Gmail strips out inline CSS styles (when it doesn’t like what it sees)

As a bit of a follow-up to our earlier post on Gmail turning your black-colored links blue, its come to our attention that in some instances where Gmail doesn't like a CSS property, it strips it out, as well as all inline styles surrounding it. We first came across this when a customer used box-shadow to jazz up their design... Only to find that margins, padding and more were disappearing as well. In fact, the entire style="..." attribute and contents had been removed altogether.

To work around this, we tried a little trick which has previously prevented Gmail from stripping CSS from designs, namely appending properties with !important;. For example, in the box-shadow example, we suggested using:

-webkit-box-shadow: 7px 7px 5px #000000 !important; 
-moz-box-shadow: 7px 7px 5px #000000 !important; 
box-shadow: 7px 7px 5px #000000 !important; 

The result is that while box-shadow (and vendor-specific variants) are stripped in Gmail only, the surrounding CSS styles are preserved. As you can imagine, this means the difference between the layout displaying without a nice shadow effect and the same layout falling to pieces, devoid of all CSS. Using this technique, you can also try using other gracefully-degrading CSS3 properties without fear, too.

Thanks to Lev from Russia for pointing this out to us. We've observed a couple of subtle changes to how Gmail renders HTML email as of late - including rather unexpectedly supporting background-image after never doing so previously. Gmail, as opaque in its workings as it is, reminds me of one of Heraclitus' more famous teachings - nothing endures but change. Just when we thought we knew how to safely code for email, Gmail just goes ahead and overrides our CSS, or strips it out altogether.

Has Gmail noticeably changed how it displays your HTML email campaigns? Let us know about it below.

View the original article here

Today’s downtime explanation

Today at 10am London time (2am in San Francisco and 9pm in Sydney) the Campaign Monitor network was unavailable to all customers for approximately 50 minutes. Everything is back up and running smoothly now, but we wanted to give everyone an honest explanation of exactly what happened and what we're doing about it.

First of all, any downtime is inexcusable. We're incredibly sorry for delaying that important campaign of yours or temporarily breaking a link in an email you recently sent.

We have multiple load balancers sitting in front of infrastructure at both our data centres that acts like a cop, directing traffic to the right places internally. We renewed our license key with the vendor that supplies this special hardware recently, and it turns out they made a mistake and gave us a key that expired much earlier than they should have. Because the same key is used at both data centres, this effectively crippled our platform the moment they stopped working.

This means that your account itself was unavailable, along with our tracking system and API for that time period. Which is inexcusable.

The moment the app went down our operations team were on to it and instantly contacted the vendor. While we would have liked things to move faster at their end, it took some 20 minutes to generate and provide the new keys. The moment we had them in our hands our records were updated and the app was instantly available again.

It's extremely frustrating that this problem was ultimately due to a trivial error by a vendor we rely on, but we're not going to pass the buck. This one is on us. Our next steps will be to audit all our licensing across all devices that pose this kind of risk in both data centres to ensure this can never happen again.

I also wanted to say a huge thanks for everyone's understanding during the 50 mins or so we were unavailable. While the team was working feverishly to get everything back to normal, I can tell you that it's a big help when you have people letting you know they understand and passing on best wishes. We owe it to you guys to never let a simple thing like this have such an impact again.

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Finally, we pick a winner for the 2011 holiday email competition!

Yes, it's taken us 1½ months to pick a winning design and two runner-ups for our latest holiday email design contest. Shameful, I know. To our defense, we've had a lot going on, including an exciting, yet not-so-secret big release in the works. But that's beside the point.

This year's contest was especially challenging from a judge's perspective - not only did we have literally tens of thousands of visually impressive campaigns to choose from, but we made it our imperative to choose entries that were practical, unbreakable and re-usable. It took more than impressive header graphics to get on to our shortlist - we were looking for designs that could be potentially tweaked and sent with confidence, time and time again. Without any further deliberation, here are 2011's top holiday picks:

Designer: Krrb.com, by AREA 17

The Krrb.com newsletter, produced by AREA 17, was sure to be a slightly controversial Christmas choice. It isn't a one-off design - in fact, the Krrb team use a well-crafted template and the email editor to create each newsletter. It's so uncomplicated, that it's not the kind of message you would see in your inbox and go, 'wow, they must have spent ages on this!'. But from our perspective, that's a big part of what makes this holiday-themed newsletter so perfect.

That, plus a combination of visual, technical and conversational flair. The message simply projects Krrb-ness, with images and a tone that's consistent with their site and branding. This isn't just a sales pitch for an artsy site - it's got helpful gift suggestions, editorial and just a little dash of hipster cred. It's timely, features curious details (like the dog and owner glyph in the footer) and it's shareable. What's not to love?

Congratulations again to George, Audrey, Antoine and Andrew on the Area 17 team - they've been rewarded with a Kindle Fire, FitBit and 50,000 email credits. Be nice and share, yo. ;)

Designer: Matchbox Creative

This design has a special place in our heart for not only supporting a good cause, but because it's one of the first template builder creations to be featured in this blog. This meant that our friends at Matchbox Creative came to the party with the fun, animated header image, copy and color scheme, then left the rest to us. The result: More time enjoying the festive season and less on testing their design in a squillion email clients. It also looks pretty snazzy, don't you think?

Well done to the Matchbox Creative team and thank you for making the most out of our template builder - for their effort, they've won 10,000 email credits.

Designer: Yuppiechef

Our final runner-up prize went to our South African friends at Yuppiechef, who impressed us with their holiday-themed Christmas catalogue. Like Krrb.com's design, it features personal touches like a staff wish list, a friendly tone, easy social sharing and great-quality images. That said, it's a commercial email through and through, but unlike a lot of similar designs, comes with personal, detail-oriented touches. Well done to the toffs on the Yuppiechef team - they've also won a respectable 10,000 email credits.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who sent email campaigns with Campaign Monitor during 2011. It was yet another record-breaking year for us, so we have a lot to be grateful for. Regardless of whether you send 6 or 60,000 emails a year, we're committed to providing you with top-notch tools and service, so you too can create and send designs like the ones above with minimal effort.

Congratulations again to our winners and best of luck to everyone else - hopefully you'll be selected when we relaunch the competition in December!

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A new approach to email authentication

In a little under two weeks, we'll be making a subtle change to the way we handle email authentication in Campaign Monitor. For those of you new to the concept, email authentication tells your subscribers it's OK for our servers to send email on your behalf. It can help you avoid spam filters, and also proves your email isn't a forgery. All good things.

Right now, email authentication is an opt-in kind of thing. It's not on by default, but we've tried to make it as painless as possible to set up. The problem is, it's still pretty painful. For starters, you need to have access to the DNS records for your domain. In many cases that can rule this process out, or at the very least start your eyes glazing over.

The trouble is, this stuff is important. So, we're taking a different approach. Starting Monday, March 26 we'll be turning on email authentication for everyone.

If you've already set up your own authentication, we're not changing a thing. For those of you that haven't, there's one small change that we want you to be aware of. Because we'll be authenticating on your behalf, we add a couple of new details to the header of any emails you send. To the vast majority of your subscribers, this won't change a thing. But, there is a subte change your Outlook subscribers may notice. Here's what they'll see:

It's the extra from address and on behalf of that I highlighted in yellow that's new here. Because we're authenticating for you, we need to include our own domain in your mal headers/ Outlook lets their users know this at the top of the email. It's also worth pointing out we'll only ever use our white label domains when sending on your behalf - there's never any mention of Campaign Monitor. It's also worth adding that this small snippet is something any Outlook user would already have seen at the top of countless emails in the past. We think it's a small price to pay to help avoid spam filters and ensure your email never appears to be a forgery.

If you're not crazy about the "on behalf of" snippet, we've made it nice and easy to opt-out of us authenticating for you. Remember, we won't start this until March 19, so you have some grace time. To change this setting, just head into "Client Settings" and click on the new "Authentication Settings" in the sidebar. Here's what you'll see (click for full-size):

By default, "Authenticate all emails for me" will be checked. If you'd like to opt-out, you have two options...

Authentication is a great thing. If you don't want us to do it for you, we recommend you do it yourself. This is the same approach we've always supported, and it will mean your domains are authenticated and no "on behalf of" text will appear in Outlook or "via" snippet will be shown in Gmail. The only drawback is that you'll need to have access to the domain's DNS settings to complete the process.

If you don't have access to your DNS settings and you really don't like the "on behalf of" text in Outlook, you can disable authentication entirely. It's not something we recommend, but it's the easiest way to avoid any Outlook subscribers noticing a change. This is the default for how we've been sending email for you to date, so you won't see any negative impacts, you just won't experience the positive impacts of letting us sign for you.

After further testing, we've confirmed that the "via" text in Gmail isn't impacted by letting us authenticate your email for you. Even if you turn authentication off, the "via" text will still appear for all your Gmail subscribers. This is exactly what they would have see before this update, so nothing is actually changing here for your Gmail subscribers.

The only way to avoid this "via" snippet altogether is to set up your own authentication by following our step-by-step guide to updating your DNS.

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X-Payments v1.0 released, a PA-DSS-Compliant Solution for On-line Merchants

E-commerce shopping cart solutions provider Qualiteam Software announced official release of its new X-Payments software once it passed successfully Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) assessment by the company's Qualified Security Assessor, Moscow-based ZAO NIP Informzaschita.

X-Payments is a web-based payment application, designed for on-line merchants, who accept credit card payments and require compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) v1.2 standard.

PCI DSS is a set of requirements designed to ensure that ALL companies that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. PCI DSS requirements apply to ALL organizations or merchants, regardless of size or number of transactions, that accepts, transmits or stores any cardholder data. See more at http://help.qtmsoft.com/index.php?title=PCI_FAQs

While processing credit card payments, X-Payments works as an intermediary between a store on the one side and payment gateways and 3D-Secure systems on the other side.

X-Payments allows merchants to:

allow their customers to pay for the orders with credit cards, using online payment gateways;make their online stores compliant with the PCI-DSS standard version 1.2, which strictly recommends using only PA-DSS verified payment applications for accepting and handling credit card payments;integrate with payment gateways, not supported by X-Payments 1.0 out of the box;change design and URL of the payment information entering form to go with the design and URL of the online store.

X-Payments integrates with X-Cart v4.3 and newer versions and can be integrated with any e-commerce software via its application programming interface.

Media contact:
Alex Mulin
Customer Relations department
promo@qtmsoft.com

Jul 13, 2010

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X-Cart partners with Doba for drop ship product sourcing

OREM, Utah - Doba, a leader in drop ship product sourcing for online retailers has programmed a Custom Data Export for X-Cart merchants, making it easier to import Doba product data pre-formatted in to their X-Cart shopping cart. Doba provides instant access to an inventory of 1.75 million drop ship products from 100s of qualified suppliers. X-Cart merchants who are looking to stock their online store with additional products without carrying on the risk of additional inventory can sign up for a free 14-Day trial by visiting http://www.doba.com/partners/xcart.

"We are excited that we have made it significantly easier for X-Cart customers to quickly import any of Doba's almost two million products using Doba's Custom Data Export for X-Cart," said Jared Sidwell, Doba Vice President of Business Development. "X-Cart merchants will also benefit from Doba's ability to leverage our 50,000+ members when negotiating pricing with our suppliers. We are able to guarantee X-Cart merchants that they will be able to source products at the lowest drop ship price from each supplier."

You often hear the terms 'supplier', 'wholesaler', 'distributor', and 'manufacturer' when talking about who is drop shipping. Simply stated, a drop shipper is a supplier who is willing to allow online stores to sell their inventory without purchasing any products upfront. A drop shipper is the one who actually stores, packages and ships the physical products to the end consumer. By this definition Doba is not a drop shipper. In fact, Doba is not a supplier, wholesaler or distributor either. Doba is a company that has online software, which aggregates and standardizes the product data from 100s of suppliers so that online retailers (people looking for products to sell) can instantly connect with Doba's suppliers (the companies that drop ship their inventory) and resell their inventory.

Doba's service also provides detailed reporting and analytics on the performance of suppliers within their marketplace using a Supplier Scorecard. Online retailers who source products with Doba can quickly see a supplier's average ship time, fulfillment rates, RMA percentages, inventory update frequency, average quantity in stock, shipping method (UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc.), and details of their Return Policy.

Online Retailers who use X-Cart's shopping cart platform to manage their ecommerce webstore store now have a simple way of exporting product data from Doba's online catalog and importing that data into their X-Cart-powered webstore.

Doba is an industry leader in helping retail entrepreneurs and small businesses gain access to a consistent supply of wholesale, drop ship products to sell online. Doba simplifies product sourcing by providing access to millions of products, through a network of wholesale suppliers, distributors, and manufacturers. Products are consolidated into a single online catalog with images and descriptions, and then sold products are drop shipped directly to the customers. Doba's service fills the gap between wholesale suppliers and manufacturers on one end and retailers on the other end by providing them with a common platform through which to conduct business. For more information visit the company website, http://www.doba.com/partners/xcart.

Established in 1998, Qualiteam Software is now one of the world?s leading providers of e-Commerce software solutions. Software created by Qualiteam powers tens of thousands of online stores and e-Commerce websites in 111 countries all over the world. Qualiteam is focused on delivering products that create a solid infrastructure for e-business and have both B2C and B2B value. Ongoing support, integration services and consultations are provided to make sure customers derive maximum benefit when using Qualiteam products. Qualiteam Software is headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus, with partner company offices in Ulyanovsk, Russia. For more information, visit http://www.qtmsoft.com

Media contact:
Alex Mulin
Customer Relations department
promo@qtmsoft.com

Jan 23, 2011

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xtreme Gear - CSS template for x-cart

xtreme Gear, brings together all the design elements you have grown to expect from The xCart Store. With xtreme Gear, once again we are pioneering a whole new standard in x-cart template design... believe us when we say no page has been left untouched, a surprise awaits you on every mouse click.

Full product details can be seen here ?

Take a minute to view our xtreme Gear Video ?

See xtreme Gear in action yourself here: xtreme Gear demo ?

Control & customise many features of the xtreme Gear template via our dedicated template settings page. Quickly change the content and layout of your website in seconds using our template settings.

Easy Logo Management - upload your own company logosSimple HTML & Banner Manager facilitySeamless integration with Predictive Search & xBanners (xReviews & xMenus)Homepage Featured Category Listing (mod exclusive to xtreme Gear)Integrate 'AddThis' Social Media links to product pagesConfigurable Quick & Customer Service linksjQuery slider for featured, bestsellers, recently viewed & recommended productsSearch Engine Friendly 'All Categories' pageDisplay Manufactures & All Categories in top menuConfigurable Social Media, copyright & icon and links setupPlay Template Settings video tutorial ?

Don't worry about editing your smarty templates anymore when you just want to change the template logo. We've done all we can to make managing xtreme gear as easy as possible, now you can quickly upload your company logo to the header and footer of your store with 3 clicks of your mouse.

Using the xtreme Gear template settings page, you can choose to upload 3 simple static images and 2 HTML text banners to appear on various parts of your website. No need to edit smarty template files, just create your banner or embed some HTML and save it to the acquired position on your website.

What better way to direct your users to those 'hard to reach' sub-categories then to set up a direct link from your homepage. This is exactly what we have done with xtreme Gear, now you can select any of your sub-categories to appear on the homepage of your website.

Adding social media abilities to your products has never been this easy - simply create your 'AddThis' account and paste your account/media icons code into the xtreme Gear template page and that's it - you're entire product catalogue is now ready to reach the ever expanding world of social media sharing.

xtreme Gear comes with its own 'All Categories' page - this provides two benefits, the first is from an SEO perspective. Now you can have all of your categories and sub-categories listed on one single page - perfect for search engines to crawl and secondly great for your customers to get a full overview of your websites catalogue structure and layout.

Product tabs are a great way to keep your customers focused on the page content that appears in front of them, without presenting too many distracting options. All the usual product pages are presented, including:

RecommendedRelated productsCustomer feedbackSend to friend

All of which are neatly presented to the user, allowing for easy access when they require.

We have focused our design on emphasising important keywords and HTML elements. By moving important page elements higher up in the source code such as the page content and h1 tag and ensuring that header and footer content (common page elements) lower down in the source - all of these techniques add priority and weight to your templates page ranking.

As always, when creating xtreme Gear our goal is to create a "complete package" - with extreme Gear we have focused our design efforts to seamlessly accommodate our xBanners & Predictive Search modules. As an added bonus, xtreme Gear will also be 100% compatible our next 2 commercial modules xReviews & xMenus (due for release in August 2011). These modules can be purchased separately or as part of the template bundle.

Full product details can be seen here ?

See more of our x-cart templates, x-cart skins.

View the original article here

X-Cart Mobile Template, Lumino FreshApple

  X-Cart Mobile ready template, Fresh Apple Customised for Smartphone layout Call me Button to allow visitor to call you direct from device Includes FREE customisable logo W3C Compliant
Easy to change color scheme
Photoshop elements provided
Packaged with blue and grey elements - you choose

Installation
Being a template designed specifically for X-Cart, installation is pretty straight forward, and people familiar with ftp should have no problem. This mobile template installs and works just like any other 4.4.x template, but requires additional technology to function, such as the BCSE mobile mod to detect the device.

Personalisation
You will of course want to personalise it with your own logo. A complimentary logo is provided free of charge, along with the photoshop and font files so that you can edit this one - or you may want to just drop your own in. With basic photoshop skills you should be able to alter the logo and the telephone graphic. Full instructions are provided, but if you are not comfortable with any of this - just select Installation and it will all be done for you.

Changing Color Scheme
The template has been designed to make changing the color scheme as easy as possible - if you are familiar with editing a css file, you can pretty much go in and change the color references to suit - a guide is provided to get you on the way. Some graphics are of course needed - so photoshop files are also provided so you can change and upload your own images where necessary. Again, if you would like this doing for you - just select Change Color Scheme in the options.
The FreshApple template comes with both blue and grey elements, so you can have it predominently grey or blue - just by uploading the right graphics and css. Or you can mix it up a bit to include both.

Pricing
$99 for the template - installation and customisation options available

Click here for a Working Demo in 4.4

Click here for More Information and to Order

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X-Cart is a time-tested workhorse that screams when pushed

Jay Cheng, CEO of Icon Jewels:

We chose X-Cart after scrapping a project that was 90% finished in Magento. We had to offer our customer a shopping experience that was fast even as the shopping cart scaled to over 100 line items. All other carts we tested showed huge performance degradation at about 50 line items AFTER server and code optimization. X-Cart was unique in the way it stored the shopping cart information in digitized field. That allowed our users' shopping carts to grow to over 300 line items without fail.

While many of the newer open source carts offer bells and whistles like a prettied up backend interface and layered object oriented code, X-Cart is a time-tested workhorse that screams when pushed. We chose to implement over NginX, xcache, and php-fpm to make the site blaze. We would have needed triple the hardware horsepower to achieve one tenth of the results in other systems.

In the end, we are happy. The support team has been wonderful. Be prepared for a hard initial learning curve. Documentation is lacking, but your developer should get the point after bumping around for a few weeks.

Media contact:
Alex Mulin
Customer Relations department
promo@qtmsoft.com

Apr 22, 2011

View the original article here

Waterproof Camera Hire chooses X-Cart

Alastair Rooney, the owner of Waterproof Camera Hire:

Waterproof Camera Hire sell and rent cameras to people in the UK looking for a good quality camera to take on holiday or to use at an event.

In late 2010, after a great deal of research, the concept of offering the option to hire waterproof cameras and camcorders to the public was judged to be an exciting & potentially very successful business model. No real competition existed in the UK so the marketing challenge was to communicate the availability of cameras for hire.

The main hurdle in building this camera hire site was to seek the right e-commerce software package. After a great deal of analysis and debate the best system that seemed to deliver maximum performance was X-Cart. A hire calendar had to be integrated with the X Cart software to turn it from a standard e-commerce site into a time based hire site. X-Cart is such a flexible and capable system that the overall site was delivered on time and on budget to the required specification. Waterproof Camera Hire are delighted with the final product and the site has been working for some months now without a hitch.

The back office part of X-Cart is a dream to work with. Details and specifications can be easily amended. Adding new products using the clone tool in the software is inspirational. Well done, X-Cart and Samson Web Design on a project well done.

Media contact:
Alex Mulin
Customer Relations department
promo@qtmsoft.com

Mar 25, 2011

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The Evolution of E-commerce Security: A Security Standard Emerges - PCI DSS (PCI Compliance)

by David Goodale, CEO at Merchant Accounts.ca 

In the previous article we looked back at the emergence of e-commerce and it's journey of acceptance and adoption by consumers over the past decade. E-commerce has indeed matured, and is a regular part of daily life for millions of people around the world. In fact, traditional retail powerhouses like Best Buy and Sears are now on the run from the powers of Amazon.com and other strong and well managed online brands.

What has actually changed though? How has the public focus shifted from skepticism and wariness to acceptance and adoption? Much of this has to do with the establishment and awareness of security policies for e-commerce transactions.

First of all, we must be honest in looking at the growth of e-commerce hand in hand with the emergence of the internet to become an expected part of daily life. In the late 90's most people had a dialup internet connection (if they had internet at all). Baby boomers were being taught how to surf the web by teenage sons and daughters (who were all the while being told hang up and stop hogging the phone line).

It was just too new and radical. How could you safely purchase something from the comfort of your computer chair, through an anonymous machine? As e-tailers and online merchants we can be happy that the work of changing this perception has long since been completed. But by looking back at the emergence and standardization of online transaction security, it will better help us understand the evolution that has been undertaken to reach where we are today.

In the early days of e-commerce there were no clear rules surrounding the governance of cardholder data, especially as it would pertain to online transactions. In an attempt to deal with this problem, the card associations originally came out with 5 different security standards (one for each card brand) that merchants were to use to protect cardholder data. Five confusingly similar standards were not an ideal solution, so a new standard was created — PCI DSS («Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard»). Confusing acronyms aside, PCI DSS is simply a set of rules that a merchant must abide by if they are handling credit card details. All merchants that handled cardholder data had to comply with the PCI DSS Standard, which is why it commonly became known as «PCI Compliance».

If digested in a single bite PCI compliance is both intimidating and confusing. However, once you take a step back and see why PCI compliance exists, coupled with the benefits it provides to you (yes, you, the merchant), PCI DSS changes from something to fear into something to appreciate.

First of all, understand that if you are handling cardholder data, you must do it in a secure and sensible manner. That seems reasonable doesn.t it?

With the understanding that for obvious reasons you want to create a secure shopping environment for your customers, what is the benefit to you? You may think that I'm about to tell you that you will see better conversions? That you will enjoy greater success because you can tell your customers that you satisfy Visa and MasterCard requirements for data security? That's what you expect me to say? Wrong! (Okay, actually that is a huge benefit, but not what I was going to say).

One of the biggest advantages of being PCI compliant is it helps insulate you from a liability standpoint. Have you ever considered how Visa, MasterCard and card issuers look at online security? Let's pretend for a second you were an irresponsible merchant with haphazard and careless security. (Okay, not you, your competitor then!)

If this careless merchant stores hundreds of credit card numbers in an unencrypted text file or database, and they end up stolen (perhaps some happy fraudsters buy a yacht with funds stolen from these cards), how do you think Visa and MasterCard will feel about this? Who is responsible for this having happened? More specifically, who is going to «foot the bill»?

This responsibility is one of the main goals of PCI compliance. The standard clearly explains that «Mr. Merchant, if you are going to accept credit cards then you are responsible for ensuring the security of your sensitive customer data. We will tell you how to do it. Follow the guidelines in this PCI DSS document. If you do this it will help ensure that you are secure»..

Where is the benefit in all this? If you create a secure environment, and you satisfy the PCI DSS standard (in other words, if your website is «PCI complaint») then you have created a desirable situation in that you can shift blame away from yourself. PCI is an extremely strong data security standard. If you follow it the odds of having a security breach are very, very low. However, for the sake of argument let us pretend for a moment that a breach did occur. If you have satisfied PCI compliance you have a very strong case with which to defend yourself. When Visa or MasterCard come knocking on the door asking what happened, you can say «Mr. Visa, I understand your concern. However, I was prudent and diligent, and followed the PCI data security standard that you created and instructed me to follow. This blame does not belong to me». And that.s just it. It would be very hard to prove that you were negligent with cardholder data. The blame likely wouldn't belong with you. If you ensured a safe transaction environment by implementing PCI compliance, from a legal perspective it gives you a great amount of protection from a liability standpoint. Let me immediately qualify that statement by pointing out that I'm an e-commerce consultant and not a lawyer, and it's not meant as legal advice. However, the benefit of stating that you satisfied the standard is obvious for very common sense reasons. That is why PCI can almost be seen like an insurance policy against hackers. If you are PCI compliant, and if you follow the rules and do the right thing, then you will have a very strong argument should a problem ever arise.

Again, I.d like to clarify that PCI compliance is a very strong security standard, and the amount of work it would take to hack a PCI compliant merchant would most likely not be worth the reward in cardholder data. How much supercomputer time and world class hackers will you employ to steal a few credit card numbers? It would never make sense. You.d have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on supercomputer time and employ elite hackers to gain what? A few thousand dollars in credit card numbers that would likely be detected and disabled shortly. That is why hackers will usually go after a bank or big names like Amazon or Paypal, in which case a successful breach would render hundreds of thousands of stolen cards.

Let's not kid ourselves, there are bad people out there, and with unlimited resources any security can be broken. However, spending millions of dollars to hack $50,000 worth of credit card numbers is not a winning proposition. If a typical small and mid-sized merchant maintains a secure PCI compliant server environment, they can be assured that they've gone to great lengths to protect their sensitive cardholder data. This is a good thing. PCI compliance makes it so that even the smallest merchant can create a robustly secure online transaction environment.

Now that you understand what PCI compliance is, you naturally want to certify your website as PCI compliant. Fantastic! Except. admittedly it can be a bit confusing and involved at a glance.

Fortunately, there are organizations that exist to specifically make PCI compliance easier to achieve for small and mid-sized businesses. We should start with a basic overview of the PCI data security standard.

The first and most important thing to understand about PCI security is that it is meant for every merchant that touches, sees, handles or stores credit card information. However, how could a small merchant possibly achieve the security that a bank or Amazon.com might achieve? Well. they couldn.t. It would be silly to apply a blanket standard with the same requirements for every business. Fortunately, the card associations have had foresight and created a tiered standard.

There are 4 tiers of PCI compliance. The tier that any business qualifies for depends on the number of transactions they process annually. I will provide a breakdown of the most recent specifications below. This information was recent as of December 9, 2011 on the Visa USA website.

Tier 1 (the highest level of compliance — for banks and very large businesses)
— Merchants that process more than 6 million transactions annually.

Tier 2
— Merchant processing 1 million to 6 million transactions annually.

Tier 3
— Merchants processing 20,000 to 1 million transactions annually.

Tier 4 (the easiest level of compliance to achieve)
&mdash Merchants processing less than 20,000 transactions annually.

As you can see, most small and mid-sized e-commerce businesses will qualify as tier 4 merchants, which the easiest level of compliance to achieve. For the rest of this article I will be discussing PCI compliance as it adheres to tier 4 merchants. If you process more than 20,000 transactions annually more information can be found on the PCI DSS website: www.pcisecuritystandards.org

Tier 4 PCI compliance involves two separate tasks. The first is a self-assessment questionnaire that a merchant must complete. The questionnaire makes certain that you have implemented sensible policies to protect cardholder data. For example, it asks if you change your webserver firewall so that it doesn.t use the vendor supplied default password. (Common sense!).

The questionnaire has some fairly simple questions, and some more difficult questions. A copy of the SAQ (self assessment questionnaire) can be found at: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/merchants/self_assessment_form.php. Depending on your level of technical proficiency it's likely that you may need to have your technical staff assist with completion of the questionnaire.

The second aspect of PCI compliance is a security scan. Visa and MasterCard have provided a list of companies that are qualified to carry out a scan of your webserver. The purpose of this scan is to find any weaknesses or vulnerabilities in your server environment.

What happens is a Visa or MasterCard approved scanning vendor (ASV) will try to hack your server in a friendly, positive sort of way. If they find anything out of line they will report back to you and tell you the problem(s). You will fix the problem and re-run the scan until you pass. When you have completed the self assessment questionnaire, and passed your security scan you will become PCI complaint. It's important to note that tier 4 merchants must complete this security scan quarterly. There are a number of security scanning vendors, and pricing tends to range for the service. At Merchant Accounts.ca we often recommend McAfee for their scanning services because of the strong reputation they have for online security, and because the scanning is fairly affordable (about $125 per year).

It's certainly worth mentioning that you must operate a secure server environment if you are going to accept credit cards. So, if you are paying $10/month for your web hosting package it's highly unlikely that you will be able to achieve PCI compliance. A significant part of the questionnaire revolves around server security. If you need PCI compliant web hosting you can find a listing of companies eager to win your business through a Google search. I will add one bit of advice: beware .Enterprise Level. PCI hosting solutions. Some hosting providers think that because you use the word «PCI» they can charge exorbitant fees for the hosting. I won't name any names. A PCI hosting environment should cost more than a normal web hosting environment, but it doesn't have to break the bank. Do your research and talk to several potential vendors before choosing your web host.

One area that is seemingly unclear to the vast majority of online merchants is the exact rules around enforcement of PCI compliance.

If you don't pay your taxes, eventually the tax man will come knocking. If you are not PCI compliant, is there actually a real penalty? A lot of folks have absolutely no idea as to the penalties and fines for non-compliance. Are we talking a $50 parking ticket type of inconvenience, house arrest, or swat teams?

First, e-commerce security is serious business. If card numbers are compromised and abused it costs real money. The card issuer must re-issue cards, and much more importantly, if fraudsters get away with funds there are potentially very significant losses involved. We must be absolutely serious about this: if you are dealing with sensitive cardholder data, you have an obligation to making sure you do so in a secure and responsible manner.

You may be wondering who polices this. PCI compliance is a card industry standard, it is not a law. So it.s not (in a typical scenario) policed through the justice system. Instead, it.s enforced by the card brands (Visa, MasterCard, etc). This is done by way of fines to processors, which are then filtered down to merchants. Here is a question directly from the FAQ of the PCI security standards website:

Q: What are the penalties for noncompliance?
A: The payment brands may, at their discretion, fine an acquiring bank $5,000 to $100,000 per month for PCI compliance violations. The banks will most likely pass this fine on downstream until it eventually hits the merchant. Furthermore, the bank will also most likely either terminate your relationship or increase transaction fees. Penalties are not openly discussed nor widely publicized, but they can be catastrophic to a small business.

In other words, major fines can be handed down to the processor. In every processing agreement the processor will have language stating that should they receive a fine because of some sort of negligence on a merchant.s behalf, they can pass that fine down in whatever way necessary to recoup that loss. Also, it means that you may end up having your account closed, or even worse, put on a match list so you can not get a merchant account again. Needless to say this is something that every business would very much want to avoid.

It's also important to note that these are penalties for .noncompliance.. If you look at the way this is worded, it.s not even talking about a breach. The card brands, processors, and common sense all dictate that you should not hold onto or store credit card information if you don.t need to. If you are holding cardholder data you will want to make sure you are PCI compliant and dealing with the cardholder information in a secure way. For a moment I.m going to take this discussion beyond the realm of a small merchant to best illustrate a point in regards to the potential cost of a data breach:

Think of a large business that interacts with hundreds of thousands of customers. What if this business had a data breach? How much money is at risk?

This has happened. It happened with Heartland Payment Systems in 2009. The details of the incident are well beyond the scope of this article. However, the fine from Visa is not: 60 million dollars. Keep in mind that Heartland Payment Systems is a payment processor, and therefore must obviously interact with and store cardholder data. This is an example of one of the largest fines for a data breach in history. However, it illustrates the point: cardholder data is sensitive. It's valuable. Real money is on the line. If you are going to implement an e-commerce store you have a responsibly to treat cardholder data as sensitive and ensure adherence to the industry mandated security standards.

In this second article we've explained the concept of PCI DSS (PCI Compliance) and hammered home a very clear reason as to why you do not want to be fined for non-compliance. We.ve also illustrated that PCI Compliance is not something to be feared, and is in fact a benefit to merchants once properly implemented. By following the standard, it will help ensure security and vastly reduce your liability.

In the third and final part of this article we will examine a few interesting ways that small businesses can deal with the issues of PCI compliance, without having to incur significant costs or complicated technical work.

David Goodale is CEO at Merchant Accounts.ca, one of Canada's leading e-commerce payment processors. David has worked in the e-commerce payments industry for over a decade, often consulting on matters related to international and multi-currency e-commerce payments for Canadian and European based businesses.

Merchant Accounts.ca provides credit card processing services for Canadian and international businesses. It was one of Canada's first merchant account providers to specialize in e-commerce transaction processing. Today, Merchant Accounts.ca works with clients across Canada, the US and Europe.

In an unusual departure from the norm in the payments industry, Merchant Accounts.ca has a client focused consultancy model. Each merchant works one on one with the same consultant for the lifetime of their account. This managed consultancy model makes implementing e-commerce transaction processing easier to achieve for businesses that are new to e-commerce or expanding into new territories. More information can be found on the Merchant Accounts.ca website:

Established in 1998, Qualiteam Software is now one of the world?s leading providers of e-Commerce software solutions. Software created by Qualiteam powers tens of thousands of online stores and e-Commerce websites in 111 countries all over the world. Qualiteam is focused on delivering products that create a solid infrastructure for e-business and have both B2C and B2B value. Ongoing support, integration services and consultations are provided to make sure customers derive maximum benefit when using Qualiteam products. Qualiteam Software is headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus, with partner company offices in Ulyanovsk, Russia. For more information, visit http://www.qtmsoft.com

Media contact:
Alex Mulin
Customer Relations department
promo@qtmsoft.com

Feb 8, 2012

View the original article here

Advanced Customer Reviews

We are glad to announce our new data entry and catalog management service — X-Operators.

This service offers high quality cost-effective product data-entry and combines most advanced product management technologies with the power of X-Cart.

Mar 23, 2012

Qualiteam Software introduces two new SSL certificates and decreases pricing on others. Read more...

Mar 21, 2012

Buy Advanced Reviews, MailChimp integration, Janrain social login integration and PDF invoices modules with 25% discount till June 15th 2012.

Read more...

Mar 19, 2012

Henrik Oskarsson, the project manager of http://www.acetec.se/ and one of two owners in the company, shared a couple of words about their X-Cart story.

Read more...

Mar 16, 2012

The new f-Commerce.Go service replaces old FacebookTab module. More features, new philosophy.

Read more...

Mar 13, 2012

X-Cart and Amazon Product Ads partnered to offer X-Cart merchants $100 in Free Advertising on Amazon web-site.

Read more...

Mar 9, 2012

Sruly Markowitz, COO of StoreSigns.com, shared their X-Cart story.

Read more...

Mar 2, 2012

X-Shops, an X-Cart based hosted shopping cart service, launched new Dedicated-X plan. Major feature - a dedicated server for running your X-Cart shop.

Read more...

Feb 28, 2012

Russian translation of X-Cart is available free of charge. More to come later.

Read more...

Feb 21, 2012

Peter Kuntz, Head of Webcreatives B.V., told us about implementation of X-Cart and template design for http://www.snaaitaart.nl/

Read more...

Feb 17, 2012

David Goodale, CEO at Merchant Accounts.ca, wrote several articles on evolution of e-Commerce security over past 10 years. This is the 3rd article about how a small business owner can deal with PCI compliance. Read more...

Feb 15, 2012

David Goodale, CEO at Merchant Accounts.ca, wrote several articles on evolution of e-Commerce security over past 10 years. This is the 2nd article about PCI-DSS. Read more...

Feb 8, 2012

Jon Peters, owner of WebsiteCM.com, tells story about CLEARNET web-site powered by X-Cart.

Read more...

Feb 6, 2012

Qualiteam Software announces a huge change in support policy: incident/points-based technical support ceased in favor of subscription-based service. Read more...

Feb 1, 2012

The new "High Fashion" graphic prototype is available.

Jan 31, 2012

X-Cart v4.4.5 introduces several major improvements (INTERAC integration, built-in Socialize module and major improvement of Checkout by Amazon module), minor improvements and bug-fixes. Read more...

Jan 26, 2012

David Goodale, CEO at Merchant Accounts.ca, wrote several articles on evolution of e-Commerce security over past 10 years. This is the 1st article. Read more...

Jan 25, 2012

Mike Evanisko, VP of Technology at 888VoIP, tells about their X-Cart powered on-line shop.

Read more...

Jan 24, 2012

Most of those who have ever done promotion on Facebook know that it requires to have attractive business pages. The creation of a custom Facebook tab is very easy with a Static FBML application; but, unfortunately, the Facebook team is going to disable FBML technologies. So, it is time to look up an alternative solution for your f-marketing. Read more...

Jan 16, 2012

X-Cart is happy to announce the release of our X-AdvancedCustomerReviews module. It is aimed at making X-Cart reviews system more informative and useful for buyers, which means higher sales conversion and income.

Jan 12, 2012

Use discount code XPXMAS30 between Dec 22nd 2011 and Jan 7th 2012 to get 30% discount on X-Payments.

Dec 22, 2011

Jamie Albano, owner of Easy Decals, told about their experience with X-Cart Read more...

Dec 21, 2011

X-Cart announces reselling the most popular MagneticOne's X-Cart Store Manager. This unique application allows online merchants to manage their X-Cart stores right from their desktops.

Read more...

Dec 13, 2011

Stephan Shaw, co-owner and technical guru of Unemployed Philosophers Guild tells about their experience with X-Cart. Read more...

Dec 9, 2011

X-Cart is happy to announce release of iContact integration module. iContact is one of the largest companies in e-mail marketing industry serving hundreds of thousands clients worldwide.

Read more...

Nov 29, 2011

Rebecca, owner of stylecloset.com.au, told us about her X-Cart web-site. Read more...

Nov 25, 2011

Nov 25, 2011

The price for integration of X-Cart templates has dropped to $363 for all the available graphic prototypes.

Read more...

Nov 16, 2011

Asim Jalali, the website manager responsible for all aspects of http://www.body4real.co.uk/, tells about his web-site and why X-Cart was chosen. Read more...

Nov 11, 2011

Bluepay, a leader in secure credit card processing solutions, announces special offer for X-Cart merchants: if BluePay cannot lower your current credit card processing fees, BluePay will pay you $500. Read more...

Oct 28, 2011

Qualiteam Software releases X-Payments 1.0.3 that introduces bug-fixes and several improvements. Read more...

Oct 20, 2011

McAfee, the world's largest dedicated security company, announces free trial offer for X-Cart merchants. Read more...

Oct 19, 2011

eCC, a QuickBooks Gold-certified software that connects your X-Cart store with QuickBooks to automate your accounting and inventory management, is on sale till November 30th 2011. Read more...

Oct 18, 2011

CompressionSale.com sells circulation stockings, support hosiery and other compression wear. They needed a dynamic shopping cart that was very user friendly and customizable. X-Cart was their choice after extensive researching on e-commerce platforms. They have never regretted about this decision. Read more...

Sep 19, 2011

Migration to X-Cart from other shopping carts becomes much easier, cheaper and faster with our new "Migrate Me to X-Cart" service. Our engineers will carefully migrate all your store data, design and custom features from any of 30+ available shopping carts to X-Cart - one of the most full-featured and bug-free carts on the market.

Sep 6, 2011

Matratzenglueck.de provides high quality mattress with a great service component. They chose X-cart in order to be very flexible with adding new products or running different kind of marketing campaigns. They really liked the easy way they could change the design and the simplicity of the software even for non-programmers. The site already ranks very high in the relevant search results and owners are certain that X-Cart is one of the reasons of its success. Read more...

Sep 2, 2011

X-Cart, a major International provider of eCommerce solutions, and CRE Secure, the industry's leading cloud-based, secure payment solution for merchants, today announced an alliance to offer CRE Secure's hosted payment page technology to X-Cart eCommerce merchants through a fully integrated X-Cart module. Read more...

Aug 30, 2011

Refinery29, the only 360-degree source for shopping, exclusive deals, trends, beauty news, local hot-spots, and at-home sneak-peeks of fashion's finest, uses X-Cart for online catalog and checkout. Read more...

Aug 30, 2011

Stamps.com, the leading mailing and shipping solution that simplifies online merchants' shipping and postage needs, announced special offer for X-Cart merchants:

Receive a no-risk 4 week trial plus a $100 Offer that includes up to $45 in free postage, a free digital scale
(valued at $50, only pay S & H), and a $5 supplies kit.

More on Stamps.com

Aug 26, 2011

Merchant-Accounts.Ca offers a deal for Canadian X-Cart merchants:

No setup feeNo monthly fee (If you process $1,000 or more per month)25 cents per transactionProcessing rate determined by volume:
$10,000 or less / month: 3.5%$10,000 to $50,000 / month: 2.5%$50,000 or more / month: 2%

Visa and MasterCard assessment charges for rewards, corporate and foreign credit cards are passed through at true bank interchange cost with no additional markup.

View full program details

Aug 26, 2011

Some time ago we negotiated with McAfee to offer X-Cart merchants 1 year free McAfee PCI compliance scanning. This offer is going to expire on 08/23/2011.

Hurry up and sign up today!

Aug 19, 2011

Redworms.com is a family business and the premier website for everything you want to know about red worms and worm composting. Read more...

Aug 5, 2011

Our company is now ready to provide the experienced support and assistance on the efficient and the most customer-friendly WordPress blog-script. Read more...

Aug 5, 2011

Let us introduce you Olark, a young company run by 4 young people from Palo Alto, California in USA. Read more...

Aug 1, 2011

Since release on February 14th, 2011 FacebookTab module has more than 7000 active users (both sellers and buyers).

Today we are glad to announce the release of FacebookTab v1.1.0 that implements the following improvements:

Price changes dynamically depending on the product options selected on product lists.Wholesale prices displayed on products lists.Thumbnails update depending on the variants selected on product lists.Support for UTF8 encoding improved (for full support of non-English languages).Performance improved for matrix view of product lists.Minor bugfixes.

Full description of changes is available in CHANGELOG.FACEBOOKT_TAB file in the module distribution package.

How to upgrade your FacebookTab module: http://help.qtmsoft.com/index.php?title=X-Cart:Facebook_Tab_Upgrades

Discuss this release at http://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?p=321868#post321868

Read more...

Jul 27, 2011

Multi domain certificates (MDC) are your solutions for securing anywhere from two to 100 domains on the same server under one SSL certificate. Consolidate your SSL management process and manage the SSL encryption for all of your domains under just one SSL certificate for multi-domains. You can start by implementing a Comodo Multi-Domain SSL certificate. Read more...

Jul 26, 2011

The new "#35 FoodStore" graphic prototype is added to x-cart templates stock. Integration with Facebook and Twitter included into the integration service.

Jul 26, 2011

Neeki Designs web-shop is based on X-Cart. Neeki Designs sells sheets that help people with Parkinsons disease. Read more...

Jul 22, 2011

- new "Quick search with suggestion" extra mod is available.

Great tool to add a quick search with spell checker and suggestion for your store. Improve your customers experience by giving them a relevant search result for every key pressing!

Instant search by products and categories under the search field while customer is typing the search request.Phrase suggestion for typing on the basis of search statistics.Spell checking on the basis of dictionary and store data.Stemming support.Installation of Sphinx search server and Hunspell extension on your server are included into this service.

Jul 12, 2011

X-Cart helps Shirt Studio owners to inspire the "Italian shirt store" feeling in their online visitors with help proper front-end design. In terms of back-end functionality they can do our everyday operations without any hassle. Read more...

Mar 24, 2012

X-Cart Extra Mod adds a lot of new features to the default customer reviews mechanism making it much more useful for buyers and reviewers.

Jun 27, 2011

Show Candy owner turned her passion into not just a job but a business which would give her the ability to not only sell the product she loves but to also select beautiful shoes that she could share with women through the ease of online shoe sales powered by X-Cart shopping cart engine. Read more...

Jun 27, 2011

PCI compliance is a "must have" for almost every online merchant who accepts credit card payments on their e-commerce web-sites. X-Cart and McAfee partnered to offer 1 year free McAfee PCI compliance scanning for X-Cart merchants.

the offer is valid till August 23rd, 2011

More on McAfee PCI scanning service.

Jun 24, 2011

Back-in-stock, Price-drop and Low-stock notifications for customers are now avaliale as Inventory notifications for customers X-Cart Extra Mod. A perfect tool for provoking indecisive and forgetful customers to buy your products.

Jun 24, 2011

All existing LiteCommerce v2.x license owners can find the data migration script in "File Area" section of their HelpDesk accounts and use it to migrate from LiteCommerce v2.x to X-Cart v4.4.x

Jun 17, 2011

If you have sales related questions about setting up NEW PayPal service and would like to speak directly to a PayPal Product Specialist, call (1) 877-455-1481. If you have customer service related questions regarding an EXISTING PayPal account and would like to speak directly to a PayPal Customer Service agent, call (1) 888-221-1161.

Jun 16, 2011

2Checkout.com, an online payment processor, offers special deal for X-Cart merchants.
Use promo code "xcart2co11" to waive 2Checkout USD $49 signup fee for new accounts.

2Checkout.com (2CO) is a worldwide leader in payment and e-commerce services. 2CO powers online merchants with a global platform of payment methods and world-class fraud prevention service on safe, secure, and reliable PCI-compliant payment pages.

Jun 14, 2011

Water Features 2 Go, seller of water features for gardens, TV shows and exhibits, chose x-cart after analysing the market, reading online reviews and asking friends and business colleagues for recommendations. They thought x-cart offered the best value package to our business in terms of growth potential, cost, and usability. Read more...

Jun 10, 2011

Small but very useful Hidden Categories Extra Mod is now available.

You may use it in a lot of different cases, e.g. to show exclusive products to the loyal customer only, to hide short-stock products that must not be promoted and so on.

Jun 8, 2011

WordPress integration for X-Cart goes on sale. New price $295 (was $329). Click here.

Jun 2, 2011

X-Cart, a leading PHP shopping cart software, and QualityUnit, a maker of affiliate management and CRM systems, today announced their partnership to provide X-Cart online merchants with Live Agent software, that combines full featured help desk and live web chat software integrated into one powerful support platform. Read more...

Jun 1, 2011

Two new graphic prototypes are available. Read more...

May 31, 2011

The X-PDF Invoices module is an add-on that allows to create invoices in the PDF format. Read more.

May 31, 2011

Qualiteam Software announces its X-Payments software has been reviewed by the PCI Security Standards Council Quality Assurance Program and received a grade of PASS.

X-Payments has been put on the "Validated Payment Applications" list on the PCI Council's web-site.

Read more...

May 27, 2011

X-Cart, a leading provider of PHP shopping cart software, and Listrak, a leading email marketing solutions firm, today announced their partnership to provide retailers with Listrak’s automated Shopping Cart Abandonment Solution. Read more...

May 24, 2011

X-Cart was chosen as the e-commerce engine for YokiniSwimwear.com as it gives everything an online apparel store needs: product options for sizes and colors, inventory tracking, online payment processing and many more. Read more...

May 20, 2011

eBridge Software company, maker of integrations with more than 40 SME accounting systems, announces development plans for X-Cart connector.

Read more...

May 16, 2011

Euro-Tel SRL from Romania chose X-Cart for their new printer cartridges online store after testing several other e-commerce solutions. Read more...

May 13, 2011

Qualiteam Software announces release of X-Cart v4.4.3. This version includes bug-fixes, performance enhancements and other tweaks/improvements made to 4.4 branch till 5 May 2011.

Read more at http://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?t=59213

May 5, 2011

North American X-Cart based online merchants processed $43 598 915.76 payment volume in 523 399 net transactions during Q1 2011. X-Cart comes with certified PayPal integration and thus provides seamless and easy way to start processing through PayPal right after you have X-Cart installed.

May 3, 2011

PriorityWindows.com managed to solve puzzle of giving American customers a choice between hundreds of curtain styles, over 1,500 fabrics, dozens of trims, sizes and other options with help of an easy-to-use step-by-step configuration process that runs on the built-in X-Cart Product Configurator module. After launching this new process, they saw an instant boost of repeat visitors to their site and sales increased by over 30% for the next quarter. Read more...

Apr 29, 2011

X-Cart was chosen by Icon Jewels for http://www.jgoodin.com/ after scrapping a project that was 90% finished in Magento due to performance issues. Read more...

Apr 22, 2011

We received a notice from the USPS regarding their new APIs named RateV4 and IntlRateV2. The USPS notice states that "Rate, RateV2, RateV3 and IntlRate will be retired in May 2011, requiring all integrators to migrate to the latest versions".

Therefore, we have released the update patches which will help X-Cart users to update their carts and migrate to the new APIs RateV4 and IntlRateV2.

The USPS API update patches are available for the following X-Cart versions:

4.4.0-4.4.24.3.24.2.34.1.124.0.19

The corresponding update patches, as well as the installation instructions, are available in the Issue Tracker: https://bugtracker.qtmsoft.com/view.php?id=38896

Apr 20, 2011

Chain Supplies is the internet trading division of Hancocks of Staffordshire. Established in 1952 as a corn, seed and animal housing supplies business. Whilst selling mainly to the consumer market since the mid 1950's and have continued to expand within the areas of wire products chain, and components.

X-Cart powers Chain Supplies' site and gives owners incredible flexibility and abilities for on-line trading. They don't need to think about how to do everyday online business activities with X-Cart. They just do them.

Read more...

Apr 18, 2011

It is time to make your X-Cart store social-oriented! Buy X-JanrainEngane and FacebookTab modules bundle with discount.  Read more...

Apr 13, 2011

At Home Brands is expanding into the growing on-line photo framing market with its website SnapArtwork.com and chose X-Cart as its e-commerce engine.

SnapArtwork.com turns photo images into beautiful personalized wall art for consumers and professional photographers. Users of the website easily upload their photo images for printing and framing from a selection of stylish frame styles. Customers can also choose to have a Snap Artwork photo expert alter their photo based on a wide variety of special effects available on the site.

Read more...

Apr 8, 2011

Leather Furniture Direct used X-Cart to create their website and now they offer comfortable, quality top and full grain leather furniture, custom made in customer's choice of leather, directly from their factory.

Read more...

Apr 1, 2011

Qualiteam developed Moneybookers iFrame integration for X-Cart to help online merchants who use Moneybookers to increase sales by using payment method that doesn't take visitors out of a store.

Read more...

Mar 29, 2011

"Testimonials" - use this mod if you need advanced functionality for customers feedback in your store;

"Multilevel flyout menu" allows to add a horizontal navigational menu with flyout sub-menus to your store.

"jQuery menus" - Simple and attractive feature for sidebar navigation. Turns menus into collapsible boxes, with persisting their state within a user session.

Mar 29, 2011

We are glad to introduce our new Extra Mod - "Remeber Me". Classic "Remember Me" option will automatically log in you and your customers to the store, if used. It will surely increase the store usability and, thus, sales.

Mar 28, 2011

Waterproof Camera Hire sell and rent cameras to people in the UK looking for a good quality camera to take on holiday or to use at an event.
X-Cart was chosen to build their camera hire web-site. Waterproof Camera Hire are delighted with the final product and the site has been working for some months now without a hitch.

Read more...

Mar 25, 2011

Sturdybilt selected X-Cart for their new website http://www.sturdybilt.com/ to help transform their business model to focus on online sales and provide an enjoyable shopping experience for its customers. Read more...

Mar 18, 2011

Good news for those who think about moving from osCommerce to X-Cart. New data migration service is available.

Mar 17, 2011

Hand Trucks 2Go owner Haskel Fleisher says his success story about building X-Cart powered http://handtrucks2go.com/ Read more...

Mar 11, 2011

Fire Protection Online, the UK's number one supplier of fully approved fire extinguishers and fire safety equipment, chose X-cart due to its flexibility and SEO-friendly design. Better conversion rates, still growing and successful with X-Cart. Read more...

Mar 4, 2011

Three new graphic prototypes by our design team: AudioBooks, Books store and Electronic. Read more...

Mar 1, 2011

X-Cart helps CineShop.ro to win many e-commerce awards and customers hearts in Romania. Read more...

Feb 25, 2011

X-Cart shopping cart system was choosen in 2007 to power off http://www.cflsystems.com/ based on its supperiority over other existing shopping carts. This decision allowed CFL Systems, Inc. to pursue new opportunity - e-commerce projects. Read more...

Feb 18, 2011

Beanstream is the gateway of choice for a wide range of merchants, from mom-and-pop shops to some of North America's largest enterprises. X-Cart user can benefit from a wide range of website processing solutions and also get access to customizable billing services and MOTO processing tools. Beanstream systems are compatible with all of the major Canadian banks and the majority of US banks.

Between February 15 and March 15 2011, Beanstream will waive the setup fee for merchants that sign up for an entry level package that includes both merchant accounts and gateway credit card processing. Contact Beanstream today to speak to one of our dedicated in-house service representatives.

The cost to merchants will be the following:

MerchantsCurrencySetup FeeMonthly FeePer Transaction FreeMDRNon Qualified Surcharge

This offer is not valid for merchants that sign up for a “gateway services only” package.
This offer is not valid for the Canadian Interac® Online processing service.

Feb 15, 2011

We are glad to announce our new module - FacebookTab. Use Facebook community and business pages as a sales channel for your X-Cart powered online store. The module works with all X-Cart version above 4.1.0 and no double management and double entering - everything goes from one source - X-Cart based web shop.

See more at http://www.x-cart.com/facebook_tab.html

Feb 15, 2011

X-Cart Extras has new pretty design and list of the Extras has been increased.

Read more...

Feb 7, 2011

Owners of "A Pink Princess", a Little Girl's Boutique housed in a charming Pink House built in 1932 in downtown Boynton Beach, Florida, told about their web-site and said that X-Cart increased their online sales. Read more...

Feb 4, 2011

PayPal informed us that in Q4, X-Cart processed 547,022 transactions for North America merchants. Gross payment volume totaled $46,013,291. That's much higher than a year ago and we think this is just awesome as our customers' growth means our growth, too. Are you still not sure whether or not to add PayPal as a payment method to your X-Cart based store?

Feb 2, 2011

Rollersnakes opened their 1st shop in 1985 in Derby, UK. They were early pioneers of Mail Order, advertising in National Skate Magazines helping skaters who lived in remote areas. Online shop (powered by X-Cart) is a vital part of Rollersnakes company business. X-Cart has enabled their website to grow with their business for the last four years Read more...

Jan 28, 2011

The X-Janrain Engage Integration Module is an add-on for integrating your X-Cart with Janrain's services. The services allow your visitors with existing accounts with social networks – including Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo! and LinkedIn and over a dozen of others – to quickly sign-in to your online store via their existing social network accounts. The solution lets users bypass your traditional registration process and sign-in with one click, resulting in an accelerated sign-up process for new users and a simple login experience for returning visitors.

On top of that, Janrain Engage allows your visitors to share their comments, purchases, reviews or other activities directly from your online store to their friends on multiple social networks, all without leaving your store. Social sharing with Janrain Engage lets you trigger sharing based on any number of user's actions, including purchases, posting comments, user-generated content or clicking a share button, enabling the word of mouth marketing for your business and transforming your users into brand advocates. Discuss here.

Jan 25, 2011

Stand-Out.net was launched in 2005, with the objective of selling men's clothing and designer clothing at affordable prices without compromising service and quality. X-Cart powers online checkout for Stand-Out.net. Read more...

Jan 21, 2011

The module can be downloaded here. Works for v4.4.x.

Jan 19, 2011

Nexteve LLC is a Pennsylvania business and has been in the online prom dress and wedding gown business since 2003. Today Nexteve has over 40,000 satisfied customers from virtually all over the world. Nexteve uses X-Cart and hired X-Cart designers to do re-design. The project was a great success. Increases in both pageviews per visit and time on site are observed. Read more...

Jan 14, 2011

Qualiteam Software announces release of X-Cart v4.4.2. This version includes bug-fixes, performance enhancements and other minor tweaks/improvements made to 4.4 branch till 10 Jan 2011. Read more at http://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?t=57451

Jan 12, 2011

On January 2, 2011, USPS updated domestic shipping services and international pricing. These changes have affected all X-Cart versions and caused a trouble of not getting any USPS rates in live X-Cart stores.

We have released official hot-fixes for the problem which can be found in our Issue tracker system: https://bugtracker.qtmsoft.com/view.php?id=38896

Jan 10, 2011

Gyorgy Fritz, Managing Director of PCWARE.HU, said that X-Cart makes Internet shopping easier for them. Read more...

Dec 16, 2010

Ketan Varu, the founder of Spice-N-Tice (tm), said: "The idea for Spicentice was born in 1994 when I was at university, my mum sent me recipes and spices to make real Indian curries that would remind me of home..." Read more...

Dec 9, 2010

X-Cart helped Sweet Peaches Bedding to become one of the most popular children's bedding shops. Read more...

Dec 1, 2010

The list of our graphic prototypes has increased. Read more...

Nov 26, 2010

We are happy to announce release of X-MailChimpIntegration module.

The module provides advanced integration of X-Cart v4.4.x and v4.3.2 with MailChimp, provider of outstanding e-mail marketing management service. We recommend X-Cart powered merchants to join us and other 440,000 users served by MailChimp at the moment and manage newsletters through MailChimp with help of the module.

Nov 23, 2010

David Phillips - the largest specialist supplier of furniture to the property market, powered by X-Cart Read more...

Nov 23, 2010

Little Tackers®, a Melbourne based company established since 2004, endeavors to create innovative range of modern and high quality products to children. They use X-Cart. Read more...

Nov 10, 2010

X-Cart partnered with TemplateMonster.com to provide online merchants with much wider range of e-commerce designs to choose from and offers design integration service for them. See more at http://www.x-cart.com/ecommerce-design-templates.html.

Read more...

Oct 19, 2010

Now is the time to start preparing your business for the sales season!
Our design team has some updates and offers for a whole range of our services: X-Cart Extras, Products tab on Facebook, Graphic prototypes and Website design creation.

Read more...

Oct 7, 2010

LOS ANGELES-September 22, 2010 - Stamps.com® (Nasdaq:STMP), the leading provider of USPS® postage online and shipping software to approximately 400,000 customers, today announced its new integration with X-Cart, an e-commerce software solution that is used by thousands of online merchants in more than 100 countries around the world.

Stamps.com's integration with X-Cart is offered at no additional charge to new and existing Stamps.com customers. It allows X-Cart users to batch print up to 1,000 pre-paid USPS shipping labels for all mail classes - including Media Mail® and First Class International Mail®. It also automatically posts order status details such as tracking number, ship date and mail class back to the X-Cart store. Additional Stamps.com features include hidden postage, insurance discounts and thermal printer support.

Read full story...

Oct 6, 2010

Qualiteam Software announces release of X-Payments v1.0.2 This version includes some bug-fixes and minor improvements. Read more...

Oct 4, 2010

Qualiteam Software announces release of X-Cart v4.4.1. This version includes bug-fixes and minor tweaks made to 4.4 branch till Sep 29, 2010.
Read more at http://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?t=55789

Oct 4, 2010

The David Allen Company is widely considered the world's leading authority in personal and organizational productivity. They provide education, training, and products which enable users to increase performance and meet critical goals and objectives. Read more...

Sep 14, 2010

X-Cart v4.3.2 plugin for cPanel is available now. The package includes all the features of X-Cart v4.3.2 and allows cPanel powered hosting providers give their customers an ability to deploy X-Cart based stores with help of several clicks right from their hosting control panel accounts.

Read more...

Aug 27, 2010

X-Cart is excited to offer Australian and South Asian merchants the opportunity to expand your business and grow your profits – through our partnership with PayPal. When you accept $500 USD or more in PayPal payments from now till September 30, 2010, you’ll receive $100 USD in your PayPal account. Terms and conditions apply. See more...

Aug 12, 2010

Qualiteam Software announces release of X-Cart v4.4.0.

Since the end of 2009 X-Cart team has been working to enhance the functionality and performance offered by X-Cart e-commerce software and finally you have a chance to experience the improvements introduced during this period. Our thanks to everyone who actively participated and provided feedback. Read more...

Aug 6, 2010

Qualiteam is ready to help merchants in promoting their products on Facebook.

Read about the "Products tab on Facebook" service at http://www.x-cart.com/facebook.html.

Aug 3, 2010

Qualiteam Software announces X-Cart GOLD license pricing changes after v4.4 is released.

See details at http://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?t=54689

Jul 22, 2010

E-commerce shopping cart solutions provider Qualiteam Software announced official release of its new X-Payments software once it passed successfully Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) assessment by the company’s Qualified Security Assessor, Moscow-based ZAO NIP Informzaschita.

X-Payments is a web-based payment application, designed for on-line merchants, who accept credit card payments and require compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) v1.2 standard.

Read more...

Jul 13, 2010

We are glad to announce that Plesk-powered hosting companies can use X-Cart v4.3.2 package for Plesk now. It is available for downloading in APS catalog. The package includes all the features of X-Cart v4.3.2.

See more and discuss this topic at http://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?t=54506

Jul 8, 2010

We are glad to announce that X-Cart 4.4. beta has been released and is now available to be tried out.

Taking part in the beta-testing will help you to get to know the new features of X-Cart 4.4, check whether the new product works fine in your specific environment, and prepare for the final release. Your active participation would help us to make X-Cart 4.4 stable faster.

See more at http://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?t=54436

Jul 2, 2010

Qualiteam announced a help line for those affected by "July, the 1st/PCI-DSS compliance" deadline. If you DO get disconnected or get any disconnection notices from your payment gateway or have any other troubles related to PCI DSS please e-mail us at pci-questions@x-cart.com. We will work together on workaround plan.

Jul 1, 2010

The Perfect Necktie provides high quality silk neckties at affordable prices for the masses. Read more...

Jun 28, 2010

Wally Franklin, one of Founders of The Oceania Project, shared their story:

"The Oceania Project is a non-profit research and education organisation established in 1988 which is dedicated to raising awareness about whales, dolphins and the oceans through research and the dissemination of educational and conservation information.

A major project of The Oceania Project is an on-going long-term study of the social behaviour and social organisation of Humpback whales in Hervey Bay, Australia. This has involved the assembly of an extensive archive of unique and original photography, video and acoustic recordings of the humpback whales.".

Read more...

Jun 9, 2010

Qualiteam Software announces release of X-Payments 1.0 beta4 which is currently in the final stage of PA-DSS assessment by our Qualfied Security Assessor (QSA).

X-Payments is a web-based payment application, designed for merchants, who accept credit card payments, using background payment gateways and who require compliance with the PCI DSS v1.2 standard.

See more at http://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?t=53981

May 31, 2010

Qualiteam Software announces release of X-Cart v4.3.2

This version includes bug-fixes and minor tweaks released for X-Cart v4.3 till May 24, 2010. Find forum discussion and changlelog at http://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?t=53890

May 25, 2010

Alan Menzies from Marketing team of Uplifting Solutions said:

"Uplifting Solutions provide a range of office furniture throughout Australia including chairs, monitor mounts and other ergonomic accessories on our new online shop http://www.ergofurniture.com.au/.

In order to achieve this we require a flexible and robust ecommerce solution to use as a platform for our website. After considerable research we found that X-Cart provided an excellent balance of functionality, versatility and stability. X-Cart is a powerful solution straight out of the box, but we have also been able to customise and adapt it to our own requirements with ease".

Read more...

May 18, 2010

Qualiteam Software announced Premium Wildcard SSL certificates available for X-Cart powered merchants at discounted pricing. See more ...

May 14, 2010

Marius Ciocan, Manager, shared their story:

"We have started the online flower-shop in 2005 without having an brick and mortar flower business. After five years we still don't have an offline presence but we sell online almost the same as they do. After the success of Flori in Constanta.ro we start to sell local online flower-shops in every big city of the country, building a network of local flower-shops in 15 towns - that's why you can have two hours flowers delivery in Romania, reaching more than 70% of the population. We now have hundreds of orders monthly, with the busiest day on 8 March this year (International Womens Day) where we delivered more than 80 orders with our own delivery team." Read more...

Mar 31, 2010

Qualiteam now offers X-Cart Extras. Read more...

Mar 25, 2010

Qualiteam Software announces release of X-Cart v4.3.1

This version includes bug-fixes and minor tweaks released for X-Cart v4.3 till February 1, 2009.

Feb 2, 2010

Another fresh new year is on its way, and we’re glad to congratulate on the forthcoming holidays and wish you marry Christmas and happy New Year. Let the year 2010 bring you prosperity and plenty of exited customers!!! Read more...

Dec 15, 2009

Qualiteam Software announces release of X-Cart v4.3.0 Read more...

Nov 11, 2009

Now is the time to start preparing your business for the upcoming holidays!

We've got some great offers to make your store look festive, get customers in the holiday spirit, and keep them coming back buying from you: Christmas Decoration ServiceNew Xmas graphic prototypesWeb Design Services special offerRead more...

Oct 29, 2009

Qualiteam Software announces release of X-Cart v4.2.3. Read more...

Oct 13, 2009

Qualiteam now offers W3C Standards Compliance service Read more...

Sep 11, 2009

X-Cart merchants and vendors are welcome to meet each other in X-Cart Marketplace Read more...

Jul 29, 2009

Qualiteam Software announces release of X-Cart v4.2.2. Read more...

Jul 8, 2009

Sage Pay, the UK's leading independent payment service provider (PSP) of secure online credit and debit card payment solutions for thousands of online and mail order businesses across the UK, now offers special pricing conditions for X-Cart shopping cart software license owners. Read more...

Jul 6, 2009

Qualiteam announces launch of X-Shops project – turn-key e-commerce solution for online merchants. X-Shops includes hosting space, X-Cart with all the add-ons as platform for running a web-site and free technical support. Read more...

Jun 17, 2009

X-Cart software is now certified by PayPal UK for its integration of Website Payments Pro, Express Checkout and Website Payments Standard. This allows merchants to simply enable one of the most popular online payment solutions. Read more...

Jun 3, 2009

Qualiteam Software announces release of 15 free skin templates for X-Cart shopping cart software version 4.2. All the skins are W3C-compliant, have a CSS layout and are optimized for search engines. Read more...

Mar 12, 2009

Qualiteam Software announces the release of graphic website prototypes, sets of images ready for quick and easy integration with e-commerce websites.

Attractive, memorable design is one of key components for online stores. It's also important that the design scheme incorporates all important elements of a store interface.

Graphic prototypes from Qualiteam Software are designed specially for online stores in order to reflect their distinctive features. It allows store owners to perform easy design integration and get unique storefront look and feel. Or, in case a help is needed, our specialists can handle the integration directly on your store.

Prototypes are available both for X-Cart and LiteCommerce, but can be used with almost any e-commerce platform.

Please, refer to graphic prototypes page for details.

Jan 12, 2009

Santa got in an accident near our development&support office. We helped him to get over the wreck and now he is on his way to you! Read more...

Dec 24, 2008

Qualiteam Software announces the release of X-Cart shopping cart software version 4.2. The latest branch contains major improvements making X-Cart more search engine friendly and provides new features for more accurate shipping calculation, product images manipulation and many more. Read more...

Dec 17, 2008

Qualiteam Software announces the release of X-Cart 4.1.10.

The changes between v4.1.9 and v4.1.10 are:

InnovaStudio WYSIWYG Editor updated to 2.9.8Smarty updated to 2.6.19 versionSupport for MySQL version 5.0.50-5.0.51 improvedA number of tweaks and small changes

For detailed changes description see the CHANGELOG file, which is included into X-Cart installation package, or can be downloaded from the File Area section of your Support Help Desk account.

May 7, 2008

Qualiteam Software announces the release of Sales-n-Stats v2.1. This version contains a number of significant improvements including simplified web site integration, new skins, Skype support, improved search engines and third-party software integration. Read more...

Apr 17, 2008

Qualiteam Software presents the long-awaited shopping cart hosting service made exclusively for X-Cart license owners. All hosting plans include the unique set of features such as free online store installation, technical support, web store transfer and security patches application which handles all server-side operations. Read more...

Jan 3, 2008

Major update in affiliate and reseller programs by Qualiteam. Even better opportunities to gain on recommending our software. Read more...

Jan 3, 2008

Qualiteam Software has announced special offers available during Christmas 2007. Now X-Cart shopping cart, an industry leader in shopping cart software, bundled with the most popular additional modules is available to online retailers at a discounted price. Read more...

Dec 4, 2007

New X-cart 4.1.9 release features major improvements and opens new opportunities for merchants. Read more...

Oct 9, 2007

The makers of X-Cart release v4.1.8 and recommend X-Cart users to use it on live e-commerce web sites due to major improvements over v4.0.x. Read more...

Jul 4, 2007

The makers of X-Cart announce the complete redesign of X-Cart.com web-site which is devoted to X-Cart family of products. New design is more visitor-oriented, offers better usability and is much more convenient for browsing and searching for information about X-Cart family of products. Read more...

Jun 14, 2007

Qualiteam Software Ltd. announces BETA release of Sales-n-Stats v.2.1 Live Help software. Read more...

May 25, 2007

Qualiteam Software company announces the release of X-Cart v4.1.7. The new version features certified integration with PayPal Website Payments Pro US, integration with PayPal Website Payments Pro UK, built-in integration with Google Analytics and Quantum Payment Gateway. DHL has been added to the list of shipping carriers supported by Shipping Label Generator module. Read more...

Apr 26, 2007

Qualiteam Software company announces the release of X-Cart v4.1.4. The new version features certified Google Checkout Level 2 integration, Shipping Label Generator for USPS and UPS shipping methods, Image Verification built-in module, Australia Post order tracking and certified integration with ShipIt International Shipping API by DHL. Read more...

Dec 8, 2006

Google Checkout team has successfully certified X-Cart shopping cart by Qualiteam Software. Google Checkout is a checkout process that merchants provide on their websites to enable customers to buy quickly and securely, using a single username and password. Once a customer makes a purchase, a merchant can use Google Checkout to charge the credit card, process the order, and receive payment in his bank account. Read more...

Dec 8, 2006

Qualiteam Software makes CDGCommerce its featured US merchant account provider. CDGCommerce are experts in providing solid credit card processing solutions for US retail, MOTO and Internet businesses. A merchant account, a payment gateway, chargeback- and risk-monitoring tools, web reports, great customer support: everything a merchant needs for taking credit cards online he gets under one roof. For merchants using e-commerce products by Qualiteam Software, CDGCommerce offers two outstanding pricing plans. Read more...

Nov 16, 2006

Qualiteam Software company announces the release of X-Survey - a new add-on for popular X-Cart shopping cart software. The new module allows merchants to create and deploy easily customizable online surveys and internet polls. Read more...

Sep 21, 2006

Qualiteam Software company announces the release of X-Cart v4.1.3. The new version introduces out-of-the-box integration with Google Checkout and iDEAL payment gateway and a number of other improvements. Read more...

Aug 18, 2006

Qualiteam Software company announces the release of Sales-n-Stats Live Edition v2.0. The new version introduces the ability to monitor several web sites at the same time, separate reporting for each monitored web site, integrated spell checking function, IP ignore list and a number of improvements to the live help and website statistics functionality of previous v1.3. Read more...

Aug 4, 2006

Qualiteam Software company announces its participation at Hostingcon 2006 convention where two new products and a handful of solutions for hosting business are going to be presented to the public. Read more...

Jul 7, 2006

Qualiteam Software company announces release of brand new Sales-n-Stats Enterprise Edition software. Additionally to all live help support and website statistics functionality of Sales-n-Stats Live Edition the Enterprise Edition introduces multi-operator collaboration environment for e-commerce websites served by multiple operators and departments. Read more...

Jul 6, 2006

Qualiteam Software company announces 24x7 Qualiteam Technical Support. Feel free to request our Qualiteam Support assistance anytime. Read more...

May 19, 2006

Qualiteam software released X-Magnifier add-on module for X-Cart shopping cart software. This module allows store visitors to pan and zoom high-resolution product images. Read more...

Apr 27, 2006

New X-Cart version update: X-Cart 4.1.0 has just been released by Qualiteam software company. The new version includes lots of new features and feature improvements over 4.0.x branch. Read more...

Apr 21, 2006

Qualiteam Software company announces new policy for "recommended hosting company" program. New regulations define standard procedure for hosting companies that would like to be recommended by Qualiteam Software representatives for usage with X-Cart. Read more...

Apr 7, 2006

ComodoGroup company released brand new HackerGuardian TrustLogo product. This is the daily server vulnerability assessment and certification service that delivers essential, real time verification of your security credentials directly to your website customers and thus can be the great addition to your ecommerce website that improves visitors-to-purchasers conversion.

Feb 21, 2006

In our ongoing efforts to provide our customers with the best e-commerce solutions, we are pleased to announce the recent introduction of our new Ready2Go service, brought to you in collaboration with our official partner, Hands-on Web Hosting company. This service combines a 100%-compatible hosting solution, our brand e-commerce software installation service and software tuning service, all performed by our highly qualified professionals.

Oct 14, 2005

A brand new template set from the producer of X-Cart is up for sale. With its long-awaited horizontal category menu, the set provides a variety of four vibrant pre-designed themes which are likely to become a perfect fit for many shops specializing in areas ranging from kids stuff to business products.

Sep 8, 2005

The long awaited Special Offers add-on for X-Cart software has finally been released. It introduces a complete set of features designed to promote your online store. The add-on features a flexible mechanism for defining special offer conditions. By creating various kinds of special offers, including but not limited to price discounts, gifts and free shipping you can not only attract more customers by giving them an extra reason to buy from you, but also show existing ones how much you appreciate their choice to do business with you. With the Special Offers add-on you can create special offers suitable for every occasion, event or promotion program. Please visit X-SpecialOffers page and the online demonstration for more details.

Aug 5, 2005

Yes, the major release you heard much of on our forums and elsewhere is finally available to the public. The project name is Sales-n-Stats (Sales & Stats). As goes from the name its designed to boost your sales and provide extensive statistics on the website visitors. The software blends the advantages of brick & mortar shop's personal touch with the power and flexibility of an ecommerce website. For example you can see a new visitor coming to you from a particular referrer, watch him surfing your site and thus understand what interests him and then offer a text or voice chat to help figure things out. Or let's say you've got a message posted from your "Contact us" form. You can open the profile of the visitor, find out what interests the customer and perhaps the communication history, so give the exact answer sought and have a sale. Plus extensive statistics and platform independence.

Discounts available for X-Cart & LiteCommerce license owners.

Please view Sales-n-Stats website for more details.

Jun 14, 2005

To establish secure and confidential online transactions within your e-store and to increase the level of trust of your customers it is highly recommended to utilize SSL certificates and TrustLogo seals on every e-commerce web site.

We are glad to inform you that we are now offering SSL certificates and TrustLogos for sale. These products are provided by the world leading Certification Authority - Comodo Group. For details, conditions and prices, please visit SSL certificates page and TrustLogo page. We target to provide you with up-to-date security technologies in order to make your online business with X-Cart profitable and perfect.

Mar 20, 2005

Do you want to help your customers to choose the right product from your store? You wish your customer not get confused by the galore of numerous product features and purchase what they actually need? You bet! It is easy to make it with using X-Feature Comparison add-on module - new feature-based comparison service from X-Cart team.

X-Feature Comparison is a reliable and up-to-date solution that makes your business competitive. You can find a more detailed description in the manual.

Mar 1, 2005

Now the Neon lights template set is shipped in four different colors! You can quickly and easy change look & feel for your X-Cart store.

Please take a look at using different color schemes for better match the nature of your business.

Feb 28, 2005

If you wish to make your store looking elegantly and completely different than typical stores powered by X-Cart you can purchase one from X-Cart producer. Shipped in four different colors to better match the nature of your business. Includes all template files, images, CSS files.

Dec 20, 2004

Latest current branch version for higher stability and better performance:

X-Cart performance is improvedTest page for HTTPS bouncerThe possibility to use 'UPS OnLine Tools' module in combination with other real-time shipping modules (USPS, FedEx, DHL)

Sep 14, 2004

Some updates & bugfixes and couple new features you waited for:

New payment gateway - DirectOneMinor updates in 2Checkout, AuthorizeNet, viaKlix, HSBC, VeriSign, Nochex, BeanStream, Protx Direct and Trolley payment modulesDPI Link payment modules updated due to DPI Merchant Services name change to TransFirst eLinkProduct options import improvedMinor bugfixes

Aug 27, 2004

Latest current branch version for higher stability and functionality:

QuickBooks import improvedStatic pages functionality extendedNetBilling, WorldPay payment gateways integration improvedProduct export improvedHigher securityMinor bugfixes

Aug 12, 2004

New current branch release:

Images import functionality improvedProducts import improvedDeltaPay, AunthorizeNet, PayBox payment modules improvedHigher securityBetter Windows compatibilityMinor bugfixes

Jul 30, 2004

The new major version of X-Cart software is released. When developing 4.0.0 we focused on the use cases of the software in contemporary ecommerce environment, analyzing requests and suggestions of thousands of owners of live online stores powered by X-Cart. We believe that the new version of X-Cart software will bring you brand new experience of managing an online store and will become sturdy support for your business.

Here you can find an overview of the most important enhancements introduced in version 4.0.0:

Improved categories management mechanism (unlimited categories)Inventory tracking based on product optionsNew payment gateways supportAirborne (DHL) ShipIt API supportRMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) add-onAbility to sort products on the customer storefrontNew HTML template for invoicesImproved tax management systemUK or Canada pre-configured settingsFully multilingual interface, including admin/provider partConsiderably improved usability of administrator/provider interfaceMemory usage optimizationNew integrated UPS OnLine Tools module, supporting not only shipping rates calculation, but providing an address validation tool and the possibility to register a UPS account via X-Cart siteNew integrated Manufacturers module enabling you to classify your products by the brand namesNew integrated News Management module enabling you to have multiple news lists for your customersPrintable version for all information pages in the customer zoneAdditional options enabling you to optimize your e-store for search enginesGathering of statistical data on product search queries in the customer zone and on the client environment (browser type, screen resolution, operating system, JavaScript support)Renewed first page in the administrative zone: new orders statistics and top sellers info are addedCustomizable product search form, extended set of search fieldsSimultaneous editing of multiple productsAbility to adjust the registration form for different user typesAntifraud module: verification of the customer address in the process of checkout (check-up information can be included into the order details)Ability to edit the options of a product contained in the shopping cartAbility to export products in Froogle format

Jul 15, 2004

If you wish to have non standard look & feel for your X-Cart store without paying for expensive design services, you can purchase one from X-Cart producer. Includes all template files, images and CSS files. Designed for 800x600 (or more) screen resolution. Compatible with 99% of web-browsers, including Internet Explorer 5.0 and 6.0, Mozilla 1.3, Netscape 7, Opera, Safari.

Jun 28, 2004

Minor improvements & updates:

Better products import handling.Higher security.Several insignificant improvements & bugfixes.

Nothing exciting this time - 3.5.X branch is going to become stable. See changelog file for details.

Jun 18, 2004

Minor improvements & updates:

SaferPay payment gateway module improvedTemplates editing is improved"Update products via CSV-file" functionality is addedProduct search is improvedFancy Categories module is improvedDatabase backup functionality is improvedBetter Windows compatibility in minor casesHigher securitySeveral insignificant bugfixes

See changelog file for details.

May 27, 2004

X-Cart improves in time as all the good things do. List of improvements is below:

VeriSign PayFlow Pro, Clear Commerce (PayFuse), SECpay payment gateway modules improved.FedEx shipping module is improved.Better Windows compatibility in minor cases.Higher security.Minor improvements and several insignificant bugfixes.

See changelog file for details.

Apr 22, 2004

X-Cart never stops on what is achieved. We improved our shopping cart software again! Here is the list of things we've made better:

GnuPG encryption method as alternative to PGP.QuickBooks export improved for better compatibility with some settings.PayPal integration improved.X-AOM functionality improved.Higher security.Minor improvements and several insignificant bugfixes.

See changelog file for details.

Apr 3, 2004

We do our best to make X-Cart better. There are some improvements in the new version:

Australia and Spain states added.Blowfish crypting method can be used for order data.2Checkout payment module is improved.Better windows compatibility.Higher security.Minor improvements and several insignificant bugfixes.

See changelog file for details.

Mar 24, 2004

Several improvements and additions:

New add-on module X-FancyCategories releasedHTML Catalog is improved: a new format of filenames within hyphens is addedThe possibility to delete order is added (X-AOM module)The possibility to import/export product types & specifications and data for products classifications is added (X-Configurator)The Bank Of America payment module has been changed according to the modifications in the Settlement APIImprovement in the Canadian taxes calculation: in Quebec and Prince Edward Island only, the GST is included in the PST baseThe possibility to login on a secure page (HTTPS) is addedThe requirement of magic_quotes_gpc=On is obsolete.

Feb 10, 2004

Minor improvements and several insignificant bugfixes. See changelog file for details.

Jan 14, 2004

Several improvements and insignificant bugfixes. Major additions:

DeltaPAY payment processorAuthorize.Net SIM method implementedMulti-currency for PayFuse payment processorAbility to define multiple shipping zones for a single countryExport to QuickBooks feature was extented

Jan 5, 2004

Minor improvements and several insignificant bugfixes. See changelog file for details.

Dec 2, 2003

X-Configurator was completely redesigned in order to make it more user-friendly and convenient.

X-GiftRegistry and X-AOM (Advanced Order Management) are released. Both new add-ons are available for X-Cart v3.5.0 or higher.

Nov 19, 2003

Important additions/changes:

Redesign of the default templatesButton-style HTML linksCustomizable heading tabsNew credit card types"Clear cart" buttonGift certificates may be added to the wishlistPrintable invoicesExportable product optionsCanada Post shipping moduleA lot of new payment gateways

For more additions/changes please visit the "Features" page.

Nov 18, 2003

Minor improvements and several insignificant bugfixes. See changelog file for details.

Nov 4, 2003

Minor improvements and several insignificant bugfixes. See changelog file for details.

Aug 27, 2003

X-Cart Gold 30-day trial now available. The software has several limitations and the source code is crypted with IonCube technology. See details and FAQs.

Jun 19, 2003

X-Configurator module for X-Cart released (see details).

May 7, 2003

New features:

Storing images on a file systemMulti-lingual categoriesAbility to save the customer's cartExport orders to QuickBooks formatMulti-lingual product optionsSupport for Interneka affiliates software"Tax exempt" featureThe possibility to find, create and modify static HTML pages within X-Cart directory is added20 new payment gatewaysThe possibility to disable checkout without registeringGST/PST (canadian tax system)

May 7, 2003

New features:

The file download process for e-goods is optimized (now it is possible to download files in parts).The 'Webmaster mode' now works in Netscape 7.0.Start year and end year (in the forms where date should be selected) are configurable now from "General settings/Company options" and config.php.The possibility to disable products which are out of stock is added.

Apr 7, 2003

New features:

The orders and products export and database backup processes are optimized to decrease the memory usage.

Mar 19, 2003

New features:

Debug mode for the realtime shipping rates calculation is added;The possibility to turn off sending e-mail notifications about initially placed orders is added.

Feb 21, 2003

New features:

Small shop layout. For shops which have single category, therefore do not require to have categories tree and search form.

Jan 24, 2003

New features:

Visual editor (Webmaster mode)Weight limit for shippingSeveral new payment gatewaysPerl patch toolAbility to clone productsHTML catalog generator (allows to make your shop friendly to search engines)Credit card checksum validator

Dec 23, 2002

New features:

New installation wizardMembership levels are now editable via webSeveral pre-defined template schemes"Bestsellers" module added Support for 9 new credit card processing gateways added A lot of new features and improvements

Sep 26, 2002

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