This Plimus service update due for release on January 5th 2010 contains a number of important improvements and marks a lively start to the New Year! The Shoppers Panel now includes the latest Plimus design and user interface, with increased functionality that lets customers view their past transactions at a glance, and gives fast access to invoice and order information. These changes should improve your customers' post transaction experience. The "Cancel subscription" process has also been modified in line with suggestions put forward by Vendors. A new friendly ‘Questions and Answers' feature has been added to give your end customers immediate answers to the most common issues.

Plimus Affiliates are set to benefit from a full range of new features. The Product Catalog has been enhanced; Contract set up for recurring contracts and the Affiliate invitation process allow Vendors to select whether recurring commissions are offered on just the initial, or, on all recurring charges.

A crucial change of behavior is that all new recurring contracts created after the date of this release will - by default - offer commission on all recurring charges. Existing contracts will still follow the old default, with commission offered on just the initial charge.

We recommend that Vendors reset existing recurring contracts to offer commission on all recurring payments, as Affiliates will obviously take this into account when selecting the products they wish to sell.

As requested by many Affiliates, Tracking IDs can now be added to BuyNow urls to assist in monitoring the performance of advertising and promotion programs.

Plimus users also asked that we enable the addition of a ‘PAD file URL' which can be referenced in contracts that Vendors have set to be included in the Plimus Product Feed. This option has been activated along with some minor changes in the setting up of Trial Version Download URLs at product and contract levels.

The processes for setting up a customer download file (Paid Version), CD on Demand, Trial Download URL, and a PAD URL have been gathered together in a new drop down menu termed ‘Related Files/URLs' and should simply these functions.

This update also contains fixes and improvements to provide greater usability, security, and reliability for users of the Plimus control panel and online commerce system.

Shoppers' Control Panel Area

The Shopper's Control Panel now matches the general Plimus design, and includes new functionality.

Shoppers can easily see their current account status (1) and manage credit cards and change password (2).

The list of ‘Active subscriptions' includes convenient links for customers to upgrade their existing plan (3). By popular request the former link ‘Cancel subscription' has been amended and there is now a link to ‘Change' a subscription leading to an additional dialog that shoppers need to complete to stop their subscription. (4). This revision should reduce cancellation rates and customers are now asked to state a reason so that Vendors may better judge what is triggering cancellation decisions.

'Recent Charges' lists Shoppers' purchase activities in the last 6 months, and provides them with easy access to Invoices (5), Vendor links, and the Order Information page (6).

Shoppers' Access to Order Information Pages

In order to increase privacy and prevent unauthorized access to download product file links, Shoppers' order information pages can only be accessed by a Shopper during a logged in session or by entering the email provided at the time of order.

Shoppers' Innovative "Answers" Service

Shoppers now benefit from a new dynamic "Answers" service that gives instant answers to the most general questions. The question icon is located at the lower left hand of relevant pages on the customer support section of the Plimus web site. If Shoppers don't find an appropriate existing answer they can request to have their question be answered by Plimus.

This should in time provide Shoppers with a comprehensive set of answers to most questions that are not related to a specific transaction or product.

Affiliate Settings for Recurring/Subscription Contracts

The Contract settings for Subscription/Recurring Contracts available to Affiliates now include a pull down selection to designate whether commission is offered on just the initial payment or on all recurring charges.

As from the date of this release all new recurring contracts offered to Affiliates will by default offer commission on all recurring charges. If you have existing contracts, the default remains that commission shall is only offered on the initial payment. Vendors might wish to clarify future policy with their Affiliates to avoid any potential misunderstandings. All these defaults can be overridden manually.

The recurring commission status is also shown in the Plimus Catalog, and prospective Affiliate Partners will no doubt take this into account when comparing marketing offers. Plimus therefore advises Vendors to change the settings on existing recurring contracts to offer commission on all recurring charges.

Affiliate and Partner Invitations now include the option to select whether commission is offered on all recurring charges or just the initial payment. The Manage Partners & Affiliates screen indicates which commission settings apply on recurring contracts (see below). As some invitations may extend to all contracts there is an option to set the recurring commission terms according to the relevant contract's own settings.

For convenience, the recurring commission information is also included on the Invitations Log screen.

Product Catalog

The Plimus Product Catalog has been upgraded to deliver more pertinent search results.

Results now take into account the relevancy of recent sales volume performance and can be sorted according to date, commission rates and sales price. As indicated above results also indicate recurring commission status where applicable.

Tracking IDs for Affiliates

In response to requests by Affiliates, Plimus now fully supports the inclusion of tracking ID parameters within the BuyNow URL. This enables Affiliates and Partners to gauge the efficiency of CPC campaigns and other marketing actions.

Tracking parameters now show up in Affiliate sales reports and are included in Instant Notifications, and sales confirmation Emails.

The relevant BuyNow parameter is &tid=
So for instance if you need to track the sales from a certain newsletter you would use a parameter string such as this added to the end of your BuyNow URL: &tid=newsletter6

Just bear in mind that ‘tid' must be written in lowercase and that there is a limit of 25 characters after the equals sign.

A new tutorial on Affiliate Tracking IDs is available at: http://home.plimus.comtutorials/affiliate-tracking-ids

Pad File and Trial Version URL Settings

We have rationalized the system for uploading files for Customer Product Download and CD on Demand.

These functions are now included on a convenient drop down navigation menu that also includes two additional elements: a PAD File URL can be added to the system for inclusion in the Plimus Product Feed distributed daily to approved download and directory sites; and Trial Version Download URL set up is now included.

We are also introducing the ability to host Trial Version files on Plimus. If you are interested in this capability please contact Vendor Support for assistance, indicating your requirements and the nature of the relevant files.

Customer Product Download files are now renamed "Paid Version" files. The set up process remains unchanged.

The PAD File URL process is straight forward and can be an effective marketing step -- just add your appropriate URL and your PAD information will automatically be included in our XML feed to trusted download sites.

Learning Center

New lessons have been added to the Learning Center covering Language Translations, Custom Fields and Affiliate Tracking settings. The BuyNow Templates Video and Tutorial have been fully revised to take account of recent changes.

Contextual links to Learning Center tutorials have been updated in the Control Panel.