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EROL now generates the new web standard XHTML 1.0 Transitional web pages, future-proofing your online store and improving the download speed of your pages. New stores built in EROL 5 can now optionally be built using CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) based layout criteria!
CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) Design & Layout
With CSS layout capability now as standard in EROL 5, creating your store design from a CSS-based template created in Dreamweaver or purchased from an external source can be done in less than five minutes! Or simply choose one of EROL 5’s new CSS-based design templates.
HTML Tidy ® or EROL’s Optimised code output
EROL 5’s clean code-builder HTML Editor means you now have the best of both worlds - choose to generate the HTML code for your web pages in EROL’s fast compressed format or format the code via HTML Tidy ® (the HTML tools from W3C). The results are clear and cleanly coded, fast-loading web pages.
Accessibility
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) guidelines state websites should now meet W3C accessibility guidelines to Priority 2 (AA) level, allowing more customers with varied browsers and usage disabilities to access and use the internet. EROL 5’s new code output and structure allows EROL-based stores to meet these guidelines to Level 2 of accessibility.
Document Setup
A new Document tab is now available in the Build Manager in EROL 5, giving you full access to the XHTML Document type setup. For example, you could insert code for Google Analytics or affiliate tracking code or link references to your own external CSS or JavaScript files. Any changes made in the Document tab are applied to all pages in the store – add once, apply everywhere!
Real Page Names
EROL 5 now issues ‘real’ Page Names for all HTML pages created in your store e.g. audio-and-tv-59-0.html. The benefits for Search Engine Optimisation are when search engines read any link to that page they know what content to expect on the page. There is also a usability benefit from having real page names, making it easier for customers to see what page they are viewing.
Page Scripts
All pages in EROL 5 now have the option to add code inside the tag in each page, as well META, CSS and JavaScript fields for the page. The benefits of editing the tag mean you can have even more control of document setup.
Product Pages (Expanded View)
Every product’s Expanded View is now displayed on its own HTML page. Every product Expanded View Page can now be named with a ‘real page name’ e.g. widescreen-tv-123-0.html. Individual product pages means greater control over search engine optimisation – all of the page’s content and META tag information can now be optimised at the product level.
Product Page Scripts (Expanded View)
Individual Expanded View product pages in EROL 5 now allows full control of META, CSS, JavaScript and tags – every single product Expanded View page can be optimised for design, content and Search Engines.
Google Sitemap
EROL 5 now automatically generates an XML Google sitemap. Submitting your Google Sitemap to Google improves the speed of getting your site and products listed on Google.
EROL Shopping Feed
EROL 5 automatically creates a product feed for EROL Shopping – www.erolshopping.co.uk. If you have an EROL Cover Plan or subscribe to EROL Shopping, adding your product feed to the site will list all your products on EROL Shopping and drive extra traffic and sales to your store.
Google Product Search Feed (Google Base)
EROL 5 can generate a product feed for Google Base. Google Base is the engine that drives product searches for Google Products (formerly Froogle) so adding your products to Google Base via the EROL 5 product feed will list all your products on Google Products, driving extra traffic to your store.
Google Analytics integration
Easy, one click Google Analytics integration. In EROL 5 you no longer have to paste Google Analytics code to every single page in your store – simply ‘add once, apply to all pages‘ in the new Document tab!
New Global Discount features allow discounts to be applied based on Total Weight, Total Items and Sub Total. Multiple discount types can be applied at the same time - for example, you may want to allow Free Shipment and a 5% discount on all orders over £30. EROL 5 makes this possible.
All discount values applied are shown in both the Order Manager and in the email confirmation receipt, giving complete transparency to both vendor and customer.
Open each Manager on a Default Filter of your choice
Increase the speed of opening for each Manager and improve day-to-day efficiency
For example, you can now set the Order Manager to open with a default filter showing only 'New Orders'.
Assign multiple printers for printing
Set up multiple printers so you can print invoices to your main printer and print despatch notes to a secondary printer.
Extended search and filter options
The Order, Customer and Inventory Manager have improved search and filter options, enabling you to find customer and order information quickly. For example, search by a date range, or select a filter to show orders from the 'last 2 days'.
Offline Preview Enhancements
EROL 5's improved offline Store Preview now displays both the file name and the page's
Interface Enhancement
The EROL 5 Build Manager has improved speed and performance.
New Payment Gateways
Integration with 'Go&Pay' and 'PayOffline' payment gateways means your store can take orders from customers without a credit or debit card! Both new payment options allow a customer to place an order online, print off a barcode for payment and take the code to their nearest local Pay Point.
Control Image Size in Templates
Control the size of product images in the Product Template, overriding the actual height and width of the image. This feature is great for setting the Thumbnail Image size for your Related Product list(s) and Search Results template(s).
PNG Image Support
EROL 5 now supports .PNG files as product images within your store.
Checkout Verification
All product prices at the Checkout are now verified on the Checkout before the order can be placed successfully. This prevents issues where a store has been distributed on a CD, or store pages have been cached with old prices.
Product Data Export - 'Round Trip' Export
Full Product data export as CSV file, enabling you to export product information from your EROL 5 store for import to other EROL 5 stores or 3rd Party systems.
Featured Products and Bestseller Product panels
Insert a 'Featured' and/or 'Bestseller' panel to your page, then assign products to appear in either or both these panels. Place panels anywhere in the page to upsell your most popular products!
Custom Product Panels
Any product in your store can be 'tagged' to appear in a Custom Product Panel. Product panels work in the same way as the 'Featured' and 'Bestseller' panels but give you more flexibility. For example, you might choose to list clearance products from multiple product categories in one place - simply tag all the products as 'clearance' items, assign the same tag to the product panel, insert the product panel in the page and all the clearance items will appear in the product panel - without having to duplicate products across multiple pages!
Single or Multi Stage Checkout
You can either retain the classic single page EROL Checkout or divide the checkout process into multiple stages e.g. Basket > Checkout.
Global Discounts Extras
Business and Developer Editions allow multiple Global Discounts to be set based on time periods for the whole year ahead. For example, set up January's global discount as Free Shipping, February's global discount as 10% off when spending over £100, and so on!
Discount Voucher
Create Discount Vouchers that cam be time-expiring to offer new or existing customers an incentive for buying from your store. The Customer Manager now has a separate Vouchers area so you can track performance of all the vouchers you create.
Customer Manager Enhancements
Customers are automatically grouped in the Customer Manager based on their e-mail address, making it easier than ever to track and manage you customers and vouchers.
What's new in EROL 5
Overview
EROL 5 marks the beginning of the new generation of EROL software. EROL 5 uses of up to date technology including XHTML and AJAX, with a close eye on Web Standards, SEO and shopping cart usability. The use of industry standard technology such as Perl scripting on the vendors server ensures hosting compatibility, retaining the robust cross-platform hosting you have come to expect from EROL.
New to all EROL 5 Editions
XHTML 1.0 codeEROL now generates the new web standard XHTML 1.0 Transitional web pages, future-proofing your online store and improving the download speed of your pages. New stores built in EROL 5 can now optionally be built using CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) based layout criteria!
CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) Design & Layout
With CSS layout capability now as standard in EROL 5, creating your store design from a CSS-based template created in Dreamweaver or purchased from an external source can be done in less than five minutes! Or simply choose one of EROL 5’s new CSS-based design templates.
HTML Tidy ® or EROL’s Optimised code output
EROL 5’s clean code-builder HTML Editor means you now have the best of both worlds - choose to generate the HTML code for your web pages in EROL’s fast compressed format or format the code via HTML Tidy ® (the HTML tools from W3C). The results are clear and cleanly coded, fast-loading web pages.
Accessibility
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) guidelines state websites should now meet W3C accessibility guidelines to Priority 2 (AA) level, allowing more customers with varied browsers and usage disabilities to access and use the internet. EROL 5’s new code output and structure allows EROL-based stores to meet these guidelines to Level 2 of accessibility.
Document Setup
A new Document tab is now available in the Build Manager in EROL 5, giving you full access to the XHTML Document type setup. For example, you could insert code for Google Analytics or affiliate tracking code or link references to your own external CSS or JavaScript files. Any changes made in the Document tab are applied to all pages in the store – add once, apply everywhere!
Search Engine Optimisation
We have been working with SEO experts to ensure EROL 5 meets all their needs, resulting in a highly optimised web page as standard.Real Page Names
EROL 5 now issues ‘real’ Page Names for all HTML pages created in your store e.g. audio-and-tv-59-0.html. The benefits for Search Engine Optimisation are when search engines read any link to that page they know what content to expect on the page. There is also a usability benefit from having real page names, making it easier for customers to see what page they are viewing.
Page Scripts
All pages in EROL 5 now have the option to add code inside the tag in each page, as well META, CSS and JavaScript fields for the page. The benefits of editing the tag mean you can have even more control of document setup.
Product Pages (Expanded View)
Every product’s Expanded View is now displayed on its own HTML page. Every product Expanded View Page can now be named with a ‘real page name’ e.g. widescreen-tv-123-0.html. Individual product pages means greater control over search engine optimisation – all of the page’s content and META tag information can now be optimised at the product level.
Product Page Scripts (Expanded View)
Individual Expanded View product pages in EROL 5 now allows full control of META, CSS, JavaScript and tags – every single product Expanded View page can be optimised for design, content and Search Engines.
Google Sitemap
EROL 5 now automatically generates an XML Google sitemap. Submitting your Google Sitemap to Google improves the speed of getting your site and products listed on Google.
EROL Shopping Feed
EROL 5 automatically creates a product feed for EROL Shopping – www.erolshopping.co.uk. If you have an EROL Cover Plan or subscribe to EROL Shopping, adding your product feed to the site will list all your products on EROL Shopping and drive extra traffic and sales to your store.
Google Product Search Feed (Google Base)
EROL 5 can generate a product feed for Google Base. Google Base is the engine that drives product searches for Google Products (formerly Froogle) so adding your products to Google Base via the EROL 5 product feed will list all your products on Google Products, driving extra traffic to your store.
Google Analytics integration
Easy, one click Google Analytics integration. In EROL 5 you no longer have to paste Google Analytics code to every single page in your store – simply ‘add once, apply to all pages‘ in the new Document tab!
Store Build & Management
Improved Global DiscountsNew Global Discount features allow discounts to be applied based on Total Weight, Total Items and Sub Total. Multiple discount types can be applied at the same time - for example, you may want to allow Free Shipment and a 5% discount on all orders over £30. EROL 5 makes this possible.
All discount values applied are shown in both the Order Manager and in the email confirmation receipt, giving complete transparency to both vendor and customer.
Open each Manager on a Default Filter of your choice
Increase the speed of opening for each Manager and improve day-to-day efficiency
For example, you can now set the Order Manager to open with a default filter showing only 'New Orders'.
Assign multiple printers for printing
Set up multiple printers so you can print invoices to your main printer and print despatch notes to a secondary printer.
Extended search and filter options
The Order, Customer and Inventory Manager have improved search and filter options, enabling you to find customer and order information quickly. For example, search by a date range, or select a filter to show orders from the 'last 2 days'.
Offline Preview Enhancements
EROL 5's improved offline Store Preview now displays both the file name and the page's
Interface Enhancement
The EROL 5 Build Manager has improved speed and performance.
New Payment Gateways
Integration with 'Go&Pay' and 'PayOffline' payment gateways means your store can take orders from customers without a credit or debit card! Both new payment options allow a customer to place an order online, print off a barcode for payment and take the code to their nearest local Pay Point.
Control Image Size in Templates
Control the size of product images in the Product Template, overriding the actual height and width of the image. This feature is great for setting the Thumbnail Image size for your Related Product list(s) and Search Results template(s).
PNG Image Support
EROL 5 now supports .PNG files as product images within your store.
Checkout Verification
All product prices at the Checkout are now verified on the Checkout before the order can be placed successfully. This prevents issues where a store has been distributed on a CD, or store pages have been cached with old prices.
New Features in EROL 5 Small Business
All features described above are included with EROL, plus the following new features added to Small Business Edition:Product Data Export - 'Round Trip' Export
Full Product data export as CSV file, enabling you to export product information from your EROL 5 store for import to other EROL 5 stores or 3rd Party systems.
New Features in EROL 5 Business & EROL Developer
All features described above are included with EROL 5, plus the following new features added to Business and Developer Editions:Featured Products and Bestseller Product panels
Insert a 'Featured' and/or 'Bestseller' panel to your page, then assign products to appear in either or both these panels. Place panels anywhere in the page to upsell your most popular products!
Custom Product Panels
Any product in your store can be 'tagged' to appear in a Custom Product Panel. Product panels work in the same way as the 'Featured' and 'Bestseller' panels but give you more flexibility. For example, you might choose to list clearance products from multiple product categories in one place - simply tag all the products as 'clearance' items, assign the same tag to the product panel, insert the product panel in the page and all the clearance items will appear in the product panel - without having to duplicate products across multiple pages!
Single or Multi Stage Checkout
You can either retain the classic single page EROL Checkout or divide the checkout process into multiple stages e.g. Basket > Checkout.
Global Discounts Extras
Business and Developer Editions allow multiple Global Discounts to be set based on time periods for the whole year ahead. For example, set up January's global discount as Free Shipping, February's global discount as 10% off when spending over £100, and so on!
Discount Voucher
Create Discount Vouchers that cam be time-expiring to offer new or existing customers an incentive for buying from your store. The Customer Manager now has a separate Vouchers area so you can track performance of all the vouchers you create.
Customer Manager Enhancements
Customers are automatically grouped in the Customer Manager based on their e-mail address, making it easier than ever to track and manage you customers and vouchers.
