WP e-Commerce 3.8 – a new look

Hi Team.

I’m feeling really excited about e-Commerce + WordPress at the moment and today I decided it was about time to share with you why that is. All sorts of things have changed for the better – not ONLY does the 3.8 release of WP e-Commerce utilize Custom Post Types and have half as many database tables (less than BuddyPress even?), but it looks and feels fantastic too. Here are some pics to get your juices flowing.

Manage Products Page

The new Manage Products page is simply the best. I love it and you will too. My favorite feature here is the quick edit links we designed so that you can quickly tab through important details and quickly make changes. My second favorite feature is the new navigation system that lets you toggle between “Managing your entire catalog” and “Adding New Products”. Thanks to Jane Wells from Automattic for giving us the tip.

Manage Categories

The manage Categories page has had a visual overhaul. Groups have been replaced by Parent Categories (years ago there was a reason we did groups) but now we’ve retrofitted back to a more normal Category management system. Not only does this look better but it now uses built in WordPress taxonomies which means your shop will run faster and it’ll be easier for WordPress theme developers to customize WP e-Commerce.

Variations – Hot Damn!!

Pre 3.8 we had to make additional tables in the database to handle Variations. In fact that reminds me, we had to add additional tables for Products as well, but not anymore. Not now that Products are Custom Post Types and Variations are Child Products. Its about as stream lined and WordPress-esque as you can get.

Not only  have Variations been majorly optimized but they are easier to use and manage. You arent going to find a better way. I’m serious.

Tax Settings

In the beginning, there was WP e-Commerce Plugin V1, and there were very few tax settings. Essentially that was because we were based in New Zealand, and well, we like to keep things simple down under. However the keep it simple approach wasnt the best or most suitable approach for our customers based in the USA and/or Europe.

The old system has gone. The new system is here. We believe the new Tax system being built into WP e-Commerce right now will be enough to cater for 99% of our users.

In Conclusion

I think that’s a fair sneak peak of whats to come. Over the next few weeks we’ll start writing more in depth about other new features and benefits and how you can personally take advantage – we’ll look into how the new theming system works. We’ll explain how you can benefit by using Custom Post types coupled with WordPress 3.0 Custom Menus. We’ll look at the new Affiliates Plugin being developed by 9 Seeds. We’ll take a look at the Ticketing Engine and how its going to integrate with BuddyPress and User profiles and thus why its going to be the ultimate solution for wordcamp.org and much much more.

Stay tuned! It’s exciting times…