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2020.1: a new version to boost e-commerce

WebSite X5
Published by Incomedia in WebSite X5 News · Monday 20 Apr 2020
Every new version of WebSite X5 we release is exciting: after working on an important project for many months, it feels great to publish it and start seeing people use and appreciate it.

This release, the first new version in 2020, is special though, because we're living through special times. The pandemic dealt a major blow to our society, and we're still looking for a way to respond and regain our freedoms.

For us, that means finishing the development of 2020.1 while working from home, and introducing lots of new features to boost e-commerce: they'll be more useful than ever now. Since we still can't go out, online sales will keep growing. That's why delivering even more powerful e-commerce tools seems like the best way to help businesses get back on their feet and set them on new paths for a successful future.

E-commerce: new Product Search Page

You asked, we delivered: a new internal search engine for online stores that can help your clients quickly find the products they want. As of today, it's finally available!

The new Product Search Page not only includes the usual search bar, it also comes with filters to search by category, price range, new items, or items on sale. The results are then displayed through product sheets with all the necessary information: titles, short descriptions, images, prices, and the "Buy" button.

If you have a lengthy product catalog, this search page will be very helpful for your customers, and therefore for your sales too.

Working with the Product Search Page is very easy. You'll find it listed directly in the Site Map: from there, you can access its settings to customize it and insert it into the navigation menu. You can also choose to create a link to it: in the Link window, you'll find a new type of link created specifically for this purpose. In fact, you can create more than one link to the Product Search Page, one for each type of main category in your store.

If you find yourself managing a catalog with a large number of products, a search bar isn't just useful for your clients, it can also help you administer your own store. That's why we also added it to the toolbar inside WebSite X5.

E-commerce: optimized checkout.

As leading online stores know, sometimes changing a single detail can significantly increase sales.

That's why we've decided to update another crucial aspect of any store: the checkout process.

We optimized the checkout page in two major ways. First, we redesigned the process to better distinguish the registration, selecting a payment/shipping method, and order confirmation phases. We also overhauled the design and layout of the checkout pages in order to make them even more clear and user-friendly for clients placing orders.

Data protection

As we all know by now, the GDPR has set forth requirements for handling data and security, which all websites must follow.

We already addressed this topic in previous updates, to make sure that websites created with WebSite X5 comply with current regulations. Now we're going a step further: we strengthened our methods for managing credentials and introduced a new procedure for resetting passwords, both of which improve our level of compliance with the GDPR.   

Template pre-sets

Here's a little tip. We added 10 new template pre-sets to the 2020.1 library: 5 of which are geared at e-commerce and include the newly introduced features. For great results, start with one of these templates to create your online store or refresh an existing store.

There's more...

These are the most important new features, but that's not all: you might notice that 2020.1 also includes a few important changes to the interface. In both the Blog and the Online Store, we've separated the content management aspects from the design and layout elements. This allows more work on the online store Search Page and introduces the possibility of adding more interesting new features later on, which are currently in development.

Finally, here's a little something for those of you with lots of content and fans of long, detailed pages: we increased the maximum number of lines per page from 64 to 96. Don't hold back!



As usual, for a detailed list of all the changes we've introduced in the new version 2020.1, visit the News page.

 
If you already have an active WebSite X5 license, you can install this new version right away: just launch the program and you'll find instructions for doing so in just a few clicks.

If your WebSite X5 license has expired, renew it today to receive the new version 2020.1.

Finally, if you don't have WebSite X5, take this opportunity to buy it now. The user license includes a 12-month guarantee of receiving updates and new versions as we release them, as well as access to our Priority Assistance service.



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