateways store access can differ depending on the region your store is based in. For further questions or concerns regarding payment gateway integration, please consult the Volusion Support site or contact Volusion technical support. Configuring Gateway Information Once you ve decided which payment gateway to use with your store, gateway integration is simple. 1. Click Settings > Payment in the upper right corner. 2. Under the heading, Payment Gateways, select which country your business is based in via the dropdown menu labeled, Merchant Gateway Country. Getting Started with Volusion

25 3. Then, select which payment gateway you d like to use within the dropdown menu labeled, Merchant Gateway Name. Note that this menu will only display gateways associated with the country chosen in the previous dropdown menu. A dialog box will then appear containing fields for the required integration information for a particular gateway. This information is particular to each different gateway. The fields listed in this dialogue are the only fields required by Volusion to register the gateway with the store. This information should be available from each respective electronic gateway after registering with your preferred provider. Please see special notes below regarding integration with specific gateways. Once the above settings have been configured, click Save and Volusion 2011 will now be configured for the use with your selected gateway. Example For merchants with Authorize.Net payment gateway accounts, here are the following instructions for configuring Volusion to use Authorize.Net: 1. Log into the Volusion Admin Page, and go to Settings > Payment. 2. Under the Payment Gateway heading, select United States as the merchant s country. 3. Select Authorize.Net [AUTHORIZENET] as the gateway. 4. Authorize.Net requires an Authorize.Net API ID Number and an Authorize.Net Transaction Key be entered. You can obtain this by logging into your Authorize.Net account. 5. Enter this information and click the Save button. If you choose to offer electronic checks as a payment method, you ll do so here. Start with the dropdown menu for Electronic Checks Gateway Name. You ll find the electronic check supported gateways in this field. Once you choose the gateway name, the integration fields will populate. From there, you ll be able to enter your account information. Make sure you enable Electronic Check in the Accepted Payment section above. Getting Started with Volusion

26 Credit Card Storage Policies Note the payment gateway menu on the bottom of this page, this give you access to your store s credit card storage policies. Volusion is a fully PCI (Payment Card Industry) Complaint ecommerce platform. Online data security is essential in today s online world. You can rest assured that Volusion takes this matter very seriously. That s why each of our stores comes pre-configured with the highest level of PCI security and compliance that we can provide. These are based on Getting Started with Volusion

27 guidelines and best practices set forth by the Payment Card Industry Security Consortium. How your store will authorize, capture and store credit card data is already preconfigured based on these guidelines. As such, the majority of merchants will have nothing to configure in this portion of their stores. However, these settings are available to you should you be required to manage these settings (e.g. based on requirements set by certain payment gateway processors systems). You have even more choices for your store s credit card storage policies if you uncheck the Use most secure settings. For more in-depth information on this portion of Volusion 2011, please see the Advanced Settings section of the Volusion Manual. But let s first complete your initial store setup. Currency Settings Dollars, Euros, Yen or Ducats depending on where your business operates from and where customers are located, you ll need to set up the right currency type for your store. Fortunately, Volusion makes this process a snap. To access currency settings within Volusion, simply log into the Admin Page. Click on Settings and select Currency. Getting Started with Volusion

28 Configuring Currencies By default, the Currency settings page is pre-configured to use US Dollars as the default currency. For those who are US-based and intend on using US currency as the default, there s nothing more to do! However, feel free to read on for more information on how the currency system works. Click on Settings in the upper right corner and then click on Currency. This is the Currency table. Non-US based merchants can use this page to configure their store s currency as follows: 1. In the main Currency table, click either Edit (next to the default currency entry) to edit currency settings or click Add to create a new currency entry. Getting Started with Volusion

29 2. In the Currency Name field, enter the name of the currency as it is to be displayed to your customers. 3. In the Currency Symbol field, set the text or symbol that will be used to represent the currency (e.g. $). 4. In the Exchange Rate field, set the numeric value of the currency as it relates to the US Dollar (e.g. if the British Pound is currently worth $2.30 US, simply enter 2.3 into this field). 5. Check the box marked Default to make this currency the default currency for the store. 6. Click Save to apply these settings. Configuring Multiple Currencies Configuring multiple currencies within Volusion is easy just repeat the above steps to add another currency type. Note that Volusion can display multiple currency types. However it will only collect payments based in the default currency configured for your store. Example A merchant is based in the United Kingdom and plans on selling products to markets in other parts of Europe, as well as in the UK. The merchant wants to enable British Pounds (the primary currency), but also wants to allow customers to view the cost of products in Euros. Configuring Volusion 2011for this type of scenario is quite simple. For full details Getting Started with Volusion

30 on how to do this as well as other tips on using the Volusion Currency settings, please see Advanced Settings. Now let s explore how to configure the rest of your store s major settings. Getting Started with Volusion

31 Step 2: & FTP Setup Let s step away from the Volusion Admin Page for a moment and address one of the more important facets of operating a business online . Chances are that you have an address already, but do you have one for your online store? Rather than contact your customers from your pizzalover231@gmail.com address, wouldn t it carry a more professional zing to message your customers from sales@mysuperwidgetstore.com? If you re thinking, Hey, that s a great idea but I don t have an account set up with my Volusion online store s domain, no worries. Did you know your Volusion store comes with its own hosting? Set up Accounts This section shows you how to set up your own Volusion-hosted address within your account at my.volusion.com. This account can be accessed on the web or through a dedicated program, such as Microsoft Outlook. It s directly connected to your Volusion store domain. The following steps are for those who have their store set up on a root domain (e.g. only. If you use a sub-domain name (e.g. store.yourdomain.com), you will have to contact the company that controls your domain name to set up an address. Assuming you re using a root domain name, please read on. First, we ll need to create an account for your store. This can be accomplished using the following steps: 1. Log in to your account at my.volusion.com note that this login is the original account username and password you created when first registering for your Volusion store not your Admin Page account. 2. Click under the My Store heading in your navigation area. Getting Started with Volusion

32 3. On the following page, select your store s domain from the dropdown menu near the top of the page. 4. Click on Add next to the Mailboxes title. 5. Now, in the box marked Username, enter the name for the account (e.g. sales, returns, orders, customer-care, etc.). 6. Enter information for the rest of the mailbox form password, first name and last name. 7. Make sure to check the box for Active and click on Create. That s it! You just created your first Volusion -hosted account. Your address will be whatever you entered for the account your store s domain name. Please be sure to only attempt this configuration after you have successfully set up your store s domain name. This means if you purchased your domain name from somewhere other than Volusion, you ll need to point your domains DNS to Volusion before you ll be able to use your new account. For more information on this, visit: You can create as many addresses as your Volusion store plan will allow. You can also create a number of aliases ( addresses that simply redirect to other accounts). Specific account features will be listed within your account settings at my.volusion.com. Logging in to Your As a Volusion merchant, you can log in to your Volusion-hosted from your web browser or a standard POP client, such as Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express or Apple Mail. To log in to your account with your web browser, do the following: Getting Started with Volusion

33 1. Open your browser to mail.yourdomainname.com (where yourdomainname.com refers to that of your Volusion store). 2. When prompted, enter your address into the Username field. 3. Enter your account s password and click Login. 4. Once logged in, you can read, reply to and compose new mail just as you would any web-based system such as Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo. 5. There is also a link directly on the page in your my.volusion.com account to Go to Webmail. This will take you directly to your login page for webmail. Your Volusion account can also be accessed through your favorite program such as Microsoft Outlook. Doing this requires you to configure a few settings in your client s preferences to access the Volusion system. This process is detailed below. Sending and Receiving POP There are many POP (Post Office Protocol) clients available for a variety of computing platforms. Please consult the online help or documentation provided with your specific client. Outgoing (SMTP) Server Setting Notice When configuring your outgoing (SMTP) settings, please keep in mind that many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) actively monitor and detain any SMTP traffic that originates from any 3 rd party SMTP server. Many ISPs do this to monitor and maintain control over being sent over their networks. When using your Volusion account s SMTP settings, this may cause your sent via POP to be delayed. If you experience a delay in sending , we recommend you replace the above outgoing server name and port with one provided by your ISP. Note that you will also be required to enter the password for your ISP s system into the outgoing mail authentication settings under Outgoing Server. Note For those who want to host their store s account(s) outside of the Volusion system the option is available but does require a little more setup. Simply send a service ticket to Volusion support, requesting to have your hosted through a third party. You ll need to provide us with the MX records for your third-party system. Please allow at least 1 business day for your request to be processed. You can also point your own MX records through your my.volusion.com control panel. Simply log in at and go to the DNS page. Knowledge of DNS is required to update the records. Getting Started with Volusion

34 FTP Account Setup FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, a common method used to transfer files from one computer system to another. FTP access isn t required for store setup or running the store. Yet, it can be a very important feature as it allows you to upload large numbers of files to your store. It also gives you access to template files and images. For web designers wanting to modify a store s look and feel, access to FTP is vital. Creating an FTP account is very similar to creating an account. It too can be accomplished via my.volusion.com. 1. Log in to your account at my.volusion.com. 2. Once there, click on Manage FTP located under My Store. 3. Next, choose your store s domain name from the list at the top of the page. 4. Next, click Add to create a new FTP account. 5. The system will automatically generate an FTP account name and password. 6. Edit the username and password as you want. 7. You can assign read and/or write access to the FTP account. For the purpose of using this account with a website editor such as Dreamweaver, both read and write access must be enabled. 8. Finally, click Save to create the account. That s all. Your FTP account is ready to go. You can access it from any standard FTP program such as Fetch, FileZilla or FireFTP. Note The username and password for an FTP account must contain at least 8 characters each, must contain uppercase and lowercase letters and at least 1 number. Logging in to your FTP Account Your FTP account can be accessed through numerous FTP client programs, and even through design programs such as Adobe s Dreamweaver web design software. Getting Started with Volusion

35 To successfully log into your Volusion store, you will need to enter the following information into your FTP program: 1. Your FTP address (e.g. ftp.mysuperwidgetstore.com) 2. Your FTP account username 3. Your FTP account password 4. The FTP server port number (this should be set to 21). Once entered, you should be able to log in to your Volusion store s newly created FTP account and gain access to your store s files and directories within the v/vspfiles/heading. Please note that there is a wide variety of FTP applications available for both PC and Macintosh platforms. Visit the Volusion support site and search for FTP for information on how to set up and use your FTP account. Getting Started with Volusion

36 Step 3: Design Next, we ll take a look at the basics on how you can customize your store s look and feel to stand out from the competition. This section will cover choosing a store template and configuring your logo. Keep in mind, there are many details regarding design functions and features that will not be covered here. Please refer to the Advanced Settings section of the Volusion Manual for more details regarding the Template System and other design features. Choose a Store Template The look and feel of your online store sets the stage and makes that important first impression. A well-designed website engages potential consumers and helps convert them from browsers into customers. The good news is updating your store s look and feel can be done in a matter of minutes with our design page. To go to the Templates page, simply log in to the Volusion Admin Page, click on Design and then click on Templates in the menu bar. Instructions on selecting, downloading and saving templates follow below: Getting Started with Volusion

37 Choosing a Template Choosing a look and feel for an online business is a major decision. With the Templates page, we hope to make this process less daunting. Here you can check out new templates for your site changing its look and feel with just a few clicks. Once there, you ll see the tab My Templates. By default, a few templates are displayed in this area for you to try. Simply click on the template name to preview a thumbnail of the template (located on the left side). Once you choose a template, it can be previewed or published. Previewing a Template You can preview the selected template prior to applying it to your storefront. To do so, click Preview to open your storefront in a new browser window. The template you selected will be applied to your store. To view all pages of the design you just applied, make sure to view all your store pages. Note that at this point your selected template is not live yet only you can view it. Publishing a Template Once you ve decided upon your template, simply select the template from My Templates and click on Publish. After a few seconds, your new template will be applied to your site. Downloading More Templates Not finding what you re looking for? There are plenty more options for you to choose from. Simply click on Free Templates to browse through the gallery of free store templates. You ll notice that some templates come in color variants. These templates will have color swatches displayed next to them. Select a color swatch to preview the template thumbnail in that color variant. Getting Started with Volusion

38 To download a new, free template, click on Install. The template s files will then be downloaded and installed to the Volusion store. Now, the newly downloaded template will be available within the My Templates tab. From here, you can choose the new template, preview it or publish it to your site. Where to Get More Templates Besides our free templates discussed above, you have even more template options. Volusion also offers a selection of premium design templates you can purchase directly online. To view our premium templates as well as pricing, go to: Note on Custom Designs If you have a specific design in mind or are seeking a custom design created for your unique business needs, check out Volusion custom site design services. Visit: for more details. Accessing the Templates The Admin Page offers access to the Template System, while you can directly access template files. To access templates through the Admin Page, simply log in to your store, click on Design and then click, LiveEdit File Editor in the blue menu bar. From here, you will see Shortcut files on the right side. Getting Started with Volusion

39 These are links to your template files. The link names will correspond to the name of the template that is published to your store. The template_xx.html makes up the template s header, footer and navigation. The template_xx.css gives you access to the templates CSS files where you can mainly modify the look of the text. As mentioned earlier, these files also can be accessed directly from your Volusion FTP account. You can create an account and manage your Volusion store s FTP access by logging in to your account at my.volusion.com. For more advanced template features, please check out our online training video for details. Setting up Store Logos Just as an overall site design can define an entire user experience to your visitors, your logo is equally as important. It represents your company and is a vital part of your brand something your online storefront shouldn t live without. Volusion makes it easy to add custom website logos to your store header, s, invoices and more. To add logos, follow these simple steps: 1. Log in to the Administration Page. 2. Click on Design > Logos. 3. You re now on the Logos configuration page. From here, you can create a simple text logo, upload a graphical logo and even upload an image for your s and invoices. If activated, you can also add a logo for your mobileenabled store front. Getting Started with Volusion

40 Adding a Store Logo You can either add a text-based or an image-based logo to your store. By default, the store will configured to use a text-based logo or text displayed in the header of your store. To update a text-based logo: 1. On the Logos page, select the Text option for Logo Type. 2. Next, enter the exact text you d like to display as the logo. 3. When finished, click Save to apply the text logo to your site Note Note that by default, the text logo size, font and color are determined by the store template s style properties. However, these features can be modified within the CSS settings of your store s template. To add a graphic Website logo: 1. On the Logos page, select the Graphic option for Logo Type. 2. Click Browse and select the graphic file of the logo you want to upload. 3. Click Save to apply the logo to your store. Note Note that Volusion currently only supports.gif,.png, and.jpg image formats for use as website logos.. A Note on Graphic Logo Sizes Carefully consider the size of your graphic logo. A prominent, bold logo can really capture your visitors attention. However, logo size can potentially hinder the look and feel of your site. Getting Started with Volusion

41 For each Volusion template, suggested sizes are provided for the logo graphic. Below the current Website Title or Website Heading Logo preview, a recommended size in pixels is displayed. For example, if a recommended graphic size of 800x 90 is listed, the recommended size for this template s logo is 800 pixels wide and 90 pixels high. These size constraints can be set within a graphic editing program of choice (e.g. Adobe Photoshop, GIMP. or Paint.NET). Adding an /Invoice Logo Adding a logo to your invoices and s that are automatically generated for orders by the Volusion system is just as easy as adding a logo to the store header. By default, if you chose to add a text-based logo to your site, your logo will automatically be added to your invoices and s. To add a graphic logo to your invoices and , simply enter the path to the image file on your local computer or select the file by clicking on Browse. Then, click Upload to apply your graphic logo to your invoices and s. Note To use a graphic logo on store invoices and s, you must enable the Graphic option within the Logo Type setting in the My Logos page. Adding a Mobile Storefront Logo If mcommerce is enabled, a section will appear here so you can upload a logo to be displayed on mobile phones and other such devices. This image should be 320 x 80px. As before, enter the path to the image file on your local computer or select the file by clicking on Browse. Then click Upload. Getting Started with Volusion

42 Step 4: Categories, Products & Options This section will show you how to create categories, sort your store products, create products for your store to sell and of course, the options your products might offer to customers for the products they will purchase. Create Categories Categories are a series of placeholders that can have products assigned to them. In turn, categories can be configured to display in the Volusion store s navigation menus and then indexed in the store s search engine system. These features then allow visitors to your online store ways of searching for and finding products that you sell online (and thus, potentially increasing your sales!). Accessing the Categories Page Navigating to Categories of the Admin Page is simple. 1. Go to Inventory > Categories. The Update Categories & Subcategories page is displayed. Getting Started with Volusion

43 Users of previous versions of this page will note the new, simplified look and feel of this page, and should take the time to familiarize themselves with its improved functionality. This page displays the navigation menus set up for your store. A navigation menu needs to contain one or more category to be visible. Empty menus can be displayed by clicking Show Hidden Categories and Menus. The number and position of menus on your storefront depend upon the template you have selected, but typically the first menu is the main category menu, and displays on the left side of the store as the first level of categories your customers can select from. Clicking on a category will display either the products in this category or open a list of subcategories, depending on how you organize your store. This page enables you to organize categories and subcategories using the drag and drop method. This is where you click the cursor on a category name and drag it to where you want it to be. You can make categories into subcategories and vice versa by dropping them in the appropriate position. You can also add new or edit categories and subcategories, list all categories, view how the categories will look in your storefront and edit the look and feel of the navigation menus from this page. Adding a category To add a category: 1. Click the Add New button. This opens the Categories Add New page, showing the Basic Category Info section. Getting Started with Volusion

44 2. Enter the name you want to give the category in Category Name. 3. Leave the Parent Category as [0] MAIN CATEGORY unless you re creating a subcategory, in which case select the name of the category you want this to be a subcategory of from the dropdown list. 4. Select the name of the menu in which you want this category to appear from Show in Menu. 5. Click Save and go back to the main Update Categories & Subcategories page. Your category will be displayed at the top of the selected menu. You can drag and drop it to the required position. You should repeat this to create the required categories. There are further settings available by expanding the Advanced Settings section in the Volusion Manual your storefront will use the default settings until you change anything there. These settings are covered in the later part of this manual but you may want to enter Category Descriptions at this point. Now that you ve added your first categories in your Volusion store let s learn how to add some products to assign to those categories. Creating Products This section will describe how to go about creating your store s first product as well as what settings you will be required to enable when adding products into your Volusion store. Note that each product in the Volusion store can have a wide variety of settings configured for it. This portion of the Manual will describe the basic settings required for each product. Further product settings will be discussed later in the Advanced Settings part of this manual. Accessing the Volusion 2011 Products page is easy. Simply click on Inventory > Products. This opens the All Products table view page. From here, you can create your first products. Basic Product Info To add or update a product within your Volusion store, click on the Add button near the top of the page. This will take you to the Basic Product Info section of the product you are about to add to your Volusion store. Getting Started with Volusion

45 The following fields must be entered for all products. Click Save when finished. Basic Products Info Product Name * Product Code * Product Price * The name of the product as it will be displayed within the storefront. The ID number the product will be referenced by within Volusion. This field can contain letters, numbers, hyphens or periods. Note that this field cannot contain punctuation marks and must be unique for each individual product. Enter the product s price. Additional Settings There are some additional settings which although not mandatory can be very important to a product s behavior and should be configured. Product Weight Within the Basic Product Info heading, assign a weight to your product. This will be the primary field Volusion uses to determine shipping costs for products. A weight should be provided for each and every product unless the product is a downloadable product, a gift certificate or will have a fixed shipping cost. In these cases, leave the product weight field empty. Getting Started with Volusion

46 Product Description Again in the Basic Product Info header, the Product Description field will provide the actual description of a product to viewers when it is browsed from the storefront. You can enter plain text or click the HTML Editor link to quickly create HTML-formatted text and graphics. Each product should have a description to inform customers as to what it is they will be purchasing. Categories This section displays the categories and subcategories you created in the previous steps. Although there are many ways to organize your products, most merchants find that associating them with multiple categories makes browsing easiest for their customers. To add a product to one or more categories, click on those you want to associate it with. You can quickly add new categories here by clicking Create New Category, entering a category name, and selecting the category it belongs to (if it is a subcategory) and the menu it is to be displayed in. You can go back to the Categories page to complete the settings later. Getting Started with Volusion

47 SEO Search Engine Optimization is the act of inserting specific meta data into web pages in order to increase the likelihood that the page will be successfully browsed, indexed and categorized by various search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Bing). To begin optimizing your store, scroll down to the Advanced Settings section and click on the Search Engine Optimization tab. This contains six text fields that are optional but should be configured for all products. Search engine optimization is essentially a marketing practice the more search engines that browse and index a site, the easier it should be for visitors to find it and the products it contains. For further details on SEO and what to enter into these fields either see the SEO section in the Marketing portion of this manual or click on the help buttons by each field. Shipping The Shipping tab in Advanced Settings lets you enter the particular shipping information that applies to this product. Here you can enter a warehouse ID and location within the warehouse if required. This is not necessary for every product but must be configured if you are shipping products from a location outside of your primary business address (as defined in the Volusion Admin Page under the Company settings. Stock Unless a product is being configured as a downloadable product or you do not want to track inventory, each product should have its stock value initialized. On the Stock tab, you will find the Stock Status field, which can be edited to define the current inventory of a product. Enter the quantity of this item you have and click Save. Stock can be set to 0 or greater (or even a negative number if the store will be allowing items to be back-ordered). Note that this value must be initialized before Volusion will actually track stock for a product. By default, Stock Status is null and if left at that value, will never be incremented or decremented based on orders, RMAs or purchase orders processed in Volusion. Product Images A picture is worth a thousand words, so be sure to make good use of photos and other images for your products. Volusion makes the process of setting up photos with your product a snap: Within each product s settings page, below Basic Product Info, you ll find Image Management. Getting Started with Volusion

48 To add or change an image for a product: 1. Click on the Add Image button. This will open the Add Product Image dialog. 2. Click Browse and select the image file to be uploaded for the product. This can be JPG or GIF file up to 2MB. 3. Click Advanced Settings to open the settings for image sizing. Here you can specify how big you want the image to be and not just the main image on the product page but also the zoom image, alternate view and thumbnails to use on category, search and other pages. Click Enable Alternate View Photos if you want customers to be able to see more than one image for a product and Remember these advanced settings if you want to use the same settings as a default for all products. 4. Click the Upload button to load the image file into the product. 5. Once the upload is complete, click Refresh Photo Panel. The image you uploaded will be displayed and a new Add Image box displayed. You can add additional images by clicking this. Getting Started with Volusion

49 If you have multiple images uploaded, your storefront will display the first one. You can change which image is displayed by dragging and dropping the images in the order you want them. There are many more advanced product settings on the Advanced Settings tabs. See the section on Advanced Settings as well as the Tips and Tricks section of the Volusion Manual for further information. Now that you ve learned how to enter products into your Volusion store, we re going to take those products to the next level and learn how to program options for your store s products. Configuring Product Options Next to store products, product options are arguably the most important step in setting up your online store s inventory. How or what kind of options you will need to configure in Volusion will be determined by the products you re selling. For example, a clothing retailer usually won t sell just a t-shirt. That t-shirt will be sold in a variety of sizes and colors. Configuring product options allows the retailer to offer sizes and colors that customers will choose when ordering a product from the store. Find the Product Options page within the Volusion Admin Page by clicking Inventory > Options. The View & Edit Options page is displayed. Getting Started with Volusion

50 You can select whether you want to show options or option categories here. Option Categories It is recommended that you set up Option Categories first. These settings manage how options are grouped. For example, the options Red, Blue and Green would belong to an Option Category called Color and XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL would belong to Sizes. Option Categories affect the behavior of product options as well as the way they will display on your storefront. To begin editing product option categories, do the following: 1. Go to Inventory > Product Options. 2. Near the top of the Options table, select Option Categories from the View dropdown menu to view the product option categories table. Some option categories have already been configured for use. 3. Click on the category ID number to edit the category. The first section contains the essential settings for Option Categories: Details ID Heading Group Option Categories Desc * About Option Categories Arrange Option Categories By * Display Type Is Required This field contains an auto-assigned number for the system to identify each category ID. This field can be used to group option categories together. Setting this field to the same value for two or more option categories will group those option categories together on the Volusion storefront under a heading based on what is entered in this field. In this field, specify the name of the option category as it will appear to customers (e.g. shoe size or Pick a color ) This field can be used to provide any additional description needed for the option category. A help icon will be present next to the option category in the shopping cart. When customers click on this help icon, a pop-up window containing information within this field will be displayed. This field enables setting the order in which option categories will display on a product s page. The higher the number specified, the later the option category will display on the page. If values for one or more option categories are the same or set to none, the system will order the option categories alphabetically. This dropdown menu allows the choice of 8 different formatting options. These will be discussed below. Enabling this option sets the category to require customers to choose one of its options to purchase a product. For example, if you are selling a t-shirt and the options are colors, a customer cannot buy a t-shirt that does not have a color. Enabling this feature will prevent them. Getting Started with Volusion

51 Hide Option Categories Desc Enabling this option will hide the text defined in the Option Categories Desc field from customers. Include In Search Refinement Enabling this option will add this option category to the search refinements that appear near the top of search results or category pages (if Search Refinement ins enabled). * These fields are required for each Option Category. Option Category Display Types As mentioned in the table above, option categories can be one of 8 different display types. These display types affect the way options are presented to customers, and some also have additional properties. These display types are as follows: Option Category Display Types DROPDOWN CHECKBOX RADIO TEXTBOX The most basic option Display Type this option will display the option category and all of its product options as a dropdown menu to choose from. This Display Type will show all available options as a series of checkboxes for customers to choose from (often used when customers can choose more than one option in the same set of options). Similar to the CHECKBOX, this Display Type will show all product options in the category as radio buttons. Only one radio button can be selected. This Display Type will show customers a text box where they can manually type in options. This feature is often used for customizable products. DROPDOWN_CONTROL DROPDOWN_CLIENT DROPDOWN_SMARTMATCH PLAIN_TEXT This dropdown is a legacy option for stores that have upgraded from V3 or V4 and should not be used. This dropdown is a legacy option for stores that have upgraded from V3 or V4 and should not be used. Selecting this will activate the Smartmatch function. This is covered later in the manual. This Display Type will show all product options within the category as a simple line of text. There is no customer input with this option. This Display Type is useful for showing customers product options that will be automatically included with the product they are viewing. Creating Options Next, we will discuss how to create the specific options that your customers will want to choose for different products. Again, using the online clothing retailer as an example, a customer won t just buy a t-shirt but will buy a large, blue t-shirt. This portion of the manual will show you how to create the large and blue parts of the equation as well as assign them to different Option Categories. Getting Started with Volusion

52 The Product Options page can be found by logging into the Volusion Admin Page, clicking on Inventory tab > Product Options. Those already editing Option Categories can find this page by selecting Options from the View dropdown menu. There are already a series of product options created for use (e.g. size, color, etc.). You can modify them to suit your needs by clicking on the ID of a category to edit it. You can also click the Add button near the top of the page to create a new product option from scratch. Product Options have many possible settings. You may need to use many or very few of these settings. The following table details the basic settings required for each product option you can customize in the Volusion system: Details ID* Price Diff Option Cat ID* Option Desc This field contains an auto-assigned number for the Volusion system to identify the Product Option. If an extra charge is incurred when a customer chooses the option being entered, use this field to indicate the price difference. For example: an option with a $1.00 price difference, when chosen for a product with a price of $5.99, will have a sub-total of $6.99. Enter a negative dollar amount if a particular option reduces the cost of a product. This dropdown field allows you to define which Option Category the Product Option belongs to. Note that a Product Option can only be assigned to one Option Category. Use this field to enter the actual text that will be displayed to the customer when the options are displayed. Getting Started with Volusion

53 Apply To Product Code(s) Enter the product or products to which this option will be applied. A product option can be applied to as many products as needed. Each product code must be separated by a comma. * These fields are required for each Option. More Volusion 2011 can support an unlimited number of Product Options and Categories. A Product Option can only be assigned to one category at a time. Option Categories can have multiple Product Options assigned to them. There is no limit to the number of Product Options that can apply to an individual product. However, some product settings may not be compatible with some features available in Smartmatch and the Inventory Control Grid. Please see the Advanced Settings section of the Volusion Manual for more information. Of course, there are many more settings you can configure for your product options and a wide variety of uses for each. Again, more information on this can be found in the Advanced Settings section of the Volusion Manual. Now that you ve completed setting up your store s categories, products and product options, you might wonder if there s any way you can get your store in gear and create the 2,000 plus products you need to offer online without spending ages with setting up each product. Well, Volusion has the solution for you in the next section: Importing & Exporting. Importing & Exporting This section will show you how Volusion enables you to quickly upload large amounts of data to your store and just as easily export that data to a downloadable spreadsheet or text file you can use in other applications. Importing and exporting data to and from your Volusion store can be done using the Volusion Import / Export page. To navigate to this page: 1. Log into the Volusion Administration Page and click the Inventory tab. 2. Click the Import / Export link in the menu bar at the top of the page. The page labeled Data Import / Export Tools should now be displayed. This page is divided into two main sections Standard Import / Export and Other Import / Export Features. It is the top section we are concerned with here. Getting Started with Volusion

54 Data Export In order to provide an easy path for you to start importing your product data, we are first going to export your store s product table. Before starting this, you should have at least one product set up in your store. We are going to export its information into a spreadsheet you can then use as a template to compile your existing data into a file you can import into your store. To reach Volusion s basic export functions, do the following: 1. Go to Inventory >Import / Export. 2. Click on the Data Export button. Getting Started with Volusion

55 Supported File Types The export portion of the Volusion Import / Export system supports 4 file types. These are as follow: Supported File Types CSV TAB PIPE XML Comma Separated Value files are essentially text files. Values within these file types are delineated by commas. This is the most commonly used file type for both importing and exporting to Volusion. The benefit of this file type is that it can easily be loaded into a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel where the file type can be quickly and easily edited. Tab delineated files are very similar to CSV files with the exception that all values are separated by a tabbed space within the text file. Many text file editors can read and modify these files. This file type is expressly used as the default export file type for other e-commerce systems and is provided to allow easy migration from other shopping cart systems to Volusion. Pipe Delineated Files are text files, very similar to CSV and TAB files with the exception that values within the file are separated by the pipe ( ) character. Short for extensible Markup Language, XML is an industry standard use to format data in a nested or hierarchical manner that appears similar to HTML. Executing an Export 1. Choose a Table From the Table dropdown menu select the table from which to export data. Note that you can only export data from the tables listed in this dropdown menu and can only export data from one table at a time. In this case, select the Products table from the list. Getting Started with Volusion

56 2. Choose Columns to Export After choosing a table, this field within will auto-populate with a list of all columns stored within the database table, showing the data type of each. In this case, enable all options by clicking Check All Products columns. Note the column marked with ( * ) is the primary key the column that contains the unique identifier for every element in the table. It s recommended to always export this value especially if preparing a file that will be imported back into the system. Columns marked with ( ** ) are dynamic, virtual columns that are assembled by 2 or more connecting tables. This data can be exported; however it cannot be imported back into the system. Leave these fields unchecked when you are exporting data to generate a template. 3. Choose a File Type As mentioned above, Volusion supports 4 files types for importing and exporting data. Here, choose the CSV file type from the Export To dropdown menu. 4. Export After configuring the appropriate settings as described above, export the file by clicking the Export Now button. All available data for each column will be exported from the system. An export from a very large table (e.g. a Products table that contains over 100,000 individual products) may take several minutes to execute. Once the export is complete, you will receive a success message containing a link that, when clicked, will allow downloading of the export file to your computer. Once you have downloaded the file you can open it in your text editor or spreadsheet program of choice (e.g. Microsoft Office, Open Office, etc.). Upon opening your exported file, you will see a spreadsheet containing all data from your store s product table. Each setting for your products will be listed in the spreadsheet as a column. Now, edit the file, adding additional products into each row. Note that there is no need to configure every single column but you may want to examine these columns to familiarize yourself with the different product table settings. Once you have added new products to your table, save it and we will import this updated file. Macintosh Users The Macintosh version of MS Office supports multiple CSV file formats. When saving your CSV file, be sure to save it as CSV (MS Windows) file type. Data Import To import data, return to the same Data Import/Export Tools page and click the Data Import button located under the Standard Import/Export header. Getting Started with Volusion

57 You can use the import function to add additional products and information as well as update existing product data. To import the CSV file you created in the previous section: Executing an Import There are several settings to configure in order to successfully import a file. 1. Choose a Table From the Table dropdown menu, choose the database table to import data to. Note that you can only import data into the tables listed in this dropdown. If you have multiple tables you want to import to, you will be required to execute multiple import events. For our example, select the Products table from the list. 2. Choose a File From the File Name field, use the Browse button to select the spreadsheet you have edited. 3. Choose Import Type There are three types of import actions to perform regarding any existing data in the table chosen in Step 1. Within the Overwrite Existing Data? field, choose one of these three types using the radio button options. These options are as follow: No, do not change any records already in my database This option will insert any new data from the import file into the database however, will not overwrite or modify any pre-existing data in the database. For example, if while importing product data from your CSV file, the system Getting Started with Volusion

58 encounters a product with a product code that matches a product code already in your store s database, the system will ignore that row in your CSV file and proceed to the next row of data. For importing your CSV file to your products table, choose this option. Yes, replace any existing data with my new updated data Choosing this option will insert any new data from your file into your database table and update pre-existing data with equivalent data from the import file. Clear entire table and replace with this import file Choosing this option will simply erase the contents of the specified table and replace it with the contents of the import file. WARNING! This option should only be used if you are 100% certain you want to delete all of the contents of a table and rebuild it from scratch using the import file. Any pre-existing data within the table will be permanently removed from the system. 4. Test Mode? Updating this setting will allow you to verify that your file will import successfully without actually changing any data. This option defaults to Go ahead and import my data file. Selecting Test my file; do not import it yet will run the import functions but will not import any data. You can use this to troubleshoot failed import attempts. 5. Import Once the test settings are configured, click on the Upload my files button to begin the import process. Note that this process can take some time depending on the number of individual records to be imported. For example, importing a CSV file containing 100 entries to update the Products table should be completed within less than a minute. However, attempting to update the same table with a CSV file containing 100,000 products will require significantly more time to complete. After the Import Once the Import is complete, a message stating that your import was successful data from the file will be displayed Volusion store s database table. Now navigate to Inventory > Products. You should now see the new products you entered into the CSV file have been imported into your store. You can repeat this process to insert data into any store table provided that table is accessible in the initial Import / Export dropdown menu. At this point, we have covered information on how you can get your Volusion store set up and ready to sell online. Now that you have a store full of products to sell, let s look at how you can use Volusion to better sell and market your business. Getting Started with Volusion

59 Using the HTML Editor The HTML Editor (sometimes referred to as the Easy Editor) is a tool that allows you to quickly create HTML code without any prior experience with HTML. This can be found appended to many of the descriptive fields in Categories, Products and Site Content. For this example we re going to add a photograph to Product Description (in addition to the product images set up earlier): Inserting Photos 1. Click on Inventory > Products. 2. Click on a Product Code to open the Products page. 3. Click on the HTML Editor link beneath Product Description. 4. The HTML Editor will pop-up with any text previously typed into this field. Now, click to place your cursor wherever you want your photo to appear, and click the Image icon. This will open a new window. 5. Click the folder icon to the right of the Source field. This will open another window. 6. You can now either select an image that is already on your site by selecting it from the list on the right or upload an image stored locally on your computer by clicking Browse, navigating to the file and clicking the Upload button. This will add the image to the list on the right. 7. Click OK to close this window. 8. Your image should now appear in the HTML Editor window. Next, choose the Copy HTML to Parent Window button and then save changes on the page you are editing. Creating Hyperlinks To create a link in the HTML Editor, select the text you want as the link. 1. Click on the Hyperlink icon. A new window will open. The first dropdown allows you to select the protocol you would like to use for your link. The following options are available: mailto:// ftp:// news:// JavaScript:// used to link to another page in your website used to link to another page in your website through a secure connection used to open up a new mail window on the customers screen used to link to an ftp site for a file download used to link to a newsgroup article used to launch a script Getting Started with Volusion

60 Note If you are linking to a page within your website we highly recommend that you leave this box blank. Using when trying to access a page once a site is using the secure certificate can cause errors. 2. Once you have selected the protocol you would like to use, you can then enter the destination of the link in the second box. 3. The Target dropdown allows you to designate where you want the link to appear at: Self: opens the link in the current window. If you are using frames on the page, then it will open the link in the frame that contains the link. Blank: opens the link in a new browser window. Parent: opens the link in the parent browser. Note If you are using frames then the link will open in the browser and not use the designated frame set. If you had the link in a pop-up, then the link would open in the window that the pop-up came from. The Name field allows you to specify how you want the links to appear to your customers. If you had a link contact_us.asp and you wanted it to appear as Contact Us, then you would enter Contact Us in the Name field. Most of the features in the HTML Editor are for formatting text. You can update font color, size and indentation, much like you can in a word processor. Getting Started with Volusion

61 Step 5: Marketing Your online store is starting to take shape. You ve got your products, options and shipping settings all ready to offer your customers great deals and great products or services. Now, how do you plan to get the word out about your new online store? Why, by using Volusion 2011 s robust marketing features of course! Volusion 2011 comes equipped with many tools and functions that will help you get your online store noticed and turn those browsers into buyers. In this section, you ll find out just how to configure your Volusion store to better market yourself online. Search Engine Optimization SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the design techniques and best practices aimed at enabling online search engines to better browse, categorize and index your store s content. Applying SEO to your website s design, layout and function improves the likelihood of increased visibility in search results when potential customers use these search engines. Additional visibility, in turn, increases your site s potential traffic and sales. To configure Volusion s SEO settings, log in and click on Marketing > SEO. The Volusion SEO page is divided into several areas. Each addresses optimizing the Volusion store based on the store s data, URLs or contents. The following will describe how to use this page: Getting Started with Volusion

62 SEO Friendly URIs Within this section of the Volusion SEO page, you ll find four settings: Enable SEO Friendly URLs Use Hyphens (-) Instead of Underscores (_) Enable Canonical Links Enable full URL for Home Page Canonical Link First, check the Enable SEO Friendly option and click the Save Changes button near the bottom of the page. This turns on Volusion s SEO engine enabling subsequent SEO features within the software. This option must be active in order for 2011 s other SEO settings to work. SEO Friendly URLs By default, each product, category or article page displayed within the Volusion store is generated by a series of active server pages. This eliminates the need for merchants to create individual web pages for each item, category, article, search result and so on to be displayed within their online store. However, this process creates a dynamic URL for each product, category or article within the e-commerce site (e.g. This type of URL is not conducive to how SEO works. Getting Started with Volusion

63 Volusion's SEO engine however, reformats dynamic URLs to appear as simple, static, web pages. This increases a website's search engine optimization. This URL reformat (or rewrite) is automatically implemented once the Enable SEO Friendly URLs option in Volusion s SEO page is made active. For example, the dynamic URL listed above could be rewritten by Volusion s SEO engine to appear as Hyphens vs. Underscores This option is completely cosmetic and is left up to the merchant. Configuring this option will neither increase nor decrease a store's level of optimization. This feature simply allows merchants to choose whether they want to have hyphens ("-") or underscores ("_") used when rewriting their store's URLs to be SEO compliant. Note that hyphens or underscores will be used to substitute for spaces within product or category names, as well as article titles. Enable Canonical Links When a page is generated with more than one URL, search engines will index it as if it were several entirely different pages. To optimize these pages, Google recommends a canonical link be inserted into the head section of all your pages. This is a meta link that is used to specify which version of several similar pages is given preference by search engines. Checking the Enable Canonical Links box enables the canonical link meta tag for each page, inserting a link of the following format into the header of each page: <link rel="canonical" href=" /> Where yyyy.htm is the original, canonical version of the page. Enable full URL for Home Page Canonical Link Checking Enable full URL for Home Page Canonical Link will append "/default.asp" to the home page's canonical URL. So instead of the Home Page Canonical Link appearing as: <link rel="canonical" href=" /> It would appear as: <link rel="canonical" href=" /> when that setting is turned on. Getting Started with Volusion

64 Add Meta Tags The next set of SEO functions configures the Meta data for pages throughout store. For those unfamiliar with Meta data and how it relates to SEO, here is a brief and basic explanation. What are Meta Tags? Meta tags are specialized HTML tags used to contain data about well, data. For example, a webpage will generally contain some kind of data whether its news article, a table full of financial figures or a page containing information about a product for sale. Meta data in this case, is data hidden within a web page that describe the data being displayed for the benefit of a search engine system. Search engines specifically look at a web page s content but also reference that with any data contained within the site s Meta tags when indexing a web page. Essentially, the more relevant data stored within Meta tags, the easier it will be for search engines to index web content. This portion of the Volusion SEO page consists of settings that can allow you to configure Meta tags for the various areas of your online store. Note that the Meta tags defined here controls Meta data for the fundamental portions of the Volusion store. Product, category and article tags are set in the Product, Category and Article pages. The following Meta tags can be configured within Volusion from this page. Meta Tags Meta Title This field sets the title meta tag of the particular set of pages being displayed. This title will appear in the title bar of any web browser window visiting the store. This setting does not affect other title settings within the store such as the business name that appears on shipping labels, etc. This field should contain a brief description of the page. Meta Description Meta Keywords You enter keywords that relate to this page. These keywords will be indexed as meta data related to the store and can be used by potential visitors to find the site and its contents via search engines. Each keyword should be separated via commas (e.g. term1, term2, term3) and should relate to products, services or brands that a store specializes in. Choose the store area from the tabs on the right and enter the appropriate information. Note that the Default Values should be set up first as they will appear for every type of page that does not have a specific set of meta tags set up. Advanced Settings Additionally, the Volusion SEO provides access to an Advanced settings tab for each page type. Note that this overrides any settings configured within the Easy Mode settings tab. In most cases, you will not use the SEO page s Advanced mode. This mode is available for experienced web designers to allow custom Meta information to be entered for the Volusion store. Getting Started with Volusion

65 Globally Appended Meta Tags This section applies to every page in your store. Again, this should only be used by SEO experts. Configuring SEO for Products, and Categories After configuring your store s Meta tag settings as described above, the Volusion store itself will be optimized for search engines; however additional settings must be configured for individual products and categories. For these elements, there is a tab within the Advanced Settings section called Search Engine Optimization. The settings contained under this heading will contain all variables for that element s Meta tags and other SEO information. The number of Meta tag settings available will vary depending on what type of element being edited (e.g. products have 5 Meta tag settings, categories contain only 4). It is important to enter values for every Meta tag setting available whether editing Meta data for a product, category, website article or any other element in Volusion. All Meta tag fields should be set for at least your store products and categories as this will help to increase the chances of online search engines to index and direct visitors to your site. These are examples of how the SEO urls will look for your article pages, category pages and product pages when you apply Search Engine Optimization: Site Content Articles: Category Pages: Tag_s/CategoryID.htm Product Detail Pages: _p/productcode.htm Note the bolded _a, _s and _p for the respective pages. All articles will use _a after the Meta Tag Title to distinguish it as an article page. Categories will use _s and your product detail pages will use _p. Using Search Engine Optimization is the only way to rename stores URLS s. Purchasing SEO Services Search Engine Optimization is a broad topic. There are many practices and techniques to configure online store to be SEO friendly and Volusion s SEO functions address some of the fundamentals of SEO. If you are in search of in-depth but affordable solutions to configure your store to be as SEO compliant as possible, Volusion provides SEO services to any and all Volusion -based merchants. More information on these services as well as pricing can be found online at Volusion.com. Next we ll switch gears to a more traditional retail marketing topic sales and discounts. Getting Started with Volusion

66 Creating Coupons and Discounts Now that you have your products ready to sell and some of your SEO basics configured to attract customers to your store, let s sweeten the deal and create some discounts you can offer to increase sales. You can set up coupons and discounts in your Volusion store using the Coupons / Discounts page. Here, you can create simple, automatic discounts on a product, percentages off an entire order or even coupon codes that can be distributed to customers during marketing campaigns. Log into the Volusion Coupons / Discounts page to create or activate coupons or discounts by clicking on Marketing > Coupons / Discounts. Here you can access a list of all coupons and discounts functionalities. Coupons/Discounts Settings Coupons and discounts can be configured with a variety of settings. The following sections will walk you through creating a type of coupon and quantity discount for your store. Feel free to experiment with this portion of the Volusion system to come up with discounts and coupons you want to use with your products. For more detailed information on what each coupon settings does as well as a few tips, please see the Advanced Settings section of the Volusion Manual. Setting up a Coupon Let s say you want to create a coupon good for any store product that, when applied to an order, will discount 10% off the entire order provided a customer purchases 2 or more of any product in that category. In doing this, you ll create a specific coupon code for this discount which you can embed in your store newsletter or other marketing materials. Getting Started with Volusion

67 Additionally, this coupon can only be used once by each individual customer and cannot be applied in conjunction with any other coupon or discount. First you will want to enable coupons for your store. To do this, go to Settings > Config Variables. 1. Select Checkout variables from the View menu. 2. Locate Enable Coupon Codes and check the box. Save your changes. Now we are ready to setup a coupon: 3. Go to Marketing > Coupons / Discounts. 4. In the Coupons / Quantity Discounts page, click the Add button. 5. Enter the coupon code you want to use into the Coupon Code field this will be the code customers must enter to apply the coupon to their order during checkout (e.g. new_offer ). 6. Assign a title for the coupon in the Name field (e.g. 10% Off Promo ). 7. Select Percent off ENTIRE ORDER from the Discount Type menu. 8. Set the discount s value to Assign a start date and an ending date for the promotion. Set this so the coupon will only be valid for 1 month. 10. Enable the One Time Use Coupon as well as the Cannot be Used with Any Other Coupon options. Getting Started with Volusion

68 11. Enter the ID of the categories the coupon will apply to in the Apply To Category ID(s) field. In this case, this will be the IDs for every category in the system. Note that each category ID must be separated by a single comma. 12. Enter 2 into the Min Qty field. 13. Enable the Span option within the coupon settings. This means the customer can buy 2 different products rather than 2 of the same. 14. Click the Save button to finish creating this new coupon. Once these settings are configured, customers that enter the coupon code into the Coupon code? Enter it here field on the Cart page will get this discount. This will discount the sub-total of the whole order by 10% provided that customers have at least 2 products within their cart. Each customer will only be able to apply this coupon once and no other coupons or discounts can be applied to the order. These types of coupons and discounts can be helpful in marketing an online store by allowing use of a limited time or limited use discount to customers. Since customers must know the coupon code to actually apply the discount to their order, this can be used as an incentive for customers to sign up with a store s newsletter or possibly a way of rewarding a select group of valued customers. Setting up a Quantity Discount Next, we ll demonstrate how you can use Volusion s discount features: say you want to create an automatic quantity discount for your store. The discount will automatically apply to a select number of products, provided the customer is ordering 3 or more of the products the discount will apply to. This discount won t be eligible for use with any other discounts but can be used multiple times by customers for every new order they place with the store. Finally, this discount will always be available to customers. The following details how to configure this type of discount: 1. Go to Marketing > Coupons / Discounts. 2. In the Coupons / Quantity Discounts page, click the Add button. 3. Assign a name to the discount (e.g. 10% off For 3 or more ). 4. Select Percent off a PRODUCT from the Discount Type menu. 5. Set the discount s value to Enable the Cannot Be Used with Any Other Coupon option. 7. Enter the product codes of all products the coupon will be eligible for in the Apply to Product Code(s) field. 8. Set the Min Qty field to Enable the Span option within the coupon s settings. 10. Finally, click the Save button to create the new discount. Getting Started with Volusion

69 11. Continue the above steps to create a tiered QTY Discount system. (For example 3-5, 6-10 and 11+ would all have different QTY Discounts. Once this coupon is created, a QTY Discounts button will appear on the product s detail page on the storefront. This button when clicked will show your customers the discounts available for the quantities you have setup. Any order placed for the products assigned to this discount will automatically reduce 10% off the cost of each product, provided that at least 3 of the qualifying products are ordered. These types of discounts can be great incentives to get customers to not just purchase from your online store but purchase more as the larger the order, the larger the dollar amount off that order as the discount will always deduct 10% from the cost of qualifying products. Now that you have a couple of discounts or coupons enabled in your store, it s time to reach out to your customers and let them know of these and other upcoming promotions. Volusion lets you do this! Create Newsletters One of the prime goals of marketing your online store should be to reach out to your customers and keep them connected with your business. This can help build relationships that create opportunities for repeat sales. One of the functions Volusion provides to enable you to do this is the Volusion Newsletter System. The Volusion Newsletters page allows you to create newsletter s and automatically send them to customers who have signed up to receive your store s notifications. You can design the content, focus the to a broad or narrow range of recipients and even track returns on investments of various marketing endeavors with this system. The Newsletter Table On the Marketing > Newsletter page, you can view a list of any existing newsletters that have been configured within your online store. Here you can view basic statistics for any newsletter you have configured within your store, including the following: number of instances of each newsletter that has been sent percentage of newsletters which have been opened by recipients the percentage of clicks each newsletter has generated per recipient percentage of conversions your store has received based on the number of newsletters sent. You can edit a newsletter instance by clicking on the Edit link to the left of each newsletter. To remove a newsletter, click on the X icon to the far right of the respective entry in the newsletter table. Getting Started with Volusion

70 Creating a Newsletter Building an newsletter in Volusion is simple. newsletters can contain simple text, inviting potential customers to the site, informing customers of new products or mention an upcoming sale. You can style your newsletters using HTML, creating elaborate notices with product photos, images or use simple text to brand the your newsletter in relation to your store. To create a newsletter, do the following: 1. Go to Marketing > Newsletter. This will display the Newsletters page. Click the Add button near the top of the page to begin creating a newsletter. In each newsletter, you should edit the following settings: Newsletter Settings Newsletter Name * Scheduled Send Date Template * Enter a specific name for each newsletter you create into this field. This field can contain the date an newsletter is scheduled to be sent. Each newsletter will be automatically generated using one of several templates built into the Volusion system. You can choose the template a newsletter will be generated from by selecting it from this menu. Select the Newsletter.asp field from this menu to create a newsletter from. Once you have configured the newsletter s body, you can save it as a template. Getting Started with Volusion

71 Send Test To * Send To * Include people who unsubscribed Subject * Body (HTML) * Before any newsletter can be sent, it must be tested against one valid address. Enter the test address in this field. Note that any address entered into this field must be an address contained within the Volusion store s Customer database. Preferably, this should be your address. Here, you can choose which class of customer will receive the newsletter. These classes are based on the types of customers within the Volusion store s Customer database. These settings will be detailed further in the Advanced Settings section of the Volusion Manual. If you have important news you can use this checkbox to include people who have unsubscribed from this newsletter. Obviously you should only use this feature for genuinely urgent information. This field allows merchants to define the subject line for the newsletter s actual . The actual content of the newsletter can be defined here. Click the HTML Editor to enter HTML or text you want to build your overall newsletter s design. Body (Text) * As some systems will remove HTML from incoming messages for security purposes you will also want to enter basic, plain-text versions of the ad copy configured in the Body (HTML) field here. * These fields are required to be configured for each newsletter in Volusion. Note that once a newsletter is created, you must manually test and send the newsletter using the controls provided in the newsletter settings. This process will be described next: Targeted Newsletters Once you ve designed your initial newsletter copy using the settings described above, it s time to configure the newsletter to its target audience your customers. Volusion allows you several degrees of customization in terms of which customers will receive each specific newsletter. Customer Interests Initially, each newsletter entry comes configured with 20 different customer interest types that you can enable or disable. This list can be found by clicking the Send to Customers w/the following interests heading. This list of interests corresponds with an identical list within Customers > Accounts for each customer. For example: Enabling Newsletter 1 within a newsletter will configure the newsletter to be sent only to registered customers within your store who have indicated interests that overlap the ones you select at this stage. You can alter the names of each newsletter setting by clicking on the EDIT Link located just to the right of this section s heading within the Newsletter settings page. On the following page, simply enter you own, custom name for any item in the interests table and click Save to rename interests. Getting Started with Volusion

72 Note that your customers cannot configure interests for their own accounts this feature is only available for store administrators. Keep this in mind when using this system. Testing and Sending a Newsletter Once a newsletter is configured, of course, the next step is to send it to its intended recipients. Before that however, be sure to test the newsletter being sent. You must always test newsletters to make sure the information, design and overall presentation of each newsletter is ready for your customers. After the testing process is complete, you can send out the live version. The following steps will describe how you can test and then send your newsletters: 1. Go to Marketing > Newsletters. 2. In the Newsletters table view page, click on the ID number of the newsletter to be sent to view its settings. 3. In the newsletter s settings page, there will be a button labeled, Preview. Click the Preview button here to test the newsletter. 4. Click this button to view the newsletter s test and statistics page. Here, you can test send newsletters as well as view the statistics for the newsletters you have generated and sent during the current billing month for your Volusion store account. Some of the statistics collected on this page include: The number of newsletters sent during the current billing period. Amount of s opened within the current billing period. Number of customers who unsubscribed from the store s newsletter list. The number of customers who ve marked store newsletters as spam. This data alone can be instrumental in helping to determine the effectiveness of newsletter campaigns. Getting Started with Volusion

73 Note on Sending Newsletters Do note that there are limits to the number of newsletters that Volusion can send depending on your Volusion store account type. Please see Advanced Settings section of the Volusion Manual for more information. Unsolicited can be a very powerful marketing tool for online merchants but for some, notifications, particularly unsolicited notifications, can be considered an annoyance or even an intrusion of privacy. When it comes to spam, Volusion has a no-tolerance policy. Merchants are given powerful marketing tools within Volusion but are asked not to abuse these privileges. Note that to meet industry guidelines to guard against unsolicited , all you send should meet the following criteria: The recipient has made a purchase, requested information, responded to a questionnaire or a survey, or has had offline contact with the merchant s business. Newsletter s must provide a working link to unsubscribe from the mailing list (already provided in your store s default template). Requests to unsubscribe from newsletters must be processed within 10 days of receiving said request. The "from address" must contain the Volusion store domain name. subject lines must not contain misleading information. For further information, US-based merchants should review stipulations provided by the CAN-SPAM Act, located at Compliance-Guide-for-Business. In order to unsubscribe a customer from your newsletter list, you must edit the subscriber variable in the customer s account in your Volusion store. Information on this process can be found in the Advanced Settings section of the Volusion Manual. We re only just getting started showing you steps on how to market your Volusion store! The next section will explain how you can take advantage of Volusion s features to engage with 3 rd party services to better market your online business. MyRewards Program Why not give something back to your loyal customers? Everyone likes to get a little something extra and with the MyRewards program you can do just that very easily while also increasing sales! Enabling the Program 1. Go to Marketing > MyRewards. Getting Started with Volusion

74 2. By default the program is disabled. Use the MyRewards Setup dropdown to set to either Points for Product or Points for Cash. 3. Points for Cash is for if you want your customers to make purchases and earn points based on the amount of money they spend in your store to redeem for store credit. This will be based off the subtotal of the order before tax and shipping. 4. Points for Product is if you want the customers to earn specific points based on the items they order. If you choose this option, you will need to go into your product records and enter in the number of points each product will be worth in the Reward Points Given for Purchase field on the Misc tab. 5. Set your Points Earned per Currency Unit if you are using Points for Cash. (If you are using Points for Products, move on to the next step) 6. Points Earned per Currency Unit is to tell the system how many points the customer will earn for each currency unit they spend. 7. Set your Points Redeemed per Currency Unit that you want to use. 8. The Points Redeemed per Currency Unit is to tell the system how many points it takes to amount to one redemption dollar. 9. Enter the Minimum Points Required to Redeem that you want to set. 10. If you want to set a timeframe (days) that the points are pending for, set in the Time until Rewards are Redeemable. 11. If you want to have expiration on the points, enter the number of days in the Time Rewards are redeemable (days). Now, once your customer places an order and it is marked as Shipped, the points your customer has accrued will be redeemable after the number of days you set (if any). Your customers will be able to view their MyRewards points by logging into their account on your store and on the My Account page, there will be a My Rewards link. Getting Started with Volusion

75 On their MyRewards page, there will be an option to redeem their points for store credit. Here they can choose how many points they want to redeem, and as an admin you will have the option to set a minimum requirement for redemption. There is also a link to read your Terms and Conditions for the Reward program. Getting Started with Volusion

76 If you view this page on your storefront, you will be able to edit the text of the terms and conditions page. Getting Started with Volusion

77 You can also edit through your admin area using Site Content page ID 141 under Design > Site Content. Make sure to edit this page to reflect the settings you will choose! Once the customer chooses to redeem the points, they will be sent an confirmation and within your admin area, a gift certificate is created and assigned to the customer s record. Next time they go to place an order; their redeemed points will automatically be deducted from the total order amount. You can also see how many points a specific customer has in their Customer account in your admin panel. Getting Started with Volusion

78 Step 6: Advanced Marketing The next section of this manual will cover some advanced marketing services you can use with your Volusion store. Read on for how to use some of Volusion s features and readily available Web technologies to better sell online. Note Since these are not Volusion products, and are liable to change without notice, the following procedures cannot be guaranteed as being up-to-date. You should therefore check the providers' websites for the latest information. Submit your Sitemap to Google Google offers website verification services through their online Google Webmaster Tools. This verification service allows you to declare you site layout for Google to better reference its overall content. Before you follow the steps below, it is highly recommended by Volusion that you have your SEO setup for the store first. To verify your site with Google s service, sign up for a Webmaster Tools account here: In order to perform verification with Google s Webmaster Tools, you must submit an XML-based sitemap to your Google Webmaster Tools account. This all might sound complicated but Volusion makes the process simple. In fact, the XML sitemap you will need to create has already been generated for you. Getting Your Sitemap File To retrieve your XML sitemap, simply open your browser to the following address: Once the page loads, you will be presented with the entire XML code for your online store s sitemap. Simply copy the contents of this page and past them into an ordinary text file to save a local copy of this file. That s it! Please note to substitute for the domain of your Volusion store. Once you have saved the contents of the sitemap page to a local file, log into your Google Webmaster Tools account and within the sitemap verification settings, upload the file you have just saved. A link to Google s content submission page can be found here: Once your sitemap file has been uploaded, please allow for some time for Google s system to complete the verification process. Getting Started with Volusion

79 Note This function of Volusion and Google s Webmaster Tools verification service does not guarantee increased page rankings or search engine stats however, it does increase the likelihood that potential site visitors will be able to find your online store and its products by searching Google for relative content. Also, it is recommended that if you want to verify your Volusion store with Google s Webmaster Tools that you do so only after fully programming all categories, products and other content into your Volusion store. Submitting your sitemap to Google prior to this will result in a sitemap listing that may be incomplete in terms of the actual content in your site. Additionally, if you have already submitted your sitemap to Google but have made a large number of recent changes in your store s category or products listings that you should re-submit your sitemap to Google using the steps outlined above. Marketing Products with AdWords While on the topic of advertising your store on the web with help from Google, what better way to advertise to a huge audience than to do so in Google s own search results? Google has a unique program that allows online business owners advertise themselves no matter their budget using Google AdWords. The AdWords program allows you to get ads and links to your business online and posted in Google s search results page. AdWords works like this: Sign up for an AdWords account at adwords.google.com, create your ad and enter into it specific keywords related to your online store or products. When visitors go to Google enter same or similar key words into their searches, Google can then present your AdWords ad online in the visitor s search results page. This is a quick and easy way to generate traffic to your site. What s more, those viewing your ad are already interested in your store or products having triggered the ad based on its keywords and Google s search criteria instant, targeted marketing. Even more incentive to start marketing with AdWords, Volusion is going to get you started with AdWords free of charge! Each Volusion store comes with a free, $50 coupon for use with Google s AdWords service. Once your store is ready to sell online, simply sign up with AdWords, enter your Volusion coupon information and you will be advertising in no time. Marketing via MySpace and Facebook In order to allow Volusion you to extend your online store's functionality beyond Volusion itself and take advantage of the vast potential of online marketing through popular social networking services, Volusion provides the ability to integrate your online store with both Facebook and MySpace. Getting Started with Volusion

80 Volusion's Facebook and MySpace integration allows you the ability to broadcast products to a wide variety of customers directly from two of the most popular social networking systems on the Web. Note that in order to gain access to this powerful tool, you will require access to the Volusion API provided with any Volusion Gold plan store or above. You will also require access to either a MySpace or Facebook account to publish store information on. Facebook: MySpace: The Volusion Featured Products Export Exporting product information to Facebook or MySpace is simple. The first step requires activation of a special setting within the Volusion API to have Volusion send product data to the Volusion Social Networking Application. 1. Go to Inventory > Import / Export. 2. On the next page, click the Volusion API button. 3. In the main API page, check the Enable public XML for Featured Products option and click the Save button. Getting Started with Volusion

81 Once this is done, Volusion will now be ready to export featured product information to Facebook and MySpace. Installing the Featured Products App in MySpace Once the steps above are complete, the Social Store Builder app must be installed in your MySpace account. 1. Log into MySpace, click on the More link in the menu bar at the top of the page then select Apps Gallery. 2. To quickly find the application, simply search for Social Store Builder or Volusion on the MySpace Apps page (if results do not appear, click the Alphabetical link on the search results page). Getting Started with Volusion

82 3. Click on the Volusion Social Store Builder App link in the app search results page to select the application. 4. On the following page, click Add this App to install the application to the MySpace account. 5. Once the application is installed in MySpace, click the Home link in the MySpace menu bar to go to the profile page. 6. Find the Social Store Builder app within the profile page. Users must enter the domain name of their Volusion store into the text box provided by the app and click the save button to complete the installation. Getting Started with Volusion

83 Once these steps are complete, Volusion s Social Store Builder app will be ready for use with your MySpace account. Installing the My Featured Products App in Facebook 1. Log into Facebook and search for Social Store Builder within the search form in the upper right portion of the Facebook interface. 2. If you re reading this online, you can also visit the Social Store Builder application page directly by clicking here. 3. Click the entry for the Volusion Social Store Builder app. 4. Click the Go to Application link and then click the Allow button. 5. This will install the application into the Facebook account. Now it must be activated. 6. If not already there, click on the profile link in the top left corner to return to your main Facebook page. 7. Click the Applications link at the bottom, left section of your profile page. 8. Select Edit from the Applications menu. 9. On the following page, choose Authorized from the Show dropdown menu. 10. Click the Edit Settings link next to the listing for the Social Store Builder app within your Facebook applications page. 11. Next, select the Profile tab within the application's pop-up window and click the link to add the application to your account box. 12. Optionally, you can edit the application's privacy settings within this pop-up. When finished, click Okay. Once these steps are complete, the Social Store Builder app will be loaded into the Boxes page within the main Facebook profile. Simply click on the Boxes tab to view the app. Getting Started with Volusion

84 Click on the app to edit its settings and enter the domain for your Volusion store to connect your store with the Social Store Builder application. Note, be sure to omit the "http" prefix from your store's domain name when entering it into the application dialog box. Using Volusion with MySpace and Facebook Once these steps are complete, the Volusion application will automatically retrieve a list of products within the Volusion store where Feature this Product on the Home Page is set to Home_Featured. Each product retrieved from the export will be displayed within your social networking account and will include details such as the product image, price, sale price and an Add to cart link for each and every product displayed here. Clicking on this link will redirect visitors to merchants' Volusion store shopping cart page with the product, automatically loaded into the shopping cart. Visitors can then continue shopping within the Volusion store or proceed to check out. Using the Social Store Builder Only products that are members of the Home_Featured group within the Volusion store will be exported to the Volusion application. Volusion recommends only assigning products to your store s Home_Featured group and regularly updating this group to best market your products. This will prevent social network profiles from being "overloaded" with product data as well as keep Volusion store bandwidth usage in regards to the Social Store Builder to a minimum. Also, due to display constraints enforced by MySpace profiles, the Social Store Builder app can only display a certain number of featured products within your profile. Again, be sure to set the number of featured products in the Volusion store to a manageable number (15-20 at most) to mitigate any display problems users might encounter within their MySpace profiles. Facebook users should note that due to the display constraints within the Facebook profile UI, the Social Store Builder cannot display product content within the applications area of the Facebook profile page. Because of this constraint, the Social Store Builder will only display content within the box it is assigned to in your Facebook profile. Register ing with Google Base Google Base is one of many third party services that Volusion can directly integrate with to help you better sell online. Google Base allows users a new avenue to list items on the Web whether you're offering products, services, jobs, listing events or marketing Getting Started with Volusion

85 yourself. Using this tool can help to drive traffic to your Volusion store's products and hopefully increase online sales. Volusion s Google Base integration requires access to Volusion s API which is provided with Volusion Gold plan stores and above. Configuring Google Base First you must register with Google to gain access to the Google Base service. You can do this by signing up at base.google.com and following the onscreen instructions. Once this is done, you must then configure the Data Feed settings for your Base account: 1. Click on the link marked Data Feeds. 2. Click on Settings and enter your store name in the Display Name field. 3. Enter your Volusion store's address in the Website URL field. 4. Click Save and then click on the My Items tab. 5. In the My Items page, click on the Data Feeds link. 6. Click on the New Data Feed button. 7. Set the Item Type setting to Products. 8. Next, Under the Setup Data Feeds section, enter a file name for the XML document your Volusion store will export to Google Base (e.g. myproducts.xml) 9. Click the Register data feed button. Getting Started with Volusion

86 Configuring Google Base FTP Access Now your Google Base data feed is configured. However, in order to get data from your Volusion store, you will next need to set up FTP access within your Google Base account. Here's how: 1. Log into your Google Base account at base.google.com. 2. Click on the Data Feeds link and find the Settings tab. 3. Now, find the heading marked FTP Account. 4. Here, you can create your Google Base FTP account by entering a login name, password and clicking the Save Changes button. Your Google Base FTP account is now configured. Please note that it may take some time for your Base FTP account to become active. Next, you must configure your Google Base settings in Volusion to complete the integration process: Configuring Google Base Settings in Volusion 1. Go to Inventory > Import / Export. 2. Next, click the Volusion API link in the following page. 3. In the main Volusion API page, click the Google Base link. 4. Enter the FTP login name, password and the Google Base XML file name EXACTLY as you entered them in the Google Base configuration process above. 5. Enter a title and description for your Google Base export into the relative fields on this page. You can enter anything you want. Getting Started with Volusion

87 6. Click the Generate XML button. Note that the XML file generation process may take some time, depending on the size of your product database. 7. Once the XML generation is complete, XML code will appear on this page. 8. Finally, click the Publish button to send the XML data to Google Base. Congratulations, your Volusion store will now be integrated with your Google Base account and your products will be listed online through Google's new service. Please note that it may take some time for Google's base system to publish your product information online after you have transmitted the XML information to your Base account. There are some additional notes you should be aware of regarding Volusion s Google Base integration. These are as follow: Product Requirements The Volusion Google Base export will send product data for all products in your Volusion store's database to your Base account. Some products however will be exempt from the export. Please note that the Google Base export will not send product data for products that meet any of the following conditions: Products with the Google Product Type ** field left unconfigured Products marked as Hidden Products marked for Private Section Customers Only Any product configured as a Gift Certificate Any product configured with a Setup Cost Products configured with a Membership Cost Any product configured to be a donation product Child products ** You can set your products' Google Product Type by editing your products' settings in the Volusion Admin Page. In the Products table, you can find the Google Product Type setting under the heading marked, 3rd Party Specific Fields. Product Expiration Google Base automatically sets a 30 day expiration date for any product data exported to the service. This expiration date is 30 days from the date Google received your exported data. You will want to re-generate your Google Base XML and re-send it using the controls provided in the Volusion API page every 30 days to update your product listings in Google Base. Getting Started with Volusion

88 Blog Your Store Blogs and other forms of new media have emerged in the past several years as a major force in global communication. This form of media is also a fertile ground for online marketing. Many Volusion-based merchants have used blogs to help energize their online store through savvy, web-enabled marketing. The following list will describe some basic steps you can undertake to use blogging to promote your Volusion store: Increase your SEO Rank through Blogs One thing common to all search engines is that they reference text and information posted on the Internet and categorize it so that users may search for and find relative content based on their search criteria. The more certain content appears online, the more likely a search engine will reference it. Advertise your store online through blogs (e.g. a friend s blog, blogs related to the products or services you sell or even your own blog). Visitors to a blog would not only find (and hopefully click on) an advertised link to your site, but doing this will also increase your site s search engine optimization. Register Affiliates who Blog Do you have a customer who has a popular blog? Sign them up to be a store affiliate using the steps outlined in the next section. Not only could affiliates possibly increase your traffic and sales by posting their affiliate links on their blog, but they can earn some extra cash though affiliate commissions everyone wins! Get Product Reviews through Blogs Know some bloggers who are satisfied customers of your product or service? Ask if they would be interested in writing a review for one of the products they purchased online (they can even do this on your Volusion store). This will help increase your store s SEO, help drive traffic to your site, as well as get the word out on your products or services. Get a Blog and Get Active Are you passionate about your business? Do you think you have a winning product or service? Are you a non-profit organization and want to promote your efforts online? Get a blog! It s pretty easy to get online and start publishing. There are a wide variety of free blogging services available online such as Blogger, Wordpress.com and LiveJournal. You can blog about your business efforts, products and your online store in general to further market your business and elicit an avenue for customer feedback through the blog s commenting systems. Use Your Store s Affiliate System The Affiliate system is a function of Volusion s Marketing and Customers pages that allows your store s registered customers to become affiliates of your online store. Getting Started with Volusion

89 Affiliates can be instrumental in marketing and driving traffic (and sales!) to your site. The Volusion Affiliate functions allow your store to assign special tracking links to any approved affiliate. These links are provided to the affiliate, who can then place them in numerous areas on the Internet (e.g. high-traffic blogs, forums, etc.). These links will trace back to your Volusion store, allowing affiliates to drive traffic to your site. Additionally, the Volusion Affiliate system provides a way of tracking inbound activity to your site based on these special tracking links. The system can track click-throughs as well as sales based on affiliate link referrals and can even calculate percentages for referral commission you can pay to your affiliates (giving affiliates more incentive to market your store). Becoming an Affiliate An affiliate is a special type of customer account. Your customers can request to become affiliates by clicking on the Become an Affiliate Link located near the bottom of your Volusion storefront and proceeding through the brief registration process detailed below: Near the bottom of the Volusion storefront, visitors can click on the Become an Affiliate link. Following this, visitors will have to log into their Volusion store account in order to complete the affiliate sign up process. If visitors do not have an account, they ll be prompted to create one. Prospective affiliates will be prompted to enter their website address and a tax ID number (usually either a social security or EIN number), in order to verify the address to which payments can be made. Getting Started with Volusion

90 Clicking Continue will complete the sign up process for the affiliate they will receive a notice that their affiliate account will be activated after a 24 hour approval process. Getting Started with Volusion

91 From here, a store administrator must manually approve the customer's account to officially grant them affiliate status. This step is also quite easy. 1. Go to Customers > Accounts. 2. Within the main Customers table, click on the ID of the customer they want to promote to affiliate status. 3. In the customer account settings, select Partner / Affiliate from the Access Key dropdown menu and click Save to grant the customer affiliate status. Once this process is complete, the customer will officially become an affiliate of your store. Getting Started with Volusion

92 Note that fully-functioning affiliate accounts can only be created using this method. Store administrator can create an affiliate account directly within their store s Admin Page, but this does not enable the creation of functioning tracking URLs for the affiliate account. Viewing Your Affiliates You can view a list of active affiliates within your Volusion store by doing the following: 1. Click on Marketing >Affiliates. 2. All affiliates will be listed here. Note that each affiliate presented here contains the same settings as that affiliate s entry in the Volusion Customers table. 3. Click the ID number of an affiliate to view their account settings in the Volusion Customers database. Notes Once a customer has been made an affiliate, they can log into their customer account in the Volusion store and can click on the Visit My Affiliate Page link at the bottom of the page. From here, affiliates will have access to reports on the number of click-throughs, sales and commission they have generated in their affiliate account as well as up to 4 subaffiliates that can be registered under them. Each affiliate's page will also contain a link to enable them to quickly create HTML banner ads that can be posted on their websites and in s (these banner ads will contain links back to the Volusion store plus the affiliates ID information for tracking purposes). Finally, this page will contain the affiliate's link. This link is the URL of the Volusion store accompanied with the affiliate's ID number. Clicking on this link will redirect visitors to the Volusion store in question and will record all sales and click-throughs under the affiliate's account. Affiliates can copy this URL and embed it as a hypertext link on any websites or in any /online marketing material to which they have access. Getting Started with Volusion

93 Affiliate Reports To view a report containing your store s most recent affiliate activity, simply log into your Volusion store s Admin Page and go to Reports > ROI. This page will contain a table listing all active affiliate links that have been generated by your store. Along with each active affiliate link, the total number of clicks each link has generated will be listed, along with the number of sales that link has generated as well. Additionally, the table will list the clicks-to-sales conversion rate. Initially, this page will show all affiliate activity within the past 30 days. You can use the reporting functions on this page to view affiliate stats for different dates or periods of time as well. For more information on using the ROI Tracking as well as other functions in the Reports section, see the Advanced Settings section of the Volusion Manual. Note Each affiliate in the Volusion store will be assigned an ID number. When viewing affiliate stats, you might encounter several entries in the ROI Tracking table for an affiliate with an ID of 0. These refer to automated affiliate campaigns and systems such as Google Adwords. Getting Started with Volusion

94 Step 7 Placing Orders Understanding the Checkout Process Your homepage is the first part of your store most customers will see. Sometimes they will begin from a category or product details page if they came via a search engine. Most orders will follow the same general process: 1. Home page (Default.asp) 2. Category pages/search Results pages (SearchResults.asp) 3. Product Details page (ProductDetails.asp) 4. Shopping Cart (ShoppingCart.asp) 5. Login (Login.asp) 6. Login with existing and password or: o Click Create new account button o Create a New Account of Modify Existing Account Info (AccountSettings.asp) o Create new address and choose a new password o Enter new shipping address o Enter new billing address if different from shipping address o Choose Shipping preference for order o Enter Credit Card/Payment Info 7. Review Order then proceed to checkout button (One-Page-checkout.asp) 8. Order Finished Confirmation/Receipt (OrderFinished.asp) New customers would follow the above steps intuitively as they shop from your website. Returning customers will skip most of Step 6 because when they login to their account, they will have all their past information saved to allow for a quick checkout process. Admin Area The Quick Phone Order Page As an administrator, you can place orders from the front-end of our store by simply following the same checkout process as your customers would, or you may use the Phone Order page in the Admin Area to take orders over the phone this enables some additional tools, control and features that are useful for taking phone orders easily. Getting Started with Volusion

95 Placing Orders from the Storefront as if you were a customer 1. Click the Log Out link on the very top right. 2. Now, from the home page of your store you can add items into the cart and proceed to checkout. 3. When asked to login or create a new account, simply create a new account with all of the customer s information. You are basically just placing the order as if you were the customer. If you have turned on Anonymous Checkout, you will not need to create a new account however you still will need to provide an address on the checkout page. Placing Orders through the Phone Order Page Click Orders > Phone Orders. For New Customers Click the New Customer tab in the Log in Checkout Type section and create a new account by entering an , password and click on Create Account. Note It is possible to have the customer place the order anonymously, which means that they do not need an account to place an order. Simply click the Anonymous tab. The downside to this process is that you will not be able to capture the customer s address or information. For financial reporting, all anonymous orders are lumped together. Also, the customer will be unable to track their order online. For Existing Customers Click the Existing Customer tab in the Log in Checkout Type section and enter the Customer ID and click the Login button. This will pull up the customers and password. This will keep the order under the customer s account. To Add Products to a Phone Order 1. Click on the Go Shopping link beneath Order Summary to add products to the cart. This will take you to the homepage of your store. 2. Once products have been added to the shopping cart, close the shopping cart page in your storefront. This will bring you back to the Phone Order page in your admin area. 3. Click on the Refresh button in the Phone Order page. This will add/list the products that were added to the cart through your storefront. 4. Enter the customers shipping information, then click Precalculate Tax + Shopping Rates, then choose the shipping method they prefer. Getting Started with Volusion

96 5. Enter the customer s billing information and payment details, and click the Place Order button. Note: When taking a phone order, you are logged in as an administrator, but place the order through the customer s account by logging into their account on the Phone Order page. Point of Sale System If you do business through a brick and mortar store, you may need to use a Point Of Sale System for quick check-outs. Well, Volusion has a built in system for you! The Point of Sale (POS) system allows you to quickly sell your products to customers who are physically in your store. This process assumes there will be no shipping cost, since the customer will carry the items out of your store. The POS is just like going to your local supermarket. 1. Go to Orders > Point of Sale. 2. Use your Barcode Scanner to scan each product. If you have a product without a UPC code, or you do not have a barcode scanner, you can simply browser your online store to add products to the cart that way. 3. Collect payment: (in any of the following ways). Use your Credit Card Swipe to swipe the customer s credit card. Enter the cash value handed to you. 4. If the customer is paying by check, you may click Proceed to checkout to use the change payment button to enter the MICR check info and then save changes. 5. Your Receipt Printer quickly prints the receipt and displays the amount of change to give to the customer, if they paid with cash. The following POS hardware is supported: Barcode Scanner Credit Card Swipe/Magnetic Stripe Reader this must be capable of reading tracks 1 and 2 on standard credit and debit cards, and that uses a USB interface in Keyboard Emulation mode, such as the MagTek SureSwipe 3-inch Receipt Printer An MICR check reader is not supported at this time. To purchase hardware, you might consider the following hardware vendors: Getting Started with Volusion

97 Although these pieces of equipment are usually plug and play you should reading the documentation that is provided with them. Volusion cannot provide support for third party hardware. Processing Orders To process your orders, please see the Order Processing section of this manual. Getting Started with Volusion

98 Step 8 Analytics & Reporting Once you have your online store set up and ready to sell, you ll want to actively maintain your store s status as your business progresses. Running any business involves constantly analyzing and addressing your market space, and online retail is no exception. In order to analyze and make better decisions regarding your online store, you will of course need accurate, useful information. Volusion helps you track and maintain information built-in reporting tools and access to 3 rd party analytics. The following will describe how to use some of these features to help keep your Volusion-based store running smoothly: Using Google Analytics One of the main ways online business owners can obtain information on their online store s activities is through analytics services. A web analytics service tracks inbound traffic going to a website as well as that traffic s behavior once there. Analytics services can track which link visitors can click on, which pages they visit the most, how often, how long and in the case of e-commerce sites, can track the overall shopping patterns for store visitors. This can allow you a wealth of information on how your customers interact with your store and thus, how to best plan for your online business. Analytics services may sound expensive however Google offers a robust (and FREE!) analytics service called Google Analytics. You can use this system to gain information and create reports on your online store s activity to better plan your business decisions. Here s how: Creating a Google Analytics Account 1. Proceed to If you don't have a Google account (e.g. a Gmail account), you will have to register for one here first. 2. Once you've registered for a Google account, sign into the Analytics page to begin registration. 3. Click Sign Up Now 4. Next, enter information about your Volusion store and click Continue. Getting Started with Volusion

99 5. Next, enter your personal information and click Continue. 6. On the next screen, agree to Google's service conditions and click Create New Account. 7. Next, you will be presented with a page containing JavaScript code. You will need to copy and paste this code into your Volusion store (see Installing the Google Analytics Code). Click Finish when ready. Getting Started with Volusion

100 8. Now you will be logged into your Google Analytics account's main page. This page will be updated with statistical information regarding your Volusion store periodically by Google's analytics system. Installing the Google Analytics Code 1. Go to Design > File Editor. 2. Next, in the Shortcuts table in the File Editorpage, click on the template_xxx.html link (where xxx is the number or name of your Volusion store template. 3. In the File Editor window, scroll to the bottom of the page and in your template code, look for the tag marked </body> 4. Paste the JavaScript code from the Google Analytics page into your File Editor just above this tag. Getting Started with Volusion

101 5. Click Save and you're done! Once you have finished this process, allow some time to pass as Google s system begins to track information on your store. Soon, you ll be able to log into your Google Analytics account and retrieve reports and information on your Volusion store. Generate Reports in Volusion Additionally, Volusion contains its own set of reporting tools. To access these, log into the Volusion Admin Page and click on Reports > Reporting. The top part of the Reporting page provides the controls to create/edit reports, export reports and select existing reports to display. Beneath this are displayed the graph created from the current report and beneath that the report table. Click Create/Edit Report. The Create Report dialog is displayed populated by the data for the report currently displayed. The following example will explain how you can use this portion of the Volusion system to quickly create revenue and sales reports to better plan your online business with. Configuring a Revenue Report One of the more common reports you may want to create is a report on the revenue you have received based on orders over a specific period of time. Configuring this type of report within Volusion is simple: For this example, a merchant wants to create a report to show the revenue they ve received, based on their orders, over the past 30 days and compared from day-to-day. Here s how: 1. Click the Create/Edit Report button. 2. In the Create Report dialog, select Orders from the Choose Report dropdown. 3. Select Based on either Order Date or Ship Date option as required. 4. From the Time Period dropdown, select the Past 30 Days option. 5. Set the first By filter option to Day. 6. Within the Advanced Options, set the first filter to PaymentAmount, set your color and display options, enter Revenue into the Axis Title box within this row and then select Currency from the last dropdown option. 7. Finally, click the second Generate Report button within the page to create the report. Once finished, a bar-graph or pie-chart will appear, displaying each day over the past 30 days on which orders have been placed to the Volusion store as well as an indicator of the total payment amount for orders each day. Getting Started with Volusion

102 Configuring a Product Report One of the most useful reports you can generate within their Volusion store is a product sales report. This simple report will give you information on what was sold within your store and can help reveal valuable information such as which products are top sellers and so forth. In this example, a merchant wants to see a list of all of the quantities sold for each of their store s products within the 1st quarter period of The following will describe how to create this kind of report: 1. Click the Create/Edit Report button. 2. In the Create Report dialog, select OrderDetails from the Choose Report dropdown. 3. Select Based on either Order Date or Ship Date option as required. 4. In the From text box, enter "01/01/2010". 5. In the To text box, enter "03/31/2010". 6. In the first By filter, choose the ProductCode option. 7. Click Generate. If you plan on using this same report again, you can save it in your Saved Reports for easy access on the Reports table. Once this report is created, a graph and table will display a list of all products sold within the 1st quarter period of 2010 and their quantities sold. Each product will be listed by its unique product code. Additionally, this report can be regenerated by setting an additional filter to either Month or Day to order the products sold report based on the equivalent day or month within that quarter period. Getting Started with Volusion