RSS:Apogee StoreFront v 2.1 Release Notes
Version 2.1 of the web-to-print solution of Agfa Graphics includes several new features that focus on the print buyer and improvements to optimize the order flow. The update will be released on February 2, 2014. The main changes are:
- Support for Google Analytics – monitor users, the products they look at and their purchase behavior
- Reworked ‘Your account’ page in stores – making it easier to search orders and reorder products
- Personalized product access – specify who gets to see what when they access the storefront
- Custom purchase order code message – inform buyers what kind of order code they must supply
- Correction workflow for customizable products – fix typos in ordered items using the Online Editor
More information is available in the Online Help and the Online Help Addendum. Existing users should check the post-update guidelines
General new features
Support for Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free service that allows you to monitor where store users come from, which products they look at and how many visits are converted to an actual sale. Apogee StoreFront 2.1 allows print service providers to use their Google Analytics account to track buyer activity in their web2print stores. Some of the URLs that StoreFront generates have been reworked to make it easier to track user actions. StoreFront also supports the use of UTM-parameters, allowing marketing to monitor the success of campaigns or external links.
These are the main questions that Google Analytics can help answer:
- Advertising and campaign behavior
- How many visitors did an e-mail campaign, banner ads, a tweet or Facebook link generate?
- Which hyperlinks lead visitors to the store?
- User characteristics and behavior
- From which location do people access the store? When do they visit the store?
- Who is visiting the store right now?
- How many visitors abandoned their shopping cart? Who did so?
- Store optimization
- Are there any dead links in my store?
- Which internal links are used the most?
Cookie notification banner
Users can now optionally be informed that the storefront they are visiting uses cookies. This is done using a banner at the bottom of the web page. It is possible to request that users acknowledge this notification. Once a user acknowledges the message that informs him or her that the site uses cookies, the cookie notification banner will not be shown again. This means users typically only see the message once.
This option was added to make StoreFront compliant with the legislation in the European Union that aims to safeguard privacy online and protect web users from the unwanted use of their personal data for marketing and sales purposes.
Peru & support for the Nuevo Sol
Peru is added to the list of countries, as well as its currency, the Nuevo Sol (PEN).
Outgoing e-mails can be archived
StoreFront can now send a copy of all outgoing e-mails (account activations, order confirmations, StoreCenter notifications,etc) to a configurable e-mail address. This ensures that the print service provider has a copy of all outgoing e-mails, which can be handy for support or troubleshooting purposes. If these e-mails are sent to a mail client that supports rule sets, it is also a powerful way of automating certain tasks. You could, for example, set up a rule that notifies a customer service representative each time an order confirmation mail is sent for purchases in a specific store.
Stores
Reworked ‘My account’ pages
Many StoreFront users reorder the same products over and over again. To simplify reordering, the Your Account pages have been completely reworked. Users can now view a separate list of the products they already ordered in the past. Both in this view and the order list, a search box enables them to search their order history based on product names, dates, quantities or even options.
Omit the title on the home page and support pages
It is no longer mandatory to have a title on the home page or any of the optional pages. This can be useful for layouts that require extra space for text or images.
Public stores without online payment
Previously a public store always used a payment gateway for handling online payments. In StoreFront 2.1 it is also possible to set the payment method of a public store to either ‘Ignore price list’ or ‘External (use price list)’. These new options make it easier to cost efficiently set up stores that are:
- online showrooms - Storefront visitors can see what kind of products the print service provider can produce.
- upload portals - Repeat customers do not have to create a password to visit the portal. They just need to select a product type and use the storefront to upload files for printing.
Users
Personalized access rights
In large companies there are often groups of users who only need specific types of products. Dealers might only need access to brochures about a specific product line. In multilingual stores not everyone needs access to documents in all of the languages. With StoreFront 2.1 you can use labels to define which users see which products. This function is available to all MallPack Silver and MallPack Gold accounts.
Access labels are defined at the company level. This allows you to use one set of access labels for one company and a different set of labels for another. The use of labels is not mandatory: if the function is not needed, then no labels need to be defined.
More detailed billing information
All users - regardless of whether they have access to a private or a public store and irrespective of the payment method of that store, can have their ‘Billable To’ setting set to either ‘User’ or ‘Company’.
Products & Product Templates
COPY-PASTE a price matrix
The pricing data for certain product templates can be fairly complex: for a magazine with distinct prices for page ranges starting from 8, 32, 64 and 128 pages and with quantities of 50, 250, 1000 and 5000 copies there are 16 to 32 prices that need to be defined in the price matrix. Such a table of pricing information can now be pasted from an Excel table. This means the main pricing table can be set up and maintained in an Excel spreadsheet and then copied to the StoreCenter price list.
Online Editor
Updated InDesign plug-in
A new version of the StoreFront Converter Plug-in is available for download from the StoreCenter menu. Version 3.5.2.0 of the plug-in fixes some minor bugs.
Control the way PDF data are previewed
When a customizable product contains PDF data (which it typically does because all the locked layers are converted to PDF), those PDF images are visualized onscreen using a preview image. Sometimes this preview image does not accurately represent the PDF content: a complex gradient or gradient text can for example be shown in black. This is purely a visual artefact since the final PDF output is fine. In the Online Editor a new Display Quality option is added to the Image Settings tab of the Images pane. It allows you to overwrite the default setting and generate a better preview.
Ordering & Checkout
Only relevant color and media choices are shown
Previously the shopping cart and Order Details page would always include the color and type of media of a product. This information was redundant for the buyer - why point out afterwards that a poster will be printed in full color if it’s described in the product specifications and the shopper couldn’t select an alternative color? Now the color and media type info are only listed if the shopper was offered a choice of color or media options.
Custom purchase order codes
Companies often want each order to be accompanied by a specific purchase order code. In StoreFront such reference codes could already be made mandatory. With the 2.1 release you can customize the message that print buyers see to inform them that they need to enter, for example, a 9-digit SAP code.
Improved tax exemption handling for US stores
When a print buyer does not have to pay taxes in the US, he or she has to present a Tax Exemption Certificate. This certificate contains details of the customer and documents why no taxes need to be paid. StoreFront 2.1 allows shoppers to use such a certificate by clicking the ‘Tax Exempted’ link during checkout and subsequently selecting an existing or creating a new Tax Exemption Certificate. Shoppers can also delete Tax Exemption Certificates.
Order Fulfillment & Shipping
Correction workflow for customizable products
The majority of orders that StoreFront processes each day includes customizable products. If a customer accidentally makes a typo in a personalized business card, all you could do up to now is fix the error in the resulting print-ready PDF file.
StoreFront 2.1 allows company and printer administrators as well as printer operators to still make last minute corrections using the Online Editor. This makes it much easier to use StoreFront for products like corporate newsletters or flyers. Corrected documents are automatically resubmitted to the Apogee or Asanti production workflow.
Track Chronopost shipments
Chronopost is a French delivery service that operates worldwide. It is now included in the list of supported shipment tracking options.
Post-update action items
Some of the changes and new features in this release require an intervention from a printer administrator:
| Action | Update the StoreFront Converter plug-in on all systems where it is installed in Adobe InDesign. |
