Now here’s a question I get all the time, “Is there a way to print my order invoices directly from 1ShoppingCart?”

Well the answer used to be ‘no,’ and because I was asked this enough times I actually created a product, the ‘1ShoppingCart Rapid Printing’ for Invoices and Packing Slips. This product has helped many fill the void that 1ShoppingCart couldn’t fill themselves… until now.

Well, we spoke and the 1ShoppingCart executives listened.

There is now an easy way to Print Invoices and Packing Slips – right from the 1ShoppingCart main order page.

Have you seen this? It’s simple and handy to use.

Under the main ‘Order’ page there is a button called ‘Print Invoices’ or the button ‘Print Packing Slips’. All you need to do is select the orders you want to print and then click on one of these two buttons. Simple!

This was rolled out by 1ShoppingCart last week, and I wanted to pass this information along in case you weren’t aware of this yet.

Sadly, because of this, I will be taking the 1ShoppingCart Rapid Printing Software off the shelves.

But don’t worry, I’m working on a new product for you to take its place. Since I get questions all the time, I know the common pain points that you all have. And recently I’ve heard a lot about videos, so I’ve got something special up my sleeve showing you how to quickly and easily add videos to ANY page hosted on 1ShoppingCart, including upsells.

Stay tuned.

And as always, if you’re interested in anything else, just put it in the comments below.

I created this blog at 1ShoppingCart™ Experts to teach you guys how to use what I think is a great piece of software to help simplify the order fulfillment process and reach customers.

You may have seen recent posts about when refunds are posted to your account, or how to make sure you’re not losing money on international orders. I’ve even written about how to help customers who want to change how often receive a recurring delivery to simplify the process.

As I thought about it, I realized that most of the tips and tricks I’ve come across with 1ShoppingCart™ with my clients relate to specific problems.

It seems to me that you guys should be asking the questions that you want to see answered here on this blog. I want to help you make your website as profitable as possible, but that only comes with knowing your specific concerns.

So, fire away and let me know what aspects of setting up an account or keeping it running are giving you a headache. Consider me aspirin that comes in several forms:

1. If it’s a quick question, you might see me pop into the comments to address it as soon as I get to reading it. You don’t have to worry about long waits.
2. For more involved processes, you may see the the answer as an upcoming blog post. We’ll be sure to let the asker know and credit them in the post!
3. If you need a full-scale consultation to make sure that your business can go from scratch to fully up-and-running, you want to contact me through this site so I can assess your needs.

Three choices and whichever you choose, you’ll get rapid responses about your 1ShoppingCart™ needs from a leader in the field.

Let’s get started: What do you want me to write about and answer just for you?

The other day a client asked a question that I have received a few times in the past. And you know what happens when I receive a question multiple times… It means it’s something that a lot of you have questions about, so up it goes on the blog.

The question was… When a refund is processed in 1ShoppingCart™, when does it show up in the 1ShoppingCart™ reports?

The answer is quite simple, but may surprise you.

Refunds are shown in the 1shoppingcart™ reports in the month the original order was purchased. So if product was purchased in January, and refunded in January, it would show up in the report for January.

Makes perfect sense.

But what if they purchased in January, but were refunded in February? The refund will be reflected in the January report, not February.

You should be aware of this because it means sales reports for previous months can change. A lot of people mistakenly assume if you process a refund today it will affect the current months sales report, but this isn’t true if the initial order was placed in a previous month!

Hope that clears up any 1ShoppingCart™ Refund questions!

One of the biggest flaws 1ShoppingCart™’s recurring billing system has is the ability to change the duration (how often someone is billed) once a new recurring order is placed.

Sure you could push out the date, but what happens when someone wants to change the service, or a better example, goes from billing every 30 days to every 60 days?

For example:

One of our clients sells vitamins. Every 30 days a client is billed and shipped a new bottle and each bottle contains 60 pills because you take 2 a day.

Lets say a client named Bob orders a bottle of vitamins every 30 days. Bob forgets to take a few pills every month so he starts to build a surplus.
After a while he calls up and asks if we can pushout his next order. That’s easy, we just push out their next bill date in his recurring options.

(In 1ShoppingCart™ it’s the “Date Next” field, which is the next processing due date)

But what if Bob wants a bottle shipped every other month because he only takes one pill a day? (Bob isn’t very good at following directions)

This gets a little tricky and most of the time our client would re-enter all of Bob’s information and create a whole new order.

This is such a pain and waste of time. I mean, to do this you have to write down a lot of information: billing name, address, shipping information, product information, credit card information, etc. and then enter it all back in.

We thought there had to be a better way. And there is…

Here’s all you need to do to change Bob’s order in the system.

1. Login to your 1ShoppingCart™ account
2. Scroll over ‘Orders’ in the main menu and click ‘Recurring Orders’
3. Search the recurring orders and find the clients account
4. Click the link under the “Charge Status” column (This will bring up their previous completed order)
5. Click “Create Recurring Event” that is located in the top links
6. Edit the information accordingly and be sure to check the “Select” box at the end of the row.
7. Click ‘Create Recurring Order’ to save the information

OPTIONAL

Now you will have 2 recurring events for that client so if you only want one recurring event be sure to go back and delete out the original.

That’s it… Easy wasn’t it?

I got a call the other day from one of my clients, and before they had even said a word I could tell something wasn’t right. My suspicions were confirmed when the first words out of their mouth were “We have a problem!”

And when this is one of your highest paying clients you listen. Here was the situation.

This client has downloadable products and A LOT OF THEM. Someone had ordered almost every single one of their products and the total came to nearly $846.

The customer paid via PayPal and used an E-check. Guess what my client had setup inside his shopping cart? They had the “Instantly Accept PayPal E-Check Orders” checked which means the customer immediately receives all the product downloads, before the transaction has processed.

3 days later a friendly email from PayPal arrives saying the E-Check was declined and now the client is out $846.  At least until they can track this person down and try and recoup their money, which may or may not be successful…

So how do you avoid being in this same situation? The answer is simple, set up your shopping cart to avoid this situation in the first place. (No more than 5 minutes after getting the email from PayPal my client had taken these same steps)

Here’s how you do that:

1. Login to your shopping cart account
2. Scroll over “Setup” and click “Gateway Setup”
3. Make sure “Instantly Accept PayPal E-Check Orders:” is UNCHECKED
4. Click “Save Changes”

The good news is that 1ShoppingCart™ handles using PayPal E-Checks for an order seamlessly, and will automatically change the order status from “pending” to “accepted” once the E-Check clears.

E-Checks can take up to 7 days to clear, so it’s important to let the customer know this after they order. This will cut down on customer service requests asking where their order is. I accomplish this by adding the following to my Thank-You page and email confirmation:

“**If your order was paid via PayPal and you used E-Check as your payment method you order will NOT be completed until the E-Check has cleared. E-Check transactions can take up to 7 days depending on your bank.”

Hope this helps!

P.S. If you don’t have Paypal enabled as a payment option I highly recommend testing it. For one of my clients it increased overall sales by 18%. Some people consider Paypal “Play Money” and spend it more easily.

Some companies don’t make it easy for you to update your credit card information.

As a customer, if I have to purchase a product, make a phone call, or click through multiple Web page links to enter my new credit info, I say, forget it, it’s not worth the hassle.

And I’m certainly not sending my sensitive information in an e-mail!

On the flip side, as a business owner, while I may lose sales because of outdated credit info, I lose money paying customer support specialists to take down credit card numbers. And if my method of updating credit info is not secure, I lose the most precious thing of all:

Credibility with my customers.

Is there a solution?

I’m happy to report that there is. If you need a customer to update his or her credit card information, all you need to do is set up a FREE product in your shopping cart and redirect them to that shopping cart address.

That’s right, it’s a win-win situation: You update your customers’ credit card information, while they receive a newsletter, e-mail seminar, or other product absolutely free!

Your customers now have an incentive to update their information–with the added comfort of knowing their input is secure–while you maintain up-to-date records without the hassles of hiring extra customer service reps.

It’s that easy.