New version CS-Cart i Multi-Vendor 4.3.7
A major change in CS-Cart 4.3.7 is that the the free version is no longer available. Also, the upgrade brings five usability improvements for store administrators:
- A customer can specify the email subject when sending it to the administrator through a form.
- An admin can create statuses for shipments, so managers who usually process many orders don’t get confused.
- In Multi-Vendor, admins can enable a shipping method for all the vendors with a single click.
- The Store Import add-on doesn’t come with the installation package—admins download it free from the CS-Cart Marketplace.
- PayPal In-Context Checkout is enabled by default in the new CS-Cart installations.
See other changes in the changelog.
No Free Version for Newcomers
Removing the free mode from CS-Cart was the biggest change that we discussed.
By analyzing the eCommerce market, we arrived at the consensus that we need to concentrate our resources on a single direction—the highest-quality product with the best service and support among paid eCommerce solutions.
Starting from CS-Cart 4.3.7, the free mode is no longer available. Now after CS-Cart installation, you have two options: you can try CS-Cart free for 30 days or you can buy a license.
Actual free version users with live stores continue using CS-Cart legally. However, when they decide to upgrade, they will have to buy a license. We offer a 30% discount coupon to free version users who decide to buy the license immediately. Monitor your mailboxes not to miss the email containing the coupon.
Stay tuned to our blog: tomorrow, we’ll publish the post explaining our decision to remove the free mode.
Specifying Subject for Emails Sent Through Forms
A clear, precise email subject is important in business communication. The right subject explains the contents of the email without opening it, which can save you time.
In earlier CS-Cart versions, customers could not input the subjects of their messages sent to you via forms (such as the Contact Us form). Your customers’ email messages had the name of the form as the subject, which wasn’t very informative.
The built-in Form builder add-on now adds the Subject field to the forms. When customers send you messages through forms (Contact us, for example), they input their emails subject. For example, messages sent via the Contact us form have the exact and clear subject instead of the meaningless subject “Contact us”. You can pre-define subjects or allow your customers to write their own.
Creating Shipment Statuses
We bet every day you or your managers process a lot of orders. If the number of orders large, you can easily become confused about which order you packed, which shipped, and which still needs packing.
To avoid confusion, CS-Cart 4.3.7 now allows you to create shipments statuses in Administration → Shipping & taxes → Shipment statuses. On the Orders → Shipments page, manually set statuses to track each shipment’s state. On the shipment details page you also can change the shipment date and the comment:
Enabling a Shipping Method for All Vendors in Multi-Vendor
In Multi-Vendor, vendors share shipping methods. In earlier versions, you had to assign a shipping method to each vendor manually. Imagine that you have 500 vendors: assigning a new shipping method to each would take too much time.
In Multi-Vendor 4.3.7, you can assign a shipping method to all your vendors with a single click on the shipping method editing page:
Store Import Add-On on the CS-Cart Marketplace
The Store Import add-on allows you to upgrade to a newer CS-Cart version by importing your current store’s data into the new CS-Cart installation. This upgrade method is safe and convenient—you import data to your new store and configure it while keeping the old one up and running.
Since Store Import helps you move to the new version, it requires a special attention: it must be error-free and work smoothly and effectively. That’s why we excluded the Store Import add-on from the release package and moved it to the Marketplace. Now we can devote more time to improving Store Import and will release new versions of the add-on more often.
After the upgrade to CS-Cart 4.3.7, your Store Import add-on will be disabled and you won’t be able to activate it. Download the latest version of the Store Import add-on from the Marketplace. It’s free.
PayPal In-Context Checkout Enabled by Default
PayPal In-Context Checkout is a setting for PayPal Express Checkout to allow customers to pay via PayPal without leaving your store for the PayPal website. With In-Context Checkout enabled, the PayPal pop-up opens right in your store.
Starting from version 4.3.7, PayPal In-Context Checkout is active by default. This feature improves conversion rates thanks to seamless and secure checkout. We recommend you to enable PayPal In-Context Checkout, if you haven’t enabled it before:
- Go to Administration → Payment methods
- Click the payment method that uses PayPal Express Checkout
- Switch to the Configure tab and tick the Use In-Context Checkout checkbox
- Click Save
How to Get
We will distribute upgrade packages in batches, as always. License owners with active upgrade subscriptions will see upgrades available in their admin panels within a week. If you missed the upgrade availability notification, go to Administration → Upgrade Center and check for the upgrade.
If you are new to CS-Cart, download for CS-Cart or Multi-Vendor 4.3.7 installation package and buy a license.
We would be happy to hear what you think about the new release, so please comment.
If you have any great ideas about how to enhance CS-Cart, please let us know on the CS-Cart Uservoice.
Reporting any discovered bugs to our bug tracker guarantees that we’ll take care of them.
Feel free to ask questions about the changes we’ve made in the new version here in the comments or in theCS-Cart Forums.
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