Items that don’t include Tax and Shipping information or contain incorrect Google Product Category attribute values may soon fail to process for inclusion in Google Product Search. Please click on X of X items inserted under the Data feeds tab to see whether your products are affected. This requirement does not affect the visibility of your Product Ads.

Important: Tax information is only required for items submitted to Target Country US. For all other Target Countries, please make sure that both your item price and shipping price are VAT inclusive.

What should I do if I am affected?

To avoid disruption to traffic on Product Search, please begin submitting tax and shipping for all affected items and/or update your Google Product Category attribute values to match the exact values in our Google Taxonomy as soon as possible if you haven’t done so already.

How can I check that I am submitting the right values now?

Once you’ve updated your items, we recommend creating a New Test Data Feed prior to submitting your actual feed. This not only allows you to check for errors without actually affecting live items in Google Product search results, but gives you the option to download a full error report of all affected items. Once your test feed processes correctly, you can submit your actual feed as you normally would.

Please view our help resources below for additional information:

Categorizing your items
Feed Specification

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Do I need to provide Google product category for all my items?
No. The google product category attribute is only required for products that fall into the following seven categories and only if the feed targets the US, UK, Germany, Japan and/or France:

Apparel & Accessories > Clothing
Apparel & Accessories > Shoes
Apparel & Accessories (Note that submitting this value for clothing and shoes is not acceptable)
Media > Books
Media > DVDs & Videos
Media > Music
Software > Video Game Software

2. Do I have to provide the most granular category for my item?
No. While you have to include the exact category value provided in the taxonomy, the first two levels suffice. We do recommend to provide the most granular level of categorization, which will help improve your data quality and in turn ensures that offers are presented in the right category. Depending on your file type, you would select between the .txt or .xml values we provide.

For example, for running shoes, you have to provide the first two levels:
“Apparel & Accessories > Shoes”

If you wish, you can be more precise and provide more granular values:
“Apparel & Accessories > Shoes > Athletic Shoes > Running Shoes”

3. I am already submitting Google Product Category values. Why are they not accepted?
The google product category attribute is different from the product type attribute. While you can provide your own values in the product type attribute, you need to use Google’s predefined values for the google product category attribute using our taxonomy.

4. Do I have to submit Tax and Shipping in the account settings as well as in my feed?
No. You can choose either of the options. We do recommend using both settings: create a default shipping method at the account level and add the item-level shipping attribute for products with more detailed information.

5. I don’t charge Tax, does this requirement still apply to me?
Yes. You can opt to not charge tax in the account level settings or include a value of 0.00 in the tax attribute. Note: If you are submitting to a target country other than US, please include VAT in your item price instead.

6. What should I do if I am unable to provide accurate Tax and Shipping information?
We accept estimated values. For example, you can provide tax as well as shipping cost for each product and region/zipcode individually by using the tax and shipping attributes. Please estimate tax and shipping costs such that the total cost in Product Search results is either correct or overestimated for the majority of users.

7. How much time do I have to update my items?
We have already begun surfacing new item warnings and errors for items missing Tax and Shipping information and/or incorrect Google Product Category attribute values under the Data Feeds tab. Soon, items that don’t include Tax and Shipping information or contain incorrect google product category attribute values may start failing to process. We strongly recommend that you update your items as soon as possible.

Come see us at the SEMA show! Booth #11951 in the North Hall. We will be there all week. And will be giving an in-depth look at building a successful online auto parts store. November 2, 2011 – 1:30pm – 2:00pm (LVCC, N259)

Visit the SEMA website for more info: http://www.semashow.com/event/2011/11/02/exhibitor-product-training-atwoodz-building-a-successful-online-auto-parts-store

We’ve let you know many times over the past few months that we have been making upgrades to our system to help improve the performance and availability of our services.  We have scheduled a few more activities which will help make our services more scalable and ensure that they’re continuously available to our growing customer base, particularly as we near the holiday shopping season.

Please be sure to share this notification with your technical resources because network configuration changes may be necessary to avoid a disruption in service.  Please note that there is also information regarding a short service interruption for Payflow on October 1^st.

If you experience communication or transaction processing issues outside of the scheduled maintenance times above, you can file a ticket via www.PayPal.com/mts.  For your reference, there’s information about all of our maintenance activities and system updates at www.x.com, then go to: PayPal Developers àDocumentation & Tools à Site Status.

We appreciate your patience as we continue to improve our services and apologize in advance for any inconvenience.  If you have any questions, please click “Contact Us” at the bottom of any PayPal page.

Sincerely,

PayPal

Thank you for participating in Google Product Search. We are reaching out to you to inform you about important changes we’re making to our Product Search required attributes and Program Policies. All merchants will be affected by these changes.

We are now requiring a new set of basic required attributes, as well as attributes which are required for certain product categories and target countries. Please read the new Feeds Specification carefully to determine how your data feed will need to change at http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=188494

You can find a summary of the new requirements in table form at http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=1344057

Starting September 22, accounts that do not comply with the new requirements will be suspended. For more information about how we will enforce the new policies, visit this Help Center article http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=188484

Please update your account settings or data feeds as soon as possible to ensure that you are complying with these new requirements by the dates specified above. For more information about these changes, please visit our Google Merchant blog at http://googlemerchantblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/important-changes-to-google-product.html.

Sincerely,

The Google Product Search Team

© 2011 Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043

You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your Google Merchant Center product or account.

Please give us a call here to fix your present buggy one page checkout, or if you would like us to install a fresh clean one-page checkout on your store today!

ezOSC supports all products we provide. We will make sure it works with your store and all support is included.

Call Today – (800) 961-7427

Click Here – For more information on our one-page checkout.

osCommerce 2.2rc2a One Page Checkout Video

osCommerce 2.3.1 One Page Checkout Video

ezOSC Profesional Version 3.4 – One Page Checkout Video

Contact Us Today For Pricing & Installation!

Call Now! (800) 961-7427

Dear Paypal User,

We’ll be making a series of system updates in the coming months to make our services more scalable and help ensure that they’re continuously available to our growing customer base.  The next update is scheduled to happen on June 16, 2011, and as a result, PayPal will experience a service interruption.  We’ve tried to choose a time that will minimize impact to your business and your customers.

How this may affect PayPal services

The PayPal website and PayPal APIs will be offline on June 16, 2011 from11:04 PM PT to approximately 11:30 PM PT and buyers attempting to make payments will receive error messages and won’t be able to complete their purchases.  Other services that will be down during this time include Website Payments Pro Payflow Edition and Batch Processing (batch.paypal.com). We’ll be sure to let you know ahead of time when we do our next round of maintenance.

Resources and technical support

If you experience issues outside of 11:04 PM PT – 11:30 PT, you can file a ticket via www.Paypal.com/mts.  There’s information about this maintenance event here, and you can monitor system updates on x.com any time.

We appreciate your patience as we improve our services and apologize in advance for any inconvenience you incur as a result of this service interruption. If you have questions about this planned downtime, please click “Contact Us” at the bottom of any PayPal page.

Thanks,

PayPal

05.26.2011
Guest Lecturer, The Art Institute of Las Vegas.
(Topic: Technology and the New Technology Medium.)

05.24.2011
Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce
(Shopping Cart Technology and Mobile Applications)

FedEx’s recent API change from the Ship Manager API to the Web Services Shipping Module has been a bit of an issue.  Luckily, we here at ezOSC were already on it!  This new module integrates ezOSC, osCommerce, CRE Loaded, and OSC Max seamlessly with the newer FedEx Web Services API.  Did I mention it has Multi-vendor support?  Yes! This module fully integrates into all multi-vendor osCommerce based software.

USPS Multi-Vendor Shipping Module (Available Now!)

As of Jan 1st, 2011 USPS changed the way the USPS Shipping API worked.  If you have a non-multi-vendor store, you were not effected.  If you plan on or already have a multi-vendor cart solution then you are going to have to update to our fully functional and tested USPS Multi-Vendor Shipping Module.

If you would like this module for your store please contact ezOSC – Toll Free (800) 961-7427

osCommerce Support  Having trouble wrapping your head around osCommerce?  Need help installing a new payment or shipping module?  Wan’t to update your store’s design?  Need some custom work done?  If you can dream it, we can make it reality!  Give us a call today! ezOSC – Toll Free (800) 961-7427 iPhone / iPad / Android App’s “Major retailers recognize the power of the iPhone/Droid/BlackBerry and many have created mobile versions of their websites that are specifically optimized for iPhone users. Don’t leave this explosive growth market to the competition. Now you can offer your shoppers that same experience with ezOSC’s iPhone / Mobile App storefronts.” If you are interested in a mobile storefront and/or any general mobile application, please contact ezOSC – Toll Free (800) 961-7427 Printing ezOSC offers full-service printing available to ALL current & new clients! BUSINESS CARDS: All Stock options available! Including Plastic, Silk Lamination, Gold and Silver Foiling and more! BROCHURES: Tri-fold, Bi-fold, full bleeds, full color, glossy or plain PRESENTATIONS / PROPOSALS / ANNUAL REPORTS: Short or high runs, wire bound, tape bound, full color, full bleeds FOLDERS: Standard glued pockets, business card slits, full color, full bleeds CD ROM / DVD PACKAGING: Inserts, tray cards, card board jackets, full color, full bleeds BOOKLETS & CATALOGS: Full color, full bleeds saddlestitched LETTERHEAD & ENVELOPES: Plain bond, textured papers, virtually any color and/or weight POSTCARDS & RACKCARDS: Glossy, full color, full bleeds CUSTOM PACKAGES: Contact us! We’ll be glad to give you a quote for any printing project you have! Design What is Graphic Design? Any visual medium at all! -Make a poster; type a letter; create a business logo, a website design, a magazine ad, or an album cover; even make a computer printout-you are using is a form of visual communication called graphic design. Contact us! We’ll be glad to give you a quote for any custom design project you can dream up!

]]> http://www.ezosc.com/news/ezosc-newsletter-05312011/feed/ 0 http://www.ezosc.com/news/fedex-unable-to-process-transactions-june-1st-and-june-11th-2011/ http://www.ezosc.com/news/fedex-unable-to-process-transactions-june-1st-and-june-11th-2011/#comments Thu, 26 May 2011 23:39:06 +0000 admin http://www.ezosc.com/news/?p=111 FedEx sent out an email today advising that customers using FedEx Web Services, FedEx Ship Manager® API and FedEx Ship Manager® Direct solutions will be unable to process transactions. We thought you should know. Info from the email below:

Please be advised of the following important update from FedEx. Customers using FedEx Web Services, FedEx Ship Manager^® API and FedEx Ship Manager^® Direct solutions will be unable to process transactions within the affected environment.

June 1, 2011 update:

Start Date and Time	End Date and Time	Duration	FedEx Systems Affected
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 8 a.m. CT	Wednesday, June 1, 2011 5 p.m. CT	9 hours	Rating, Shipping and Tracking (Test Environment)

June 11, 2011 update:

Start Date and Time	End Date and Time	Duration	FedEx Systems Affected
Saturday, June 11, 2011 9 p.m. CT	Saturday, June 11, 2011 11 p.m. CT	2 hours	Rating, Shipping and Tracking (Production Environment)
Saturday, June 11, 2011 9 p.m. CT	Sunday, June 12, 2011 3 a.m. CT	6 hours	Dispatch (Production Environment)

June 11, 2011 extended support hours:
FedEx service representatives will be available Sunday, June 12, 2011, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. CT for your convenience. Support hours will be in addition to our regularly scheduled support hours. If you have questions or need technical assistance following the update, please call 1.877.339.2774 and say “Web Services” at the prompt.

We regret any inconvenience due to these service interruptions; however, please ensure that your appropriate team members are aware of these important updates.

Thank you for using FedEx. We appreciate your business.

The FedEx Web Integration Solutions Team