announcement MAP Violations! Everyone's favorite subject!
But really, NO one likes MAP Violations... Not you, not the distributors and manufacturers, and not us!
As consumers flock eCommerce, distributors and manufacturers want to be sure that their brand's image remains protected and as such, MAP violation monitoring technology has stepped up in recent years. TrackStreet, for example, is a major bot that checks MAP compliance for manufacturers. This bot apparently has the intelligence to add the products to cart and check the in-cart price. This is just one of the solutions out there for distributors and manufacturers.
Learn more about Web Bots Here
As a software company, all of the data in our Shooting Sports Catalog comes straight from distributors and manufacturers. We are by no means responsible for the accuracy of this data. Regardless, we take pride in the services we offer and we do have in-house resources that constantly work on our catalog data and we do our best to keep information accurate.
Meet the Team Speaking of in-house resources, meet Zach! Our full time Product Knowledge Specialist! Zach has been working for Coreware for almost 2 years and fully understands the ins-and-outs of product pricing and catalog data. Additionally, Zach has recently gained some SERIOUS traction in the world of Pro Football YouTube channels so make sure to check him out and SUBSCRIBE @ Football FACTS for Fanatics!
exciting! Speaking of YouTube, be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube Channel for all the latest webinars and updates in the world of POS, Ecommerce, and everything in between. We’ll soon be starting a bi-monthly YouTube series called “E-Com 101” in which we’ll give you insights into the world of online sales with some tips and tricks thrown in.
important As a dealer, the burden of MAP ultimately falls on you and you alone are entirely responsible for following all rules and regulations laid out by your distributors and manufacturers.
Of course, as a software company, it is important that we provide you with all of the tools you need to follow these rules and regulations.
tip One of the best ways to do this is to go into Products -> Taxonomy -> Manufacturers and set your MAP policy per the manufacturer's requirements.
These are some of the options for MAP policies that we have added based on your requests over the last two years:
- [None] - default MAP behavior: MAP price is displayed with a button that says "Add to cart for best price"
- Strict MAP - as in the video, email for best price (customers can also skip the Email for quote and just add to cart at the MAP price)
- Strict MAP with code - same as email for price, except the customer gets a unique promotional code they have to enter at checkout. This is to satisfy manufacturers who require the discount to be applied at the final stage of checkout.
- Call for price - the only way to get the real price is to call you.
- MAP is minimum price - The minimum price the dealer can sell at is the MAP price. No further discounts offered.
- Ignore MAP - sell the product based on the pricing structure without regard to MAP at all. Only use this if you are sure that this is ok with the manufacturer.
If there is ever a conflict between what's in our Shooting Sports Catalog and the dealer's Product Catalog, the system will use the HIGHER of the two MAPs to help reduce the risk of MAP violations.
important Quick Steps to MAP Violation Resolution
- Immediately fix the MAP price of the item in question.
- Optionally, deactivate the manufacturer till the corrections are made by selecting that manufacturer as "inactive".
- Contact the distributor that has the wrong price.
- Submit a Help Desk Ticket with specific details.
important FINAL NOTICE
If this is your final notice, you need to make sure to set the manufacturer as inactive so you don't get terminated. If you do get terminated, there’s little we can do, but most manufacturers are understanding and will work with dealers so long as the issues are resolved. Maybe add those manufacturers to your Christmas card list. It’s good to maintain good open channels of communication with manufacturers. They may even send you a little swag to display in your store!
You will need to contact the manufacturer and/or distributor to explain the circumstances.
Need more information or help on setting this up?
If you'd like to read more, we have some additional information in this Knowledge Base article:
Setting up MAP Pricing and Resolving Violations
exciting! new video tip Zaius Integration for coreFORCE
Have you ever wondered how the Amazons and Wal-Marts of the world seem to send you emails containing products you are interested in? It's simple. They pick up the breadcrumbs you leave on their site and build a customer profile based upon your habits while you are browsing. That's the secret to their success. Your customers leave the same breadcrumbs when they visit your site. Why not take that data and give your customers what they want? Zaius can help you do just that.
Watch the webinar for a brief description of how Zaius can help you dominate the E-Commerce Battlefield in 2021.
If you're interested in this service, be sure and shoot us an email at sales@coreware.com.
new featureexciting! Pay Invoices Without Logging In
Your customers no longer have to log in in order to pay an invoice! Instead, all they need is a direct link that links to their unique contact ID.
The contact who OWES payment on the invoice(s) does not have to have a user account any longer. They can get to this page and make a payment without having a user account.
If you go to the invoice maintenance page, you will see a link for the contact to use. The link structure is:
https://www.domainname.com/invoice-payment?code=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- "invoice-payment" is the link to the client's invoice payment page.
- xxxxxxxxxxxxxx is the contact's hash code. This is the contact who needs to pay the invoice.
There is a hash code (labeled contact code) assigned to every contact in the system. The code can be seen in the Summary tab of the Contact Maintenance page.
This is the page your customer will see:
improvement Shipping Costs Added to Orders Report
The Orders report will now display shipping costs as a column
new feature exciting! Taxes on Shipping
In Orders -> Setup, you now have the option to Charge Tax on shipping. This will be charged based on the customer's address.
new feature tip Help Desk Type Filter
You can now filter by Help Desk Type! To access this, go to your Help Desk and click Filters.
Drag the Help Desk Type that you'd like to filter by to the box on the right:
improvement exciting! Event Tab in Contact Record
You can now see which events a customer has registered for directly from their contact record in the Events Tab!
new feature FFL EZ Check
There is now a button from the Orders Dashboard, once an FFL Dealer has been selected, to look up the entered FFL. This will tell you whether the FFL is still valid or not.
new feature Fraud Protection Checks
We now have 2 links in the Orders Dashboard where you can do a reverse address lookup and get a whitepages listing for the contact who placed the order. These are useful for verifying the identify of the customer.
