The Version 10.2 eMerchantClub eCommerce website has been released!  In our continuous effort to keep your website up-to-date and to equip you with new and effective tools to build your business, the Version 10.2 eCommerce website has been completed and is currently being rolled out.  What does this mean for you?  If you currently have a Version 10 website, then you don’t need to do anything.  The cost for this upgrade has already been paid with the annual software upgrade fee last year. Your site, which is currently a Version 10.1 will automatically be upgraded to the new Version 10.2.  The upgrade will be seamless and will not affect any of your site’s settings or data.  After the upgrade, your site will be equipped with the new features and enhancements which make up the new Version 10.2.  The roll out of the new version is happening now, so keep an eye on the Version number in your Site Manager as shown in the image below to alert you when you can begin using the new features.

If you don’t have a Version 10 website, then your site will remain on its current version and will not be affected by this upgrade.

What’s included in the Version 10.2?

The 10.2 includes all of the current features plus a number of exciting new features and enhancements such as the Product Upload / Download feature, the Double Opt-in feature, new 2010 Spring eCatalogs, new Version 10 Layout Themes, improvements to the code to keep up with changing PCI standards, and more.

The Product Upload / Download feature
The new Product Upload / Download feature allows you to maintain your product database in Microsoft Excel and other compatible platforms, allowing you to leverage the time-saving features of these platforms to save yourself time and money. You can use Excel to make important changes to your inventory such as pricing and descriptions.  You can use the copy/paste features of Excel and other compatible programs to save time as well as use the Excel formulae to manage your product pricing.

After completing the changes in the Excel file, you can then upload the modified Excel file to your site, where all of the changes will be applied in seconds. This new tool enables you to load many products to your database at the same time, reducing time and repetitive work.  It will allow you to complete a task in hours which would otherwise take several days or weeks.

The Product Upload / Download feature is an important addition to your website with the capability to allow you to greatly improve your website’s content. This tool will allow you to use the search and replace features of Excel to make your product descriptions unique as well as to optimize product descriptions with terms that will result in more effective search terms and better search engine placement.

Double Opt-in feature

The Double Opt-in feature is part of our ongoing efforts to improve your site’s Marketing > Newsletter feature.  These ongoing efforts will offer you safeguards which will allow you to more effectively launch e-mail marketing campaigns without being labeled as a spammer (or blacklisted) by the major e-mail providers. 

This new Double Opt-in feature is a big step toward safeguarding your e-mail marketing attempts.  This new feature allows your shoppers to opt in to receiving promotional and informational e-mails from you and also verifies your new registered and potential shoppers’ e-mails.  This safeguard will greatly reduce the chances that you will be blacklisted by the major e-mail providers.  Here’s how it works:

1) When a person shops on your site, they must register as a shopper before they complete a purchase. On the new shopper registration page on your site, a new checkbox has been added, which is labeled Yes, I wish to receive promotional e-mails and newsletters with exclusive updates and special discounts.

This allows the new shopper to volunteer or opt-in to receiving your newsletters.

2) After the shopper completes registration, they are sent an e-mail which will ask them to click on a link to your site.  If they opted-in to your newsletter by checking the new checkbox on the registration page, then the e-mail will have the below content:

Clicking on the link constitutes the double opt-in for your newsletters and also verifies that the e-mail is valid.If the shopper did not choose to opt into your newsletters by checking the checkbox, then the e-mail will have this content:

3) Sending an e-mail with a link that must be clicked is a way to check to be sure that the e-mail that the shopper provided is valid.  If the shopper has not yet clicked this link, then the shopper details on
Sales > Shoppers > All Registered Shoppers > Registered Shopper Details will display Not verified.

Once the shopper clicks on the link sent to their e-mail, then this record will display Verified and the date on which the link was clicked.

Two common reasons that you might find yourself labeled as a spammer and blacklisted is a high bounce-back rate and complaints from the recipient to their e-mail provider that they have not given their consent for the sender to send them e-mails. The bounce-back rate refers to the number of e-mails that you send to invalid e-mails, which are then bounced back to you.

This new feature serves two purposes.  First, it ensures that new shoppers provide valid e-mails.  Second, it ensures that shoppers have been given a choice on whether or not to receive promotional or informational e-mails from your site.  These two points will greatly reduce the chances that you will become blacklisted by the major e-mail providers because it reduces the bounce-back rate and will reduce the complaints that the e-mail providers will receive by their clients who are receiving unsolicited e-mails.

This new double opt-in feature will also apply to your potential shoppers.  Those are shoppers who have not registered on your site but have filled out the form on your site that they can reach by clicking on the Join Mailing List link, which comes standard on your site.

2010 Spring eCatalogs

The Version 10.2 also comes with the latest 2010 Spring eCatalogs.  If your Version 10 site came with a World of Products eCatalog, then it will automatically gain access to the 2010 Spring World of Products eCatalog when the upgrade is completed.  If your site carries any of the smaller eCatalogs, such as the Family Avenue, Big Value Book, or Bayberry Lane, then you will gain access to the latest versions of these eCatalogs as well.

New Version 10 Layout Themes

The upgrade to Version 10.2 includes access to new holiday themes for the Version 10 layouts.  Each of the ten Version 10 layouts will now be equipped with a Valentines, Mothers Day, Fathers Day and Patriotic theme.  With four new themes for ten layouts, that adds up to 40 new designs for your site!  Take advantage of the timeliness of the Valentines theme to help in your upcoming marketing efforts for this popular holiday.

Other Improvements to Your Site

Version 10.2 also offers improved code to keep up with changing PCI compliance standards.  The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is an international security standard assembled by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council.  PCI compliance has come to be known as an industry standard stamp of approval for e-commerce websites.  Maintaining this standard of security is extremely important to us, and a big part of our year-round sub-releases is focused on updating your website’s code to be in line with these strict and constantly changing security guidelines. Your Version 10.2 eCommerce website is updated with the latest standards and you can be sure that we are constantly working to keep your site in line with PCI compliance standards with each new release.
In addition these new features offered in the Version 10.2, you also have the option of purchasing the new Keyword Maximizer package, which includes two important new enhancements. The first enhancement is a seamless link from eMerchantClub’s Site Manager to Google’s Keyword Tool.  (Seamless means that Google™ comes to you in your Site Manager.)  You supply current keywords or phrases or even your own eMerchantClub website address, and the Google™ tool will give you a list of suggested keywords and phrases and the stats on their effectiveness at driving traffic to websites.  The second enhancement offered in the Keyword Maximizer package is a new Find and Replace tool which allows you to find all of the occurrences of a certain word or phrase on your site and replace them with new keywords of your choosing.  With this package, you can use Google’s Keyword Tool to help you figure out which keywords to target and then you can use the Find and Replace tool to add those keywords to your site.  This package also works great with the Product Upload / Download feature that is offered in the Version 10.2 mentioned earlier.
Hopefully, you will take time to learn how to most effectively use all of the great new features in Version 10.2.  Look forward to future monthly newsletters which will keep you up to date on new features and other ways that you can improve your marketing efforts and keep driving your business forward.

If your site does not include some of the mentioned features, give us a call at (888) 806-2081 for information on getting these features or for information on purchasing the Keyword Maximizer package.

As always, if you have any questions please contact Technical Support via e-mail at techsupport@emerchantclub.com by going to Live Chat Technical Support at http://www.emerchantclub.com/support.html or by calling (877) 384-4691.

Thank you,
Your eMerchantClub Team
eMerchantClub LLC
996 Flower Glen Street
Simi Valley , CA 93065
(877) 384-4691 Phone
(888) 201-2680 Fax

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