email templates

[rburton34]

Wondering if anyone has done any thing extra to the standard emails customers receive and would be interested in sharing their templates.

[Barry]

In my opinion, the email templates, and which ones are sent, are somewhat difficult to change/tame/understand. Actually, changing the emails is do-able, but finding exacly which one gets sent to customers and merchants was a bit confusing. Just my opinion so far!

That being said, I started a chat session on 3d and gained some insight into about how/what/when email order notices are sent out. I will show the conversation below, in hopes that it may shed some light on the subject.

NOTE: Keep in mind that the rep for 3D cart was VERY helpful and I am only showing this to share info that might help other 3d cart merchants. And if this posting is not allowed, I will understand if it is removed.

Shevon:
Hello Barry, Thank you for choosing 3dcart.
My name is Shevon. How may I assist you?
Barry:
No matter what I do, I cannot get my emails to reflect the changes I have made. I have cache turned off. I have cleared the cache a few times. Still no changes are showing in my test orders. What am I missing?
Shevon:
you probably made the changes in the wrong place
Shevon:
each email template has a txt version and HTML version
Shevon:
did you change both?
Barry:
No, only the HTML version. But, I switched the emails from text/HTML to just HTML.
Shevon:
ok
Shevon:
and what email are you modifying
Shevon:
and what did you modify on it?
Shevon:
whats your domain?
Barry:
New Order - Customer was one of the emails. I changed a few things, but the easiest to see is I moved the company info from the bottom to the top.
Shevon:
and how are you testing this?
Barry:
by placing a test order
Shevon:
also what is your domain so I can log in?
Shevon:
what payment method are you using?
Barry:
i was using check/money order. I also changed the "Processing" email with the same changes. I will get my domain ....
Barry:
(barry inserted domain site info here)
Shevon:
for that payment method... what status do you have those orders set to go to?
Shevon:
is it still set as unpaid
Shevon:
or did you change it to new?
Barry:
let me look ....
Barry:
it is set to "Unpaid"
Shevon:
then thats the status email being sent
Shevon:
change that to new and test again
Barry:
Ok, but I also made the same type of changes to the "New Order - Merchant" and no changes are showing
Shevon:
Its still not a New Order
Barry:
But wouldn't I still only get the one email for a merchant?
Shevon:
no
Shevon:
make the change and place the test and you should see how it works
Barry:
Ok, so there are different Merchant emails for different types of orders???
Shevon:
or you can go to the order
Shevon:
change the status
Shevon:
then click on actions -- customer email
Shevon:
and preview the email that will be sent
Barry:
Ok, I did the test as you suggested - and the changes are showing in the email.
Shevon:
ok
Barry:
But, i am still confused about the merchant email - I thought there was only one for orders placed?
Shevon:
the merchant email corresponds to the status
Shevon:
thats why no changes were shown
Barry:
So the merchant email "changes" according to the order payment type?
Shevon:
yes
Shevon:
'new' is customizable though
Barry:
So the new order (for merchants) is the only one we can actually change?
Shevon:
yes
Barry:
OK, makes a little bit more sense now and I will find a way to work through it - thanks to your great help (as always).
Shevon:
you are welcome

[piaf]

Sadly, I'm more confused now after reading that... :(

[bzeltzer]

Wondering if anyone has done any thing extra to the standard emails customers receive and would be interested in sharing their templates.

I've done a lot of editing to the templates but basically just content. I've found that inserting links and info about return procedures, shipping time and telling people that they'll receive an email when the order ships has significantly reduced the amount of time my customer service people have had to spend

[Barry]

Ok, I stand corrected about my previous post - I am with piaf on this one - and am still not able to figure these email templates out! To be more specific, after fooling around and placing test orders, I don't quit understand:

1. Why we (the merchant) get different emails based on how the customer chose to pay. The "Payment Method" pretty much sums it up!!

2. How to force the system to send me (merchant) one type of email so that I only have to change one template.

3. (to be blunt) why the emails are originally set up so "un-professional" to begin with and, in my opinion, need to be tweaked and redesigned so heavily. Out of the box, they should at least be usable and somewhat professional. Just my opinion.

If anyone (3D tech can chime in too) has any insight, I would be very grateful.

[elightbox]

Need a Send Test E-mail button

The e-mails are a bit confusing, and what makes it worse is that to see the finished product you have to place a whole new order. Too cumbersome.
A "Send Test e-mail" With two fields, the first would be a variable field based on the type of template (order #,affiliate name,customer name..." and "Send To:"
would make life so much easier to be able to modify a template, then send a test copy.

[Barry]

The e-mails are a bit confusing, and what makes it worse is that to see the finished product you have to place a whole new order. Too cumbersome.
A "Send Test e-mail" With two fields, the first would be a variable field based on the type of template (order #,affiliate name,customer name..." and "Send To:"
would make life so much easier to be able to modify a template, then send a test copy.

I agree - sort of..... actually all that would be needed is a "Send Test Email" for each individual template. But I do like the idea of the option to send the test email to "Send To". That way one could test each template through different email providers (we have accounts with Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, our website, etc. for testing purposes).

But I agree 100% that the whole email testing process is very cumbersome - especially if you want to see what a customer sees when using PayPal or a credit card as a payment. Like I said, this is one area of 3D cart that is too basic yet VERY important to merchants.

[bzeltzer]

My 2 cents on this. Sending email through your 3dcart store may not be terribly effective. I suggest using a email service like constant contact or vertical response. They help to get your email into the inboxes rather than being marked as spam. Their interface is also much better. I recently switched to using illustrator to design my emails and they look more professional than anything that can be done in a wysiwyg editor.

[Go Live]

Interesting Adobe Illustrator? Great for graphics no doubt.

[piaf]

My 2 cents on this. Sending email through your 3dcart store may not be terribly effective. I suggest using a email service like constant contact or vertical response. They help to get your email into the inboxes rather than being marked as spam. Their interface is also much better. I recently switched to using illustrator to design my emails and they look more professional than anything that can be done in a wysiwyg editor.

That's a great solution for marketing emails, but the issue here is the automatically generated emails that are sent out when an order is abandoned, or when a customer places an order, or when an order is shipped, or when a request for a product review is sent out later on. I don't want to manually send those types of emails out using a 3rd party service, I want to use the automatic emails that happen without any input from me.

[bzeltzer]

i see, my mistake. Honestly, the fact that the emails can differ with respect to unpaid or paid status is useful for me. Different strokes for different folks.

[Barry]

the fact that the emails can differ with respect to unpaid or paid status is useful for me.

Do you mean the emails auto sent to YOU or your CUSTOMER? I agree that the customer should get tailored emails as to how they paid, etc., but we as merchants really only need one email notice. In that email, it only needs to show us the payment method and we will know if the order is "paid" or "pending". Maybe I am wrong, but at least for our company this is true.