If you’re new and just getting started, I recommend the “Getting Started with Hyena Cart” page.

Next, the little search box on the top right of this page is the best way to quickly find an answer. So if you’re looking for help with shipping setup, then type “shipping” in the box and hit enter or click the magnifying glass.

Enjoy!

The Little Stinker Store
http://www.littlestinkerstore.com

What do you sell? I specialize in boutique accessories for girls, tweens, teens and women. There are times other things sneak into my store as well, since I love to try new things and just love to create.

How long have you been in business? Since March 2006

What is your favorite product and why? Oh, wow, that’s a tough one. Right now, I would say my bobby pins. I love finding different embellishments to put on them. I also love that they can be women as well as younger girls. I find that it’s hard to find nice handmade hair accessories for adults.

What business accomplishment are you most excited about? I think my most exciting accomplishment was when my bows began to be carried in brick and mortar stores. It’s a great feeling to know another business person is so confident in your skill as an artisan that they want to sell your wares.

Do you sell only at your Hyena Cart or other places as well? I also have an etsy store and am carried in three hair salons in the Ohio and Michigan area.

Any tips or tricks to share about balancing it all? I find it very helpful to set aside a certain amount of time each day to devote to my business. When I try to fit working in among other responsibilities I have, I tend to not accomplish anything or not complete my household duties to their full potential. After my daughter goes to bed in the evening, I work for three to four hours. That way, everything gets the attention it deserves.

What advice would you offer to a WAHM just getting started? Stick with it if you love it. It takes a lot of effort and a lot of time to become “known”, but if you love what you are doing, it is worth it and it stays fun. Don’t give up.

Think of customizing Hyena Cart like this: add my header, add my footer, then style the middle.

With Hyena Cart you control the header and the footer. So you basically wrap your design around the HC stuff. You can use CSS to style everything in between. Do a quick view source and you can see the classes/ids.

From the “Shop Config” page you can choose the width of the middle area, whether to collapse the “view cart” (you’ll probably want to), and whether to display the side bar links.

The only way to change the color/border/font of the side bar links is with CSS.

Just add whatever CSS you want to use on the cart into the header box along with your HTML header code.

Don’t use any forms anywhere in your header or footer — that will mess with the HC code and your “add to cart” buttons won’t work.  If you really need a form, create an iframe in your HC and then pull in the form that way.

You can also open a table or content div in the header, and close it in the footer, if you want to surround the HC stuff and control it all that way.

Further helpful information:

• Store Customization: http://hyenacart.com/customizing.php
• Design Tester: http://hyenacart.com/testyourdesign/testhcmulti.htm
• Photobucket Tutorial: http://hyenacart.com/photobucket_tut.php

Step One: Create Your Slideshow

1) Animated gif — combine several images into an animated gif using software like Adobe Image Ready, Jasc Animation Shop or Banner Maker Pro.

2) Flash — make a flash video with the images using Adobe Flash or similar program. Some swfs allow you to control them with an XML file, which is easier.

3) Java Applet — there are some java applets you can use to do a slideshow. That’s more technical though as far as the coding and requires that you have a hosting account or somewhere to host the java applet file.

4) Easy Option!  Put all your images in photobucket.com or slide.com and make one there. This is the easiest if you aren’t familiar with the other three options.

Step Two: Add it to Your Hyena Cart

Now decide where in your Hyena Cart you want to add your slideshow — like in the header or footer, or on a product page.

If it’s an image, flash or applet, you’ll need to upload the file(s) first to where ever you host images, and then add the html code to display it where you want.

For a slide.com or photobucket.com slideshow the website will give you the code you’ll need to copy and paste.

To add it to your header or footer, go to the “Shop Config” page and paste the code in the appropriate box there, or to add it to a product page, paste the code in the product description.

Cicily @ http://www.augustafternoon.com/

Cynthia @ http://www.hyenacart.com/webwurkz

Jen @ http://jenuineproducts.com

Andrea @ http://wantedwebdesign.com

Jessica @ http://hyenacart.com/zingslings/index.php?c=16

Julia @ http://jem-graphics.com/

Jen @ http://hyenacart.com/FerferDesigns/

Stephanie @ http://hyenacart.com/onawhim/

Christina @ http://hyenacart.com/joyfulrose/

All the designers above are regular Hyena Cart Designers with positive feedback in the Hyena Cart Forums.

When choosing a designer, look through the designers portfolio for sites that have a similar style to what you want for your cart. And be sure to provide as much detail as you can about what you like and don’t like so it’s easier for your designer to create a site you’ll love.

And if you’ve haven’t stopped by the freebies page lately, you can visit it here: http://hyenacart.com/elementalmuse/index.php?c=21

Use the Discount Codes feature in Hyena Cart

Stock your gift certificate for sale like a regular item in your Hyena Cart.  Just create a new listing and put it in whatever category you want and make the total price the amount you want to offer the gift certificate for.  Once it sells you will receive a notice and you can login, create your code and print off a certificate to mail, or zip an email, to the customer with the code.  Be sure you include in the listing if the customer will receive the code via email or if you will be snail mailing them a printed certificate.

To create your code, start by logging into your Vendor Pages and clicking “Discount Codes” to get to the discount page.  Now create a new discount code for the amount of the gift certificate.  If you want a single-use gift certificate, you might want to name the code something like CustomerName20 or Customer2389 — something not easy to guess but easy for you to identify.

Next,  you’ll want to either print a certificate and put the code and amount on it to be mailed to the customer, or type up an email to the customer with the information.  Include a note that when they want to redeem it they will put that code into the “Discount Code” box during checkout.  The amount will be automatically deducted from their total.

Now watch your order list and once you see that gift certificate has been redeemed, you’ll login to your Vendor Pages, click Discount Codes, and delete that code from your list so it can’t be used again.

Use the Gift Certificate Feature through PayPal

The other option is to use PayPal’s gift certificate feature.   Your customer can purchase a gift certificate, and PayPal holds the funds until the gift certificate is redeemed.

Details here: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/Merchant/merchant/GCIntro

But as a workaround, if you’d like to show off your past items, here are some options:

1) You can make a category called Past Items, then change the category of the sold item to “Past Items.” They’ll show up as long as the end time is in the future and the “Show” button is clicked. Just make sure quantity is set to 0 (zero) so no one repurchases the item.

2) You could also setup a slideshow of your past item pictures somewhere like photobucket or flickr and then copy the code for it into a new item titled “Past Items” and display your photos that way.

3) Or  use the built-in gallery feature.

Any of the three options above will allow you to display your past items for visitors to browse.

Here are the steps:

1) When you enter the description for your new item, include this code in the description box to blank out (hide) the add to cart button with css code (so no one gets confused and clicks it):

<style type=”text/css”>
.addToCartButton {
font-size: 0px;
color:#ffffff;
border: 0px solid #ffffff;
background-color:#ffffff;
}
</style>

2) Go to PayPal and generate a subscription link with the options you want to use. Or generate a button from whatever payment system you will use. I use this method to run my info product sales through my account with www.WAHMCart.com and it works as well.

3) Now copy the code you just generated to create your own “add to cart” button into the product’s description wherever you’d like it to appear.

And there ya go! Subscriptions automatically created from your Hyena Cart will send the orders directly through PayPal or the system of your choice and send you automatic payments every month.

Two important things to note if you do this:

1) The order only goes through PayPal, not HC, so there will be no order record in HC and no automatic feedback (they can leave feedback in the forum).

2) No inventory control so you’d want to remove the button manually or mark the product to hidden if you don’t want more subscriptions.
Always be sure to test your setup once you’ve completed the steps to be sure it works the way you want it to.

<style type=”text/css”>
.addToCartButton {
font-size: 0px;
color:#ffffff;
border: 0px solid #ffffff;
background-color:#ffffff;
}
</style>

If your main area of your cart has a different background color than white, just change all the color codes from #ffffff to your color code.

And now the “Add to Cart” button is gone!