The customer cart is always a nice touch.

We have used the functionality that shows it when it needs to - so you add an item and it automatically shows on the left hand column.  We try and keep it simple on screen and this functionality has proved popular and useful (even though we haven't done anything except include a tiny bit of script provided in the v3 upgrade manual).

cheers

Mark

1. See this PDF file for details on how to customize the look and feel of PC: http://www.earlyimpact.com/productcart/support/Integrating_P roductCart_v3_with_your_Web_site.pdf

Basically, PC comes with one temaplte built in. You modify two ASP files (header.asp and footer.asp). Those files have commented sections for each major area like category list, product search, shopping bag, login, etc. You can place them on either side very easily. There are also two CSS files you can modify to adjust font styles, colors, etc.

2. To see a list of many PC sites by type, check out this page: http://www.earlyimpact.com/stores.asp

3. PC has built into it the ability to setup custom shipping using any of the following:

Flat rate based on order amount
Percentage of order amount
Flat rate based on order quantity
Flat rate based on order weight
Incremental based on order quantity

For details, on the PC demo control panel, choose Shipping | Add or View Shipping Services and choose add for the Custom Shipping Options.

4. Here is a list of certified PC developers: http://www.earlyimpact.com/partners-dev.asp

For most developers it is not difficult to make changes. The time and cost depend on th complexity of the change.

I have given some thought to this and might of found how to do it.  I'll test it later tonight for you.

In version 3, you can set up categories to be hidden in the store front.  Once established the page will have the same URL every time for the category.

So you would associate products with a 'FedEx' category or a 'UPS' category and NOT show them in the store front.

Then you issue a URL to the Fedex customers that only shows the FedEx products in their category and vice versa for UPS.

Neither set of customers would know or be able to find the others' category page.

Assuming a test / EI confirm this works, it may provide the solution you need.

cheers

Mark

Hi Mark,

An "Available Group" feature will let us pre-defined a group(s) of customers who are authorized to buy a certain group(s) of products. Other customers might be abale to view those products but not be able to buy them

For example, I sell Uniforms. I supply Uniforms for FedEx and UPS employees. I would like the PC provides:

when the FedEx employees LogIn (after SignUp), the PC will let them purchase the FedEx uniforms category/products but not the UPS category and/or UPS products.

By the same token, when the UPS employees logIn, they will be able to purchase their particular UPS uniforms, NOT Airborne-Express or FedEx uniforms.

I hope I didn't confuse you,

Mariot

Hi Uniforms Guy: we definitely encourage you to play around with the new "Pricing Category" feature in v3. This is one of the features that takes ProductCart a huge step forward in version 3. We spent a lot of time on it, and we use it actively ourselves on our software store to manage reseller pricing (we have different levels of resellers).

http://www.earlyimpact.com/demos/standard/pcadmin/AdminCusto merCategory.asp

Use the built in help (little yellow icons) to learn more about individual features. Basically:

• You can have unlimited pricing categories and assign customers to them
• You can set up a pricing category so that it also gives "wholesale" priveledges, which in ProductCart means payment options not available to retails customers, tax-excemption, etc.
• You can override the price set by the pricing category (e.g. 10% off all products) at the individual product levels (e.g. "Gold Customers" get 10% off everything, but 15% off product XYZ, and 20% off product ABC).

I 've used Miva 4 (plus ton of OUI modules) since 2000. It's not flexible in term of customization even with the Miva5. I am looking for to migrate to either PC or VP-ASP. I prefer the ASP-based systems because they are open source, furthermore PC offers many essential built-in features which you have to purchase if you use Miva. The only thing hold me back at this moment because PC hasn't offer a Customer feature (Available group) which is very important to me as well other PC users AND that is also the ONLY reason that I still stuck with Miva. I am in search for a third party plug-in for using with PC, the minute I found that solution, I will dump the dinosaur-technology Miva at once. If I had a chance to start all over, I will go with PC. However if you decide to go with Miva, then I have a full new copy of Miva5 license for sale at $350.00 ($995.00 at Miva) plus 4 hours to help you setup & Config. + Storeman ( a third party app. which is very help ful for Import, Export, Edit Cat/SubCat, Products, Attributes, options; worth around $300.00). But as I stated, PC is a far better product.