New feature! And it’s free!

We have been working on major improvements, and we’re delighted to announce that we now have full customer login and management available in all stores. This update includes the following features…

• Make customer accounts optional or required.
• Apply credits to your customer’s accounts, so they can purchase using their store credit.
• Enable wholesale prices for specific customers.
• Customisable search filtering of your customers for easy management.
• Group your customers using tags for easier management.
• Create shopping cart-based discounts using customer tags to give your special customers a discount… without having to remember a coupon code.
• Customers can log in using their email address & password, or skip the hassle of remembering a password and log in the easy way with social login using Facebook or Google.
• Full mobile compatibility in responsive themes.
• Customer login allows the customer to view the order history and fulfilment status of their orders, update address details and any account credit.

Whilst the new features are awesome, this update does require that you update your theme to support the new customer functionality.

We have added several new templates to our themes to provide the new customer functionality. The first themes to receive the updates are the Vintage, Minimal, Georgia, Antiqua and Fresh themes. New versions of these themes are now available in the Theme Gallery section of your store. You’ll need to download a backup of your current theme before applying the new theme to your store.

Once you have updated your theme, it’s likely that you’ll need to update your settings in your theme editor. We have a guide below on what has changed in each theme so you can be better prepared for the update. If the version of your theme is quite old, you might find that there are also some nice surprises!

How to download a backup of your theme

You can download a backup of your theme in the Design & Assets -> Upload/download theme section. Clicking the Download your theme button will download a copy of your theme to your computer with all of it’s current settings.

How to update your theme

Once you have downloaded a backup of your theme, go the the Design & Assets -> Theme Gallery section, and click the Update my templates to use this theme button next to the theme you are currently using.  This will apply the latest version of your theme to your store.  Once you have done this, you’ll need to update the settings in the Design & Assets -> Theme editor -> Theme Settings section.

If you do update your theme, and find that you’re unable to get your store working in your new theme, please upload the backup of your theme to switch back to how your store was originally. This can also be done in the Design & Assets -> Upload/download theme section.  Once you have done this, please contact us by email for help.

What changes when you update your theme

• Every setting in the Design & Assets -> Theme editor -> Theme Settings
  section is reset when you update your theme, so you’ll need to upload your logo, set up colour schemes, subscribe forms, slideshows, social media links, design preferences etc again. You should make a note of what setting you had in every section of your theme editor before updating. You should also download a backup of your theme to retrieve your logo and any slideshow images.
• Any design modifications that have been made to your theme’s CSS and theme templates are wiped out when you change themes.
• Every file in the Design & Assets -> Theme editor section.

Please contact us by email if we have added any non-standard functionality or design modifications to your theme before updating it.

What doesn’t change when you update your theme

• All of your products, orders, collections, customers, email templates and uploaded files (in the Design & assets -> Uploaded files section).
• Data from your menus remains the same, but you may need to re-select your menus in the Design & Assets -> Theme editor -> Theme Settings section.

Theme specific updates

• The slideshow size in the Minimal theme has been updated to 960px x 400px. You’ll need to create new slideshow images, or the ones you upload will be stretched. The slideshow size in the Vintage theme remains the same.
• The Minimal theme now has support for MailChimp, Campaign Monitor and Mad Mimi newsletter subscriptions.
• The Minimal theme is now fully responsive, with layouts for most common mobile devices.
• The menus displayed on mobile devices in both the Vintage and Minimal themes have been updated to a more modern approach.
• The Vintage theme now provides native currency conversion. This is enabled by default when the theme is applied.
• The Fresh and Antiqua themes now include a fully-styled checkout, social media links and support for MailChimp, Campaign Monitor and Mad Mimi newsletter subscriptions.

Enabling Customer Accounts

Once you have updated your theme to support Customer Accounts, you can enable Customer Accounts in the Preferences -> Checkout & payment section of your store’s Toolbox.

Taking a methodical approach to the update is the best;

1. Download a backup of your theme in the Design & Assets -> Upload/download theme section.
2. Update your theme to the latest version in the Design & Assets -> Theme Gallery section
3. Add your logo, slideshow images, and select your colour scheme etc. in the Design & Assets -> Theme editor -> Theme Settings section
4. Turn on customer accounts in the Preferences -> Checkout & payment section.

Want to know more?

We have some new information in our knowledge base…

• How to enable customer accounts in your store
• Managing your customers
• Importing and exporting your customers
• Creating customer groups
• Filtering your customer view

Still to come…

We’re still working on updating other themes with customer support.  The Seattle theme will be updated next month with the customer templates, new features (including Instagram support) and mobile compatibility.

The Showtime theme is undergoing a complete overhaul, and will be re-released afterwards with some great new features.

The Dream theme will not be updated, and will be discontinued… but we’re putting the final touches on a new theme due for release in the coming weeks.