Commerce Buddy Companion
Introduction
CommerceBuddy allows you to easily configure your options within a Graphical Windows interface, without any complicated CGI programming. Access orders from your desktop via secure SSL connectivity built into the software!
CommerceBuddy stores all user data, including credit card information, on your local computer and NOT on the Internet. Most shoppers are becoming very aware of the dangers in storing credit card information on the Internet! Handle marketing with customizable, personalized Internet mailings from your customer database. –Not just spam messages!– CommerceBuddy can handle personal mailers.
What You Should Know! We considered making CommerceBuddy a Web-based utility for online communications and order management. We found that this method is very time-consuming, with having to connect to the Internet… Even if you are always online with a fast connection, you must then navigate a large Web site to find customer information, query accounts, look for data, etc., with the risk of being hacked. CommerceBuddy is a fast desktop program that gives you instant and safe access to your customers, purchase histories and orders.User Accounts
CommerceBuddy will retrieve a list of new user accounts and will provide instant access to information about all customers who have shopped your site.
Manage Your Orders!
The concept of CommerceBuddy is to get into real-world commerce, going beyond checking your e-mail for orders. CartIt 8.0 manages the entire e-commerce process, from original order to final thank you.
At the click of a button, you have easy access to new orders, shipped orders, completed orders and even problem orders. This is handled your way with your personalized form letters and CommerceBuddy lets you see what’s happening at all times.
Purchase History
You can easily look up any account holder’s purchase history. The purchase history will also allow you to view all past purchases and inter-link from the purchase history to any individual purchase.
Secure Order Retrieval
Once you download information such as orders and customers, the orders are removed from the servers. The accounts stay online so customers can view and use their accounts for future purchases, but the vital credit card information is downloaded to your local computer where it is safe, then deleted from the server.
Yes, your shopper has to enter their credit card number every time they purchase, but this should be a sales aid and not a hindrance… shoppers who use CartIt feel safer!
What You Should Know! We are constantly hearing in the news that companies are being hacked and held hostage for their credit card list. With CartIt, orders are online only for a short period of time, then deleted from the server after you have them on your local computer in a safe business environment.
Easy Configurations
CommerceBuddy’s easy-to-use interface allows you to easily edit your site configurations, including taxes, shipping, cart appearance, coupons and more. Update your configurations at the click of a button with no CGI programming needed.
Styles and Colors
You can set your styles and colors for CartIt’s HTML body attributes with the below dialog, but this is only the beginning. For more advanced users who understand Cascading Style Sheets, you have even more appearance options at your disposal!
What You Should Know! Change your options quickly, with no need for complicated CGI programming.
Payment Options
Setting up your payment options is very simple, all you need to do is enter your options in the below dialog box.
Unlimited Taxes and Smart Taxes
Easy, database-driven access to configurations where you can add unlimited taxes and smart taxes.
Many Shipping Methods
Many shipping methods are available, including per item, percentage, and weight-based, with unlimited weight and shipping extensions. Quickly and easily add and delete from the convenience of a Windows desktop application.
What You Should Know! CartIt was designed to allow for custom shipping methods. CartIt software comes with a program called “cartitshiplib.cgi”. This program allows you, your developer or us to provide custom shipping codes to meet your exact needs. However, 98% of CartIt users only need the built-in shipping methods.Coupons
Create Coupon Codes and give them to individual users, wholesale customers, and use them in advertisements for ad tracking.
Credit Card Orders
At the click of a button, you can access the credit card information for an order.
Once you have entered your merchant account information in CommerceBuddy, you will not have to do it again. Your credit card authorization will become a breeze when you access the Credit Card PopUp.
If it is a payment by phone, the Credit Card PopUp will prompt you for the information. You enter it, and the next time you access the popup, you can view the authorization information. Finally, once you have authorized the order, you can mark it Payment Received and enter the authorization code for your reference!
Mass Mailers
CommerceBuddy has a built-in mass mailing system! Send mass mailers based on any flat file list of addresses.
Mailing List Builder
Query your database of customers and build a mailing list based on the profiles you select. All e-mail messages can be predefined with ImpactObject tags, like sending form letters.
Customer Service
When you receive a new order, it will be moved to the New Orders list. You can then ship the order and mail the customer notice of shipment, including a tracking number or other information. The e-mail you send customers will be based on a template you design in the form letters portion of CommerceBuddy.
CommerceBuddy changes the way we all do business on the Internet. Not only does it make your order management easier, but it also makes your shoppers feel more comfortable with communication throughout the order process. This great customer service will help to assure repeat customers and word of mouth advertising, the value of which is frequently overlooked in e-commerce.
PostOffice
On the PostOffice menu you will see a menu item for ImpactObject Templates. These templates allow you to communicate with your customers in many ways with personalized e-mails.
We are going to ignore the other menu items for now so that we can focus on ImpactObject Templates. When you click the ImpactObject Templates item, you can create ImpactObject Templates.
Looking above, you see the main screen of the ImpactObject Template system that allows you to create templates for personalized e-mail to send to your customers.
Once you have created these templates, you can send e-mail to a customer from the Main Orders View with ease. For this tutorial, let’s use a Shipping Notification template.
Note the ImpactObject Tag “%io_shipping_info_structure%” in the above template. This tag is used as a container for the shipping information you enter from the Main Orders View.
Let’s look at how easy this is to do!
Example:
- You create a template as shown above. You never have to create that template again, but you can create as many templates as you like!
- You have an order and go to the Main Orders View.
- Select Activities -> Mark Order Wizards -> Ship Order Wizard
- Enter the shipping information for the order, including the shipping service used, the tracking number and any comments.
- Select an ImpactObject Template to send (top right corner).
- Click OK and CommerceBuddy processes the template and puts it in the OutBox, completely customized for your shopper. It says Dear “Shopper Name”, etc., and includes all of the tracking information you entered.Your shopper will love it, and because it is based on a template, the shopper receives a personalized letter from you. It only took you 10 seconds to provide top-notch customer service!
CommerceBuddy will put a message in the OutBox similar to this one:
Dear Dave Smith,
We thought you would like to know the status of your order. Below, you will find the most recent shipping profile regarding order number 3688 dated 12/01/00 8:00:04 PM.
——————————————————-
DATE: 12/2/00
SERVICE: UPS
METHOD: Standard Ground
TRACKING: Z23456789101123456
COMMENT:
Monitor Shipped
——————————————————-
DATE: 12/6/00
SERVICE: UPS
METHOD: Standard Ground
TRACKING: Z32165465498797987
COMMENT:
Scanner Shipped
——————————————————-
etc….
You can put any other information here you would like, perhaps additional contact information or a link to the UPS online tracking system.
Use ImpactObject Templates for Anything
This is a very powerful feature that you can use for a variety of reasons. For example, if you have to type the same letter over and over again, you can just create an ImpactObject Template. Let’s say you have orders that are back orders. You may want to create an ImpactObject Template for this and the letter can be dynamically customized for your customers!
CartIt gives you the competitive edge you need– Customer Service, something that is lacking in today’s e-commerce world!
CommerceBuddy is a powerful program. We considered making CommerceBuddy an online tool for our customers and we actually went as far as to write the online system. In the process of testing the software in a real-world environment, we found that this method was very cumbersome.
For example, a customer calls to ask a question… If you were using an online system, you would have to take these steps:
- Ask the customer for their name
- Connect to the Internet
- Navigate to the Web-based system
- Log on / Wait for Authentication
- Go to customer section (Wait for server to respond)
- Search database for customer name (Wait for server to respond)
- Click on customer name (Wait for server to respond)
With CommerceBuddy you have instant access!:
- Ask the customer for their name
- Type customer’s name and click Query
- Click Customer Profile to access the customer’s entire purchase history, the credit card used, your personal notes (that the customer cannot see) and much more!
The important thing to note is NOT the number of steps, but the actual time spent in each step.
CommerceBuddy is an extremely productive tool built for real-world e-commerce environments. It solves problems and is only going to get better with each upgrade!
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