Big Commerce Users - 10 Top Tips, You Need

I found interesting post at andmine.com, here would like to re-share for BigCommerce Users:


1. Get on board with Google
Google has a great range of services to help improve conversion. These include Google Analytics, giving you detailed information about your visitors, Google Merchant Centre, allowing you to place content on the Google database, and Google Website Optimizer, showing you which features of your site are most effective at getting visitors to convert. Best of all, they’re all free!

2. Engage with blogs and forums related to your key products
Regarded as one of the key ways to engage with your target audience online, this one is a must. Ten is a good number to get started with and always make sure you check the terms and conditions before posting your url.

3. Connect to free directories and comparison shopping sites
Comparison shopping sites are regarded as the most useful format for online shopping. Listing your site on free directories will also improve your seo ranking and drive traffic. There are many free ones such as DMOZ, list my website and directory submits.

4. Connect to an Email Marketing Service
This allows you to collect newsletter subscribers and most importantly, send out offers to them to generate sales.
5. Integrate with Social Media
Create a fan page, twitter and if relevant pinterest board. Link these to your eStore and think of a smart strategy to encourage sharing (giveaways, gift with purchase or bonus points to a loyalty system?)

6. Improve your page rank with ‘rich’ content
This means making sure you add a title, META keywords and descriptions for products, photos and pages throughout your site. Each needs to be unique as search engines only recognise unique content.

7. Make yourself easily contactable.
This should include having a dedicated ‘contact us’ page and a listed phone number. There are also many free live chat services that can be integrated with your site such as Zopim and Olark.

8. Include an “About Us” page
To connect with customers better. This should include photos of staff and tell an interesting story.

9. Have a shipping and returns policy
Dedicate a page to this and include FAQ. Make sure the policy is well defined and meets your state and country regulations.

10. Include as much detail as possible on product pages.
Product pages are your selling point so make sure you include a full product description and at least one high resolution image. Videos are a great idea to encourage comments and sharing.

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Source: http://www.andmine.com

How to Add a Brands Page [DESIGN]

By default, BigCommerce brand pages simply list the name of the brand at the top and all of the products underneath that brand name. Customers sometimes want a little more information about the brand and it certainly would be nice to have a well recognized brand logo appear on a brands page, wouldn't it?

In BigCommerce, it is definitely possible to add a logo, text and even tables to a brands page - just like you can with any other product or category page. In fact, it is very easy to do! Here's how it's done:

1. Login to your BigCommerce Control Panel, click the Marketing tab and then select View Banners
2. Click Create a Banner
3. Name your banner anything you want (it is for your own use and is not viewable by customers)
4. Add pictures, text or tables to the editor window
5. Scroll down to the "Show on Page" section and click the For a Specific Brand radio button
6. Select the brand the page is for from the new drop-down menu that appears
7. In the "Location" section, select Top of Page or Bottom of Page from the drop-down menu
8. Click the Save button

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Ref: storecoach.com

What Each BigCommerce Panel Does [DESIGN]

As I stated in my previous post about 3 important elements about BigCommerce design.

One of the big important tip is to get to know about what each of the BigCommerce panel does exactly so that you can use it in the right way for your design.

Of course, as StoreCoach.com said nowhere in BigCommerce states well about each panel did and it's hard to find exactly place to understand it but here, thanks to StoreCoach to experiment it and share it to us.

As my mission for Cambodia is to introduce BigCommerce, I copy fully here of his explanation for each panel as following:

Panel File	Panel Description	Where it Can be Used
SideAccountMenu	Displays a “Manage Your Account” sidebar panel where customers can do things like view messages sent to and received from your store, check their order status, view past orders, and see their wish lists.	Although it can technically be placed in the main page layout area of any page, it displays better when placed in a sidebar.
SideAccountStoreCredit	If a customer is logged in and has store credit available to be used, they can see how much credit they have available in this panel. This panel DOES NOT display at all if there is no store credit available to the customer.	Although it can technically be placed in the main page layout area of any page, it displays better when placed in a sidebar.
SideBrandTagCloud	Shows a tag cloud based upon the number of products available for each manufacturer. The more products, the larger the brand name appears. If customers click on a brand name in the tag cloud, it takes them to that brand's page, where all of the products are displayed.	This panel displays well in the main page layout area or in a sidebar on any page.
SideCartContents	This panel shows the contents of a customer's shopping cart. It DOES NOT display at all if there are no items in the customer's cart.	This panel should only be used in a sidebar on any page. It DOES NOT display correctly in the center page layout.
SideCategoryList	This panel provides links to your categories and subcategories (if your store is configured to show subcategories), displaying them vertically.	Although it can technically be placed in the main page layout area on any page, it displays better when placed in a sidebar.
SideCategoryNewProducts	This panel displays the five most recently added items to the category a customer is viewing.	This panel should only be used in a sidebar and MUST be used in the category layout only. Using it anywhere else breaks your website!!! It DOES NOT display correctly in the center page layout.
SideCategoryPopularProducts	This shows a list of popular products within a category based on customer ratings. If there are no ratings for products in the category a customer is viewing, this panel will not appear at all.	This panel MUST be used in the category layout only. Using it anywhere else breaks your website!!! It displays well in the sidebar or the main page layout.
SideCategoryShopByPrice	This panel displays product price ranges and allows customers to narrow their search within the category they are viewing, based upon those price ranges. You cannot specify your own price ranges; they are automatically assigned by Big Commerce.	This panel MUST be used in the category layout only. Using it anywhere else breaks your website!!! Although it can technically be placed in the main page layout area, it displays better when placed in a sidebar.
SideCategoryTopSellers	This panel shows the top sellers within the category the customer is viewing. If there have been no sales from that category, the panel will not display at all.	This panel MUST be used in the category layout only. Using it anywhere else breaks your website!!! This panel should only be used in a sidebar. It DOES NOT display correctly in the center page layout.
SideCouponCodeBox	This panel inserts a coupon box so that customers can enter a coupon code you have set up.	Although it displays properly on any page whether it is in a sidebar or the main page layout, it is generally only used on checkout pages.
SideCurrencySelector	This panel allows a customer to click a link that will convert the default currency to any currency you have set up in the Settings > Currencies section of your BigCommerce Control Panel. It WILL NOT display if you do not have more than one currency set up.	You can place it in either a sidebar or the main layout of any page.
SideCustomCategoryList	This panel creates a vertical list of links to the categories or subcategories that a product is contained within.	It will only appear on subcategory or on product pages. Although it displays properly in a sidebar or the main page layout, for the purpose of website consistency, it should really used in the sidebar only..
SideGiftCertificateCodeBox	This panel creates a box for customers to enter a gift certificate code into.	It can be placed on any page but a checkout page is the most appropriate place for it. Although it can be placed in the main page layout area, it displays better in a sidebar.
SideLiveChatServices	This panel creates a “Click to Chat” button on your website if you have signed up for and configured Live chat in the Store Settings > Live Chat section of your BigCommerce Control Panel.	Although it can technically be placed in the main page layout area, it displays better when placed in a sidebar and can be used on any page.
SideNewProducts	This panel lists the products most recently added to your website. You can control the number of products it shows in the Settings > Store > Display section of your BigCommerce Control Panel. You cannot specify the products that display nor their order without deleting a product and adding it again (the system simply displays the products most recently added).	This panel displays well in the main page layout area or in a sidebar on any page.
SideNewsletterBox	This panel places a newsletter sign up box on your page.	This panel should only be used in a sidebar and can be placed on any page. It DOES NOT display correctly in the center page layout.
SidePopularProducts	This panel lists the five top products in terms of customer review ratings. If two products have the same rating, whichever one has more ratings will be placed higher on the list.	This panel displays well in the main page layout area or in a sidebar on any page.
SidePopularVendors	This is a “legacy” panel that does not do anything anymore. It has been replaced by the ShopByBrand panels.	n/a
SideProductAddToWishList	This panel adds a button so that customers can add a product to their “wish list.” Customers must have an account in order to save and view their wish list. In order for this panel to work, you must have wish lists enabled in the Settings > Store > Display section of your BigCommerce Control Panel.	This panel MUST be used in the product layout only. Using it anywhere else breaks your website!!! It displays well in the sidebar or main layout but, because your main layout and sidebar may have contrasting colors, you might need to “tweak” the font colors so that all of the words are legible in either (or both) areas.
SideProductAlsoBought	This panel reviews your store's order history and displays other products that were purchased by customers at the same time that they bought the product that is being displayed.	This panel MUST be used in the product layout only. Using it anywhere else breaks your website!!! It displays well in the sidebar or main layout.
SideProductRecentlyViewed	This panel displays any products the customers has viewed during their session on your website.	This panel can be placed on any page and displays well in both the sidebar and the main page layout area.
SideProductRelated	This panel shows up to 5 products that are related to the product a customer is viewing. In order for it to display related products, you need to set them up in each individual product's “Other Details” tab. You can click the “Find and show related products automatically” and the shopping cart will pick products that it believes are related, based upon previous customer purchases and/or other products in the same category. You can also hand pick up to five related products to show.	The panel works on the product layout only. Placing it on any other page's layout does nothing. It displays well in both the sidebar and the main page layout area.
SideShopByBrand	This panel's vertically lists all of your store's brands that have products and provides links to those brands' pages, where all of the brand's products are listed.	Although it can technically be placed in the main page layout area, it displays better when placed in a sideba and can be placed on any pager.
SideShopByBrandFull	This panel's vertically lists all of your store's brands, whether they have products associated with them or not, and provides links to those brands' pages. and provides links to those brands' pages, where all of the brand's products are listed. If a brand has no products associated with it, a “There are no products listed under this brand” message is displayed.	Although it can technically be placed in the main page layout area, it displays better when placed in a sidebar and can be placed on any page.
SideSubPageList	This is a “legacy” panel that was subsequently replaced by BigCommerce's built-in sub category/page fly-out menus. It does not do anything now and placing it on most pages will break your website!	n/a
SideTopSellers	This panel lists the top five products that have been purchased on your website. You cannot control which products are displayed here – it is totally controlled by the shopping cart.	It can be placed on any page and displays well in both the sidebar and the main page layout area.
SideVendorPageList	This is a “legacy panel” that no longer does anything.	n/a
HomeFeaturedProducts	This panel will show products you have marked as “featured” on any page that you place it on. It is typically only used on the Home page, however. To mark a product as “featured,” simply click the star next to any product's name in your BigCommerce control panel to make it a gold star. You can also configure the number of products that will display as featured products in the Settings > Store > Display section of you Control Panel.	Although it technically can be placed in the sidebar or the main page layout of any page of your website, it displays much better in the main page layout area and is normally only used on the Home page.
HomeNewProducts	This panel is essentially the same as the SideNewProducts panel except that it has been designed specifically to contrast with the default colors of your store's main page layout area. It lists the products most recently added to your website. You can control the number of products that display in the HomeNewProducts panel by going to Settings > Store > Display and changing the number in the “New Products” box. You cannot specify the products that display nor their order without deleting a product and adding it again (the system simply displays the products most recently added).	Although it technically can be placed in the sidebar, it displays much better in the main page layout area (use the SideNewProducts panel for the sidebar) and can be placed on any page.
HomeRecentBlogs	If you are posting blog articles to your News Items section, this panel lists the titles of your most recent blog posts as links to those articles. You can configure the number of posts that it will display by changing the number in the “Recent News Items” line in the Settings > Store > Display section of your BigCommerce Control Panel.	Although it technically can be placed in the sidebar, it displays better in the main page layout area and can be placed on any page.
HomeSaleProducts	This panel lists any products that you have marked as being “On Sale.” To set up a sale price, click the More Price Options link in the “Pricing & Pre-Order Options” section of the main Details tab of your product and enter the special price in the “Sale Price” box. You can control the number of products that display in this panel by going to Settings > Store > Display and changing the number in the “New Products” box (the same box that controls the number of “New Products” that are displayed by the Home and Side NewProducts panel).	Although it technically can be placed in the sidebar, it displays much better in the main page layout area and can be placed on any page.
HomeSlideShow	This panel places a carousel slider on your page if you are using a template that has the carousel functionality (at the time of this writing, only the “Classic White” template has carousel functionality). The carousel slider is configured in the Design > Carousel & Social Media tab.	This panel only displays in the main page layout section.
HomeSlideShowJavaScript	This is really a panel within the HomeSlideShow panel and is NOT an actual independent panel that you can place anywhere on your website. It is best to just ignore this panel and let it do its work in the background!	n/a

BigCommerce design in general and Its guide

BigCommerce shopping cart is not a free e-commerce platform, you need to pay per what you use.
BigCommerce provide many free templates to allow you to use as your store and you can modify the design or hire some designers to do the job for you there.

So you have to aware about how BigCommerce design the template?
First, BigCommerce's template comes with something we call: layout, panel and snippet.

• Layout: how each of the webpage will show. Layout contains many panel code
• Layout file is structured in HTML style, you can include CSS, javascript as you wish.
• Ex: default layout, product display layout, cart layout etc.
• Panel: Each part of the layout you want to manage it such as to list product on sidebar, to display feature product part on home page or to make a panel for slideshow etc.
• To call panel, you need to use: %%panel-name%%
• Panel contains many SNIPPET code
• Snippet: That's a piece of code you want to describe, something like how a category will show etc.

BigCommerce recommended for every designer to read their designing guide that you can download from here: [BigCommerce Customization Guide v1.0].

Beside, all simple guides in the pdf file above, of course, I do not find exactly any advance option on design part of BigCommerce that is easy to read. You need to invest your time to read its support forum or tutorials. Of course, if I found, I'll post here.

BigCommerce Tips and Tricks Collections

BigCommerce shopping cart is one of the cloud service shopping cart in the world.

As experience with some of its difficulties in design, I would collect all the tips I have found in one place.

OnlineStoreCreation.com\

What to do if you have problems with zoom

The BigCommerce zoom feature may soemtimes stop working. If this happens try commenting out the following line in styles.css:

#ProductDetails .ProductThumbImage {
   height: 220px;
   width: 220px;
   /* overflow: hidden; */
   margin:auto;
}

Changing the default size when you click on product image

You can change the default size of the large image that comes up when you click on the icon within the Product page via Settings > Store Settings > Images. Note that the image will be further limited by the resolution of the user’s computer (ie will not be bigger than the desktop).

Setting your website's favicon

You can set the icon of your store’s website pages (which is a 16x16 image displaying in your web browser’s tabs) via Design > Favicon.

Displaying the same logo at the top of every page

Your store can display your logo at the top of every page by selecting Design > Logo and uploading your image.

Difference between Options and Option sets

Options are used for generic choices. For example one Option could be ‘Sizes’ (1, 2, 3... 10) and another Option could be ‘Colors’ (red, blue, white). Option Sets are used to group Options together. For example the Option Set ‘Shirt Option Set’ could have in it ‘Sizes’ and ‘Colors’.

How to modify an Option whilst assigning it to a Set

When you assign an Option into an Option Set you can REMOVE some of its choices in the process. This allows you to assign the same Option into two separate Option Sets but for example have ‘Men’s Shirt option Set’ with sizes 2 to 10 and ‘Women’s Option Set’ having 1 to 7 without having to create two separate Options.

Applying an option Set to multiple Products

You can apply a single Option Set to multiple Products at once via the Products Page by selecting the Products you want to assign to, choosing from the action dropdown ‘Apply Option Set…’ and clicking on ‘Go’.

How to see which product a customer has ordered

To see which products a customer has ordered, click on the ‘+’ sign next to the customer’s name.

What's a SKU?

Don’t know what a SKU is? It stands for Stock Keeping Unit, and is a unique inventory code used to identify each product.

Setting the order in which products appear in your store

A little known trick in BigCommerce is the ability to set the order that products appear. This is easily done by going to Edit a Product > Other Details and entering a number in ‘Sort Order’ field. This number will determine the display order.

How to display the message SOLD OUT

You can display the message ‘Sold Out’ when a product’s inventory reaches zero by going to Settings > Store Settings > Display and checking ‘Show Inventory Levels’. When the inventory of a product reaches zero, it will display ‘Current Stock: Sold Out’ on the Product page.

Hiding products from displaying on your store

Hiding products from customers is easy (for example because you have run out of inventory). Simply go to Products > View Products, select the product, click ‘Edit’, and on the ‘Details’ tab ensure that ‘This product cannot be purchased in my online store’ is selected.

Adding Free Shipping to products

You want free shipping? Easy! Just go to Edit a Product > Details and check ‘Yes, this product has free shipping’.

Limiting shipping to a particular country

You can limit shipping to a particular country by creating a shipping zone which contains all the countries you want to ship. Then also edit the default zone and disable all the shipping methods set there. This is done in Settings > Shipping Settings.

Enable purchasing without an account

By default, BigCommerce stores will be configured to accept customer logins, but be aware that many customers don’t like registering an account, either for privacy reasons or because they want to make a once-off purchase. To enable purchasing without an account, go to Settings > Checkout Settings and ensure ‘Yes, enable guest checkout’ is checked.

Display Down For Maintenance on your store

You can stop access to the store temporarily, and show a Maintenance page, by going to Settings > Store Settings > Website and select ‘Yes, display a 'Down for Maintenance' message on my store’. You can also determine what this page shows says by going to Design > Template Files and clicking on ‘Edit’ for ‘maintenance.html’.

Does BigCommerce store credit card numbers?

BigCommerce does NOT store the credit card number under any circumstances, for security reasons.

Showing prices in multiple currencies

Payment will always occur in a single currency (called the default currency). However, you can display the costs of your goods in whatever currencies your customers desire – with the added bonus that the conversion will happen in real time per the correct currency exchange rate! To do this, select Settings > Currency Settings and click on ‘Add Currency’. To get real time currency conversion ensure that ‘Get currency exchange rate from Big Commerce Currency Service’ is checked.

Setting up PayPal

Setting up payment to handle PayPal is easy: go to Settings > Checkout Settings, select a PayPal version (such as ‘PayPal Website Payments (Standard)’, click ‘Save’, and then on the new PayPal tab that appears, enter your PaylPal credentials.

Knowing your panels and snippets

Want to know all about your panels and snippets? Go to Design > Template Files. An orange row means you have edited it. A white row means it is unedited. A green row means it is newly created by you.

Adding completely new web pages

Completely new web pages, in addition to the BigCommerce supplied files, can be added to your store by going to Website Content > Create a Web Page. To show the new page on the store’s menu, make sure the ‘Yes, show this web page on the navigation menu’ is ticked.

Removing a panel

Any panel can be removed from a page easily and quickly. This can be done in two ways. The first way is by going to Design > Design Mode and clicking ‘Open My Store in Design Mode’. Right click on the panel you want to remove (such as ‘Categories’) and select ‘Remove Panel’ from the popup menu. The other way is by directly editing the file in a HTML editor, and uploading to your BigCommerce site via FTP.

Setting whether sub-categories are displayed or not

You can set whether sub-categories are displayed or not by going to Settings > Store Settings > Display and entering a number in ‘Category List Depth’. A depth of 1 will hide sub-categories.

Changing your emails' footer

By default your emails will have an ugly footer like ‘is powered by Big Commerce. Launch your own store for free with Big Commerce’. To change this, go to Design > Emails. Click ‘Snippets’. Then edit the file called EmailFooter.html.

Determining which order statuses trigger an email to the customer

You can set which status on the order triggers an automatic email to the customer. Go to Settings > Checjkout Settings. At the bottom of the 'General Settings' tab, go to 'Customer Email Notifications' and tick all the statuses you want emails for.

Getting a copy of the email your customer is automatically sent

To get a copy of the invoice a customer gets emailed automatically when they buy a product in your store, go to Settings > Store Settings > Miscellaneous, and click on ‘Yes, forward order invoice emails to’.

Avoiding SPAM in your store

SPAM can be easily avoided by adding CAPTCHA to your store (which is a challenge response test to ensure that the response is generated by a human and not by a computer). This can be enabled by going to Settings > Store Settings > Display tab, and turning ‘Enable CAPTCHA? [Yes], enable CAPTCHA security’ on.

Adding your store as a subdomain of an exidting website

Your store can be a subdomain of an existing domain. You can set this in Tools > Move to Domain and select ‘I want to keep my domain name with my current registrar, but use it for my store’. You will then have to go to your ISP and set what is called a ‘CNAME’ entry to the store.

Registering a new subdomain with Bigcommerce

You can register your store’s domain name directly within BigCommerce via Tools > Move to Domain and select ‘I want to register a new domain name to use for my store’.

Forcing your customer to buy a minumum and/or maximum quantity

You can set a minimum and/or maximum quantity of any product by going to Edit Product > Other Details and entering the details in the 'Minimum Purchase Quantity' and 'Maximum Purchase Quantity' fields.

Creating a forum in your store

To create a user forum within your store, goto to nabble.com and sign up for a free forum. Within your Nabble account, go to Options > Embedding Options and copy the javascript code that is produced. Then within your BigCommerce account, go to Website Content > Create a Web Page, click on the 'HTML' button, and paste the javascript code you copied.

Changing the Sort By dropdown

The contents of the 'Sort By' dropdown can be changed by editing the snippet CategorySortBox.html. This can be done via Design > Template Files and choosing this under 'Snippets'.

Changing the Thank You message when customers finish their order

You can change the default 'Thanks for your order!' message that comes up after a customer has paid for a purchase. To do this edit the order.html page and change the following line to whatever you wish:

%%LNG_ThanksForYourOrder%%

Removing the Powered By BigCommerce link

If you want to remove 'Powered by BigCommerce' at the bottom of your store, simply edit the Panel Footer.html and comment out (or remove) the line

%%GLOBAL_PoweredBy%%

Changing your store's background color

To change your store's background color, go to your template css file (this will be called something like gray.css or blue.cc) and change the background-color in the following line to the color you want:

body {
   background-color: #fff;
}

Changing the customer invoice email

Customers are emailed an invoice when a purchase is made. This email can be changed by editing invoice_email.html. This can be done by going to Design > Email and clicking on 'Edit'.

Having a splash creen on your store's home page

To create a splash screen with a large image on your store's home page, edit default.html and immediately under the following code add your image:

%%Discount.FreeShippingEligibility%%
%%Banner.TopBanner%%

For example:

%%Discount.FreeShippingEligibility%%
%%Banner.TopBanner%%
<img style="float:right; margin-top:10px" src="%%GLOBAL_IMG_PATH%%/%%GLOBAL_SiteColor%%/front_page_image.jpg" width="793" height="500" alt="Online Store"></a>

Also you will need to comment out the following code:

%%Panel.SideCartContents%%
%%Panel.SideTopSellers%%
%%Panel.SideNewProducts%%
%%Panel.SidePopularProducts%%

Editing the global BigCommerce variables

The global BigCommerce variables %%xxxxxxxxxxxx%% cannot be edited - they are server side includes which you do not have access to (this is a big limitation, so get used to it). However, you can replace them with text of your own.

Changing the font or color of any of the text in your store

By FAR the easiest way to do this is by using the FireFox browser. Once you are displaying the page you want in the browser, right click on the background and select the 'Inspect Element' menu item. This will open up the element inspector at the bottom of your screen. Click once on the magnifying glass icon (near the very bottom left of the browser) - this will change the color of the icon from gray to blue. Then immediately click on whatever element you want to change. The bottom righthand side will display the css file (line number and tag) that you need to change.

Adding a special link on the left column

To add a special link on the left column, edit the SideCategoryList.html panel, and change the following section:

%%SNIPPET_SideCategoryList%%

to something like:

%%SNIPPET_SideCategoryList%%
<a href="http://wwww.yourspecialink.com">Your Special Link</a>

Hiding the search bar from your store

To hide the search bar, edit styles.css and change the following code:

#SearchForm {     float: right;
    margin: 15px 10px 0 0;
    padding: 10px 0 0 0;
    display: inline;
}

to

#SearchForm {     visibility: hidden;
    float: right;
    margin: 15px 10px 0 0;
    padding: 10px 0 0 0;
    display: inline;
}

Displaying credit card logo in your payment page

You can display a credit card logo in the bottom of your credit card payment page by first uploading an image of the creditcard logo to your store's website, then b y changing the code in the snippet file ExpressCheckoutConfirmation.html from:

<div class="PL20" id="provider_list" style="display:%%GLOBAL_HidePaymentProviderList%%">
   %%GLOBAL_PaymentProviders%%
</div>

to something like:

<div class="PL20" id="provider_list" style="display:%%GLOBAL_HidePaymentProviderList%%">
   %%GLOBAL_PaymentProviders%%
   <br />
   <img src="%%GLOBAL_IMG_PATH%%/%%GLOBAL_SiteColor%%/creditcards_image.gif"/>
</div>

Redirecting a deleted or old link

Redirecting an out of date link in your store to a new page is easy. Select Tools > 301 Redirects. Click 'Add Redirect...'. In the 'Old URL' field enter the old link (fr example /pages/old.html). For 'Redirect Type' select 'Manual Link'. Then enter your new URL (for example /pages/new/html). Any time a user tries to go to your old link, they will be automatically redirected to the new page.

Adding Google Analytics to your store

Google Analytics is a must! It provides, free of charge, huge amount of statistics such as how many hits and visits your site has had on any particular day, from which countries, etc. To add Google Analytics to your store go to http://www.google.com/analytics and register for a free account, and enter your store's details (including URL). At the end of registration, you will see a section on Google Analytics with 'Paste this code into your site'. Copy the code, then go into your BigCommerce store and select Settings > Analytics Settings. Choose 'Google Analytics', press Save, and paste that copied code segment into the Google Analytics tab. This will automatically put analytics code into every page in your store.

Displaying your products by brand as well as by type

A common feature is to have on the left of the store two category trees: one by category type (dresses, shirts, shoes) and the other by brand. To add the brand tree, firstlyt create brand names by going to Products > View Brands. Then assign brands to each product by going to Edit a Product > Other Fields and assigning the Brand Name. As soon as any products are assigned a brand, you will see an additional panel on the left called 'Shop By Brand'.

Guest Checkout

It is very important to provide customers a capability to purchase without creating an account, due to time or privacy reasons. This is called Guest Checkout and is enabled by going to Settings > Checkout Settings and selecting 'Yes, enable guest checkout'.

Going directly to shopping cart after purchase

The default behavior within BigCommerce is that after a purchase is made, a dialog box is opened asking the user 'What next?'. This is actually quite ugly, and can be improved by taking the users directly to their shopping cart. To do this, go to Settings > Store Settings > Display and in 'Add to Cart Action' select 'Take Them To Their Shopping Cart'.

Avoiding American Express and Diner's Club

Adding a credit card capability to your store is straight forward, however often you want to limit the choice by avoiding cards such as American Express and Diner's Club. This can be done via going to Design > Template Files and editing genericcreditcard.html. Then add the follow to the end of the file:

<script type="text/javascript">
$('#CCType_AMEX,#CCType_DINERS,').remove();
</script>

Store Credit

You can provide customers store credit rather than returning money. This is done by going to Customers > View Customers, finding your customer, and entering in an amount in the 'Store Credit' field. A customer that has sdtore credit then selects 'Pay using my store credit' on the checkout page.

Adding Telephone field to account signup

To add a new field when a customer signs up (such as Telephone) go to Tools > Form Fields > Account Signup Fields and select 'Create a New Field...'.

Different prices for different options

To have different prices for different product options, set up an Option Set for the options. Then go to Products > Product Options and select 'Manage Rules' for the Option Set you want. and click 'Create a Rule...'. On the popup that shows, tick the option you want the price change for, tick 'Adjust its Price' - and that's it!