RSS Feeds Update

The mall has had data feeds for some time now. You may recognize the icons from the mall pages:

We've just upgraded them to include an image with every item. After all - what's the point of shopping without a picture to look at? The main mall data feed as well as your individual store feeds now include images, and the feeds will look great on your blog.

Tutorial - USPS Shipping Calculator

When you create a new store the 2nd tab you go to is the shipping information about the store. If you would like to use the USPS shipping calculator, you would choose 'Yes' for the dropdown as shown in the image:

With a brand new store, you need to save the store before you will see all the different methods of shipping that USPS provides.

If you save your store, then go back and modify it, the shipping page will now look like this:

In order to use the shipping calculator, you must choose some domestic and international shipping methods that you will support. Keep in mind the weights of the types of items that you are likely to ship, and keep in mind that you may also need to support combined or bulk purchases, so choose shipping methods that will support the sizes of your items and several of your items all packed together, for both domestic and international shipping.

For example, if most of what you sell are sewing patterns that will fit in an envelope and you only choose flat rate envelope or first class mail, then if you get someone who wants to buy 25 patterns that are too heavy for the envelope or first class mail, they will have to contact you for shipping because they will get an error when they try to checkout.

In the example below, I have chosen flat rate envelope and first class mail, but I have tried to add a 100 lb item. Note that the lbs and ounces must be filled in even if they are zero. You can click the 'Test USPS Shipping Setup' button - note - I just fixed this button today. Your item and shipping info will get sent to the USPS server, and any errors or messages will be sent back and displayed under the button. In this case, we got an error saying:

ERROR: The USPS server says: Warning - The package weight cannot exceed 70 pounds.

Another point to note - you should not use the shipping set up in your Paypal account profile if you want to use any of the shipping options on the Mall. Your setting should be as follows:

I set the weight of the item to 10 lbs and the price to $10. I go to preview the item and see this:

Oops - what happened? There are no shipping options listed and potential buyers are told to contact me. I guess neither flat rate envelope nor first class mail can hold a 10 lb item. I will go select some additional shipping methods on my 'modify store' page. In fact, I will choose most of them to make sure I can ship packages of differing sizes and weights:

Now when I go back to view my item pretending I'm a buyer, I see this:

My buyer could now purchase this item.

A good rule is probably to select all the shipping items that you are eligible to do (most people probably can't send via Library Mail), and to check that your items show up ok both to domestic buyers and international buyers. You can do this by logging out of the mall. When you go to view an item you can select your country.

I hope this helps at least a little bit, please let me know if you have any specific questions.

The May Sale

The Babylon Mall May Sale is almost at the halfway point. Many fabulous items have already been sold, and thanks to the participation of mall sellers there are over 700 items still on offer. Don't miss out - check out the sale today!

How do you display sold items on the home page?

On the modify store page there is a field that says: Display sold items?

Make sure this field is set to Yes.

Sale starts today!

The Babylon Mall May Sale is off to a roaring start with well over 400 great vintage items offered discounts that range from 5 to 50%. The sale will run for the entire month of May, to give sellers ample time to participate. But don't wait -- check out the sale today!

Tip of the Day - where are my items?

A question I get at times is "why don't my items show up?"

If your store is open, you need to mark each item as being "on sale". That doesn't mean your item will end up in some drastic price reduction, it just means your items will be listed when customers browse the mall.

If you are logged in to the mall, previewing your store will show you all of your items, even the ones not on sale yet. A good tip to check that everything is showing up ok, is to log out of the mall and view your store as a customer. If you can't see your items, neither can they.

Dusting off the website cobwebs for a May Sale

Babylon Mall will be holding a sale for the whole month of May! Sellers may choose to participate in the sale by selecting the items to go in the sale, and a discount percentage that can vary from item to item.

You will see that 2 new columns have been added to your items page. The first column is a list of check boxes to let you select the items you want to include in the sale. The second column is the discount that is to be applied to the item's price. These changes are actually new enhancements to the code based on seller feedback, and were implemented to make marking your sale items easier.

You can select individual items, or use the 'Check All' button to select everything. You will still need to include the discount for each item. To save the checked items and discounts don't forget to click the 'Save Checked' button.

If you edit an individual item, you will also see two extra fields. These fields only show up when there is an upcoming sale, on the General tab of the modify item page. They show up right after the 'Price' field. They are the same fields you see on the items page. It's a little easier to edit them all at the same time on the items page than to have to edit each individual item, but you can do it whatever way you like.

During the sale - from May 1 to May 31, your item's prices will automatically be discounted on the listings pages.

Participation in the sale is voluntary for sellers, you may choose whether or not a sale is for you.

We have not held a sale on Babylon Mall since switching to the new software and website design, so if you find any "cobwebs" (aka glitches) at all, please let us know and we will do our best to dust them off ASAP!