Blog: ProStores Software

To provide a consistent experience for buyers, third party checkout services on eBay will be discontinued on June 30, 2011. In order to comply with this decision, ProStores will begin phasing out support for the eBay Checkout Redirect feature in ProStores during late Q1 and early Q2, 2011.

Starting May 1, 2011, ProStores will discontinue supporting Checkout Redirect for all eBay listings. Here is a timeline of key changes that will take place during the phase-out:

• The Checkout Redirect capability will be removed from the eBay Setup page within ProStores and disabled for all existing stores of May 1, 2011. All new eBay listings will be listed with Checkout Redirect disabled.
• Items already listed to eBay from ProStores will continue to support Checkout Redirect until the eBay listing ends, or June 30, 2011, whichever comes first.
• After June 30, 2011, all eBay listings with Checkout Redirect enabled will be redirected to eBay’s standard checkout process.

Read more on this announcement in the ProStores Learning Center →

Listed below are the new rules for passwords and authentication for store administrators in ProStores version 9.2.0 and higher.

• Contain both alphabetic and numeric characters
• Contain at least seven characters
• Change every ninety (90) days
• Cannot reuse the last four passwords
• The account will be locked after six invalid password attempts for a period of 30 minutes or until reset by an administrator
• Sessions will time out after being idle for 15 minutes*

If these new rules frustrate you as a store administrator, just remember... it's more secure.

*Idle is when you are logged into your store admin and are not clicking about using stuff. One very important distinction is that once you enter the product update area (editing product data like descriptions and such) your clicks are not recognized by the idle monitor. So, if you spend longer than 15 minutes editing a product and click on submit, it's gone. [ouch - that's a bag O'hurt]

Security Enhancements - Visa Payment Application Best Practices (PABP) updates

Why do secondary users see messages about expired passwords?

ProStores modified secondary user account requirements to become compliant to the Visa Payment Application Best Practices (PABP) V1.4. Secondary users (users added through Store Administration > Store Settings > Users) now need to change their password every ninety (90) days.

What are the password requirements for secondary users?

Secondary users now have the following requirements for their passwords:

• Seven character minimum length
• Alphabetic and numeric characters required in password
• Password must change every 90 days
• Four previous passwords cannot be reused
• Account locked after six invalid login attempts for 30 minutes or until reset by main user

How do you change or reset a password for a secondary user?

Primary users (original ProStores user profile) can add and edit secondary user profiles. Navigate to Store Administration > Store Settings > Users to update secondary user profiles and passwords.

Why do I need to keep logging in to access store administration?

ProStores modified secondary user account requirements to become compliant to the Visa Payment Application Best Practices (PABP) V1.4. Secondary users (users added through Store Administration > Store Settings > Users) need to login after 15 minutes of inactivity.

How does a merchant configure their store to be PCI compliant?

The responsibility for PCI compliance does not stop with ProStores, or with the payment processing system you chose to use. PCI compliance is the responsibility of anyone and everyone who is collecting, transmitting and/or storing credit card information. Merchants are responsible for conducting and managing their business in a PCI compliant manner. The ProStores PABP Implementation Guide for Store Administration is available to assist merchants. This document details the various settings, controls and steps a merchant should take to ensure PCI compliance.

Download the ProStores PABP Implementation Guide for Store Administration at: http://www.prostores.com/learningcenter/ProStoresPABPGuide.pdf

Source: ProStores Learning Center | Quick Tips | ProStores 9.2 FAQ

One-Page Checkout

One-Page checkout will give merchants a better way to guide their buyers through the checkout process. This new checkout will be streamlined compared to the existing ‘Multi-Page Checkout’ which has many pages in the checkout flow. In One-Page checkout, a buyer will remain on a single page with each step being completed on the left of the screen and then captured on the right of the screen in their invoice. As they move through the checkout process their invoice will be completed with each step. This feature will be an option for all store tiers.

ProStores To-Go

The ProStores To-Go widget is designed to help merchants distribute their storefront to as many different places on the web to drive traffic/sales to their web stores. This widget can be placed on a merchant's blog or website. Buyers can fill their shopping carts in the widget itself and then checkout will be redirected to the merchant's ProStores web store cart page.

Merchants will be able to access the widget builder from Store Administration > Marketing > ProStores To Go!

Source: ProStores Learning Center

Prostores is pleased to announce our latest product release: ProStores 8.2. With this release, we've included the following key enhancements designed to help merchants drive traffic to their store and give access to additional functionality from third party providers

New Features in ProStores

ProStores 8.2 Feature Highlights
Prostores is pleased to announce our latest product release: ProStores 8.2. With this release, we've included the following key enhancements designed to help merchants drive traffic to their store and give access to additional functionality from third party providers:

• Sitemap Management
• Solutions Directory Page

In addition to the 8.2 release, ProStores has also integrated a third-party sales tax calculator from AvaTax.

Sitemap Management
ProStores merchants with dedicated URLs can now generate sitemaps which will make their store more visible to search engines. The sitemap generation tool will generate and store a sitemap file in the store's root directory for web crawlers from any search engine to index a ProStores web store. It also allows merchants to leverage Yahoo and Google's sitemap submission services (merchants must configure accounts with Yahoo and Google first).

Control of the sitemap settings will be included in Store Administration under Product->Market Demand->SEO.

Solutions Directory
ProStores merchants can now view a page of all certified third-party applications that are available to integrate with their store. The new page is accessible from Store Administration >> Support Manager.

Integration of AvaTax Sales Tax Service
In addition to the ProStores 8.2 release, ProStores has also integrated a third-party sales tax calculation tool from AvaTax. This real-time tax calculation tool eliminates the need for merchants to create and manage tax regions and tax categories in Prostores. To select AvaTax as your sales tax calculator, go to Store Settings >> Sales Tax and select AvaTAx from the drop down menu. ProStores merchants can then sign up for the service and proceed with configuration within the ProSTores sales tax preferences settings.

Prostores is pleased to announce our latest product release: ProStores 8.1. With this release, we’ve included a number of enhancements that make it easier for merchants to create, manage and display attributes. Merchants will now also be able to send partial shipments in cases where part of the order is backordered.

You will notice some changes to the look and feel of the store administration. Other than the obvious color changes and such, the only major change was in the Design Studio.

The Design Studio is now integrated into the navigation of the regular administration under the heading “Store Design”. You can now set baselines on your designs page by page - and is offered automatically when you edit a template.

• Support for up to 10 attributes per product
• Display attributes by drop-down menu or radio buttons
• Support for reordering attributes on the storefront
• Shared attributes across products
• Support of partial shipments

Attributes Enhancements

Support for up to 10 attributes per product
We've increased the number of attributes for Business tier and above from 2 to 10 per product. This allows merchants to have more specifications for products.

Display attributes by drop-down menu or radio buttons
Merchants now have the option to use pull down lists or radio buttons for each attribute. They can also combine the display types, so both pull down menus and radio buttons can be shown for attribute selections for one product.

Support for reordering attributes on the storefront
The order in which attributes are displayed on the storefront can easily be changed with the new "Reorder Attributes" option on the Product Information page.

Shared attributes across products
Merchants with products that have similar attributes can now share attributes across their entire product catalog. Attribute lists allow merchants to save time by not having to apply similar attributes to each product one at a time.

Support of partial shipments (Advanced tier and above)

Merchants are also now able to offer better customer service by sending partial shipments, so that their customers don't have to wait for backordered products. With ProStores 8.1, Merchants can now split an order in which products are backordered.