We are pleased to announce several new enhancements to ShopKart Design. Over the next 24 hours, all ShopKart owners will automatically have their shopping cart software updated. There is nothing you need to do. Here is a run-down of the new enhancements:

  1. Add New Proprietary features to ShopKart for Better Search engine (SEO) optimization. The exact details of these enhancements will not be posted as they are proprietary technology developed by NetSoft Studio. We can say however, these new enhancements are designed to create better rankings in Google as well as the new Google Caffeine which is currently under Beta Testing. Google caffeine is the new Google Search algorithm. As a ShopKart owner, you automatically reap the benefits of these new enhancements.
  2. Modified the Go to Page links to show which page you are currently looking at when viewing products
  3. Enhanced the Search functionality within the Product Search to provide better searches for your customers
  4. Added new Features to each of the default skins to add more enhanced look and feels to each skins web site design
  5. Added new Site Map options for providing different search engines with site maps either in .txt or .xml format according to sitemaps.org specifications. These site maps have also been tested for compatibility with various search engines including Google and Yahoo.
  6. Added Support for Google Product Search. Now you can obtain data feeds for both Yahoo Product Submit and Google Product Search.
  7. Enhanced algorithms to support the new Bing Search engine by Microsoft Corporation.
  8. Added Help Files for when adding products to shopping carts for your customers to be able to gain help on how to enter their engraving and special instructions text
  9. Added text on the Add to Cart screen to alert customers that they will be able to upload their artwork and other files necessary to complete their order during the checkout process.
  10. Added ability for your customers to view larger images of thumbnails to the Add To Cart, View Cart and the Checkout Review Order Web Pages.
  11. Modified the Administration interface with a new look and feel and overhaul of the interface
  12. Added New Support for Toll-Free Phone number for each web store.
  13. Added a submit e-mail function to the contact us page to allow your customers to click on an e-mail address and send an e-mail to you directly from the contact us page.
  14. Contact Us Information is shown in images vs. text. This is to protect your e-mail addresses and fax numbers from being harvested by automated spam bots on the internet, yet will still be visible to your customers.
  15. Added ADA Compliance code to ensure all web pages within ShopKart are ADA Compliant. ADA is the Americans with Disabilities act of 1990. Those with Blindness disabilities have special browsers to browse the internet that reads text by the blind text readers. ShopKart supports those blind internet users to ***ist them in visually understanding the contents of the web site.
  16. Modified the Meta Verify V1 and Meta Robots in the Administration Panel to help ShopKart owners understand better what data to input into those fields.
  17. Added support for Secure Sites Seal code which will allow you to display on secure web pages the secure sites seal that is appropriate for the security certificate provider as is appropriate.
  18. Added support for Google Maps HTML code to provide a map on the contact us page.
  19. Added support for Shipping Methods to offer free shipping if an order total exceeds a specified dollar amount.
  20. Corrected a problem on the category listing in Product search whereby Categories that were inactive were displaying.
  21. Provided three new fields to define the text value shown for Award Categories, Theme categories and Quick Links. You can now modify the text that appears in these three headers. In addition, if you have no categories to list, this whole section will simply be omitted from displaying on the shopping cart.
  22. Added a Date Picker calendar feature to the Checkout screen to graphically select the order needed by date and the event date. The shopping cart buyer can also manually type the date.
  23. Performed significant server tune-ups to speed up the shopping cart software application allowing for more simultaneous traffic and thus supporting more clients and customers.
  24. Added Product Data Feed for ShopZilla. Those with a ShopZilla account can upload the data feed to post all of their products online at the ShopZilla Search engine.
  25. Next Page and Previous Page links have been added to product listings whereby there are multiple pages.
  26. Multiple Product Images now display on the shopping cart. Alternate Images 1-3 will display as thumbnails that can be made into larger size. If the image exists, the thumbnails will be created automatically.
  27. Added Two new fields to the product setup for Order In Increments Of and Minimum Order Quantity. Order In Increments of allows you to set for that product a increment that products must be ordered in. For instance if products must be ordered in batches of 10 then 20, then 30, etc, then set the order in increments of to 10. Minimum Order Quantity indicates that a particular product has a minimum quantity to order. For instance, lets ***ume you only sell medallions over the web if the order at least 25, then you can set the minimum order quantity to 25 to enforce that the customer orders at least 25 medallions before it can be added to the shopping cart.
  28. Corrected a problem with the way internet explorer 7+ browsers rendered shopkart pages. Previous to the change, the shopkart page would render and squish in as it rendered. This no longer occurs.
  29. Added a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) HTML Editor to the interface to allow you to do custom changes to product descriptions, category descriptions and additional web pages without any knowledge of html.
  30. Added ability to link a category name directly to an external web site address.
  31. Change the look and feel of the change store screen to make it easier to work with smaller amounts of information at once
  32. A new users guide is updated with the recent changes reflected.
  33. Certain Theme/skins had minor overhauls to make them more friendly and improve the looks
  34. Corrected a problem whereby the first time accessing a shopkart site the page title was not being initialized.
  35. The Administration Login captcha images is no longer case sensitive.
  36. ShopKart now has a thumbnail view and a detail view. the detail view is the default view, but a visitor to your web site can change to thumbnail view to view more products at one time and once they find a product they are interested in, they can click that product to get details. They can switch back and forth from thumbnail view and detail view on any screen.
  37. ShopKart now has a send e-mail feature to allow a site visitor to send a particular product to a friend, ***ociate or co-worker at the click of a button.
  38. ShopKart now has integration with LinkedIn, Digg, Twitter, Facebook and StumbleIt. Visitors to your site can post to their facebook, linkedin, twitter or facebook a feed on the product to let others in their social networks know about the product on your site. In addition, a quicklink to Digg and StumbleIt are provided for added export of products to social networks.
  39. Improved the View 360 degree, View PDF interfaces as well as the view help text screens throughout shopkart to provide improved curb appeal.
  40. You can now set the default product view for your shopkart site. If you prefer to have thumbnail view as the default, simply change it on the store setup.
  41. Shopkart now integrates with UPS Online tools for real time shipping rates calculation. Simply change the shipping method calculation to utilize whichever UPS Rate you want it to you and your done.
  42. Modified the main web page so that the View 5,10,15, 25, 50, and all is not shown, rather it immediately shows the web page content thus reducing the wasted real estate on that page. This effects the main page only.
  43. ShopKart now integrates with Authorize.Net for real time credit card processing. Using real time credit card processing is optional, and is turned off by default. If you do not have an Authorize.Net account and wish to apply for one, simply click here.
We have many new enhancements coming down the line to continue improve ShopKarts Capabilities. NetSoft Studio is committed to your success as a retailer in the Awards industry and on the internet. Stay Tuned as these new enhancements are made available.