| Electronic Manual - SunnyShop
© SunnyScript - www.sunnyscript.com |
| Table of contents | |||||||||||||||||||
Smart
tip:
This handbook is also designed to be printed... set your printer's page
orientation to landscape format, so there is enough space to place hand-written
notes on the left and right margin easily.
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| General information about shops |
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Conventions for this document: The expression "shop" refers to the entire shopping mall and the terms "store" or "table" means a shop's department (e.g. group of similar items or a line of products; explained more detailed below). SunnyShop is compatible with
all types of currencies and all types of mass units (any specific shown
is just an example).
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| Successful shop planning... |
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1. Multiple stores and/or product categories: SunnyShop is able to host multiple stores under one roof as well as different product categories within each store. So if you sell very similar goods or a small amount of different products, you just may create one store and divide your products into categories (e.g. a carpet store separated into "wool carpets", "polyester carpets", ...). However when distributing a wide range of products, it is recommended to create multiple stores (departments) and then divide each one into categories (e.g. stores for carpets, wallpapers, paints, ..., each having its own detailed sections). There is no general rule to say when it's time to create multiple stores instead of just having one store with different categories. But you should prefer creating multiple stores instead of a wide-spread category system for increased performance. 2.1. Determine required product database fields: All stores have its own product databases able to manage a theoretically unlimited number of fields; each field holds product related data, like its name, description, pictures, price and other information you want to show to the customer. Although it is possible to add, modify and delete fields later at any time, it is recommended to create a list of all required fields beforehand. In this way, you can ensure having a consistent and logical data structure. 2.2. Assign field types and edit controls: Field types describes the content of the concerned fields closer. By default, SunnyShop uses the type "text" which accepts any input - but it can be wiser to be a bit more specific (e.g. a field like "Product picture" should be set to the type "image"). Edit controls determines how particular fields are displayed internally. By default, SunnyShop uses a single input line. But it is possible to use any edit control supported by HTML (like text boxes, radiobuttons, drop-down lists, checkboxes, ...). Please take some time to work out suited field types and edit controls. Especially when having different people working on one database, meaningful settings will increase data consistency dramatically - and so, this makes it also easier finding a product. Helpful hint: Confused about all this stuff ? Don't worry, the correct usage will be explained later. At this stage, you should just have a basic understanding of the shop structure. 3. Shipping, taxes, invoices & more - behind the scenes: SunnyShop provides versatile settings for shipping and payment methods, tax handling and invoice management. The basis is a system of different consumers groups, each allowed to have its own preferences. Each consumers group may reflect a list of specific countries and continents or a specific type of customers (e.g. retail and wholesale ones); depending upon your requirements, also other classifications are possible. 4. Check all of your planning steps: Last but not least you should go carefully through your planning again and again. It's a matter of course that you can modify all settings later when your shop is finished, but some planning may save valuable time and efforts. Helpful
hint: We recommend to test your new shop carefully before celebrating
the grand opening, e.g. by inviting selected people to evaluate it or by
running internal beta-tests by yourself.
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| Shop size vs. system resources... |
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SunnyShop is highly optimized and supports shops with an unlimited number of different products, so the performance mainly depends upon the used server type and available system resources. In a common system environment,
you don't have to take care about this issue. However if you have more
specific questions regarding this topic, please contact SunnyScript's customer
service department for personal assistance.
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| Administration panel | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The administration panel is a convenient way to work interactively with SunnyShop. You can start the admin panel by calling admin.cgi with your favorite web browsing software:
How to access your shop:
Helpful
hint: Instead of the main entrance, it's also possible to show
a specific store, product category or even product first. Please refer
to the chapter "Shop-frontend and template management" for more information.
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| Admin menu... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This screen allows the following actions:
The top menu line provides
additional selections (depending on the current system status):
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| Shop settings adjustment | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Edit shop parameters... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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First of all you must configure basic system settings which take effect to the behavior of the software. Click on the button "Edit shop parameters" when you're in the admin menu. General settings:
Security settings:
Primary currency settings:
Multi-currency settings:
* Requires a JavaScript capable web browsing software to enable this feature on the shop-frontend. Measuring units:
Order logging settings:
Popular products: SunnyShop is able to rate
products by popularity (based upon the number of shopping cart additions).
In this way, you can let advertise bestsellers automatically. Popular products
are generated for each unique store category.
Shopping cart layout:
Ordering options:
"Recommend this product"
feature:
"Bookmarked" products: SunnyShop can remember products previously ordered by a particular customer and show them at a later time again for direct placement into the shopping basket. This feature is excellent
for selling goods and services which are often re-ordered, because it saves
time and prevents people to always search for the same articles in the
stores.
After you have verified all settings carefully, click on the button "Save parameters" to take over modifications to the system. It is also possible to bring back previous values with the "Let the script restore defaults" button. "Out-of-stock product" notification: More information is available at the chapter "Store management", part "Warehouse management and quantity handling". "New products / updated products" notification: More information is available at the chapter "Store management", part "Warehouse management and quantity handling". Order status change notifications: SunnyShop is able to notify
the customer when the status of an open order changes (at table of orders).
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| Consumers groups - overview... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Consumers groups are used by SunnyShop to allow individual tax, shipping, payment and discount preferences for a particular group of customers (e.g. wholesale/retail), locations (e.g. countries/continents) or any other desired unity. During the checkout procedure, customer selects the matching consumers group. Should you just have one consumers group active, it is automatically taken without the need to select it; however at least one group is mandatory. Click on "Edit shop parameters" (see main admin menu) and go to "Edit consumers group settings" in order to access the consumers groups parameters. How to create a new consumers group: Type in the name of the new group (e.g. "European customers") and click on the button "Create new consumers group". How to edit / remove a consumers group: Select the consumers group from the list, click on "Delete" or "Edit" and follow the provided instructions. How to change the sorting of consumers groups: Select the group you wish
to move around and click on either "Move up" or "Move down" button to change
its position (this affects the group's order within the list appearing
during the checkout process).
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| Consumers groups - available consumers group settings (part 1)... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Consumers group name:
Order restrictions:
Order form template:
Shipment (single shipping method): Pre-requisite for weight / volume based shipping: For weight-based shipping,
system field _weight
is required; for volume-based shipping, system field _volume
is required. Both must contain the weight or volume intended to calculate
shipping charges. Format: 12.34
(without any prefix or suffix).
Shipment (multiple shipping methods): When selecting multiple shipping
methods, set your own range of shipping methods here. Please refer to the
end of the screen "Editing consumers groups". There you'll find "Edit shipment
methods":
Edit shipment method: After you've selected to
create or edit a shipment method, the following screen appears.
Value added taxes:
Discounts:
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| Consumers groups - available consumers group settings (part 2, payment methods)... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Free of charge: This payment method is suited
when handling "free" goods, like ad brochures & catalogues or free
product samples.
Offline payment: This payment option applies,
when you handle payment processing outside (orders are only taken, no invoices
generated).
Send invoice: This payment option will
create a customizable invoice for each order.
Credit card real-time processing: This payment option requires a "merchant account" registered at a payment processor. In this way, you can handle credit card payments electronically through an online payment system. Usage note: If you process credit cards by yourself (e.g. via terminal or an electronic cash register), please refer to the payment option "Credit card manual processing" as described later. Passing back order details from the credit card processor to SunnyShop: After a payment has been processed (no matter, if accepted or declined), the payment processor must hand over the results back to SunnyShop. For this application, the program passback.cgi is intended. Instruct your credit card
processor to transfer all data to passback.cgi
of your SunnyShop installation:
And here you can see how
to configure SunnyShop to work together with a payment processor...
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