Total Blue System Ecommerce

Manage category tree for optimal SEO and 'Path to Purchase'

With seasonal changes in your web catalog, or with organizational changes driven by search engine optimization (SEO), the work to keep your catalog's categories or departments in order can be a chore. What's called the 'category tree' in Total Blue System's Catalog module now makes this work easier for you.

When your web catalog goes through some turmoil, consider this:

1. For any category that has subcategories, does it have its own products associated with it?
   
   If yes, those products won't display on the public pages of the site. The category gateway template will only display subcategories; thus those products are effectively invisible. To clarify, they'll be invisible until there's a category gateway template offered that merges the role of the category gallery template (showing products) with that of the category gateway template (showing subcategories...).
2. Are there any categories with 0 products? Now you can more quickly spot these likely unfinished or old categories.
3. Are there any categories with more than 30 products? If yes, it may suggest a need for better allocation across multiple subcategories. Or else you ought delete old products to simplify management of the category.
   
   Now you can see how many products are contained in each subcategory. (Note: The product count is specific to that category only, and not inclusive of subcategories beneath it.)
   
   
4. Are products hidden that ought not be? The view of the category tree now makes this obvious.

Lastly, you can now spot hidden categories a little easier as they're highlighted. Hidden categories can serve a search engine optimization (SEO) purpose in ways that don't clutter your primary category or department tree, typically visible from a left side navigation bar. There are also merchandising considerations that suggest hidden categories. For example, a category like "online exclusives" OUGHT be hidden and linked to prominently from teaser spots rather than being lumped next to topic or functional or gender categories in a main navigation bar. By making the category hidden, it won't be visible in the left nav bar. Ask us about how to evaluate which categories ought be hidden and which visible...

The category tree deserves special attention, as it serves not only as the "path to purchase" for the human shopper, but a key factor in your site's overall search engine optimization.

Customer and admin accounts separated for improved security

In our ecommerce site management tool known as the Admin Area of Total Blue System, the "Contacts" section now distinguishes between Customer accounts and Admin accounts, with the organizing tab being renamed "User Accounts". Formerly grouped together as "contacts," they are now managed from separate screens or pages, which reflect deeper changes in how the software functions.

Driven by our compliance to the Payment Card Industry's Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and timed for the conclusion of our audit of compliance, admin accounts are now managed distinctly and more intensively than customer accounts because admin accounts can grant access to sensitive order payment details.

Here are some notable changes:

• You cannot login to the public side of the website, the customer's My Account area, if you are using an admin account. Only customer logins gain entry to the My Account area now.
• Passwords for your Admin Area account are now encrypted. We cannot know them or help you recover them. Passwords can only be reset if need be to restore access.
• If you forget your Admin Area login details, you've got about 5 chances to enter the correct username and password. After that, you'll be locked out of the Admin Area for a period of time. This helps prevent what's known as brute force or dictionary attacks.
  • If you need further assistance after being locked out of your account, you can contact another Admin Area site manager or E-business Coach's tech support team for assistance unlocking your account. Direct the person helping you to edit your account in the Admin Area and follow the prompt to unlock the account.
• The login URL for the Admin Area has changed slightly. That explanation may help make it easier to login.

There are other significant, sometimes subtle changes going on as we complete our PCI audit. Find out more by reading those posts categorized as ecommerce security.

Updated login URL for Admin Area, site maintenance

Total Blue System's ecommerce software includes a full-featured Admin Area, enabling site owners to maintain their site's catalog and content from within a web browser. The login URL to the Admin Area that you ought bookmark is https://www.yourdomain.com/admin/ and that will remain the same after this latest software system update. But there is the potential for confusion when logging in, as the redirect from https://www.yourdomain.com/admin/ to the form where you enter your username and password will change effective 26 February. The changes are part of a number of security enhancements related to our compliance to the Payment Card Industry's Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Learn more in posts categorized as ecommerce security.

Whether you have a problem logging in will depend much on whether you use a password manager tool (we recommend RoboForm and 1Password),
or rely on your web browser to save and manage your passwords, or you type directly in the form fields.

Here are some tips on how to login if you don't know your password and the software you use to manage your password seems confused by the updated login URL:

• View and edit your password from within the software you use as your password manager. Once you fetch your password, then enter it directly into the form by manually typing it into the fields. As you submit the form to login, you'll be prompted to save this information. Choose to save the login details and this ought update your URL and make it easy to login next time.
  • In the Firefox web browser, for example, you can go to Edit -> Preferences. Then choose Show Passwords and find the URL of your website's admin area. Then enter the password as you see it there into the form fields for the Admin Area login. Try a similar process if you use Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
  • In 1Password, you can edit the URL that's saved. In this case, the old URL may look like https://www.yourdomain.com/admin/signin.php. Instead, change it to just https://www.yourdomain.com/admin/
  • In RoboForm, you can't typically edit the URL. But you can view the password and then manually enter it into the form field. Upon form submission, you can save a new "passcard" to use the next time.
• If at least one person in your company who has Admin Area access does know his or her password, then the others who do not can ask that person to update their passwords from within the Admin Area. Go to "User Accounts" then "View / Edit Admin Accounts". Choose to edit the admin user in question. You can enter a new password in the  so-named field and save your changes.
  • Just remember that communication of the new password need be in person or by phone and never by email. The sensitivity of the password excludes email as a means of communicating it, unless the email message itself is encrypted.
• If none of the above options are working or make sense, then contact our technical support team for assistance. We can reset your password for you if you have an existing account. (We cannot tell you your existing password, as it's encrypted and not available to us.)

Control MOM's data sync and behaviors

E-commerce merchants that operate Dydacomp's Mail Order Manager (a.k.a. MOM) can now more easily, precisely control the flow of data between MOM and their website. The Total Blue System integration with MOM goes back four years, so there's not a lot that's new in the way of raw functionality in this latest System Update. What is new and important is the introduction of a dedicated MOM configuration tab within the configuration options of Total Blue System's Admin Area.

Our objectives included:

• Enable site owners to directly control site-wide configuration settings, managed in one place, that affect all relevant data on the site. So in contrast to the MOM configuration setting specific to one product described here, the merchant can more efficiently control data sync behaviors.
• Make explicit and obvious to site owners and their web team the behaviors that govern the MOM integration. Now you can see exactly what's going on for product names, description, inventory, web order types, and more. And you can make adjustments directly as you work out the best solution for you.
• Update the chart in the Help section showing data flows and behaviors for MOM and Total Blue System. This chart concerns products that exists within MOM and the web catalog.

If you don't use Mail Order Manager, then don't be concerned with this. You'll only see the new MOM configuration tab if your site has been set-up for such an integration.  E-commerce merchants using something besides MOM will prefer the API integration with Total Blue System that uses RESTful XML over HTTPS.

Identify products in web catalog precisely, quickly

For an e-commerce catalog manager with thousands of products, finding the one product you need to update on your website ought be quick, and precise. The Admin Area's Catalog module offers a new Product Search function designed to help you do just that. Now you can create filters to apply to your product searches.

Filters are ways of identifying a product in a catalog, and can include whether the product is orderable, whether it's displayed publicly on the website's catalog pages, and whether it contains a photo. There are many more filters that might be applied, but these three are shown in the nearby screen shot.  These three are a useful combination because any products that show up in the results after these filters have been applied will be those needing a photo.

Depending on the database integration choices you made when your e-commerce site was established, the presence of a product photo may be a manual step you need to take. Now you can quickly spot which products need photos added, because they're effectively "live" on your website without one.

How else might you use this feature? Here's an idea:  The presence of a product review will impact the purchase conversion rate as measured in your e-commerce analytics software package. We like to take a snapshot reading periodically to identify how many of your products have a review posted by a customer. What's the ratio of products with a review to those without a review?

Find out now by applying filters that identify all of the products that do, or do not, have a product review and are displayable and orderable on your live website catalog.

Easy upload of banner and promotional graphics

Within the Total Blue System we have the concept of Teasers, which are simply rectangular spaces tucked into various places on your website where you can communicate to site visitors about the latest promotional offer, customer service message, or announce whatever's new.

Teasers are often graphic files, in .jpg, .gif, .png, or .swf (flash) format. Sometimes they're a combination of grahpics and text, with HTML to stitch it all together.

Now it's easier than ever to create a new Teaser because you can easily upload graphic files through a web browser, within the Admin Area of your website. Click the upload button, select the file on your desktop computer, and upload it to a special folder on the web server with another click of the mouse.

Choose the "Upload Teaser Content" menu item in the Teasers section of your e-commerce site's Admin Area.

Easy upload of files, ads, teasers in 1-click within the browser

Now you can place graphics in Teasers on the website with a one-click file upload tool within the Admin Area. Choose the Teasers tab, and select the Upload Teaser Content link. This new web form makes it easy to upload graphic files to the website, placing them within the /misc directory that was previously only accessible to you via SFTP using a software tool like WS_FTP Pro.

When you upload the file, you'll get a confirmation message that repeats back for the file path to the message on your website. That way, you can easily copy and paste the file path into your HTML in the Teaser itself, linking to the image now hosted on your site.

Note: as we tighten our security procedures, moving away from FTP to the newer, secure SFTP method, we want to find more ways of making it easier to add files to the site. This new file upload tool via HTTPS is secure, and easy in that it doesn't require any extra software like an FTP editor. If you'd like to upload more files in a similar manner, say to the /misc directory where free-form HTML documents can reside, please let us know.

Ask or observe source of orders

Identifying the source from which you acquire a new customer -- hey, everybody wants to do that! The question of how to go about it exactly, and how precisely it can be done, well, that's not as clear cut. But here's one way within Total Blue System that you can both observe and or ask customers directly from whence they've come:

• Create a Source, starting within the Contacts module in Total Blue's Admin Area. See the nearby screen shot showing the Name and Code that can be configured. The Name is what you'll call it, and what can appear to shoppers on the public website.
• The Code is relevant when your website integrates with your internal database or order fulfillment system and you want to pass in a tracking code along with the order. Note that if a shopper enters a Coupon Code during the cart check-out process, and there's no other overriding code matched according to the Sources explained here, than the coupon code will be inserted into this Code field when the order is downloaded to your order fulfillment system.
• Sources can be configured to appear on a "How did you hear about us?" question when a shopper is completing the form to create a new website account. In such a case, you're asking the customer to tell you directly by choosing from a set of possible answers. This is helpful should you advertise or be featured in a print publication, for example. It serves in cases when the only way of knowing the source is to ask people to identify their referring source.

Sometimes people choose not to identify their source. Sometimes they don't create a new website account, but choose the Express checkout option. In such circumstances, you still want to know where the order came from. In this case, better to observe directly the referring source web site. That's where the Domain Pattern configuration is useful.

• A regular expression can be created to recognize the referring URL for a website shopper. When that domain name is marked as a source, then orders placed by visitors who were referred from those domains can have special details included in the order to identify their source. These details are imported into your internal database or internal order management system with each order.

In the example shown in the nearby screen shot, both asking and observing are in progress. The "how did you hear about us?" form is asking the shopper, and the domain pattern is watching and matching shoppers with pre-established "sources" that match the shoppers' referring URL's. Either way, you'll identify the source. 

Note: there are abilities to track the source of orders within Google Analytics that are independent of this method described here. But they can complement one another. Google Analytics is concerned with the marketer's dilemma of what can be observed about a website visitor's activities. Goals can be established and tracking codes embedded in URL's to identify sources like Froogle. 

That method is useful for slicing and dicing the data within Google Analytics, but it's not going to tie back into your order management system. Therefore the Source configuration described above ought also be given attention. If we keep the example of Froogle, the link above describes embedded tracking codes in the URL's. But what also ought be done is to configure a Source in the Admin Area for Froogle.

In the screen shot nearby,   see how the Source will observe orders referred by the Froogle (or GoogleBase) shopping engine. The Domain Pattern match will identify it. However, shoppers won't be asked whether they came from Froogle when creating a new account. You're observing, not asking.

If using the Catalog module's product feed to GoogleBase, you'll want to configure a Source in the Contacts module to track sources accordingly.

As new products replace old, keep those links

As your catalog changes and you roll-out new products for a new season, remember that shoppers may return to your site seeking products that you no longer sell. Shoppers can follow links in old email marketing messages, from search engine results pages that have become out of date, and saved bookmarks in web browsers. Why frustrate these prospective buyers with a "page cannot be found" error?

There's no reason to if you do what you can to keep those old product links still working. Here's a review of what we'll call the product lifecycle, with tips on how you can manage your website catalog's links, taking the long view:

First, let's review where you manage whether a product is available for purchase on your website. Go to the Catalog module in your website's Admin Area, and view a product's display options. It will look similar to the screen shot shown nearby.

Of course, Display? must be checked for a product to appear in your site's Path to Purchase, meaning linked within category pages, featured products, and elsewhere. See also the Orderable? field is checked here to make a product be able to be purchased through the Shopping Cart.

Note: For those of you whose internal database or order fulfillment system is integrated with your website, then the Display and Orderable fields will be configured according to your preferences. For example, if you're a Mail Order Manager (MOM) user and you mark an item as "Can't Sell", then the Orderable? field will be unchecked in your Catalog module after the next sync with MOM. See below for consequences of this to the web shopper visiting your site.

Second, let's review where you can check on how a product is categorized within your website's "category tree." This will determine where it appears throughout your site's Path to Purchase. Go to the Catalog module, select the category, and view all products associated with that category (remember, a product can appear in multiple categories). What you'll see will look similar to the screen shot nearby.

Remember also that you can manage which category a product appears within from the edit product detail page, as well as from the edit Category pages in the Admin Area.   

Now let's examine what happens when a product goes through it's lifecycle of starting out as in-stock and orderable and then becomes discontinued and not orderable. Here's where you can see the public website product detail page available to web shoppers in its normal, orderable, displayable state. See that the "add to shopping bag" button appears, along with the color / size option selector.

 

Here's where you see the same product detail page, after the product has been marked "not orderable" within the Catalog module's Admin Area (or by the latest sync with your integrated internal order fulfillment system or database.) See how the "add to shopping bag" button goes away, but all of the product's descriptive details, including it's inventory status, remain displayed.

 

Here's what the product detail page looks like when the same product's Display? field has been unchecked in the Catalog module. The "display" field being unchecked ought correspond to what you might call a discontinued state within your internal database or order fulfillment system. What you see in the screen shot nearby is the navigation menus, top "header" bar, and nothing in the main body of the page but for a simple message saying product XYZ has been discontinued. 

 

Here's the important part:  the URL or link still works given any of the scenarios above. If anyone attempts to follow a link to this page, they'll have quick access to, at least, the navigation menu of your site, including the category that the product was previously available within. No broken links, no "page cannot be found" messages, ever -- so long as the product remains in the Catalog and category. Which brings us to another tip: don't delete products. Instead, mark them to not display and or not be orderable.

 

 

Now let's consider how adjusting whether a product is set to be displayed and orderable impacts the Path to Purchase browsing experience of your web shoppers. Here's the category page in which the product appears, given the Display? field being checked. See the red dot indicating the product in question. If the product's Display? field were unchecked, it would simply disappear from this page. It would also disappear from the site search results (after a minor delay)

 

What this means is that by changing a product's Display? state to be unchecked in the Catalog module's Admin Area, you can remove direct links to the product. At the same time, the URL to that product's product detail page remains valid indefinitely, so long as the product is not deleted from the Catalog module.

Lastly, let's conclude by reviewing some hypothetical examples of a product's lifecycle and how you could manage it:

1. Scenario: For reasons that are important to you (warranties, customer service, technical support, reference by dealers, etc.), you want a product's descriptive details, photos, and technical specs to remain visible on the website, in the product's detail page. But you don't want the product to be purchased. Nor do you want the product to be mixed up with other products that are orderable in the same category, as it will clutter up your offering.  What to do?
   
   Retain the Display? field as checked, and uncheck the Orderable? field. Then move the product into a new category, given some label that indicates it's discontinued or no longer available for purchase.
2. Scenario: The product's on back-order, or the fabric has run out temporarily, or for whatever reason, you want to cease taking orders for this item. What to do?
   
   Retain the Display? field as checked, and uncheck the Orderable? field. Note: for those with integration to your internal order fulfillment system or database, this behavior can be triggered automatically based on inventory levels or thresholds. Also, inventory or shipment availability messages can be configured that allow the item to be purchased, while communicating that it's not available for immediate shipment. Ask us for assistance in optimizing this configuration to meet your business  and seasonal needs.

Whatever your specific scenario, do what you can to preserve a working URL to all product detail pages indefinitely as the product moves through its lifecycle.

Enable 1-click unsubscribe and email preferences edit

There's been a period of time the last couple months when the 1-click unsubscribe capability of the Email Marketing module was disabled. Now that our new Email Marketing module is fully integrated, there's a return to this capability. But you have to update your email marketing message templates to enable it.

Here's a review of how you can do this, and suggested code you could copy and paste into all of your message templates, customizing when appropriate.

(Note: the methods and code below includes a one-click unsubscribe without being prompted for a password. But it also works for a similar one-click with no password link to edit a recipient's "profile" for purposes of email marketing offers. This is different from the recipient's My Account on the website. This means there's no longer an area to edit this kind of email preference within the Admin Area's Contacts module. It's all handled within the Email Marketing module now.)

Go into the Admin Area, select the Email Marketing tab, and click through to Edit Messages. On the left navigation menu, click the Templates link. Select a template, and click through to edit it's HTML code. In the bottom area of your message, there ought be a place reserved for administrative functions. This is where you tell the recipient how to contact you (for CAN-SPAM compliance), and how they can opt-out of receiving future messages.

Here's a code sample you can use and adapt for your own purposes:

<SPAN style="font: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;color:#000000"> <font style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" size="2" color="#000000">You're receiving this message because you've subscribed to the [your publication name].<br> You may <a href="http://www.yourdomain.com/profile/edit/<EMAIL_ADDRESS>? utm_medium=email&utm_content=textlink&utm_source=yourcode123">update your profile</a> and mailing preferences or easily <a href="http://www.yourdomain.com/profile/unsubscribe/<EMAIL_ADDRESS>? utm_medium=email&utm_content=textlink&utm_source=yourcode123">unsubscribe</a> from the [your publication name] or all our promotional mailings.<br><br> We value your privacy. Read our <a href="http://www.yourdomain.com/articles/privacy-security.html? utm_medium=email&utm_content=textlink&utm_source=yourcode123">Privacy Policy.</a><br> </font></span>

Note the Google Analytics tracking codes are included in the URL; adapt appropriately for your needs. See also that the URL's need be modified to specify your domain name. Likewise, the publication name ought be edited.

Tip: this can be done for any Triggered messages you have configured, as well. Publication message templates are the place to start, but anywhere you communicate by email using the email marketing module ought enable this easy 1-click unsubscribe capability.

If you'd like E-business Coach's assistance in making these code changes on your behalf, alert our professional services team.