All I want for Christmas...

[skarecrow]

Ok, here goes...

<big breathe>

1. Ability to create usernames & passwords for regular visitors (for consumable products like ours at www.CartridgeJet.com)

2. Ability to export into MYOB without having to muck about with .csv files

3. Affiliate program (I understand this is being developed...)

4. Ability to run more than one concurrent promotion (for instance, if you always want to have an offer of "free shipping when you buy x products" as a standard, and then you want say a Christmas promotion... well... we've had to be creative & promise to take 10% off their next order (manually)... messy!

5. Ability to handle direct deposit (currently we can only setup Accounts for regular customers & provide them with this information, or we'd have to change say the wording for "Money Order" to include "Direct Deposit"... basically fudge the system)

</big breathe>

That's all for now.

Honestly, I think Ezimerchant is the bees' knees. Your support, your newsletters, and the features available for the $$ is just incredible.

So take my wish list as exactly that... but I have been a very good boy this year, and hope that Santa is kind to me :-)

Glen Parker
www.CartridgeJet.com
www.Calabash.com.au
POWERED BY EZIMERCHANT!

[dferguson]

Hi

1. This is tricky - One of ezimerchant Pro's design goals was to allow our merchants to HOST THE WEBSITE ANYWHERE.. For features such as this to be possible the hosting requirements get more complicated as does site design.

We ARE working towards this goal but its still a way off.

V4.0 goes PART WAY to this goal by providing a simple customer log in facility on the GTS checkout page. It will help repeat customers because they wont need to fill in their address details every time they order.

After V4.0 we will continue to build on this feature until it reaches your goal - We cant provide any timelines however. :-)

2. If enough users ask for this we will look into it. Congrats at being #1.

3. :-)

4. After V4.0

5. We have now implemented DIRECT DEPOSIT as a payment method.

[GlennM]

>>2. If enough users ask for this we will look into it. Congrats at being #1.

Make me number 2. I haven't bought ezimerchant yet, but this type of support would help sway a decision

[space_kidette]

Hi David,

Congratulations on an excellent product. I am looking forward to the version 4 release with great anticipation!

I would just like to cast my vote for the MYOB integration and encourage others to follow suit!!

Also I appreciate the moves towards being able to handle repeat customers and would also like to echo the need to move towards a greater CRM/Personalisation and pricing capability for marketing purposes.

I know your original intention was to keep it simple to allow hosting anywhere but maybe there is an opportunity here to provide either an integrated CRM product or offer a migration to an "enterprise" or "corporate" version of the product.

Space Kidette

[avanzar]

I to would like to be able to control access via some sort of password authentication process. I would also like to see the ability to have volume pricing discounts on a per product basis not just global discounts.

[avanzar]

It would also be nice if you could really get the quickbooks synch to work.

[dferguson]

Once V4.0 is released the integration with 3rd party packages such as MYOB and QuickBooks becomes easier due to the new product database structure (unique product codes)

[dferguson]

Avanzar:-

We have many ezimerchant Pro users running TWO separate shops (one retail and one wholesale) with ezimerchant Pro.

e.g

Shop 1 : -> For retail customers to access at retail prices.

e.g. www.mywidgetstore.com


Shop 2: -> For resellers of your products.. You might want them to buy at a reduced prices when compared to your retail site... You might also want to stop unauthorised access to these prices.. (i.e. only give your resellers access)

e.g. www.mywidgetstore.com/wholesale

We have many merchants running two independent ezimerchant Pro shops just like in the above scenario.

When you upload the second site to your web server you can put it in a 'wholesale' folder and then ask your web hosting company to put user permissions on that folder (and set a single username/password combination for access to that folder)
You can then issue all your resellers with the username and password so they can access your wholesale website.

Each site would be managed independently.

The costs involved:

1. You would need an extra licence key for ezimerchant Pro to build the second (wholesale) web site. This costs $299.00 AUD.

2. The second (wholesale) site also attracts the monthly GTS fee of $23.95 per month.

3. You wouldn’t need a new domain OR web hosting because you would simply upload the second (wholesale) website into a 'wholesale' folder on your existing web server.

This may not work as seamlessly as some other (more expensive) solutions but IT DOES solve the issue of having a retail and separate wholesale website without much more cost.

I hope this information helped!

[GlennM]

I'd like improved MYOB integration.

[ozsheba]

Yes please

MYOB Premier (multiuser) -- this is built differently to other MYOB programs

Shelly

[dferguson]

Ok.. Since we are on the topic of Account Package integration I thought I might ask you all how exactly you deal with your Internet orders at the moment.

Can you all please step out for me the exact process that you go through from the time you receive the order to the time its posted to the customer.

Example of what we are looking for...

1. We receive order notification from the ezimerchant Pro GTS.
2. We download the order in ezimerchant Pro.
3. We print the order from within ezimerchant Pro.
4. We process the credit card number on the EFTPOS terminal.
5. We staple the merchant copy of the EFTPOS receipt to the order printout.
6. We file the order for permanent record.
7. etc etc etc all the way through the process until the package gets sent to the customer.

We are interested in how a lot of our merchants deal (or don’t deal) with the order in their accounting package.

To give you an example of how one merchant with a retail store as well as an Internet Site deal with their internet orders:

1. Order notification email recieved.
2. Order is downloaded in ezimerchant Pro.
3. Order printed.
4. The order is put into the stores POS system (Electronic Cash Register). When the operator does this they select a sales person called 'Internet'

Most POS systems and cash registers allow you to create 'sales people' This is normally used to help the store owner track individual sales peoples sales... This can be used to track internet orders simply by creating an 'Internet' sales person.

5. The cash register tallies up the total and any freight is added as a misc item.
6. Card processed on the in store eftpos terminal.
7. The merchant copy of the eftpos reciept is stapled to the order printout and filed.
8. Products are packaged into a box etc.. Labelled and posted.


At the end of the day the store owner can print a report from the POS system - It will include all his sales peoples totals - Including 'internet'.

The POS system will also print stock sales reports that can be used when reordering stock.

I havent yet found out if they export the POS data into their MYOB yet - But I should find out after lunch and will edit this post with the final details.

[importscene-com-au]

OK, Our business has a retail store and an internet store. Our back office systems and internet ordering processing are located off-site from the retail store.

1. We receive order notification from the ezimerchant Pro GTS.
2. We use the eway gateway service that automatically processes credit card transactions
3. We download the order in ezimerchant Pro.
4. We print the order to an Adobe Acrobat Distiller printer driver to create a softcopy of the order from within ezimerchant Pro.
5. We manually email the softcopy PDF file of the order to our retail store manager. There are some good reasons (namely around fraud protection) why this isn't just an automated copy which I am aware ezimerchant supports.
6. We move the order within EziMerchant from the default "Unassigned - new orders" folder to a "Sent to Store" folder.
6. Our retail store manager prints a hardcopy of the order, packages up the goods and sends to the customer.
7. Our Retail Store Manager staples the actual postage costs to the printed order and stamps it as being sent. This is filed at the Retail store.
8. I pick up the printed copies of the completed/stamped orders on a weekly basis to take back to the off-site back office. I also take a copy of our POS data (different system again) for the weeks sales. We do NOT input the ezimerchant orders into the POS system as this would be triple entry for us.
9. The printed completed orders are then entered into Quickbooks in full including customer details (if not already a previous customer), Products ordered and shipping costs. The Products and pricing are the same in Quickbooks as they are in Ezimerchant but currently require double entry when they are updated or where new items are added.
10. Our separate POS data is printed using an MS-Access report and entered the same way manually into the QuickBooks system. We are however investigating the possibility of using QuickPOS to help this side of the business but are unsure if it will allow off-site integration with our backoffice QuickBooks database.

Ideally, this process could be improved (in relation to ezimerchant) through:

- Integrated updating of product information between ezimerchant and Quickbooks.
- The ability to transfer the completed order out of the "Sent to Store" folder in ezimerchant straight into Quickbooks once the completed paperwork is checked. Or alternatively export into Quickbooks and then move into another folder called "Completed Orders"
- The ability to automatically send a copy of an ezimerchant order to a designated email address ONLY once it is checked first. ie: Press a button on the page showing new orders received only after it is checked for validity/fraud protection - THis would then automatically send a copy to a designated email address (being my store manager in this case).

This could be even further enhanced if the Store Manager could send the order back electronically once it had been sent to the customer and then for ezimerchant to be able to automatically move that order in the "Completed order" folder and integrate with Quickbooks as appropriate.

This would provide for a seemless, completely electronic process from initial order, through to delivery and through to auto entry into the back-office system. The only checking point in my preferred process is the check of the order once it is initially received and then if OK it would be great if it followed through this electronic process.

This would save a HUGE amount of administration time currently being incurred.

I hope this helps.

Cheers
Gregg

[Niko]

I have been in retail for a few years but have progressed into distribution and need to provide online buying for my dealers. You mention above about having wholesale as a sub directory of mywidgets. I don't have a problem with paying for the extra license etc but what I do have a problem with is that I then have two web sites I need to maintain independantly. You don't allow us to copy the whole web site from one to another only sub sets of them, ie categories. If there is a way of editing certain files for example the .js files to ocercome this issue then i would like to know.