Q1 2023: What's New?

Enhancing our loyalty feature

We have launched various additions to our points-based customer loyalty program feature.

Venditan clients can better track their customers’ engagement with the loyalty program. We’ve developed clearer visibility on how points have been built up and spent by adding an Activity widget to display this information within Venditan Commerce.

Tracking loyalty points can provide valuable insights for businesses that can be used to improve customer engagement, personalisation, and enhance the overall customer experience.

We have also improved how Venditan clients can communicate with customers that are signed up for their loyalty program. Venditan Commerce now allows for the sending of SMS text messages to customers when they’ve accrued enough points to receive a reward.

Unlike email, which can sometimes go unread or be overlooked, SMS messages are more likely to be read promptly.

Some of our clients were finding that loyalty program users would build up points only to become dormant and not reach the threshold for a reward or ignore their reward entirely.

To combat this, we have launched a feature to expire loyalty points after a period of time. This creates some urgency for customers to revisit the website or store in the interest of hitting their points target.

Finally, we have added the ability to exclude selected payment methods from being eligible to accrue loyalty points. For example, this eliminates the ability for customers to use Buy Now Pay Later methods to quickly build up loyalty points at no immediate cost to themselves, or to accrue points on purchases that use eVouchers.

Klarna onboarding begins

We are now in the process of onboarding clients to Klarna, working closely with them to understand any unique needs and tailor solutions to fit their specific requirements.

The process involves setting up an account with Klarna and integrating the Klarna payment options into the checkout process, as well as Klarna branding and calculations on the product details page. Once the integration is complete, clients can take advantage of Klarna's suite of powerful features, including flexible payment options and fraud prevention.

The UK’s Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) market has grown significantly since the turn of the decade. In 2021, 12% of the British public used a BNPL service.

Klarna joins a stacked roster of eCommerce payment solutions our eCommerce platform is integrated with including PayPal, humm and Duologi among others.

As the cost of living crisis continues to develop, consumers have become increasingly reliant on BNPL as a payment method - particularly homeowners and those in the 18-24 age range. It is imperative that retailers are able to offer such solutions so that their customers can pay in the way that suits them best.

We are delighted to launch this partnership and begin rolling the integration out for clients that see the value of adding Klarna to their checkout process.

Queueing offline receipts

This quarter has seen us roll out an EPOS solution that queues receipts for transactions that are taken while the device is offline. This works as a useful backup option in situations where internet connectivity is unreliable or completely unavailable.

Offline receipts ensure that transactions are still recorded regardless of internet connection and customers receive their proof of purchase. It means that our clients are able to continue processing transactions, with receipts processed to customers once the internet connection has been restored.

This is particularly important for businesses that operate in areas with poor connectivity, such as big external event spaces, or those that experience occasional internet outages.

Queuing offline receipts can also help to improve the efficiency of the checkout process by eliminating the need to wait for a slow or unreliable internet connection to process each transaction.

Amazon US Marketplace support with Channable

As part of our integration with Channable for marketplace management, our clients are now able to connect with Amazon North America Unified (US, CA and MX) accounts.

This opens us up to support our customers in expanding the reach of their products through Amazon in the United States.

Channable’s bi-directional Amazon integration is managed from within Venditan Commerce and is the ready-to-go solution for sellers who want to connect their webshop with Amazon Seller Central. The United States has an 87.9% internet penetration rate with 197m monthly active users of the Amazon marketplace. The integration provides a relatively straightforward method of accessing the world's largest economy, particularly when leveraging Amazon’s stateside logistics.

Product information is synced in real-time using your master data in Venditan Commerce, and this way, external product listings are always up to date and reflect any changes in stock or price.

Amazon themselves offer a handy ‘Why expand to North America?’ resource which includes several frequently asked questions to help you consider your options.

Microsoft Surface Pro Support

Our EPOS software now supports Microsoft Surface Pro devices.

Having the freedom to look after customers by providing easy access to product information, with knowledgable, helpful staff on hand to facilitate any question or need, including finalising a purchase.

Microsoft Surface Pro devices offer the best of both worlds. You can use them as a till point, or you can use them as a tablet. Coupled with our compliant integration with Verifone P400 devices and our greener e-receipts, you have a stylish, fully operational and mobile solution that puts the power of our EPOS software into the hands of in-store staff where ever they need to serve a customer, without compromising on our software's performance, usability or functionality.

We are now integrated with GoCertify

The past few years have seen a big rise in web browser tools that automatically apply discounts when the user reaches the checkout page of an eCommerce website.

This causes problems for online retailers and their customers. Naturally, there is the loss of potential revenue by selling items at a discounted price, but these codes are often intended for use by specific user groups that actually deserve the discount.

This leads us to introduce our new integration with GoCertify.

GoCertify allows for the verification of specific user groups, validating their identity before they can use any discount codes.

Every business that signs up to GoCertify receives its own public landing page from which verification is processed; an example can be seen here.

This will prove to be a very powerful addition to any website that offers a standard discount for key workers, Armed Services veterans and similar customer groups.

Helping clients with Google Analytics 4

We should all know by now that from 1st July 2023, all Universal Analytics properties (the old GA) will stop collecting data, to be replaced by Google Analytics 4.

Over several months we have been working with clients to help them with their migration to GA4, making sure that their websites are set up correctly and measuring all of their primary tracking priorities.

Unfortunately, the move to GA4 has made eCommerce tracking more complex and it does require some technical ‘ability’ to set this up correctly. There is no step-by-step solution to follow for this and the instructions will vary depending on:

• Whether you have Google Tag Manager set up correctly on your website
• Whether you have existing Universal Analytics tracking set up
• How Google’s schema has been implemented on your website
• The types of information you require to be pulled into Google Analytics 4

We discussed this in more detail last month, and you can read our piece ‘Google Analytics 4 & eCommerce - Everything you need to know’ for more information.