Cerizmo Blog

We have added a new feature to the Merchant Control Panel, now available on all accounts.

Download Logs allow you to see information about accesses to your download pages (delivered after a customer orders), such as page access time, IP address, and which files were downloaded.

Sample download logs, as viewed from order page in your control panel. The IP address is masked in this image for security reasons.

This can be a useful tool to determine:

1. Whether your customers were able to access the downloads, and if they were able to download all files (in the case of multiple files).
2. When the customer accessed the downloads, and from where (by IP address), and whether it was accessed from multiple locations.
3. Whether it is appropriate to reset the download link if a customer claims they did not have a chance to download their purchase.
4. If a customer asking for a refund, claiming non-receipt of downloads, did in fact access them (just check the logs).

The download log for any order can be accessed by clicking either the order number or “show” link on any order in your control panel. You can find a list of your recent orders on your Dashboard, or view all orders by going to Sales > Orders.

Note: Download logs prior to April 10, 2010 are not yet available. and will not yet be displayed under the order information. This does not mean the downloads were not accessed; we simply need to migrate the old logs into the new format.

We have put a great deal of thought into the checkout process in Cerizmo. Our single-page checkout form is designed to be as intuitive as possible, not ask for redundant or unncessary information, and not require prior account sign-up (or even worse – require them to go verify an email account before they can order). Complicated checkout processes, especially those spanned over multiple pages or ones requiring mandatory registration are very common in e-commerce systems and have long been associated with abandoned shopping carts (lost sales).

We have recently made several improvements and changes to the checkout form in our on-going attempt to make it as simple, and fool-proof, as possible. Recent changes include the following:

1. Small notes describing form field have been added – so your customer knows why we ask for email and password, and what to do if they are an existing customer.
2. All customer accounts are now activated immediately, whether they complete the order (and pay) or not. In the event that  a customer does not complete the order, they can still log in as an existing customer the next time around.
3. Customers who attempt to order again in the future, but select “new customer” even though they have an account, will be reminded that they already have a password and given a chance to log in (or retrieve a lost password).
4. Customers are automatically logged in and saved with cookies so that when they return to the store for future purchases, they will already be remembered and not have to enter their email or password again, unless they choose to log out or order with a different email.
5. If an existing customer does not remember their password, they can now continue ordering without their password by simply checking “I forgot my password”. They never have to leave the checkout page, and a new password is generated and emailed to them automatically after they complete the order process.
6. Since all customers are now saved whether they complete the order process or not – this will enable new features in the future, such as being able to email a customer with a reminder that they added items to their shopping cart but did not finish ordering. This will help reduce abandoned shopping carts and lost sales for customers who did not have time or for other reasons were unable to finish the order process.

Below are a few screenshots of the new checkout form and its enhancements:

Returning customers will automatically be logged in and can skip email/password entry.

Existing customers will be prompted to log in, or they can have their password reset without leaving the checkout page.

We’ve just pushed a major update to Cerizmo that greatly enhances, and simplifies the item creation form.

• Item creation and file upload is now done in a single step, with live upload progress bars.
• Instant thumbnails on image uploads – select an image, see a generate thumbnail immediately.
• All parts of the item form work independently: queue up a large file to upload, upload thumbnails, and write your item description all at the same time.
• Changes are saved as they happen. If you get disconnected or simply don’t have time to finish everything, don’t worry – it will all be saved for you as an “uncompleted item”. Go to Store > Items in your control panel and select uncompleted items to continue editing anything you didn’t finish.

The new file upload progress bars require the latest version of Flash. Don’t worry – this is probably already installed on your browser (it is on over 98% of browsers already). if not, you can download the plugin here: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

Below are a couple of screenshots of the new features in action:

Upload progress bars and instant thumnails

Edit anything while file uploads are in progress

We are about to push out a major update which will greatly simplify the process of creating a new items and handling your files. It will also change the way files are stored and used.

File Upload/Item Creation Changes:

1. An upload progress bar is being added so you can see the progress of your file being uploaded to the server. You can also queue up to three files to be uploaded while you wait.

2. New items won’t be made available in your store until you finish uploading your files: so if you get disconnected, fall asleep, or go out to walk the dog and forget all about your store – don’t worry: your files will be saved automatically and you can activate the item when you’re ready.

3. Adding an item and uploading files (item downloads) has now been combined into a single step. You will no longer have to go to your file library to upload a file, and then later attach it to an item from a drop-down list. You can now upload new files or select existing files from your library during item creation.

4. Since file upload and item creation are now done at the same time, files which are not used on any items will automatically be deleted. This will prevent unused files from counting against your disk space limit, and also allow us to save disk space on the server side too!

Keep in mind that due to change #4 above, when this patch goes live, all files which are not currently being used on items will be purged from the system within 24 hours. If you have uploaded files you aren’t ready to sell yet – don’t panic: just create a new item, attach those files to the item, and set available for sale to off. This will save the files on that item until you’re ready to go live.

Category Changes

We have noticed a pattern of new merchants creating many categories before adding any items, such as ones they may use in the future. These categories were displayed in your store even though they were empty -which may have confused customers and/or made your store look incomplete (not a good thing either way).

With this change, categories you create won’t be shown in your store until you put some items in them. This is the default, but if for some reason you want empty categories displayed anyway, you can enable the Display Empty Categories setting to override this.