Bluepark / Mailchimp API now available

[Bandanashop]

Dear Bluepark users, Most of you know that we have been one of the biggest supporters of the Bluepark API since its inception and we now have about 7 discrete applications in daily use using APIs across both our Bluepark sites and several more in development. I would equate it to at least a full-time employee per business in terms of time saved and accuracy.

We now have a commercial version of one of them which sends Bluepark User records (Opt-in) to a MailChimp list along with lots of fields that enable MailChimp to send a targeted email chain immediately after purchase when engagement is high. It keeps the Opt-in/out status between Bluepark users synchronised with MailChimp, so that if a MailChimp recipient unsubscribes they also opt out at Bluepark and visa-versa. This is something that is very difficult to do consistently with an existing import/export both ways within a sensible time period. Our software checks this on an hourly basis 24 x 7 x 365

This version is currently in use with 5 x Bluepark domains including one of Bluepark's biggest customers by number of users. It has had 3 months of testing to get to this first commercial version.

You can find more information and the product pages here www.bandanashop.com/software

I will be publishing more Bluepark API software in future and announcing it here first. I have had to decline some one-off development projects to focus on mass-market appeal and my intention is not to overlap existing Bluepark projects wherever practical so that there is more upside for everybody.

Regards
Rob

[shelleym]

Hi Rob

Great news! very thorough user guide.

I'll take a proper look over the weekend and email some of my clients who I think need this

Could you pm me your email address as I'm guessing I'll have questions

thx
Shelley

[Bandanashop]

Hi Shelly, Its rob@bandanashop.com, if there are any questions that you think other people might ask post here and somebody else might benefit.
Regards
Rob

Hi Rob

Great news! very thorough user guide.

I'll take a proper look over the weekend and email some of my clients who I think need this

Could you pm me your email address as I'm guessing I'll have questions

thx
Shelley

[Bandanashop]

A x64 version which should cover Windows 7, 8 and 10 is now available. A Macintosh and Linux version will be ready shortly.
Rob

[R.O.T.]

Any news on the Mac version yet?

[Bandanashop]

Any news on the Mac version yet?

I will recompile the new version 2.6 for the Macintosh shortly. Thank you for your interest.
Rob

[Bandanashop]

Version 2.6 is released today. Major changes are :

1) The software now checks for duplicate MPNs or Barcodes. You can stock-take a zone, a warehouse location or a category enabling you to part-stocktake just about any part of your
inventory when you want. Stock-take reconcilliation is improved based on customer suggestions.

2) You can reconcile on a SKU-by-SKU basis, review them later or set un-reconcilled SKU qty to zero automatically via the Bluepark API.

3) There is an optional addition of Title/SKU/MPN columns allowing Dispatch Note matching and better identification of inbound stock at the point of
barcoding scan. This should allow reconciliation for Goods In paperwork to be done at the same time as physically checking Goods In quantities.

4) There are various other nice usability changes to enhance the experience and guide the user.

For Blueparkers who still put their stock on manually or love counting stock in a dark warehouse/garage/lock-up/bedroom I would encourage to keep an open mind and you read this manual (below) and ask me questions either here or privately on 01647 270257. We use this software in both our business's every day and I am certain that if you have physical stock you will find this of benefit!

http://www.bandanashop.com/downloads/UserGuide.pdf

Regards
Rob

[Bandanashop]

Version 2.6 is released today. Major changes are :

Sorry this was posted in the wrong thread - my apologies...

[R.O.T.]

Hi Rob

Sorry to ask again, but is there any news on the Mac version?

[Bandanashop]

Hi Rob

Sorry to ask again, but is there any news on the Mac version?

Hi, Thanks for your patience. We only have 1 x Mac within our network and this has defied all attempts to install the Compiler and pre-requisites necessary to build a Mac version so at the moment I only have compiled versions for x86 and a X64 version sorry. Unless I get some insight into how to solve it for the time being I can't move forward.
Do you have 100% Macs within your network as it will work on any Win machine with a pulse and an internet connection?
Regards
Rob

[R.O.T.]

Hi Rob, We use Mac's in the office but we do use PC's in the warehouse. I will look into the possibility using one of those.

Cheers

[ThomasMurray]

Hi Rob,

Could you clarify whether your integration adds the user's email address to the Mailchimp list for Guests that have opted-in during checkout?

These are not part of the User Manager area of Bluepark, they are not included in user exports, and are not found in the user API (to my knowledge), but they have opted-in to email marketing. We have to do an order export at the moment to find them.

Thanks Rob,

[Bandanashop]

Hi Rob,

Could you clarify whether your integration adds the user's email address to the Mailchimp list for Guests that have opted-in during checkout?

These are not part of the User Manager area of Bluepark, they are not included in user exports, and are not found in the user API (to my knowledge), but they have opted-in to email marketing. We have to do an order export at the moment to find them.

Thanks Rob,

Hi Thomas, I had not thought of this possibility as I didn't think it was possible to have a Guest that Opted-In.
The short answer is that in Config > Order Tab > User Accounts = Automatically Generated so we and our other MailChimp Customers never have a Guest that has Opted-In and so we never see this problem. By doing this one more barrier to checkout conversion is eliminated IMHO i.e. they don't have to stop and think if they want an account or not. I would take a higher conversion rate and the odd customer who emails saying that he/she doesn't want an account any day.

The same logic is applied at any Disney theme park. On a path they only give you two choices to destinations at any one point in the park. They know that introducing choice causes queues and delays. Not good for theme-parks and not good for conversion rates.

To do the MailChimp synchronisation it is looking at fields from the Bluepark User record rather than the billing/shipping details of the order record. If you have guests that are Opting-in you seem to be making a case for auto-generating User Accounts.

You would need to either make this config change or only control the Users with an account that Opt-in.

I hope this helps.
Rob

[Red Devil]

I recently installed this Bluepark/Mailchimp API software for a friend of mine. The user manual guided me through the set up and it was very easy to do. There were a few questions I needed to ask Rob and he was very quick and detailed in his replies.

The whole purpose of this software and others like it is to automate some of the tedious processes small business perform on a regular basis. It certainly saved my friend a lot of time synchronising her mailing lists across the two platforms. The software was very reliable and quick considering the amount of processing it needed to do.

This has got me interested in writing my own software but that's a long way off yet while I start learning a new programming language. In the meantime, I'll leave it to the experts like Rob.

I did ask Rob if it would be possible to pass the User Group field from Bluepark to Mailchimp as that would help with Customer Segmentation when sending out targeted emails to specific customers. He said he would add it to his "to do list" for the next release.

As fellow Blueparkers, I think its a good idea to support this type of software that automates processes and makes our lives easier. It also introduces consistency and accuracy and eliminates human error and above all saves a lot of time, time which could be spend running the business.

I'm sure there are many other processes that Rob could automate for us in his spare time. Suggestions please?

Thanks again, Rob, for a great product!

[Terry]

I would love this, but, unfortunately, only have Macs - so, it isn't possible (at the moment ) :-(