Is this what we waited for so long?

[Odettes]

First impression after I installed and started testing the "Gold" is that it feels like version 7 with some new web design.
Where did the improved checkout go? The one I see now is basically the same as in the previous version but with redesigned graphics.
When can we get a checkoutpage where everything is on one page without having to click through different tabs, a "real" one page checkout?

I had really been looking forward to this version, but unfortunately it turned out that expectations did not live up to the results.
Maybe it will be better in the future when the new features are presented, but right now it feels not worth the trouble to convert my heavily modified version to this new platform.

[Shopping Cart Admin]

Hello Thomas,

There's a lot more too it than meets the eye and with our expanded development staff you will see more and more must have features added in the coming months.

AbleCommerce GOLD Technical Highlights

AbleCommerce GOLD is all about bringing the best Asp.Net shopping cart in line with current technologies. Our core API has been rewritten using technologies like NHibernate, Castle Windsor, and Lucene. We have incorporated over 600 (and counting) automated integration tests to verify that our software meets higher standards of quality. We have also upgraded our web scripts to the Web Application Project architecture to provide faster startup times with the pre-compiled website.

Developers and custom site designers alike will appreciate our restructured scripts that make better use of standard asp.net technologies and less use of proprietary techniques. Master pages make it easy to make global changes to layout or design, and our WC3 valid HTML provides plenty of hooks for designers to make your website fit your unique company image with CSS. One look at our sample store themes and you will see the wide variety of look and feel that can be applied without any changes to our source code!

AbleCommerce GOLD Feature Highlights
• All new mobile store opens up a whole new way for your customers to browse and buy
• Increase conversion ratio with Amazon payments
• Improved HTML - no table layouts, more CSS friendly, and retail scripts are w3c valid
• Much faster product searches without requiring SQL Server Full Text Services
• All new store themes
• Reorgranized admin with easier access to important management tasks
• Updated user account management with tabbed interface
• Improved image gallery for product browsing
• Redesigned checkout experience
• Merchants can now process refunds of gift certificates
• Easier entry of meta keywords and descriptions for products and other web content
• New tabbed interfaces for order and product management
• Capture payments from the main order screen
• All new features for managing website content.
• Import and export store themes
• Make changes to your store theme with the new CSS editor
• Customize your page layouts with the new layout manager
• Orders can now be deleted by superuser admins
• Valid payment is now required for an order to be submitted
• Choice of 3 new Admin themes
• Enable or disable order note
• Enable or disable guest checkout from store settings page

[bkort@web2market.com]

Hi Thomas:

We've been working on AC Gold in BETA for a good month, and I think you'll find there's more to the new version than what you've seen yet. What you say is what our first impression was too. However, as we've explored the new version, we've found that there are a few major enhancements and dozens and dozens of smaller improvements.

You mention the checkout as an example. It is actually a much improved process. Off the top of my head, first, it's much clearer to customers checking out because shipping and payment details are more clearly displayed. Second, for customers with more than one delivery address, it's awesome. As you work with the multiple delivery addresses and there revised address book, you'll see it's clearer, faster process than I've ever seen in any cart.

Don't let the familiar look fool you into thinking there isn't some great stuff here. The more you look, the more you'll find. It may not yet be compelling for you to upgrade. But as AbleCommerce now proceeds to add more features in future releases, it will be. Other merchants may find it's huge for them right now.

[meer2005]

Personally, I think the checkout I think the checkout took two steps back and I'd never put this live on our site. I don't even seen the option to use the current One Page Checkout? I have no clue why it went from the current 'One Page Checkout' (a semi one page checkout) to the three page convoluted and redundant mess I'm seeing in GOLD. I order stuff online all the time and always take note of how much more simplified (compared to our current 7.4 one page checkout) I find other checkout pages to be, I won’t even compare it to what I'm seeing in GOLD. Let me share an example of a checkout I used recently, a true One Page (at-a-glance) Checkout. I'll attach a screenshot.

[Shopping Cart Admin]

Hello,

First of all we're not requiring you upgrade your website and your free to do what ever you wish. We are leaving the past in the past and we've planted a new foundation for the future with this release. OPC was the 'thing' 5 years ago...today FEW major merchants use it, it's just too limiting AND confusing to the customer.

Again, AbleCommerce GOLD is all about bringing the best Asp.Net shopping cart in line with current technologies.

You can accomplish this kind of checkout with AbleCommerce GOLD with a bit of customization, if you don't require all of the features of AbleCommerce then the checkout can be streamlined quite a bit as in your example above. We're looking to provide a consistent user experience that can easily be followed similar to Amazon. The kida one page checkout was really just 4 pages embedded into one, which made it impossible to figure out where the customer dropped out of the purchasing experience and it wasn't possible for anyone to customize as the code was FAR too complex.

In your example above it would be complicated to know 'when' the customer decided to stop shopping, was it a field validation issue, shipping charges too high, CC declined etc, If they wanted to ship to multiple addresses where would they go, etc, etc.

[Shopping Cart Admin]

Hello All,

Obviously after spending 18 months working on our new release, all of us are disappointed that your overlooking a TON of improvements that are in this release and reading over the published goals for GOLD. The foundation was heading into it's 5th year..it had to be replaced for us to build into the future.

I'll lead into my next paragraph with a quote from Thomas:

Maybe it will be better in the future when the new features are presented, but right now it feels not worth the trouble to convert my heavily modified version to this new platform.

We build well written software, that's what we do. Yes we could of added a bunch of wiz bang features over the last 18 months on top of an old foundation like so many others, but then we wouldn't be the company we are today and you wouldn't be reading this. People buy AbleCommerce not because of the features it has, but because of the stability it provides them to easily customize our software in ways that no other product can match.

We welcome everyone to visit the AbleCommerce roadmap page, join us on facebook and help shape the future of our product.

http://www.ablecommerce.com/Roadmap-W149.aspx

[meer2005]

Speaking for myself, I'm not overlooking all the improvements, rather simply sharing my thoughts one what seemed to be the focus of what this topic was about.

First of all we're not requiring you upgrade your website and your free to do what ever you wish.

I would hope that you would want us to upgrade to GOLD.

I've yet to go through all the MANY, MANY improvements as I've only had GOLD running for 1 day. I'm looking forward to seeing Checkout by Amazon in action, the mobile end, SEO, etc... We all have a vested interest in seeing AC move in an innovative and forward looking direction. Many of us may not have shared our feedback on facebook for whatever reasons (pseudonymity??), but that doesn't mean we have not shared our feedback on the forums on the topic over the past few years since AC 7 was introduced.

I don't think it's necessarily about having a OPC, but rather giving the customer the illusion of a OPC for a simplified checkout experience, or steps that don't really feel like steps and that don't seem repetitive.

I don't want our customers going through a checkout that seems to ask the following: (Page one) Are you sure you want to purchase? -- (Page two) are you sure you're sure you want to purchase? --- (Page three) are you sure you're sure that you're sure you want to purchase?? It just didn't seem fluid to me and felt like more of a process with seeing the billing information 3 times, order summary 3 times, etc..

By far, the best checkout I've seen with an AC store is -- http://www.drugtestcentral.com/ -- It's clean, it's simple, it's not repetitive, intuitive, it has logical steps, yet it feels like a single simple page, everything can be edited from a single page, and it's just a customized version of the original AC 7 One Page Checkout.


Steve Jobs: "Simple can be harder than complex."

[Shopping Cart Admin]

Howdy,

Of course we want you to upgrade, but as many folks have heavily customized websites it's going to be up to each individual merchant what is in their best interest and we understand that!

The W3C compliant store files will improve SEO right out of the gate for ALL merchants and the improved Google shopping feed is also going to help drive more sales if you use it.

While Amazon checkout and Mobile store didn't qet past QC in this release, they will be available in a couple of weeks and both of these items will drive sales that's for sure.

There are quite a few merchants that are constantly evolving their stores on a daily basis and I believe it makes sense for them to upgrade so they are building on the future instead of the past.

[jmestep]

A major improvement but not very visible one I see is one that answers a problem for a lot of our clients- toggles for anonymous checkout and ignore failed payments. Anonymous checkout has caused problems for merchants who had repeat customers coming back and saying "Why can't I see my other orders? Why can't I download my digital goods?" The ignore failed payments lets the merchant decide whether they want the order to come thru or not when a payment fails.

9-3-2012 8-11-12 AM.png

There are other new features I have found as I have worked with this version, but they weren't obvious at first.

[DG433]

Thank you for NHibernate!!!!!

I have spent the day just reading through the day, analyzing how to port my previous code into this one. I am overall thrilled with how much easier the code in this new version is to read / work through. I am greatly appreciative of this upgrade.

Now just need themes!