Frequently Asked Questions About Mercantec SoftCart Site Creation Is SoftCart™ easy to install? Does the look and feel of my HTML pages have to conform to the SoftCart system? How long does it take to set up a site with SoftCart? Is SoftCart compatible with any third-party HTML creation tools? How do I use SoftCart to edit existing templates and/or add new ones? What support is needed to design specific templates? Can we incorporate our own page templates into the Store Manager? Does SoftCart create an HTML file for each product? Can I set up SoftCart so that a shopper can shop from multiple stores and check out using the same shopping cart? Compatibility What backend database does SoftCart use? Will SoftCart work on a high-traffic site? Merchandising Does SoftCart support a customer address and payment information? Catalog Maintenance How does SoftCart's search engine work? Payment Systems Can Mercantec help with banking and transaction processing? What other payment systems does SoftCart support? Please explain the options in the orders download section of Store Manager. How is tax calculated for each order? Shipping Models Please explain the shipping models provided in SoftCart. Order Notification and Delivery How does SoftCart notify me that an order has been received? What information is included in the e-mail that is sent to me when a shopper completes a purchase? Security What security requirements does SoftCart use for optimum implementation? How is a customer tracked while they are shopping? Other Technical Questions Why won't graphics upload as I am building my store? Why can't I upload a key to the server? Is there any way to have more than one product on a single page?   Site Creation Q. Is SoftCart™ easy to install? A. Yes. Once you purchase SoftCart, MindSpring will install the software onto your web hosting server. You can then access the web-based back office or FTP to the files. Q. Does the look and feel of the merchant's HTML pages have to conform to the SoftCart system? A. No. SoftCart includes several professional templates that you can use to build your site quickly using only their browser. You will probably want to work with a Web designer who can use Mercantec's Template Guide for Web Designers to create a customized template set that conveys a unique look and feel for your store. Q. How long does it take to set up a site with SoftCart? Once SoftCart is installed, you or your Web designer can use SoftCart's browser-based Store manager environment to get a basic Web store up and running in just a few hours. Q. Is SoftCart compatible with any third-party HTML creation tools? A. Mercantec SoftCart is compatible with any third party creation tool that is capable of supporting HTML. To date developers with FrontPage, HotDog, HoTMetaL, Note Pad, and Blue Stone Saphire Web have generated Mercantec SoftCart ecommerce web sites. Q. How do I use SoftCart to edit existing templates and/or add new ones? A. Although you could edit and add templates, this is not something we really expect you to do. Editing templates sets requires a working knowledge of HTML and SoftCart. We expect that a designer will be involved if the template sets provided are not enough.The designer would build the store to spec, and use our Store Manager as the "leave behind" for the merchant. Q. What support is needed to design specific templates? Mercantec SoftCart templates are a combination of standard HTML and some reserved "SoftCart Tags." Anyone with knowledge of HTML can create SoftCart-compatible templates. Mercantec has a Template Guide for Web Designers available as a free download.  Q. Can we incorporate our own page templates into the Store Manager? A. The Store Manager Wizard was designed to have third parties develop templates. The template sets can be designed as "sub-webs" for ecommerce only, plugging into an existing site. Or the template set can be designed to contain the entire Web including pages such as "What's New?" "Contact Us," etc. The template set is then installed in the Store Manager directory structure and automatically recognized by Store Manager. The Store Manager then lets you or a non-HTML savvy person edit the entire site by changing the text only. You do not need to know HTML. Q. Does SoftCart create an HTML file for each product? A. This depends on the configuration of the template set and options picked during creation. The built-in creation tool supports the following navigation: Category page to product listings to product pages Category page to product listings (a customer can make a purchase on this page; i.e. multiple products per page). Product listings page Product listing (a customer can make a purchase on this page; i.e. multiple products per page). The Web designer can turn off SoftCart's page creation and use their own set of tools, which makes SoftCart totally flexible. Q. Can I set up SoftCart so that a shopper can shop from multiple stores and check out using the same shopping cart? A. No. SoftCart does not support this type of Check out configuration because it is against the restrictions imposed by the credit card companies payment regulations. If a shopper uses a single virtual shopping cart and travels between online stores, the shopper must approve and pay for each order individually. This is a legal requirement for credit card usage. In addition, this configuration tends to drive traffic out of a merchant's store, and, as such, is not advantageous to most merchants. Compatibility Q. What backend database does SoftCart use? A. SoftCart supports an ASCII tab delimited data file. From a performance standpoint, and server overhead specifically, this performs well up to about 7,000 products in the database. Q. Will SoftCart work on a high-traffic site? A. Yes. Several SoftCart customers are running sites that receive more than 1 million hits a day. Merchandising Q. Does SoftCart support a customer address and payment information? A. The feature allows a user to log on to the system and have their address and payment information from a previous session used for the current transaction. While this is possible, Mercantec is concerned about the possible security issues that arise from credit card data in the server. Currently, Mercantec encrypts all credit card data with a public/private key encryption system, such that credit cards can never be decrypted on the server and forwarded to either the payment system or to the merchant with the order. Catalog Maintenance Q. How does SoftCart's search engine work? A. SoftCart supports full text searching of the product pages, however you can utilize whatever search engine you want by using SoftCart's open User Program Interface. Payment Systems Q. Can Mercantec help with banking and transaction processing? A. Mercantec is integrated to work with several different payment systems including American Express, CyberCash, ICVerify, WorldPay, etc. You will need to obtain Merchant ID numbers (bank accounts) from their own financial institutions (AmEx, a bank for VISA and Master Card, Discover Card, etc.). Because costs can vary widely, it is best to check with your financial institution for price rates. Q. What other payment systems does SoftCart support? A. SoftCart supports the following payment systems: American Express, CyberCash, ICVerify, JavaSoft's payment system, (specifically Mondex), GlobeSet, PaymentNet, and WorldPay. SoftCart has open interfaces that will support integration with any payment system. This is published and can be used by any third party.    Q. Please explain the options in the orders download section of Store Manager. A. The options in the orders download section of Store Manager are: Credit Card Transactions - this is an encrypted (scrambled) file that is downloaded, decrypted (unscrambled) an can update a settlement system's database directly. This option contains only payment information. Orders Transaction Log - this is an encrypted file that is downloaded, decrypted and can then be printed. It prints out the entire set of orders received since the last download. View Orders - this is an non-encrypted file containing a copy of the transaction for viewing in the browser. Since it was not encrypted it should NOT be used to actually process an order. An ASCII template that can be changed from within the browser controls the format and content of the invoice.  QuickBooks Transactions - This is an optional module that downloads a QuickBooks transaction log for importing into an Intuit QuickBooks system. Q. How is tax calculated for each order? A. SoftCart has a built-in tax calculation system that is capable of computing the exact tax for a given zone. Shipping Models Q. Please explain the shipping models provided in SoftCart. Shipping Model Description Price Threshold Calculates shipping charges based on total cost of order. Also establishes a maximum limit on the amount that customer will be charged for shipping based on the total amount of their order. Beneficial when there is a well-defined relationship between dollar amount purchased and cost of shipping. Weight threshold Calculate shipping charges based on weight of order. Establishes a maximum limit on the amount that a customer will be charged for shipping based on the total weight of their order. Beneficial when there is a well-defined relationship between weight and cost of shipping. Quantity threshold Calculates shipping charges based on the number of products ordered. It is used when selling items with approximately equal shipping costs within a given zone (such as compact disks or videotapes). This shipping model is easy to understand by shoppers and encourages volume purchases. Establishes a maximum limit on the amount that a customer will be charged for shipping based on the number of items in their order. Line item Calculates shipping charges based on a one-to-one relationship between each product sold and its shipping price (within a given zone). This shipping model is appropriate when the relationship between the product and shipping and handling charges does not change regardless of price, weight, or quantity. No charge No charge. Each of these models can support different shipping methods including UPS, FedEx, three-day delivery, next day delivery, etc. Order Notification and Delivery Q. How does SoftCart notify the merchant that an order has been received? A. Email notification is built into SoftCart and is as simple configuring SoftCart with the IP address of the SMTP mail server and the email address of where to send the email notification. Q. What information is included in the email that is sent to the merchant when a shopper completes a purchase? A. The SoftCart notification email includes the customer's name, order number, phone number, email address, and the amount of the order. It could contain the entire order. SoftCart supports emailing orders to up to five email addresses. This information comes in an ASCII template that can be changed from within the browser to control the format and content of this message. Security Q. What security requirements does SoftCart use for optimum implementation? There are several parts to security. A few of them are: Network Security: Keeps control of who has access to the companies network. This is typically taken care of by the ISP and is controlled through the use of sophisticated routers and firewalls. Server Security: Limited to the security built into the operating system and consists of user IDs, passwords, and permissions. Set up properly, a UNIX system, coupled with the network security, can be very secure. Data Protection: Data protection refers to: How the data is protected while being transferred to the server from a consumer. How the data is stored on the server. Mercantec SoftCart uses SSL to encrypt the data from the consumer to your server and then uses PGP to encrypt the data that is stored on the server. PGP (Pretty Good Protection) requires a great deal of math to encrypt and decrypt the order information. When you create your encryption key, you are essentially creating two keys that need to be matched up to download orders from your store. This set of keys establishes end-to-end security of customers’ credit card and order information. The "public key," the key stored on the Internet server, is used to encrypt (scramble) all the information that is sent to the order log from your store’s order form. Since this information is stored on the Internet until you download it to your PC, it is important for all of the information to be un-interpretable. When you are ready to process the orders, you will use the "private key," stored on your PC, to decrypt (unscramble) the order information. No one but you has access to the private key. You will use your pass phrase to access the private key and download your orders into readable text Q. How is a customer tracked while they are shopping? A. SoftCart uses a server-side tracking technology called StateTrack™ to maintain all client/shopping information on the server, providing for 100 percent compatibility with all shoppers. StateTrack allows for: Complete server and browser independence. Complete control over the look and feel of a Web site, not limiting the Web site designer to a forms-only site design. Seamless and transparent tracking capabilities that are totally invisible to the consumer. Inventory management support via the server-side "cart" files that are created and maintained by Mercantec SoftCart. Security and privacy for the shopper by maintaining all shopping information on the merchant server, inaccessible to other Web sites. Other Technical Questions Q. Graphics will not upload as I am building my store. A 4.0 version of a Web browser must be used in order to upload graphics. Q. I cannot upload a key to the server. A. Ensure that the Java script is enabled, that you are using Netscape or IE 4.x, and there is support for frames on the browser. Q. Is there any way to have more than one product on a single page? A. There are several ways to accomplish this. Exactly how and what will appear on a page is determined by the specific template set selected. The page can be designed to be a product list with several products, marketing descriptions, graphics, etc. on a single page. Multiple products per page can also be accomplished by specifying any of the database fields. Refer to the Template Guide for Web Designers for more information on developing customized template sets.

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