Blog: Launches

Among a number of small improvements and fixes in our first storeBlox CS release of 2019, we also launched Group-based shipping methods. storeBlox has Group functionality baked deep into the system, and it’s a great feature for variety of situations:

• Assigning product access to groups: For example, your store can be set up so managers can see everything, while other users see only specific categories or products. This can be helpful if managers have access to free products, literature or other items that other users shouldn’t be able to view. You can even set up groups with their own landing pages and banners, creating Micro Stores.
• Payment by group: Often, a store may make certain payment methods (like departmental budgets) only available to certain users. Group payment methods let you assign available payment methods to specific groups, and Group Approvers enables you to have an approver review and approve all the orders for a specific group.

There’s a lot more to Groups, so drop us a line if you need help understanding how to set them up and manage them. This month, we added Group-based shipping methods, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like – you can now control access to any shipping method by group:

This extends the capability to control available shipping methods to Groups. For example, if your managers have access to free shipping or local delivery, but other users need to use only FedEx or UPS, you can now assign any shipping method by group!

Other updates

The latest release also brings additions to your Order Export, and a we’ve added the ability to opt out of Loyalty Marketing emails during registration and account editing. This is separate from general opt out of marketing emails.

As always, if you have any questions about setting things up or just need a custom demo or help selling, just give us a shout!

Categories: Articles, Launches

One of the most common problems with e-commerce stores is cart abandonment – customers abandon (leave unpurchased) their shopping carts all the time, in staggering numbers. They do this for a variety of reasons; sometimes they change their mind, but often they just get distracted or move on without finishing a purchase. You’ve never gotten distracted while shopping online, have you? Look, squirrel!

That’s why we just added Cart Abandonment Emails to our suite of Loyalty Marketing tools in your storeBlox CS company store. You can now trigger an automated email to users that abandon their carts, reminding them to purchase the items in their cart.

Like all storeBlox CS emails, the template is fully customizable and can be personalized with user variables. The reminder includes the products that they have in their cart, along with a link back to the site to complete the purchase:

Abandoned cart reminders can be quite effective in company stores, since most abandonment falls into the “I forgot” category (rather than the “I found it cheaper somewhere else” or “I just don’t want it” categories). This feature is available in our latest release and is in your store now. If you need help setting it up or would like a walkthrough, just give us a shout!

Product-specific Coupons

Check this one off your wishlist: storeBlox CS now has product-specific coupons! Ever want to send a coupon code out that a customer could only use for a specific product? You’re not alone; this has been on our customer request list for a while. It’s now available in your store – just designate a coupon as “Product Specific” then apply the coupon to the product you’d like it to apply to:

That’s it! Product-specific coupons work like any other coupon; they can be for dollar or percentage values, have expiration dates, usage restrictions and so on. Product-specific coupons are available in your store today. We recommend trying one of these out in your next email blast – they can be a great motivator for users to come back to your store.

Checking Gift Certificate Balances

One more oft-requested feature was also added in our latest release: quick checking of gift card balances. This does exactly what it sounds like – your customer enters a gift code and the store shows them the remaining balance. We’d like to make it sound sexier, but unfortunately it won’t shine your shoes or fold your laundry. We hope you enjoy it regardless. It’s available right now.

Categories: General, Launches

We’re excited to announce a couple big “under the hood” upgrades to your storeBlox CS company store. First, we’ve noticed over the years that our customers tend to deal with more and more uploaded files – things like size charts, PDF documents, and other assets that need to be available for viewing or downloading in the store. We also know that some of you go above and beyond the standard design functions of our WYSIWYG editor and need an easy way to upload lots of images for your custom pages.

We’ve got a treat for you: Web-based file management. storeBlox CS now has one place for you to upload, edit and manage all your files. We’ve also made it super easy to get the URL of an uploaded file to paste it into static pages, product descriptions or anywhere else you want it.

Just navigate to Content Administration and then select File Management. You’ll even get a nifty preview of the file you uploaded, when it’s available (for instance, multi-page PDFs will not show a preview).

Ready to try it out? Click here to view a quick video overview of the feature! And while you’re at it, check out our revamped Video Training Center, with new searching and filtering features (and no more Flash!)

A Shopping Cart that Sticks Around

As you know, last year we launched Loyalty Marketing, a feature that allows you to create automated marketing messages based on user actions (like registration or purchases). We have some very cool plans for expanding Loyalty Marketing this year, and in support of those plans we just finished some of the biggest under-the-hood upgrades we’ve ever made to the shopping cart.

First and foremost, the products users add to their carts now stick around for 30 days. We’ve also added some bulletproofing to deal with these long-term cart items when an item in the cart gets modified or deleted. You may not notice the effects of these changes immediately, but you should see less abandonment and cart issues over time. More importantly, we’ve built a foundation for some very cool cart-based loyalty marketing features for release later this year. Stay tuned!

Categories: Launches