This release includes new features,  feature updates, security updates and bug fixes.

New Functionality

• AALBC and Black Book Accelerator Bestsellers: Every IndieCommerce website will feature the monthly BLK Bestsellers list, highlighting top titles from Black writers and artists nationwide. Curated by the African American Literature Book Club and the Black Book Accelerator, this automated feature functions similarly to the Indie Next or weekly Bestseller lists. Updates occur by the third week of the month and can be linked via /blk-bestsellers-list or /blk-bestsellers. While individual lists are ready for use on homepages, we recommend waiting until the week of August 10 for full promotion as final landing page refinements are completed.

• Webform Custom Composites: Bookstores can implement custom form fields that provide users with an "Add one more" functionality during the submission process. 

Updates & Improvements

• Order Invoices: Invoices and receipts will include the preferred contact method for customers, and all customer data in the upper right header will be styled in bold.

• Advanced POS Integration (iMRCHNT): There are several enhancements to the integration between an IndieCommerce website and iMRCHNT POS for syncing of orders and order updates in both directions. 
  • Online orders flagged as suspicious by the fraud detection system will not be exported to the POS. Store staff are required  to review the online order and decide if the order is fraudulent or not. Orders determined to be not fraudulent will be exported to the POS.
  • The phone number entered by the customer in the Customer Information checkout pane is included with the shipping and billing addresses.
  • When purchases are made from a product list or catalog, the referral data for the product list / catalog is included in the exported file. Stores can use this data to track sales from particular product lists or catalogs.
  • Formatting for currency in book prices, order totals etc. will be consistent.
  • Bulk processing capabilities have been removed to avoid errors.

• Shipping Method Descriptions: The "Rate Description" field used to include additional information about a shipping method was previously visible to costumes only for pickup orders. Now, this information is visible to customers during checkout for all shipping methods.

• USPS Shipping Logic: Administrators can apply specific conditions to USPS real-time rate delivery methods for better logistical control. The same set of conditions that were available for flat rate shipping methods are available for USPS Realtime shipping options as well.

• Drupal Contrib Module Synchronization: Various community-contributed Drupal modules upgraded to match stable versions.

Security & Performance

• Product Recommendations: The logic behind the ‘You May Also Like’ carousel on book product pages was resource intensive resulting in performance issues. This is now optimized to ensure a smoother user experience and resolve previous latency concerns.

Bug Fixes

• SKU-Based Reporting: Sales and order reports now utilize exact string matching for specific SKUs, preventing the inclusion of products that merely contain the search term. This change will be reflected on these 2 reports
  • Dashboard > Commerce > Manage Orders > Order by SKU
  • Dashboard > Commerce > Reports > Sales Report by SKU

• Event Location Management: Critical white page errors encountered during the deletion of event locations have been successfully resolved. This change will be reelected on  Dashboard > Manage > Events > Event Locations

• Product Attribute Uniqueness: Fixes to attribute-combination validation allow bookstores to seamlessly create merchandise both with and without variations, eliminating previous "must be unique" error blocks.

• LSI Content Rendering: Character encoding issues within LSI "Section" fields have been addressed, ensuring special characters display correctly rather than as raw HTML snippets.

This release includes Drupal core update,  feature updates, bug fixes.

Updates & Improvements

Drupal Platform Upgrade: To ensure alignment with current stable releases, IndieCommerce 2.0 has been upgraded from Drupal 11.2.12 to Drupal 11.3.12.

Expanded Book Availability Visibility: Availability statuses, such as "On our shelves" or "Shipped in 2 - 5 Business Days," are now visible across all book listings. This includes Search results, Product Lists, Catalogs, Blogs, Events, and Browse Book pages.

Advanced POS Integration: Stores utilizing the iMRCHNT POS now have access to expanded order management tools. After an order syncs to the POS, staff can modify items, process refunds, and handle sales tax directly on the website.

Bug Fixes

Handling of Invalid Book Metadata: We have resolved an issue where books failed to load due to invalid age or grade range data. The system now ignores incorrect metadata, allowing the book to load successfully to the site.

This release includes  feature updates and bug fixes.

Enhancements & Updates

Product Page Format Drop-down: The book formats presented in the Available Formats menu are now dynamically determined by each store's unique fulfillment configurations. Stores electing to sell ’All Books’ will display all possible formats, whereas those restricting sales to warehouse stock will only list formats currently available at a warehouse.

Event Carousels: This update applies to stores with multiple locations. The event Location on the carousel will include the name of the store location, appended to ‘In Store’. 

Staff Review Taxonomy Page: This automated page gathers book reviews associated with specific staff review tags. The update ensures the name of the staff member who wrote the review is now prominently displayed alongside the content 

Custom SKUs: All product types - Store Merchandise, Non-Shippable Store Merchandise, Gift Cards, Services and Book Variations will support hyphens, underscores and periods in their custom SKUs

Webform Privacy Settings: Specific element fields within webforms can now be designated as Private. This functionality allows stores to append internal-only data to submissions, ensuring that these administrative details remain hidden from the customers who originally completed the form.

Bug Resolutions

Event Carousels: The country name which was previously included as part of the address is now removed. 

Staff Review Taxonomy Page: This automated page aggregates reviews associated with specific staff review tags. Previously, when multiple reviewers shared critiques for the same title under an identical tag, a single entry would repeat, effectively hiding other staff contributions. This update resolves the duplication issue, ensuring all individual reviews are now correctly displayed.

Sales Report: Resolves an issue with sales report that was crashing when shipment on an order was corrupted

Store Merchandise Image: The option to close the pop-up modal when a store merchandise image is clicked is restored

Store Merchandise Bulk Upload: Addresses a couple of issues with the bulk upload of store merchandise, especially issues related to very large files. The images are now uploaded in smaller batches.

This release includes new features, feature updates and bug resolutions.

New Functionality

USPS Real Time Quotes: (Tier 2 Only) If you have an USPS account for your store, you can integrate your IndieCommerce website with your USPS account to retrieve shipping quotes in real time when customers go through checkout on your site. By connecting directly to USPS Webtools, the quotes for these rates will be based on product weights and will adjust based on the total weight of the package.

Image Rows (Tier 2 Only): Stores can now utilize an additional homepage section for image rows, allowing for a configuration of up to three rows with four images per individual row.

Enhancements & Updates

CC Refund Form Validation: When processing partial refunds for captured credit card charges, the system now automatically populates the field with the correct refund amount. This replaces the previous behavior where the field defaulted to the entire captured amount.

POS Integration: Integration between IndieCommerce and iMRCHNT POS will have additional filters for shipping methods to offer more options for syncing of orders with the POS, Also, stores will have access to edit  Payments, Order Items and Shipments for these orders.

Pricing Rule Exclusions: A new configuration allows stores to omit books that have already been marked down via existing pricing rules from further discounts.

Bug Resolutions

LSI stock info on product pages: Resolved an issue where switching between product variations (such as size options for apparel) could cause the Stock Information panel to disappear. This occurred specifically when moving from a variation with LSI data to one without, and then returning to the original stocked item; the panel will now correctly reappear without requiring a manual page refresh.

POS Order Export Date Filter Validation: Fixes a white page error when invalid date formats are entered in the POS export date range filter. This also improves the help text for POS export filter fields on the ecommerce settings page. Previously, the Include/Exclude sections and their sub-fields had vague or missing descriptions, making it unclear how filters interact with each other.

Bulk upload of Store merchandise: Resolves an issue that could cause the Store Merchandise Upload Form to fail 

This release includes new features, feature updates, security updates and bug fixes.

New Functionality

Subscriptions With Variations: Retailers can now provide a single subscription product featuring several tiers or pricing levels. For example, a single subscription might offer a $50 plan for three months and a $100 plan for six months. To implement this, go to Dashboard > Commerce > Product Attributes, then modify the Subscription Type by updating existing examples or adding new ones. These types will then be accessible for all subscriptions created on the website, with each specific variation requiring its own unique SKU.

Updates for Multi-Location Stores: Stores with multiple locations can now show links to individual store pages right under the primary logo. This is configurable via Dashboard > Configure > Design > Edit the Active Design > Page Structure.

Stock-Based Search Filters: Stores can restrict search results to books currently in stock, building on the existing manual filter for site visitors. Stores interested in this feature should contact staff@bookweb.org.

Negate Option for Promotions: A "Negate" rule has been introduced, enabling the exclusion of particular ISBNs or SKUs from being used with coupons and promotional offers.

Enhancements & Updates

Browse Book Optimization: To boost performance, the Browse Books index now focuses on the top 50,000 books, with rankings updated every 24 hours.

Enhanced Event Carousels: Navigation now includes slick dots and a "Browse All" link in the top left, alongside standard arrows.

Mobile-Ready Headers: All four header logo configurations are now fully responsive for mobile users.

Bug Resolutions

Book-Related Fixes: Addressed store reports concerning difficulties adding specific books to product lists, inaccessible product pages from search results, and errors when opening or modifying book orders.

Registry & Wishlist Navigation: Fixed a bug in multi-page registries and wishlists that prevented customers from navigating between pages after placing an item in their shopping cart.

This release includes new features, feature updates, security updates and bug fixes.

New Functionality

Advanced Search: The much-anticipated Advanced Search feature is now live! Access it directly by adding /search/advanced to your website URL. You have full control over how you introduce this to your customers—whether through a dedicated menu link, a navigation icon, a prominent Call-to-Action (CTA) Block, or other methods.

New Payment Option: Square: Square has been added as an available payment method. Important Note: Only one payment method—either Square or Authorize.net—can be active on your site at a time. If your site currently uses the Authorize.net payment gateway for credit card payments and you wish to switch to Square, please contact IC Support at staff@bookweb.org.

POS - LSI Price Comparison Report: (Tier 2 only) A new downloadable report allowing stores to compare a book's selling price on their site against the price in the Local Store Inventory (LSI) file, as well as prices from Ingram and the Publisher. You can generate this report by navigating to Dashboard > Commerce > POS Stock (LSI) > Price Comparison Report

Price Comparison Report (Tier 2 Stores): We've added a new downloadable report to help you compare a book's selling price on your site against various benchmarks. This report includes prices from your Local Store Inventory (LSI) file, Ingram, and the Publisher. To generate this report, navigate to: Dashboard > Commerce > POS Stock (LSI) > Price Comparison Report

Detailed Tax Summary Report: The updated Tax Report provides a comprehensive tax breakdown, detailing both percentage and dollar amounts by State, City, District, and County. This enhanced report is accessible through the existing location: Dashboard > Commerce > Reports > Tax Report.

• Destination-Based Sales Tax: Tax percentages are sourced directly from TaxJar.
• Source-Based Sales Tax: Rates can be configured manually by editing the Tax Type and its Rate Breakdown.

Home Page Event Carousel Updates: We have introduced enhancements to the events carousel, focusing on display options and space optimization.

New Display Options:

• Default Format: Remains the same, displaying the Image, Title, Date and Time, Location, and Links. This format shows 4 events at a time.
• New Format 1 (Title, Date and Time): Includes the Image, Title, and Date and Time.
• New Format 2 (Date and Time): Includes the Image, Date and Time (but excludes the Title).

Both new formats will display 5 events on a desktop screen. Users can select any of the three available display formats for each carousel.

We have optimized the display for all three formats by reducing unnecessary white space and slightly decreasing the font size. This adjustment ensures that at least two carousels are visible on the screen simultaneously.

Enhancements & Updates

Improved Mobile Responsiveness: Mobile device users will now have a better experience due to updates to several key elements:

• CTA Blocks: Images will no longer be trimmed.
• Navigation Icons: These are now smaller, allowing more icons per row.
• Home Page Slider, CTA Blocks, Navigation Icons, and Event Carousels: All have been optimized for mobile viewing.

Shipment Processing Simplified: Introducing 'Finalize and Send' : We've streamlined the two-step shipment completion process, which previously required both 'Finalize' and then 'Send' for each order. Now, you can combine both steps into a single action with the new 'Finalize and Send' option, alongside the existing separate 'Finalize' and 'Send' choices.

Tracking Number Import Improvements (ShippingEasy & ShipStation): Users of ShippingEasy and ShipStation now have additional options when uploading shipment tracking numbers via a CSV file. Along with uploading the tracking number, you can now choose to automatically email the tracking details to the customer and/or mark the order as Fulfilled. This functionality was previously available for Stamps.com and PirateShip.

Security & Stability

Platform Stability: We are working with our hosting partner, Pantheon, on a Proof of Work (PoW) security mechanism to better manage and handle malicious bots.

Bug Resolutions

• Gift Card Refunds for Fraudulent Orders: Gift cards redeemed on orders marked as fraudulent by the store will be correctly refunded.
• WordStock Order Export Fixes:
  1. Trailing Semicolon Removal: The trailing semicolon will no longer be added to the Payment Methods List field in the WordStock POS order export when a gift card is the only payment method used. (Reported by Jeff from Wordstock).
  2. PayPal Display: This is applicable only to stores that have not yet migrated to 2.0 and use the WordStock Order Exporter. 'PayPal' will now correctly display in the Payment Methods List column when orders are migrated. Orders placed directly on the 2.0 site are unaffected.

This release includes new features, feature updates, security updates and bug fixes.

New Features

• Customizable Order Confirmation Emails: Stores can now customize the confirmation emails sent to customers after checkout. Stores can create multiple custom email templates, which are applied based on specific conditions related to the order type.To set up custom templates, navigate to Dashboard > Commerce > E-Commerce settings > Notification Emails > Order Emails > Custom Email Templates. For each template, you can personalize the Title, Body, and Footer, just as you can with the default email template.
• Product Sales Summary Report: A new report to summarize product sales is available under Dashboard > Commerce > Reports > Sales Summary Report > Product Sales Summary.. It includes filtering options by order status, order tags, and date range and can be downloaded to a spreadsheet.
• Independent Bookstore Day 2026 (IBD 2026):.If your store is participating in Independent Bookstore Day (IBD) and has placed an order for the exclusive event products, you now have the ability to promote and sell these items directly on your website. For step-by-step instructions, please consult the help document.

Feature Updates

• Uniform Design for Optional Preference Fields: Optional preference fields across Services, Subscriptions, Gift Cards, and Book Variations now share a consistent look and feel (font, spacing, etc.).
• Out-of-Stock Signed Variations: When a signed book variation is out of stock, the "Signed copies available" link will no longer appear beneath the standard book cover image on the search results page.
• Streamlined Bulk Order Tagging: During bulk operations, stores can add and delete order tags on the same set of orders simultaneously.
• Bulk Addition of 'Staff Picks' Label: An extra column added to the bulk staff review upload file, allowing stores to include the "Staff Picks" badge with the review in one step. To upload staff reviews in bulk and flag them as staff picks, navigate to Dashboard > Manage > Staff Reviews > Upload Staff Reviews
• POS EDI Order Migration (iMRCHNT Stores): Stores using the POS EDI integration to sync website orders can now migrate orders that are in intermediate processing statuses.
• Wishlists & Registries Improvements:
  • Admins can now manage and update in-store purchases made from a customer's wishlist or registry via a dedicated admin page.
  • Customers can search for published wishlists and registries. Customers must opt-in to make their list searchable. The path to the search form page is '/wishlist-registry/search'
  • Customers can now filter wishlists/registries to display only items that are still available for purchase.

Security Updates

• Backend security updates to maintain platform stability and ensure compliance with current industry standards. 

Bug Fixes

• Admin Dashboard Shortcut Count: The Order Management Shortcuts on the admin dashboard will now correctly display "100+" when the count exceeds 100, fixing a bug where the "+" sign was removed.
• Discount Code Validation: Validation has been added to the Pricing by Wholesaler Discount Code field to prevent empty values.
• Sales Report by SKU: The WSOD (White Screen of Death) error on the Sales report by SKU has been fixed
• Store Merchandise in Product Lists: The product carousel generated from a product list will now correctly handle store merchandise with variations, treating them similarly to how they appear in the product list itself.

This release includes feature updates, security updates and bug fixes.

New Features

Faster Book Data Updates from the BDS: We are actively working to eliminate the delay observed between book metadata updates in our Book Database (BDS) and their appearance on member websites. To ensure our members always have the latest information, we have implemented a first-step solution.

A new option has been added to refresh book data on a per-book basis for a specific site. This functionality is currently limited to IC staff for an initial trial period and will be rolled out to store administrators in a future update.

Feature Updates

Date Format Refinement (Customer-Facing): Leading zeros (e.g., 01, 02) have been removed from the DD/MM/YYYY format. Cardinal numbers (1, 2, 3) are now used instead of ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd).

Manage Orders: The BETA view is now the default "Manage Orders" page. The legacy view has been marked as Deprecated and will be removed shortly. Please recreate all the shortcuts with the Deprecated warning and delete the deprecated ones.

E-Gift Cards Balance Report: A new Date Range filter has been added, simplifying the process of downloading this report.

Gift Cards & E-Gift Cards Amount Field: Improved validation has been implemented for the Amount field. An outdated format that caused customer confusion has been removed

Registries and Wishlists:

• Admin Management Improvements: Steps for admins managing customer lists are now clearer and easier to follow.
• Registry Shipping Method Protection: Added protection to prevent stores from accidentally deleting the Registry shipping method. Any websites where this method was previously unpublished or deleted will be corrected.

Sales Tax Report: Two new filters have been added: Payment Captured date and Order Tags.

Security Updates

Backend security updates to maintain platform stability and ensure compliance with current industry standards. 

Bug Fixes

• Admin Dashboard Revenue Summary: The Time Frame filter setting is now persistent.
• Pricing by ISBN: The Bulk Price Update Report will now display all uploaded ISBNs with proper pagination.
• Products will be automatically removed from a catalog when they are unpublished.
• The fraud rule for checking customer IP Information has been updated to use the latest IPInfo API, enhancing error handling and preventing stuck carts during the checkout process.
• Tracking sales of store merchandise with variations: Products with variations purchased from an event’s Related Product list are included in sales reports.

The first code update of 2026, on January 13, included several long-awaited feature updates, performance enhancements, and essential bug fixes.

New Features

Enhanced Book Date: The system will now pull in additional book details like Age Range, Grade Range and Language to be displayed on the book product page. The necessary work has been completed to obtain this information, but it is not yet visible on book product pages. It is a work in progress to update the book product pages. The book product page will eventually look like this.

Feature Updates

Wishlists and Registries: Based on feedback from IC members, several updates have been made, with more still in progress:

Customers can now add the same item to multiple wishlists or registries.

Wishlists can now be assigned an expiration date, similar to registries.

CSV files downloaded for wishlists/registries will include the list's name in the filename for better clarity.

Upon deleting a customer account, their associated wishlists/registries can be unlinked from their account and assigned to an anonymous user, if needed.

Pagination has been added to wishlist and registry pages, which is expected to improve performance.

Entering a shipping address is no longer mandatory for registries held at the store.

Owner of a wishlist / registry can rearrange the order of the items

Shipping Configuration: You can now configure conditions for the In-Store Pickup and Offsite Pickup shipping methods. When editing a pickup method, the ‘Conditions’ options are available, similar to what was previously available for other shipping methods.

Cart Management: Anonymous and abandoned shopping carts will now be automatically deleted after 30 days.

Performance Improvements

Admin Dashboard: Several underlying updates have been implemented to boost the loading speed and performance of the Admin dashboard.

Bug Fixes

Shopping Cart: When adding items from a product list to the shopping cart, the customer's position on the product list will be maintained instead of scrolling to the top of the page.

Admin Dashboard Stability: Validations have been added to Message Center messages to prevent crashes in the admin dashboard.

Order Management Shortcuts: A warning message will now display on the dashboard if order tags used to create Order Management Shortcuts are deleted, prompting stores to correct the shortcuts.

Multi-Location Stores: The "Last Upload Date" timestamp for LSI files will now be accurate for multi-location stores.

Homepage Slider: The issue where the Pause/Play button was removed from the homepage slider due to a code regression, even when configured for auto play, has been fixed.

Gift Card Links: Broken links in views and reports that were intended to point to gift card codes have been unlinked.

Carousels: The occasional issue where carousels on the homepage and landing pages rendered as a vertical stack instead of a proper carousel has been resolved.

Admin Navigation: The white page error encountered when accessing Manage > Content > Scheduled has been fixed.

Tax Calculation: Tax will now be accurately recalculated when items are removed from an order, correcting inaccurate tax data in the POS order exporter and tax reports.

Registry Shipping Method: The default Registry shipping method is a mandatory and essential component for processing all registry-based orders. Stores are not permitted to disable or modify this shipping option. If you are a Tier 2 store and do not currently see the Registry shipping method available on your website, please contact staff@bookweb.org immediately.

With the holiday season approaching, this is the second of two code updates this month, bringing important features and enhancements to stores.

New & Enhanced Features

ABA Children’s Group Best Book for Young Readers Catalog: The online version of this catalog is now available on all IC 2.0 sites. The path to the catalog is /catalog/abc. Stores can create a menu link, CTA block or Slider to link to the catalog. And don’t forget to take advantage of the catalog marketing assets on BookWeb,

Customer's Preferred Name in Manage Orders (BETA): Every order requires that customers enter their name, email address, and phone number. The name label can be customized from the default label of ‘Preferred Name via Dashboard > Commerce > E-commerce Settings > Customer Information. This information (customer’s name) from the Customer Information pane during checkout is included as a column in the Manage Orders (BETA) view. This is especially helpful for 'pay-at-store' orders where the billing name is not available.

Custom Fields for Physical Gift Cards: Stores can add extra form fields (similar to services) beyond the default four (From, To, Message, and Amount) to collect more information when a customer purchases a physical gift card. To add additional fields to an existing gift card product, edit the gift card and scroll down to the bottom of the page for the preference field options.

Shipment Email Control: By default, shipment emails (including tracking information when available) are sent to customers automatically when the order shipment is 'Finalized' or the order is ‘Fulfilled’, whichever action is taken first. Stores can now opt out of this default behavior and handle the shipment emails outside of the website. If emails are triggered by the website, stores have the option to include an additional email address (possibly a site administrator) to receive copies of all the shipment emails. These changes can be made from Dashboard > Commerce > E-commerce Settings > Shipping 

Bug Fixes

Mobile Admin Display: The store logo will display consistently at the same position on all admin pages when viewed on a mobile device; previously, it appeared lower on certain pages.

Bulk Receipt Billing Address: Receipts printed in bulk for guest checkout orders paid at the store will correctly display the billing address.

Gift Card Fulfillment Error: The white page error that occurred when attempting to fulfill orders paid for entirely using gift cards is resolved.

Performance Enhancements

Several updates were implemented to improve overall site performance, specifically for rendering book pages and general site content.