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The 10th BigSeminar is being held in Atlanta, Georgia from October 5th to Ocotber 7th and despite the fact that going means I’ll be missing Thanksgiving (Canadian), I’ll be attending as part of the 1ShoppingCart product management team.
One of my goals for Atlanta is to touch base with as many of our merchants as possible.
I want to know what you think of the system. I want to talk about how you’re using it. I want to know how you’re succeeding online and what else you’re using to do it.
So…
Are YOU going to the BigSeminar? I’ve talked to a few people who are already but I have three or four days worth of time in Georgia and would love to hear from you too!
If you’re going and want to meet the 1ShoppingCart product management team let me know or feel free to seek us out at the show.
You’ll probably find me either:
- Sitting near the fringes with a laptop; twittering and blogging away
- Running around with video camera in hand asking attendees eCommerce related questions
Hope to see you at the BigSeminar this week!
Earlier in the summer we were forced to remove the ability to use custom email signatures after receiving a warning from Habeas that some of our merchants were abusing the field to send non-Can-Spam compliant email.
Habeas is the email reputation services provider managing the Habeas SafeList, the most broadly referenced email Whitelist on the Internet. And, in order to maintain our listing to the benefit of all our merchants, we were forced to implement measures to stop the abuse from continuing.
Back to the drawing board!
Since most of our merchants used this functionality as it was intended there was never any question about removing it permanently, but it did need to be redesigned in order to prevent a few bad apples from affecting the deliverability of all our merchants.
And now it’s back. Redesigned and better than ever, the custom email signature field on your My Account >> Contact Profile page is once again available for use with several important changes which will allow us to insure continued maximum deliverability rates for all our merchants.
The key changes include a quick approval process similar to the one that currently exists for newly created opt-in messages and the ability to submit multiple signatures for approval and, once approved, switch between them at any time.
To help ensure the transition to the new version of this feature is as seamless as possible, we will automatically resubmit all previously existing signatures for approval and, once approved, they will automatically start being appended to the bottom of your email once more.
This change also better positions this feature for future updates to further improve functionality, so watch for more good things to come.
With an update to Ad Trackers…
Recently we surveyed a number of merchants asking for feedback on recent system upgrades and ideas for future improvements. One issue that was raised concerned using Ad Tracker URLs in text broadcasts.
Ad Tracker URLs were often so long that the links would occasionally be cut in half by some email clients and become useless (worse than useless since a broken link in a business email can have a negative PR value).
As of July 10, 2007 we have implemented a brand new, shorter URL to run our Ad Tracker module. The new URL is: www.on2url.com
All Ad Trackers, whether newly created or previously existing, will now display a new, shorter URL that will look something like:
www.on2url.com/app/adtrack.asp?MerchantID=####&AdID=####
This change also better positions our Ad Tracker module for future updates, so watch for more good things to come.
And don’t worry; there will be no need to update your website because all existing links will continue working the same as always.
On a separate note, we will be sending another exciting upgrade announcement next week that you are not going to want to miss!
We’re getting a new look!
The next step in the evolution of our shopping cart, email and ecommerce software, a completely re-skinned version of our software’s Merchant Control Panel, has now been rolled out.
While no functionality has been changed in the coming update, we anticipate the visual change to cause significant attention and, we hope, positive feedback and enthusiasm from all our merchants.
The heart of our redesign, a new Account Navigation and Look & Feel, will provide a fresh energy to our software while presenting a new streamlined, uncluttered workspace and improved ability to locate the tools you need to run your business.
We realize any new design will take a little getting used to, but we’re excited to introduce our new results-oriented interface as a significant improvement from our older look and have provided a User Interface white paper to help explain the changes (which you can find by clicking the Resource option on the new main menu!)
We can’t wait to hear your feedback and know you’re going to find the new interface much easier to use and, thanks to the more intuitive design and more streamlined architecture, quicker to achieve exactly what you’re logging in to do.
Now that we’re over the speed bump that was our SpamHaus listing yesterday, - I may have more to say about SpamHaus’ vigilante brand of Spam fighting in the future - it’s full steam ahead putting the finishing touches on our new interface in preparation for tonight’s big launch!
To get into the spirit I was able to corner one of our developers and ask a few questions regarding the new interface changes…
Ben has been with us for just over a year and was one of the developers key to the implementation of our new Merchant Control Panel changes.
What’s your background Ben?
I’ve been a programmer and web developer for about 7 years.
How long have you been working on the new Merchant Control Panel?
Over a month.
What was the toughest hurdle you had to deal with?
Creating a consistent Look & Feel across so many pages.
What do you see these changes helping our Merchants?
Having a consistent layout makes the site more readable and easier to use. Hopefully this will enable our merchants to spend more time focusing on whatever it is they’ve logged in to do and less time trying to locate particular features.
On one hand we’ve created a clearer presentation of sections and categories by better arranging page layouts in order to provide an easier learning curve for new merchants.
While at the same time, for the sake of our existing merchants, we’ve maintained the locations of all existing pages and maintained our previous sub-menu structures so the transition to the new interface will be as smooth as possible.
What do you like most about the new design?
With a cleaner layout, it’s easier to find the information you’re looking for on individual pages.
What is your favorite color?
Blue, no red, no blue!
Any final thoughts?
I hope our merchants all enjoy the style changes and can’t wait to hear the feedback!
As you can see, we’ve all invested a lot of time and energy into planning and building a new interface that will carry us forward in the years to come! Thanks to Ben for his time and to everyone who has provided your valuable feedback so far!
Hope everyone is as excited as we are about tonight’s 10 pm launch (EST).
Oh, I almost forgot. Apparently our team has devised a way to changeover to the new Interface without ANY downtime at all! So if you were worried about not being able to log into your account from 10 to 10:30 tonight, problem solved!
Cheers!
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