Step 11

The next tab is "Headers & Footers" which will allow you to create headers and footers for all non-category/product pages in your store (headers and footers for the category and product screens are edited under the particular category or product).  In our opinion taking advantage of headers and footers  in Merchant is a must.  It not only allows you to communicate important information to the customer, but can be an opportunity for you to beautify your store and make navigation very easy as well.  All fields on this page have virtually no character limit, and take HTML/JavaScript code. 

The first two boxes are the "Global Header" and "Global Footer".  These are wonderful new additions to Merchant and will appear on EVERY page in your store at the very top and very bottom of the page.  Many people take advantage of this space to put their logo, and links to non-Merchant pages in their store.  If you choose to use the "Global Header" for your logo we recommend that you link it to your homepage and either eliminate the "Navigation Bar Logo" using a 1x1 pixel image, or make it say "Home".   An example of the "Global Header" is shown below:

As you can see it appears directly on top of the "Navigation bar with no space in between.  This header was created using HTML code for a one celled table that is 71 pixels high and 100% wide with "green" specified as the background color but you can do anything you like.  Be creative!  Don't let this space go to waste!

The "Global Footer" will likewise appear at the very bottom of the page and should be used to include links to important pages like your shipping and privacy policies, contact page, return policy, etc.  However, unlike the "Global Header" the "Global Footer" will have a space between itself and the category tree, like this:

While this is very disappointing, there is not much you can do about it unless you are willing to modify the MMUI.mv file, or switch to OUI which has modules available for this sort of thing.  Click here for instructions on how to remove the space from your MMUI.mv file.

Below is a complete list of all other "Headers & Footers" that can be edited on this page with some suggestions for suitable content.  We have made one listing for both the header and footer although they appear individually on the page.  In most cases the footer is irrelevant if you are using the "Global Footer".

• Customer Login
  This is the page that customers see when they click on the "Accounts" button, or the login link at the top of the category tree.  It asks for their login and password and you may want to add a message reiterating your privacy policy, and informing customers that they can have their password e-mailed to them (in case they have forgotten it) by entering their login, selecting the "Email Password" radio button and clicking the "Login" button.
  
  
• Edit Customer Account
  These will appear on the page a customer sees when he/she logs in to his/her account.  We suggest that you put a short welcome back message, a link to your privacy policy, and short reminder of special deals (if any) the customer will receive through their account.
  
  
• Create Customer Account
  These will appear on the page a customer sees when he/she creates an account for the first time. It is similar to the Customer Login and should have short welcome message, a link to your privacy policy, and an explanation of any special deals the customer will receive as a result of having an account with you.
  
  
• Missing Required Attribute(s)
  These will occur if a customer has purchased an item that had required attributes that were not specified.  The page will automatically bring up the missing attributes for the customer to fill in, but you could add an additional explanation such as "we cannot complete your order without the following information" if you wish.
  
  
• Search
  These obviously appear on the "Search" page.  Merchant has certain limitations to its search, for example it does not search category titles, and you may want to let customers know about them.  You can ask the customer not to search for strings, or sentences like "a gift for a 24 year old man" and search for specific items such as "watch" instead.  You can, of course, boost the search function by including hidden keywords (including the category titles) in each product page so that the search will be more comprehensive, but that will still not cover sentence searches like the example above unless you use the specific syntax outlined as part of your keywords.
  
  You may also want to highlight that the search results come in sets of 20 matches per screen (or whatever number you set on the pagination tab) and that they need to click "continue" for more. 
  
  
• Product List
  These are on the "Product List" page, and you may want to include a note that this is a list of all products in your store in no particular order.  As mentioned above you may also want to mention how many products will show per page.
  
  
• Basket Contents
  The "Basket Contents" page should have a note in the header letting the customer know that they can change the quantity of any product in their basket by simply changing the number in the box and clicking "Update".  The footer should have links to your shipping, privacy, and return policies if you do not already have links to these in the "Global Footer".

The next set of "Headers & Footers" all appear once the customer begins the checkout process and most are preceded by the word "Order".

• Order: Customer Login
  These are essentially the same as the "Customer Login" header/footer, but are considered separate since these will only appear if the customer does not login when he first comes to your site, and then decides to login as he checks out.  You should simply copy the information that is in your "Customer Login" and paste it here.
  
  
• Order: Create Customer Account
  As with the "Order: Customer Login" these appear on pages that are identical to the "Create Customer Account" but appear if the customer decides to create an account after he/she has already begun the checkout process.  Copy the info from the "Create Customer Account" header/footer.
  
  
• Order: Customer Info
  These relate to the first page in the checkout process that collects the customer's shipping and billing information (name, address, etc..).  If you have made the "billing info" optional (if it is the same as the "shipping info") you may want to let the customer know.
  
  
• Order: Upsale
  These are for all upsale items.  The page will already let the customer know that the special price is good "for this order only" so unless you have something particularly important to emphasize, we do not have any suggestions.
  
  
• Order: Upsale Missing Required Attribute(s)
  Copy any info you have in the "Missing Required Attribute(s)" box.
  
  
• Order: Select Shipping
  These appear on the second screen of the checkout process (the third if there is an upsale product), and we feel it is important to emphasize any special shipping restrictions or instructions on this page.
  
  
• Order: Payment Information
  These relate to the page that requests the customer's credit card number, and could include a note letting the customer know that this site is secure...etc.   You might also mention that this is the final step in completing their order.   Another thing that we suggest is that you alert the customer that he/she should only press the "continue" button once and wait for the order to be processed.
  
  
• Invoice
  This is the final screen a customer will see and it is a good idea to use the header to let the customer know that his/her order has been processed and that he/she will be receiving a confirmation e-mail shortly.  It is also a good idea to remind the customer to print this page for his/her records.