Q. What is the difference between a
registered customer, an anonymous customer, and a site visitor, and why are the
storefront’s numbers different than the ones shown in Google Analytics.
A. A site
visitor is anyone that just comes to the site and browses around but does not
do anything that creates a record for them in the database. Site visitors are not recorded or tracked in
the software. An anonymous
customer is a site visitor that interacts with the site in a way that
creates a record in the DB – for example choosing a locale or adding to the
cart. If the customer goes on to
register, they become a registered
customer.
Q. What are the pros and cons of allowing
anonymous checkout?
A. Anonymous Checkout allows customers to go
through checkout without creating an account and choosing a password. The checkout process is slightly shorter, but customers lose the
ability to automatically reorder previous purchases, check order status, and
use gift registries or wishlists. Research shows that even though the time saving is only a few seconds, many customers (almost a quarter) will not complete purchases on sites that require registration. Please
see the
manual page on this feature for more details.
Q. What are the differences between PayPal’s
different services (Standard, Express, and Pro)?
A. PayPal Standard takes customers off of
the storefront site to pay through the main PayPal site. After payment is received, PayPal tries to
send customers back to the storefront site.
PayPal Express functions the same way, but allows customers to check out
from the shopping cart page rather than going all the way to the payment
page. PayPalPro is a fully-integrated
payment gateway – customers check out on your site.
Q. How do I extend the admin timeout period?
A. Set the SessionTimeoutInMinutes AppConfig to a higher value. Note: Setting this
timeout period to higher than 15 minutes is a PCI PA-DSS violation.
Q. Does AspDotNetStorefront support B2B (Business
to Business) sites?
A. The software has several features that
allow businesses to restrict who can shop on the site. Store admins can force
all customers to log in before viewing products, use customer
level filtering to determine which customers see which products, or set up wholesale
sites that prevent unregistered customers from seeing prices or adding
products to the cart.
Q. How do I know if my site needs to worry
about PCI compliance?
A. The PCI Security Standards are a
formalized set of requirements created by the Payment Card Industry Security
Standards Council to protect private credit card information. These standards are enforced through the
means of payment gateways denying or shutting down merchant accounts for sites
that are not in compliance. “The PCI DSS
applies to all entities that store, process, and/or transmit cardholder data.
It covers technical and operational system components included in or connected
to cardholder data. If you are a
merchant who accepts or processes payment cards, you must comply with the PCI
DSS.” The majority of ecommerce sites
are going to be required to adhere to these standards. As a PCI DSS certified application,
AspDotNetStorefront helps attain that compliance.
Stores that use so-called ‘boomerang’ gateways (see below) may not be responsible for meeting these
standards. Please view the
full standards documentation to determine if your site is liable.
Q. What is a ‘boomerang’ gateway?
A. Boomerang gateways (also known as hosted
payment gateways) take customers off of the storefront site to pay. While these gateways can sometimes eliminate the need to adhere to the PCI DSS guidelines
(see above), they generally increase customer abandonment rates as customers
can be hesitant to enter payment information on sites they don’t recognize, and
communication back to your storefront site is not always 100% reliable.
AspDotNetStorefront supports the following boomerang
gateways:
- PayPal Standard
- PayPal Express
- Worldpay
- Google
Checkout
- Ogone (3-tier
method)
Q. Can I restrict products to certain customer
groups?
A. Yes, through the use of customer
levels, products can be filtered
to only appear to certain customers.
Q. Does AspDotNetStorefront store credit
card numbers?
A. Not by default, though it
can be set to do so if desired. Note: Storing credit
card affects PCI PA-DSS compliance (see above).
Q. Does AspDotNetStorefront run on my
hosting provider?
A. AspDotNetStorefront will run on the
majority of .NET-supporting hosting providers that meet the software
requirements. Note that some hosts are
not compatible due to resource or security limitations. Please see our hosting page for a
list of recommended and known incompatible hosts.
Q. Does AspDotNetStorefront support ‘wholesale’
sites?
A. Yes, the software has a built-in wholesale
mode, which allows unregistered customers to view products, but not see
their prices or add to the cart.