About 1 year ago while developing the ShopTab business plan with co-founder Bret Giles we both insisted that whatever we create had to be quick, inexpensive and simple to use for both the merchant and the merchant’s customer.

We have heard from many ShopTab eCommerce business owners that the ShopTab administration tool is very easy to use and many have shared that in just a few minutes, start to finish, they have built their ShopTab with well over 1,000 products.

That feedback is music to our ears and if you want to share your constructive feedback or experience please do so on ShopTab Facebook Review tab for others to read. We know we can’t be right for everyone so your reviews help prospective ShopTabbers make an informed decision so thank you!

On top of being easy to use, we also believe that even though ShopTab is inexpensive it does not mean our users should receive poor customer service. Hopefully you notice that we dedicate a lot of time to answer each of your questions on Facebook, Twitter or ShopTab Support. We are the 1st to admit we make mistakes and your constructive suggestions helps us uncover ways to further improve ShopTab. This is where the wisdom of crowds becomes a valuable piece that drives business innovation.

Lately we have received requests from ShopTab users wishing that the admin tool would go one step further.  So today we are very happy to announce that we have some exciting plans in the works to do just that – make things even easier.

At no additional cost, ShopTab business users can now log into the ShopTab admin and under the data feed tab you will see 1 additional option – Scheduled Weekly Updates. Similar to how Google Base works, you can now automate the entire process for creating and updating your Facebook ShopTab.

Here are the 2 steps to leverage this new feature:

1. Create your data feed .csv file and save this file to your server or website hosting account. If you need help setting up your data feed, here are instructions on how to create a ShopTab Data Feed in 5 Steps.
2. Paste the address to your data feed file, such as http://www.domainexample.com/shoptab_datafeed.csv in the “scheduled” field (under the Data Feed tab within ShopTab Admin) and press Schedule button.

And that is it!  Our current plan is every Monday morning around 7am EST ShopTab will go out to your server, download the .csv file, process it, completely rebuild your Facebook ShopTab (so we will remove any products or services in place today) and then once done a few minutes later we will send you an email with an update on how many products were uploaded so you understand if there were any errors.

All other features can still be used.  For example, if during the week you decide you want to add a new product, delete a product, upload through the data feed a bunch of products, etc. you can still use the individual product and or the manual data feed option.  Keep in mind that any changes you make during the week that if those changes are not on the .csv file on your scheduled weekly update file those changes will be replaced the following Monday.  If you decide you don’t want to replace your products or services you can click on “cancel schedule” button as shown above and that will turn off your following Monday weekly update.

So what do you think?  Do you like this feature?  What other features or ideas do you have (add ideas in comment area below)?  Of course we won’t be able to do everything but if it meets ShopTab objectives of easily, quickly and inexpensively helping you sell more products by creating a shop tab on your Facebook fan page that showcases products from your existing online store, there is a very good chance we will seriously consider it.