Action Required: New IP Range for Merchants and Partners Using Real-Time Integrations

As one outcome of the recent service interruption, new servers are being added to the checkout systems. As a result, there will be an additional range of IP addresses from which communications may be sent for merchants or partners using any of the real-time integrations and who have servers with firewalls configured to accept connections from only approved IP addresses. If you are not using any of the real-time integrations listed below, or your server does not restrict connections, this change will not affect your ability to receive orders or use these real-time integrations.

Who Needs to Make This Change?

Only merchants or partners meeting both of the following criteria need to make this change:

1. merchants or partners using any of the real-time integrations:
   • Real-time order posting (more info)
   • Real-time inventory (more info)
   • Real-time tax (more info)
   • Real-time shipping (more info)
2. merchants or partners who for security reasons provide their server with an approved list of IP addresses that may communicate with the server.

What Change Needs to Be Made?

If you are using any of the real-time integrations available to merchants (including inventory, shipping and tax, and order delivery), and you are currently using a firewall configuration that requires whitelisting the IP ranges of Yahoo! servers involved in the real-time integration, you will need to update this list to reflect the additional IP range:

209.191.67.0/25

The full list of IP addresses is as follows:

209.191.67.0/25 (NEW)
216.252.96.0/19
216.39.58.16/28
66.94.237.176/28
209.131.41.32/27
209.191.112.64/27
209.191.66.0/24
216.136.224.0/22
66.163.168.0/22
66.163.172.0/22

What Happens If I Do Not Make This Change?

If you do not add these IP addresses to your whitelist, communication for real-time integrations from these new servers may be rejected by your firewall which may have the following impacts depending on which real-time integrations you are using:

• Order delivery may be delayed until Yahoo! resends orders from an IP address appearing on the white-list. (Your administrator may be receiving email communication errors).
• Orders will be rejected if using real-time inventory calls and you have set to reject orders when the server is unreachable.
• Orders will not have shipping and tax charges added if using the real-time tax and shipping integration and your server is not set to accept calls from the IP ranges listed above. (If setup, your administrator may be receiving email communication errors).

What If I am Unsure If I Need to Make This Change?

• Merchants using a vendor service such as for order processing: Common vendors such as OrderMotion or StoneEdge have been notified of the new IP range and should be making this change on their side with no intervention needed on your part. If you have questions, contact your vendor, account manager, or our customer care team.
• Merchants managing servers in-house: First check to be sure you are using real-time integrations such as for order posting, tax, shipping, or inventory. If not, then no action is required. If you do, ask your system administrator if the server has a whitelist of approved IP addresses for communicating with the server associated with the real-time integration in use. Contact your account manager (if applicable), or our customer care team if you have any questions.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

More Info on the Recent System Outage

Just a quick note here to explain a little more about the service interruption that took place on Monday, November 26. As you know, we care a great deal about our maintaining a positive and successful relationship with you. With that in mind, Rich Riley, SVP Online Channel Division, has posted an apology and explanation to merchants and consumers for the recent system outage on the corporate Yahoo! blog Yodel Anecdotal. You can read his comments posted there.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

How’s Your Availability?

A merchant recently asked about how to insert a custom message between the item price and the add to cart button that would show the availability of the item. With this merchant, he was putting up items in his store for collectible die-cast cars that were not released yet. It makes sense for this merchant to provide notice to his shoppers of new products that will be released shortly—especially with regards to collectibles, though I’d imagine there are other vertical markets where this is true.

So not only does it make sense to do this to capture interest with prospective buyers, but it also makes sense to do this for all stores in terms of setting expectations with customers. I read in a recent white paper about shoppers expectations that seventy-two percent would be less willing to shop with a retailer when sales items are out of stock. That’s a big number and it goes beyond just being able to keep items in stock. Merchants need to set expectations about order fulfillment times in addition to shipping delivery times—especially with the holidays fast approaching. The last thing you want is a customer to buy an item expecting a pre-holiday delivery which you can’t meet because you didn’t specify the item will not be in stock for 8 weeks.

The good thing is the Store Editor templates already include a feature that serves this function—the Availability field. The Availability field for 3.0 Editor templates appears below the price but above the add to cart button—right where shoppers can see it.

Availability field appears in red text with a standard option.

The Availability field can be set in the Variables page with a global variable that applies to all pages (your standard product availability). You can then set this on a per page basis using the Availability field on individual pages. However, for this particular merchant, he wanted to have a value appearing there which wasn’t in the standard list of values. He wanted to notify shoppers of the estimated release date for the item. Database Upload to the rescue.

You can set custom values for Availability on a per product basis in the following way.

1. Make a note of the product IDs for which you wish to set a custom availability. Merchants can download their product database from Catalog Manager to set this for many products.
2. Create a spreadsheet with two columns: ID and Availability (or delete all columns except for ID and add Availability if using your product database from Catalog Manager).
3. Enter text in the availability column which you wish to appear on the product such as “Item is on backorder” or “Estimated release date January 2008″.
4. Save the file as .CSV format with the name data.csv.
5. Upload to the Store Editor using the database upload feature and click the Add button when uploaded. Note: Do not add this file as a Rebuild. This will wipe out your store contents except for the items and information in the spreadsheet. You can use the Revert feature if you make a mistake and Rebuild your store.
6. Publish your changes when ready.

Availability field with custom availability message.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

‘Tis the Season for More Webinars

1 Choice 4 Your Store

Monday November 12th at 4:00 PM EST (1:00 PM PST)

1 Choice 4 Your Store will be doing a follow up webinar on Monday November 12th at 4:00 PM EST (1:00 PM PST) to answer your most Frequently Asked Questions from their Open For Business Webinar.

Join 1 Choice 4 Your Store for the FAQ Webinar where they will show you where to find the information AND what to do with it!

Sign up now

OrderMotion

Thursday November 15, 2007 2:00pm EST/11:00am PST

Even the most experienced merchant will most likely run into challenges when trying to survive the holiday madness. During this complimentary webinar Dave Rennyson of Angel.com will discuss how merchants can maximize service and agent productivity while at the same time minimize customer care costs. The webinar will explore how merchants can easily integrate order management functions with automated IVR and call center solutions and ensure that they provide outstanding customer service even during the most hectic seasons.

Sign up now