Site Creation

Q. Is SoftCart^™ easy to install?

A. Yes. Since SoftCart is primarily a server-side application, most SoftCart installations are handled by the merchant's Internet Service Provider. Once the ISP has installed SoftCart on the merchant's Web site, the merchant and/or his Web designer receives instructions containing a URL, username and password in order to log into SoftCart's Store Manager environment to begin constructing their store.

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 a merchant can use to build their site quickly using only their browser. Most merchants will 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 the merchant's store.

Q. How long does it take to set up a site with SoftCart?

A. Many of Mercantec's ISP partners have automated the process of installing SoftCart on a merchant's site. The installation process can take as little as 180 seconds. Once SoftCart is installed, the merchant or 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. Yes. Mercantec SoftCart is compatible with any third party creation tool that is capable of supporting HTML. To date developers with Cold Fusion, NetObjects, FrontPage, HotDog, HoTMetaL, Note Pad, and Blue Stone Saphire Web have generated Mercantec SoftCart e-commerce web sites.

Q. How does the merchant use SoftCart to edit existing templates and/or add new ones?

A. Although the merchant could edit and add templates, this is not something we really expect them to do. Editing template 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 e-commerce 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 the merchant or a non-HTML person edit the entire site by changing the text only. The merchant does 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 company's 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. With more than 7,000 products you would want to use the Mercantec Product API to connect to a relational database. SoftCart, through third parties, had been hooked up to Oracle, Sybase, Informix, MSSQL, and MYSQL. On an NT platform SoftCart supports ODBC. The largest database SoftCart has supported, that we know of today, is Oracle with 1.5 million products.

Q. Will SoftCart work with my existing server set up?

A. Yes, as long as your server supports the Common Gateway Interface (CGI).

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 digital coupons?

A. Digital coupons are another form of payment and can be supported through SoftCart's Payment Interface. The payment interface is very generic: SoftCart puts out a request with the "payment systems" required data and waits for a response. The response is fairly simple. A few key words are required by SoftCart to let us know that the payment is good and then any other tracking data that the payment system returns. Therefore, it is straightforward for SoftCart to support other payment systems such as digital cash, coupons, airline miles, bonus points, etc. 

Q. What kind of discounting does SoftCart support?

A. SoftCart has a third party application called PriceBreak that supports volume based discounting. Additionally, SoftCart supports the ability for merchants to add discounts at the product level on either a percentage or fixed dollar amount through its Store Manager interface. All discounts are time bound and can be configured with a start and end date and time.

Q. Does SoftCart provide a proofing report to ensure merchandise in the database is correct?

A. SoftCart can provide a proofing report that will allow the merchant to easily check if the SKU, description, picture and pricing is correct for all products. This is easily implemented with either an Active Server Page or Cold Fusion page. If neither ASPs nor Cold Fusion can be used, a simple application can be developed within Store Manager to provide this report. No additional work is required if HTML pages are adequate for this requirement.

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.

Third Party Integration

Q. Will SoftCart run off a third party database, such as Oracle, or will it simply duplicate the information from the flat file?

A. SoftCart can work either way depending on the store configuration and size. For example, performance will be better if you can use the SoftCart ACSII tab delimited file for a store with 40 to 50 products, rather than using a relational database. However, SoftCart has a product API that allows it to be directly connected to a third party database, such as Oracle. A module is created that fits between SoftCart and the customer's database, allowing the database designer to set up the database to maximize performance.

Q. Can I operate multiple merchants on one server with just one copy of SoftCart?

A. SoftCart is designed to maximize the ISP’s shared server environment. The installation can be configured in one of two ways:

• a full working copy of SoftCart for each merchant on the server
• SoftCart installed at the system level with each store having its own configuration files and valid software license and sharing a single copy of the SoftCart program Dedicated Server Environment

Use on a dedicated server supports high-end merchants with complex data processing needs, thus allowing opportunities for providing value-added development and integration services. SoftCart scales well to such applications and provides several open interfaces to support such applications.

Payment Systems

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) and 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.

Tax

Q. How do I configure SoftCart to support VAT?

A. SoftCart's VAT (value added tax) feature is for merchants who are required to collect VAT from online shoppers. When a consumer selects a product in a store, the product page displays the selling price including VAT. SoftCart merchants also have the option to display the selling price without VAT for reseller customers. For merchants who charge sales tax, SoftCart accommodates both sales tax and VAT. In general, merchants configure SoftCart's VAT feature by:

• Adding the required VAT fields to the SoftCart product database.
• Defining geographic zones and associating each zone with the appropriate VAT field.
• Including or excluding VAT from the displayed selling price (VAT still appears as a separate line item, and is included in the grand total amount in the shopping cart).
• Including or excluding VAT or sales tax on shipping. If there is VAT on shipping, SoftCart calculates it based on the VAT rate for the largest product subtotal amount. If multiple products have equal subtotal amounts but different VAT rates, SoftCart uses the highest VAT rate to calculate the shipping charges.
• Applying sales tax if applicable.
• Defining VAT percentage rates in the VAT fields of each product.

For additional information on VAT, consult the SoftCart 5.1 update guide.

Shipping Models

Q. Please explain the shipping models provided in SoftCart.

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 the merchant's 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 encrypted. 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^tm 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. Why?

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. What do I do?

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. Yes, 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.