An upgraded version of ProStores available today features a revamped interface and store-design module, says Eric Shoup, director of eBay's ProStores. Here are the highlights of version 8.0, according to Shoup's posting at www.ProStores.com:
Redesigned Store Design Hub
The Design Studio has been replaced with a customizable Store Design hub. Merchants no longer need to navigate out of Design Studio to review product or order information and then navigate through several Design Studio pages to modify store design elements.
Centralized Design Settings
Store design settings, tips, resources and tools are now accessible from one place. Merchants can access store settings, different store versions and manage page templates from one location.
Setting up basic design elements such as adding a store logo and selecting a store theme and page layouts is now accessible from a single page, with status messaging notifying merchants whether an element has been published.
Page text can also be personalized on a few of the most visible pages using a basic WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) editor.
Customizable View of Store Settings
Merchants can pick and choose what content to display on the Store Design Hub and customize the order of content for faster access to the information used most often.
Design Recommendations
ProStores merchants can get recommendations based on where they are in the design process and can edit the number of recommendations displayed.
Improved Template Editing
The Basic, Advanced and Source editors are now incorporated into a single edit page, allowing the merchant to switch between editors with one click. Merchants with little technical experience can stick to using the Basic Editor, while merchants with more advanced experience can choose to use the more advanced editors. Merchants can also select templates to edit without having to leave the editor.
The new version also includes the ability to apply an action such as Copy, Edit, Set Baseline, Import or Export Page Template to multiple page templates. Finally, "template sets" are now called "store versions."
Ability to Compare Across Multiple Store Themes
Merchants can now compare themes via list or grid view within a theme category before selecting which theme to apply to their store.
Redesigned Help Module with Added Search
Merchants can now access specific Help content based on where they are in the store design process in the redesigned Help module, which now includes a search function.
Customer Sign-In for Business Tier
Customer sign-in and access to account history is now available for the customers of Business tier merchants. This feature was previously included only with Advanced Tier and above. Customers of Business tier merchants can now log in to view their order status, order history and update their personal account information.
Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.
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