Press Releases
11/21/2007
Nexternal's ECommerce Software Enables Online Shoppers to Select a Preferred Delivery Date
Merchants using Nexternal’s ecommerce software have an effective way to manage time sensitive deliveries.
Carlsbad, CA November 21, 2007 - Nexternal Solutions, a leading provider of ecommerce software is pleased to announce that it now offers a Preferred Delivery Date feature. This tool allows online shoppers to specify a preferred delivery date when checking out. It also allows merchants to easily manage current and future delivery date shipments. Any merchant selling products that are event driven will find this tool much appreciated by online shoppers. Like all updates to the Nexternal’s ecommerce software, this enhancement is provided at no charge and does not require the merchant to install any software.
The Preferred Delivery Date feature has many configuration options to handle different scenarios merchants encounter. This tool takes into account time-in-transit information which is calculated in real-time from the various shipping carriers. It also allows merchants to specify a lead time with a cutoff component for maximum accuracy when processing orders.
Susan Boling, owner of Honeyham.com said, “The preferred delivery date feature is a boon for our business. Many of our customers are selecting to have their turkeys and hams delivered the day before Thanksgiving. Our Thanksgiving orders are up tremendously this year and I sincerely believe it is because our customers feel confident in knowing that their main course will arrive fresh. We have also already started taking orders that will be delivered near Christmas. This provides us the additional advantage of having plenty of time to prepare for those orders and get ahead of the holiday crunch. This new feature definitely gives us a leg up on our competition.”
“Although this tool has tremendous benefits for companies that ship gift items, it also provides a competitive advantage to all merchants that use it. When shopping online, it’s a great convenience to specify a preferred delivery date. People may go out of town or simply want a gift to arrive on the recipient’s birthday,” said Ty Nunez, Director of Business Development at Nexternal Solutions. “Orders are tagged and color coded in a way that allows merchants to see which order must go out on a given day. They can even batch process today’s shipments without fear of including a future shipment request.”
Enabling Preferred Delivery Date increases conversion by allowing the customer to select the delivery date that is ideal for them or a gift recipient. Nexternal Solutions continuously adds new tools to its software that help merchants increase their profits by improving customer conversion, website traffic, and business management efficiency.
About Nexternal Solutions
Nexternal Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of web based e-commerce software. Founded in 1999, the company's unique e-commerce system is used by hundreds of clients in many diverse industries. Nexternal's software features an always-on screen shopping cart with integrated marketing and fulfillment tools allowing merchants to maximize revenue while minimizing operating costs. Nexternal's software was rated five out of five stars by Internet.com and is a three time SIIA Codie awards finalist for Best E-Commerce Software. Clients include Alcoa, USA Today, Oxfam America, K2 Sports and Hershey. With locations in Carlsbad, CA and New Canaan, CT, Nexternal provides industry leading customer service. For more information, contact Nexternal Solutions, Inc. 800.914.6161. Web: www.nexternal.com
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10/31/2007
Nexternal Solutions Redefines Online Sales with Direct Checkout
Nexternal’s Direct Checkout provides an industry first optimized shopping experience for customers shopping via an online marketplace, search engine, email product offer, or online video.
Carlsbad, CA October 31, 2007 - Nexternal Solutions, a leading provider of ecommerce software is proud to announce the release of Direct Checkout. This groundbreaking tool allows customers to order a specific product from a single screen, providing the fastest checkout possible. Direct Checkout greatly increases conversion of customers who are shopping for a specific product. This happens frequently when a customer has run a query on a Search Engine, has used an online marketplace like Shopping.com, or is responding to an offer email from a merchant.
As an example, a merchant might run an ad on a search engine for a specific product. Instead of taking the customer to a landing page or the products page within an online store (the best option previously available) the customer is now treated to the Direct Checkout for that specific product. On this single page, the customer picks attribute information for the product if applicable and enters their shipping and payment information. The customer experience is as simple as possible and greatly reduces the steps of a traditional store experience, even stores that have a “one page checkout”. Direct Checkout is effective in pay-per-click ads, online marketplaces, email marketing campaigns, search engine optimized product landing pages, and online video ads.
Craig Ross, Vice President of Sales at Nexternal Solutions explains further, “There are two primary types of shopping experiences online. The first is what I call the Gap experience. In this case the customer is shopping a specific retailer’s site (in this case the Gap) and they want browse and compare many products. The customer is not looking for a specific product; they are shopping at the brand for certain type of product. For this type of experience the traditional online store concept is the best.”
“However, it is often the case that a customer knows exactly the product that they are looking for. I call this the Google experience. In this case the customer will execute a product search in Google. The customer simply wants to click on a link to buy the product in question. In essence, they have told Google that they want to buy the product by clicking on the appropriate ad. Most orders that originate from this type of source are for one product.”
“While the Gap shopping experience is very different from the Google shopping experience, every ecommerce system that I am aware off treats the customer exactly the same and their conversion suffers. Why should a customer have to select ‘Add to Cart’ once they already told Google that they intend to purchase the product? Why should they have to navigate through a store when they just want to purchase the intended product? Direct Checkout solves this problem.”
Steve Barbour of the Barre Army Navy Store has already used Direct Checkout to increase conversion for his Google Product Search listings. “While feed conversion was very strong in my online store, Direct Checkout increased it even further. Having an easy and quick shopping experience is critical for my customers and this new tool redefines the experience a customer can have online.”
Steve Barbour of the Barre Army Navy Store has already used Direct Checkout to increase conversion for his Google Product Search listings. “While feed conversion was very strong in my online store, Direct Checkout increased it even further. Having an easy and quick shopping experience is critical for my customers and this new tool redefines the experience a customer can have online.”
Any merchant who advertises online knows the importance of customer conversion and can calculate the sales increase they will have when they improve that figure. Nexternal now offers a tool to merchant of all sizes that specifically addresses this issue in a way that was previously unavailable from any ecommerce provider. To see an example of Nexternal’s Direct Checkout, follow this link.
About Nexternal Solutions
Nexternal Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of web based e-commerce software. Founded in 1999, the company's unique e-commerce system is used by hundreds of clients in many diverse industries. Nexternal's software features an always-on screen shopping cart with integrated marketing and fulfillment tools allowing merchants to maximize revenue while minimizing operating costs. Nexternal's software was rated five out of five stars by Internet.com and is a three time SIIA Codie awards finalist for Best E-Commerce Software. Winery clients include Paul Hobbs Winery, Bonnydoon Vineyard, Whitehall Lane Winery, Duckhorn Wine Company, Peter Michael Winery and Lewis Cellars. With locations in Carlsbad, CA and New Canaan, CT, Nexternal provides industry leading customer service. For more information, contact Nexternal Solutions, Inc. 800.914.6161. Web: www.nexternal.com
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8/14/2007
Six88 Automates Compliance for Nexternal's Winery Client Base
XML allows for communication between Nexternal and ShipCompliant
Carlsbad, CA August 14, 2007 - Nexternal Solutions and Six88 Solutions, both leading providers of web-based applications to the wine industry, are pleased to announce that users of both systems can now easily run compliance checks and generate state reports for all orders placed in Nexternal's ecommerce software. Through the use of XML, wineries can easily move relevant order data from Nexternal's ecommerce solution into ShipCompliant with a click of a button. Currently, there are more than 25 wineries that are using both Nexternal and ShipCompliant to grow their ecommerce business, while easily managing their direct shipping compliance.
Nexternal's ecommerce software has been helping wineries sell directly to consumers online since 2000. However, rules for shipping wine directly to consumers have been continuously in flux since the Supreme Court ruling in 2005 (Granholm v. Heald) which ruled states that permit in-state vintners to sell directly to consumers may not deny that right to out-of-state producers. Today, Nexternal provides ecommerce software to more than 200 wine brands. Six88 launched its ShipCompliant software in 2006 and now makes it easy for more than 275 wine brands to stay on top of the ever-changing matrix of rules and regulations imposed at the state level.
Sasha Kady of King Estate Winery in Oregon explains, "We at King Estate have been extremely happy with Nexternal's ecommerce solution, which has powered our web store at www.kingestate.com for several years. King Estate was among the first wineries in the Northwest to adopt ShipCompliant, another product we have been extremely satisfied with. Now that both products are working together - synergizing - we couldn't be happier! We have freed up some manpower, and can rest assured that we are shipping wine across country with full legal compliance and accurate reporting. It's like an auto-pilot for compliance!"
Jason Eckenroth, President of Six88, recognized an opportunity for the systems to efficiently work together. "ShipCompliant has produced several initiatives to assist wineries in taking advantage of the direct-to-consumer market. By developing integrations with innovative companies, such as Nexternal, compliance checks are automatically run without exporting the order data, enabling an efficient workflow and great customer service. The integration between Nexternal and ShipCompliant is seamless, affording our joint customers an easy solution for ecommerce and direct shipping compliance."
Doreen Davis, who manages Nexternal's wine vertical, sees a big opportunity for these technologies going forward. "Wine sales through our platform are still growing at 50% per year. The Supreme Court ruling was a great boon for wine drinkers throughout the country. Although wineries can now ship to more states, many states haven't made it easy. Fortunately for wineries, ShipCompliant, has taken the pain out of shipping direct to consumers and navigating through the maze of compliance confusion."
About Nexternal Solutions
Nexternal Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of web based e-commerce software. Founded in 1999, the company's unique e-commerce system is used by hundreds of clients in many diverse industries. Nexternal's software features an always-on screen shopping cart with integrated marketing and fulfillment tools allowing merchants to maximize revenue while minimizing operating costs. Nexternal's software was rated five out of five stars by Internet.com and is a three time SIIA Codie awards finalist for Best E-Commerce Software. Winery clients include Paul Hobbs Winery, Bonnydoon Vineyard, Whitehall Lane Winery, Duckhorn Wine Company, Peter Michael Winery and Lewis Cellars. With locations in Carlsbad, CA and New Canaan, CT, Nexternal provides industry leading customer service. For more information, contact Nexternal Solutions, Inc. 800.914.6161. Web: www.nexternal.com
About Six88 Solutions
Six88 Solutions, based in Boulder, Colorado, is the wine industry’s leading provider of automated compliance services. Six88’s ShipCompliant system is utilized by more than 275 wine brands shipping from over 23 states throughout the United States. ShipCompliant also powers the industry’s source of compliance information at the California Wine Institute’s Direct Shipping Portal. Through strategic relationships with wine industry associations, software companies, third party shippers, compliance consultants and common carriers, ShipCompliant continues to be the wine industry’s standard for compliance management. For more information, contact info@shipcompliant CA: 707.320.0053. CO: 303.449.5285. Web: www.shipcompliant.com
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1/16/2007
Nexternal Merchants Can Now Accept Chase Paymentech Gift Cards
Nexternal's System now supports FlexCache
Carlsbad, CA January 16, 2007 - Nexternal Solutions, a leading provider of e-commerce software, is pleased to announce that it now supports Chase Paymentech's FlexCache gift cards. These physical gift cards can be purchased and redeemed both at the retail point of sale and through Nexternal's shopping cart platform.
FlexCache is Chase Paymentech's flexible stored value card solution for prepaid and gift card, allowing merchants to profit from the expanded opportunities gift cards programs provide. FlexCache offers a fully branded and customizable card system for merchants of all sizes.
"Gift card usage has soared in the United States. Many merchants now accept gift cards in their brick and mortar establishments," says Craig Ross, Vice President of Sales at Nexternal Solutions. "It just makes sense for those same retailers to be able to accept FlexCache in their online stores. Very few turn-key shopping cart systems have this technology in place and we are excited about this new competitive advantage."
Angie Pho of Hershey Entertainment and Resorts is extremely excited about the new FlexCache integration. "Gift cards are consistently the top seller in our online store. Our customers are going to be thrilled that they can now redeem them online as well. Nexternal continues to enhance their e-commerce software with new features that are user-friendly."
Michael Clark, Merchant Relations Executive for Chase Paymentech, thinks this new capability creates a great opportunity for merchants. "Typically only larger merchants have had the ability to accept gift cards from multiple sales channels. Nexternal has now made it easy for small and mid-sized companies to accept FlexCache gift cards online."
Nexternal's software has offered electronic gift certificates for years, which work well for retailers that only sell online. However, retailers that sell both on and offline have required a solution that makes sense for the entire business. Fortunately, with FlexCache, Nexternal and Chase Paymentech now offer a more comprehensive solution for multi-channel retailers.
About Nexternal Solutions
Nexternal Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of web based e-commerce software. Founded in 1999, the company's unique e-commerce system is used by hundreds of clients in many diverse industries. Nexternal's software features an always-on screen shopping cart with integrated marketing and fulfillment tools allowing merchants to maximize revenue while minimizing operating costs. Nexternal's software was rated five out of five stars by Internet.com and is a three time SIIA Codie awards finalist for Best E-Commerce Software. Clients include Alcoa, USA Today, Adventure 16, K2 Sports and Hanes. With locations in Carlsbad, CA and New Canaan, CT, Nexternal provides industry leading customer service. For more information, contact Nexternal Solutions, Inc. 800.914.6161. Web: www.nexternal.com
About Chase Paymentech Solutions
Chase Paymentech Solutions, LLC, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is the world's largest merchant acquirer accepting payments via traditional point of sale, hospitality, Internet, retail, catalogue and recurring billing. The privately held company is an end-to-end processor for merchants of all sizes and industries and is a result of the 2005 integration of the former Paymentech and Chase Merchant Services. The integrated companies processed approximately 15.5 billion transactions in 2005, with more than $560 billion in annual bankcard and debit volume in both the United States and Canada. Chase Paymentech Solutions' customer base includes more than 600,000 merchants with nearly 1 million locations across the United States and Canada, including many of the top brands. Chase Paymentech is a joint venture between JPMorgan Chase & Co. and First Data Corp. Learn more about Chase Paymentech at http://www.chasepaymentech.com
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"Nexternal's Customer service has gone beyond our expectations. I have not worked or dealt with a service provider company which had such a responsive and committed customer service."
Ben Lewin
Weyerhaeuser
Federal Way, WA
