About CasperVend

    1a) Link to features
    1b) Link to "what's in the box"

The Fine Print

Prerequisites

The manual on this page assumes the following:

That you understand the setup processes behind web-enabled networked vending systems
That you understand debit permissions need to be granted in order for all scripted vendors to function
That you have at least one product to sell
That you have at least one promotional image for each product to sell
If your product is in multiple pieces (such as an outfit), that you have put the product in a shipping package of some sort.

If any of these concepts are unclear, or you have never extensively used a web-enabled networked vending system before, you should begin at the New User Quick Start instead, where the instructions are simplified and explained for people who are not as familiar with these concepts.

Terminology

CasperTech (and thus CasperVend) does do a few things differently from other web-enabled networked vending systems. This manual uses the following terms that may not be used by other web-enabled networked vending systems:

DropBox - This is your product server. Your packaged products go in here, and are delivered to your customers from here.
Item - "Items" are the things you put inside your DropBox. "Items" can be your packaged products, informational notecards, landmarks, and so on.
Product / Product Listing - These are created on the website using your items, and each listing includes information about your product including price and permissions. All product settings are on one page for ease of setup.

    -- Allowable vs non
    -- DMCA / Copyright

Your Account

Security Notes

Protect your business by following these tips, and keep your account safe.

Choose a password which is difficult to guess.
Do NOT use your Second Life password.
Do NOT use a password you've used with any other Second Life related service, such as other vending systems.
Do NOT give your password to anyone!

If you have trouble coming up with a secure password on your own, you can use the Gibson Research High Security Password Generator.

If you need a "password keeper" utility on windows, you can try Password Safe

Creating Your Account

Before you can begin setting up products on the website, you need to have a CasperVend account. If you already have one, just log in.

Otherwise, rez out a CasperVend vendor of your choice, and follow the instructions on the Creating Your CasperVend Account page.

Resetting Your Password

See the section on Resetting your CasperVend Password

Upgrading your CasperTech products

For information about how to upgrade your CasperTech products, see the Updating & Upgrading page.

Getting Set Up

Setting Up Your Dropboxes

See the DropBoxes page for important details and instructions on setting up your DropBoxes.

Set Up Product Listings

Click on the (C)asperVend logo in the bottom left hand corner of one of your vendors.
Visit the link that appears in local chat, and enter your password if necessary.
Now, click "Products" on the left hand side.
Click "+ List New Product" to create a new product.
Fill out details about your new product, then click Save.
Pay attention to any menu/popup messages you receive - they have very important information!

To see the product options at-a-glance, read the product options page.

If you are selling products that have a license the user needs to agree to, see the Product License page.

    a) Basic info
    b) Landmarks, notecards, etc
    c) Bot information

Product Permissions

One of the things the website asks for when you enter your product details is "permissions". Please be aware that this does not actually change the permissions set to your objects, but instead the information about the permissions will simply be told to the customer as an advisory.

In addition, any products which are set to COPY on the website will be claimable by customers as a redelivery - so be careful when setting this flag. See the CasperVend_2/Redeliveries page for more information.

NOTE: The website cannot read or change permissions on anything you have in the dropbox. This is why it is CRITICAL to set your permissions properly on both your product AND the website.

If you are selling items which are no-copy to you, the merchant, (such as breedable items) see the Limited Availability page.
If you are selling limited edition items (limited number on the grid), see the Limited Edition page.

Set Up Product Variants (if desired/needed)

    a) Useful for different color versions or different vendor pictures
    b) Pros & Cons of variants (stats, splitting off, etc) 
    c) Instructions

Some merchants find it useful to list products as variants of a main product. Hair, clothing or shoes in different color packs can easily be set up as variants, or if you want to have a vendor picture display slightly different for an event, but do not want your main vendor location(s) to have the event-related picture.

Here's how to set up a product variant:

1) Go to the product listing you want to make a variant OF.

2) Click "Add Variant", right above the blue PrimBay section.

3) To set up a product variant, add in the information for:

Name (of product, as will be shown in statistics)
Item (to be delivered) - use the pulldown to select the product. You may use the radio button for "only objects" to only show you product packages without also showing notecards, landmarks, etc.
Texture (the picture for the vendor)
Price
customer permissions (this controls whether it can be redelivered)

Repeat the above steps for each variant you want to add to the parent product.

If the variant already exists, you have additional options to:

Remove any existing marketplace association (if it was incorrectly associated)
Delete the variant
Detach the variant

Additional Notes on Variants

At this time any OTHER options you wish to have that are different from the parent product (such as limiting how many can be sold inworld) are NOT able to be done with a variant - these will need to used on a full separate product listing.

You are able to detach a variant to make the variant a full-featured product. however at this time you cannot turn a full-featured product into a variant of another.

Configuring Single-Product Vendors

For vendors which are designed to show only one product, there is a shortcut you can use to quickly configure them.

Rez the vendor
Grant debit permissions (the vendor won't function without them)
Access the vendor configuration page, by clicking the (C)asperVend logo in the bottom left hand corner of the vendor.
Look for the configuration option called "Single Product"
Simply switch the Single Product pulldown selector to the product you wish to show.

Configuring Multi-Product Vendors

For scrolling, multi-product vendors, you need to create a full profile. See the Profiles & Groups page for more details and information.

Rez the vendor
Grant debit permissions (the vendor won't function without them)
Access the vendor configuration page, by clicking the (C)asperVend logo in the bottom left hand corner of the vendor.
Look for the configuration options labelled "Actions"
Under Actions, look for "New Profile", and click it.
Give your profile a name, and click "Create". You'll be taken to a screen with two white boxes.
Select a product from the left white box that you want to show in the vendor, and click the [-->] button. This will add the product to the profile. Repeat with each additional product you want in the profile. There is currently no way to select only several of the products. You can only move one, or move them all, nothing in between.
When you're done, click "Finish".

The profile will be saved and will be applied to your vendor within a couple minutes!

Turning a Non-Vendor Object Into a Vendor

Caveat: This is NOT recommended for furniture that gets sat on - the vendor script will soft-reset anytime an avatar sits or unsits, since LSL sees it as a change in the linkset. We recommend the HoloVend expansion to display furniture instead. (If you purchased the Fat Pack, then HoloVend is already included.)

Take the vendor script AND "mapping" notecard out of the headless vendor into your inventory
Drop the script and notecard from your inventory into your product
Grant debit permissions (the vendor won't function without them)
Click the object, and select "Admin"
Log in to the website, if necessary
You will be taken to the configuration page for that vendor product
Change your options as desired
All set!

Set Up Multiple Locations, Fast

"Take A Copy" of the appropriate vendors from your main store
Rez them at the new location
Slide into place
Done! Yes, it's THAT easy!

By taking copies of vendors you have already granted debit permissions to, you don't have to answer even more debit permissions windows at the new location(s).

More Vendor Configuration Options

TBA

Vending Management

CSR Contact Points

Go to the "Overview" tab on the CasperVend website
Add your CSR's account name in the CSR box
Click the "Save CSR" button
Done!

If you add just one individual's name, the message that gets sent to the customer will include a link to the CSR's inworld profile.

To add multiple CSR's, simply add all the account names, separated by a comma, in the CSR box. The message that gets sent to the customer will include ALL the names, but will NOT include any profile links.

CSR limitations

Currently, CSR's are ONLY a contact point for your customers (for tech support, etc.) - they CANNOT do anything with the products on your site.

Redeliveries (when your products are copiable) may be handled by the customers themselves with a redelivery terminal, which your CSR's can lead the customer to.

Managers in CasperVend

Currently, there is no facility in CasperVend for managers that do anything with your products under their own login. For security reasons, we do NOT recommend sharing your CasperVend account passwords, as that gives unrestricted access to your products.

The managerial feature is slated to be added to the future version of the CasperVend website. If you wish to be notified when this feature is added, click the "Monitor" button on this ticket. Simply replying on the ticket won't keep you updated.

Profit Sharing

See the Profit Sharing page for details and instructions - you are able to do this on a per-product and/or per-vendor basis.

Sales, Discounts and Loyalty Rewards

Only the largest discount (if there are multiple applicable discounts) will apply in any given transaction. Discounts do not stack.

Discounts grid-wide or store-wide

Setting vendors on a gridwide/storewide sale - See Set All Vendors for Grid-Wide Sale.

At this time, you cannot set vendors on a per-sim/region basis with a sale, other than by doing so per-vendor, or if you have different profiles for different sim/regions, then on a per-profile basis.

Discounts for everyone on...

Specific profiles - See Setting Discounts on Profiles

Specific vendors - See Setting Discounts for Everyone on a Vendor

Discounts for Groups

Group discounts may only be set on on a per-vendor basis at this time. The group discount ability requires an LSL function that compares the worn/active group tag against the group the vendor is rezzed under/set to. For details and instructions, see Setting Group Discounts on a Vendor

Discounts by individual

To give a specific customer a credit balance, see Giving Individuals a Credit Balance

To give a specific customer their own discount, see Setting Discounts for Specific Customers

Loyalty Rewards

Setting Loyalty Credit - See Setting Customer Loyalty Credit

Setting Loyalty Discounts - See Setting Customer Loyalty Discounts

Price overrides (Set all things to one price)

Specific profiles - See Setting Price Overrides on Profiles

Specific vendors - See Setting Price Overrides on a Vendor

Discounts are applied in this order:

Customer discounts:

1) Customer discounts (i.e., if they got to a certain spending level)

2) Customer balances (i.e., spend x, get y store credit type balance)

CasperTech Fees, if applicable

3) Is it a free vendor? Then the free vendor fee applies.

4) Is it an affiliate vendor? Then the affiliate vendor fee applies.

Affiliate Gets

5) Affiliate commission

Partner Splits, if applicable

6) Vendor profit shares

7) Product profit shares, if applicable

You

8) Whatever is left

Transaction Logs

This is a feature unique to CasperVend. Each inworld merchant sale notification message contains a link to a system log of the transaction. This log (more specifically, the "giant wall o' text" below the summary) contains the details of what went on during each transaction, so you can see where the trouble is. This lets you resolve issues instead of just wondering why a product didn't get delivered.

If the transaction log is confusing, you can read the transaction log analysis page for details on how to interpret what you find.

Additional Features & Options

Customer Updates

Redeliveries

Included in all vendor packs is a redelivery terminal. In addition, each vendor has a "Redeliver" option on the popup menu when clicking the vendor. Customers may use these redelivery options to redeliver any COPIABLE item that you have marked as copy on the website.

It is ONLY the website option that controls this function - if you mark a no-copy item as "copy" by accident, customers will be able to redeliver it, even though they shouldn't, so be very very careful when setting up no-copy products.

Sending product updates to customers

See the Sending Product Updates page for details and instructions.

Gifting options

    a) Direct gift (sent from the system) 
    b) Gift box (you get the box, you give the box, they rez it)

"Search" feature on vendors

The "Search" feature on the multi-product vendors allows the customer to search within the products ON that vendor - searching what's in that vendor's profile - to see if anything matches the search term(s) they enter. The keywords section on each product listing contributes to what can be found using this feature.

"Search" is a profile function, not a vendor function - so if you have a profile set to a single-item static vendor, you will still have "search" as an option in the popup menu when clicking the vendor, even if you only have one item in the profile.

This feature, of course, has no impact on inworld SL land search. You will need to set up your own keyword prims if you want to have any effect on your shop's ability to be found in the inworld SL search.

Expansion Packs & Promotional Tools

 #) Expansion Packs & Promotional Tools

CasperVend 2/Setup

About CasperVend