So, you're whipping around the admin side of your Volusion store, you delete or add some categories, move some products from one category to another and then go to the user side of the store and the changes don't appear...

I found this problem when a category I deleted was still appearing in the left navigation menu, (and now gave the error message: Category ID# Does not Exist when I clicked it).

Why?... It seems Volusion does not alway publish all your changes immediately -- unless you set the Config Variable telling it to. Worse, sometimes Volusion does not honor this setting, (or forgets it was set), and you need to manually reset the variable.

[READ MORE...]

Although Volusion is decent software, there are a few complaints I hear from customers, and one is the cost. Volusion's pricing is based on number of individual product codes in a store's database, (see chart below).

In addition to the monthly fees, there is an initial setup fee... and then you have the typical merchant account fees you'd pay no matter which ecommerce software you use, (even if you use "free" software, you still pay transaction fees, discount rate and statement fees when you make a sale -- that is a "given" cost of online sales).

The pricing is all explained, and there are no hidden costs -- but on large sites that have a lot of image files, videos, or other media that uses a lot of bandwidth, you can get a surprise bill from Volusion for excess bandwidth, (yes, they tell you about it when you sign up, but most people never do the math or consider how much bandwidth modern websites actually use).

A month or two of these bills, and you start thinking of ways to cut down on costs. While some stores can either reduce the number of images, or make them physically smaller, (in pixels), or apply greater .JPG compression to reduce the file sizes, at some point you start thinking there has to be a better way.

There is...

[READ MORE...]

While Volusion 5 is a powerful ecommerce platform, and has many features that other shopping carts aspire to, the latest version upgrade has, in-fact, removed some of the flexibility that was available in previous versions.

In version 4 or lower, there were a set of .ASP files that a store owner could modify to customize the appearance and functionality of their Volusion. In Volusion 5 the .ASP files are all but gone -- replaced by a single template file, some CSS stylesheets and more options you can set to customize your store.

While some of the new features are nice, the awkward generated code marked up in deeply nested tables is still there -- and it makes it very difficult to modify the appearance of certain pages or sections of your store.

So, what do you do when you want to, or NEED TO add some functionality or design elements, (or remove some) ?

[READ MORE...]

Using Volusion Coupon Codes and Promos

You had a web designer create a custom template for your Volusuion store and it looks great. You got great products. You've got great prices. You offer great service. But, you aren't getting enough traffic to your site.

What's next? You look into Adwords and other PPC advertising, and even spend a little money to buy some traffic. It works well, but after considering your narrow profit margin, and competition for keywords in your market, you think, "There has to be a better (cheaper) way to get people to the site".

One way to get traffic is to run a promotion. Sure, you could buy PPC ads to promote the special pricing, free shipping offer, or other savings -- but then you realize there [READ MORE...]