• 1) Get started:
  • Create an account with Magnet Commerce
  • Register or transfer my domain
  • Collect my products’ info and photos
  • Accept credit card payments
  • Understand how Magnet Commerce works
  • What to try if you only have 5 minutes?
  
  
• 2) Create my catalog:
  • Best organize my products in categories and types
  • Present my products with photos, descriptions and files
  
  
• 3) Add prices:
  • Set prices
  • Add product variants
  • Control stock
  
  
• 4) Promote selected products:
  • Add discounts
  • Select products to promote on homepage and other pages
  • Propose related products
  
  
• 5) Set up my store:
  • Set general info
  • Set accepted payment types
  • Manage taxes
  • Manage shipping costs
  
  
• 6) Set the look and feel of my store:
  • Select colors
  • Select layouts
  • Select buttons
  • Manage banners
  • Edit texts
  
  
• 7) Create additional pages:
  • Manage custom pages (about my company, contact info, etc)
  
  

First, check the online free demo to make sure that Magnet Commerce meets your unique business needs or contact us. We are always happy to help small businesses succeed in the ecommerce world. Next go to the pricing page to review the costs and click the “sign up” button at the end of the page to get to the subscription page. After you complete your details, submit the form. We will review your details and we will send you a welcome email with all information you need to get started, including information to login to your account and a secure credit card payment link to complete the sign up process. New accounts are created until the end of the next business day after subscription.

If you haven’t registered your domain name yet, make sure that you select one carefully as this choice can boost or hurt your online success. A registration service is offered here:
https://www.registryrocket.com/default.asp?ec=1116F87A-E802-40E4-AAEF-7

If you already have a domain name, you only need to point it to our server. To do this, you must contact the entity from which you purchased the domain name and modify the Domain Name Server (DNS) information to the following settings:

Primary Name Server: ns10.siteownersltd.com
Primary Name Server IP Address: 147.202.33.57
Secondary Name Server:ns11.siteownersltd.com
Secondary Name Server IP Address: 147.202.33.58

The first step is to make a list with all products you wish to sell online and collect their names, photos, prices and descriptions. The more complete this list is, the faster you will build your online store.
You don’t have to worry about the size of your photos as they will be automatically resized and optimized when uploaded. Do worry about the descriptions though, as a common mistake is to copy the content of printed catalogs online. People do not read on the web as they read printed materials, so your products’ descriptions should be carefully written. Valuable help about writing for the web can be found here: http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/
And here is a quick tip that will help you rank better in search engines: Name your products properly. For example, a retailer sells a computer mouse named “IntelliMouse” and publishes it to his online store with its exact name. A more search engine friendly name would be “Microsoft IntelliMouse optical USB mouse”.

We strongly recommend that you accept credit card payments as over 85% of all online purchases are made with credit cards. Magnet Commerce is fully interfaced with all the major 3rd party credit card processing companies as well as with Paypal. If you don’t already have an account with one of them, you can visit their websites to review their plans and make the best choice:
2checkout : http://www.2checkout.com
Authorize.net : http://www.authorize.net
Worldpay : http://www.worldpay.com

Magnet Commerce is a web based software. Everything is controlled through an online administration panel that you can access with your web browser using your unique username and password.
The administration panel of each account is connected to one internet address (URL), where the store’s pages that the visitors see exist. This means that all changes you apply through the administration panel take place in real time at you store’s pages, which are dynamically generated.
Magnet Commerce is an ever developing platform. We add new features and make improvements continuously. Each time we release an update, we automatically install it in all accounts. You don’t have to worry if you have the latest version or take any actions to update. All accounts automatically have the latest version. Next time you login after an update you can instantly see the changes.

Go to the catalog tab, select a product and edit it. Try to change any of its attributes you wish, like the price, the description, the photos, the related products. Save the changes.
Click the “View Shop” link at the top-right corner of the screen to see the storefront with the changes you applied. Find the product you have edited either by browsing the categories or by searching.
Return to the administration window and go to the design tab. Try to change some colors and buttons. Save the changes.
Refresh the storefront window and see how it has been affected by your changes.
Your 5 minutes must be over. Whenever you have some more time you can explore the catalog and design tabs or try any other tabs. Remember that the demo account is being re-generated periodically, so you should not be afraid to try anything you wish.

After collecting you products’ info and photos you should organize them in categories and product types. The better you organize them the easier your visitors will navigate your store.
What are categories and product types? Let’s see an example from Magnet Commerce demo store: http://demo.magnetcommerce.com
Let’s select one product: http://demo.magnetcommerce.com/product.aspx?id=48&pid=42
It belongs to the category “digital cameras”, which is a subcategory of “digital photography”, which is a root category (has no parent category).
At the same time it belongs to 3 product type groups. These are “manufacturer”, “megapixels” and “price range”.
The use of both categories and product types allows the visitor, who is interested in digital cameras, to locate easily the products that interest him. After finding the category “Digital Cameras” (http://demo.magnetcommerce.com/category.aspx?id=48), he has 3 options to filter the products according to what most interests him: Find a camera from a specific manufacturer or find a camera with specific caption quality or find a camera in a specific price range or a combination of them.
Another example of the hybrid organization in categories and product types is a bookstore. The categories can be the themes of books (literature, novel, romance, …) while the product type groups can be “Author” and “Publisher”.

A disadvantage of electronic commerce compared to real commerce is that buyers cannot have the product in front of them. You should make any effort to give your visitors as many details as possible to feel comfortable with the product they are about to order.
First of all you should describe the product. Magnet Commerce has 3 fields for this purpose: “Product name”, “Short description” which is shown at pages with product lists (category page, search results, featured products, …) and “Description” which is shown at product’s presentation full page.
Then you should upload photos. You don’t need to use any other software to do this neither you need to worry about the photos’ sizes, they will be re-sized automatically when uploaded. You can upload as many photos as you wish for each product: The first image is displayed as a thumbnail at pages with product lists. All other images are only displayed at the product full presentation page as thumbnails. All these thumbnails when clicked open a popup window with the original uploaded picture. The default size of all thumbnails is now set to 80x80 pixels. If you wish, you can change it from Setup > General options.
Finally, you can attach files to your products, like a technical specifications word document for example. Your visitors will be able to download these documents from the full presentation page of your product.

Once you choose any product you can see the pricing tab on the top. You simply add the base price for the product. Information on how you can add a discount on your product you can find below.

Product variants are a vital service for your eshop. It helps you, to organize and categorize your products in a better way, applying to them different prices depending on sizes, colors, etc. Under the catalog tab you can find the product variants button. Alternatively, choose any product and click on the manage product variants link under the pricing tab. Simply add your variant type and then click on edit link to add the different choices for the certain type. Add as many types and options are necessary and click on the save and close button. You can also set up the order of the variants to be displayed. Once you set up your variants then you simply need to select a category, a description and the added value, if necessary. You can also upload a thumbnail image for the specific variant.

Once you choose a product, under the pricing tab there is a drop down menu to control the status of the stock. There are four different options available.

Choose any product then go to the pricing tab and add a price. Once you 're ready you can add the new price, which will be the new valid price for the product. At the front end the user will be able to see the normal price lined through while the new price will be available in your favorite color. You can control the color of the discounted price from the design tab.

Promotion is a very important tool for your estore. You may wish to promote some specific products in order to attract more customers. Promotion of your products can be done really easy. Promotion panel with all options can be found under Catalog tab, once you choose any of the products then you need to go to the promotion section by clicking the promotion tab button. There are four checkboxes, choose any of them in order to promote your product. The first two options will place your product as featured product to homepage and category page. The other two options can be used if you'd like to name your product either as new or as a best seller product.

With magnet commerce powerful administration panel you can set up as many related products as you like for any product without restrictions. Related products options can be found under Catalog tab, once you choose any of the products then you need to go to the promotion section by clicking the promotion tab button. All you need now is to click the 'add related products' button. You can choose as many as you like and then put them on the order you'd like to be displayed.

Under the setup tab you can update the general information of your eshop. Name, description, logo and other useful for your eshop information can be found there.

Under the setup tab choose the payments link and then select your favorite payment methods. Magnet commerce comes with the four most known payment methods already installed, so all you need to do is to choose among them.

Taxes need to be set up in order to sell. Magnet commerce taxes set up system can be adjusted using three different levels.
The first option can be used to set up a specific amount of tax for any country individually. You can add as many countries as you want.
The second option is being used to set up a specific amount of tax for a U.S state individually. There is a drop down list including all U.S states
The third and the last option is being used to set up specific zip-codes. You may need to set some zip codes to have higher tax than other or vice-versa.
There is also a check box called 'tax shipping'. Check this if you want to apply tax for shipping.

Under the set up tab click on the shipping link. Here add as many shipping type names as you like and then set up each pf them separately. First you choose the desired countries, then you can choose as many states as necessary, note that choosing United States from the countries drop down menu you mean all states. Once you have your type ready choose what the charge would be. You have two options, either by price range or by weight range. Finally set up the ranges you like. No limit applies to the number of the possible either price or weight ranges you ‘d like to set up.

The choice of the appropriate colors is a very important element for the design of the site. Magnet commerce is fully customized and allows you to change up to 13 colors.
There are three groups of colors.

• A) The first group is a set of colors that controls the main look of your store. There are six different inputs.
  • • The first color (outside background color) is to set up the background color of your estore. Keep in mind that your store has a standard white color as background color and this input only controls the color of the rest of the page(left and right background color).
  • • The second choice (titles on white background) controls the color for the main titles of your store.
  • • The third (text on white background) is for setting up the main text color of the text (ie. product descriptions etc.).
  • • The next input (links on white background) is to set up the color for the main site links (note: just the active state not on the 'mouse over' one).
  • • The following input (links hover) is for the main links but only for the 'mouse over' state.
  • • The last input (discount price color) of this group is to set up the color for the price of each product (note: this is only for the discounted products, the products without discount takes the color of the main page text).


• B) Second group is a set of colors that controls the two main elements of the site. Navigation menu (ie. tabs) and the boxes left and right of the main body.
  • • The first color (background color) is for setting up the background color of the two main elements(tabs and boxes).
  • • The second color (titles & texts) is for setting up the main color within the boxes left and right of the site(titles and text within boxes).
  • • The next input (links) is for setting up the color of the links within the two main elements(tabs and boxes, note: not on the 'mouse over state').
  • • The next input (links hover) is for setting up the color of the links within the two main elements (tabs and boxes, note: only on the 'mouse over' state).
  • • The last input (box borders) is for setting up the color of the borders for every box apperas on the pages, (ie: shopping cart, root categories, etc.).


• C) Third group is a set of colors that controls the breadcrumb & the background of the tabs.
  • • The first color (main color) is for setting up the background color of the breadcrumb as well as the color of the navigation menu(ie. tabs) when is on the 'mouse over' state.
  • • The second color (breadcrumb) is for setting up the text color that will be used for the breadcrumb(ie. links and text)

The customization of layouts is also an important element for the administrator. Different layouts are available depending on the needs of your estore.
There are eight different groups of layouts (note: there are screenshots next to every option in order to have a better idea of what each layout does).

• A) The first group is to set up the look of the header (two options). view screenshot
  • • On this layout all main categories of the estore will be displayed on the header. There is also space for the custom pages on the top right of the header
  • • On the second option custom pages are only displayed (note: if you choose this option it is strongly recommended that you also choose the third option of the seventh group).


• B) The second group is to set up the look of the footer (one option). view screenshot
  • • There is only one option at the moment. Custom pages and custom text will be displayed (note: custom text can be added from the administration panel under the design tab).


• C) The third group is to set up the look of the home page (two options). view screenshot
  • • The first option is when your home page composed of home page's custom text, sub categories(note: three per line) and featured products.
  • • The second option is almost the same, the difference is that new products have been added as well as sub categories are displayed two per line (note: this is ideal to use when sub categories make use of long names).


• D) The fourth group is to set up the look of the product presentation page (two options). view screenshot
  • • The first option has a medium sized product image at the top along with product's title. Then product types, availability price etc. along with the long description of the product are displayed. Next there are more product images which can be enlarged by clicking on them. Finally, product variants are available while at the end the 'add to cart' block which displays the final price and quantity can be found.
  • • The second option is almost the same, the difference is that product image is displayed in full size. On the bottom of the product image all available thumbnails are displayed and can be seen in full size by clicking on them.


• E) The fifth group is to set up the look of the search relults page (two options). view screenshot
  • • The first option is when results page composed of product thumbnail, title and a short description (note: one result per line/ten results per page).
  • • The second option is when results page composed of title, thumbnail and price (note: two results per line/ten results per page).


• F) The sixth group is to set up the look of the category presentation page (two options). view screenshot
  • • The first option is when category page composed of three sub categories per line and featured products (note: is not recommended when sub categories have long names).
  • • The second option is when category page composed of two sub categories per line then featured products are displayed including thumbnail and title only (note: is recommended when sub categories do have long names).


• H) The seventh group is to set up the look of the left side page (boxes/three options). view screenshot
  • • The first option is when the left side of the page will be composed of products box (containing all products and groups that belong to the main category), categories box (containing all sub categories) and banners (note:maximum recommended width of 200pixels).
  • • The second option is when the left side of the page will be composed of products box (containing all products and groups that belong to the main category), categories box (containing all categories and sub categories) and banners (note:maximum recommended width of 200pixels).
  • • The third option is when the left side of the page will be composed of main categories box (note: this is strongly recommended when the option two is selected from the first group of layouts), products box (containing all products and groups that belong to the main category) and banners (note:maximum recommended width of 200pixels)..


• H) The eighth group is to set up the look of the right side page (boxes/two options). view screenshot
  • • The first option is when the right side of the page will be composed of search box, cart box, related products box (box that displays all products related to the main product, note: small thumbnail, title and price) and banners (note:maximum recommended width of 150pixels).
  • • The second option is when the right side of the page will be composed of cart box, search box, related products box (box that displays all products related to the main product, note: small thumbnail, title and price) and banners (note:maximum recommended width of 150pixels).

Button sets are also available in order to have more freedom on how your estore will look like.
There are some sets of buttons created by magnet commerce graphic design team however you can feel free and add your own set. A set of buttons is composed of thirteen different buttons and headers, both are explained quite thoroughly below.
  • Header for the 'Browse Products' box on the left side of the page (note: text recommended is 'Browse Products' and recommended size is 200pixels width by 33pixels height).
  • Header for the 'Browse Categories' box on the left side of the page (note: text recommended is 'Browse Categories' and recommended size is 200pixels width by 33pixels height).
  • Header for the 'Search' box on the right side of the page (note: text recommended is 'Search' and recommended size is 150pixels width by 28pixels height).
  • Header for the 'Cart' box on the right side of the page (note: text recommended is 'Shopping Cart or Your Cart' and recommended size is 150pixels width by 28pixels height).
  • Header for the 'Related Products' box on the right side of the page (note: text recommended is 'Related Products' and recommended size is 150pixels width by 28pixels height).
  • Button for the 'Edit Cart' within the 'Cart' box on the right side of the page (note: text recommended is 'Edit Cart' and recommended size is 90pixels width by 20pixels height. Keep also in mind that this button has to have a transparent background in order to feet perfectly within the 'cart' box).
  • Button for the 'Checkout' within the 'Cart' box on the right side of the page. The same button is also on the 'Shopping Cart' page. (note: text recommended is 'Checkout' and recommended size is 140pixels width by 28pixels height. Keep also in mind that this button has to have a transparent background in order to feet perfectly within the 'cart' box).
  • Button for the 'Update Quantity' within the 'Shopping Cart' page (note: text recommended is 'Update Quantity, Update QTY' and recommended size is 90pixels width by 20pixels height).
  • Button for the 'Continue Shopping' within the 'Shopping Cart' page (note: text recommended is 'Continue Shopping', there are no restrictions on the size).
  • Button for the 'Proceed' within the 'Checkout form' page (note: text recommended is 'Proceed', there is no restrictions on the size).
  • Button for the 'Remove Item' within the 'Checkout form' page (note: there is no restrictions on the size).
  • Button for the 'Search Submit Button' within the 'Search' box on the right hand side of the page (note: recommended size is 22pixels width by 21pixels height).
  • Graphic for the 'New Product'. This icon is being displayed next to the product title, only when this product has been marked as new from the administrator (note: text recommended is 'NEW' and recommended size is 30pixels width by 21pixels height).

There are four different areas for banners to be displayed. Header, Footer, Left hand side and right hand side.
  • Header: Add as many banners as you like for the header but keep in mind the total width not to exceed the 765pixels (note: each banner will be placed one next to the other).
  • Footer: Add as many banners as you like for the footer but keep in mind each banner's width not to exceed the 765pixels(note: each banner will be placed one below the other).
  • Left hand side: Add as many banners as you like for the left hand side but keep in mind each banner's width not to exceed the 195pixels(note: each banner will be placed one below the other).
  • Right hand side: Add as many banners as you like for the right hand side but keep in mind each banner's width not to exceed the 145pixels(note: each banner will be placed one below the other).

On this panel all important front-end texts such as 'add to cart', 'featured products', 'edit cart', 'categories', etc. can be edited in order to feet your estores' needs

Custom pages such as contact us, privacy & policy, etc. are always important for any estore. Magnet commerce administration's panel let you add as many custom pages as you need. The process is pretty simple, under the tab 'Site Content' you can add, delete, edit custom pages as well as put them on the order you'd like to. The powerful text editor is giving you freedom to create pretty complex html pages.