WordPress eStore | Tips and Tricks WP eCommerce

WP eStore Order Management AddOn

General Description

The Order Management Addon pluginÂ displays order information based on transaction id. This plugin will conveniently allow merchants to track and list all orders made via a useful order management console in the eStore menu.

Order Management AddOn Details

The eStore Order Management Addon plugin allows online merchants to better manage their orders which are made via the eStore plugin.

This plugin is particularly useful for people selling physical products via the eStore plugin.

The plugin will display order information in an easy and manageable console where the administrator can easily track orders based on transaction IDÂ and other criteria such as order status.

The administrator can also edit various fields of an order and set the status to appropriate defined values which reflect the different stages an order goes throughÂ from the initial purchase to dispatchment and completion.

The user is also able to archive any completed or old orders which will be removed from the main display table but can be viewed and edited via the Archived Orders tab.

Using the eStore Order Management Addon

Please see the following document for how to use the eStoreÂ Order Management Addon:

eStore Order Management Addon Usage

AddOn Price

The eStore Order Management Addon is free for all customers who purchased WP eStore plugin from us.

Download the Order Management Addon

You can download this addon from theÂ addon download areaÂ of our customer only support forum

Addon download area

General Note

Please note that some of these free eStore addons are developed by our users in the community. So they do not have any advanced customization option. The description above explains exactly what this addon does.

Google Analytics E-Commerce Tracking for WP eStore

WP eStore has built in stats feature that gives you overall sales data as well as itemized sales stats. This statistics is very useful but having the option to track sales through Google AnalyticsÂ is really good so we added this option to WP eStore plugin.

There is now an e-commerce tracking addon that makes this integration very easy.

How to Add Google Analytics E-Commerce Tracking on eStore

Refer to the addon’s page.

Stylish Product Display Options for WP eStore

This page has a list of all the different pre-configured product display templates and styles that you can use to display your products when using the WP eStore plugin.

Note: You are not restricted to using one of these product displays if they don’t suit your needs. You can design your own product display in a WordPress post or page then use eStore’s simple “Buy” button (there are shortcodes to embed plain buttons on a post or page) to facilitate the purchase of the product (very helpful when designing an optimized sales/landing page).

Stylish Product Display 1 (Fancy 1)

Demo 1 and Demo 2

This is a test description. This description is here to show how the description of this product looks like. You can insert plain HTML in this field too. Some more text to fill the shopping cart product description.

Available Qty: 30

Price: $15.99

Stylish Product Display 2 (Fancy 2)

Test Product For Fancy Display

Some test description of the product to show how this description field looks like. You can insert plain HTML in this field too. Some more description of the product goes here. Damn! This product display looks good.

Stylish Product Display 3 (Fancy 3)

Stylish Product Display 4 (Fancy 4)

Fancy Display Test

Price: $29.95

Stylish Product Display 5 (Fancy 5)

Fancy Display Test

Price: $29.95

Stylish Product Display 6 (Fancy 6)

Price: $59.95

Test Product For Fancy Display

Stylish Product Display 7 (Fancy 7)

If you wanted to show a very simple and plain product display with name, price and the purchase button then this template will come in handy. This display can be useful for users selling mp3/music/audio files too. Below is an example of how this template looks like:

Stylish Product Display 8 (Fancy 8 )

Below is an example of how the fancy 8 product display template looks like. This display template is useful for audio/music/mp3 file sellers.

Stylish Product Display 9 (Fancy 9)

Fancy Display Test 2

Price: $37.00

Some test description of the product to show how this description field looks like. You can insert plain HTML in this field too.

If you don’t specify a description for a product then this display will become a very compact one with just name, price and a buy button.

Stylish Product Display 10 (Fancy 10)

Fancy Display Test 3

This is another test product to show how the fancy display looks like. This product has multiple images which are shown below the main thumbnail image. You can insert plain HTML in this description area too.

Price: $37.00

Price: $29.95

Fancy10 is a lot similar to the popular Fancy1 display except it has a section to show the additional images below the main thumbnail. The images will show in a lightbox when clicked. The default Add to Cart button has a nice elegant style too. You can still use a custom button image for the “Add to Cart” button just like any other displays.

Stylish Product Display 11 (Fancy 11)

Fancy Display Test Product Four

$49.95$39.95

Stylish Product Display 12 (Fancy 12)

This one is just like fancy 8 template but it uses our compact audio player plugin for the audio file preview. Below is an example of how this display template looks like:

Stylish Product Display 13 (Fancy 13)

Here is an example of how this display template looks like:

Stylish Product Display 14 (Fancy 14)

Here is an example of how this display template looks like:

Stylish Product Display 15 (Fancy 15)

Here is an example of this display template:

This is a very compact product display template that only has the product thumbnail image and the product name. This display template can be very helpful when you want to show a product on your sidebar or footer area (where you don’t have a lot of space). If you fill out the “Product details page” field of the product then the name will be linked to that page.

Here is an example of how it looks like when you stack a few products using this display template on your sidebar:

Stylish Product Display 16 (Fancy 16)

This template doesn’t use any product image thumbnail in the template. So this one should be good for users who don’t want to use an image for their product(s).

Below is an example of how this display template looks like:

Stylish Product Display 17 (Fancy 17)

This template uses just the thumbnail image, product name and the add to cart button. It it good for using in a grid display layout.

The following screenshot is an example of how this template looks like:

Stylish Product Display 18 (Fancy 18)

This template uses a vertical/portrait thumbnail size so it will be useful if you use a vertical image for your product.

The following screenshot is an example of how this template looks like:

How to Use the Stylish Product Display Templates

To display a product in any of the above styles you simply have to use a Shortcode (to display it on a post or page) or use a line of PHP code (to display it from your theme files e.g. footer.php). All the available shortcodes and PHP function references can be found here.

Selling Large Files with WP eStore

WP eStore does not impose any restriction on the downloadable file size. As long as your server can handle it eStore will be fine. We have users serving files as big as 8 Giga bytes (GB) in size using the eStore plugin.

With that said, WP eStore sits between the actual file and the browser creating a shield (this is how eStore keeps the true location of the file hidden). However this means that eStore has to read the file and serve it to the browser (meaning the file will be temporarily loaded in your server’s RAM). If you are selling large files and your hosting plan has a limited RAM available for you to use then this could create a file download issue (the file won’t be downloaded fully).

When hosting companies refer to *unlimited* disk space they refer to the hard disk space not the RAM memory size. So make sure to ask your hosting provider how much RAM memory is available to your PHP application. To better understand this… imagine a computer having 500GB hard disk but having only 32MB RAM (see the difference between them?).

There are a few possible workarounds that can be tried:

You could break the bigger file into multiple parts (e.g. each 50MB) and use the multi-part download option of eStore.
Try one of the other download methods explained here and see how you go (there are a few different ways to get around this depending on your server’s configuration but it may not work on all servers).
Use the Amazon S3 Integration option of eStore.
Edit the eStore product in question andÂ uncheck the “downloadable” checkbox for the product (look under the “Digital Content Details” section for this option). This will force eStore to let the browser handle the download.
If you server supports mod_xsendfile (its an Apache module to handle large file downloads) then we can configure eStore to work with “mod_xsendfile” so large files can be downloaded without any issues.
You can upgrade your hosting to a plan with enough RAM.

The bottom line is… Please make sure to check with your service provider about any upload/download restrictions or the available server RAM your hosting plan may have before you purchase the eStore plugin.

WP eStore – Checkout Demo

WP eStore Payment Gateways

There are 4 payment gateways available in the core plugin that you can use to accept payment from your customers when using the WP eStore plugin.

PayPal (Your customers can pay using a Credit Card or their PayPal account)
Authorize.net (Your customers can pay using a Credit Card or Bank account)
2Checkout (Your customers can pay using a Credit Card or PayPal)
Manual/OfflineÂ (Customers can pay using cash, cheque or bank transfer)

There are a lot of free and premium payment gateways for WP eStore that you can add via addon/extension plugins. Check theÂ supported payment gateways pageÂ for a full list of supported gateways.

You can make all of them available so your customers can decide which one they want to use to pay you or you can selectively make one or two of them available. I personally use only PayPal to process all my payments for my products (www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/checkout).

WP eStore Payment Gateway Settings

WP eStore PayPal Payment Gateway Settings

WP eStore Manual Payment Settings

WP eStore 2Checkout Payment Gateway Settings

WP eStore Authorize.net Payment Gateway Settings

If you want to use multiple payment gateways then select the “Use Multiple Payment Gateways” checkbox and then select which ones you want to use (eg. PayPal, Manual, 2Checkout).

If you want to use only one of them then leave the “Use Multiple Payment Gateways” checkbox unchecked and simply select the payment gateway you want to use.

Using 2Checkout Gateway in eStore

2Checkout Payment Gateway Setup

Using Authorize.net Gateway in eStore

In order to use the Authorize.net gateway in eStore you need to go to the Payment gateway settings and then the “Authorize.net Settings” section and fill in your merchant details.

If you want to use more than one gateway at the same time (example, PayPal and Authorize.net) then check the “Use Multiple Payment Gateways” field under the “General Payment Gateway” section of this payment gateway settings page.

Notes

Please note that PayPal is the most advanced payment gateway in the world. When you are using some of the other payment gateways (example: 2checkout, authorize.net), some eStore features may not be available simply because these gateways don’t offer those advanced controls and features.

How to Integrate WP eStore with AWeber

The WP eStore shopping cart plugin can be integrated with AWeber (Email marketing and Autoresponder service) so that your customers can get signed up to your AWeber list when they make a purchase.

The users are added to your AWeber list when any of the following event happens:

A customer purchases a product.
A visitor submits a squeeze form for a product.

Step 1: Make a Connection to the AWeber API

To connect eStore with the AWeber API, go to the eStore Settings -> Autoresponder Settings menu and authorize the “Tips and Tricks HQ” app (click on the following image to see a bigger screenshot):

After you hit the “Make Connection” button you should see the following message (meaning the connection was established successfully):

AWeber Authorization Success

Step 2: Specify Your AWeber List ID or Name as Appropriate

Now all you need to do is specify the AWeber list ID of the list where you want your customers to be signed up to.

Below is an example of how an AWeber list ID looks like (you get this from your AWeber account):

awlist1234567

You can signup all of your customers to one global list by checking the “Global AWeber Signup” option and then specifying the list IDÂ in the “Global AWeber List Name” field. Make sure to hit the “Update” button at the bottom of the Autoresponder settings page after you make the changes.

You can also signup your customers to a specific list on a per product basis by specifying the list ID value in the “List Name” field under the “Autoresponder settings” section of the product in question.

WP eStore Quick Setup and Usage Video Tutorial

You should watch all the following video tutorials to familiarize yourself with the basic functionality of the WP eStore plugin.

1. WP eStore Installation

2. WP eStore Quick Setup, Product Creation and Basic Testing

Miscellaneous Basic eStore Tutorials

A. WP eStore Settings Configuration

B. How to Configure a Product

C. Display a Product on a Post or Page

D. How to Use Product Display Templates

E. Using a Link To Sell Your Item

F. Creating a PayPal Buy Now Button Using eStore

G. Creating a PayPal Subscription Button Using eStore

H. Creating a PayPal Donation Button Using WP eStore

Hide a Page from The Navigation Menu

You can follow the navigation menu customization tutorial to learn how you can customize your navigation menu.

If you want to see more video tutorials then please leave your suggestion in the comment section below.

WordPress e-Commerce Knowledgebase

Express Checkout System

The WordPress Shopping Cart and WP eStoreÂ plugins use the express checkout model for a simple and quick checkout process.

Typical online checkouts require customers to work through numerous steps, which involve entering personal, financial and delivery information. The fact is, every step in this often-tedious and frustrating process presents a real risk that your customer will change their mind and abandon the shopping cart.

The express checkout model allows you to fast track your checkout process by tapping into personal, financial and delivery information which existing PayPal customers already have stored with PayPal. Customers can checkout quickly with WP eStore as it requires minimum number of clicks and form filling from your users to perform a checkout (this helps keeping the cart abandonment rate low).

What is (Instant Payment Notification) IPN?

Instant Payment Notification (IPN) is PayPal’s interface for handling real-time purchase confirmation and server-to-server communications. IPN delivers immediate notification and confirmation of PayPal payments you receive and provides status and additional data on pending, cancelled, or failed transactions.

paypal-ipn-diagram_438

How does the WP eStore Plugin Work?

Most e-Commerce plugins take over your blog by automatically creating all kinds of pages for products and checkout and doesn’t give the ultimate flexibility in how you display a product. I am not saying it doesn’t have it’s usage but what if you wanted to fully design how your product display looks like and where exactly the “Add to Cart” buttons and the “Shopping Cart” appear? What if you wanted to sell something from your blog posts and pages? What if you wanted a shopping cart that integrates nicely into your existing site without having to redesign?

The WP eStore doesn’t create anything for you automatically, instead it gives you the building blocks of an e-Commerce site so you can build it the way you want it to look and function.

After you Add/Configure a product, you can display it in various ways anywhere you like on your WordPress powered site (eg. in the post, page, header, footer, sidebar etc).

You use a special piece of text (shortcodes) in your post or page where you want the product to be displayed. You can tell it to give you a bare “Add to Cart”, “Buy Now” or “Subscription” button on a post or page so you can fully design the product display with images and description yourself.

You can also use a pre-configured product display template to display the product if you don’t like to design the product display. The eStore comes with a few product display templates (You can see some examples here).

Once you have the Buy buttons in place, you can display the shopping cart wherever you like on your site. Again this is done through the use of a special piece of text (shortcode). You can create a “Checkout” page and display the shopping cart there or you can place the shopping cart on the same page where the buttons are or on the sidebar (the choice is yours).

All the WP eStore shortcodes and function references (building blocks of your eCommerce site) can be found here.

WP eStore’s Typical Transaction Cycle

The following block diagram gives an overview of the typical actions involved in a complete transaction cycle. This example uses PayPal as the payment gateway. The same principal applies to any payment gateway checkout via eStore.

wp_estore_overview_diagram

You receive the money in your PayPal account and the buyer gets an encrypted dynamically generated download link for the product in an email.

The Post Payment Verification Process

There are a number of parameters that are verified before the digital product is delivered to the customer. This following diagram explains what happens in the background once a customer makes a payment for a product.Â This example uses PayPal as the payment gateway. The same principal applies to any payment gateway checkout via eStore.

Post Payment Verification Process

Buyers can pay using a Credit Card or their PayPal account

Buyers don’t have to have a paypal account to be able to pay you. They can pay by credit card too if you have a Premier or Business PayPal account (these are free). PayPal will give your customers the option to pay by credit card if they donâ€™t have a PayPal account. When your customers go to the checkout page on PayPal they will see a line similar to the following that they can click on and use the credit card to pay:

Customer Can Choose to Pay Using a Credit Card

PayPal normally figures out if you have a PayPal account or not from the cookies on your computer. Try deleting all the cookies and hit the checkout button to go to PayPal and it will present you with the option to pay by credit card upfront (similar to the screenshot below).

Customer Can Pay via a Credit Card

Note: If you want to use recurring/subscription payment option and would like to accept credit card for the recurring payment then PayPal may require you to add “Enhanced Billing” option to your PayPal merchant account.

How to Collect Special Instructions from the Customer

If you need to collect special instructions from the customer for some customized work on the item you are selling then you can use the “Collect Customer Input” feature of eStore or Â instruct your buyer to put it in the “Special instructions to merchant” box on PayPal during checkout. Please note that this option is shown on the “Review your payment” screen

Collecting Special Instruction from the Buyer

Review Payment Screen

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