Author: Katrin

PC Gardener user meeting 2017

Many companies followed our invitation, so this year (8-10 February 2017) around 60 participants sat in the auditorium. Thank you very much for the encouragement from your side!

Our answer to the numerous interest was information about the many new developments in the PC Gardener and the online shop. Workshops and breaks offered room for discussions and on the two evenings the  conversation could be continued – with a glass of wine or a beer.

The next user meeting will take place from January 31, 2018 – February 2, 2018 in Schmerlenbach near Aschaffenburg.

We also offer a shorter weekend meeting in 2017: Friday, November 10 – Satureday, November 11, 2017 in Fulda.

Presentation of tours and tracking

The tour presentation has been reworked some time ago, but unfortunately this only works for users with Firefox or Chrome. There, however, the tour is about 10 times faster and customers with open orders are highlighted (yellow border to the number).

The tour logs display now also includes an estimate of the distance. Generally speaking that number will be smaller than the real distance. With an individual correction factor, which you have to calculate for yourself, you can save yourself the trip to the speedometer of the cars.

Statistics 2016

Here are some key figures from 2016, which help us to monitor our services and assess the quality of our services.

At 3.47 million customer meetings, there were 1.47 million order changes and 0.6 million new orders – and also 0.28 million cancellations.

Approximately 10 million emails were delivered, with a very high delivery rate.

The number of incoming problem reports (we count *each* mail from you per end customer) has risen absolutely in 2016, mainly due to a slow system in March and problems on a weekend in October (“t-online”) and November. Although the original problem was never with us, our systems were unfortunately not yet “elastic” enough to cushion it.
However, the number of problem reports has decreased in proportion to customer meetings (from 0.06‰ to ~0.04‰, with a maximum of 0.5‰ at the beginning of November)

Overall, growth in all shops was weaker than in previous years, with a slight increase in the size of the shopping basket.

Tip: Statistics can be found in the admin area, under the main point “Statistics” and some comparative values also in the area “Current State”.

Crossed-out prices

This function has been on schedule for quite some time. As so often it takes some extra effort to enter these prices (this is in progress on the part of the PCG). To make this easier for you, there are already the following possibilities (in the admin area: Settings > Design/Data):

  • Mechanism: automatic or price limit
  • Limits: minimal difference in price in cents and %.

The automatic remembers the price every day. They are shown if the price is lower. Under Current State > Deleted Prices there is a suitable evaluation showing which articles would benefit from the respective settings.

If the option “Price limit” is selected, the crossed out price will be displayed if a higher price was valid before the date limit.

Pointer Articles & Subgroup Navigation

New shop models should offer more options for designing the item navigation. Some things could be installed in the current shop with little effort. There are now articles that have a description, but only serve to point to another menu level. “And here’s to the tomato sauces” would be one of those pointers in the pasta department.

In addition, there are more design options for sub-groups – e. g. a sub-navigation can be displayed. See e. g. “Meat and fish” at the Amperhof or the Hauschka departments at some users.

 

Minimum quantities

In the PCG > Article Manager, minimum quantities can be maintained for a long time for entering data in the shop. These are now actually used – if specified. If these values are not maintained, 1 piece or 1kg is still preset.

Search algorithm

Even after many attempts, the search in the shop is still not as good as it is with Google. But there are now a few more options to try out, because the logic of the article name, the accompanying text is too different for you.
Some of you now have access to a third search algorithm besides “more exact” and “more similar terms”.
You can now narrow down your search in the settings: Search only by name, in the core information of an article or “in all”.
Not to forget the search terms, which can be stored in the PCG on the article and often work as a last resort! Which one? In the admin area under “Search” you can see what has been searched for.

Payment with Paypal

For some time now it is also possible to order with Paypal. There are additional costs per delivery, but especially for special offers and new customers this can be a good new possibility.
There are two payment modes for displaying weighing differences. More under Settings in the admin area.reich.

SEPA

There are also some changes in the shop:

The creditor ID must not only be stored in the PCG but also in the shop. You can find this setting under Settings->Status->Contact. If multiple languages are set, several input fields are also available
The bank data query for new customers and the possibility to enter customer profile data (in the shop under “personal data”) now ask for IBAN and BIC. But the most important thing is the signature – there is a form for this purpose, which the customer has to complete, print and send to you. This will certainly also result in additional work when new customers are added to the PCG.
There is a text field, which is also shown in the SEPA form, if you want to add your own information, e. g.”Our driver collects this form”. To be found under “Settings->Login/Profiles”.
The client’s client reference is displayed in the same profile area, if available.