The first area you will encounter in your new eCommerce solution is the Administration Area.

 

This page contains all the options and features we need to use to do things like: customise your site, administrate your shop, enter and update your products, run marketing campaigns and check how many orders you have received from your online customers.

 

You will see along the top of the screen in the example screenshot below that there seven navigation options that allow access to all of these features. We tend to call each of these options ‘modules’ and each module controls a specific bit of shop functionality. Let’s quickly review them in turn:

1. Orders – this is where you view, edit and accept customer orders.
2. Customers – this area lists all of your online customers so you can quickly check their details and order history or select customers to receive marketing communications like a newsletter.
3. Products – this module contains all of the individual products that you have created in your shop
4. Categories – categories map out the structure of your shop. In many ways they are like the departments in a superstore, for instance the meat or dairy isle in your local Tesco. Products are allocated to categories to help customers find things so milk and cream would be allocated to dairy. It is possible to have sub-categories to further help the customer’s journey to the products or services you offer.
5. Design – this module allows you to customise the look, feel and layout of your shop.
6. Marketing – this is a very useful module that will help you increase your sales and build customer loyalty.
7. Settings – like most technology offerings today there are some general settings you can alter to change the basics of your online shop. These can be found in this settings module. 

 

 

In this example the navigation along the top of the screen is also repeated on the Admin page itself to make it easier for you to find the tools you need to set-up your online shop.

 

MODULE NAVIGATION
The next thing to introduce you to is the side navigation. The first thing you will see is a link to your store front. This link uses your shop name and once clicked allows you to view your actual online store and monitor any updates that you have made.

 

There is also an option on the left to ‘download manual’ so you can view the entire user guide for the ITP product. This may be handy if you ever want to swot up on a particular area of the shop.

 

The sign-out link is pretty self-explanatory and can be used to end any of your sessions in your shop solution.

 

The menu you will use the most is the context menu. This menu contains options relevant to the section that you are in. Currently the menu only contains the ‘Setup Assistant’ as that is the first step in setting up this ePages solution. If you were to go to the ‘Products’ module though, you would see that that the menu changes to match the activities you need to carry out in the Products area.

 

EXTRA HELP
There are a few other helpful tools in the left hand navigation.

 

The TRAY is actually an ‘object tray’ that allows you to move an object or information from one module to another. An object is something like a product or customer. Some examples of using the Tray would be moving a product into a different category or moving customers into marketing campaigns.

 

You will also find a favourites menu that allows you to store the pages you use the most in the shop. By clicking on the little star you add the page you are currently on to the favourites menu. These shortcuts can be useful and save you time with routine tasks.

 

Finally, you also have a history menu that shows the pages you have recently accessed in the shop. This helps you to quickly go back to a page to check details or make quick changes and improvements.