Check out these new POS features!

Starting today you’ll see four new POS improvements that will simplify your workflows and speed up transaction times. These new features are a direct result of your feedback, thank you for suggesting and voting for them in the Ideas Forum! 

Item totals

You can now easily see the total number of items that have been added to a POS order, helping to avoid mistakes during checkout, especially on busy days.

 

Held order nickname

We now auto-populate the nickname field when you hold a POS order attached to a contact, making it quicker to save and find pending orders.

Receipt resend

Resend a receipt directly from an order in the POS when your customer changes their mind about needing a copy after the sale.

 

Smart keyboards

Enjoy faster data entry with smart keyboards. Form fields that only allow numbers will show the numeric keyboard and email entry fields will show the email keyboard.

 

Improved performance

In addition to these four features, we’ve also invested significant resources in improving speed and reliability on the POS in North America. This includes fine tuning our databases and implementing Kubernetes, the leader of automating application deployment, scaling, and management. This work is ongoing and you’ll continue to see faster response times globally as our new technology enables us to seamlessly scale with your sales volume.

New: Ecommerce Platform Upgrade

 

Today we are thrilled to begin the official rollout of your Ecommerce Platform Upgrade initiative. In the coming weeks, North American wineries will see this upgrade across the Products and Shipping sections, designed to improve your experience and enable you to work faster and smarter.

The upgrade includes: 

• Updated look & feel with a modern design
• Streamlined workflows
• Increased performance backed by new technology 
• Overall improved experience 

We encourage you to check out our new documentation so that you have a chance to preview the changes before they go live.

Products updates:

• More streamlined product setup to help you manage products quickly and more efficiently
• Reduce time by managing all products on both your website and the POS from a single place
• Setup and edit all wine properties through a single section    

Shipping Strategies updates:

• See an overview of each shipping strategy with new single page management
• Configure your zones quickly with new state search functionality and the ability to select all
• Better validation to ensure that you’re rates are set up correctly from the beginning

These updates will be enabled for wineries gradually over the coming weeks and no action is needed on your part. If you have any questions in the meantime, please check out our updated Documentation or contact our team at support@winedirect.com

We look forward to sharing these exciting new updates with you! 

Bug Fix: Updates to Lifetime Value, Membership Status and Last Order Date

We have now completed work on how our platform processes orders and calculates Lifetime Value, Last Order Amount, Last Order Date, Is Active Member and Number of Transactions. These updates not only ensure your orders complete faster; they also add an additional layer of stability to the WineDirect Platform.

Previously, orders placed through your website, POS, Club Processing and Admin Panel were calculated in real-time, while imported orders would run at a regular time every night and sync this information. This process was causing congestion and began to slow down our platform - so we disabled it temporarily.

With the new updates, we have moved to a background refresh so that all orders are processed within two minutes of the transaction. With this update, we are timestamping the latest order as it passes through the queue, and we have implemented validation to ensure system performance stays top-notch.

As you close out the year, know that your Reports, List Builder exports and Contact Statuses have been turned back on and are currently up to date. 

Bug Fix: Blank Contact Orders on the POS

You can now put a Guest Customer order on hold, resume it and then process it without the order creating a blank contact. All you have to do is click Clear Contact after resuming an on-hold order in the POS. You can access the Clear Contact button under the contact's name in the upper right of your screen:

The order will then be processed under Guest Customer which will ensure your contact database, list builder exports and reports don't have blank contacts.

Previously, Guest Customer orders placed on hold converted to No Name orders, creating a blank contact record in your database.

New: VinDashboard Reports

Starting today, you have more ways to access and analyze your data through our partnership with VinDashboard. 

VinDashboard is a reporting service giving you a snapshot view of your key business metrics. It saves you time by combining data from multiple WineDirect reports into one, easy-to-use and flexible interface, helping you drill deeper into your WineDirect data to uncover actionable insights. Here's what's new:

20+ New Reports

• Create custom-tailored promotions, events, and marketing campaigns to target your customers based on their location and purchase history
• Use our actionable maps with drill-down capabilities to view customers stats, demographics, and data by region 
• Enter your goals and automatically track your progress across multiple sales channel and key performance indicators

DTC Knowledge Base for Wineries

• Details of our 70+ reports, where to segment and how to monitor this against your buiness goals
• Quick tips, FAQs and training
• Best practices for wineries using VinDashboard and WineDirect

> Visit our FAQ page to learn more about VinDashboard and request a demo.

New: Redirector Fully Supports HTTPS Connections

Our Redirector now supports HTTPS connections. If the A Record for your root domain points to our redirector ( `52.41.61.31` ) you should now be able to use links such as https://pinewines.com/ (without the www).

There are many different ways that a customer types in your URL to access your website or online store. Our platform automatically redirects them so that they end up at the right spot. Previously, when a customer did not type "www" before your URL - as in https://pinewines.com - they would get a timeout error. Now, they will be redirected to http(s)://www.pinewines.com.

This enhancement enables your customers to easily access your website, and also helps keep your Google ranking high. Keep the suggestions coming in the Ideas Forum!

Looking for more ways to improve your Google Ranking? WineDirect has a setting that allows for SSL everywhere. We've turned on SSL everywhere for our own website - and we are encouraging you to do the same. >Learn more here.

New: Cart Stays Active For One Month

When customers are browsing your website, any items added to their cart are now saved for one month, allowing them more time to come back and complete their purchase. The cart is saved when your customer remains logged in, or if a guest has started the checkout process before dropping off .

This change reduces checkout barriers and improves your customers’ overall experience by allowing them to continue right where they left off. 

Please note: You must be using our New Checkout Tools to take advantage of this feature. 

During OND, you'll want to recover as many abandoned carts as possible. A great way to remind customers that they have abandoned their cart is to send an Abadoned Cart Action Email. You set them up once and they are sent automatically. If you aren't already using the Abandoned Cart Action Email, you can learn how to set it up here. 

 

Updated Tip Flow for POS

To reduce confusion during checkout, and make sure your staff gets the tips they deserve, we've adjusted our tip pop-up screen in the POS. Starting today, the ‘Apply’ button is now right next to the custom tip field at the bottom of the screen, and the 'No Tip' button is in the upper right corner.

Previously, these buttons' locations were reversed. Through our Ideas Forum, you let us know that this was causing confusion among customers who were hitting 'No Tip' when they meant to select 'Apply' after entering a custom tip amount.

This change will cause less confusion for your customers when they enter a tip, plus it gives your hardworking tasting room staff a better chance at the tips they deserve!

To find out more about setting up tips for your Tasting Room staff, read the Documentation page here.

New: Multiple Emails Per Contact

We are excited to announce the arrival of your #1 requested feature: adding multiple email addresses to a single contact. This means you can now seamlessly send communications about orders and club shipments to a customer's spouse or friend, ensuring important transactional information won't be missed.

It's the latest tool we've built to help save you time and deliver top-notch customer service.

How It Works:

• To add an email address, navigate to the contact record on the Admin Panel or POS and click the new "+ Add email address" link. You can add up to 5 secondary email addresses per contact.
• Your customers can add their own secondary email addresses by logging in to their account and going to the Edit Profile page.
• Secondary emails will receive all transactional emails - such as order confirmations and wine club notifications - associated with the primary account holder. For privacy and anti-SPAM reasons, they will not receive marketing emails such as newsletters.

Ways to Use It:

• Allow your customers to add their spouse's email for extra visibility on important notifications regarding purchases, shipping and billing
• Ensure that friends sharing a club membership all receive necessary club communications
• Include both a work and home email address for added convenience and maximum visibility
• Send an email to your wine club members inviting them to add secondary emails through their online account (or add secondary email fields to your physical club sign up form for new members)

Please Note: When you add a secondary email address, an email alert will go out both to the primary account holder as well as the secondary email address. These System Email templates have been auto-created with default copy in your account and you can edit them as desired. They are called: "A New Email Has Been Added to Your Account" (sent to the primary email address) and "Your Email Has Been Added" (sent to the secondary email address).

> Click here to read the full documentation!

We’re so thrilled to release this functionality as it is your most requested feature ever with almost 450 votes from our Ideas forum. Keep the suggestions coming!

Bug Fix: Hold Order No Longer Removing Additional Order Info When Resumed

You can now add additional order details to an Order while it's On Hold, and know that it will be saved once you Resume this order.

Previously, when you added additional order details while the Order was On Hold, the fields were not saved when the order was changed to resume. We've now fixed this Bug so that Resuming an Order has the flow you expect.