You had to login to PayPal, go to the withdrawal section, enter the amount you wanted to take out, submit and confirm, spin round three times, sing a song, etc. all very time consuming.

Now when withdrawing my PayPal balance this morning I noticed an interesting link and description under the withdrawal section:

Settlement Withdrawal

Instantly transfer the money in your PayPal account to your local banks accounts with Automatic Settlement Withdrawal. It supports different accounts, and two transfer speeds so you have the quickest and most convenient access to your money when and where you want it. Edit your preferences to activate or modify Automatic Settlement Withdrawal.

Could this be the missing piece of the jigsaw?!

Following the link to the service I found I could opt to automatically withdraw my PayPal balance each day to one of my nominated bank accounts. I just had to confirm which account I wanted to use and it was all setup.

Time will tell if this actually works but unless I’m missing something startlingly obvious, the days of manually logging in and withdrawing PayPal balances seem to be over…

There may be a few display issues to flatten out but if you spot any, just post a comment to let us know…

The report, called The Connected Kingdom: How the internet is transforming the UK and conducted by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), demonstrated that if the internet was a separate sector, it would be the UK’s fifth largest, accounting for 7.2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

According to the research, the UK exports £2.80 online for every £1 imported. This compares favourably with figures for offline markets, where the UK exports 90p for every £1 imported, according to the report.

The report places the UK sixth out of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries on its ‘e-Intensity Index’. This measurement of the depth and reach of the internet in commerce and society also shows that the UK performs relatively poorly in terms of infrastructure. Areas beyond London and the south-east have lower internet consumption.

The UK is shown in the report at the top of the expenditure sub-index in terms of online sales, and spending on online advertising.

Isn’t it about time you got in on the action with your own eCommerce Software platform?

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!

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!

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

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

Open Mind Commerce, an established eCommerce solution provider based in the UK, today announced that the product has been featured as “Cart of the Week” by Practical eCommerce. (http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1449-Cart-of-the-Week-Open-Mind-Commerce)

During an in-depth interview, MD Phil Williams gives an insight into the system as well as describes plans for the future of the software.

Phil Williams commented “Being featured on Practical eCommerce is big news for us as they are a highly respected organisation and it gave us a perfect platform to talk about our product as well as spread the word about the system.”

In addition, the company also announced that v1.4.1 of it’s software is released today and advanced development is in place for v2.0, codenamed The Novus Project, which will feature a complete rewrite of the system making it one of the most flexible and powerful commercial eCommerce platforms on the market.

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

About Practical eCommerce
Practical eCommerce was launched in July 2005 by Kerry and Joy Murdock in Grand Junction, Colorado, USA. Its mission from the start has been to provide down-to-earth articles and advice to help smaller businesses succeed online.

Web: http://www.practicalecommerce.com

This release fixes a number of known bugs as well as introducing brand new features.  Upload and new installation instructions may be found here:

http://www.openmindcommerce.co.uk/ecommerce-software/documentation.cfm

Release Notes
——————

MaxMind MinFraud Service
This release includes a new anti-fraud service in partnership with www.maxmind.com.  The service is completely free (for the basic service) and we are also able to offer a 20% discount for upgrades to the premium service.  To activate the MaxMind service just login to your admin area after upgrading and select the MaxMind configuration option for your store configuration area.

Mass Updates
We have now added the ability to mass update both products and orders.  For products, you can now quickly show or hide products within departments or update stock levels en-masse.  For orders, you can update order statuses and also mass print invoices and packing slips.

Miscellaneous Features
We’ve also added the ability to login as a customer on your store, introduced custom maintenance mode and 404 error pages and print friendly versions of store and CMS sections plus a raft of minor changes to existing features.  The full change log may be found here:

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

End of Life Announcement
——————————–
This release marks the end of new feature development for the 1.x series and further releases for v1.x will be bug/security fixes only.  The reason for this is that v2.0 (The Novus Project) development is well underway and we need to ensure all available resources are available for its release next year.  We hope to have an early alpha/beta ready in Jan/Feb. 2010 at which point we will contact selected store owners for beta testing so watch this space or subscribe to our blog.

And finally, we have completely re-designed the Open Mind Commerce site to fully display all the features our software offers.  It also allows us to simplify order tracking and licensing issues. And one last note, we have been selected as cart of the week by Practical eCommerce (http://www.practicalecommerce.com/) and the interview will be added later today so please take a look and feel free to leave your comments!

That’s all for now and may we wish you and your families a very happy Christmas and prosperous New Year!

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