LemonStand - eCommerce Blog about LemonStand shopping cart, news and tutorials

Tax Engine update: tax inclusive environments support

0 Comment(s) | published by Aleksey B. on Thursday, June 03, 2010

A few days ago we published a Tax Engine update, which makes LemonStand compatible with tax inclusive environments and laws, for example, Australian tax laws. The feature has a very simple configuration - you only need to enable it on the System/Settings/eCommerce Settings page:

LemonStand's API also allows you to output the "tax included" label where you need it. You can configure the label text and customer locations the label should be visible for. And besides that, we added an invoice template, suitable for Australian stores. Like everything else in LemonStand, invoices are customizable and you can develop your own unique invoice design.

We're constantly working to improve the Tax Engine. It's a very important aspect of eCommerce and so we've invested much development into this area. At the moment we are extending it with functions required by German tax law. LemonStand is always becoming more internationally compatible, and we'll continue to go in this direction.

You can learn more about the tax engine update on this Wiki page.

Discount and Tax Engine updates

1 Comment(s) | published by Aleksey B. on Wednesday, May 12, 2010

We spent an entire week preparing a large-scale update of the Discount and Tax Engines. Taxes are calculated more accurately now, and discount management is more intelligent. We wanted to tell you about the updates before we publish them. Below is a list of the most important improvements.

Tax Engine improvements

Taxes are now calculated based on subtotals. Before these updates, taxes were calculated for each cart item separately. The new method is more precise.
Taxes always take into account discounts. We explored competitor offerings, and found that even with the most popular of them taxes are not always affected by discounts. If you bought a product with a discount, the tax amounts would not be reduced in some systems and in some circumstances. For example, if you purchased an expensive TV set with a 25% discount, taxes would be calculated based on the original price, not the discounted price. Now with LemonStand you will always have correct tax values.

Discount Engine improvements

Cart-level price rules now assign discounts to each cart item individually. If you use the "Discount the shopping cart subtotal by X percent" price action in your discount configuration, LemonStand will now distribute the discount amount among all items in the cart.
As a consequence of the previous item, discount concepts in LemonStand orders have changed. Before the update it was an "amount which you need to add to the subtotal to get the order total". Now order subtotal includes discounts, and the order discount field just displays the total amount of discounts applied by catalog and cart price rules.
It is very easy to apply discounts for existing orders in the Administration Area. On the Discounts tab you can click the Enter discount manually link and enter a discount value as a fixed amount or as a percentage value. LemonStand will distribute the amount among the order items and then re-calculate taxes.

Implications on existing orders

We already have some LemonStand-based stores which are taking live orders. The update will not affect reports or any elements of existing orders. No updates are needed in pages or partials code. However if you are going to edit an existing order which has some discount applied, we recommend that you save the order details somewhere before you begin and then apply the price rules using the Apply price rules link on the Discounts tab of the Edit Order page. Alternatively, you can assign discounts individually for each order item.

If you use the discount engine, we recommend that you check whether your rules work as supposed after the update. Just make a couple of test orders. Please contact us if you think that something went wrong.

Striving to make LemonStand an ideal platform

As mentioned above, many of our competitors have had issues related to tax and discount calculation for years. It has ultimately resulted in problems for the merchant in may cases.

We identified the problem during our beta testing and solved it quickly. We are committed to delivering a mature and intelligent eCommerce platform and fixing all that is wrong with the shopping cart industry.

Showcase: Doorstep Dairy

0 Comment(s) | published by Danny H. on Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Doorstep Dairy is a new business created by Daryl Mast and his wife that brings back the concept and values of "The Milkman". But they have infused the business model with generous amounts of impressive branding and technology. Tasty!

How It Works

Fresh products being delivered straight to your door is made even more convenient with a very user friendly eCommerce website powered by LemonStand. The customer experience is simple and unique.

You start by filling out an application and arranging payment options. Next, you can start building your reoccurring and 1-time orders using the website.

You can choose the products you want and the frequency at which you receive them. "Set it and forget it". For example, you can get the following each week:

3 gallons of whole milk / week
One pound of butter / every second week
One pound of coffee / month

They call this reoccurring order your "Standing Order".

They also have made a provision to order products on a 1-time basis. So let's imagine you are having company stay over the following week. You can order a pie for dessert and some donuts for a morning treat. They call this a "Weekly Order" and they will be delivered along with your Standing Order items.

LemonStand's API allows for multiple, separate shopping carts. In the case of Doorstep Dairy, there are two. Products are held in a different cart, depending on if they are in the customers Standing or Weekly Order. The multi-cart support in LemonStand's API is very flexible and can be used for many different cases.

A simple module was created that uses a cron job to transfer products being held in customers Standing and Weekly carts into actual orders within LemonStand. This happens once a week.

Development Speed and Flexibility

LemonStand made it possible for this unique website to be developed in record time. The module that transfers products to orders on a weekly basis literally took only a few hours to build. And the multi-cart functionality is already part of the API. And of course, LemonStand didn't give their web developer Philip Meissner any grief in terms of design integration.

The easy-to-use template system and great documentation made creating the store I envisioned a joy. Out of the box, LemonStand's API/features were flexible and extensive enough to build my store that had many unique requirements. Oh, and the backend is sweet!!

- Philip Meissner, Web Designer & Developer

Ease of Use

The customer user experience was kept as simple as possible. With LemonStand, you are in control of the experience. And the best part is that it doesn't make you jump through hoops to have that control, either.

As well, Doorstep Dairy staff can manage their website content, customers and orders easily. The user-friendly administration interface is straightforward and efficient. Features like Content Blocks with WYSIWYG editing make it easy to make text changes. And the simple Shop management tools make it easy to fulfill orders and manage customer accounts.

LemonStand is very easy for us to use. We don't have to think about it really. We just log-in and easily manage our store, and get on with our business. We love it.

- Daryl Mast, Owner – Doorstep Dairy

Check out Doorstep Dairy for yourself!

Tell us about your LemonStand websites!

If you have a website you would like to showcase, please send us a note about it. And be sure to post it in our Show Off Forum as well.

Payment Transaction Management

3 Comment(s) | published by Aleksey B. on Monday, May 03, 2010

We recently published the transaction management feature, which adds more power and usability to the way you manage orders. The feature allows you to update payment transaction statuses without leaving the Administration Area. From the Order Preview page you can settle, void and refund transactions.

The list displays transaction updates, with new updates displayed first. Almost all payment methods can be configured so that when a customer pays on your store, their credit card is not charged, but only authorized (checked). This creates a transaction with a status of Authorized at the payment gateway. You can now go to the Order Preview page and submit a transaction for settlement or void it.

Some actions with payment transactions can be performed outside LemonStand and LemonStand will not know about them. For example, transactions, submitted for settlement are settled automatically by the payment gateway after some time. Also, you can go to your payment gateway control panel and change a transaction's status manually. In these cases the transaction status update will not be reflected in the Administration Area. However you can click the Request status from the gateway button above the transaction list and LemonStand will contact the payment gateway in order to download the most recent transaction status.

Implementation limitations

Transaction management needs to be supported by your payment gateway and implemented in a LemonStand payment module. At the moment the feature is only implemented in the Braintree Transparent Redirect payment module. Please contact us or comment below if you want to see transaction management features implemented for a specific payment module.