iScripts VistaCart Quick Start Guide

Last Updated 23th November 2012

Welcome to the setup and configuration guide for iScripts VistaCart Version 1.2.

After you install the iScripts VistaCart, please log in to the administrator control panel using the user name and password you entered on installation. The location of the administrator control panel is www.yourdomain.com/yourfolder/admins . Please replace the yourdomian.com and folder with your installation location.

Inside the administrator control panel you will find all the information needed to set up your online store as well to manage the day to day operations. With different settings you will see "?" inside blue bubbles. Move your mouse over to the "?" to display help for that particular item.

Website Settings

Once you entered in the admin control panel you may go to Settings link on the left menu and select General Settings

Here you can set the store name and administrator email for your website. Also you can upload your own logo for the website. The logos should be at least 48X46 pixels large. If they are larger, software will resize to the correct size.

The page title, Meta description, and Meta key words are using for search engine optimization. This will help your site with search engine placements. Here you can set the number of images for a product, number of items per page, and modify many more options to suit your needs.

The software solution comes with 30 different templates or layouts at no additional cost. Select a template that matches your online store. If you are a designer or programmer you can choose to edit the CSS (cascading style sheets) and images for a given template to change look and feel of the website. Otherwise please consult a professional when you edit any source code including css files

For editing a css file you can go to app/webroot/css/ folder.There you can find different css files with the name of themes.If you want to edit a theme you can make the changes to the corresponding css file here.For changing the images for the theme,you can edit the images present inside the folder with the name of the theme under app/webroot/img/ folder.

You can choose to sell either physical products or downloadable digital products like eBooks, software, or video files. If you are selling digital products please select a Products download expiry time. The download link will expire after this period to avoid potential piracy of your digital products.

If you are using Fedex for shipping there is an option of printing the shipping labels using Fedex accounts. Please enable it here. Also you can enable or disable promo code, refund module, Fedex shipping label (Enable only if you set Fedex as your shipping service), Promo codes, Product rating, Feedback on products / website, etc.

This shopping cart supports accepting sales notifications through fax in addition to email/web. This is a feature for retail stores with limited internet/email access during operations. If you have access to a fax machine, the system can be setup to receive incoming sales orders through fax. To do this you need to create a fax account with ringcentral.com and plug in the number and password in this settings.

Now select the link shipping from settings menu. Here you will get option to select shipping method for your online store. You have the option of setting the shipping prices and methods. Flat rate shipping is the manual shipping method. You can select multiple flat rate shipping (eg: standard, express, next day air etc...). For each flat rate shipping option, select the shipping cost of the first item and additional items. If you are starting out or if you have low sales volume we suggest to use the flat rate shipping, as it is simple for you and your customers.

You can use online shipping calculators of major shipping carriers if you choose. You can choose from US Postal Service, UPS, Fedex, Canada Post and Australia Post. You will require an online account with them and just plug in the account info here. When your customers enter their address information, the software will talk to the shipping company’s server to calculate shipping cost in real-time. You have to enter the weight and dimensions of your products for it. This online shipping calculator is useful if you are shipping packages of different weights.

Now you may select the link payment from the settings menu. The helps you select how you will receive payments from customers. Just plug in the payment gateway information and you are ready to go. You can select from Paypal, Google Checkout, Blue Pay, Authorize.net, YourPay or World Pay. If you have a Point of Sale system already and you want to use it, please select offline credit card Payment method. Here the shopping cart will not use any online payment gateway. It will just get the customer credit card information. You have to punch in the credit card info before shipping. Please note this method may not be PCI compliant and use it at your own risk.

Here you can select the payment method and the transaction currency for your website

Now you may select the link Tax where you can set the tax rate for your customers. If you are in US, you have to charge taxes where you are located. If you have multiple locations you have to charge taxes from other states too. In most jurisdictions you pay sales tax/VAT only for the sub total excluding Shipping cost.

Manage Homepage

Using this option you can set the layout (view) of the home page of your website. Use drag and drop the sections where you want to appear in your store home page.

Website Content

In this section you can edit the content of pages like About Us, FAQ, Terms, Community and Testimonials. You can also decide whether you want to show or hide these pages in your website by click on the status link and selecting active or inactive.

Email Templates

Using this section, you can edit the content of emails sent out from website automatically. Make sure to edit different emails the website sends out to reflect your online store. Please make sure to leave the variables like [user_name], [PASSWORD] etc. intact. In the email they will be replaced by the user_name or password for the specific customer.

Custom fields

In this section you can create optional fields like size, color etc. for the products you sell through your website. You can have any number of custom fields. But please keep this to minimum for improved usability.

Custom Values

If you added custom fields, you have to add the optional values for those fields. For example you can select field color add values like red, blue, green etc.

These fields will appear when adding new items so you can communicate the features of the products to the visitors of your website.

Categories

Here you have to add the categories of products you sell through the website. If you added any custom fields and values, and that is applicable for your category, you have to check the custom fields and applicable values at the time of adding category. You can add multiple levels of category. To add a subcategory, click on Add a new category and select a parent category. If you select root as the parent, it would be a main category. Please note you cannot add products to category if you have subcategories underneath it.

Products

Here you can add the products to sell through your website. All the products should be under a category. You can add products only at the lowest level categories. If you have a large number of products please use the bulk uploader. Using Import Products menu, you can add a bunch of categories and products by uploading the .csv file as shown in the sample file. Please keep the headers and order of the csv file intact. Using the Import images menu you can upload a group of images by uploading .zip files. Here you should take care not to name the images the same as other products already uploaded in the website, as the existing products will be overwritten.

Gift Cards

If you would like to sell gift cards in your website you can add it here. This is a great way to add revenue to your business. It might be great idea to start Gift Cards, once you have enough traction in the website.

Promo codes

If you like to offer some promo codes to give discount to your customers, you can add the details of it here.

Orders

When you get new orders you will receive an email alerting you of the order. Selecting the orders tab you can see the details of items, shipping method, and customer details.

Once you ship the item don't forget to change the status to Item shipped. In the orders tab you can add comments for internal use only, as well as to the customer directly.

Congratulations!
Now your online store is ready to go live and start your online business. The key to growing your business online is to increase traffic to your site. If it makes sense, please look into Search Engine Optimization, Google Adwords (pay per clicks), advertising in web sites, offline promotions, social networking sites, and more ways to get the word out about your site. All small business owners know that marketing is the key to sales!

Good luck with your new online business

-iScripts.com