Things to Consider Before Upgrading to Merchant Solutions

Yahoo! Merchant Solutions packages include a domain name. How does this affect your current store domain name?

When you upgrade to Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, you gain both a Yahoo! Web Hosting account and an upgraded Yahoo! Store account. You will have the option to build and manage your web pages either using the Store Editor, within your Yahoo! Store account, or using an HTML editor, like Yahoo! SiteBuilder, within your Yahoo! Web Hosting account. (This arrangement allows you to leverage the best features that Yahoo! Web Hosting and Yahoo! Store have to offer.)

Depending on how you build your site, your pages will be hosted on Yahoo! Store or Yahoo! Web Hosting. During the upgrade process, any domain you register or migrate to your Yahoo! Merchant Solutions account will point to the part of your web site that is hosted on Yahoo! Web Hosting.

Before you upgrade to Merchant Solutions, please consider the following options:

Option 1. Sign up for a new, free domain Recommended!
This new domain (such as www.new-widgets.com) will point to your Web Hosting pages, and a second domain (such as store.new-widgets.com) will point to the existing Yahoo! Store pages you created with the Store Editor. Also, any existing domains that you currently use with your Yahoo! Store will continue to point to the pages you created with the Store Editor.

2. Migrate a domain currently in use by your store
Under this option, a domain that pointed to your Yahoo! Store will now point to your Web Hosting pages instead. Also, a new URL will be created for the existing Yahoo! Store pages you created with the Store Editor. Please note that moving your URL from your Store to your Web Hosting pages can affect your search engine rankings, site traffic, and sales, and is not recommended if your store domain is already listed in any search engines.

Again, migrating an existing domain from your Store Editor-created pages to your Web Hosting pages can hurt your search engine rankings, store traffic, and sales. Also, redirecting traffic from your web hosting pages to your Store Editor-created pages may pose problems for search engines. Consequently, we again recommend that you do NOT migrate an existing domain if it is listed on any search engines.

Please Note:

1. If your Store is already listed in Yahoo! Shopping, it will be removed when you upgrade to Yahoo! Merchant Solutions. To create a new listing, you will need to sign up for the new Yahoo! Shopping program called Yahoo! Product Submit by clicking on the Yahoo! Shopping link in your Store Manager.
2. Only store owners can complete the upgrade process. The owner is the person whose credit card should be billed for the site's Yahoo! Merchant Solutions fees. If you maintain a Yahoo! Store for someone else, but are not the store owner, please have the store owner complete this process.