Webstores Update: Features and Improvements

Responsive design looks great on every platform.

Barely a month has passed since we announced Bonanza Webstores, and already 1,000+ merchants have signed up and created their own beautiful, professional online stores. We thought this would be a good time to update you on improvements and new features we’ve added since launch.

Added: Delicious Themes

We’ve added 4 new themes (one every week!): Swiss, Baby Beluga, Otter, and Poppy. All of our themes use responsive design, meaning they automatically look amazing on every platform - desktop, mobile and tablet.

You can check out the new themes at our demo store, http://www.GreenBeeDecor.com. Try out different themes using the theme-preview bar at the top of the page. And be sure to view it on your smartphone - they look great, even on a tiny mobile screen.

Improved: Custom Page Menus

When editing your homepage, now you can specify navigation for your custom pages. (Previously, it listed all pages and wasn’t configurable.) To customize the menu, click the blue box next to “Products” in the customize/edit homepage view. The box will say "Edit page navigation” if you haven’t added any pages yet.

Improved: Featured Items

Your Webstore homepage can show a list of Featured products that you especially want to highlight. Previously, you had to choose your items by hand - but with the latest improvements, you can opt to have the Featured list automatically filled based on your products' Popularity, Highest Price, Lowest Price, Newest, or Name. It’s your choice. Also, now you can change the title of the Featured section to suit your fancy.

Added: Webstore Analytics

We’ve started tracking item views and sales for your Webstore, to give you better insight into your traffic and product performance. You can view your stats by clicking the “Stats & Subscribers” link in your My Bonanza page. (What is a “subscriber,” you ask? Read on!)

In addition to the detailed Bonanza analytics, you can also choose to enter your Google Analytics account ID, and meta tag verification codes for both Google and Bing webmaster tools to use those analytics services with your Webstore.

Added: Sitemaps

Whenever you make a change to your Webstore, we will auto-generate a sitemap and upload it to the search engines. It's all handled automatically, but if you're curious then you can view your sitemap from the "SEO & Analytics" tab of your "Edit Webstore options" page.

Added: Collect Emails Widget (Subscribers)

A great way to turn shoppers into customers - or customers into repeat customers - is by keeping in touch with them via email. Now you can add a “Subscribe to our newsletter” widget on your Webstore so visitors can opt in to your emails or newsletters. You show or hide the email capture widget in your Webstore footer, using the "Capture email” toggle in your Webstore Options under the “Contact & social” tab.

At any time, you’re free to export your collected emails for later import into your favorite email software or service.

Added: Call To Action Popups

Sometimes, new visitors to your Webstore need some hand-holding. Now you can display a pop-up window to new visitors, prompting them to take action in 1 of 2 ways: either signing up for your mailing list, or using a coupon that you provide to make a purchase.

To turn your promotional popup on or off, or to customize its contents, click the “Edit homepage popup” in the blue bar at the top of the your Customize/Edit Homepage screen.

What’s next? You tell us...

That’s a lot for one month, especially considering all the work we also finished on the core Bonanza marketplace. If you have any feedback for us, please log into our Feedback site to suggest features or improvements. Or you can vote on ideas that have been suggested by other Bonanzlers - we’ll prioritize future improvements based on your feedback.

And if you still haven't signed up to get your own, standalone Webstore - what are you waiting for?

Happy Selling!