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You've been asking, the IT gurus have been typing, and it's finally time to show you what is under the hood of this year's release. With our latest release, we've tried to give you some great new features. I thought I would focus today's post on a few of my favourites.
I'm not really one for small talk when there are some seriously awesome things to get stuck into, so let's dive right in. If you want more information on any of the features, please click on its associated header. Everything links to the relevant support documentation to make things easier for you.
There's nothing quite like starting with a bang, and layers definitely have a whole lot of "bang for your buck". We've spoken about them before and they're more powerful than ever. Combined with the existing layer functionality you can now add layers based on more information against your PRONTO debtors like Warehouse, RepCode, CustomerType, IndustrySubGroup... the list goes on. You can see the full list here and see how to implement them on your own site by clicking on the Layers header.
Offline order emails allow you to consolidate the look and feel of your communications for Order Confirmation and Order Shipped. With this enabled consumers who prefer to phone your CSR's directly to place an order will be sent the exact same emails your online users get. The time you spent building email templates for online users is now being used for your offline users as well. I'm a big fan of consistency when it comes to look and feel - so this one is a definite favourite of mine.
I'm terrible at gifts. Both getting them and receiving them. Instant gratification is what I'm all about. If I've bought something for someone I want to give it to them straight away, if I've been given a present I don't want to wait 2 weeks to open it. It's why layby has never worked for me. I'm either going to buy it now, or I'm not going to buy it. Afterpay has basically taken the Willy Wonka / Veruca Salt "I want it now" mentality and made it possible. If you haven't heard of it, and your company operates in the B2C space, I highly recommend taking a look to see if it's right for you. The base premise is pretty straight forward:
As a consumer, I select Afterpay as my payment method. By selecting Afterpay, I enter into an agreement with them to pay off my purchase in instalments over the next 8 weeks, but get my goods as thought I'd paid the whole amount upfront.
As a business who offers Afterpay, I pay a percentage of purchases made. I don't take the risk when it comes to recouping the cost of the order, and the funds are available to me straight away. No waiting for the user to pay the account, just money in the bank and an order out the door.
Conversion is key to just about every business. There's a number of things that can impact this but it's safe to say that the more steps a user has to take before they complete their purchase, the higher the likelihood that they'll back out. One of the key parts to smoothing this process out is by removing perceived hurdles. Paypal Express helps limit those hurdles, and it's that simplicity of experience that I really wanted to highlight.
You want to get your goods into your consumer's hands as easily as possible, and they want it in their hands as simply as possible. Paypal Express reduces the cart process to a few clicks, utilising a consumer's existing Paypal information (which means fewer forms for the end user - and a higher likelihood of data accuracy for you). Even on mobile ,this process is simple; three clicks from a product page to completed checkout.
Do you worry that users aren't completing their purchases because they need to go through the process of creating an account with you? Would you rather have the order done, and then worry about converting them to an account later? Guest checkout allows you to provide your users with the choice to either complete their order without needing to create an account first. Don't worry, it has a helpful hint to sign up for an account already worked into the flow, but now they're being kept on the thought process of checking out rather than side-tracking them with setting up an account first.
Enhanced eCommerce
Enhanced eCommerce is a bit of a hot topic at the moment. You've probably heard the term thrown around a lot. So, what does it mean to you within the context of Commerce Vision?
It means being able to see exactly what products are being purchased, what's being added to cart and then abandoned, what your conversion rates are at both a site and product level. Want to see how effective your promotional banner is? Enhanced eCommerce also lets you track views, clicks, and click-through rates.
Have you wished there were more layouts to choose from in the CMS? Well, we could have created more, but we thought we'd go one further and let you have them all. With the custom layout creator you can build the perfect layout to fit your specific situation/ With simple instructions and an easy to follow UI, it's now a simple process to create your very own layouts. No more trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
But wait, there's more!
Free steak knives with every purchase!
Not really, but there are some more features I thought deserved an honourable mention:
- User Debtor
- Recently viewed products
- Notify me when a product is back in stock
- Infinite Scroll
- Device specific banners
- Add to cart in different Units of Measurement
- Authority to Leave
- Google Trusted Stores
Getting the presents into your hands
So now that I've told you about some of the goodies, it'd be a bit mean if I didn't tell you what's involved in actually getting to play with them. The great news for you is that everything I've mentioned is out of the box. So, as long as you're on 3.90, they're all there waiting for you.
Ready for more good news? If you want 3.90, you got it! We're in the process of upgrading the stage sites of all of our BPD customers so you can get testing straight away. Once you're happy that all's well simply let us know and we can migrate the work to your live environment and presto!
I'll be running a webinar that will go through a step by step process for you on how the whole upgrade process will work. We'll be recording it so even if you can't make it, be sure to sign up so we can send you the recording once it's done.