The Ecommerce Control Panel
Control Panel OverviewContents
Introduction
The ecommerce Control Panel allows a merchant to control the various areas of their online store, including managing inventory, customers, orders and site design. This article will introduce you to the control panel's layout.
To access your control panel you must first login to your online store.
Control Panel Overview
The ecommerce Control Panel (Figure A) contains several sections that allow easy navigation around your online store.
Figure A
The Control Panel is broken up into several sections for quick managment of common features. The following will walk through the various sections.
The Navigation Tabs
These are the tabs at the top of the Control Panel (Figure B) that allow you quick and easy access to any section of the Control Panel.
Figure B
Click on the section below to be taken to an explanation of each tab.
- Home Dashboard
- Sales Overview
- Inventory Overview
- Operations Overview
- Design Overview
- Pages Overview
- Reports Overview
The Taskbar
The taskbar (Figure C) contains links to specific, commonly used operations in the Control Panel. You can view Exclusive Deals for ecommerce merchants, access tools like the Setup Checklist, File Manager, Import/Export tool, or leverage tools to help manage your sore like Help Manual or Open a Help Ticket.
Figure C
The taskbar includes the following features to better help your store management.
- Exclusive Offers
- Setup Checklist
- Import/Export
- File Manager
- Manual
- Open a Help Ticket - submits a help desk ticket to ecommerce support.
- Help - provides additional information to online resources and support topics.
- Logout - Logs the user out of the control panel
The Help Bar
The help section (Figure D) near the top of the Control Panel contains all the relevant help documentation for the page. Clicking anywhere on the bar will expand it, allowing you to view the most relevant manual pages, articles, tips and videos, based on the area of the control panel currently being viewed.
Figure D
The Shortcut Bar
On the left side of the control panel, you will find the Shortcut Bar (Figure E) which contains the Quick Search functions, My Bookmarks, and the Utilities. These Control Panel functions are detailed below.
Figure E
Quick Search
The Quick Search allows you to easily find Orders, Products, or Customers by entering the desired information in the correct fields.
Bookmarks
The Bookmark function works just like a bookmark on a web browser; If you are at a page in the Control Panel you wish to bookmark, simply click on the Bookmark this page link, give the bookmark a name, and click Add.
When you first login to your Control Panel, there are default bookmarks already setup to help you easily navigate to the most popular areas of the Control Panel.
Additional Resources
Here you have quick access to the Network Solutions Forum, your Account Manager, and more.
- Exclusive Offers This provides you with the most recent discounts on Network Solutions services.
- Ecommerce Forum: This link takes you to the Network Solutions Forum.
- My Account Manager: This link takes you to the Network Solutions Account Manager.
- Feedback: This form takes you to the Feedback Form where you may make suggestions or comments on how we might improve the ecommerce package, the Control Panel, or any other Network Solutions Products.
Store Setup Checklist
The Store Setup Checklist (Figure F) is a great way to get started building your ecommerce store. You can follow along with the Store Setup Checklist by clicking on each task link that appears on your storefront (Or you can open the full Store Setup Checklist in it's own window so that you can skip to the tasks you wish to tackle first.)
Figure F
You can hide the checklist at any time by clicking the Hide this Checklist Link.
Storefront Overview
This is the main informational pane (Figure G) for the Control Panel, giving you the most important store operation summaries at a glance. The Storefront Overview is discussed in depth here.
Figure G
Store Status
You can quickly open or close your store to your customers from the Control Panel by selecting the Open or Close options. The Store Status (Figure H) is located at the bottom of the Storefront Overview section.
Figure H
The Message Center
Any new information dealing with Network Solutions or our partners will be be delivered to your Message Center (Figure I), located at the top of the Control Panel.
(Figure I)
Clicking on the Inbox will take you to the Message Center, which displays all communication (Figure J) sent by Network Solutions.
Figure J
Clicking on a message will open that message where it can be marked as Read (Figure K).
Figure K
Continue reading about your ecommerce Control Panel in more detail.
