Shop.com Shopping Cart Functions

Use the Shopping Cart Functions tab to upload product data to Shop.com. First, you must set the appropriate system parameters and prepare the data for exporting to Shop.com. Follow the directions below to complete the preliminary set up process. (These steps only have to be performed once.) Then, follow the directions at the end to actually upload the product data to Shop.com.

Set System Parameters

Go to the Main Menu>Maintenance Menu>Maintenance tab>Set System Parameters button or Quick Clicks>System Parameters.
The Set System Parameters dialog box opens:

Set the following parameters in the Altura group, selecting Save after setting each one.

AlturaCategorySource - Select "Category Field" to pull a simple 1-level category, or "Levels" to use Stone Edge's 3-level system of Categories, Subcategories and Groups. Click here for more information
AlturaCharsAllowedInFileNames - When the program builds file names from SKUs, item names, etc. it normally only allows letters, numbers, underscores and dashes (and slashes if Allow Slashes is equal to True). To allow other characters (e.g. "!" or "." ) in file names, enter those characters here.
AlturaCheckQOH - If True, only items that have a Quantity on Hand (QOH) greater than zero, or that are marked Ignore Inventory, are sent to Shop.com for listing on their network.
AlturaDescriptionField - Enter the field in the Inventory table that contains the product descriptions you wish to send to Shop.com. Note that the standard Description field is limited to 255 characters. Among the list of choices, Header, Footer and Notes are "memo" fields that can hold virtually unlimited amounts of text.
AlturaFTPPassword - Password assigned to you by Shop.com.
AlturaFTPUserName - User Name assigned to you by Shop.com.
AlturaImageField - Enter the field that contains the paths to the product images you wish to send to Shop.com. The program combines the AlturaImagePath, the AlturaImageField, and the AlturaImageType, removes any invalid characters and sends the result to Shop.com. Also affected by AlturaLowerCaseURLs, AlturaReplaceSpacesWith and AlturaCharsAllowedInFileNames.
AlturaImagePath - Enter the path to the location of your product images in your Shop.comstore (e.g. www.MyStore.com/images/). Stone Edge adds the path to your image names before uploading them to Shop.com. Images that already include a full Web path are not affected.
AlturaImageType - Usually ".gif" or ".jpg". This extension or file type is added to any image names that do not already have an extension.
AlturaKeywordsField - Enter the standard or custom field in the Inventory table that contains the products' keywords. This information is sent to Shop.com to make keyword searches possible.
AlturaLowerCaseURLs - If True, paths for pages and images sent to Shop.com are converted to all lower case.
AlturaPriceLevel - Enter a number from 1 to 10 to indicate which price level you wish to use on Shop.com. Also see AlturaUseSalePrices.
AlturaReplaceSpacesWith - Select "_" or "-" to replace spaces and other invalid characters in automatically generated file names.
AlturaUseSalePrices - Set to True to send products' sale prices to Shop.com if they are on sale. Also see AlturaPriceLevel.

Prepare Product Data for Exporting to Shop.com

The following data is exported to Shop.com for each product:

Item Name
SKU
Description
Image path
Keywords
Price
Attributes/Options (colors, sizes, etc.)
Levels (categories, departments, etc.)

Item Name

Item names should be clear and descriptive. They should not include apostrophes ( ' ) or quotes ( " ) . Item names are the primary field for Altura's search engine. Without making your item names too long, it is recommended that you include one or two key words that will help shoppers find your products.

SKU

No special requirements.

Description

This is the second field used by Shop.com's search engine. Enter up to 255 characters. Describe each product clearly. Include brand names, model numbers, etc. that will help the search engine locate products.

Image Path

Each product must have an image. Shop.com creates thumbnail images of your graphics. Note: If an image is larger than the maximum size allowed (300 pixels wide X 400 pixels high), Shop.com makes a copy and then resizes the original to 300 pixels wide X 400 pixels high to use as the main product image. The minimum recommended image size 200 pixels wide X 200 pixels high.

Keywords

This is the third and last field used by Shop.com's search engine. Include brand names, manufacturers, model numbers, related search terms, etc. that are not already in the item name or description. You do not have to include any words that are already in the Item Name or Description, since they are searched before Shop.com scans the keywords. You may want to include common misspellings of words that customers may enter when searching for your products.

Price

Refer to the descriptions of the system parameters AlturaPriceLevel and AlturaUseSalePrices in the section above. Note: Shop.com requires that the products you offer through them are offered at the same prices you charge for Web sales originating elsewhere. See your Shop.com contract for details.

Attributes/Options

If you use product options (color, size, style, etc.), Stone Edge sends both the "parent SKU" and the "Sub SKUs" to Shop.com. Therefore, the following is required:

Enter ALL product information (description, image path, keywords, etc.) for each product, including parent SKUs and Sub SKUs, into Stone Edge .
Enter prompts for each of your product option lists. Note: If an option list has a prompt (e.g. "Select a color"), Stone Edge sends it to Shop.com. If an option list does not have a prompt, Stone Edger checks the first option in the list. If that option ends with ";n" (a semicolon followed by the letter n), the program strips the ";n" and uses the remaining text as the prompt and sends it to Shop.com. However, that option is NOT included in the option list itself. If the first option in the list does not end in ";n", the program sends the list name to Shop.com as the prompt. Because options in and of themselves can be confusing, we strongly recommend that you enter clear prompt text for each option list.

Levels

You can create a hierarchy of up to three levels to help organize your products. In Stone Edge, the levels are called Category, Subcategory and Group. (Shop.com refers to them as Department Level 1, 2 and 3.) Each product can be assigned to any number of levels. For example, one option is to assign products to one level by product category, another by brand or manufacturer, and then assign each product to at least one level in each set. Plan and implement levels carefully since they help your customers find you and your products. To work with levels, select Levels on the Inventory & Suppliers tab of the Maintenance Menu. For more information, see the online Knowledge Base article entitled Levels.

Export Product Data to Altura

Note: You must be connected to the Internet to perform this function.

Go to the Main Menu>Maintenance Menu>Cart Functions tab>Shopping Cart Functions button.
The Shopping Cart Functions dialog box opens:

Select your Shop.com shopping cart from the Select a Shopping Cart list box.
Click the Export Altura Product List button. Stone Edge creates an XML data file with your product information which it then automatically delivers to Shop.com using FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
Click Close to exit the Shopping Cart Functions dialog box.