Category Archives: Ecommerce

PayPal Discontinuing Support for SSL v3.0

Due to the Poodle Vulnerability, PayPal has previously stated that they will discontinue support for SSLv3. PayPal’s original statement on the issue can be found here. A date has just been released for the discontinuation of support – December 3rd. If you use PayPal Payments Advanced, you must have the Poodle vulnerability patch before this date. Refer to our previous blog post regarding which versions of X-Cart are affected.

Contact us if you need support due to this issue.

Important Notice Regarding X-Cart Version and Poodle Vulnerability

X-Cart just released the patch for the Poodle vulnerability on 10/30/2014. We’ve reviewed the patch files and have assessed what likely will break if you do not apply the patch based upon each X-Cart version. Please see the list below to find your X-Cart version and what may break once the respective application removes SSLv3 support from their system. We are highly recommending applying this patch even if you do not use the listed functions/features below.

Important: Authorize.net users using X-Cart version 4.3.x through 4.4.x need to patch before November 4th 2014! Authorize.net and X-Cart have provided a very short time frame to get the patch in place! If you are looking for a quick, emergency fix instead of the patches, both our Authorize.net CIM Module or our Authorize.net DPM module will take care of any related issues.

4.2.x:
UPS Realtime Shipping

4.3.x:
UPS Realtime Shipping
Authorize.net AIM Payment Processor

4.4.x:
UPS Realtime Shipping
Authorize.net AIM Payment Processor

4.5.x:
UPS Realtime Shipping
Paypal Advanced

4.6.x:
UPS Realtime Shipping
Paypal Advanced

Anyone using X-Payments. However, X-Payments is *not* fixed by this patch. You will need to get the latest version of X-Payments to fix this issue.

How to Use Psychology to Improve Your Marketing

Everyone has heard the phrase “remember who your audience is” regarding the presentation of information. If we take this a step further, and say “understand how your audience processes information”, psychology now becomes an obvious resource to help convey your message effectively. While some of the tips presented in this article might at first seem counter-intuitive (“reduce choices” for example), if applied appropriately, they will make whatever information or marketing you are presenting more engaging.

Ten Tips on Business Writing

People often try to spice up writing for business purposes. However, some of these writing methods can end up being detrimental to the overall quality of the message. The following article has a few easy tips to help strengthen your prose. While an item or two in their list of tips can occasionally be ignored, it is important to make sure that you are not committing these transgressions on a consistent basis.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238175

Tips on Making E-mail Marketing Work for Your Business

Most people seem to focus on social media marketing these days. However, people often forget the efficacy of e-mail marketing in reaching out to their customers. E-mail marketing provides a direct link to provide information to customers who typically choose to sign up to receive more information. So, from there it is just a matter of keeping their interest and making it worth their while to continue reading your direct communications. This article provides excellent tips on how to approach your e-mail marketing campaign.

Ten Steps on How to Approach Marketing More Effectively

People often make the error of assuming that copying the marketing strategies of a company that is a nationally-known brand is foolproof. “They are successful and this is what they do, so why would it not work for me?” Well, there are lots of reasons actually. In my past work experience, I have seen first-hand how being smarter about marketing and reducing marketing expenditures actually provide a much better bottom-line without hindering growth. The key is to be smart about what marketing approaches you pursue, and what is right for your business. The article below gives more information about tips that people often do not consider, including one I think is the most important – “…if it can’t be tracked and measured, don’t do it.” Read more here:

Magento Go Migration

http://praxisis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/magento-go.jpg

Need help migrating your shopping cart before Magento Go is Magento gone? Thinking you should wait until after the holiday season? Think again! Magento Go end of life has been set for February 1, 2015 but you don’t have to wait to get your cart onto a premiere platform.

BCS Engineering & Bigcommerce have teamed up to make sure you get the best service and options available for a smooth transition. Bigcommerce is the platform being recommended by Magento for their Magento Go customers. Your store, the way you want it, and hosted for you; what more could you want? Check out Bigcommerce to see which plan works for you.

Customer service is the key to success and the sooner you act, the sooner we can help you get your products moved over to a hosted platform equipped to handle that holiday demand! The holidays are already stressful enough; let us help you with your Magento Go migration today!

Building an Online Presence When Free Time Is an Issue

Sometimes in the world of small business, social media is one of the first things to fall through the cracks due to time constraints. Some people simply do not know where to start. This article provides several tips that can be used as “jumping-off points” for someone who is running into the above issues engaging with social media.

Speed Up Your E-Commerce Store

Any e-commerce site needs speed optimizations. A simple trick to speed up your e-commerce or X-Cart site is to turn on gzip compression. This is as simple as copying and pasting the following code into your .htaccess file:

# Compress HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Text, XML and fonts
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/vnd.ms-fontobject
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-opentype
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-otf
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-truetype
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-ttf
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/opentype
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/otf
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/ttf
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/svg+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/x-icon
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
# Remove browser bugs (only needed for really old browsers)
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip
BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
Header append Vary User-Agent
In addition, if you are using X-Cart, we have a module to help speed up your X-Cart site! Our Speed Booster module for X-Cart can greatly reduce speed times! Check out our FAQ on how it works as well as demos!