Fix: Reverting to Standard UI for Increased Stability

At WineDirect, we're continually committed to providing a seamless experience. Some wineries might have noticed two different user interfaces (UI) in the WineDirect admin panel – the Standard UI and a New UI.

We have recently seen issues arise with the New UI. To prioritize your experience and increase platform stability, we have decided to revert back to the Standard UI. This adjustment will be entirely automatic, requiring no intervention from your side, and we plan to complete it by Thursday, August 31st, 2023. Rest assured, all the functionalities you have come to rely on remain fully accessible within the Standard UI.

How to Switch to Standard UI

If you want to switch to the Standard UI before, go to either the Products or Shipping of the Store section of your WineDirect admin panel. Click the arrow at the bottom left corner of the page to make the switch.

We sincerely appreciate your understanding and ongoing partnership. If you have any inquiries or need assistance, please don't hesitate to contact us at support@winedirect.com.

Thank you for entrusting WineDirect with your winery needs.

New: Unlock Customer Insights with Enhanced GetContactStatus() Method

Exciting news for wineries! Our GetContactStatus() method has been upgraded, offering access to all contact statuses through our API. Easily retrieve crucial customer information, including "Prospect," "1st Time Customer," and "Repeat Customer" statuses.

Benefits:

• Streamlined Integration, Enhanced Results: Seamlessly integrate and streamline your Contact Services 3.0 workflow. Fine-tune marketing strategies and nurture customer relationships with precision.

• Effortless Engagement Customization: Leverage a variety of contact statuses for powerful customer insights. Tailor engagement effortlessly, nurture prospects, and reward loyalty for growth.

• Swift Implementation, Instantaneous Results: Explore documentation for seamless implementation of enhanced GetContactStatus(). Retrieve customer statuses effortlessly and achieve swift results.

Check out the documentation for more information about Contact Services 3.0.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at support@winedirect.com.

New: Zeamster Payment Gateway Enhancements

Update 9/25/2023: We're excited to announce the deployment of Zeamster Enhancements! This update offers streamlined payment processing, enhanced features to mitigate duplicate orders, and ensures accurate transaction tracking. If you encounter POS issues, please refer to our 'Fix: POS Blank Deposit Account Error' article. For additional questions, reach out to our support team via the 'Ask a question' option in the bottom right chat bubble or email us at support@winedirect.com.

Update 9/18/2023: We've decided to postpone the deployment of the Zeamster Enhancements due to some issues encountered by wineries. We're addressing these problems and aim to roll out the updates on Wednesday, September 18, 2023, at 5:00 a.m. PDT. Thank you for your understanding and patience.

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As part of our commitment to continually improving the winery experience, we are excited to announce enhancements to the Zeamster payment gateway. We have reprogrammed the entire payments integration to improve transactional reliability for WineDirect clients who use WineDirect Payments and Zeamster as their default payment gateway. This massive overhaul will bring new behavior, such as Zeamster credential validation, multi-merchant functionality, and a section to define a deposit account depending on its transaction origins. We've made several improvements and fixes to the payment processing system.

These features are only for WineDirect Payment customers with Zeamster as their default payment gateway. If you have any questions or want to switch to WineDirect Payments and/or Zeamster, please get in touch with WineDirect Payments.

Here are the key benefits: 

• The EMV and VivoPay terminals now process payments more efficiently, which means faster transactions and less data sent 
• We've added new features to prevent duplicate orders and to keep track of transactions more accurately 
• The overall payment process has been improved 

And here are the bugs we've fixed: 

• Duplicate and missing orders have been eliminated 
• We can now retrieve the proper location ID 
• Camera capture for purchases now works correctly 
• EMV terminal timeout messaging fixed 

Deposit Accounts 

One of the additional features we added as a part of the refactoring project is the ability to select a specific deposit account for a transaction, depending on its origin. 

The way that deposit accounts function is that orders and transaction amounts from a specific source or origin will appear in a specified deposit account. Check out the documentation on deposit accounts here.

Please note that you do not need to perform any manual setup if you do not wish to change your default deposit accounts. We have selected a default deposit account for all transactions. Please change these settings at your own risk, as it can affect your internal accounting. 

Eligibility Requirements:

• Use WineDirect Payments (FortisPay) with Zeamster as your default gateway

Looking to upgrade to Zeamster as your default gateway? Reach out to WineDirect Payments here.

Looking for more info on Zeamster? Check out the documentation here.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at support@winedirect.com.

New: WineDirect & Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

If you are a Google Analytics user, you may have observed that Google Analytics 4 will replace Universal Analytics. As of July 1, 2023, Universal Analytics properties will no longer handle data. However, you can still access your Universal Analytics reports for a limited time after July 1, 2023. Note that incoming data will only be directed to Google Analytics 4 properties.

New Google Analytics 4 Integration

We are excited to introduce the new WineDirect integration for Google Analytics 4 (GA4). WineDirect integration for GA4 is now live and enabled by default for all wineries. With this integration, you can seamlessly connect your WineDirect account with GA4, allowing you to track and analyze key metrics related to your winery. By leveraging the power of GA4, you will gain deeper insights into customer behavior, marketing effectiveness, and overall performance.

 

Setup

We have prepared a comprehensive step-by-step guide to get started with the WineDirect integration. You can find this guide on the WineDirect documentation site, which provides detailed instructions on how to set up and configure the integration to ensure smooth data flow between WineDirect and GA4.

ADDITIONAL CONTEXT

Check out this blog from our friends at WineGlass Marketing about updating your Google Analytics.

Support

We value your feedback and are committed to continuously improving our services. If you have any questions, suggestions, or issues during the integration process, please don't hesitate to contact our dedicated support team at support@winedirect.com. We are here to assist you every step of the way.

Update: Temecula Valley Wine & Agricultural Heritage District Tax

Update 6/28/2023: We have successfully resolved the bug regarding the Temecula tax applying to non-taxable products. With the fix in place, you can now confidently utilize the Temecula tax feature without any concerns about incorrect tax calculations for non-taxable products.

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On April 1, 2021, a hybrid tax was implemented for all wineries within the Temecula Valley Wine & Agricultural Heritage District (TVWAHD). This five-year term stipulates that 1% of all gross sales be funneled into advertising for the valley.

If your winery is based in the Temecula region, you must collect the TVWAHD tax. We have recently enhanced our application to allow the collection of this tax. This tax will be applied on top of other applicable taxes. In addition, the TVWAHD itself is subject to sale tax. Please see the instructions below on how to enable it.

How to Enable TVWAHD Tax:

• Start by logging into the admin panel and clicking on Settings > Website Settings. Click on the Store tab and expand the “State Profile” section to access the following screen:

• Add “TVWAHD” and select the “Is TVWAHD?” checkbox 
• Then, navigate to Store > State Profile and select California. Click Edit in the Wines section and set the tax rate for the TVWAHD 

• Customers will now see this tax applied when they checkout their order 

If you have any questions, please get in touch with support@winedirect.com.

Fix: Multiple Refunds with Zeamster

If you use Zeamster as your default payment gateway, you may have noticed that our system and the gateway allowed you to attempt subsequent refunds on an order if it was already refunded.

We have implemented a fix for this issue, and no action is required on your end.

We appreciate your patience as our team worked diligently for a swift solution. WineDirect is committed to providing a seamless buying experience for you and your customers.

Update: New iPad iOS Update (16.2, 16.3 & 16.4)

If you currently use the WineDirect POS app, you may have recently noticed new iPad updates being released. We successfully ran a complete WineDirect POS app test cycle with the new iPad iOS updates (16.2, 16.3 & 16.4). We recommend upgrading your iPad device(s) at your convenience. 

You can update your iPad device(s) manually by: Going to Settings > General > Software Update.

For more information about the iPad iOS updates, please check out the documentation here. Thank you for your patience and your continued support!

Fix: Temporarily Disable Blog Comments

If you currently have blog comments enabled on your website, you may have noticed an increase in spam comments. You may have also seen issues with email deliverability specifically related to notification emails.

Spam is one of the leading factors which can negatively affect our reputation with Google, thus hurting email deliverability. We will temporarily disable blog comments while we work toward a fix. This fix will help provide more reliable email deliverability rates, block incoming spam, and allow us to continue to offer a best-in-class experience.

We appreciate your patience. If you have any questions, please feel free to reply to this email or directly at edwin.lo@winedirect.com.

Update: GetOrderDetail method has been enhanced

If you currently use our WebServices 3.0, you may be using the 'GetOrderDetail()' function to get order information. We have recently enhanced the function to also return the 'Sent to Fulfillment date.' This enhancement helps wineries have greater visibility into fulfillment/shipping key dates.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with support@winedirect.com.

Fix: Rate Limiting Update February 2023

If you have previously tried to return a large data set via our webservices, you may have noticed an error with the request. This was caused by our infrastructure being overwhelmed by repeated requests and our rate limits not functioning correctly. After successfully testing the update in our staging environment, we will re-implemented our rate limits to help prevent these errors and improve overall platform performance. These rate limits are:

• Number of maximum concurrent requests per username per second: 6 requests

• Number of maximum requests per username at the last minute: 300 requests

We are giving advanced notice today since these rate limit changes may affect some wineries. We intend to implement this change on March 1st at around 5:00 a.m. PST.

For more information about rate limits, check out the documentation.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact support@winedirect.com, and we will be happy to assist.