To start setting up e-commerce on your website, go to the Configure Site > Basic Setup tab, E-Commerce section.  At the top of this section are the Placeholder Text codes for adding a Shopping Cart # Of Items Display/Link to View Cart to your website, adding a view cart form to a selected page, and adding a checkout form to a selected page of your website.  Just copy/paste the Placeholder Text where you want the respective items to display. Configure & customize your shopping cart and user shopping experience here too, such as the type of shopping cart/checkout to use, whether to require member login to shop or checkout, or to use an Affiliates program to offer commission on referral sales, and how to process customer reviews.  You can even customize your shopping cart buttons and language phrases.

You can choose between three E-commerce types: PayPal Shopping Cart, PayPal Checkout, and Checkout via Email.  The PayPal Shopping Cart uses the PayPal website for both the view cart/checkout pages.  The PayPal Checkout type uses your own website for the view cart page, and the PayPal website for only the checkout, i.e. payment page. The Checkout via Email type uses your own website for the view cart page like the PayPal Checkout, but checkout is on your website too - this form gets emailed to your payment email address you choose in this E-Commerce section. Please note that if you would like to accept credit cards/e-check (any private payment info) directly on your website, you will need a secured server to keep privacy.

If you are using PayPal Shopping Cart or PayPal Checkout for your E-Commerce Type, you will need to set your Paymenr Email Address to your PayPal account, as noted on this Admin Panel page.  If you don't have a PayPal account yet, you can sign up for a PayPal account on the PayPal website. On PayPal you can sign up for a Personal or Business Account - the main difference is that you can receive an unlimited number of credit card payments with the Business Account, but there is a transaction fee calculated and deducted from each payment. 

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From the E-Commerce drop down menu tab you can add/edit item categories and items (and lots more...read on!).  If you are selling lots of items, you may want to organize your items in categories, and display these item categories on different webpages by copy/pasting the category Placeholder Text (available on List Categories page) to the webpage you want, rather than copy/pasting the Placeholder Text of individual items (available on List Items page) to a webpage.

On the E-Commerce > Add/Edit Category page you can configure the Category Item Display Options (which formats the item category on your webpage) and Individual Item Page Display Properties (which formats the individual item page for items in that category).  Choose whether to use an Item Sort Menu, the default item sort, the spacing between ech item in the category, whether to use photo thumbnails and what size, to link each item to its individual page, and more.  You can even choose to show a "Related Items" column or row and/or "People who bought this also bought" column or row on Individual Item Pages of the category here.

On the E-Commerce > Add Item/Edit Item pages you can configure your Item and add it to your e-commerce system.  Choose the Button Type - based on that the Add Item form will expand to the applicable fields/options.  Next to Button Type there is also an option to checkmark if you want the Item/button to default to the PayPal shopping cart button, rather than the E-Commerce Type you have chosen on the Configure Site > Basic Setup e-commerce section.

Enter item name description, price, item options - you can even set a different price for each different item option.  Enter in the inventory value for the Item - you can choose to have the software automatically keep track of your items inventory on the Configure Site > Basic Setup e-commerce section.  Inventory values can be calculated on a per item option.

On the Add/Edit Item page you also choose the Item's individual page URL.  This page is dynamically created from your Item form fields content - it will include customer reviews, and a form for users to add their own review if you have checkmarked the option to Allow Reviews on the Add/Edit Item Page. Also it will have any Social Plugin buttons you have selected to use on the Configure Site > Basic Setup E-Commerce section, namely the Facebbok Like button, Twitter share button, and Google +1 button.

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To add photos to an Item: Upload the photos first (refer to Photos Management Tutorial).  Next tag the photos to the Items on the Photos > List Photos page or the Edit Photo page.

To link category photos, i.e, photos in a slideshow or photogallery, to the Item picture's Item page: On the Photos > Add Category/Edit Category Pages for the "Link Photo To" option, choose "Photo's Assiciated Item Page" from the menu.  Be sure to also tag the photos in the category to their associated Item page as described above, if you haven't already.

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To create coupons to use for your shopping cart on your website, go to the E-Commerce > Add Coupon tab and just fill in the form there.  You can enter in the discount amount you want to give and whether it is a dollar value (in your selected currency) or a percentage deducted from the price of the item.  You can also choose to make the coupon apply to all items, or select which ones you want it to apply to from the "Apply To" menu in the Coupon form.  Coupons may be applied on shopping cart items with the 'Buy Now' or 'Add To Cart' button types.  As with all the other functions of this website builder software, you can choose the language of your website and also enter in your own wording - here in the Coupon form you can enter a confirmation message that is displayed to your customer under the Coupon Code form field on your webpage(s), telling them what discount the coupon gives them, and what product(s) it can be applied to, so they don't have to guess/check. 

The second step is actually adding the Coupon Code form to your webpage(s).  Go to the E-Commerce > List Coupons tab to go to the list of Coupons Admin page.  There above the list of coupons you have created you will find the Placeholder Text to copy/paste into the webpage(s) where you want it.  Click on the texbox to copy, then go to the Admin Pages section, find the page(s) where you want to add it, and paste the Placeholder Text where you want the Coupon Code form field to appear.  To change the language that prompts your customer for a coupon code, the Submit Coupon button text, or the Invalid Code text, go to the Configure Site > Basic Setup tab, E-Commerce section, and you will find those language phrases there.

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You can configure how your e-commerce item reviews work - customize the rating system images to use, the language phrases, whether logged in members and/or guests can post reviews, and how reviews are processed/activated - on the Configure Site > Basic Setup, E-Commerce section.

You can choose whether to Allow Reviews on an Item on the Add/Edit Item pages.

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You can configure how your e-commerce Affiliates Program works and whether or not to use an affiliates system on the Configure Site > Basic Setup, E-Commerce  section.  Choose whether registered members become affiliates automatically, or whether to require Admin Approval.  You can choose the commission rate to provide to affiliates for their referral sales, and whether or not the commission is applicable on their own purchases.  The affiliates program wrks with a persistent cookie after a website visitor clicks on their referral link to you website - you can choose how many days the web visitor's web browser will store the cookie.

Checkmark the "Affiliate Commission Applicable" option for an Item on the Add/Edit Item pages to provide commission to the affiliate if there is an affiliate on a customer purchase of the item.

To add Affiliate Banners, Text Ads, and Banner/Text Ads, go to E-Commerce > List Affiliate Ads, and then click on the "Add Affiliate Ad" tab on the right of the page.

 
Members who are Affiliates get an account of their approved commissions on their Member Profile page, Affiliates section, along with banner, text, and banner/text ads  available for them to copy/paste to promote your products and earn commission.  The ads display consists of what the display will look like, with their special referral code automatically embedded, and the code they should copy/paste.

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You can choose actions for your website to perform automatically after a customer purchases an item ,and payment is confirmed, on the Add/Edit Item pages, in the "After Payment" section.  You can choose a member group to add the customer to after payment and the membership days - set this to 0 to not expire.  You can use this to provide access to certain page(s) of your website to the member after payment.  Also, you can choose to give Download Access to a file after payment, and choose the number of download access days - set this to 0 to not expire.  You can upload this Download Access File directly here; you can zip multiple files.  Members get a list of File Downloads they have purchased and access to on their Profile Page, Downloads section.

If you have chosen the E-Commerce Type PayPal Shopping Cart or PayPal Checkout, these actions will be performed automatically after PayPal confirm the payment has been processed, as per your instructions on the Add/Edit Item pages.  Otherwise, if you have chosen the E-Commerce Type Email Checkout option, you can manually perform these actions using the E-Commerce > List Files/Group Access Info tab.  On this page you will find the Add Access and Edit Access options.

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With Ultimate WebBuilder software you can automatically (and manually) keep track of customer purchases and payments, the payment status and any corresponding affiliates info.  If you have chosen the E-Commerce Type PayPal Checkout or Email Checkout, the Admin Panel tracks the customer shopping progress, from adding an item to the cart, to checking out.  If you are using a PayPal Checkout or PayPal Shopping Cart, once the payment is processed via PayPal, the payment will automatically be updated to "Processed" on your Admin Panel.  In the case of the PayPal Shopping Cart E-Commerce Type, the purchaes/payment will be added to the Admin Panel payments page.

On the E-Commerce Manage Payments page you can also keep track of Affiliate amounts you have paid/not paid.

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You can manage the inventory of your Items automatically (and manually) on your website Admin Panel.  Enter in each item's inventory on the E-Commerce > Add/Edit IItem pages.  Choose whether to update inventory automatically after a customer's purchase on the Configure Site > Basic Setup, E-Commerce section.

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Say you only sell to wholesalers, or only members of a certain group for certain items.  You can restrict access to who can view your Item Pages/make purchases by 1) Setting the correct Access Settings you want on a Page, as outlined on the Password Protect Webpages Tutorial, and then 2) Choosing that page on the E-Commerce > Add/Edit Category pages, choosing that page from the menu list for the option "Use Page Display Options from this Page", in the Individual Item Page Display Properties section.  Please note that the Page you create for the Individual Item Display Properties on the Pages > Add/Edit Page may be set to Inactive there to only use for this purpose.

If you want to password protect/restrict access to your Item Pages and Item Category Pages, just make sure you set the correct Page access on the Pages > Add/Edit Page, and copy/paste the Placeholder Text for the Item Category there.

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