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Monday, May 10, 2004 - Back

Press Release
SOURCE: Early Impact, LLC

Early Impact releases v2.6 of its ProductCart shopping cart software

Updated ecommerce software gives small businesses more tools to manage their online store

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, May 10, 2004. /For General Release/ -- Early Impact, an ecommerce software development company, announced today the release of ProductCart v2.6, the latest version of its popular shopping cart software.

Version 2.6 of ProductCart represents a substantial improvement to the company's line of Internet shopping carts. Dozens of ecommerce features have been added and numerous improvements have been applied to many different areas of the application.

Among the over 130 new features and enhancements:

• Help Desk. ProductCart now includes a customized, "lite" version of Early Impact's Bugs Manager issue tracking and project management system. This Help Desk system allows customers and store managers to communicate in a much more organized fashion. Both customers and store administrators can open a ticket and are notified via email whenever updates are posted. Multiple files can be attached to a posting.
• Multiple package shipments. ProductCart can now more accurately calculate shipping costs on orders that are shipped in multiple boxes. Products flagged as oversized are by default shipped in a separate package (e.g. a computer monitor, a piece of furniture, etc.). In addition, the administrator can now set a maximum weight per package that applies to all orders. If an order exceeds that weight, the order is automatically divided over multiple packages.
• Handling of very light products. On a product by product basis, store managers can now set how many units of the products make 1 pound (or 1 Kg.). This allows the system to properly calculate shipping charges when shipping extremely light products (e.g. business cards, pins, buttons, electrical parts, etc.).
• Product-specific quantity validation. Store managers can now specify on a product by product basis whether a certain product can only be purchased in multiples of N, where N can be any number. For example, if selling products whose unit price is extremely low (e.g. business cards, pins, electronic components, etc.), the system can force customers to purchase a minimum of N units, and at the same time enforce a purchase amount that is a multiple of N. For example, a store could be configured so that "business cards" can only be purchased in multiples of 250.
• Customer Import Wizard. ProductCart now allows store administrators to import customer information from another application. This makes it easier for businesses to switch to ProductCart from another ecommerce software. It also makes it possible for businesses to import customer accounts that are already in their accounting software, thus making it more convenient for customers to start using their online store, as they will not have to register.
• Advanced Checkout Options. ProductCart now features a series of advanced options that affect the checkout process and allow online stores in specific industries to collect important order information. Among these checkout options:
  
  
  • Order delivery date & time. Stores can now show delivery date & time fields during checkout (e.g. catering business). The date & time fields can be validated so that it is at least 24 hours in the future and against a list of blackout dates. Customers will be able to view a list of blackout dates during checkout.
  • Restricted delivery area: ZIP Code validator. Stores can now limit delivery by ZIP codes. This feature is useful to stores that only delivery to small geographic areas (e.g. catering business). Customers will be able to view a list of accepted postal codes during checkout.
• Nickname and repeat orders. Customers that place multiple orders on a store will now be able to "nickname" them to make them more recognizable, and repeat them if the same products need to be purchased again (all products are re-added to the shopping cart with one click).
• Search engine friendliness: generate HTML product map. Who is not concerned about search engine optimization? Most Internet traffic to an online store typically comes from search engines. To this extent, ProductCart includes features that are aimed at increasing the search engine friendliness of an ecommerce store. v2.6 allows store managers to generate an HTML page that lists categories and products, and links to the corresponding ASP pages. This page will help search engine spiders crawl and index the store catalog.

Note that this is only a partial list of the over 130 new features and enhancements added to ProductCart v2.6.

ProductCart is available from Early Impact starting at $495 per storefront. Web designers and other resellers enjoy discounts, sales leads, and priority technical support. For more information and a full featured demonstration of ProductCart, click here.