The latest release of shopping cart software provider BigCommerce (version 7.1) provides merchants with tools for search engine optimization and product merchandising.

"With this release we’ve introduced advanced URL customization options to improve keyword proximity for our clients looking to outrank their competitors in the SERPs," said Chris Iona, product development manager for BigCommerce. "We’ve also improved functionality around product merchandising, specifically for verticals where options are important such as apparel, computers and health.”

The new features within this release include custom URL formats (for product, category, news and Web pages), and rules for product options (price, weight, and stock) among others. While these tools are not unique among shopping chart software providers, they will certainly be a welcome addition for merchants using the BigCommerce platform.

Big Commerce also released storage and transfer statistics to show merchants how much storage and transfer they are using. Storage reports provide information on total usage, along with usage for database, email, and images. Transfer reports on total usage, incoming HTTP, outgoing HTTP, incoming FTP and outgoing FTP are within the reports.

All stores running BigCommerce 7.0 or above are being automatically upgraded to 7.1 over the coming week.