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List of Features

Shopping Cart Features | Administrative Features | Technical Features

Shopping Cart Features

  • Product catalog. Customers can easily and quickly search for your products and browse through the store's category tree. Descriptions, pricing, inventory levels, discounting, and any number of custom fields can be displayed with each product.
  • Product attributes. Administrators can define attributes and options for each product (such as a size of small, medium, or large). Separate pricing, separate images, and even separate inventory levels and discounting can be attached to each product/attribute/option combination.
  • Unlimited Product Images. You can associate any number of images with each product. The system automatically creates thumbnails of any additional images you upload. The thumbnails are displayed under the main image on the product page, and when clicked, a pop up window displays the full-sized image. ()See the release announcement for some screenshots.)
  • Breadcrumbing. Complete breadcrumbing appears at the top of all store pages, ensuring customers will find their way around your store. Breadcrumbing for product pages includes links to each of the product's parent categories.
  • Adding multiple items to the cart. From the search results screen or a category page, customers can add multiple products to their cart at once, including entering each item's quantity and selecting options and attributes for each product from the one screen. Relevant inventory levels and discounts are displayed with each product as well.
  • Display Products in Row or Columns. Products can be displayed in either row or column format, on category pages, manufacturer pages and search results. In addition, if displaying column format, you can choose how many columns to display the products in.
  • Home Page Options. You may choose to completely customize the home page, or to display the store's top-level categories in column format, or turn the home page in to a category page (simply create a category with a code of "_welcome") so you can list featured products and subcategories.
  • Customer accounts. SoftSlate Commerce includes complete support for customer accounts, including an address book, saved carts, auto cart pickup, lost password retrieval, and customer order history. You can set your store to require customers to create an account before placing an order, or make it optional.
  • Gift Certificates. Gift certificates may be offered for sale in the store and they immediately become redeemable as soon as they are purchased via a code that is emailed. Customers may elect to have the gift certificate emailed to themselves or to a friend, and include an optional message. When it is redeemed, the gift certificate is applied against the order total and its balance updated as each order is placed. Administrators have full access to view and create gift certificates in the Administrator interface. Two video demos are available on the topic of gift certificates.
  • Wish Lists. Customers may choose to create any number of "wish lists" of items they'd like to have. They can send their wish lists to their friends, who can buy the items for them. They can modify their wish lists at any time, create new ones, and more. A video demo is available on the topic of wish lists.
  • Product Reviews. Allow your customers to rate and review each of your products. Each time a review is submitted, you'll receive a notification email. In the Administrator interface you can then approve the review which displays it on the product's page and contributes to the product's average rating. Harness the power of social content directly on your site! See the release announcement for some screenshots.
  • Estimated Shipping Costs Displayed on the Cart Page. You may display estimated shipping costs on the cart page by activating a setting in the Administrator (Shipping Configuration -> Shipping Settings -> "Display Estimated Shipping on Cart Page"). The estimated shipping is calculated in real time as each item is added to or removed from the cart. If you are integrating with UPS or USPS, a query for the actual rates is sent with each change of the cart. It also works with other shipping processors such as the "Shipping Methods" defined in the Administrator. The lowest rate returned is displayed below the items on the cart page. Since shipping costs are a critical factor for most shopping cart users, this will help your customers decide what to purchase.
  • Order form. In addition to offering products for sale through a traditional shopping cart, SoftSlate Commerce's one-page order form feature allows shoppers to place a complete order for multiple products from a single screen.
  • Checkout screens. As the store's administrator, you can decide whether to combine address and payment forms into one checkout screen, and whether or not to display a confirmation screen to the customer before completing an order. Breadcrumbing throughout the checkout process ensures your customers won't get lost.
  • Emailed invoices. Completely customizable invoices are emailed to the shopper and the store administrator, in both HTML and text format.
  • ... And much more. To explore SoftSlate Commerce and its features, please visit our Demo Store.

Administrative Features

  • Complete control. SoftSlate Commerce's web-based Administrator gives you complete control over adding, editing, and deleting every type of object in the application, including categories, products, attributes, SKUs, discounts, options, customers, addresses, orders, order items, payments, and more. Over 150 system settings give you unsurpassed control over the behavior of your store.
  • Easy to manage. The web-based Administrator includes numerous features to help make your store easy to manage. Power Edit mode, Quick-Add forms, Overview screens and convenient in-line help including links to related areas of the application all create an enjoyable experience.
  • Search-Engine Friendly URLs (SEO). The entire product catalog is accessed with configurable, search-engine friendly URLs so it can be spidered as if it were a static Web site. Administrators may configure the URLs to include a file extension, such as ".html", or use the default, directory-style URLs. In addition, for each product and category meta keywords and a meta description may be defined.
  • Administrators and roles. You can set up any number of separate administrator logins and passwords, one for each coworker who needs to have access to the system. You can then assign each administrator one or more of over 100 built-in roles, giving you fine-grained control over access to the system.
  • Inventory tracking. Store administrators can track inventory for products, and for any combination of products, attributes, and options. Administrators can decide to decrement inventory either as users add items to their carts, or as they complete an order. Low stock email notifications can be sent when stock levels reach certain levels, and all inventory settings can be set globally, or overridden product-by-product.
  • Discounting. Discounts of all types are supported, including percentage discounts, absolute value discounts, quantity discounts, and coupons. Administrators have control over numerous settings for each discount, including:
    • Which customers the discount applies to.
    • When the discount starts and if and when it expires.
    • Which products and product/attribute/option combinations the discount applies to.
    • How many times the discount may be used.
    • What product(s) must be added to the cart before the discount may be used.
  • Merchandising: Cross-selling on the Product Page. For each product in the store, administrators can define any number of other "related products", which are available for display on the product page. Perfect for cross-selling two products that go together.
  • Merchandising: Upselling on the Cart Page. A setting in the Administrator (Orders and Customers -> Orders -> Checkout Flow -> "Upsell Related Products on Cart Page") allows you to display a product's "Related Products" whenever the product is added to the cart, providing a handy way to upsell products. The related products are displayed at the bottom of the cart page, under the heading, "You Might Also Be Interested In..."
  • Merchandising: Get x Number of y Items Free. You may set up a discount whose reward is that the customer gets x number of a given SKU or set of SKUs for free. For example, you could define a discount that offers the customer one free t-shirt with purchase of $50 or more. Or, two free coffee mugs and a free t-shirt for any logged in customer.
  • Merchandising: Buy x Item, Get Discount. One of the conditions for a discount may be that a given item is in the user's cart. This allows you to offer promotions where if the customer buys a given item, they become eligible for other discounts. For example, if you sell knife sets, you could define a discount where if you buy a knife set, you are eligible for two free butter knives.
  • Merchandising: Shipping Discounts. A discount may also be created that is calculated and applied against the order's shipping cost as opposed to the subtotal. This allows for a number of possibilities, such as free shipping above orders totaling $x or more, and much more.
  • Virtual products. SoftSlate Commerce allows you to sell virtual products as downloadable files. Any number of files can be assigned to each product. Links to download these files appear in the customer's account area after completing an order.
  • Cloning Products. A screen under each product allows you to clone it (Product Catalog -> Products -> Details -> More -> Clone Product). When you clone it, a new product will be created that has the same data. Optionally, you may choose to clone any Attributes that were assigned to the product, or to simply assign the same Attributes to the new product. For stores that sell many items that are similar, it can save tons of set up time.
  • Order Management Features. Features to allow you to more easily manage your store's incoming orders on the control screen for orders (Orders and Customers -> Orders):
    • Click off a few checkboxes, and select a status to update the statuses of multiple orders at once.
    • To assist with shipping and fulfillment, you can also check off orders that you wish to print invoices and/or packing lists for.
    • Finally you can set up email templates to email customers at various stages of the fulfillment process. A video demo is available on the topic of Order Status Email Templates.
    From the Order Overview screen for each order (Orders and Customers -> Orders -> Overview), management tools include the ability to:
    • Edit billing and delivery information
    • Modify and reprocess the order's shipping method
    • Add and remove order items
    • Add and remove coupons
    • In addition the "Add New Record" link allows you to create an order from scratch interactively as an administrator.
    Each of the above tools reprocesses inventory, discounts, shipping and taxes whenever appropriate, and updates the order totals automatically. These tools are available for the Enterprise Edition. A video demo is available on these order management tools on the Overview Screen.
  • Shipping. SoftSlate Commerce features the following methods to configure shipping:
    • UPS Online Tools integration comes with SoftSlate Commerce, providing real-time shipping rates during checkout. (Enable by going to Shipping Configuration -> Shipping Settings and Shipping Configuration -> UPS Settings.)
    • USPS Web Tools integration comes with SoftSlate Commerce, providing real-time shipping rates during checkout. (Enable by going to Shipping Configuration -> Shipping Settings and Shipping Configuration -> USPS Settings.)
    • FedEx integration comes with SoftSlate Commerce. With any FedEx account, you can display real-time shipping rates to customers on the cart page and as they go through checkout. (Enable by going to Shipping Configuration -> Shipping Settings and Shipping Configuration -> FedEx Settings.)
    • SoftSlate Commerce's "Basic" shipping processor allows administrators to define their own shipping tables by weight, quantity, price, and more.
    • SoftSlate Commerce allows you to set up a variety of Shipping Rules, including the ability to define separate shipping packages for UPS based on the quantities of individual items in the cart. The packages may carry their own weights and dimensions, allowing you unsurpassed accuracy in the UPS and USPS rates that are offered to customers. In addition, shipping rules that define shipping methods that are allowed or disallowed for certain items or locations, and shipping discounts, may also be set up.
  • Drop Shipper Features. Manufacturers within SoftSlate may be identified as "Drop Shippers" (Product Catalog -> Manufacturers -> Details -> Drop Shipper? field). If you are using the UPS or USPS integrations and a customer places an order for a product from a "Drop Shipper", SoftSlate will automatically divide the order up into multiple shipments, one for each drop shipper, and query UPS or USPS appropriately. The shipping rates displayed will be accurate, based on the origination address of each item's Drop Shipper.
  • Payment processing. SoftSlate Commerce integrates with the following payment gateways: It also provides a built-in processor that captures credit card information and stores it in encrypted format for later processing. Integration with other outside payment processors is easily accomplished by extending built-in objects.
  • Taxes. SoftSlate provides two options for computing taxes.
    • Basic Tax Rates: The Administrator may define a tax table with tax rates defined by country, state, city, or ZIP code.
    • AvaTax Integration: For those seeking more robust tax computation that takes into account all of the latest tax laws from jurisdictions of all kinds throughout the US, SoftSlate Commerce integrates with the AvaTax service from Avalara. (You must sign up for AvaTax separately and enter your account information into SoftSlate's Administrator.)
  • Sales Reports. Two reports: a "Monthly Sales Report" and a "Sales Report by Product" are available in the Administrator (Utilities -> Reports). The reports each may have a date range applied to them, and they may be viewed on screen (and printed nicely) or downloaded in flat file format.
  • Integrated Contact Us Form. For customers wishing to contact you, the "Contact Us" page may be configured to display a form asking them for any information you wish. The submitted information is sent to you in an email. The email addresses that are notified, the questions that are asked, as well as which questions are required and which are not, may all be configured in the Administrator (Store Settings -> Contact Form).
  • Statistical tracking. Built-in integration with Google Analytics and HitsLink allows you to track your customers through every screen of the store.
  • Encryption of sensitive data. Security settings allow you to store not only credit card information but also customer and administrator passwords with no encryption, one-way encryption, or two-way encryption.
  • Text File Imports and Exports. Functions are available in the Administrator to allow you to import products, categories, attributes, options, and SKUs with comma-, tab- or pipe-delimited text files (Imports and Exports section). The same information may also be exported in the exact same format, allowing you to maintain the product catalog through the text files.
  • Order and Customer Exports. In addition to the product catalog exports, a sophisticated order export feature is available in the Administrator (Imports and Exports -> Text File Exports -> Order Exports), and well as a Customer Export. The order export allows you to select a date range of orders to export, whether to export completed orders or all orders, and which fields to export.
  • Store Messages. An interface is available in the Administrator for controlling the text messages displayed throughout the store (Store Settings -> Store Messages).
  • Google Checkout Level 2 Integration Features. Among the Google Checkout features SoftSlate includes are:
    • Dynamic shipping rates supported for UPS and USPS. Merchant callback support allows Google to display shipping prices dynamically as the customer alters his delivery address, based on the methods and settings defined within SoftSlate.
    • New order notifications, order state changes, and other events triggered by Google captured by SoftSlate. When a new order is completed with Google Checkout, and when other events occur, SoftSlate will capture and record the notifications, updating the order record with the relevant information.
  • Content Pages. Allows store administrators to create and manage any number of pages of content integrated within the store's navigation, header, and footer. It allows for a very simple but powerful element of content management fully integrated into the shopping cart. (Find it under Product Catalog -> Content Pages.)
  • Email Marketing Integration. SoftSlate Commerce integrates fully with SoftSlate Emailer, and email marketing management service allowing you to create, send, and track email marketing campaigns. Subscribers may sign up from the built-in Contact Form, during customer registration, or during checkout. You may specify multiple lists for your visitors to sign up for, and can launch the SoftSlate Emailer interface from within the SoftSlate Commerce Administrator. For more information, click here.
  • ... And much more. To explore the SoftSlate Commerce Administrator, please visit our Demo Store Administrator.

Technical Features

  • Java source code. You receive the entire source code for SoftSlate Commerce. The source code is designed for readability and flexibility. Complete documentation is also available to assist developers working with the code.
  • Customization framework. SoftSlate Commerce is designed to be extended and customized. All of the application's business objects and data access objects implement Java interfaces. Replacing a built-in class with your own is as simple as extending the built-in class and changing a configuration setting, telling the application to use your new class. Other aspects of the application are equally extendable. For a review, please visit the Simple Rules for Customizing SoftSlate Commerce.
  • Struts. SoftSlate Commerce employs the Apache Struts (1.x) application framework, one of the most popular Java Web frameworks in the world. Built-in custom Struts configuration files allow you to override existing action mappings, or create your own.
  • Templating framework. The application's entire HTML output is accessible through JSP pages for complete flexibility. SoftSlate Commerce extends the Apache Tiles framework to allow for easy customization of every JSP template, including not only the customer interface but the Administrator templates as well.
  • Customizing the Look and Feel. Five built-in themes, plus several other key settings, allow even non-technical users to experiment with thousands of different looks for the store. By extending SoftSlate's built-in CSS stylesheets, designers can exert even more control, without touching the application's JSP templates.
  • Multiple layouts. For even more design control, designers can set up multiple sets of the application's JSP templates. This allows them to create any number of separate look-and-feel themes for the store. The layout that each customer sees is based on a URL parameter and stored in each customer's session The modifications to the JSP templates are made in such a way that future upgrades can be installed with a minimum of fuss. In addition, the multiple layouts can share a common set of customized templates.
  • Your choice of database and Java web server. SoftSlate Commerce has been tested with Apache Tomcat , and is known to run within other conformant J2EE Web containers such as Resin, Jetty, WebSphere, and JRun. For databases, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS Sequel Server, and Oracle are all supported out-of-the-box.
  • Integration with Hibernate. SoftSlate Commerce ntegrates with the Hibernate data persistence framework, which handles all of the application's database access.
  • Caching of product information. By enabling Hibernate's 2nd level cache and its query cache, all product and category pages can be browsed without any database querying. For busy stores, this caching allows for unbeatable performance. Administrative changes clear the caches automatically.
  • Advanced Search with Lucene. (Enterprise Edition). SoftSlate Commerce provides optional integration with the open-source Lucene search engine library for fast, powerful product searches. Our clients have used the Advance Search on a product catalog of over 1,200,000 products, to great effect. Among the Lucene features SoftSlate leverages include:
    • Support for sorting by name or price, and pagination
    • You may include the most relevant excerpts for each match on the search results page, highlighted with the search term
    • Support for the Lucene Snowball Analyzer, which offers a sophisticated stemming algorithm. For example, singulars, plurals, and other related word forms will match and return results.
    • Faceted search: After the customer initiates a search, or browses into a category or manufacturer, a list of facets, or elements common to the products listed, appears. (For more information on Faceted Search see the release announcement for it.)
  • Logging. SoftSlate Commerce employs the Log4J logging system, providing extremely flexible and powerful logging options.
  • Standalone Distribution File. In addition to downloading the application in war or zip format, a "standalone" version is also available. This version is a Zip file that comes with the Winstone server embedded in it. Simply unzip it, and run the launch script that comes with it. SoftSlate Commerce will fire up within seconds, and you're on your way to getting started. (Visit http://localhost:8080 after launching to get to the SoftSlate installation page.)