Frequently Asked Questions
What is my Shopping Cart Administration page and how do I get there? Shopping Cart Administration allows you to:
There are several ways to get to your Admin page; one that works for everyone is to go to www.pageville.com and click on Login. Enter your password, click Next. Scroll down to Shopping Cart Administration, click button. Now you're at your Administration page. I have already designed my web site. Must I use a storefront template with Pageville? No! Design your web pages any way you want. Simply add BUY and CHECKOUT images for the items you want to sell.
Does Pageville's shopping cart use cookies? Yes, Pageville uses cookies. But the shopping cart will still work even if the customer has their cookies turned off. The only difference is that the customer will have to enter their name and address every time they order something. If the cookie is on, this information will be stored on their own computer and will appear automatically when they go to checkout. Pageville only stores encrypted credit card numbers in the cookie.
Compatibility of Pageville shopping cart "software". Our shopping cart is a service, not software. Therefore there is nothing to install on your server and compatibility issues are minimized. Just add HTML form code to your web page for each product. You can create the form code on our web site. Click on "Sign Up" to get a Pageville Shopping Cart ID (no cost). Then click on "Try" - Pageville Basic Shopping Cart Service - to create the BUY BUTTON code. You can also use our FrontPage or Cool Page Plugins to create shopping buttons.
CoolPage - Where should I put the shopping buttons I create? Buttons you create should be stored in: ProgramFiles\3Dize\CoolPage\objects\ecommerce\pageville. This will make the button available in the selection list, and Pageville's Shopping Cart Plug-In will be started when you drag the button onto your web page. This is also the directory where Pageville's standard buttons are stored. When you drag a shopping button onto your web page, the window for entering the data to be associated with this button will pop up. Enter data for your first item. Then view the Image Style drop-down list. Select the image and click "OK". The image you select should become the default as you add other buttons.
Can a shopping cart be used on multiple websites? Yes and no. A single shopping cart will store all customer orders in a single file (which the merchant can access online). A single shopping cart will interface with online credit card processing with a specific merchant account. If a merchant has multiple businesses, a single shopping cart may work. Separate shopping carts are needed when different merchants need to access different order files. Separate shopping carts are necessary if payment options or online credit card processing options are different.
I'm a designer. Should the Shopping Cart ID be my name or my client's name? The Shopping Cart ID should be in your client's name, as you will most likely turn control of the shopping cart over to the merchant once the design phase is over. If you are a designer who has multiple clients using Pageville Shopping Carts, then all of your Shopping Cart IDs will be linked with your email address.
What is a Shopping Cart ID and how much does it cost? A Shopping Cart ID is simply how Pageville keeps track of all the shopping carts. Here at Pageville, we used to call the ID a Merchant ID, but realized that it was being confused with a payment processing merchant account, so we changed our terminology. Cost = nothing! Payment is not needed until the shopping cart is fully tested and functional. When the merchant is ready to start accepting orders from the Internet, they pay $64.00 for six months or $99.00 for a year of shopping cart processing. The PLUS shopping cart (offers additional features) costs $199.00 per year.
I lost my shopping cart ID / password - what should I do? Click Log In on www.pageville.com. In the section "Get additional shopping cart ID", enter the same e-mail address you used to get the ID originally. Click on Sign Up. On the next page, check "Send password to e-mail address" and click on Sign Up. Your information will be e-mailed to you.
I'm a designer. Must I start all over again with Pageville whenever I set up a new merchant?
Multiple Shopping Cart IDs Each merchant will need their own Shopping Cart ID. To sign up for additional IDs, go to Pageville.com and click on "Log In". Enter your name, email, and zipcode. Next, you will see a list of accounts linked with your unique member ID. Here you can select an existing account to work on, or get an additional Shopping Cart ID for a new merchant.
Demo - can I try out Pageville's shopping cart for free? Yes. Our shopping cart is a processing service - we do not sell shopping cart processing software. Add form code to your web page for each item to be sold. The form code can be created using any of the following:
How do I go from the demo to the real thing now that everything is set up? When you pay for the shopping cart service, the demo is converted to your real shopping cart. You can then accept real credit card numbers with your cart. (With the demo, you can only test with the credit card number = 16 zeros.)
After I pay for a shopping cart, how long before it will work? If you pay online, the shopping cart will be "live" immediately. If you give us a check, the site will be fully functional several hours after we receive the check. Keep in mind that your online payment processing is through a different company and may take a day or two.
I created attributes for one of my products, but now all of my products have (and don't need) them. With Copy and Paste Editing: With FrontPage or CoolPage:
How do I get my orders? Click on Log In at http://www.pageville.com. Enter your ID and password, then scroll down to "Get Order and Credit Card Information". Click on Get Order Information to go to the Retrieve and Review Orders page. While you are retrieving the orders, ignore the "Return" links - use the back button on your browser if needed. You can also create your own Get Orders entry page. This is useful when designing a site for someone else. Save the Retrieve and Review Orders (order-results2.pat) page as an HTML file. Change the appearance and wording if you like.
Can the owner have a different password for getting customer payment information? Yes. Pageville's shopping cart sites allow for a designer password and an owner password. The designer password allows access to the administration pages that control the set-up of the site. This password can also be used by a person who needs to get the orders from the website, but should not have access to payment data. The owner's password allows access to the orders as well as customer payment info like credit card numbers if you are processing manually.
I am not receiving e-mail notification on some of my orders. Pageville keeps multiple files of customer information for you. If you look at the data in the "Orders before payment" file, you will see customers who placed orders, but did not complete the payment step. The order number is incremented at this point. Pageville does this to make sure we don't loose the customer's information. If the customer completes the payment process, then a record is added to the "Paid Orders" file and an e-mail is sent to the merchant.
How long are my orders kept on the server? Can I delete them? Pageville stores your orders for the current period and three periods back. The period is set to one month. So after three periods, orders are automatically deleted.
Can I set up a text area for one of my products? Yes. Set up a text area as a product attribute. There is a Title field and an Option field. Enter a title or label for the text area. The maximum size is 9 x 80. FrontPage: Go to the Attributes tab. Select TEXTAREA from the "Method" drop down list. CoolPage: Enable 1, 2 or 3 attributes using the Attributes Preferences. In the options field, enter "TEXTAREA3x40" for a text area that is 3 rows high and 40 characters wide. Click on Apply. Copy and Paste or Dreamweaver: Set up "BUY Button with Attributes" under "Try".
Can our customers enter a personalized message? Yes. Your customers can add a gift message to the order, or you can have a message box that allows your customers to enter instructions to you. To assign a message to a specific item, add a TEXTAREA as one of your product attributes. To allow a message to apply to the entire order, add a message box to your check out page. This is set in Administration | Merchant Info | Message Boxes.
What is the Add to Order Method / BUY Button Method? This method describes how your shopping cart will proceed after a customer clicks on an Add to Order or BUY button.
The message "Add To Order Method changed" is displayed when the value for a button is not the same as the default setting. Cool Page Only: After making a change in your button processing, you can change all of your existing buttons using the COPY BUTTON function. COPY BUTTON is used to copy all values for the current button. This is not the same as the normal Windows copy function. After you do a copy, there will also be a PASTE BUTTON.
What is the site directory? The site directory is where Pageville finds your shopping cart to process orders. Use "shopcart/pvshops/" unless your web site is hosted by Pageville.
Most of the items on my site will be charged shipping and tax. I offer a service that requires neither. Can Pageville handle this? Yes.
Tax: On the item information tab, un-check the "Taxable" checkbox for untaxed services or items.
Error message: "No URL specified to go back to shopping". In your Shopping Cart Administration, go to Merchant Information. Enter the URL for return after checkout and continue shopping.
Pop-up checkout method - can the quantity box be empty when the pop-up appears? Go to the Preferences tab. Select "Add Pop-up" and "Buyer can enter quantity". Click on apply. Then go to the Item tab and delete the default quantity. Quantity will be blank in the pop-up window.
Can the customer enter the quantity to buy? Go to the Preferences tab. Select "Add Pop-up" and "Buyer can enter quantity". Click on apply. Then go to the Item tab and enter a default quantity (if desired). The default quantity will show in the pop-up window.
Can the color of the pop-up be changed? You can set the background color on your Merchant Administration page.
Why does the pop-up become a "pop-under" once the user has clicked the buy button? If we have the code close the pop-up window, the browser asks the customer to confirm closing and this can be confusing. When user clicks on another buy button, the pop-up window should return to the foreground.
More questions? If the FAQs don't answer your questions, please contact us.
Credit card processing - merchant accounts - where do I start? Entities Involved in the Payment Process:
Pageville's
Credit Card Processing information Already have a merchant account? How do you currently submit credit cart information? The two most common methods are:
I need my customers to enter the three-digit code (CVV) for credit card numbers. Pageville's shopping cart PLUS currently handles the CVV code. Basic 2005 shopping cart service now includes this feature (and more) at the increased price of $129. Pageville will upgrade current customers who request this upgrade to Basic 2005 at no charge. The next time you pay to renew your shopping cart, you will then pay for Basic 2005 service for $129 or PLUS service for $199. To add the CVV code to your checkout page, sign in to your Merchant Administration page. Go down to Add Options. Check "Use new method for (1) displaying receipt". This will also changes the way to get your orders.
How do I add (or delete) payment options for my customers? The payment options that will display on your check-out page are set in Shopping Cart Administration. Click on Merchant Information and go to the Payment Processing section. There is a check box for each option available. Once you have selected your payment options, click "Continue" at the bottom of the administration page. Next, fill in any details requested specific to the payment options selected. There are checkboxes for the VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover credit card icons to be displayed at checkout.
Payment window - separate browser window or not? Go to Shopping Cart Administration and log in. Click on Merchant Information and go to the Payment Processing section. At the bottom of this section is a check box for "Separate Payment Window". When checked, the shopping cart will open a new window for payment processing. Uncheck to stay in the same browser window.
Can I pay with a check or money order? Go to our buy page to start your order. This associates your payment to your Pageville Shopping Cart ID (or you can get a new ID). When you get to the checkout page, click on the button in front of "Pay by mail or FAX". On the next screen, click on the "Display Printable Invoice" link at the bottom. Print one invoice to send with your check or money order, and one for your records.
Can I demo the PayPal payment process? Yes. With Pageville's Shopping Cart in DEMO mode, you can process a $1.00 charge through PayPal. Just proceed with any item in your shopping cart and submit payment through PayPal. The last step will change the amount to $1.00. This charge will appear on your account.
FrontPage - Why does it ask me if I want to clean up my HTML file? When you copy and paste or delete buttons, FrontPage often fails to handle all of the HTML code properly. This partial button code can cause major problems. So the clean up removes the partial code. This only occurs if the button code was created by Pageville's FrontPage Plugin version 1.xx. If you choose to clean up, Pageville will preserve your original file so you will not loose any work. The file, before clean up, is saved to a ".bak" file. For example, your "Products.html" file will be backed up to "Products.html.bak". If there are subsequent clean up processes, the first "Products.html.bak" is renamed to "Products.html.orig".
FrontPage - Pop-up BUY window does not "pop-up" (stays in background). The preview in FrontPage is similar to Internet Explorer. However, when using the "Add Pop Up" buy button method, the pop-up window comes to the foreground the first time, but not on subsequent BUY button clicks. Pageville displays two messages when using the "Add Pop Up" buy button method: "FrontPage Preview Limitation - Cannot bring pop-up to foreground When a web designer using FrontPage clicks on a second buy button while in Preview mode, the pop-up window does not come to the foreground. The pop up will come to the foreground when the web page is published and viewed in a web browser. This link is only displayed to the web designer." "Please go to your Shopping Cart Administration (available from the Pageville drop down menu in FrontPage) to stop this notice from appearing to all of your web site visitors. Going here registers your ISP address and Pageville cookie with Pageville's server. Once the ISP address and cookie are known by the server, then a second 'notice' will only be visible to the designer - no other website visitors will see it." Message 1 is displayed if you have not gone through the administration process. Most designers will not see message 1. This FrontPage "quirk" causes many technical support calls. Pageville saves the Merchant ISP Address and Merchant Cookie into the setup database. This allows Pageville to send the message(s) to the designer only. This address and cookie can be seen at Administration | Merchant Info | Continue (at bottom of first page), see bottom of second page. The ISP is only used to avoid confusion and does not effect processing.
Uninstalling FrontPage Plugin. I have installed your Pageville FrontPage plug-in and would now like to uninstall it. I have ran the uninstaller and manually deleted all components I could find, however the menu in FrontPage for Pageville still remains. Search your hard drive for "pagevilleaddin.dll". Delete that file. The above is required for version 2.02c and before. We added uninstall starting with 2.02d.
Shared borders problem with FrontPage. In FrontPage, you cannot have "shared borders" when you place order buttons on your website. It duplicates the borders so you have multiples. You have to turn off the shared borders, add the buttons, and activate them; then turn the shared borders back on. Until Microsoft fixes this bug, we suggest that you do not use shared borders on shopping pages. Pageville does not offer technical support for this problem.
When I try to attach an HTML file to my e-mail it gets embedded. The email needs to be sent as plain text, not HTML format, so that HTML files are attached, not embedded. |