We are pleased to announce that v1.4.3 of Open Mind Commerce is now available to purchase!

This is a minor release and is likely to be last of the releases for the current v1.x series as all development efforts are now being poured into v2.x as previously notified.  There are a couple of new features in this release as well as bug fixes but as always, the latest change log may be found here (login required):

http://bugs.openmindcommerce.co.uk/index.php?cmd=changelog&project_id=1&version_id=11

Google Analytics
This release includes a new smart tag that can be used to easily track site visitors though services such as Google Analytics. To activate the service you simply add the appropriate tracking code into your admin area and this is then automatically inserted for you into your store pages meaning no more messing around with code!

We have also added support for Googlebase (http://www.google.com/base/) in this release.  No extra configuration for the store is required, just setup a new product feed and point it at http://www.yourstore.com/googlebase.cfm where yourstore.com is your store URL.  This will then take all your existing products and add them into Google base for extra SEO benefits and sales!

Would you like £60???
Well we could like to give you up to £60 just for referring people to us through our new affiliate scheme!  More information and how to signup can be found on our blog here:

http://blog.openmindcommerce.co.uk/ecommerce-software-announcements/we-would-like-to-give-you-60/

Finally we are very pleased to announce a new partnership with e-terms.co.uk and be able to offer you professionally written privacy policies and terms of use for your site at a very reasonable price.  For more information and to place you order, just click the link below:

http://www.e-terms.co.uk/#a_aid=ecommercesoftware

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

Yep that’s right, we would like to give you up to £60 for every sale you refer to us though the Open Mind Commerce affiliate scheme. Sound good to you? Then read on…

The Program
Dead simple this one, we will give you 10% of the excluding VAT value of all sales generated by you referring customers to our site. This could result in up to £60 in commission for customers who purchase a license from us along with our bespoke design service.

At the the very least you would earn £8.90 if they just bought a single license so your commission could quickly add up to quite a bit!

Because we’re lovely people we’ll not only also give you £20 as a thank you for signing up but if you refer a new affiliate to us through your link, you will get 20% of their earnings as well!

The program is completely free of charge to join and you can start adding a range of banners and text links to your site straight away…

So to summarise:

1. You earn 10% for every completed sale
2. We give you £20 just for signing up
3. We also give you 20% of all earnings that your referred affiliates generate

Signing up is very simple, click the link, fill out the form and you’re done…

The Nitty Gritty
Just a couple of points to make things clear…

1. Commissions are based on the ex. VAT value of the sale
2. Payments are made on the 1st of the month via PayPal or cheque as long as you have at least £100 “in the bank”
3. You earn commission on referrals up to 90 days after they click the link even if the customer visits via another affiliate
4. You may not refer yourself for purchases, sorry!

So you’ve read about the program now do something about it. Join today, earn yourself £20 for five minutes work and start driving money out of our pocket and into yours!

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
===============
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

Open Mind Commerce, an established eCommerce solution provider based in the UK, today announced an aggressive new pricing strategy aimed at the SME marketplace for its popular eCommerce Software package.
The company has taken the decision to drastically reduce the cost of its full eCommerce software license to £89 per store, a reduction of £210 from its previous price point. It has also reduced the cost of ownership for its monthly licenses to £20 per month.

Commenting on the reduction, Managing Director Phil Williams said:

“After a careful analysis of our competitors and the eCommerce software marketplace, we felt the time was right to heavily reduce the cost of ownership for our eCommerce software. This reduction will not only allow SME businesses to quickly start trading online but will also help increase our established market share”

The company have coincided this announcement with the release today of v1.4.2 of their software and are also inviting applications for beta testers for v2.0 due for release this year.

About Open Mind Commerce
Open Mind Commerce is a trading division of Open Minded Solutions Limited. We are a full service ISP established since 2004 and we are based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Open Mind Commerce is our flagship product and allows SMEs to quickly and easily trade online.

Web: http://www.openmindcommerce.co.uk
Tel: 08456 445 789

Strange title I know but it’s describes the job!

We are going to be launching a new service to complement our eCommerce software platform and that is offering a service to store owners who do not want to upload their products and write product descriptions etc.

The service would cover the creation of new products and departments into our software on behalf of the store owner including the upload of images and the writing of product descriptions/specifications. On occasion there would also be the need to source the images for the products.

The store owner would be required as a minimum to supply an Excel spreadsheet of product names, brief descriptions and prices for their stock.

Full training would be given in using the software but to be honest it is very simple to use and I would estimate that to upload a product would take approximately 2-5 minutes per product dependent on complexity of the item.

Please supply a written quotation to omcadmin <at> openmindcommerce.co.uk covering the following:

Upload of up to 50 products
Upload of 50-100 products
Upload of 101+ products

Please also include a second cost for each of the three levels to cover the scenario of having to locate suitable royalty free images for the products.

Once a short-list has been drawn up, a test will be carried out where you will be asked to create a dummy store of ten products to ascertain the quality of your work.

We would also anticipate that over the next twelve months this service would be required on approximately 5-10 stores per month.

If you have any questions then please post them below but please do not post quotes in this blog, email them directly to me at the address above.

Phil Williams

Director – Open Mind Commerce

One often overlooked area of your eCommerce store is the use of images. Shoppers will visit your store expecting to see high quality images of your products supplemented by good quality descriptions in order to make a buying decision. Here’s some top tips for making sure your products have the impact they deserve…

1. Image Quality – Low resolution or fuzzy images do nothing for you so make sure you start off by obtaining high resolution images of your products before optimising and cropping them.
2. Optimisation – Now you have your high quality product shots, use a commercial application such as Photoshop or an open source alternative like GIMP to optimise the images. Slow loading pages caused by un-optimised images are a big turn off for shoppers
3. Galleries – Most eCommerce software solutions offer some kind of gallery option, Open Mind Commerce allows unlimited numbers of images in the gallery system and even allows you to auto-create thumbnail images expanding to a full size picture
4. SEO – An often overlooked area is the search engine optimisation of images.  Make sure your eCommerce software gives you complete control over the alt tag for the images as well as the actual image name.

So there you are, it may only be only be a part of your eCommerce store strategy but shoppers appreciate high quality images just as much as low prices!

What do you use for image optimisation for your eCommerce software? Add your comments and let us know…

eCommerce fraud is on the up, it’s a fact.  As more and more retailers turn to the web to complement traditional bricks and mortar stores, online fraud is becoming a real issue but luckily there are ways to fight back.

For some time now, Mastercard and Visa have had the 3D secure validation system in place to carry out a password challenge for shoppers paying online.  This system has i5t’s critics as many argue that it leads to more dropped baskets when shoppers cannot remember their password or become unsure of what is happening.

Our eComerce software handles these issues by ensuring that the 3D validation is carried out inline with the site meaning the shopper is not forced off site to complete this step.  So many eCommerce stores carry out the validation off site yet take the card payment onsite begging the question why?  A simple change to the process decreases the chance of the customer leaving the store before completing payment.

It is also a fact that 3D secure will protect the merchants from unnecessary charge backs.

Another method that we will be launching in v1.4.1 of our eCommerce software is a partnership with MaxMind who are the leaders in online fraud detection.  The way it works is before the customer even enters their credit card details, MaxMind will carry out a series of tests on the order details to determine the likelihood of the order being fraudulent.

The store owner can then set thresholds on the order, either declining it straight away if there is a high chance of fraud or placing the order on hold for manual verification after payment is made.

The store owner receives a wealth of information about the order to pre-empt attempts to place fraudulent orders thus saving time and money.  What’s more, as a result of our partnership with MaxMind we are able to not only offer the basic minFraud service free of charge but also offer a 20% discount on upgrades to the standard and premium services.

Online fraud is not going to go away, it will increase in it’s attempts and sophistication so retailers need tools such as these to combat this tide.

Have you experienced fraudulent orders ion the past from your cart? What extra checks do you do to make sure the order is genuine?  Tell us below by adding a comment…

I though it was about time to update the Open Mind Commerce latest news and move it to a full featured platform.  I decided on using WordPress simply as:

1. I knew the software well
2. It had all the features I needed SEO wise
3. I don’t have time to write my own blogging tool

The main challenge I faced was not implement WordPress as we all know it’s a five minute installation; I had to re-skin the layout to match exactly the layout for the Open Mind Commerce site.  This is where the fun truly started…

Now by trade I am a ColdFusion developer so although PHP is not a foreign language to me, skinning WordPress from the default template was proving a little complex.  I then found an excellent skin called Naked (of all things) that contained the very bare minimum styling and allowed me to edit the templates/CSS a lot easier than the default skin.

I can heartily recommend this method for anyone wanting to re-skin WordPress, I reckon it saved me a good few hours of work (and swearing) and the end result is what you see so all is good…

I’ll mainly be using the blog to announce latest releases to the eCommerce Software we develop but I’ll also be adding interesting eCommerce industry news as I come across it.

So thanks for visiting and while you’re here, why not subscribe to the feed so you can get the latest updates?

Recently news surfaced that one of our main competitors, EKM powershop, have had to dramatically change the way their software works as it was revealed during a PCI audit that some store owners had been storing sensitive credit card information within their store database and then not removing the data after it had been processed via an offline terminal.

Now for quite some time Visa and Mastercard have been pushing the regulatory standards behind PCI compliance for the simple reason it is there to protect cardholder data from fraud and misuse.  In addition, it has been the case for a long while that storing the full card details including the CV2 code for longer than is necessary to complete the transaction was a practice to be avoided at all costs.

The net result of the EKM powershop audit was that their own proprietary gatway allowed store owners to obtain card details and then process the transaction offline through a terminal. They also advised customers to immediately delete card details after they had been processed.

Now there are two separate issues at play here…

Firstly the very fact that the software allowed card details to be stored in the first place is not a great practice to follow.  EKM powershop are not alone in this scenario as there are a number of eCommerce software packages out there which allow store owners to do this.  The crux of the matter is that the practice renders the software users in possible breach of PCI guidelines.

Secondly EKM powershop had to act swiftly to remove this gateway as it had transpired that certain customers were not removing card details after they had been processed.  This is in breach of the PCI guidelines and these merchants were leaving themselves open to fines and possible withdrawal of their merchant service.

Personally I feel that the store owners have been cut a raw deal here. The fact that the software allowed them to store card information in the first place simply should not have been available as an option.  Granted that the merchants were putting themselves in the firing line by not deleting the card details but software vendors such as EKM powershop and ourselves have a responsibility to their users that the software does the job required without raising possible security issues. There has obviously been a failure here…

For the record, our eCommerce software does not nor ever will store any kind of card information within its database or files.  This is simply to protect the cardholder and the store owner from this type of situation. With all this in mind I am willing to make the following offer to any EKM powershop store owner affected by this issue.,..

If you are considering changing to an alternative software provider I am willing to offer a 20% discount on our license fees and design services plus import as much data as possible from your current EKM powershop store.

If anyone wishes to take up this offer I will need clear tangible evidence that you are an EKM powershop store owner. For more information or to claim the discount voucher, please contact us through our support help desk

I don’t normally do this with competitors but on this occasion I personally feel the situation is quite shocking and a lot of people have been let down for a variety of reasons hence the offer of support…

Phil Williams
MD – Open Mind Commerce

Open Minded Solutions Limited are currently in negotiations with a leading UK merchant account & payment gateway provider to supply our eCommerce software to their merchants. At this stage it is anticipated that negotiations will be complete by late June.

Now a new partnership of this size does bring a new set of challenges to an existing, thriving business such as ourselves and a primary area of those challenges is exceeding customer expectations through an unrivalled level of customer support to new and existing clients.

We are therefore seeking tentative applications for a new position that will be based in our Edinburgh office.

The Position
The ideal candidate for this new and exciting position will be an individual who is passionate about providing an extreme level of support to clients in a manner that would exceed expectations. From a technical perspective they will also have:

• A strong working knowledge of Windows and Linux web hosting platforms
• Experience with troubleshooting and resolving network related issues, DNS, FTP, IIS and Apache platforms
• Experience of the technicalities of domain name registration and transfers, SSL certificate provisioning and PCI compliance testing.
• A background of providing superb customer service in an environment containing a mixture of businesses from small SMEs through to multi-million pound corporate clients
• A working knowledge of various server side scripting languages such as ColdFusion MX, PHP, ASP and .NET
• Although a wide programming knowledge is beneficial, the ideal candidate will have a strong background in developing and maintaining ColdFusion MX applications
• Be based in Edinburgh or the surrounding area as they will be required to work from our offices based in Edinburgh South.

The Benefits
Aside from working with an established and rapidly growing company, the chosen candidate can expect:

• An excellent starting salary based on background and experience
• Performance related bonus scheme (after qualifying period)
• Profit sharing scheme (after qualifying period)
• Sick pay and holiday entitlement
• A very friendly and exciting working environment
• Joining the company at ground level but with unlimited opportunity to grow all the way through to director level

At this stage the position is tentative but should negotiations be successful it is anticipated the position will be available from late July 2009.

So does this sound like you? If so please forward a detailed CV of your background and experience to Phil Williams at contact <at> openmindedsolutions.co.uk and we will contact you in due course.