You might be wondering, like I was, if having randomly generated filenames (which is a by product of using x-carts image upload feature) affects your sites SEO.

The short answer is no, not really but having proper image names can help you in other ways.  For example a properly named image that’s the same name as your product may land you hits via Google Image Search and it can only help.

If you have the time to manually upload files then it’s recommended but not absolutely necessary.

It’s all too easy to repeat the same image over and over just like your competitors do so we recommend taking just a little bit of time to make sure you have appropriate pictures for your product. I

n this example one of our customers who sells printer ink found that sales increased dramatically all his compatible inkjet cartridges by having an original cartridge picture with the word compatible underneath or actually taking a picture of the compatible ink that actually mentions the printer on the product itself.

Once you have these images setup on your website it’s then simple to publish them to Google shopping using our feed manager tool.

Over the last few months Google has made many changes to its speed specification for the USA and for the UK so with that in mind we have started to beta test localised versions of our Feed Manager for Google.

At the moment it’s anyones guess on the impact of spending the time to populate all the extra recommended and non-recommended fields will have on a feed that is published to Google however we feel that your products can only benefit from providing as much data as possible.

At this stage in development the feed contains quite a bit of PHP coding and also requires anyone with an X cart store to add some extra fields to your store as well.

if you have lready purchased our feed manager module 4X carts we would welcome some feedback on your general thoughts and any ideas for improvements or usability.

If you are interested in obtaining a specially localised version of Google base for your store then please use the contact us form on this website.

We are glad to announce that the new X-Cart v4.4.3 is now available for downloading in the “File area” section in your HelpDesk account athttps://secure.qtmsoft.com, or at http://www.x-cart.com/download.html.

v4.4.3 is a minor bug-fix release which also features improved stability and performance. This version also includes some improvements, here are some of them:

- USPS API updated to versions RateV4 and IntlRateV2.
- Amazon Checkout integration reworked.
- Beanstream payment method updated.
- Support for MySQL 5.5.x added.
- CKEditor updated to version 3.5.3.
- JSON library updated to version 1.0.3
- jQuery API updated to version 1.5.1.
- and more…

For the detailed changes description see the CHANGELOG file included into the distribution package.

Upgrade packs are reported to be following within the week for those wanting to perform upgrades on existing sites.

As with all upgrades, make sure you have a backup.  A number of people that I’ve spoken to have had issues with previous upgrades etc.

Worth noting is that the upgrades are incremental so if you have 4.4.1 you will need to go to 4.4.2 and then to 4.4.2

Below are the changes for you feed. Remember that with Feed Manager or just the Google Base x-cart module it takes but a moment to implement these changes and get you ahead of the game on your feed data.

Changes for Google Product Search Merchants

Monday, March 14, 2011 | 2:26 PM

To help Google Product Search shoppers accurately compare prices and learn more about products they want to buy, we’re making some changes to our data requirements and our feed specification.  Please note that these changes will only affect Google Product Search listings and will not apply to Google Commerce Search or AdWords ad formats.

For Feeds Targeting the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany

Unique Product Identifiers [required for most categories]: With user reviews, prices, related items, and videos, “product pages” (example: Canon S95) help users make decisions about what to buy. To help us match product listings to these pages, we ask merchants to provide “unique product identifiers.” Starting May 3, we will require unique identifiers for all products except apparel and one-of-a-kind items. Products without unique product identifiers may not be listed in Google Product Search, though the feed may not be disapproved. To learn more about these identifiers, please visit our Help Center.

Shipping Information [required] When shoppers are trying to find the best deal, online or offline, they need to know the full cost of an item – including the cost of shipping.  To help them accurately compare prices, we will begin requiring shipping information for Google Product Search on June 6th.  After that date, we may disapprove feeds from accounts that do not include this information.  Please visit this Help Center article to learn more about how to specify shipping costs either at the account or item level.

For Feeds Targeting the United States

Tax Information [required]: To ensure that shoppers have a seamless experience when they click through from Google Product Search to your site, we’re making tax information required for all feeds targeting the United States. As we’re doing with shipping cost information, we will be making this change on June 6th; after that date, product listings that do not include tax information at the account level, or in the “tax” attribute, may be rejected. You can learn more about providing tax information in this Help Center article. (Please note that feeds targeted to countries other than the United States already require inclusion of VAT in the “price” attribute.)

New Sale Price Attributes [recommended] Shoppers everywhere love sales. To help make sure your sale price is included in Google Product Search, and for the right duration, we’re adding two attributes to the United States Product Search feed specification, “sale price” and “sale price effective date.”  The attributes are recommended for the items that you have put on sale, but are not required.  If you do include these new attributes, you should continue to provide the “price” attribute with the non-sale price from your website.  You can learn more about these new attributes in our Help Center.

To start, head into feed manager (if you don’t have it, seriously… why not?) and click on the feed that you want to rename.  Look at the browser URL and make a note of what it is.

It should look like:

fts_fc_index.php?mod=088

The bit we are specifically looking for is “088″ part. We’ll call this the feed code.

Create a text file named feednames.ini with the following contents (edit to meet your needs) and upload it to your xcart/admin/fts_fc_files folder:

—[Begin feednames.ini]—

[002]
Name = “Bing Shopping”
Description = “Generate a product feed for Bing Shopping”

[008]
Name = “Search Spring”
Description = “Generate a product feed for Search Spring”

[011]
Name = “Power Reviews”
Description = “Generate a product feed for Power Reviews”

—[End feednames.ini]—

Then delete xcart/admin/fts_fc_files/modules.dat. When you reload Feed Manager, you should see your new Feed names.

Bingo, your feed names have changed. Very handy for those, like me, that purchase a ton of custom feeds and sometimes can’t remember what’s used for what

Glossary Modification xcart 4.4.x compatible

Now you can educate your customers without taking them away from your products. Any words you choose are highlighted AUTOMATICALLY in your product descriptions and offer pop up floating info boxes when you hover over them. {see more}

Featured Product Manager for x-cart

The easiest way to change the look of your front page, side bars, static pages. Show groups of featured products in many different styles without changing your x-cart php code or admin! {see more}

X-cart Site Map (advanced sitemap)

• NEW! Now allows you to create a site map even if you use the HTML catalog.
• Shows unlimited category levels (depth can be controlled)
• Can show all products in each category or a limited number which can also be randomised.

{see more information about Xcart Sitemap Compatible With X-cart 4.4.x here)

Instant Product Search basic

Your customers can search your products instantly without loading a new page! {see more}

Advanced Instant Product Search

Your customers can search your products instantly without loading a new page! The advanced version shows the product title AND thumbnail in real time as you type! {see more}

Newest Added products list for x-cart

Automatically lists the most recently added products on any page you wish.

{see more}

If you aren’t offering free shipping to your customers then you should be

Instead of COSTING you money this guide will tell you how to MAKE money

The concept here is easily done in a few simple steps

1. The average order value of your store
If you dont have a report to tell you what this is, simply add up all your orders from your store and divide that by the number of orders placed

Example
£1000 of total revenue
10 orders
= £100 average order value

2. Average shipping cost.
This all depends on your store, an export from your store should help you with this

3. Take your average order value and add 10%

With our example this is 100 * 1.10 = £110

£110 is the figure that represents our free shipping threshold (FST)

So the free shipping threshold is the figure that if customers spend over then we will offer free shipping to our customers.

In this example if they spend more than £110 in a single transaction then
we can offer free shipping

So you increase your average order value as customers by the little bit extra, in this case £10ukp per order so they can get the perceived value of free shipping.

To most people they dont see shipping as anything providing real value, more a nickel and dime service, in short a cost that has to be bared.

Amazon really pioneered this idea so there’s no reason it can’t work for you depending
on what you sell.

Important Tip
You need to measure how many people really take you up on this offer so you should automate this wherever possible.

Of course your order value will go up so after a while try increasing the FST after a while and tweak what works for you.

Remember. Everyone loves free shipping

Reach your audience:

Be it showing off a new product, service or updating your audience on news about your company, keep in mind that it has to hold the attention of the person who is reading it in the first place. You might be tempted to include information about your company – but do the customers really care about that? If you do need to include news and information not immediately relevant to them, make them the minor message rather than the main feature of your mail.

Also, make sure that your email stands out from competing messages in your customer’s inbox. You can guarantee that you aren’t the only one sending emails to customers so be sure that your messages are unique from all the other mail that they have. Make your messages beyond just routine bulletins – find a hook to draw the customer in.

Know what type of marketing email you’re sending:

There are different types of mailers depending on what you want to achieve.  The first is brand email, which promotes brand awareness, loyalty and goodwill with your customers. These include regular newsletters, and the contents could include information about a new product or service. The main focus of these emails is to make people aware of your goods in the future, and is not to get them to visit or purchase immediately.

The second type of marketing emails are direct marketing types, seeking to drive people to your products or services right away. It can be in the form of promotional offers or plain advertising, and should always contain new information. Keep in mind that they shouldn’t be sent at regular intervals as it could be seen as an intrusion for the recipient.

Remember the reason people signed up:

Keep in mind that many people become exasperated when they sign up for email related to one service, then start receiving other emails related to your other products. For example, a person that subscribed to a snowboarding newsletter starts receiving emails about hockey as well. Maintaining a clear relationship between the messages and the recipient ensures good relations and enables you to reach out to your audience.

Try to add free stuff to your emails:

People love free stuff. By adding free offers in your email, you can ensure that your subscribers will be more receptive to your emails.  Adding value this way is great for building on relationships with existing customers and invaluable in cementing relationships with new subscribers as well. The free offer also creates extra promotion for your brand as well.  Another advantage is that you can easily measure what newsletters and offers are working for you, making furture newsletters even more effective.

Focus on building relationships:

Email marketing is one of the best methods of generating return sales. These sales are focused on relationship built over time by your diligent efforts to remind customers about what you can offer. Try to avoid pestering your contacts with constant emails and focus your email content to what is relevant to them.  I’ve heard of many internet stores winning sales based on loyalty and not price.

So now you are armed with this information, whats the best way to reach your newsletter subscribers.  Marketing Manager Professional 3.0 Bundle for X-cart comes to the rescue.  On top of it’s feature rich toolset there’s a rather handy newsletter designer, sending module and campaign tracker.

Companies often send out newsletters blindly, not taking the time to measure the responses from an offer, looking at sales of a product or range of products but that doesn’t take into account who clicked onto your site and bought something else.  You can see referers from emails but it’s not quite the same in depth information as a campaign.

I covered in a previous article on how to track clicks from google base with the campaign manager and it’s the same method for newsletters.

Does your current newsletter track information like this?

On this example we can see that somone has potentially taken a link from a special offer on a newsletter and shared it with the world, well a forum at the very least.  The referrer will then show up in marketing manager and that’s another lead for you to follow up.