Mercury:Manual

Access Website

Access Your Shop

After your shop is ready, you'll get three addresses (URLs): the server address, the management address, and a main address.

The server address refers to the server of your shop, you only need it in some special cases.

The management address is the address that you can use to access the management panel, where you can maintain your shop.

The main address is the entrance for your customers. In most cases, you want to replace the default main address later with your own address. It's not recommended for most shops but you may have multiple main addresses at the same time.

Login / Logout / Access to the Management Panel

The built-in administrator account password will be sent to your email when your shop is ready. It's an one-time password. You can login with your email address and the password. You can create other administrator accounts via Information & System / Account after that.

It's always required that you (and all other administrators) check the computer and network environment before login. Login using an insecure computer / network may cause security issues.

If you save your password, your don't need to login again within about 30 days, as long as you use the same browser and don't change your IP address. If your IP address changes, you have to login again.

You can logout anytime via your account menu on the top right of the screen. You can also change your password here.

Please manage your password carefully. Due to security reason, it's not allowed to reset your password via email. If you shop has multiple administrators, you may reset your password via other accounts with required permission. Otherwise, you have to login to | eSoul.online and reset your password via customer service.

View Operation History

It's notable that some information are cached as long as your browser is open. You may want to close the browser to clear all the information. Mercury set the cache-control header to guide your browser to manage the cache, so that no sensible information are saved unintendedly. However, we can't guarantee that your browser follow the guide. Depending on the settings of your browser, some caches may still exist even after you close your browser. You need to read the manual of your browser and clear the cache if needed. This may be required by your local law.

Shop Management

Order

In general, the orders are submitted by the user. It's allowed for administrators to submit an order from the management panel in a similar way. It's often considered for example for submission via telephone.

There are some general limitations apply to each order.

An order can have two addresses, one invoice address, one delivery adddress. If there's no delivery address specified, then the invoice address is considered as delivery address.

An order has a start

Service Start & End

It's possibl

Subscription

Subscription is a way to generate the orders periodically and automatically.

Coupon

A coupon is an one-time random code, which is often used as discount code in digital or printed form. A user can apply the code by entering it in the order process to get the specified discount (see detailed description below).

Each code has it's own start time and end time (expiration time). A user can only apply a code in this time interval.

Mercury allows to apply multiple coupons (no matter if they're in the same group or not) unless a coupon is declared as exclusive. You can limit the total discount of multiple coupons with coupon permissions, which is described later.

To create a coupon, you have to create a coupon group at first, which contains codes with same settings (name, amount, etc.). Then you can add codes to the group. There's an export function allowing you to export multiple codes to CSV table.

Please protect the codes carefully to avoid any illegal usage.

Detailed Application Rules

Each coupon has four core parameters: service, discount rate, minimal discount, and maximal discount.

When submitting an order, the system calculates the total price of all articles belonging to the specified service as the base.

Then the discount rate of base will be reduced. For example when a coupon with 10% rate of an order of $10 is applied, the discount will be 10% x $10 = $1, the final amount will be (1 - 10%) x $10 = $9 as shown in the table below. Below is another example *.

Article    Num    Price     Total Price
Apple      2      $2        $4
Jeans      1      $10       $10
Coupon [service: 'food', discount rate: 10%, minimal discount: $0, maximal discount: $100]

Final                       $ 14
Discount                    $ -0.4
Final after Discount        $ 13.6

If the discount is less than minimal discount, the coupon is still applied but the discount is set to $0. In the above example, if the minimal discount is set to $2, then the final amount will be $10. Below is another example *.

Article    Num    Price     Total Price
Apple      2      $2        $4
Jeans      1      $10       $10
Coupon [service: 'food', discount rate: 10%, minimal discount: $1, maximal discount: $100]

Final                       $ 14
Discount                    $  0
Final after Discount        $ 14

If the discount is more than maximal discount, the coupon is still applied but the discount is limit so that the discount is not larger than the specified value. In the above example if the maximal discount is set to $0.5 and minimal discount is unset (or set to $0), then the discount will be 5% x $10 = $0.5 and the final amount will be (1 - 5%) x $10 = $9.5, or calculate in this way $10 - $0.5 = $9.5 since the original discount $1 is larger than $0.5. Below is another example *.

Article    Num    Price     Total Price
Apple      2      $2        $4
Jeans      1      $10       $10
Coupon [service: 'food', discount rate: 10%, minimal discount: $0, maximal discount: $0.2]

Final                       $ 14
Discount                    $ -0.2
Final after Discount        $ 13.8

When multiple discounts are applied, the discount is calculated separately from the base.

Article    Num    Price     Total Price
Apple      2      $2        $4
Jeans      1      $10       $10
Coupon1 [service: 'food', discount rate: 10%, minimal discount: $0, maximal discount: $0.2]
Coupon2 [service: 'food', discount rate: 20%, minimal discount: $0, maximal discount: $100]

Final                       $ 14
Discount from Coupon 1      $ -0.2
Discount from Coupon 2      $ -0.8
Final after Discount        $ 13

It's notable that all the discounts are calculated after the tax if specified. Please also be aware that there are ceilings in the calculation, the final discount could be slightly higher than the specification. It's most important when you sell an article with very low price near the minimal unit (e.g. $0.01), please read the next sections for details.

* The examples are helping you to understand the discount. In the actual invoice, the discount won't be listed as a single amount but distributed to the articles.

Distribution of Discount and Handling of Returns

The above examples are helping you to understand the discount. In the actual usage, the total discount is distributed to each article. An example is shown below. Due to the distribution, the actual discount could be slightly higher than the planned discount. In general the difference is very small, but the difference could be large if the price is too low. Considering this example.

The distribution makes return of the articles easier. The real amount after the distributed discount should be sent back [is returned]. It's notable that there's no control of the condition of the discount after the article is returned. This should be fine and fair for the most cases, if you prefer to recheck the condition, it has to be done manually.

Voucher

A voucher is an one-time random code, which is often used as gift card in digital or printed form. A user can apply the code by entering it in their user center to get the specified amount of money assigned to their balance. The balance can be used later to pay the order fully or partially.

Each code has it's own start time and end time (expiration time). A user can only apply a code in this time interval.

To create a voucher, you have to create a voucher group at first, which contains codes with same settings (name, amount, etc.). Then you can add codes to the group. There's an export function allowing you to export multiple codes to CSV table.

Mercury is ready to sell digital products. You can sell the generated voucher code as digital gift cards.

Please protect the codes carefully to avoid any illegal usage .

Backup

Link Your Domain 

You replace your main address by link your domain to our system. In order to do this, you should contact your domain administrator to create a CNAME record or an A record to the built-in main address or it's IP. It's notable that the main address must be a domain name (e.g. yourshop.com), you can't serve your shop under a directory (e.g. yourshop.com/shop). After that, you can go to Information & System / Domain of your management panel and and add a new domain.

Setup Emails 

Mercury no more supports built-in mail sender since these emails will be blocked by many mail servers. You have to prepare a regular SMTP account. Without that all the related function won't work.