Details on More Alluring eMarketing, Search in ECinteractive 10.2
ECi will load the maintenance release Version 10.2 live on ECinteractive® and is.D-Force® 2 Web servers this weekend.
This software update is scheduled between 9 PM CST Saturday, March 26, and 6 AM CST Sunday, March 27, 2011.
Since this falls within ECi's Standard Weekly Data Center Maintenance timeframe, no changes are required to Site Maintenance schedules.
Get Creative with Image Map Hotspots in eMarketing Flyers (12459)
eMarketing flyers now link from more images than "Buy Now" buttons and product shots. The Image Map Editor in Flyer Maintenance lets you upload your own (or vendors') images, and make hotspots link to any item or URL you like!
 Upload flyer images from your manufacturer, wholesaler, other trading partner, or your own marketing department.
Create an interactive flyer with multiple hotspot links to your campaign's main call to action, and/or multiple options.
Click and drag a rectangle or circle around a portion of that image to make it clickable — a "hotspot".
You can set a hotspot to link to a URL — such as to a special landing page, contest details, survey, or social media page.
Or you can leave the URL blank — and map hotspots to specially priced items from your ECinteractive catalog.
For detailed instructions on using eMarketing Flyer Maintenance, especially the new Image Map feature, see pages 11-12 of Setting Up & Using Integrated eMarketing (PDF)
Upsell with More Compelling S.P. Richards Enhanced Search
S.P. Richards Enhanced Content has a host of new features in its revamped interface, lending your Web storefront a competitive edge:
Search Results are More Persuasive (12377, 12378, 12379)
“May We Also Suggest” provides an alternate item in case the SKU entered is not an exact match
"This Item Has Been Replaced By" suggests products in lieu of substituted or discontinued items.
Indexed substitutes appear in results in case the shopper searches by a competitor SKU.(You can disable sitewide in Site Preferences or at the user-level Alt/Sub settings.)
Contextual banners promote information or items related to the current Search Results.
Under the product description, your shoppers will find a more convenient Add to Cart button.
Shoppers can click a + icon to quickly show or hide the comments field.
Enhanced Product Detail Promotes Item Benefits, Brand Loyalty, Accessories, and More (12380, 12980)
The manufacturer logo appears above the manufacturer name to promote brand loyalty.
The “Accessories” tab replaces “Frequently Bought Together”, and allows shoppers to add the items instantly to their cart or favorites.
If the shopper searches for an item for which the sole match is an Enhanced Substitute item, they will be taken directly to the Product Detail page, where a message explaining the substitution appears at the top.
A new bullet list of Features, Advantages and Benefits will display, where available, on the Product Detail page and in Search Results. (S.P. Richards anticipates that catalog updates to include these bullets will be complete in 3rd quarter 2011.)
Peer Pressure Helps You Upsell (12381, 13003)
The “Also Bought” list shows items that other customers have purchased in addition to items currently in the cart.
For “Also Bought” and “Also Consider” items, the new Add to Cart button lets shoppers send them instantly to their cart as an alternative to visiting the product detail page.
ECi continues to work closely with S.P. Richards, our mutual goal being a better experience in searching and shopping for your customers. For details on how to enable, disable, and use selected Enhanced Content features, see
ECinteractive & is.D-Force 2 Administrative Site: Software Version 10.2 (pdf).
To show your customers how to use the new features, see ECinteractive & is.D-Force 2 Shopper's Site: Viewing S.P. Richards Enhanced Content (pdf).
Add Powerful Usage Analytics with Acsellerate (12461) — reserved for future use
The most successful dealers use Acsellerate sales intelligence solutions to benchmark customer buying behavior. ECinteractive and is.D-Force 2 are now designed to integrate with Acsellerate for shopper access to their spend and usage analysis!
Once your site is set up with your Acsellerate dealer account and your users' logins, your shopers will be able to launch Acsellerate Report Analytics from the MyAccount menu. Their reports are limited to their account(s). Their dashboard presents colorful summary charts and details of their purchase history per date and department, along with key statistics such as total account purchases vs. Internet purchases, invoiced orders and lines, and more!
Rest assured, your dealer pricing will not be published on your site.
Note: Please stay tuned to your inbox. ECi Acsellerate will announce more details soon.
Meanwhile, for details on how to enable the Acsellerate integration, see
ECinteractive & is.D-Force 2 Administrative Site: Software Version 10.2 (pdf).
To show your customers how to launch the new Report Analytics once you've set up the proper account access, see ECinteractive & is.D-Force 2 Shopper's Site: Viewing S.P. Richards Enhanced Content (pdf).
eProcurement PunchOut Now Beta Testing (4546)
Doing business with large corporations and government agencies often entails dealing with a procurement or purchasing system that manages their spend, invoices, and payments. Many of these systems use the electronic business protocols of industry standard commerce eXtensible Markup Language (cXML), Ariba software, or Ariba-compliant software.
Connecting these customer systems to your ECi Web storefront involves a Procurement PunchOut. ECi has completed development for eProcurement in ECinteractive and is.D-Force 2. eProcurement gives corporate and government purchasers a simple interface to shop your site:
Corporate purchasers log into their cXML, Ariba, or Ariba-compliant procurement system to launch an ECinteractive interface.
They use the ECinteractive catalog search and browse tools to build and submit the order.
Checkout brings the purchaser back to their procurement system.
The procurement system server automatically transmits purchase orders to the ECinteractive server.
While the above features may be familiar to dealers who previously used PunchOuts in Dealer Station or the original is.D-Force, ECinteractive and is.D-Force 2 will also have several advanced features:
Once ECi creates your ECinteractive eProcurement licenses, you will use the eProcurement Management dashboard and wizard in your ECinteractive Admin Control Panel to set up customer procurement system connections and preferences.
You will have direct control over each customer's user account settings, exactly like regular Customer Account Management: location, catalog, contract, alt/sub, checkout, communications, features, marketing, and price.
You will have the ability to map customer accounts and departments from your backend system to the eProcurement license. You'll have the option to use an import/export wizard to work with a spreadsheet or text file list of account/department numbers and catalog groups, and the system will validate the data automatically.
eProcurement shoppers can be set up to see a personalized welcome message, and will have a smooth, instant logout.
eProcurement shoppers will have access to Favorites Lists and Order History.
On your ECinteractive Admin Control Panel, the External Partner Log gives you a friendly history of transactions.
A dedicated dealer is now beta testing the eProcurement system. We will notify all dealers with additional instructions when it is ready for general release, which we anticipate in 3rd quarter this year.
Other Software Changes in this Release
This release includes additional improvements to your site's usability and flow:
- 12401 — Corrected so when a user has authorized accounts and uses the A/R Remittance feature to print information for more than one account, the system does not display an Unexpected Error message.
- 12979 — Corrected issues with email notifications when using the Approval feature. This issue applied to multiple tier approval groups including a buyer, a mid-level approver, and a top-level approver. Previously if a mid-level approver edited an item on the order and approved it, the top-level approver was not receiving the approval order notification email. Instead, the email was sent back to the mid-level approver.
- 12767 — Corrected date and time issues when using the Approval Forwarding feature. Previously if a user set up approval forwarding for a future date and then logged into the front end site, the system determined the approval forwarding had expired and automatically turned off the approval forwarding feature.
For More Info
Need Help? (800) 366-4778 • https://support.ecisolutions.com • ddmssupport@ecisolutions.com
|
