Few questions about blue park solution

[TIK]

Morning all,

I know someone else has posted on here from another ecommerce company with a few questions, and we are also thinking about moving over (there's about 30 of us in total), but I have a couple of other questions if anyone can help answering them.

1. I know you have a WYSIWYG editor, but I prefer to do my designing via html. How different is it to code. For example our current provider uses tags to reference where certain elements go (ie [price] [image1][image2]etc [stock] [description] so on and so on). How does the blue park system manager this as I don't really want to have to pay someone to redo all this for us if I can help it.

2. I have heard that the blue park system uses tables to insert everything which is looked down on by Google. Is this true?

3. How does the newsletters system work. Do you have to code each product in directly, or do you just select the product to go in the newsletter and the information enters itself.

4. Does anyone know what the average response time from support is? I must admit I have been lurking for a while and they do seem pretty quick compared to the 3 days to 3 weeks we are currently used to.

5. I know the platform integrates with Quickbooks, but are there any plans to integrate with Sage? If so, we would be prepared to move over regardless of the other answers.

6. Finally (for the moment) is there an API we can use to connect with our suppliers for keeping things like stock information up to date, and sending information to parcel couriers so we could print labels from our blue park control panel?

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can answer these.

[Neil]

1 - Just go to html mode in the editor! I do the basics in WYSIWYG then flick to html mode and clean the code up.
2 - No. It uses blocks to build various elements up. Works well!
3 - Newsletter have all you need, could be improved on with reporting but not a priority really, You build it up yourself with WYSIWYG or html. - would like to be able to drop blocks in as would quicken my job up, but can't have everything!
4. Fast!
5. There was but, not priority as existing users want other features first, so not sure if still on the list. Can it be done by .csv file?
6. It's supposably coming!

You won't regret picking BP.

[icegems]

Ditto what Neil said but also there are the equivalent of the EKM tags if you wanted to build for example the product page yourself - under Site > Template Editor > Custom HTML then click under the link and you will see all the various elements and tags - but really everything is set up so you don't have to mess too much with the product layouts - but it can be done and actually isn't difficult to do at all.

Agree with Neil about not regretting picking BP. I moved from EKM two years ago and am frankly astounded they still have the same issues going on as they did back then.

[icegems]

Oh and bugs are very rare but if there are any they are treated immediately as a priority. The system is rock solid.

[TIK]

Thanks for the quick responses. Certainly gives food for thought. If I, or anyone else on the current sites forum have any questions, I'll be sure to come back and post them.

[icegems]

Please do ... there are a lot of very knowledgeable and helpful chaps (and chapesses) on here.

[TIK]

I have another question for you. With regards to copying images over, would I need to upload them all to the system and link them up in an import file when adding products, or would I be able to put the current url of the images from our current shop and have it drag them over when importing the products. Also, is there a limit to the number of products that the import system can deal with in any one go?

Thanks.

[Dave]

With regards to copying images over, would I need to upload them all to the system and link them up in an import file when adding products

Yes that's correct.

Also, is there a limit to the number of products that the import system can deal with in any one go?

Not aware of any limits. How many products are we talking about?


Hope you go with BP. You certainly won't regret it!

[TIK]

Yes that's correct.

Not aware of any limits. How many products are we talking about?


Hope you go with BP. You certainly won't regret it!

Between 32,000 and 36,000 (after xmas our range should drop off a little with all the promotional stock). Problem is if I have to link the images over separately after, it could take a very long time.

[Dave]

You shouldn't have to do that manually. If the file you import has the product image filename in and you have ftp'd the images to the server first it should work fine. You can even get BP to auto generate the thumbnail, basket images.

36,000 products is a lot. Recommend you speak to BP first just to ensure you are not going to hit any other limits.

[TIK]

Thats great Dave, thanks for the replies.

[Rich]

36,000 products will be okay, it's not a Bluepark record, but it is a substantial number of products and I would recommend importing in "chunks" of around 10,000. It's easier for the system and for you.

Inititally, just import 10 products or so while you're testing your import file as you'll probably have to make a few tweaks before you get it absolutely right.

[TIK]

Thanks Rich,

The only thing I am slightly worried about is copying the template over, so I think I'll have to have a play around with the trial when I get time just to check there will be no problems.

[Rich]

If you want your template transferring across "as is" and have any concerns about doing it yourself, please give us a call to discuss.

[TIK]

If you want your template transferring across "as is" and have any concerns about doing it yourself, please give us a call to discuss.

Thanks Rich.

I'll have a play and if I have any probs I will call.