By Shana Whitmarsh at LucidStream

Here’s what you need to get started:

• A 3dCart hosting plan that includes the QuickBooks plug-in
• A PC with an Internet connection that’s running on Windows® 2000, XP or Vista. 3dCart has also confirmed that it works with Windows® 7. This should be the same PC on which you’ve installed QuickBooks and that you use to manage your online store. This plug-in is not compatible with Macs.
• QuickBooks or QuickBooks Pro 2003 or newer.
• The 3dCart Instruction Manual, which is informative and also lists the minimum system requirements (reprinted again below): http://www.3dcart.com/quickbooks/manual
• The plugin, which will only work with your 3dCart hosting plan once 3dCart configures it on their end (more on that below). You’ll need to download the QuickBooks 3dCart Plug-In from 3dCart.

The 3dCart plug-in for QuickBooks actually has two parts, a desktop application and a server-side component that 3dCart will install for your online store.  You will be downloading and installing a plug-in locally on the computer where you have installed QuickBooks. That PC should also have internet access for you to be able to log into your online store admin panel after you notify 3dCart and they configure the server-side software on their end for your e-commerce store. Their Support Team usually has this software configured within a day of when you notify them that you’d like it to be activated for your account.

Once the 3dCart plugin desktop application is installed on your computer and 3dCart Support has configured the server side software, you can your download store data to QuickBooks, including:

• Exporting your products into QuickBooks
• Download your inventory into QuickBooks
• Generate invoices or sales receipts from your online orders
• Synchronize customer information between QuickBooks and your e-commerce store

How to download store information from 3dCart to QuickBooks — An Overview:

• You need to configure the software before you can use it.
• Log into your 3dCart online store manager
• Go to Plugins > Order Management > QuickBooks
• Make sure that you have entered a username and password in this screen (if you missed this step, you can refer to the setup instructions in the 3dCart QuickBooks setup instruction manual PDF). The password should not have special characters or it might not work.
• Follow the instructions in the 3dCart QuickBooks setup guide for setting up QuickBooks to work with the desktop software that you installed.
• Back up your QuickBooks database before doing your first import/export.
• Start up QuickBooks and log into your 3dCart online store manager
• Start up the 3dCart QuickBooks desktop application and click “Connect”, then choose:
  • Product Import/Export
  • Inventory Update
  • Order Download

Each time you want to download information from the online store, you will need to be logged into your store admin panel and QuickBooks while you’re using the desktop 3dCart QuickBooks software application, where you make a manual request to download information. When you make that request, it should update your local QuickBooks automatically with information that is downloaded from the online store to QuickBooks.  As we mentioned earlier, 3dCart will need to configure the server side of the software to work with the plugin. If you’re a LucidStream e-commerce client or you’d like some help getting started with QuickBooks, we can help facilitate this process. If you’re installing QuickBooks and you don’t have an existing database, you don’t need to set QuickBooks up any special way, other than to follow the instructions in the 3dCart QuickBooks Setup Guide PDF.

System Requirements and Compatible Versions of QuickBooks:

System Requirements

Client (local computer or computers)

Processor: Pentium® or better

OS: Windows® 2000, XP, Vista

RAM: 256-Mb

Disk space: 50 MB

Monitor: 800×600 Resolution

Software: QuickBooks 2003 or higher, the Pro Edition or higher (this includes specialized editions such as the Accountant Edition, Contractor Edition, Nonprofit Edition, etc.), U.S. versions only. The request processor is not available in earlier editions of QuickBooks, in QuickBooks Basic Edition, or the Web Based QuickBooks.

To recap, the 3dCart QuickBooks Plug-in Supports these versions of QuickBooks:

• QuickBooks
• QuickBooks Pro Edition 2003 or higher

3dCart Knowledgebase Article:

https://support.3dcart.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/158/0/which-version-of-quickbooks-is-compatible-with-3dcarts-quickbooks-plugin

Once the plug-in is installed and 3dCart has configured it, if you have trouble connecting, please make sure that your password doesn’t have any strange characters, and you have a reliable connection to the Internet.

3dCart Knowledgebase Article:

https://support.3dcart.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/298/0/a-note-about-the-quickbooks-plugin

More information about setting up the QuickBooks Plugin for tax and shipping costs:

3dCart Knowledgebase Article:

https://support.3dcart.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/145/0/how-do-i-set-up-my-quickbooks3dcart-plugin-for-tax-and-shipping-costs

Do you have more 3dCart questions? Call LucidStream!

If you’d like some help with your current 3dCart e-commerce store or you want to get set up quickly with a new online store, please  complete the form below to contact us or call LucidStream at 888-508-0575.  Visit our website, where you can view our work with custom e-commerce design and development on 3dCart’s platform. LucidStream is a Platinum Certified 3dCart Partner . Our e-commerce services include:

• Video e-commerce: live and on-demand streaming video for e-commerce
• Custom e-commerce design and development on 3dCart’s platform
• Complete setup including helping new merchants with shipping and merchant account providers
• API and custom programming services
• Online marketing and promotions planning and execution for e-commerce store owners
• Email marketing campaign management
• Social network profile setup and visual branding (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google +1)
• Free training and ongoing support

This 3dCart tutorial for getting started with QuickBooks in 3dCart was written by Shana Whitmarsh at LucidStream.

A tutorial to help you learn how to add new manufacturer names or brand names to your online store.

By Shana Whitmarsh at LucidStream

Need help with adding new product lines or popular brand labels to your e-commerce store?  This quick refresher will help you do it quickly and it’s worth your time because you’ll make more sales! Adding manufacturers or brands and associating products to them helps your customers drill down quickly by manufacturer or brand name to find the product they’re looking for.

It’s not hard for you to add manufacturer or brand names to your online store, here’s a quick tutorial:

• Go to Settings>General>Manufacturers
• Click the “Add New” button

• 3dCart will create a new area for the manufacturer/brand you want to add. Type in the brand name.
• Click the “Add” button

• You will see a new window with the brand/manufacturer name and other blank fields where you can enter the manufacturer/brand name, sorting order, keywords for your search meta tags and add a logo or page header. Click “Save” when you’re finished making your changes.
• Do you have an alphabetical list of brands already? To add a number under “Order“, click the “Edit” button next to the name you want to work with.

• In the page that opens for the manufacturer or brand you’re updating, look for the “Sorting” field. In the “Sorting” field, add a number that reflects where you want the new manufacturer listing to appear in the alphabetical list on the website’s left category or dropdown (the appearance depends on the layout you’re using in the online store). If you already have a numbered sequence for sorting, add an extra number. Example 1, 2, 3, 33(new brand), 4, 5, etc.

• Click the Tag Wizard to add the description and metatag keywords in the pop-up window for metatags, so that search engines will index the new page. Type in the description, short description and keywords for the brand and click “Add Metatags” when you’re done.
• To add a logo that appears at the top of the page for the brand, upload a manufacturer logo to your images folder in the store admin and type in the path.
• To add a header image instead that appears at the top of the web page for the brand, select an image with a logo from your manufacturer artwork, paying attention to the image size of the other brand images so that you can keep your design consistent. Contact LucidStream if you’d like some help with design.

If you have already added products that you want to associate with the new manufacturer that you’ve just added, here’s how to associate the products to manufacturers or brand names

• Go to Products>View/Edit
• Click the Filter button
• In Keyword Search, since you entered the product name, you can search by the brand you want to associate products to
• Click Edit next to the product you want to update
• In each product, select the drop-down menu item for Manufacturer and select the brand name you want to apply to the product
• Click the Save button
• Click Next to go to the next product in the group and repeat these steps until you’ve associated all of the products to the new manufacturer or brand that you’ve added

When you add manufacturers or brand names to your 3dCart e-commerce store, they’ll appear on the left hand side of the store layout, either as a list or in a drop-down menu. The default language for this feature is “manufacturer.” If you want to change it to say “brands” instead, here’s how:

• Go to Settings>Design>Store Language
• Scroll down the Store Language page until you find Manufacturer
• Change the language in the field to say what you want (in this case, “Shop By Brand”)
• Once you change this language, it will appear in the heading for the module on the left hand side of your online store, with the manufacturer or brand names that you’ve entered in your online store manager

Additional Information:

Here’s a helpful 3dCart Knowledgebase article for more information about displaying products by manufacturer.

Here’s how to add a logo to the top of your manufacturer or brand pages if you’d rather show a logo at the top instead of a header image or text.

We hope that you find this article helpful!  Please let us know if you have any questions or would like to add some comments about your experiences adding brands and manufacturers in your 3dCart e-commerce store.

Would you like more help with your 3dCart?

LucidStream can help you fine-tune your current 3dCart e-commerce store or get you set up quickly with a new online store.  Let us know more about what you need by contacting us through the form below or call LucidStream at 888-508-0575.  Visit the LucidStream website, where you can view our work with custom e-commerce design and development on 3dCart’s platform. LucidStream is a Platinum Certified 3dCart Partner . Our e-commerce services include:

• Video e-commerce: live and on-demand streaming video for e-commerce
• Custom e-commerce design and development on 3dCart’s platform
• Complete setup including helping new merchants with shipping and merchant account providers
• API and custom programming services
• Online marketing and promotions planning and execution for e-commerce store owners
• Email marketing campaign management
• Social network profile setup and visual branding (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google +1)
• Free training and ongoing support

This 3dCart tutorial for how to add manufacturers or brand names in 3dCart was written by Shana Whitmarsh at LucidStream.

By Shana Whitmarsh at LucidStream

Are you are collecting new customer sign-ups offline at events and trade shows or in your retail store? Now that you have all of that useful contact information from your target audience, it would be shame to let the leads pile up for weeks or months before you contact them. Even if data entry is not your cup of tea, entering new customers in 3dCart is quick and painless process.  As a general rule, you should enter new customers into your e-commerce store, creating new accounts for them as soon as possible so they can start shopping on your site.  If you’re getting frequent offline signups, you may want to schedule data entry for once a week. Once customers are entered into your store, you should send them an email notifying them to visit your website to log into their new accounts.

Here’s how to enter new customers into your 3dCart ecommerce store and create groups for them.

You’ll need to create the groups first, then enter the customers and assign them to their group.

Since you’ll be updating this list periodically, perhaps weekly or monthly, create new groups by date, such as “New Customers – Week of January 23, 2012.”

First, log into your store admin panel.

1. Go to Marketing>Mailing Manager> Subscription Groups

• Click the Add Group button at top right
• Name the group in the next window, then click Save.

2. Then go to Customers>Add New

• Add as much information as they’ve provided (email is the most important)
• Click the box next to “Mail List” – this will subscribe them to your email newsletter list
• For new customer accounts, use one password that you create for all new accounts, because they will need to log in and change it (select something easy to remember like “importantcustomer”)
• Be sure to select the Group from the drop-down menu in each customer’s account to assign them to the group you just created.

3. Send them an email newsletter telling them to log in and update their account info.

• Go to Marketing>Mailing Manager>Newsletters
• Click Edit next to the email newsletter template that you have created for in-store signups.
• In the next window, you’ll see the email newsletter content.
  • Make sure the “from:” and “reply to” address are from a real person (not “customer service” or “orders” due to spam constraints)
  • Make sure the subject says what you want it to – it’s o.k. to change it.
  • Click on WYSIWYG Mode on/off   to see the graphic view and not the code.
  • Make your changes to the text in the email – be sure to enter the password that you assigned when setting up customer groups so that customers can log in with their email address and that temporary password.
  • Make any changes to the text version below.
  • Click the Save button at top right.
• Now, click the Send button next to the email newsletter you just updated.
• In Screen 1, select the new group you created.
• Click Continue to Step 2
• In Step 2 enter the email address where you want to send a test email so you can see what it looks like before sending it out to everyone in the group.
• If everything looks good, click the Continue to Step 3 button to send your email to your group.

4. Later, after sending the email, you can see who viewed the email newsletter:

• Go to Marketing>Mailing Manager>Newsletters and click the Report button.
• In the next window, you will be able to see the date, how many newsletters were opened and any sales that resulted from sending them.

Additional information: Helpful links in 3dCart’s Knowledgebase to learn more about how to enter new customers into your 3dCart:

How to Add And Edit Customers

Managing Your Email Subscribers

Need some help with your 3dCart e-commerce store? LucidStream can help!

3dCart is a great do-it-yourself e-commerce system but everyone needs a little help sometimes. That’s where LucidStream comes in. We can help you upgrade your 3dCart e-commerce store or  set you up quickly with a new online store.  Contact us through the form below or call LucidStream at 888-508-0575.  Visit LucidStream’s website, where you can view our work with custom e-commerce design and development on 3dCart’s platform. LucidStream is a Platinum Certified 3dCart Partner . Our e-commerce services include:

• Video e-commerce: live and on-demand streaming video for e-commerce
• Custom e-commerce design and development on 3dCart’s platform
• Complete e-commerce setup including helping new merchants with shipping and merchant account providers
• API and custom programming services
• Online marketing and promotions planning and execution for e-commerce store owners
• Email marketing campaign management
• Social network profile setup and visual branding (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google +1)
• Free training and ongoing support

This article about how to enter customers into 3dCart was written by Shana Whitmarsh at LucidStream.

By Shana Whitmarsh, LucidStream

If you’ve been looking for a way to get your 3dCart e-commerce store to print shipping labels for orders that you want to ship via USPS, the U.S. Postal Service has some regulations that prevent it, so you may want to consider UPS or FedEx instead.

When looking into this issue for one our clients, we found that shipping labels can’t be printed from the store admin panel due to USPS regulations.  You can get postage and a confirmation number in your online store if you have an online account that you set up at http://www.usps.com.  Click here for 3dCart’s PDF Tutorial for printing shipping labels.

IF YOU WANT THE STORE TO CALCULATE SHIPPING, You have to set up your account first at USPS at http://www.usps.com.

• You need to get credentials to enter into the online store so the store recognizes your USPS account. You do this by going to the USPS website and requesting access to their shipping APIs:
  https://secure.shippingapis.com/registration/

•  After USPS emails you the information you need, you go to Settings>Shipping>Shipping Settings and click Enter Credentials next to the USPS logo and enter the UserID and Password that you get from the USPS once you register for the USPS Web Tools.

Enter Your USPS Credentials in 3dCart’s Shipping Settings

• Then go to Settings>Shipping>Shipping Methods and set up custom shipping methods (there’s a good article on 3dcart’s support site here showing how set shipping methods: https://support.3dcart.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=52) so the store would calculate for each flat rate box.  Remember, if you ever want to disable free shipping, you need to click the box in each product where it says “This Product Ships Free” (Products>View/Edit, select each individual product)

NOTE: You don’t have to integrate USPS in your online store if you DON’T want the store to calculate shipping or give confirmation numbers. USPS can do this from its website and its software; and it can email shipping confirmations directly to customers.  Your online store will send an automatic email to customers when an order has shipped. This behavior is triggered when you change the order status under Orders in the admin panel for your online store.

Once you create an account with USPS, you can print individual or batch shipping labels from their website at https://sss-web.usps.com/cns/signInLanding.do. You can also download their Click ‘N’ Ship software. You still need a USPS account and you can sign up and download Click’N’Ship here: https://sss-web.usps.com/cns/landing.do.

UPS and FedEx have better integration with the online store, so it’s worth considering them for express shipping. You would need to set up accounts with UPS and FedEx.

Sign up for a UPS account online: http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/ship/account/open_online.html

Sign up for a FedEx account online:

http://www.fedex.com/us/oadr/ (be sure to click “Use My Account Online” at left)

Need some help with your 3dCart e-commerce store? We can help!

If you’d like some help with your current 3dCart e-commerce store or you want to get set up quickly with a new online store, please  complete the form below to contact us or call LucidStream at 888-508-0575.  Visit our website, where you can view our work with custom e-commerce design and development on 3dCart’s platform. LucidStream is a Platinum Certified 3dCart Partner . Our e-commerce services include:

• Video e-commerce: live and on-demand streaming video for e-commerce
• Custom e-commerce design and development on 3dCart’s platform
• Complete setup including helping new merchants with shipping and merchant account providers
• API and custom programming services
• Online marketing and promotions planning and execution for e-commerce store owners
• Email marketing campaign management
• Social network profile setup and visual branding (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google +1)
• Free training and ongoing support

This article was written by Shana Whitmarsh at LucidStream.

By Shana Whitmarsh, LucidStream

When reviewing Google Analytics for some of our clients’ organic search performance as it related to conversions in their e-commerce stores, we were surprised to see high amounts of organic search traffic but conversions weren’t where we would have expected for the volume of search-related traffic. Upon reviewing products in the 3dCart online store manager, we found several products that had inaccurate page titles and search meta-tags, with many of these being duplicates of other products.

This duplicated, inaccurate data was most likely a result of “cloning” or “duplicating” existing individual products to create new ones but not updating all of the information to reflect accurate data in all of the product fields for the copied product they created.

What happens when product information, descriptions, page titles and search metas are inaccurate?

When product data and search meta-tags don’t match search keywords entered by website visitors using search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, fewer people find exactly what they’re looking for, and that hurts traffic and conversion rates. People who are searching for a specific product may or may not see the product they were looking for or they may find a completely unrelated product. Worse, people searching for a product may not find it at all.

Inaccurate data that’s entered in the Search Meta-Tags tab in your 3dCart store isn’t read by Google Shopping. However, while you may be able to upload your product data successfully to Google Shopping, your website visitors who are using Google Search may still have trouble finding the exact product they’re searching for if your product page titles and search meta-tags don’t match the product names. If you want the products in your e-commerce store to be indexed and searchable in Google Search and other search engines, it’s important to make sure that your product information is accurate within each tab and field in every product listing.

How do you avoid inaccurately cloning or duplicating products in your 3dCart store, or update inaccurate product information?

First, here’s how to “Clone” individual products:

• Log into your 3dCart admin panel for your online store, then go to Products>View/Edit.
• Select “clone” next to the product that you want to duplicate.

How to clone individual products in 3d Cart

Duplicating Products In 3dCart:

You can duplicate a product when you’re editing individual products. Make all of your additions in the product you want to work with, then Save it by clicking “Save” button. Then click the “Duplicate” button. It’s the same as clicking “Clone” next to an individual product when you are viewing all of the products. Clicking the “duplicate” button will create a copy of the product that you’re working with that you will then need to change attributes and data for. This way, you’ll create two separate products with similar attributes (such as internal search keywords, size and color options, inventory, price, or other product information that is similar between products.)

Here’s how to duplicate one of the products in 3dCart while you’re editing it.

When “cloning” or duplicating products in 3dCart, it’s very important to click on all of the tabs in the copy of the product that you just made to review all of the information and update it so that it’s accurate for the new product. The tabs to check for information that you may need to update in cloned or duplicated products are:

• Information
• Images
• Options
• Discount (for products that you have assigned discounts to)
• Advanced (for stores that have assigned tiered pricing to products for specific customer groups)
• Related (for related products that you associate with individual products to cross-sell or up-sell)
• …and very importantly, Meta Tags 
• eProducts is for stores that sell downloadable products, like music and software.

Check and update the information in all of these tabs after cloning or duplicating products in 3d Cart.

Very Important: Update Your Meta Tags!

When you click on the Meta Tags tab in a cloned or duplicated product, look at the Page Title and Meta Tags fields. If the information doesn’t match the product that you just entered information for in all of the other tabs, this information in this area needs to be updated also.

• Enter the product name in the Page Title window
• Click the Tag Wizard to enter new meta tags into the product.

Product information that needs to be updated in the Meta Tags tab.

When you click the Tag Wizard, a separate window will pop up:

Make your updates to product descriptions and keywords in the meta tag wizard.

Enter your long and short description and keywords in the Meta Tag Wizard, then click “Create Meta Tags”. Close the window and click “Save” to save the updated product information.

How do you check and update several products within a specific tab?

• After updating your product, click the Save button.
• Then, to check for information to update in the same tab, product by product, you can click the “<Prev” or “Next>” links, which will show the previous or next product.

How to save a product listing page title, search description and meta tags in 3dCart.

LucidStream can help you with your 3dCart!

Since 2007, LucidStream has been helping clients throughout the U.S. with 3dCart tasks and no job is too small. We do complete design and development and we also help you with common questions and how-to’s. Need help with your current 3dCart e-commerce store? Do you want to get set up quickly with a new online store? Please  complete the form below to contact us or call LucidStream at 888-508-0575.  Visit the LucidStream website, where you can view our work with custom e-commerce design and development on 3dCart’s platform. LucidStream is a Platinum Certified 3dCart Partner . Our e-commerce services include:

• Video e-commerce: live and on-demand streaming video for e-commerce
• Custom e-commerce design and development on 3dCart’s platform
• Complete setup including helping new merchants with shipping and merchant account providers
• API and custom programming services
• Online marketing and promotions planning and execution for e-commerce store owners
• Email marketing campaign management
• Social network profile setup and visual branding (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google +1)
• Free training and ongoing support

This article was written by Shana Whitmarsh at LucidStream.

The ready availability of free video upload sites, social networks, blogs and online review sites has enabled the average Joe to post his two cents and be heard by major media outlets, brands and big business. Marketing campaigns like the Doritos and Pepsi Max Crash The Super Bowl promotion, where consumers are invited to submit their own ads for national recognition are giving consumers (the marketing people call them “brand enthusiasts”) giving a thunderous new volume to their collective voice.

Groupon promises businesses a minimum set amount of customers in return for a gigantic per-item discount (minimum 50% off). Consumers buy at the discount and if the minimum number of customers is met, the deal is on. However, Groupon takes half of the proceeds, and the business fulfills the sales, with mixed results. Some of them say they are able to bring in more customers this way than through other advertising channels, and since they don’t pay Groupon any advertising fees, the cost of the discount versus what they would have spent in advertising ends up a wash. Other businesses just lose money – see this article on NPR.org that references a wine bar that went out of business.

Is it a good idea to entice new listeners with free music, new fans with free video or get new customers who make their first contact with a business expecting at least half off the regular price? Are customers changing “how they shop” or are they becoming increasingly self-entitled “consumers” with unrealistic expectations about what they should pay? How long will businesses encourage, then tolerate the behavior?

More on this trend to come….

We invite you to visit LucidStream at http://www.lucidstream.com or call us at 888-508-0575.

For fun, here are some links from Wordnik:

WordNik says, indirectly, that “LucidStream” has meaning, even though it’s not a Scrabble word yet. LucidStream (lucid stream) means, literally, “clear stream.”

But, lucid is definitely a word to know: “clear, easily understood, intelligible.”

Mele Kalikimaka

Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año y Felicidad