AlaCart

The AlaCart Shopping Cart option is an easy-to-use e-commerce shopping cart you can install on your site. It allows you to sell merchandise on your site and gives your customers a user-friendly way to quickly find and purchase merchandise. Additionally, new features for the AlaCart Shopping Cart are being developed which will further enhance the capabilities of this resourceful tool.

• From the Command Center, select the Shopping Cart icon. The AlaCart Manager displays.
• Select the Install AlaCart button. A message displays indicating that AlaCart will be installed within approximately ten minutes.

• Once you have installed the AlaCart Shopping Cart, you will need to configure it for your site before you are able to administer and use it.
• From the Command Center, select the Shopping Cart icon. The AlaCart Manager displays.
• Near the bottom of the screen select the Setup AlaCart Configuration link. The AlaCart Shopping Cart Program displays at the Start Screen page.
• Enter your AlaCart user name in the User Name field. This can be a new user name; it does not have to be the same as your account user name. Enter a password for that user name in the New Password field. Re-enter the password, typed exactly the same way, in the Enter New Password Again field. If you make a mistake, select the Reset button to clear all fields, then re-enter the information.
• Select the Update Password button. The Change Paths portion of the Start Page displays.
• Enter your domain name in the Your Domain Name field.

Warning: Remember that your domain name does not include “www”. I.e., enter mycompany.com as opposed to www.mycompany.com.

The Path to Shopping Cart field defaults to s-cart. This is the directory location of the shopping cart program and all of its associated files on your site. Leave the default value as is unless you have a specific directory you would rather use.

If you make a mistake, click on the Reset button to clear all fields, then re-enter the information. When completed, click on the Update Path button. A Thank You message appears indicating the configuration was successful.

Note: The Thank You message includes two links. One link moves you to the setup page for the shopping cart; the second link runs the shopping cart function. You may wish to write down these link addresses for future reference.

The Shopping Cart still needs to be administered (i.e., set up). Continue with the next section.

Note: This document interchanges the phrases “Administer the Shopping Cart” and “Set up the Shopping Cart” to reflect the text seen in the Shopping Cart program.

Follow the link provided in the final step of the previous procedure (located underneath the statement To setup the Shopping Cart, go to:). The link will contain the text: s-cart/admin/index.phtml. The AlaCart Administration Suite page displays.

There are six tools available in the Administration Suite. The links across the top of the page link to the tools. The links in the table are help references for the use of these tools. Each of these tools is shown below. To make use of any of these administration tools, single-click the tool and follow the on-screen instructions.

Note: Help is provided in the reference links in the Shopping Cart. For detailed information on any topic, consult that tool’s help reference.

The “Look and Feel” Tool allows you to control colors, text and images that appear on your Shopping Cart.

The Colors section applies the selected colors to the various forms of text in the Shopping Cart. The Messages section allows you to personalize or remove the three text messages that appear in the Shopping Cart. The Other section allows you to specify a background image, a personalized logo and a title for the Shopping Cart. This is where you specify your company’s logo and background image.

Click on the Submit button to apply the changes you have made.

Click on the Reset button to restore all of the settings to their default values. Single-click on the Help link for more information on using this tool.

The Categories option contains five main sections all shown in this section. These sections allow you to create, delete and edit the product categories within your Shopping Cart.

The main Category page offers five links, which are ways of working with product categories within your Shopping Cart.

Note: A Category cannot be edited (or listed) until it has first been added.

As with all tools in the AlaCart Administration Suite, help on this tool is available by clicking on the Help link. The List Existing Categories page displays all of the categories and sub-categories you have added to your Shopping Cart.

The Add a Category page allows you to create categories and subcategories. If creating a Category, you must specify if it is to hold products or sub-categories. If adding a Sub-Category, you must specify if it is to hold products or other sub-categories and you must select the Category to which it belongs.

The Delete a category page allows you to remove product categories and subcategories from your Shopping Cart.
The Edit a Category page changes the names of existing categories and sub-categories.

To Edit Category Fields, you must first select the Category name with which to work. Continue to the next screen.

To Edit Category Fields, you can either add fields, other than the ones listed on the screen, or you can delete fields if you’ve already created them.

Single-click on the Help link (available from all of the pages within the Category Tool for more information on using different features).

The Products option works similarly to the Category Tool, allowing you to enter products that to offer for sale in your Shopping Cart.
The Add a Product page allows you enter the product information for an item you are going to sell in your Shopping Cart. Fields are: Item number, Category, Item Name, Price, Weight, URL for the Picture.

If you created additional product fields when you set up your categories, you will be prompted to provide that information for any products you enter under the affected categories.

The remaining options: Edit, Delete and List are all shown on the following page and work identically to their counterpart options in the Category Tool.

The Edit a Product Tool allows you to change information about an existing item already in your Shopping Cart.

The List of Products Tool shows you the products that are contained within your Shopping Cart.

The Delete a Product Tool allows you to remove items from your cart one at a time.

The Shipping option allows you to set levels of shipping charges to apply to orders, as well as determine the method by which shipping charges will be calculated.

The Tax Charges option allows you to set taxes by name and amount. Tax charges are to be added to orders placed via your Shopping Cart.

The Orders Options is an important one. It lets you specify which credit cards your Shopping Cart will accept. Typically, you must supply an e-mail address and a secure server URL. If you do not provide an e-mail address here, you will not receive orders. Using a Secure URL protects your customer’s credit card number.

Once your site has been configured and administered, you can run the Shopping Cart. You may wish to do this periodically while setting up your site to verify that the setup is operating successfully.

• Follow the link provided in the final step of the Configuration procedure located under the statement: To run the Shopping Cart, go to:. The link will likely contain the text: s-cart/index.phtml. The Your Shopping Cart’s Shop Entrance page displays. The AlaCart Shopping Cart is similar to many e-commerce utilities now in use on the web. Essentially, your customer either browses the catalog or searches for an item until he/she finds the desired item. Once the item is found, your customer adds it to his/her “shopping basket”. When ready to checkout, the customer confirms the items in the basket, and provides the method of payment.
• To view products in various categories and sub-categories in your catalog, click on the Browse Catalog link. The catalog displays at the top category level. You can drill down into the various sub-categories.
• Once you reach a level beyond which there are no further sub-categories, the list of products in the last selected sub-category is displayed.

The following procedure can only be used if the AlaCart Shopping Cart has already been installed on your site.

• From the Command Center, select the Shopping Cart icon. The AlaCart Manager displays.
• Select the Remove AlaCart button. A message appears indicating that AlaCart will be removed from your site within approximately ten minutes.

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