We have been super busy adding a ton of features to coreFORCE, but what good does it do if we don't share these updates with you.   coreSTORE users are used to our almost weekly updates and now it's time for our coreFORCE users to enjoy the same benefits.

exciting! Forms can now accept paymentsimprovement 

You can now build a custom form that allows you to accept payment on the form. This is a new feature that is extremely helpful for all different types of scenarios. Some examples might be:

• Create a form to sell a product that requires additional information from the customer.
• Setup a service or product that is dynamically priced based on what values the user enters into the form.
• Provide customers with a 1 click shopping experience for a specific item or service

We recorded a video that shows you the process of creating a form that accepts payment.

new feature Help Desk Feedback

improvement Help Desk Quick Tip

Are you using the Help Desk module for your customers?   Just a quick tip. In Help Desk you can click ctl-ctl and you will see a popup that allows you to enter a ticket number.  This is a very quick way to view any help desk ticket.

tip When Will a Strike-Through Price be Displayed?

For our Federally Licensed Firearms Dealers we have updated how the integration works with gun.deals.  This is in response to an increase in pricing by gun.deals which now prices the monthly fee based on the number of products that are being uploaded from your web site.  We have also added the ability to define different shipping charges by department.   Watch this video to learn more about our updated integration with gun.deals.

The integration with Gun Broker has been improved tremendously.  We've been told by one of the top 5 Gun Broker dealers that our latest enhancements have lead us to have the best Gun Broker integration.  Be on the lookout for a video but in the meantime a few highlights to our integration:

Listing Templates

You can now create listing templates which allows you to setup templates for different product types and different listing types.  This will save you a tremendous amount of time when creating a listing for a Gun Broker product.

Importing Gun Broker Orders

Gun Broker orders can be imported at any time (prior to this update they had to be completed on Gun Broker).  You can allow your customers to checkout on your web site or on Gun Broker.  If you allow customers to checkout on your web site you can easily send them a direct link to checkout.   This provides an opportunity for your customer to add items to their order and also visit your site directly, it will also save you some money on fees.  

If payments are made on Gunbroker the payments will be imported with the order.

Importing Listings from a Spreadsheet

You can now import product listings directly from a spreadsheet. This is a huge time saver.   All you need to specify in the spreadsheet are the following fields, make sure the column names match exactly:

upc_code 
gunbroker_listing_template_code
product_category_code
category_identifier
scheduled_starting_date 
fixed_price
quantity

Updated Listing Features

We added all of the listing features that we could think of including premium listing features. Let us know if we missed any.  

Batch Import and Email

We added the ability to quickly import all of your orders into coreFORCE instead of doing it one by one.  We also provided the ability to bulk email all the customers at once.

We've all done it.  You hear about the latest product, whether it be a phone, computer, or a new treadmill.  But, you want to research it and put your hands on it before making the purchase.  What is the first thing you do?  You try and locate a local business that carries the item, and the vehicle you use to conduct this search is invariably the internet.  The local store that has a web presence will be the business that makes the sale because they have chosen to extend their physical presence and meet the customer where most consumers begin the purchasing process.

In 2019, e-retail sales accounted for 14.1 percent of all retail sales worldwide, with $3.5Trillion of that business conducted in the U.S. alone, and experts predict that number to reach over $4Trillion in 2020. With these predictions made before the current pandemic, that number could be much more significant. With over 2Billion online customers worldwide conducting around 51% of their purchases online using a mobile device, it is no wonder the mad rush of businesses from all industries to establish an online presence.

I believe a business website will be as common as an email address very soon.  If you currently run or operate a business with no web presence, do yourself a favor and check into setting up a website.  Meet your customers where they are at the beginning of the purchasing process. Online.

We've attached a couple of articles highlighting the importance of staking your claim online.

If you are looking for a solution to extend your brick and mortar to the online marketplace, Coreware can help.  Let us know if you are interested, and we will get you set up with a solution that works for you.

This article is from last year, and not surprisingly, it is even more relevant.

How Small Businesses Used Websites !n 2019

The following article lays out some excellent points about having a website.

Why Every Business Needs A Website

Enough about taxes, let's talk about what's new and exciting with Corestore.

BOSS-TAB 4473 KIOSK SETUP
In our previous announcement, we were asked about the setup we had of the 4473 tablets using the Boss-Tab enclosure. This was in fact an IPad Air (latest Generation 3 but minimum specs) and with it we purchased a Bluetooth keyboard from Amazon along with styluses that had a lanyard. 

Bluetooth Keyboard
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015LSEUS8

Styluses
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DTOJO10

We also installed a kiosk app from the IOS app store to prevent customers from just browsing around or using the iPad for other purposes:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kiosk-pro-plus/id445701154

Work Order Enhancements

If you haven't noticed already we have been making many changes to the Work Order module.  Work orders can be used by any store that offers repairs, custom options, assembly, or specialized work on items.  In the firearm business, many stores have gunsmith services and this is where the work order module comes into play.  If you don't see the module listed on the left side menu then make sure you have access to that module by going to Employees and checking off the work order module security options.

Thanks to some great feedback from all of YOU, we have had awesome feedback, and here are the highlights of what has been changed.

exciting! We cleaned up the work order screen and made it not only look better but work better.

1. You can now modify and add your status codes

2. You can now assign a technician to a work order and also change that technician.

3. You can change the price of the part and/or labor

4. You can have up to 10 custom fields on a work order.  To manage your custom fields on the previous screen where the work orders are listed just click the ... menu.

Work Order Dashboard Enhancements

improvement You can now show work orders for a specific technician (just hit the technician drop down) and then click Search.

improvement We now show you the item that is being repaired, which is helpful if one customer has multiple items in the shop.

improvement Manage your own status, add any status code or modify the existing ones, you can also choose your own colors.

Deliveries and Shipments Screen 

improvement You can import individual orders from the web and you can also import multiple orders at once by separating them with commas.

improvement Clicking the Sale Id will unsuspend the sale and take you right into the sales screen directly if you prefer completing the order from the sales screen.

Bound Book Enhancements

exciting! Updated NICS check plug-in with improvements and some fixes.  You can now download the new plug-in directly from the Manage 4473 screen.  To install the new plug-in remove the current one, if you need assistance please contact our support department.

Coreshop ECommerce Users

improvement We added a field called: "Do not drop ship" to the items screen which allows you to have an item and mark it that it can't be drop-shipped but it will still show on the web site that it's available for pickup only.

improvement The company name is now imported into the shipping address of an internet order.

Bug Fixes

Bugs are our friends, If there weren't bugs we wouldn't need as many programmers 😁:

fix Suspending a purchase order a second time was converting it to a receiving transaction, this will no longer happen.

fix Importing bound book records will no longer add duplicate entries if the id (first column of the template) field is an id that already exists in the system.

fix Fixed some issues when a work order was being completed it was showing an error on the serial number

fix When Store Config has "Disable Sale Quick Complete" checked, it was not allowing you to complete a Return. 

fix Removed Enhanced Search option in Store Config, it was causing more harm than good.

fix  For Ammoready users we now properly transmit the manufacturer as the brand of the item.

fix 3310 alerts were not being generated at times.

fix Logged in employee name not automatically being added to form  -  

fix Transfer date for firearms was not appearing on PDF output if no associated 4473

fix Suffix not pushing through to NICS)  

fix Birth foreign country not pushing through to NICS  

fix NICS plugin sometimes crashes tab or fails to feed data back to Section B  

fix NICS plugin using the same customer data multiple times  

fix NICS plugin auto-fill not working 

fix NICS autoclosing browser tab, forcing re-login

giveaway We hate ending our news on bugs, so what's more fun than looking at bug fixes?????   You got it a giveaway!!!!  How about this?  In the comments of the news type your name, store name, and email address along with a quote about your experience with Corestore.   You can be funny, creative, witty, or dead honest. We will enter you into a drawing to win $100 Amazon Gift card and a secondary prize of $50 for the second name drawn, and $25 for the third name drawn!!!!!!   How's that for a little help towards your taxes? 😁.  Coreware employees are NOT eligible for this one.  We may use your quote in our marketing, especially if it's nice!

Want to put that iPad or other tablet you have lying around to work?  Check out this solution from Boss-Tab.  They have many different choices to choose from, and with Coreware's awesome flexibility and ability to be run on ANY mobile device, this is a match made in heaven.  Use "coreware" at checkout for 10% OFF.  Below you can see one being used to run our E-Commerce.  What a great solution!  Don't forget to use the discount code "coreware" to take advantage of that 10% OFF.  Follow this L I N K for more details.

This article makes the following assumptions:

• You have multiple events or classes that you want to offer on an ongoing basis.
• You will charge a fee for the events you offer.

For one-off or free events, there are more straightforward ways to set up event registration.  This process is for clients who intend to offer a catalog of ongoing events for which customers will pay a class fee.

The first step is to set up the event and product taxonomy for your classes:

1. In Products > Taxonomy > Departments, create a department for your training classes.
2. In Products > Taxonomy > Category Groups, create at least one category group for training classes (if you have multiple types of classes, you should set up one category group per type classes; e.g., basic safety classes, licensing classes, preparedness classes, etc.).  Add that category group to the training department.

Click HERE for Steps 3-8

Need more help?  Visit the following link and put in a ticket.  We'll get you taken care of.  https://help.coreware.com.

There has been some confusion about how the location filter works.  Clients having a single store location were expecting that filter to only show results from their local store, and hide distributor results, but that is not how it was designed; the filter always shows distributor results because they are available to be shipped to that store for pickup.  Because of the confusion, we made a change to hide the location filter for dealers who have only a single store location.

For clients who have only a single store location, or who have multiple stores, but want to customers to see local inventory first in the search results, you can do one or both of the following:

1. Turn on Location Availability Texts, which will show text like "Available in-store today" prominently on the search results and the product details page.  You can turn this on in Client Preferences.  Click Add, select "Show Location Availability" from the dropdown list, and change the client setting dropdown to True.  Once that is done, you may want to customize the text and appearance of those messages. This is done in Orders > Coreshop setup on the Fragments tab.  Filter the list of fragments by the word "available" and set each of those fragments to "customize."  They will then appear in Website > Fragments as HTML that you can edit.

2. Add a Search Multiplier for your local store location(s).  You can do this in Products > Settings > Locations.  Near the bottom of the page on the Details tab, you will see an item called Search Multiplier.  It defaults to 1.00, which means that the inventory location will not affect the results of a customer's search.  If you want to force your quick ship products always to be displayed first when a customer searches, you can change this number to 100.00.  Note that there are several places where a search multiplier can be added, which may affect your search results in unexpected ways.  To see how the system calculates search relevance, you can use the report in Products > Product Relevance.

Need more help?  Submit a ticket to Coreware support at https://help.coreware.com.

news Did you know that Corestore has access to over 200 million products???? What does that mean to you?  A LOT LESS TYPING, fewer MISTAKES, AND TREMENDOUS TIME SAVINGS. 

new feature RENTALS RENTALS RENTALS - LANES INCLUDED!

We have added rental features to Corestore, so you can set up items for rentals.  The video will show you how to setup Range, but it will work for any items that you rent.  Quickly see who has the rental and what time the rental started.  With the ability to add items to the rental transaction and automated rental fees calculations

new feature Importing orders from your web site.

Import a single order from your ECommerce site.  If you don't see the menu option make sure to check the security settings under the Employee screen.

improvement API Enhancement

The Corestore API has been enhanced. The method Searchsales has been updated to allow searching for transactions by additional criteria including:

- Customer email address
- Suspended transaction type
 - Start date an End Date ranges

Here is an example of searching for transactions using a specific type and date range and email address:

Ex:
https://demo.corestore.shop/index.php/api/v1/sales?start_date=2019-01-21T17%3A32%3A28Z&end_date=2020-03-21T17%3A32%3A28Z&suspended_type=layaway,work order,special order&email_address=ezra.weinstein@coreware.com 

improvement Receiving and PO Enhancements

Item number (UPC) has been added to the receiving and PO documents.

improvement Warehouse Module Improvements

Various enhancements made to our warehouse module to support colored bins making it easier for pickers to find an item on a shelf without the need of setting fixed positions on the shelf.  If you are running a warehouse and interested in our warehouse module please contact our sales team.

exciting! TIME FOR A GIVEAWAY!!!!!!exciting! 

How would you like to win a Teemi TMSL-55 wireless Bluetooth scanner with cradle ($100 value)? Here is what you need to do. Take a picture of Corestore at your store, post it to either Facebook or Instagram add hashtag #SCOREware, and tag us. If you’re not following us on those platforms, do so for a chance at future giveaways. 

For this competition, our marketing team will take a vote, and the best picture wins!!!!!! Be creative; be funny.

There is always a lot going on in the Outdoor Sports Industry.  Click the image to read up on the latest news.

One of the best ways to keep your customers coming back to your store/web site is offering a great loyalty point program.  We are excited to announce the release of our latest Coreshop feature which is a comprehensive loyalty point program.

Some of the benefits of offering a loyalty program to your customers include:

• Stop competing on price
• Retain existing customers
• Increase Customer Lifetime Value
• Build personal relationships
• Create brand advocates

Some interesting stats:

• Loyalty programs increase overall revenue by 5-10%.
• Loyalty members spend 5-20% more than non-members on average.
• Loyalty program members buy 5-20% more frequently than non-members.

Watch the video to learn all about this great feature and how to set it up on your web site.