Posted by
nitrosell on November 11, 2009 at 5:20 pm
We are pleased to announce the early adopters‘ version of NitroSell eCommerce has been released as the live, stable version of the webstore! Thank you to those of you who chose to try it out over the past 10 months, assisting us with cementing the new features and product improvements.
For existing early adopters, this release will take place automatically.
If you wish to upgrade to this version, please open a ticket on the Partner Portal. You can expect to enjoy the following benefits:
Improved Standards Compliance
We strive to meet the standards set out by the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C), and to test our software against the most popular browsers and operating systems. NitroSell eCommerce has been tested on:
FireFox
Internet Explorer
Chrome
Opera
Safari
During the development of this release, we improved our adherence to accessibility standards, namely, Section 508 compliance, in which the software is now 100% compliant when using “out of the box” templates and themes.
New Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Features
NitroSell eCommerce maximizes your search engine ranking potential by employing safe, well-recognized techniques and technologies. In this release, we have improved the feature-set by enabling you to customize SEO-related elements of your store, such as title tags, META description and META keywords fields for department, category and content pages.
WebStore Manager (WSM) Enhancements By Section
Management
- Page Content:
- Support for custom, non-tabbed content pages;
- Support for content on brand and theme search pages, as well as subcategory pages;
- Advanced SEO page properties, such as title tag, META description and META keywords.
Configuration
- WebStore
- Product:
- Store Product Restriction: Allows you to restrict displayed products to only those which are carried by a specified store.
- Display:
- Enable Department Grouping: Allows you to group departments, providing additional flexibility when customizing the navigational panel using NitroScript.
- Shipping:
- Enable Tax on Shipping: This option allows you to enable tax on shipping, which is not natively supported by RMS.
Shipping & Taxes
- UPS & FedEX Shipping Integrations:
- Updated United States shipping services;
- Added support for Canadian shipping services.
Customers using this release will notice a marked difference in the user interface for the Shipping section, which now includes a suite of Tax on Shipping options.
Payments
Make Changes
- Edit WebStore Layout:
- Navigation Panel opened up to customization to those with NitroScript access.
Microsoft RMS / WebStore Integration Improvements
NitroSell eCommerce was designed to leverage the power of Microsoft RMS on your webstore. A new integration feature is Accounts Payments and Insufficient Credit Limit, which enables you to hide the ‘pay on account’ option when a customer has insufficient credit in RMS.
Our Knowledge Base in the Partner Portal contains information on this and many more value-added features that have been included. We hope you enjoy this release and, as always, we welcome your feedback!
Posted by
nitrosell on November 11, 2009 at 3:05 pm
In the first of a three-part series on combating fraud, we look at the address verification system (AVS). AVS assists in the authentication of a shopper claiming to own a credit card. It compares the shopper’s billing with the address(es) on file with the card company. AVS is not an exact science, however, because it only checks the numeric portions of a cardholders billing address.
An Example
Consider the following US billing address:
2495 Truxtun Rd,
Suite A,
San Diego, CA 92106
USA
The AVS system will see it as 2495 for the address numeric, and 92106 for the zip code.
Taking another example:
2495 Rosecrans St,
Suite E,
San Diego, CA 92106
USA
It will be read as 2495 for the address numeric and 92106 for the zip code.
As far as AVS is concerned, both addresses are the same! Normally, if the AVS check returns a negative result, the transaction will be declined. However, declines can result from common and legitimate issues. For example, a card holder may have moved address and not updated the details on file with the issuer.
Flexible AVS Options with NitroSell eCommerce
Techniques to combat fraud should be employed by every retailer and, where possible, we will continue to implement anti-fraud techniques in our payment gateway integrations. With AVS, NitroSell eCommerce provides you with as much information as possible, helping to minimize false positives and empower you to make informed decisions about fraud.
When configuring your payment gateway in the WebStore Manager, the following options are available:
- Perform AVS Check: notification service only. In the event of a negative result, the transaction will be permitted and the accompanying result notice will be presented to you in RMS during order fulfilment;
- Use Strict AVS Check: block transactions if AVS fails. An AVS check will return a different AVS code depending on the result. With this option enabled, a transaction will pass only if the AVS check returns a code that satisfies the standard list of safe AVS codes.
If the AVS options above are not available for your payment gateway, please feel free to open a ticket on our Partner Portal, where we will be happy to discuss your payment gateway options with you.
Posted by
nitrosell on November 11, 2009 at 1:24 pm
If your payment gateway supports it, delayed capture allows for transactions to be authorized on your shoppers’ cards without immediately settling the funds. The advantages of using it include:
- It gives you time to verify the authenticity of a customer’s details and credit status before shipping the purchased product, thus assisting in the prevention of credit card fraud;
- You can cancel (void) a payment instead of settling it, simplifying the refund process;
- Funds are reserved on the customer’s card at checkout and are only fully captured when the order is fulfilled.
Offline Settlement in RMS
NitroSell eCommerce semi-automates the settlement process. With offline settlement you avoid the need of logging into your payment gateway portal, or otherwise contacting your payment gateway, to capture funds.
At the point of processing the transaction in Microsoft RMS, a connection is made via the webstore to your payment gateway. The webstore requests the payment gateway settles the funds, and sends the result back to the tender process in RMS.
As each transaction has a unique identifier, customer credit card details, or other personally identifiable customer information are not transmitted. It is a secure and convenient means of settling delayed capture funds directly from RMS.
Some payment gateways provide a partial settlement function. This is most useful in cases where, for example, you have a an order that contains an item that is low in stock. With partial offline settlement you have the option to capture just those funds required to process the items currently in stock, and set aside the remainder of the order. Once stock levels have been replenished the order can be fulfilled, allowing you to capture the funds for the outstanding item and complete the order.
If your chosen payment gateway does not provide delayed capture or offline settlement capabilities, please feel free to open a ticket on our Partner Portal, where we will be happy to discuss your payment gateway configuration options with you.
Posted by
nitrosell on November 6, 2009 at 12:47 pm
If you were using VeriSign PayFlow, you should have received notification from Paypal that the service would no longer be supported, following a software development kit (SDK) update. The notice stems from PayPal’s acquisition of VeriSign, almost four years ago. We had maintained the pre-existing VeriSign integration but support for it will expire on January 4, 2010.
To ensure continuity, we have moved your webstore to the new service. When you next log in to the WebStore Manager, on your Payments configuration page, you will notice the service has been renamed to PayPal PayFlow. As part of PayPal’s upgrade requirements, we added support for the new service and automatically migrated your account details to it, at no cost to you.
For more information, please see the PayPal blog and the PayPal Gateway Update page.
If you have any questions regarding this update, please don’t hesitate open a ticket on the Partner Portal.
