Who will be upgraded?

 

All of our customers using the Resellerate hosted solution (which was VAR Central and eCommerce Connections) will be automatically upgraded.

 

What do you need to do to prepare?

 

You don't really need to do anything before the upgrade. There will be an outage window during the upgrade process and during that outage your website (and site administration) will be unavailable. In the lead up to (and during) the upgrade period we request that you stop making content changes and do not recommence until you receive the "upgrade complete" notification from eCorner. We will provide notifications by email, Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter. When we have provided you with the date and time of the upgrade, you may like to notify your customers in advance that your website will not be accessible during the upgrade period.

 

How will we know how to use the new features?

 

eCorner will schedule webinar training sessions that will cover the new features in the weeks following  the upgrade. These will be recorded and available as a download from the eCorner YouTube Channel.

What are some of the new features and enhancements?

 

Improved Security and all of website HTTPS

 

eCorner enable every website to have SSL (HTTPS) on all pages of the website. In the past SSL only applied to pages such as the shopping basket and registration pages. Recently there has been a move to ensure every page on a website is protected by SSL. This change has been supported by Google and will possibly provide your website with improved Google search results.

In order to enable site wide SSL you need to have a private SSL certificate added to your website. eCorner can provide COMODO Positive SSL certificate which are available for 2 years installed for $185 inc GST. We are providing a special offer of 50% off new SSL certificates for our existing customers. You can use the coupon code 50OFFSSL to redeem your 50% discount off the COMODO Positive SSL. You can find more information on our website - click here.

NOTE: If you have an SSL certificate applied to your website that has expired your website will no longer be accessible once all of site SSL (HTTPS) has been enabled.

 

Upgraded Content Editor

 

ePages has developed a completely new storefront content editor in fully responsive design. Merchants will be able to easily build and edit content of their online shop using the new editor that includes drag and drop for all objects and optimise the user experience for all kinds of devices. As information becomes available for this new content editor we will keep you updated.

Top sellers in the dashboard

 

The dashboard of your online shop gives you a comprehensive overview of various interesting facts and figures concerning the merchant's shop. Now you can view a list of the most popular products in the dashboard, including thumbnail pictures of the products and the number of sales.
 

New design templates for your shop

 

ePages V7 contains  new design themes. These fresh themes make it easy to give your shop a very modern design.

 

eBay: simplified editing of multiple items simultaneously

 

Do you use eBay as an additional sales channel and list new products often? If so, the new function for importing and exporting eBay listings will make life much easier. Edit multiple listings simultaneously using software like Excel or Open Office.

 

Dedicated tax matrix for the USA

 

The tax matrix for the US will provide every merchant in the United States with an automatic tax solution. During the setup of the shop, the merchant will need to enter his shop’s location. This address will be used automatically as the physical location of the shop. The only information the merchant needs to add are the tax rates applicable to the state where they have a business location. The merchant will also be able to add tax classes, change tax rates manually and add new locations.

 

Dedicated tax matrix for Canada

 

In Canada the merchant needs to collect the tax rates of the customer's location. The tax matrix for Canada will automatically provide the merchant with the correct tax rate for every sale during the checkout.

Stock levels are shown in the object selection dialog in the administration

 

The object selection dialog used to insert objects (like a product into a newsletter) now shows the stock level of a product.

 

Updated design of Facebook shop 

 

To follow up with Facebook's recent design changes, the Facebook shop created from within the administration got an updated design as well.

Change product status sent to Google Shopping feed for products out of stock 

 

For shops allowing to order products out of stock, the availability setting posted to Google Merchant Center should be "available for order" for products with stock level 0 or below.
 

Notification text about privacy policy is removed from the registration form 

 

At the bottom of the registration form in the storefront a fix text "Privacy policy: No personal information will be given to third parties ..." was displayed. This text is not needed from a legal point of view. 

 

Attributes with the same name or ID are merged

 

If two product attributes have the same name (like "Colour") but are of different attribute types (like "options" and "value selection") they are now still merged for the faceted search to allow filtering.

Speed-up of image display

 

The web server configuration is changed to extend the time an image is cached at the browser from 5 minutes to 1 day. This way the browser doesn't need to reload images that often - the reload of always visited shop pages gets faster. A browser refresh (Ctrl+R or Ctrl+F5) forces the browser to load images in cases where an immediate update of the image is desired.

 

New shared product image library and Varcentral domain

 

Currently the default image library is origin.varcentral.com.au and some store use their own domain names, however after the upgrade all stores will be using a new shared image library that will be imagelibary.ecornercloud.com.

Following the upgrade the use of the domain name “varcentral.com.au” will be discontinued and all references to Varcentral removed.

 

New positioning of the fields in invoices

 

The position of the total amount in relation to net amount and taxes used to lead to some confusion, thus we changed how it appears on the invoice and order documents.

 

Standardise wording for "Themes" 

 

We want to avoid confusion that might happen through us using several different words for one thing. We decided to go with "Theme" throughout the application as well as the Marketplace. So from now on rather than "styles" or "Templates" you will consistently see the new terminology of "Themes".

 

Integration with Stripe

 

Integration with the payment gateway Stripe via Spreedly will be available immediate after the upgrade. Spreedly provide a service that enables your website to connect to many different payment service providers and will allow your customers credit card information to be "tokenised" and securely stored in a Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliant fashion. The first payment method made available via Spreedly is Stripe an international payment provider that allows you to take payments in multiple currencies.

 

ZipMoney

 

ZipMoney & ZipPay payment integration – full payment integration with both of ZipPay’s payment options for your customers to buy now and pay later. ZipMoney allows you to provide instant credit for your customers online. It works in many ways like a traditional payment gateway however your customers are provided with a credit facility that enables them to buy online. Typically it will suit merchants that have products of higher value to sell online.

To enable this service you will need an account with ZipMoney.

 

Couriers Please shipping integration

 

Direct integration with Couriers Please to calculate and facilitate shipping to your customers. Couriers Please offer shipping services throughout Australia. The integration includes full support for their services including the ability to book pickup, print consignment notes and labels.

To enable this service you will need an account with Couriers Please.

NOTE: Couriers Please integration will be available from mid-February please contact eCorner for more information.

 

eWay Rapid integration

 

Updated eWay support for all of eWay’s latest payment and security features. This new integration will be available alongside of the current eWay integration. You will need to discuss the move from the legacy support to eWAY Rapid both with eCorner and eWAY and we can assist you to make the change. eWAY Rapid comes for some great new features for anti-fraud and tokenised payments.

If you would like any additional information, or want to look at getting any of these integrations set up for your store, please let us know.

To enable this service you will need an account with eWAY.

 

Wordpress Online Store

 

After the upgrade is completed you will be able to integrate your eCorner online store within a Wordpress website. You can find more information at the Wordpress official website or on the ePages Blog. Merchants are now able to display and sell products from their ePages shop directly on their WordPress site – without additional costs involved. Customers buying on a WordPress site are redirected to the ePages checkout process seamlessly, meaning optimal convenience and success for both retailers and consumers alike.