What is an "update cycle"?

Themes in eCom can be automatically updated by the theme's developer.  Developer's often release updates to themes to fix bugs, improve security or add on functionality.  If you edit your theme in eCom, it makes a copy of theme code in your site so you can customize it as you want, but this means any future updates for the theme will not be automatically applied (because you now have a custom theme).  You or the theme developer may be able to apply future updates manually, but this depends on the theme developer providing the necessary details for each update, and may require additional costs (for the manual work required to implement the updates).

What if I edit the theme and want to go back to into the update cycle?

It's possible, but it would require uninstalling your customized theme and reinstalling the standard theme from the marketplace, meaning you lose any customization work that had been done to the theme and you'd have to reapply any theme setting adjustments.

Can a theme be modified without editing it?

 Some changes can be implemented via custom javascript applied to your eCom account to modify the look of your site.  While the theme code won't be modified, with javascript, it is possible to modify the display of your site without editing the theme.  Using this method, the code of your site can be modified AFTER the page has loaded. This means your theme code is loading as intended, but is being modified on-the-fly by the javascript code.  This allows modifying the display of your website without editing the theme, however this method does have a couple down sides.  First, there can be a slight delay after page load before the javascript takes effect (though in most cases, this is negligible), and secondly, this method of development can take longer than directly editing the theme, meaning it can be a little more expensive in initial development costs, but it will allow you to keep your theme in it's update cycle.

With some payment integrations, status of payment is not immediately known, in which case our system will continue to communicate with the payment gateway and will update eCom as to the order's payment status when the payment gateway informs us that the payment is completed.

Note: in this process, an eCom order is created before payment is made, but the order will be marked with the "Awaiting Payment" status until payment is completed.

PRODUCT BROWSING FILTERS IN AE

Speak with AE Sales about installing the product browsing filters module.

Once installed, product browsing filters can be found in AE admin under Catalog>>Products>>Filters.  Here you can create new filters and determine where (which categories, search) they show in your webstore(s).

To create your first filter, click “Create a New Filter”.  In the form that loads, fill in the following fields:

• Name: Your name for the filter.  Should be whatever let’s you know what the filter is for (e.g. “Color Filter”)
• Active: check to make the filter active, uncheck to de-activate (only active filters will display on your webstores).
• Label: Name of the filter that shows in the webstore to your customers (e.g. “Filter by Color”)
• Type: Determines what the filter is for.
  • Availability: filters to show products of certain stock availabilities
  • Pricing: filters to show products within specified price ranges
  • Attributes: filters to show products by a particular attribute you have setup in your catalog (e.g. Color, Size, etc.)
  • Brands: filters to show based on brand of products
• Rank: determines the order that filters show in on the webstore.  When multiple filters are set to show on a page, this value determines the order they display in (lower numbers show before higher numbers; i.e. filter with rank set to 0 shows before a filter with rank set to 10)
• Field Type: determines the field type used to display the filter in your webstore.  Select menu will show a select (and also means the customer will only be able to select one value to filter by at a time).  Checkboxes shows a list of checkboxes (and allows the customer to select multiple values to filter by).
• Use in Search Results: if checked, the filter will display in the webstore’s search results page.  If not checked, filter will NOT display on search results page.
• Categories: determines which categories the filter to show in.  If none are checked, the filter will not show in any categories.  Check all categories you want the filter to show in.

Once you’ve filled in the fields, click Save Changes.  This will generate the new filter and refresh the form so you can setup the final elements.

For Availability type filters, when the form refreshes you’ll be presented with the “Availabilities” section.  Here you can setup the options that will display for your availability filter.  For example, most frequently customers what to setup 2 or 3 options: In Stock, Backordered, Discontinued.  

To do this, we’ll start with the first option and fill in the label calling it “In Stock”.  The label is how the option will be displayed in the webstore.  For the In Stock option, we want to show any products that have an availability of In Stock or Low Stock, so we check those checkboxes for this option.  Next we set the rank (determines the order these filter options will display in).  We want In Stock to be the first option, so we’ll set it’s rank to 0.  We check the Active checkbox to make sure this option shows.

Now we need to add an option for Backordered items, so we’ll click “Add Another Availability Option”. When the new fields load, we’ll set Label=”Backordered”, check “On Order” for the options checkboxes, set Rank=1 (to show it after In Stock option) and check Active.

Finally, if we want an option for Discontinued, we’d click “Add Another Availability Option”, set Label=”Discontinued”, check “Discontinued”, set Rank=2 and check Active. Click Save Changes and we’ve now setup a product filter for customers to filter products by availabilities.

For Pricing type filters, when the form refreshes you’ll be presented with the “Pricing” section.  Here you can setup the different price ranges you want customers to be able to filter by.  For example, our first price range might be to show item’s priced under $10, so we might set Label = “Under $10”, set Rank=0 (to show this as the first option in the filter), set Min Price = 0 and Max Price = 9.99 (to show anything between priced between 0 and 9.99).

Now we might want another price range to show items between $10 and $50, so we’ll click “Add Another Price Range”, set Label = “$10 - $50”, set Rank = 1, set Min Price = 10 and Max Price = 49.99.

Maybe we want a final price range to cover anything over $50, we click “Add Another Price Range”, set Label = “Over $50”, set Rank = 2, set Min Price = 50 and leave Max Price empty.  This will grab anything priced at $50 or more.  Click Save Change and we’ve now setup a pricing filter for customers to use.

For Attributes type filters, when the form refreshes you’ll see the “Attributes” section.  Attributes type work differently than the other types in that you can setup multiple filter fields within this single filter.  Each field you setup is for a single attribute, but you can setup multiple attributes in this one filter.  So for example, I may create a product filter called (Color and Material) to host two attribute filter fields, one for a “Color” attribute and one for a “Material” attribute (note: these are example attributes that I would have setup previously under Catalog>>Attributes and assigned the appropriate color and material attribute options to products).

To setup these attribute field filters, in the first fields that show in the “Attributes” section, I’d select the attribute that should be used for this first field, in this case I select the “Color” attribute.  Next I set the Label that will display with the filter, so I’m going to enter “Filter by Color” and I’ll set the Rank=0 (so it shows before any other field filters I setup in this product filter) and I’ll check Active so it shows.

Now I want to add a material field filter next, so I click “Add Another Attribute” and in the new fields that show I select the Material attribute, set Label = “Filter by Material”, set Rank=1 (so it shows after Color field) and check Active. Now I click Save Changes. This product filter will now show in your webstore with two filter fields for the two attributes I’ve setup.

For Brands type filters, when the form refreshes there’s nothing additional to do.  This is a straightforward filter that will show any brands setup in your catalog (Catalog>>Brands) as options for the customer to filter by.

PRODUCT BROWSING FILTERS IN LS ONSITE

In Lightspeed Onsite webstores, AE support setup our query rewrite module to override Lightspeed’s product query with our own.  Within this we can setup several optional filters including Size, Color, Brands and Price (with customized price ranges based on your preference).

It can be displayed in 2 ways. Either you can display them as list of Brands as in:

Or, you can choose to display them as list of Brand logos (you will need to have all the logo images), as in:

In that module you can also choose to display banner on the category page of that Brand. Example, banner displaying on the page displaying all the Anderson’s Brand product.

The interface of this module is very easy to manage.

Custom monetary values, expiration dates and unique security pins can be created and sold online.

Speak with AE Sales to purchase the gift card module. Once gift card module is installed, you can begin managing your gift cards under Customers>>Gift Cards in AE Admin.

Create a Gift Card

To add your first gift card, click “Create New Gift Cards”. In the form that loads, you can:

• Expiration Date: Select the date the gift card should expire on
• Site: Select the site that gift card can be used on (currently can only select a single site per gift card)
• Active: Turn on/off the status of the gift card (only active gift cards can be used by customers)

Each gift card needs to be assigned either to a customer account in your AE system or, if you want to email the gift card info, a specific email address.

• Account ID: If you’re assigning to a customer account, find the account under Customers>>Accounts and copy the account’s unique numerical ID. Once you have the account’s ID, you can enter it in this form in the “Account ID” field (this will assign the gift card to that customer’s account).
• Email Address: If you’re not assigning the gift card to a specific account, you’ll need to enter a valid email in the “Email Address” field.

Now that you’ve assigned the card to a particular customer…

• Amount on Card: Enter the amount (monetary value) to assign to the card. For example, if the user ordered a $100 gift card, you’d enter “100.00” into this field
• Email Card Info on Creation: If you want to email the customer with this new gift card’s information as soon as you finish this form, check this box. If you want to wait and notify the customer at a later date, leave this unchecked. You can come back and manually send the card info after creation.

Now that you’ve filled in the form, click “Create Now” and the gift card will be created. When a new gift card is created, the system automatically generates a unique pin number for that gift card. This pin is what is used to identify the gift card when it’s being used in checkout.

Manage Existing Gift Card

Once you’ve create a gift card, it will be listed under Customers>>Gift Cards. Click on the gift card you’d like to manage to load it’s details.

When editing a gift card, you can:

• Send Email with Card Information: If you need to email the gift card info to the customer, click this button and it will be emailed to either the customer account’s email address (if card is assigned to customer account) or the email address specifically assigned to the gift card.
• Expiration Date: If you’d like to change the expiration of the card, you can select a new date here.
• Active: checked indicates the card is active, unchecked inactive (can’t be used).
• Site: indicates the site the card can be used for (currently a gift card can only be used on a single site)
• Account ID: if you need to update the customer account the card is assigned to, you can set the customer account ID here.
• Email Address: if assigning a specific email to the card (usually used when card is not assigned to a customer account), email address entered here.
• Current Amount: displays the amount (monetary value) currently assigned to the gift card<

Create New Transaction

Under this link, you can manually credit to or debit from the gift card’s current amount.

To credit (add to monetary value of card), click “Create a New Transaction”, set Action=Credit, enter the Amount you’d like to credit to the card. If you want to assign this credit to a specific order in the AE system (get unique numerical Order ID from Orders list in AE admin). Finally, if you’d like to make any admin notes for the transaction, you can enter them in the Notes field. Once the fields are filled out, click “Create Now” to perform the credit.>

To debit (reduce monetary value of card), click “Create a New Transaction”, set Action=Debit, enter the Amount you’d like to debit from the card. If you want to assign this debit to a specific order in the AE system (get unique numerical Order ID from Orders list in AE admin). Finally, if you’d like to make any admin notes for the transaction, you can enter them in the Notes field. Once the fields are filled out, click “Create Now” to perform the debit.

Below all this, you can view any recent transactions that have been performed on this gift card. You cannot undo/delete/edit previous transactions, they are only displayed here for your reference. If you want to undo a previous credit, simply create a new debit in the same amount. Likewise, if you want to undo a debit, simply create a credit in the same amount.

Selling Gift Cards Online

Currently this module does not auto-generate new gift cards. This means, to sell AE gift cards, simply create a product in the amount you’d like to sell for each gift card. For example, if I want to sell $25, $50 and $100 gift cards, I’d setup three products: 1. $25 Gift Card, 2. $50 Gift Card and 3. $100 Gift. When a user purchases one of these items, you’d come into admin and create a new gift card for the appropriate amount.

Where can AE Gift Card’s be used?

Customers can use AE gift cards directly in your AE webstore via the standard checkout process. Step 3 of checkout displays a small widget in which customers can enter their unique gift card pin numbers which will debit the order total based on the monetary value available on gift cards being used. If the customer uses a gift card in AE checkout, the monetary value of the gift card(s) is automatically debited when checkout is completed.

If you’d like to allow customers to use AE gift cards outside of the AE webstore, you can do so, but you have to manage the transactions manually. For example, if a customer comes into your brick-and-mortar store and want’s to use an AE gift card, they would provide you with the unique gift card pin which you can search for in AE admin under Customers>>Gift Cards and create a new debit transaction to remove the appropriate value from the gift card (and you would of course discount the order they’re making in store for the amount being debited from the gift card).

You can select any template from the pre-designed templates by AdVision or we can custom create a template that to suit your needs. The templates range from single image to multi-images to full width.

The module is very user friendly. You can upload as many images to the modules which will be set as rotating images to the homepage.

But if you have tall boots (vertical image) as well as sandals (horizontal images) in your webstore to sell, Image override module helps to overwrite this default setting of LS. This feature requires zoom module to be installed.

Once installed, in a self-administered module, you can select a specific image format, square, vertical or horizontal for an individual product category to maintain consistency of image presentation (show shoes horizontally and boots vertically as eg).

AdVision can install any third-party Live Chat functionality for your web store. All chat communications are logged and administered through your Live Chat account with  the third-party live chat company you have signed up with.

Color swatch is a module which allows color options to display as swatches rather than a default matrix dropdown. This module works off the zoom module. There are 2 ways to work with the module:

1. Either you can assign your zoom image to be displayed as a swatch. In that case system will take a snippet from the centre of the image, which may or may not display the true color of the product at that spot.
   
   
   On the webstore it will be like: 
   
   
2. Or, you can upload your own image to be displayed as a swatch but you would assign a negative rank to it as in 
   
   
   
   This will not show this image as preview thumbnails but as swatches as in. 
   
   

It integrates with Authorize.net's CIM (Customer Information Management) feature to allow PCI compliant storage of credit card information allowing customers to more quickly and easily place future orders. (requires Authorize.net account). Once installed, you can manage customer’s CIM profiles via Settings>>Payments>>CIM Profiles in AE admin.

Customer’s will also be able to manage basic CIM profile info from their customer account on the frontend of your webstore(s). When a customer first checks out through one of your webstore(s) using a new customer account OR if they are checking out as a guest (i.e. not using a custom account) the standard credit card payment form is presented in checkout to fill out with their full credit card information.

If they are using a customer account, when their order is successfully submitted, the credit card information they’ve entered is saved with Authorize.net (on their secure infratstructure) while a profile ID is stored within AE along with the last four digits of the credit card and the expiration date of the card.

When a customer returns to your webstore at a later date to complete another purchase, if they have an existing CIM profile in their account, that would be presented as the default payment when choosing to pay by credit card. If you have CVV code required, the customer will only have to enter the card’s CVV code to process payment for their order using that existing CIM profile; if you don’t have CVV code required, the customer doesn’t have to enter anything to use that CIM profile.

This makes return ordering much easier for your customer since they don’t have to continually re-enter their credit card information when they checkout. If the customer has a CIM profile with a card that has expired, also in the checkout process they’ll be presented with the opportunity to simply update the expiration date for their renewed credit card, thereby updating the CIM profile so it can continue to be used.

Another benefit of using Authorize.net’s CIM feature is for admin creating new credit card charges. Consider your customer calls in to add to an order they just placed. If you’re using CIM, you don’t have to have them provide their full credit card information over the phone, you can simply use the CIM profile that was created with their order (you’d only need the CVV code from the customer if CVV code is set to be required).

For the module, you would need to have an account with a third-party newsletter service provider lilke Mail Chimp, Constat Contact etc.

We would need your login info to that provider and we will grab the code to place the sign up form on the webstore. Since this is a third-party service, we can not control how will the list be managed. We are responsible for the appearance of the form (as permitted by the newsletter service provider). For any emails generating from that provider, to the appearance of the confirmation page and also the management of the Sign Up list, you would need to contact the newsletter service provider itself.

Multiple language support to make your site truly international. You can have the text and description of your products rendered in the language chosen by your customer.