May 2019 | Build 4.9.9

*** Update to 5.0.2 to resolve logon issues caused by Chrome update***

Generic Messaging Service

With the May release, we are very pleased to announce the arrival of our new, Generic Messaging Service. This service will allow customers to open up the ShopperKit arrivals and notification workflows to external providers to augment and extend the ShopperKit solution. One such solution is FlyBuy Curbside Pickup from Radius Networks. Using the FlyBuy solution along with ShopperKit, you will be able to receive On My Way and arrival notifications automatically based on your customers actual proximity to your store. No texting required. 

Configuration of the service is easy. To aide in external systems having an understanding of ShopperKit orders, we've added a new OrderStatusEvent to the existing Store attribute configured webhook. Now any external system that is interested in order status information can listen in on this webhook for all they data they should need. Once an external system "subscribes" to an order through the generic messaging service, ShopperKit will send all "System" related communications out to the third party system via the GenericMessagingResponse webhook instead of routing through SMS. 

For more information, download the Generic Messaging Schema information here.

Messaging Enhancements

We've got a couple of big messaging related enhancements for this release, but the biggest by far is the introduction of Messaging Templates. Messaging Templates is something that you've been requesting for quite some time, and we're happy to report that it's finally here. With Messaging templates, you will be able to configure common SMS messages, complete with replaceable tags for certain key attributes like Customer, User, Order Number and Item Description. Templates can be defined for All or Specific stores.

Once templates have been defined, they be selected by tapping the new Template icon from the chat client. This will show all the saved templates that are valid for that store. The replaceable tags will show as bold text in the preview, but please understand that is for preview mode only. To select a template simply tap on the desired preview, make any changes then tap select.

Another Messaging related enhancement is that ShopperKit will now allow the customer SMS communication channel to remain open even after the order has been picked and staged. As a matter of fact, we will allow communication channel on the order to remain open until the order has aged off the order list.

Substitution Credits

ShopperKit understands that some retailers will honor original ordered item price when substituting items. To aid in this process, we're happy to introduce Automatic Substitution Credits. When this feature is enabled by setting the Application Attribute SubPriceOverride to True, then ShopperKit will prompt you to confirm or edit both the original items unit price along with the sub items unit price. Once the price values are confirmed, ShopperKit will automatically create a credit for each substitution where the amount of the credit is the difference in pricing between the 2 items. This credit will be included on the order as a variable price embedded UPC. The base credit UPC value is defined as the first 6 characters of your pre-configured Type 2 UPC credit. ShopperKit will include a line for each of the credits applied to the order, immediately following the item that the credit is for.

Linked Orders

Occasionally, rather than modifying their existing order, customers will place additional orders for the same day. While these orders still need to be treated as separate orders due to payment token issues, we have heard from our users that having a way to visually differentiate these orders would be helpful in allowing your store associates to more quickly identify these orders to ensure that customer expectations are being met. Now when ShopperKit detects that the same customer has multiple orders that are due today, it will flag those orders with a little linked order icon.

In addition to the icon, ShopperKit will create display an order comment on all the linked orders indicating that there are other orders for the same customer that are due on that day.

Order Age Off

To facilitate continued communications with your customers, even after the order has been picked up or delivered, ShopperKit is now allowing you to configure how long completed orders will be allowed to stay visible on the Orders List. Previously, orders would drop from this list as soon as Carryout or Delivery operations were completed. Now, by setting the DisplayCompletedOnOrderListDuration application attribute, you can determine how many minutes PAST PromiseTime an order will be allowed to be visible from the order list. During this time, you will still be allowed to communicate with the customer via SMS. Completed orders will appear with the following Completed Order Icon.

Lead Time Rules Enhancements

The Lead Time Rules functionality has been enhanced this release cycle to now allow you define lead time rules by order type (pickup or delivery) in addition to all the existing criteria. In addition, we have introduced OrderId, Customer Name and Promise Time attribute placeholders in Lead Time Rule SMS messages. With these attributes you can now have ShopperKit more contextually appropriate alerts. 

Lead Shopper Role

Many of you have been asking for this one for a while, so we're happy to finally oblige. We realize that are you operations continue to mature, there is a need for a role between Store Manager and Shopper. This role is the Lead Shopper. The Lead Shopper has all of the same client privileges as a Store Manager with the notable exception that Canceling orders is not allowed. The Store Lead role may also log into the Admin Portal, but they will only have access to reporting.

Decouple Order Receipt from Email

As many of you want to limit the amount of email communication that is sent to your customers, ShopperKit now allows you to disable the Order Summary email (Signature Capture) that gets after the order has been sent. By configuring the attribute EmailOrderSummary to False, ShopperKit will only save the signed report. It will not send the report.

Search Order Enhancements

Previously, the Search Order option has only been available to Store Manager roles. This menu option has been enabled for all client accessible roles. In addition to being available for all roles, if an order is eligible for Carryout it may be taken directly from the search order results.

Alcohol Item

To better facilitate our 3rd party delivery providers in terms of accurately flagging orders that contain alcoholic items, ShopperKit as expanded the Item Category definition pages to allow you to create and Alcohol Category rules. When an order is imported containing an item that matches based on category, the item will be flagged as alcohol and any orders that contain the item will also be flagged as containing alcohol.

Zero Quantity Bags

For customers who are using Bag item types, it is now possible to edit the quantity of any picked bags down to zero.

UPC Mapping

To aid in new customer on-boarding as well as to improve performance of order import, ShopperKit is introducing a new UPC mapping feature. This feature allows you to configure rules using regular expressions that will tell ShopperKit how to map the barcodes found in your stores to the UPC data that you will be sending down to ShopperKit. Support will contact you regarding migrating to the new logic shortly, as we plan on deprecating the old logic for interpreting barcodes.

Issues

• Limit the options in Change Payment Type to not include gateway managed payment types (Payeezy, paypal).
• Do not allow orders in iOS to be "Taken" from Carryout notification before the order is ready for carryout.
• Do not allow arrival notifications from DoorDash or Shipt to override the Order Ready For Carryout logic.
• Allow Prepared Items Lite by Category to correctly flag on Item category.
• Allow quick succession scans to trigger the positive scan sound for each scan.
• Do not fail the store upload when the same store ID appears for a different client.