Znode Buzz

Introducing Multifront v6.1 - With Advanced Globalization

Znode released Multifront v6.1 earlier this weak – a major upgrade to our Flexible .NET Ecommerce platform with rich features that take content personalization to a whole different level.

Enterprises with a global presence or localization requirements can now take advantage of Multifront’s powerful Globalization capabilities. With Multifront you can create a single store with multiple languages or multiple stores personalized for different regions.

Multifront allows unprecedented targeting of content and promotions based on the target audience or locale. This enables online retailers to increase customer satisfaction and brand loyalty thereby achieving a significantly higher ROI.

Multifront’s unique faceted technology enables advanced content personalization that is not possible with any other ecommerce platform in the market today.

Here are some of Multifront's globalization features:

• Allow customers to switch between multiple languages on a storefront
• Website appearance can be completely customized for each locale
• Set different products and pricing based on selected locale
• Present different content including images and rich media based on locale
• Customize shipping, taxes, currency and units based on locale
• Administration tool allows content editor with full control over the localization capabilities including personalized content, site look and feel and more

Znode releases major version of Storefront 6.0

After a year of innovation, months of development and hundreds of hours of extensive product testing, we are very excited to release Znode Storefront 6.0 - a ground breaking e-commerce platform. I am confident that this product will help online retailers increase their ROI and Online Revenues using unique innovative marketing strategies.

Try out the new Multi-Store demo sites that are now live on znode.com - Click Here

Exciting New Features

Rich Web 2.0  Multi-Store Demo

The demo store that ships with Storefront 6.0, Multifront Edition has a completely new look and feel, illustrating the power of Storefront. This store highlights three separate site designs, showing the ability to quickly and easily create multiple storefronts. This template provides a solid starting point for your own web 2.0 enabled store that is branded exactly to your business.

Faceted Navigation 

Faceted Navigation allows catalog administrators to define product tags that are displayed on the Category page. Customers can then select the product tags that are of interest to them and see only those products that match their criteria. These tag selections are arranged so that customers will always have products to choose from when they make their selections. This ability for the customer to quickly define what is important to them means that they can get to products faster reducing abandonments and increasing cart values.

Product Quick View

Using our new Quick View feature, Customers can see product details and add items to the cart right from a category or search page. Quick View provides the full product description, alternate product images, color swatches, related items, customer reviews as well as other features. This shortens the purchase path for customers by allowing them to go from the category page directly to the shopping cart. 

Newly Redesigned Admin

Our already easy to use administrative interface has been completely redesigned to make it even faster and more intuitive. While the look of our Admin is completely new, existing users of Storefront will find many familiar touch points that allow them to transition to the new interface in just a few minutes.

Also included in this release are:

• Mini Shopping Cart which visually displays the products in the customer's cart on every shopping page
• An improved Recently Viewed Items section allowing customers to quickly get back to products they are interested in
• An extendable workflow for order processing that allows managers to approve all orders
• .NET 3.5, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008 supported right out of the box.

We are very excited about this new product release. We hope to continue our quest for innovation and excellence in the e-commerce space.

Increasing customers, revenues and reach using multi-brand strategies

In the worst US recession since the great depression, one toy company kept significantly increasing it's revenues over 3 consecutive Decembers.  The company is Toys"R"Us.

In a recent interview with the media, CEO Gerald Storch talked about their aggressive acquisition strategy. This year Toys"R"Us acquired Etoys.com, KbToys.com, Toys.com, Epregnancy.com, BabyUniverse.com, FAO Shwarz among others. The result - Toys"R"Us was able to not only survive but beat it's competition by offering the largest assortment of toys to its customers.  Competitors such as Walmart may offer heavily discounted pricing, but no one can beat the enormous selection of in-stock toys offered by Toys"R"Us.

At Znode, we are seeing that many of our customers are adopting similar strategies to rise above the noise and compete effectively. That is why we are experiencing a significant demand for our multi-store platform - Multifront. Our customers use Multifront to launch storefronts for each of their brand acquisitions rapidly. Best of all, these stores are all managed through a single administrative interface enabling marketing departments to have full control over promotions and pricing.

Znode's Viewpoint product complements Multifront by allowing online retailers to create and embed portable stores on third party websites and create an effective guided navigation system enabling their customers to find the right product FAST. This significantly increases brand presence and sales conversions.

Sneak preview of the new demo store

When Multifront v6.0 is released in January 2010, it will include a brand new multi-store demo out of the box. The demo store has been designed by a leading agency with rich UI features and special attention to usability.  

The new demo store will feature powerful capabilities including Personalized Navigation, Rich AJAX user interfaces, Intelligent Cross-Selling, Multi-Store Navigation (like Gap/ Old Navy) and much much more!

The design of this store will significantly enhance the end user experience and increase conversions for online retailers.  Solutions Developers can use this default store as a starting point to build world class Storefronts.

Mark your calendars for the next major Multifront release!

The product development team is working diligently towards the release of the next major version of Znode Multifront (6.0) - our innovative multi-store ecommerce platform.  This release is expected to be on Jan 8th, 2010.

This release has ground breaking features that would provide significant value to Online Retailers including Personalization, Rich Web 2.0 functionality, Multi-Store Cross Selling, Advanced Navigation and more. 

Over the next few weeks I will be discussing some of these enhancements. Stay tuned!

Does Your E-commerce Platform Measure Up? A Checklist

Hopefully, your online stores are just about ready for the upcoming holiday season. Measuring every component of your holiday online strategy is more critical than ever. This includes evaluating the performance of your current e-commerce platform.   Here’s a checklist to help ensure you’re asking the right questions:

1. Does my current platform allow me to fully customize multiple storefronts to meet diverse branding requirements?
2. Does my current platform easily handle the creation and management of multiple stores for clearance, seasons, affiliates, promotions and brands using the same catalog?
3. Am I able to fully personalize the online storefront – showing different pricing or products based on who is logged in?
4. Can my current platform deploy SEO micro-stores?
5. Does my current e-commerce platform give me the ability to deploy stores on the fly?
6. Did my current e-commerce platform enable me to create multiple personalized URLs for each store to fully track the success of my promotions?
7. Was it easy for other members of my team (marketing department, content editor) to use the admin tool?
8. Was it easy for my SEO agency to create and modify SEO content quickly?

If your current platform is unable to do any of the above things, take a closer look at Znode Multifront™. Znode is committed to helping companies enhance their e-commerce strategy!  

Drop us a line at znode.com

Do you need to be ‘Multi Store’? What it means to be ‘Multi’

Many of us at Znode are talking about the MultiFront platform and what makes it so much different than the other e-commerce storefront solutions that are out there.
 
One HUGE thing is the multi store capability.  And its one of the big reasons that customers are looking to Znode.
 
But what does this mean?  Many other solutions claim to have multi store capability, but when you look closely they don’t really cut it.
 
With MultiFront, Znode’s enterprise class e-commerce storefront platform adds the ability to create and manage multiples stores and catalogs quickly and easily.
 
But being ‘Multi’ can mean so much more…  So what does it mean to be ‘Multi’?  Here are some examples of what WE mean:
 
Multiple Brands – You can roll out separate stores for each brand.  Achieve operational efficiencies through the combined management of products, catalogs, promotions, and search engine optimization across all of them.
 
Multiple Customer Types –Retail customers, wholesalers, distributors, affiliates, and partners.  You’ve probably got them all.  With MultiFront you can manage them separately, including offering different pricing, payment terms, shipping details, and unique product offerings.  
 
Multilingual and Multi-currency – Go global with by spinning up culturally targeted stores in different languages with local currencies.  
 
Maximize Presence & SEO – Use the SEO friendliness always offered by Znode to extend your presence with a multi store strategy.    Create micro, specialty, and overstock stores quickly to isolate product types and run promotions to measure performance and increase conversions.
 
Seasonal or Regional Catalogs – Get ready for the next big season.  Build a store and test it out before you go live, or target different geographies with different catalogs. Once again, Znode Multifront give you the power to do it.
 
And with Znode, you manage from one product catalog database and one usable administrative interface, NOT  multiple copies of the same application strung together with some programming kludge, or with something you have to build.
 
 Are you going ‘Multi’ with your E-Commerce strategy?
 
Want to know more and see a demo?   Visit www.znode.com/demo  or  contact us