We are pleased to announce that v1.4.2 of the Open Mind Commerce system is now available for immediate purchase!

This is a minor release and fixes a couple of known bugs as well as a few feature tweaks. The full change log can be viewed here:

http://bugs.openmindcommerce.co.uk/changelog_page.php

One of the features we would like to highlight is that now in addition to being able to quickly update stock levels, you can also mass update pricing for your primary products, variants and addons just as easily!

This is a fantastic time saver for when you need to quickly make pricing adjustments…

In addition, the PayPal Pro gateway has now been updated so that users can carry out full 3D authentication on payments which is now a requirement by PayPal…

License holders may login to their account area to download the latest file. If you don’t yet own a license then you should read on as we have some fantastic news to share!

Licenses reduced in price by over £200!

After a thorough analysis of our competitors and also in a move to drastically increase our market share, we have made the decision to reduce the pricing of our software as follows with immediate effect:

Full License – Was £299, reduced to £89
Monthly License – Was £35/month, reduced to £20/month

It should be noted that with such a large reduction in price, we have withdrawn the inclusive hosting with the full license. This is now available for purchase at just £60 pa bringing the first year cost to just £149 for a fully installed store.

This represents exceptional value for money for a commercial eCommerce system that already leads the way for UK based applications. Design charges and software renewals are unchanged. For more information and to make your purchase, just visit our site:

https://www.openmindcommerce.co.uk/buy-ecommerce-software/full-license.cfm

The Novus Project
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For those that follow our blog you will be aware that development of v2.0, the Novus Project, is well underway and we will shortly be releasing alpha versions of the new project. At this stage we will need a group of beta testers to thoroughly test the software and help us iron out any bugs to proceed with the development. The requirements for becoming a beta tester are:

1) You must hold a full or monthly license
2) You must be comfortable using HTML and CSS code
3) Happy to provide extensive feedback and testing
4) Willing to sign a NDA (Non-disclosure Agreement)

If you can meet the above requirements then we want to hear from you! Just fire over your details to omcadmin openmindcommerce.co.uk and we’ll be in touch.

That’s all for now and if you have any problems, questions or comments then please do not hesitate to get in touch!

Kind Regards,
Open Mind Commerce
http://www.openmindcommerce.co.uk
Tel: 08456 445 789

OK another sneak peek into the Novus Project…

A key decision when designing the next release of our eCommerce software was to increase the flexibility of design and layout for the stores.  The Novus Project will have the ability to support unlimited themes or designs but it goes way beyond just changing the colours…

It will be possible to apply a default theme for the store but then have a different scheme or layout for not just each indivdual department but also indivdual product pages. This will give huge flexibility in changing the design as users move through the store to suit the department they are looking at.

You will also be able to prepare new themes and test them without shoppers seeing the change through the built in theme editor so you can prepare for seasonal changes such as Christmas and Easter promotiuons.

This on top of being able to skin the admin area for our whitelabel ecommerce resellers, we believe this is one of the mostr flexible eCommerce solutions around that will suit everyone form small stores to larger retailers.

Currently our eCommerce software only supports a single skin or theme. One of the things we though would be really cool was allowing store owners to have multiple themes running through the store.

So on department may have a certain colour scheme and layout and another department may have it’s own unique design so we are introducing the idea of multi-themes into The Novus Project to satisfy this need.

The system will not only allow multiple themes per store section but also allow admins to create, edit and develop new themes in the background so they are ready without shoppers seeing the in-progress design. We will also be releasing an offline tool allowing web designers to develop skins and themes without installing the software offering a great time saver for rapid store deployment…

From Encyclo.co.uk:

Latin, meaning: new, fresh, young, inexperienced, revived, refreshed.

The Novus project is the name we have given to the future release of Open Mind Commerce 2.0.  This version is a complete rewrite of our software from the ground up taking all the elements in our ecommerce software and streamlining/improving them further.

We chose the word Novus since software companies like to have a “buzzword” to describe their future projects and we though the description fitted just right.  We’ll be teasing details out over the next few months about The Novus Project and as soon as we have our first release, our blog readers will be first to know…