Author: Rakel

After a verdict of the European Court of Justice, fear related to cookies is once again present on the web, but particularly in our environment one should keep calm.

Do you show advertisements of other companies? Do you use cookies to do something unexpected with your data? If not, there is no reason to ask the visitor visitor’s permission and annoy them with a banner when shopping.

Most of them need some cookies to run the website, for example an identifier so that the shopping cart can be assigned to a visitor. These cookies do not have to be specified, even according to the GDPR it can be assumed that a visitor knows or accepts them.

Also the use of cookies to optimize the website should be possible (as well as logfiles) without any notification, but of course the data must always be in your hand and take good care that unauthorized persons have no access to it.

When visiting the website of an organic farm, if I have to accept cookies I assume that my data is being transferred from the farm – this would not leave a good impression on an informed visitor. And for the less informed ones, this fact can be highlighted again in the privacy policy.

But if data should flow out of your site – due to a wrong tools’ configuration, failure to execute GDPR-AV contracts or “conscious ignorance” – e.g. via an analytics tool – then you have to keep the nice notification.

By the way, the medial concentration on cookies is quite misleading – good ad trackers meanwhile get along very well without cookies to recognize a visitor. Unfortunately, the public focus on the term “cookie” hides the real problem and allows delinquents to continue to operate almost undisturbed.

PS: As usual it is not legal advice, but a strong opinion ?

Calendar dates

This new presentation is available for the different options of the Shop 2016: either individually designed, in the Neos CMS or in the standard template.
In the calendar customers can select the date of their current order, in addition, the different orders for the same day are shown, if any, as well as the next available delivery dates.
The delivery breaks registered appear with the days crossed out.

Article comments

Now also available in the shopping cart a space where the customer can write comments on a particular item.

This option can be activated in the shop settings.

Cancellations and priorities

Customers may also be able to cancel items from their subscriptions and manage their preferences themselves. First the PCG information was displayed, then editing of cancellations and preferences was added.

New features for the content components

These components were freely arranged in the design and could display any text stored in the system. The new feature is that traditional “placeholders” can also be referenced in these blocks. Even more %variable% texts are now supported, so it’s possible to customize them for the registered customer or for the daily offer.

A new menu module allows the system to be used as a simple CMS.
Small changes are constantly being added – all those who use Shop 2016 as standard or individually can check the Trello board (in German).

In autumn, something new .. by the online world. PSD2 is supposed to make the world safer, but also makes it more complicated. And if the banks have misunderstood it, it’s even more complex.

For online shops it means that the payment has to be confirmed again with a “second factor” PSD2 and Paypal update. A password, for example, would be the first factor, a confirmation SMS – transmitted in another way – could be the second one.

However, this is only mandatory for some payment procedures and the simple direct debit booking most often used by our system is not one of them.

Direct debit enables a business relationship with irregular payments. The disadvantages of this booking method can be reduced with certain risk checks.

Paypal

Not only because of this reason we have reviewed the Paypal interface. With the update (in most cases) new payment methods are available, e.g. credit cards or sometimes even country-specific payment variants. Since Paypal (in the default setting) itself decides what is offered, this cannot be predicted exactly. One can assume that this selection is also risk-controlled.

If not yet enabled, “Paypal-PLUS” should be activated in the Paypal account. Also further options like payment on account are possible.

In order to use these new options in the shop, you only have to enter the trader ID in the administration area (it was not needed until now). Then some texts are automatically adapted and the new options are available. If necessary you could adapt own texts. The entire billing and chargeback logic with the PCG remains the same.

Invoices can be exported as PDFs on the PCG, even after they have been generated. This can be of great advantage if the accounting department needs them in this format or if they are to be stored in this way.

In the Customer data module -> Invoice lists you can search for the right invoices.

In the search result you can then choose whether only one invoice or all selected invoices are to be saved as PDF files. It is also possible to export the invoice list as a CSV file.

Build websites only with board tools

With the help of the Content/Contentmenu components it is easy for customers to prepare a simple set of pages to maintain their own content. Of course such a site focuses a little on the online shop 😉 but other tools like a CMS system can be saved.

Contents are stored in the content area – only the short name of the post has to follow a certain pattern to appear in the navigation. Post pages can also be used in the navigation (to be set in the PCG) as before.

In the standard template, the fastest way to go live with a shop, the corresponding components are already provided in the upper area and appear automatically if posts are available.

Posts can be written with the built-in HTML editor or in Wiki syntax. The WebDesigner also keeps a little more influence over the style of the articles written by the customer.

Besides, text modules can be used in another post as variables.

Images proxy

Images in the shop are usually delivered via the built-in proxy. This mainly catches too large images, wrong data and image formats of the stored images.

Now you can – via the configuration of the components – also scale individual dimensions, e.g. using wide narrow banners in the header area of the articles.

More display options

In some places further data elements are provided, e.g. the basic prices in the list view, information about blocked orders or indications for picture errors or article notes. Usually these parts are built in as non-intrusively as possible to avoid interfering with designs. In the standard template, all new features are always included first.

Individual designs therefore sometimes have to be corrected manually. Maybe you have to look into the Trello every now and then.

Today Katrin will introduce Charly and Brita.

Hallo, liebe Leut! is the original greeting in the newsletter of the Firsching’s. They approach their customers so directly when it comes to their own delivery business, the Bosshammersch-Hof. In the 22 years of its existence, this company has become a reference in the organic box business and this is thanks to both of them. In a good division of labour they manage a team of meanwhile 50 employees.

Both of them are graduate farmers and decided to open their own family business in Hessen near Marburg. Since their children grew up, they have increased the team at Bosshammersch-Hof.

PCGarden customers also know Charly as he represents the PCG team at trade fairs and within the organisation in particular. He gives advice for PCG and for services related to it. This included training and consulting for an optimal business process in the company, for which Brita and Charly are available, as well as recently also consulting for the shop and social media area. They are so clever!

We aim to make our internet shops the way customers expect them to be – but a company that delivers regularly can offer even more services. So the shop became a special tool; we would like to introduce some of its modules.

Search an article >> Specify the quantity >> Finally send the order. This is mostly used by online shops and also by us. But the shopping cart component hides a lot of complex processes.

Live content

The shopping cart in our system is somewhat longer-lasting, often it’s already filled at the first visit with the articles from a subscription. And after submitting the order, is still available for changes – until the order deadline. Therefore, it remains for several days – even if it has already been changed by the employees in the company. The system could also have divided assortments into individual articles and thus changed the order items. Occasionally it could even happen that an article is no longer available – this must also be easily noticeable.

Order deadlines

Regarding order deadlines: this is not necessarily the same for all articles. Often some articles need a different deadline because they are supplied by partner companies, for example. This of course depends on the tour on which the order will be delivered. Other articles are blocked for changes, e.g. if it concerns manufactured goods, like meat packages. In such a case, it may also happen that the entire delivery can no longer be cancelled.

Articles, recipes and packs

Assortments – the contents of Aboboxes (subscription boxes) – can be changed (“if planned”) or not available (for future weeks are often not yet planned). If possible, we show this in the shopping cart, grouped according to the assortment.
Recipes or gift packages are other forms of grouped articles that can be ordered either as a package or individually.

Subscriptions

For assortments or single articles subscriptions can be locked – this information appears in the shopping cart. In particular, it is helpful to detect when a new subscription is added to the order or is about to expire. Meanwhile, changes in subscriptions are also possible for future orders.

Minimum order values, maximum quantities

The article quantities can also be changed directly in the shopping cart. As in other places in the shop we’ll pay attention to possible quantity restrictions. Minimum quantities can apply not only to articles, but also to categories. Articles with limited stock won’t remain “blocked” in the shopping cart.

Pre-orders, multiple shopping carts

In order to simplify the task of ordering for the customer, it is also possible to select articles for different dates. During a session, for example, several shopping carts can be created, which are then displayed in the calendar at different dates.

Discount display, vouchers, notes and ordering with one click complete the functions.

Mainly for regular appointments in the office and planning everyday life of your company, you can activate reminders, notes and tasks in the PC Garden. All functions can be found in the basic modules under “Tools”.

Under “Tasks” there are time-controlled messages to the dear colleague who works with a very specific module and should be reminded of an important point. Or maybe a task that requires a protocol, e.g. the protocol for the cold store.
“Appointments” and “Notes” can be differentiated between general and private appointments.

So everything will be well organized, even if someone is on vacation or sick, or if several employees work together on a task. The advantage of this electronic reminder is also that no wind can blow it away from the desk.

The navigation module of PC Gärtner is designed to place the customers who will be supplied on a day in a meaningful order. In addition, it is a necessary requirement to use the Driver App.

The sequence can differ from the correct sorting for all active addresses of a tour. This is due to the elimination of customers not supplied this time, so a different sequence can be shorter or faster on this day.
Therefore an optimal sequence for the existing orders can be determined in the navigation module. Experience has shown that this avoids unnecessarily driven kilometres and/or a significant time saving.

The module must be used after the order deadline and before packing begins (or after printing evaluations sorted according to sequence).
The orders to be packed are sorted in the correct sequence for the delivery run and thus appear sorted both in the packing station module and in all corresponding evaluations.

Tip: When loading directly into the delivery vehicle, the packing sequence at the packing centre should be set to “Pack backwards”.

More information can be found in the documentation platform (after login; in German only).

In the new shop system, PDF invoices and delivery notes have been available for customers, and if they are requested in the personal settings, an email with an attached file is sent shortly afterwards. Improving communication with the customers, paper can be completely discarded.