A Sneak Peek At Cs-Cart 4.16 - Part 1: Help Section

General News and Announcements
1

Hi! I figured it's as good time as any to share some info on the upcoming big release of CS-Cart.

CS-Cart 4.16 will release before 2022 is over, and there is already some info on it. We've already implemented Stripe Checkout to support payment methods like Sofort, Klarna, Afterpay, etc., payments by installments, Apple Pay, Google Pay.

All of that supports multiparty payments too — that helps if you run a Multi-Vendor marketplace, want your customers to pay once, and then split the money automatically between all the vendors involved in the order.


It is safer to announce what's already been done. But I can also share with you what we are working on. One of the things is a new Help Section. It will offer easy access to all our relevant documentation, videos, and more. Here is what it may look like:

[attachment=15550:help-section-416.jpg]

That's not all what will come in CS-Cart 4.16. Right now we're designing a new dashboard and onboarding for vendors. We want to add a to-do list for vendors that you can customize, rearrange some analytics, and give you more control over the vendor panel menu. Once we have anything to show you, I'll post it in a separate topic.

P.S. If you have any comments on this format of sharing info, please do tell ;)

help-section-416.jpg

3 Likes
2

Since I remember backend always had more attention then frontend :D hope this will change in years to come..

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Since I remember backend always had more attention then frontend :D hope this will change in years to come..

You're right that we're now paying more attention to the backend (vendor panel and eventually admin panel). That's because the backend is largely the same across all CS-Cart stores and marketplaces (except for those who go very big). Meanwhile, the frontend (themes) is something that every store and marketplace tailors for themselves, so there has to be a much larger variety here.

That's why for the front end, we created "a way to properly create themes". The parent/child theme logic allows custom themes to borrow things from the standard themes, and makes third-party themes compatible with many third-party add-ons by default.

In short: we're focusing on backend because there aren't exactly themes for the backend :) The frontend is covered by [url=https://marketplace.cs-cart.com/themes.html]CS-Cart Marketplace and its selection of themes[/url].

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so why front end of cs-cart website has changed so many times why product it makes a living of not? Problem is that there is just a handsome of decent skins on marketplace compared to what other carts got to offer..

Really if I were a person to buy a cart ecommerce package and were not keen on reading text, just visual evaluation I'd say this software did not change at all in 5 to 10 years..

If I were this company CEO I'd say guys lets make demo.cs-cart.com ---> cs-cart.com
sell all code and present all text w our own gear, lets make it fresh and modern ;)

PS just a moment ago noticed https://www.cs-cart.comgot yet another new face.

You're right that we're now paying more attention to the backend (vendor panel and eventually admin panel). That's because the backend is largely the same across all CS-Cart stores and marketplaces (except for those who go very big). Meanwhile, the frontend (themes) is something that every store and marketplace tailors for themselves, so there has to be a much larger variety here.

That's why for the front end, we created "a way to properly create themes". The parent/child theme logic allows custom themes to borrow things from the standard themes, and makes third-party themes compatible with many third-party add-ons by default.

In short: we're focusing on backend because there aren't exactly themes for the backend :) The frontend is covered by CS-Cart Marketplace and its selection of themes.

5

so why front end of cs-cart website has changed so many times why product it makes a living of not?

Because a theme from cs-cart.com won't fit every CS-Cart store, and vice versa.

There is a difference between "a site with hundred or thousands of products" (that's what a typical CS-Cart site is) and "a site with info about the company and a few more expensive products" (that's what cs-cart.com is).

There is a huge difference between "making a look for one specific site with limited functionality and pages" (cs-cart.com) vs "making a look for many possible sites, that covers all the possible CS-Cart add-ons (third-party included)".

If I were this company CEO I'd say guys lets make demo.cs-cart.com ---> cs-cart.com
sell all code and present all text w our own gear, lets make it fresh and modern ;)


I remember that you asked that question before. I never answered it here at the forum, but I do have an answer now.

It does sounds good on paper. But in that case, it would be my job as a product manager to point out to the CEO that such an undertaking would be too big and risky. ;)

Then, of course, if the CEO still decided to go for it, it would be my job (and not only mine) to comb through all the possible feedback, run surveys and figure out what people want from "a good theme". After that, there'd surely be some lengthy development and testing, and no guarantee that our new theme would help the majority of CS-Cart users, who may already be using some other theme anyway.

PS just a moment ago noticed https://www.cs-cart.comgot yet another new face.

Yes. As I mentioned before, "a new theme for CS-Cart" is something we're always considering. We were considering it for 4.16.1 as well, but it got pushed back by other plans and projects, deemed more viable at the time.

Whereas modifying our site takes little effort in comparison, and doesn't delay the development of actual CS-Cart in any way.

Problem is that there is just a handsome of decent skins on marketplace


We're working on it. ;) Re-introducing CS-Cart Free was partly to give other CS-Cart developers bigger audiences and more incentive to provide even more add-ons and themes.

----

But we've gone a little off topic. I won't be able to explain in detail why we do X and don't do Y. All I can do is go through all the feedback, understand what's lacking, and prioritize it to the best of my ability.

6

Hi! I figured it's as good time as any to share some info on the upcoming big release of CS-Cart.

CS-Cart 4.16 will release before 2022 is over, and there is already some info on it. We've already implemented Stripe Checkout to support payment methods like Sofort, Klarna, Afterpay, etc., payments by installments, Apple Pay, Google Pay.

All of that supports multiparty payments too — that helps if you run a Multi-Vendor marketplace, want your customers to pay once, and then split the money automatically between all the vendors involved in the order.


It is safer to announce what's already been done. But I can also share with you what we are working on. One of the things is a new Help Section. It will offer easy access to all our relevant documentation, videos, and more. Here is what it may look like:

attachicon.gif help-section-416.jpg

That's not all what will come in CS-Cart 4.16. Right now we're designing a new dashboard and onboarding for vendors. We want to add a to-do list for vendors that you can customize, rearrange some analytics, and give you more control over the vendor panel menu. Once we have anything to show you, I'll post it in a separate topic.

P.S. If you have any comments on this format of sharing info, please do tell ;)

I would like, and not only me, I am sure of that, an option to remove on check out page the frustrating step "click to Update shipping rates " after the customer enters the City, State, or Country.
I think that this option is frustrating for the Customer and that is a step that can be 100% automated.
Again we, and others like us are losing customers because of this step.
And if some multi-vendor has 100-1000 shipping methods, we, your paying customers of Cs-cart 1 storefront we have at a maximum 2-3 shiping methods, and this is not fair for us...
Only cs-cart has this option now... there is no online store that has these extra steps for customers.
And without this unnecessary step, the checkout will be more fluent for the customer.
Give us the option to choose between manual and automatic calculation, I personally know dozens of stores that use only one delivery method
For example: we use a single shipping fee and a single delivery method for absolutely all orders.
Why do we need this totally unnecessary step?
2 Likes
7

I would like, and not only me, I am sure of that, an option to remove on check out page the frustrating step "click to Update shipping rates " after the customer enters the City, State, or Country.
I think that this option is frustrating for the Customer and that is a step that can be 100% automated.
Again we, and others like us are losing customers because of this step.
And if some multi-vendor has 100-1000 shipping methods, we, your paying customers of Cs-cart 1 storefront we have at a maximum 2-3 shiping methods, and this is not fair for us...
Only cs-cart has this option now... there is no online store that has these extra steps for customers.
And without this unnecessary step, the checkout will be more fluent for the customer.
Give us the option to choose between manual and automatic calculation, I personally know dozens of stores that use only one delivery method
For example: we use a single shipping fee and a single delivery method for absolutely all orders.
Why do we need this totally unnecessary step?

Thank you very much for the detailed feedback!

I have forwarded it to the developers, if such a request will be popular enough, the current behavior might get changed in the future.

1 Like
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I would also be in favor of being able to define the delivery areas per vendor and not generally for the entire marketplace with all vendors.

I have the challenge that one vendor only needs delivery areas within one country, but another vendor needs delivery areas on zip code level.

Currently, it is not possible to implement both scenarios independently. As soon as a vendor requires areas with postal codes, other vendors must also implement this delivery, otherwise delivery is no longer possible.

I had already opened a ticket for this, where this was also confirmed to me.

2 Likes
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This is something that we considered before. The main problems with “different rate areas for different vendors” are as follows:

  • It is a big technical change.
  • It will have a very negative effect on performance at checkout.

But there might be another way to solve the problem. If there were “parent” and “child” rate areas, than one vendor would be able to set different rates for country regions, while others would be able to set rates for the entire country.

The second approach may be included in the roadmap of 4.17.1 or another future version.

11

Ya, but most sellers on other platforms now use shipping services like Ship Station, Shippo, and ShippingEasy instead of rate areas. I really don’t see the majority of vendors really wanting to setup rate areas anymore. Vendors that join a marketplace often wish to use their shipping platform of choice. How about integrating Shipping platforms? CS-Cart still hasn’t worked closely with Ship Station to fix their plugin’s problems. CS-Cart’s Multi-vendor owners want to be able to have the features of Shopify in my opinion, or we can keep losing vendors to them.

How about a Shipping for Marketplaces approach?
Something similar to - Shipping solutions for marketplaces | shipcloud
– OR –
Seamless Shipping on Your E-commerce Platform
https://try.goshippo.com/shippo-for-platforms/

3 Likes
12

Very excited for this. One issue for me as marketplace owner was that for new vendors it may be a little overwhelming if they were not familiar with CS-Cart. Having a custom to-do list (like most modern sites now have) is a great way of getting the vendor to update the most important information and to give them a helping hand when they first login.

Great stuff!

1 Like
13

CS-Cart 4.16.1 - any update on when a stable version will be available to download?

1 Like
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We’re planning 4.16.1 for late January 2023.

In the coming weeks, we’ll also release a public beta of 4.16.1, which anyone will be able to try on a test installation. It is mainly intended for our partners and third-party developers, to give them time to adapt their add-ons. But it’ll also be available to anyone curious enough to spend time on fiddling with a temporary test instance of the store or marketplace.

We’d love to release 4.16.1 as soon as possible. But Christmas isn’t the best time to upgrade — our clients focus on sales in that period. The extra time also allows us to make the most of the upcoming features, like editable onboarding and menus in the vendor panel.

15

How will Stripe Checkout work for multi-vendor checkouts? Will there still be the availability to have in-store pickup? Will the shopper be able to select a shipping method for each vendor?

16

In one word: yes.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Customers add products from multiple sellers to cart (in Multi-Vendor).
  2. Customers go to the checkout and select shipping methods (still in Multi-Vendor).
  3. Customers select a payment method that uses Stripe Checkout (still in Multi-Vendor).
  4. The “Place order” button sends them to the Stripe page, where they complete the payment via the method they prefer.
17

What if we wish to use the stripe checkout page for the sale?

Would the above result in the user having to enter the details twice?

18

I don’t think so. Here’s how it would work:

  • On the CS-Cart side, your customer enters the data relevant to the shipping: contact info and address. This is necessary because shipping rates are still calculated through CS-Cart.

  • On the Stripe Checkout page, customer would enter the payment data (either credit card info, or something else, depending on their preferred payment option).

19

Hello! When will 4.16 be deployed?

20

Hello! I’m expecting end of January, with a few weeks as we make the upgrades available to everyone. Initially after release, upgrades are available in limited batches.

22

So multi vendor marketplaces won’t be able to use Stripes own checkout page for users to place orders?