Payment Gateways

In this version we have improved the role payment gateways have in your online business as a whole, with attention paid to maximising robustness, increasing the control you have over payment methods and presenting you with key information.

Whenever we add new features to our ecommerce system we take care to ensure that the core part of the system we’re working on is operating optimally. In this version we spent a lot of time developing the payment gateway components of the system so we took time out to review how this works and make improvements where required.

Statistics

For website owners using a number of payment gateways on their Ballyhoo Commerce e-commerce website we’ve developed a new reporting system. Whether you are using a combination of PayPal, SagePay and Google Checkout, it’s important that you know how well each is performing for you and which is the payment gateway of choice for your customers.

In the Payment Gateway section of your admin area, under General Settings, you’ll now see statistics next to each payment gateway in use in your online shop. We’ve reworked the system to record which payment gateway is used for each order and the value of orders. You’ll be able to monitor the most popular payment gateway and we hope this will help you make important decisions about your business.

Min/Max Order Value

As part of giving you more control over payment gateways, and in a bid to help you reduce transaction fees from the likes of PayPal, we’ve added minimum/maximum order values to the payment gateway installation process.

When a customer goes through the checkout process they will only be given the option to use payment gateways that have been set in your system to accept orders of a certain value.

For example, you have set PayPal to accept orders between £0 and £100 and SagePay to accept orders between £50 and £500.

• If a customer is placing an order with a value of £20 they will have to use PayPal.
• If the order value is £70 they will be able to choose between PayPal and SagePay.
• If the order value is £120 they will have to use SagePay.

SagePay Server Integration Improvements

SagePay’s server integration for payments is proving very popular with our clients and customers alike. This payment gateway allows the customer making a payment to stay on your website at all times throughout the transaction process and they will not be directed to a third party site at any point.

We’ve improved the SagePay Server payment form to make the integration of SagePay and your website seamless. We’ve redeveloped the way this form takes shape so that the form used in the transaction will be identical in style to any other form on your website, creating a feeling of consistency for your customers.

Making this improvement to the way SagePay server integration pages are generated has also streamlined the payment processor installation process as we will not need to take extra time to style this page for each client.

SEO

Search engine optimisation continues to be an important factor in the way Ballyhoo Commerce evolves.

Traffic to your website drives your business and today more and more people are relying on Google search engine results to lead them to sites that will fulfil their needs. While for most sites a concentrated SEO effort is required, there is a lot we can do at the core of your website to make sure it is as search engine friendly as possible and a solid foundation for any SEO strategy.

Custom Meta Tag Controls

Meta data is essentially a way of quickly telling search engines like Yahoo and Google what information your web pages contain. Depending on your SEO requirements the attention paid to this area of your website varies.

Previously, Ballyhoo Commerce automatically generated meta data from the content on the page in question. This has consistently worked well and has been a key part in the success of our most thriving e-commerce websites.

As the internet evolves and more effort is required to shine light on websites and products it may be advantageous to tailor this meta information, especially if you have a focused SEO strategy.

In this version we can now enable custom meta tag controls for advanced users. When adding a product, a content page or a category you’ll have the ability to enter information into the following fields:

• Page Title: a title for the page that has appropriate keywords. On a product page this does not have to be the same as the Product Title.
• Meta Keywords: a range of search terms that you would like your website or product to be found under in search engines. These aren’t thought to be as important as the description.
• Meta Description: a short description of your page or product containing appropriate keywords. This actually appears under your listing in search engines.

General SEO Improvements

Again, as we were working on this area of the system we took some time to ensure that our code was optimised and that everything was working as it should.

We also made a few other improvements to the system such as ensuring that pages with no relevant content aren’t indexed (picked up by the search engines).

It is important that your clout in the search engines is focused in key areas on your website and isn’t diluted through a number of pages which contain no relevant content (like the Email To A Friend page under Other Options on product pages). In this case the page has no relevance other than being a useful tool for your customers so it is not beneficial for search engines like Google to know about it.

To upgrade your version of Ballyhoo Commerce or to arrange to speak to us about your e-commerce project, please call 0121 286 9390 or email us at info@ballyhoo.ltd.uk.

As well as introducing improvements to the blog features, registration process and category decriptions, this version has allowed us to set foundations behind the scenes for further releases of the system.

Blog Improvements

Every online shop these days seems to have a blog. This is a place where the owners can share important news, funny stories and tips on how to make the most of their products.

It is widely recognised that adding regular, fresh content to your website helps you get noticed by search engines and can have many benefits for your search engine strategy, namely the inclusion of more relevant content and keywords on your website. Blogs also have the power to create a community around your website and keep customers coming back for more – many sites thrive on the repeat custom of avid blog readers.

Ballyhoo Commerce has gradually been introducing blog features that will help make this an easy process for our customers. In this version the layout of blog pages has been reworked and we’ve enhanced the blog posts to include the date of the post and the name of the author.

We recommend that you include a blog on your e-commerce website and frequently produce articles that your customers will find informative and enjoyable.

Terms & Conditions Acceptance

Selling online is different in many ways to selling face-to-face and there are specific rules governing the sale of products over the internet. Every e-commerce website should have a Terms and Conditions page to inform customers of your legal details and the terms of sale that are unique to your business. Ts & Cs are designed to protect both you and your customers’ interests.

In reality you only need to have your terms and conditions present somewhere on your website to comply with regulations, preferably linked from somewhere prominent on your website, and it’s up to the customer to be aware of your terms before they make a purchase.

For additional peace of mind we have now added terms and conditions acceptance to the customer registration process. When a new user signs up to make a purchase or become a registered user of your website we can now specify whether they will have to accept your Ts & Cs before they complete registration.

A link to your Terms and Conditions page is provided for the user to review your information and all they have to do is click on a simple check-box to record their acceptance.

Hide Category Descriptions

In the Ballyhoo Commerce e-commerce system you have the ability to add text to your product category pages, we call these category descriptions. Today we are seeing longer descriptions as our customers come to realise that, for search engine optimisation purposes, a lengthy and informative description with lots of keywords will help their search engine rankings.

However, your descriptions could end up taking up much of the page and detract from your products. Naturally your end goal is to display your product range and many customers may know exactly what they are looking to purchase and so won’t want to read any of your content.

We’ve found a way to keep everyone happy and have introduced a ‘Read More’ feature to product category descriptions. You’ll still be able to add as much content as you want but only the first few lines will show on the page (the number of lines is adjustable). Customers who want to read the whole description can simply click on the ‘Read More’ button to reveal the rest of the text. There’s even a ‘Close’ button to hide the description again.

Your products will be prominent in the main area of the website and search engines won’t know the difference.

To arrange an upgrade to this version of the system or to discuss your e-commerce project please give us a call on 0121 286 9390 or email us at info@ballyhoo.ltd.uk.

Ballyhoo is a small business and aims to make the very best of being a small business; we are able to respond quickly to changes in a fast moving industry and we can adapt to make use of new technologies as they emerge. Our size also allows us to maintain close contact with our customers to provide a personal service.

However, we are aware that there can be down-sides to being a small company. In an effort to demonstrate our commitment to providing lasting business relationships, and perhaps allay any fears larger organisations may have when trading with us, we have produced this business continuity document to detail many of the steps we take to protect your interests.

You’ll find this document under our About Us page along with our other business policies.

The Continuity Plan outlines in detail our practices when it comes to a variety of situations, including:

• Technologies
  The various technologies we use to build websites and databases and provide email services, for example PHP, JQuery, MySQL and POP.
• Hosting & Backup
  We’ve outlined the specification of our server, our backup process at both the remote server location and in-house and how we protect your data.
• Insurance
  Details of our business insurance policy and our limits of indemnity for Employer’s Liability, Public Liability and Professional Indemnity.

If we have missed any information you think necessary or you would like more information on any of the points in the document, please let us know.

Even if your customers aren’t familiar with the term SSL (which stands for Secure Sockets Layer by the way) they are sure to recognise the padlock symbol in evidence when they browse a secure website. Seeing this symbol could make the difference between a successful transaction and an abandoned shopping basket.

We highly recommend that all of our e-commerce customers have an SSL certificate on their website but understand that for some the additional cost is a hurdle which is why we have negotiated with our suppliers and re-worked our procedures to be able to reduce the annual cost of a GlobalSign SSL certificate by over £70!

From today our SSL Certificate package, including a dedicated IP address, has been reduced from £16.95 per month to just £10.95 per month. This new price is for both customers who would like SSL encryption for the first time and those who are due to renew their certificates.

If you would like to know more about adding an SSL certificate to your e-commerce website please get in touch on 0121 286 9390 or email us at info@ballyhoo.ltd.uk.

Improvements To Language Switching

To fully communicate with your customers Ballyhoo Commerce can facilitate any number of languages. We add new languages to the system on an on-demand basis and currently we have support in place for English, Welsh and Brazilian Portuguese.

If you have multiple languages available for your users to choose from we usually represent them with flag icons on your website. Previously, a user who clicked on a flag to change language would be directed to the site’s homepage in the specified language. We have now improved this to keep the user on the same page no matter how many times they switch between languages.

We have also made it easier for our developers to build you a multi-language e-commerce website and allow quick and easy switching between languages.

Ability To Copy Variations Between Products

If you sell a lot of similar products, with much the same product variations, we can appreciate that it can be time consuming and repetitive to add these variations to each product on your e-commerce website individually through the Product Manager.

That’s why we’ve developed a new feature to help save you time to get on with other important jobs – when managing variations you now have the option to copy variations from another product.

Clicking Copy From Another Product in the Variation Editor will show you a list of products that currently have variations configured. You can click Copy This Product beside the product of your choice to duplicate its variations (but no other details) over to the product you are currently working on.

Sub-Category Images

If you have a large number of products you probably have a complex category structure with many sub-categories within each main category.

Adding category images is already part of the system and these are visible when you navigate to a category page itself. With this version of Ballyhoo Commerce we have added functions to allow you to output sub-categories with images.

Online shoppers are notoriously lazy, if they can’t see what they’re looking for straight away they move on to the next website. This new feature means users of your website can instantly see what your categories are, making their decision process a lot quicker and holding their attention.

Overhaul Of Code Structure

We are constantly working towards making Ballyhoo Commerce slicker and more robust. This system has been around for over 5 years so understandably over that time new methods and opinions about the best way to do things have emerged. We want this e-commerce system to evolve with the times so we regularly try to work new technologies into the system and overhaul older parts to keep up with the ever-changing internet.

In this version we have overhauled the code structure to make it a lot easier to maintain. This also means we can integrate the system more smoothly and simply with other software like WordPress for blogging.

If you would like to discuss upgrading your current Ballyhoo Commerce e-commerce website to this version or you’d like to find out more about e-commerce web development from Ballyhoo, feel free to call us on 0121 286 9390 or email us at info@ballyhoo.ltd.uk.

Our VAT registration number is 115 9873 87.

We have taken care to inform all of our customers about this change to our business but if you were not aware of the change and would like to discuss this with us please feel free to contact us.

Unless otherwise specified, prices on our website are exclusive of VAT and any quotes provided before our registration date of 1st August 2011 are now VAT applicable.

As usual, this release of Ballyhoo Commerce includes minor bug fixes to the e-commerce system and a number of improvements and new features including currency choice, a new language option, SEO improvements and a brand new templating system.

New Features

Price Per Metre

Price per metre is a new addition to the system that allows you to sell products that are made-to-measure, for example lengths of fabric, wood, cable or tubing. This new feature was built into the system at the request of a client who wanted to sell their products online priced by the metre.

You’ll find this new feature in the Product Manager when you add or edit a product. When adding the price of a product you can now specify whether the price is per item (each) or per metre.

Customers at the front-end of the site are still able to type a quantity but if a price per metre has been specified they can type in a length too.

Example: The price per metre of a product is £10. If a customer enters a quantity of 5 and specifies a length of 50 centimetres their order will be for five 50cm lengths of the product. Each length will be £5 each and the total price will be £25.

Currency

We now have the ability to specify the currency in use on an e-commerce website. Previously this was fixed as Pounds Sterling but you can now choose any currency to sell in.

Intended for our clients using Ballyhoo Commerce in other countries, this feature could also be useful for international sellers who want to adopt a widely recognised currency such as the US Dollar or Euro.

Multiple currencies aren’t supported quite yet but are in the pipeline. Look out for future releases of our e-commerce software.

Languages

Ballyhoo recently developed an e-commerce website for a client targeting the Brazilian market. The site was built on Ballyhoo Commerce and needed to support both English (EN) and Brazilian Portuguese (PT-BR).

Brazilian Portuguese is now available for use in the system joining our other supported language, Welsh (CY).

Ballyhoo Commerce can support potentially any language. At the moment we are adding these on request but hope to support many languages in the future beginning with the most popular languages such as French and German. If there are any others you would like to see supported, please let us know.

Improvements

PayPal Improvements

PayPal instant payment notifications have been problematic in the past so we’ve taken steps to ensure that our PayPal integration is more robust so if there are ever any issues the system can deal with them with ease.

Ballyhoo Commerce already has a good error logging system, so if anything goes wrong it’s recorded and we can see where to rectify the issue. This improvement means that the log records more data if there’s ever a problem with PayPal and any issues can be ironed out as swiftly as possible.

New Templating System

You may be aware of our new content management system, Ballyhoo Refresh. New technologies available when we built the templating system for Refresh prompted us to re-assess how templates are built in Ballyhoo Commerce and re-develop this area of the e-commerce system.

The result is a more modular system that’s really flexible and makes it easier to integrate and tie in with other pieces of software such as WordPress.

Google Product Feed

Your site’s Google product feed is now externally accessible meaning you can give Google the URL of your product feed rather than manually submitting it whenever you want to update your list of products.

Google are able to check it whenever they want and it will always be the latest version as it is updated in real-time.

SEO Improvements

We’re constantly making search engine optimisation (SEO) improvements to boost our e-commerce websites’ visibility in search engines. We work closely with a search engine expert to make sure that the changes we make are in line with the latest Google algorithms and factors affecting search engine rankings.

Version 1.9.11 includes general improvements to the meta tags (hidden information about your website that only search engines can read) and page titles and more importantly changes to the category structure to prevent duplicate content. There were issues with the way categories can be re-ordered and have multiple pages so we’ve improved the way these are output – Google and other search engines like to see unique content so it’s important that every page is individual.

To schedule an upgrade to this version of Ballyhoo Commerce or to discuss your e-commerce project, please get in touch on 0121 286 9390 or email us at info@ballyhoo.ltd.uk.

This new law is intended to increase the level of protection internet users have over their privacy and will be enforced over a period of one year.

Essentially you will need a user’s consent if you want to store a cookie on their device but the way you use cookies and how these impact your users’ privacy also have a big role to play.

What Is A Cookie?

In internet speak a cookie is not a delicious snack but a small file used to store user data in a browser. They are small text files made up of letters and numbers and are downloaded onto internet users’ devices to track their website preferences and choices.

Some cookies are required for certain functions and on the whole they generally enhance user experience. If you visit a website that uses cookies it might download a cookie to your browser to store information about you which it can then access in the future if you re-visit the website.

Example: The first time you visit a dual-language website you make a choice to view the website in English. The website downloads a cookie to your browser stating that English is your preferred language. The next time you visit the website it accesses the cookie it stored on your browser and automatically sets the language to English.

While this example enhances your experience some cookies are required to make the website function properly. An e-commerce website, for instance, needs cookies to track which items you have added to your shopping basket.

The Law

Formerly, the law required you to tell people how you use cookies and also how to opt out of using cookies. Most sites do this by putting the necessary information in their privacy policies.

The new law requires businesses and organisations operating websites in the UK to get consent from visitors to their websites before they store and retrieve information on users’ computers. It has been suggested that one way this could be achieved would be to put a welcome message on a website informing the user about cookies and allowing them to click to either accept or decline their proposed use.

The only exception to this rule is if the cookies in use are necessary for a service requested by the user. As previously mentioned, one example of this would be a cookie you use in an online store to ensure that when a user has chosen products they want to buy and clicked ‘add to basket’ or ‘checkout’ your site remembers what they chose on the previous page. As this is necessary for the fundamental function of the website you wouldn’t need to get explicit consent.

How To Comply

The ICO has declared that it will give website owners one year to comply with the cookies law. So, by the end of May 2012 you need to be sure that your website isn’t contravening these rules.

Which Cookies Do You Use?

The first step in attempting to comply with the law is to identify which cookies you use on your website.

• How many cookies are in use?
• What are they used for?
• How do they work?
• Do you even need them?

Many websites are a culmination of years of development and some of the cookies and functions may no longer be needed. This is a good opportunity to carry out a thorough audit of your website and identify areas for improvement.

Impact

Once you have identified which cookies you use, you need to think about the impact they have on the privacy of your users.

• Do they store personal information?
• Do they track user habits?
• Are they necessary for the website to function?

Once you have addressed these questions you can think about how to obtain consent from your users, if any is needed of course.

Consent

There are a number of ways to get consent for your use of cookies from users. When you decide on a method it’s important to consider who is using your website, how this addition will affect their experience and how you will integrate the consent message with your existing web design.

Examples:

• Pop-up message when a user first lands on your website. This would disappear after consent has been given/declined.
• Discreet message at the top of your webpage. Again this would disappear after consent has been given/declined.
• Permanent message in your website template e.g. a box next to your contact details.

Or any variation on the above.

Resources

Business Link: New website cookie laws - are you prepared?

ICO Guide: Changes to the rules on using cookies and similar technologies for storing information

Open Letter by Ed Vaizey in conjunction with the Department for Culture, Media & Sport

Ballyhoo will be more than happy to help you answer the questions in this article and, if required, help you comply with the new cookies law.

Full disclosure of the methods used to store user information in our core systems Ballyhoo Commerce and Ballyhoo Refresh is available on request.

Contact us on 0121 286 9390 or at info@ballyhoo.ltd.uk.

To celebrate this landmark we decided that our thousandth invoice would get a 10% discount – no matter the client or item invoiced.

And the lucky customer is (drumroll please)… Crescent Dental Care in Swansea! They’ll receive a 10% discount on the hosting of their website siddental.co.uk this year.

Read more about the siddental.co.uk project

Next up, 20% off invoice 2000!

Version 1.1 is the first upgrade of the system and introduces a few minor improvements and additions to our no-fuss CMS.

Improved Security

The first thing we’ve improved in Ballyhoo Refresh is the level of security offered by the system. We’ve tightened our code and made sure there are no places the system could possibly be compromised.

Logout Button

Once you have finished editing your website you may want to log out of the system if you are using a shared or easily accessible computer or device. Whenever you are logged in to the system a banner at the top of the page will inform you that you are logged in as an administrator and provide a link to log out of the content management system.

Confirm Deletion

When you click delete on a page within your content managed website you will be asked to confirm the deletion of the page – we hope this will prevent any accidents!

Edit Contact Page

The default contact page in the Ballyhoo Refresh CMS is an online enquiry form. You now have the ability to add other details to this page such as your telephone numbers, email address and even a Google Map.

If you would like to arrange an upgrade to this version of our simple content management system, or you have a website project you would like to discuss with our team, please call us on 0121 286 9390, email us at info@ballyhoo.ltd.uk or use our online enquiry form.