tag:www.ryandesignstudio.com,2010:/blog//4 2010-03-03T18:38:35Z Movable Type 3.31 tag:www.ryandesignstudio.com,2010:/blog//4.42 2010-03-03T18:35:33Z 2010-03-03T18:38:35Z

Ok, so I am the worst blogger in the history of the world, I admit it! But hey, if I was blogging all day and not working, that would not be good either right? So yes, we have been very...

Ok, so I am the worst blogger in the history of the world, I admit it! But hey, if I was blogging all day and not working, that would not be good either right? So yes, we have been very busy here at Ryan Design Studio for the last few months. Lots of projects to update which I will do shortly. We've started working with the 4.3.1 branch of X-Cart now. Not really any huge new features, but a number of my clients appreciate the dimensional shipping and pre-auth functionality for credit card payments (authorize first, charge when shipped). The mod vendors are pretty much caught up to converting their mods over, so we are now using this as our production version. We have of course rewritten the templates using clean CSS, as X-Cart out of the box is quite bloated and sloppy when it comes to the CSS/html. Nothing a few hours of cleanup can't fix! tag:www.ryandesignstudio.com,2009:/blog//4.41 2009-12-26T21:28:46Z 2009-12-26T21:29:29Z

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Thanks to all of the people we had the pleasure of working with this year, and we look forward to working with even more of you next year!...

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Thanks to all of the people we had the pleasure of working with this year, and we look forward to working with even more of you next year! tag:www.ryandesignstudio.com,2009:/blog//4.40 2009-11-11T14:51:53Z 2009-11-11T14:54:20Z

Big news today - X-Cart 4.3 was released: http://www.x-cart.com/news/xcart-430-released.html This represents a pretty big change from the 4.1 platform, and as soon as we have done some testing and let the bugs work themselves out we'll be switching to this...

Big news today - X-Cart 4.3 was released: http://www.x-cart.com/news/xcart-430-released.html This represents a pretty big change from the 4.1 platform, and as soon as we have done some testing and let the bugs work themselves out we'll be switching to this platform for all new installs. Looks like they did a nice job on first glance though. If you are starting a new site in the next few weeks, I'd hold out for at least another release - the early ones usually have a few bugs that need to get fixed before it can be used for a live site, although they did a pretty good job with beta on this one. Will post an update here once we have had a chance to play around with it a bit more. tag:www.ryandesignstudio.com,2009:/blog//4.39 2009-09-28T21:19:51Z 2009-09-28T21:29:56Z

Well, it has been a while - and a crazy summer. The big news is, Ryan Design Studio has moved into a new office! You can now find us in Branford, Connecticut - one town south of our old location....

Top Gun Supply + Just 4 Birds + Custom Promise Rings + Coffee Shrine + Strider Sports + Lotioncrafter.com + Center Point Pond + Tutti Amici + The Brides Pendant + CEP Socks ]]> tag:www.ryandesignstudio.com,2009:/blog//4.38 2009-05-12T17:35:07Z 2009-05-12T17:50:37Z

Well, my New Year's resolution of updating the blog often didn't last long! I'll try to redeem myself in the coming months. Just wanted to give an update on what is going on in the X-Cart world, as this year...

Well, my New Year's resolution of updating the blog often didn't last long! I'll try to redeem myself in the coming months. Just wanted to give an update on what is going on in the X-Cart world, as this year should be an interesting one. First, X-Cart has a very good running list put together by forum users on features that should be available in v5. We are all hopeful that this new flagship cart will be as good as promised. With the impending PA-DSS compliance deadline fast approaching (a little over a year now) we finally got an answer out of Qualitaem as to how they will be handling this. The v5 cart will be PA-DSS compliant out of the box, meaning you won't have to do anything to be PA-DSS and thus PCI-Compliant. For those of you who are using 4.0.x or 4.1.x versions of X-Cart, Qualiteam will be releasing a plug-in module that will essentially act as its own independent payment gateway, operating outside of X-Cart, which will allow those older versions of carts to also be PA-DSS compliant. I'm a little nervous about how easy this will be, as I don't really look forward to updating 150 carts the day before the regulations kick in! Let's hope they release these modules with plenty of time to spare. I have been getting a lot of questions lately about what version of X-Cart they should be using. Most of the X-Cart professionals, myself included, are recommending to stay with 4.1.12, at least until v5 comes out at the end of the year. 4.2 is still extremely buggy, and with the upcoming release of 4.3, it doesn't appear that Qualiteam is paying much attention to making 4.2 stable. 4.3 may be a little better, but 4.1.12 is still a much more stable platform and will be fine until it is time to try out v5. I have a long list of site launches which I will post shortly in another entry. tag:www.ryandesignstudio.com,2009:/blog//4.37 2009-02-20T19:45:30Z 2009-02-20T19:55:56Z

For those of you who already own X-Cart and don't visit the forums that often, now is a good time to start. There is a thread in the 'Wish List' forum that is meant for suggestions for the v5 platform....

www.apitherapy.org. This one is pretty highly customized, special thanks to Matt at Vector for all of his help. After spending the last few months developing 15 different sites, they are slowly starting to go live: Scuba Basics Hapari Swimwear Mane Depot Welcome Bags We'll have a few more to announce in the coming weeks. ]]> tag:www.ryandesignstudio.com,2009:/blog//4.36 2009-01-24T19:09:51Z 2009-01-24T19:16:09Z

X-Cart (Qualiteam) announced the other day that they will be completely re-engineering their shopping cart systems, combining their main product (X-Cart) with their 'Lite' product (LiteCommerce) into a brand new product called X-Cart v5. It looks as though they plan...

X-Cart (Qualiteam) announced the other day that they will be completely re-engineering their shopping cart systems, combining their main product (X-Cart) with their 'Lite' product (LiteCommerce) into a brand new product called X-Cart v5. It looks as though they plan to involve the current client base in the development of this next-generation shopping cart, at least in providing feedback on what features/functions it should have. This is good news for everyone, as the tech behind their current cart is starting to look a bit out of date, particular when so many other carts are embracing AJAX and other user-friendly, time saving techniques. We can only hope that things like real-time form error checking, dragging and dropping and a CMS will be part of this new X-Cart, but I will be lobbying hard for exactly this type of technology. I'll post updates here as things start to take shape, and we hear more about it from X-Cart. tag:www.ryandesignstudio.com,2009:/blog//4.35 2009-01-19T16:44:32Z 2009-01-19T17:35:47Z

Even though many of us are hopeful that the new President and his administration will eventually turn the economy around, the current recession will be here for a while. For online store owners, the simple fact is that if you...

Pricing/Free Shipping - The first thing you can do is make sure your pricing is competitive. Now more than ever people are bargain shopping, and if they can find the same product you are selling elsewhere for less, that is where they are going to buy it. One way to 'one up' your competition is to always offer free shipping of some sort. Even if your prices are a bit higher than the competition, the psychological effect of free shipping tends to win people over. If you have a threshold of a certain dollar amount to get to free shipping, the benefit is often a higher average order. People will spend an extra $10 to get $5 of free shipping. A crazy as it sounds, it is all in the psychology. Add a Blog - Google in particular eats this stuff up and it is an easy way to add weekly/daily fresh content to your site. Write articles about new products, ways to use your products, or just general articles about your industry. Use keywords freely, and try to update it at least once a week. WordPress is the blog we use most often, as it is free and very easy to alter to match the design of your site. The only catch is that you need to install it on your domain (i.e. yourdomain.com/blog) and not a hosted solution like yoursite.wordpress.com, as the benefit to the search engine only works if it is ON your domain. Build your backlinks - now is a perfect time really focus on getting inbound links to your site. These can't just be random links on random sites, they need to have a decent PageRank (4 or above) and need to be related to your industry. Forums and blogs are great places to add links to your site, as are manufacturer's web sites, local chambers of commerce and trade organizations or groups. Make your customers feel comfortable ordering from you - sometimes when it comes down to buying from site A or site B (and pricing is the same) the customer will simply choose which one they feel more comfortable with. There are a number of things that contribute to a customer's comfort level: - A clearly defined set of policies (returns, shipping, privacy, etc) - An 'About Us' page that lets the customer know there are real people taking their money. A nice friendly photo of yourself/your family also goes a long way to building customer confidence - Make sure your site is secure, and let them know it is secure by adding trust icons and an SSL icon - A professional design. Nothing throws up a red flag more than a cookie cutter, generic design Explore new ways to advertise/promote your products - there are lots of ways to promote your products these days that you may not have considered: - Push your products out to 'shopping' sites such as Google Base, Shopzilla, etc - Create a channel on Youtube and publish videos about your products - Create a Facebook and MySpace page for your site - Advertise with AdWords - Send out a monthly newsletter with current promotions/specials. An easy way to remind customers to come back and visit you again Hire an SEO specialist - even if you think you are promoting the correct keywords in your site, having a professional analysis done may lead to the discovery of 'niche' keywords that could drive a whole new batch of traffic to your site. Many SEO firms offer an entry-level 'report' that gives you a detailed breakdown of your competitors and keywords/potential traffic. That should give you plenty of things to work on in the coming months. The good news is, an economy like this tends to weed out the stores that aren't 100% serious about their business. This can result in increased traffic and sales for you if you take the time to do things right. ]]> tag:www.ryandesignstudio.com,2008:/blog//4.34 2008-12-31T21:15:42Z 2008-12-31T21:17:27Z

Just want to take a moment to wish our clients, friends and colleagues a Happy, Healthy New Year! Lots to look forward to in 2009, including a new version of X-Cart!...

Just want to take a moment to wish our clients, friends and colleagues a Happy, Healthy New Year! Lots to look forward to in 2009, including a new version of X-Cart! tag:www.ryandesignstudio.com,2008:/blog//4.33 2008-12-18T16:28:59Z 2008-12-18T16:33:54Z

Qualiteam released X-Cart 4.2 today, and I have already received about 10 e-mails asking how to go about upgrading. Unfortunately, there will not be an upgrade kit available from 4.1 to 4.2, as the template and shipping systems are so...

Qualiteam released X-Cart 4.2 today, and I have already received about 10 e-mails asking how to go about upgrading. Unfortunately, there will not be an upgrade kit available from 4.1 to 4.2, as the template and shipping systems are so drastically different, it would be nearly impossible. There will be a database patch released, which will allow you to upgrade your 4.1.x database to 4.2, but that still means you'd need to start with a fresh install of 4.2. So for those of you who are running a 4.1.x store, I would recommend sticking with it. If you are about to build a new store, I'd still give it a few months for the third party developers to catch up, as they will most likely need to completely rebuild their modules to accommodate the new template system. It does look like a nice clean layout, something we have been asking for forever. The dimensional shipping and pre-auth/capture functionality for some payment gateways is also a nice touch. All of the other 'new' features have existed for quite a while in the third party market, so there is really nothing earth shattering here. Still, always nice to see Qualiteam making progress and keeping their cart updated. The CSS-based template is essential, as it renders much cleaner than tables, and is a lot easier to modify. It is also much more search engine friendly and cross-browser compatible, so a welcome change indeed. Wishing you all a Happy Holiday season! tag:www.ryandesignstudio.com,2008:/blog//4.32 2008-11-07T18:25:11Z 2008-11-07T18:44:33Z

X-Cart just came out with their new 4.2 version in beta today - doing some testing now to see how it looks. The big changes include many features we have included in our stores for over a year now, but...

Nurture My Body South Nest Exotic Orient SpaBox RelaxOBak ]]> tag:www.ryandesignstudio.com,2008:/blog//4.31 2008-10-28T16:58:48Z 2008-10-28T17:25:25Z

It has been a while since I have posted a list of recommended add-ons for X-Cart, and in that time some great ones have come out. First, there are a few that are essential IMHO: CDSEO - this add-on gives...

CDSEO - this add-on gives you complete control over your URLs, META data, Title tags and links. This is a mod you simply cannot be without if you expect to do well in the search engines. Well worth the price, and the support is excellent. DO NOT buy the XCSEO alternative that has been gorilla-marketed in the forums. Not only will you receive zero support by the company who sells it, chances are it will completely disable your site when you upgrade your site. On Sale - If you want to run any sort of promotion on your site from free shipping to offering free products, this is the mod you need. Also excellent support from this company. Smart Search - if you have a product catalog of over 100 products, it is important to have a good site search tool. The X-Cart default search is awful - this mod works much like Google in that it can handle misspellings, plural/singular, etc One Page Checkout - the key to conversions is to make the checkout process as easy and simple as possible. If you are one of our clients you have our streamlined checkout to do this for you, but if you aren't, this is a great alternative. This mod uses Ajax to put everything related to the checkout on one page. The customer will have paid for the order before they even know what hits them! The next group are great mods as well if you are looking for particular functionality: Buy Together - another great mod from Altered Cart, this one lets you set up 'deals' when you buy two (or more) products together like Amazon.com does. Also automatically recommends products that 'customers also bought' which saves you hours of manually adding upselling links. Marketing Manager Pro - this is a great tool to help you better understand how customers are using your store, and it also gives you some great reporting abilities (something severely lacking in X-Cart). T-Hub - if you are looking for a solution to seamlessly integrate X-Cart, Quickbooks and all of the major shippers (UPS, USPS, FedEx) this is the one! Flyout Menus - if you are looking for a dynamic category menu, Phil has many choices available. Customer Review Management - by default, X-Cart doesn't have much control over product reviews. This tool provides the missing functionality that SHOULD be there already. Remember Anonymous Carts - I'm sure you all do it - you go to a store to browse, add a few things to your cart and come back later to buy. In X-Cart, unless you are logged in, that cart is lost as soon as you close the browser. This add-on saves the cart, even if you aren't logged in. Power Filtering - another feature missing in X-Cart is the ability to 'filter' the product display within a category. This mod lets you define those filters in the admin so that your customers can easily find what they are looking for.]]> tag:www.ryandesignstudio.com,2008:/blog//4.30 2008-10-17T19:26:33Z 2008-10-17T19:39:26Z

Well it has been a while - so much for my resolution of updating the blog daily. I have a valid excuse though - this has been the best year ever for Ryan Design Studio, and I just haven't had...

New X-Cart release coming soon! Rumor has it that the new version, 4.2, will be out in November. Now if this is a typical Qualiteam release, it means it won't be usable for a few months as they use customers as the bug testers, but from what we are hearing it is going to be a major update. It sounds like it will be CSS-based (finally) along with a dimension based shipping system and search engine friendly urls. Sounds very promising. Whenever a new version comes out, we get flooded with e-mails asking if they should update to the latest version. In this case, it is going to be very expensive, as X-Cart has completely re-done the template system and shipping module, so it isn't just about adding a couple of patch files. Once we do a bit of testing on the new version, we'll report back as to what your options are if you do want to upgrade. Ryan Design Studio video learning series - coming soon! One of the things that has been on the long-term radar for a while has been a series of educational videos on the X-Cart system. As we all know, the manual is cumbersome at best, and doesn't really offer a good tutorial on how things work, and where things are in the back-end. We will be starting with a general overview of the administration area, and then we'll focus on specific areas (options, shipping, languages, etc). Look for the first video to be available here in the blog in the next week or so. Site update We just finished updating the site, as it was due for both a code and content overhaul. A few things to note: - We are no longer offering 'static' web design as a service. We've really become e-commerce specialists and that is what we are going to focus on from here on out. - Have a look at our new SEO page which gives a brief overview on SEO for those of you not familiar with it. - A major update to the portfolio with 15 new projects listed What's next? In the next week, we'll be posting an updated list of recommended X-Cart add-ons, as there has been quite an increase in both vendors selling mods, and new mods from existing vendors. Also look for the videos mentioned above, I think these will prove very helpful to a lot of people. Check back soon! ]]> tag:www.ryandesignstudio.com,2008:/blog//4.29 2008-05-02T15:07:01Z 2008-05-02T16:13:14Z

March and April were our busiest months ever, with about 10 sites going live. We are also working on finishing up an additional 15 projects that will be launching in May. Hence the delay in updating the blog! An important...

Marlo Beauty - we migrated Marlo from another cart system, and gave them a completely custom site with too many custom features to mention. This was a collaboration with their graphic design firm - designiko. Dog Collar Boutique - a brand new site featuring a custom size and price filter. War Game Store - a brand new site specializing in Warhammer. Starring Fragrances - celebrity sisters Ashley and Courtney Peldon's perfume and jewelry store. We moved them over from another cart system and added a forum and blog. Mango Madness - we moved Mango over from another store system and gave them a fresh look and feel. Kashmir Company - it doesn't get much more custom than this! With extensive use of Flash and Thickbox, you can barely tell this was once X-Cart. ]]> tag:www.ryandesignstudio.com,2008:/blog//4.28 2008-02-27T13:32:15Z 2008-03-03T13:48:37Z

So much for keeping that New Year's resolution of posting once a month! Ah well, they are made to be broken right? We've been extremely busy this year already, having launched more than 10 stores since Jan 1, with 20...

Salud Spa Bar - a completely new site featuring a 'build your own scent' module. Wizard Coin Supply - a completely new site featuring SEO by Vector Computer Consulting Grand Furniture Showcase - a highly customized site featuring a large number of enhancements and add-on modules. Just Bird Stuff - redesign of an existing site with major SEO and customer usability enhancements. Victory Canter - redesign of a standard X-Cart template, we also re-organized their navigation menu, added thickbox functionality and our streamlined checkout. Flag Addict - a new site selling garden flags of all types. ]]>