In the coming weeks, we will begin rolling out key updates to the SmartEtailing platform that pave the way for making responsive templates available to all clients. These updates will include a new merchant admin, as well as responsive templates that you can choose from to build your updated website. Last fall, Ryan wrote a great blog post about what a responsive website is, along with some answers to frequently asked questions.
We’ll be releasing these updates to clients in waves throughout the spring in order to ensure that the transition to the new responsive templates goes smoothly for everyone. In addition to this, we are offering clients the ability to have SmartEtailing staff update their websites starting at $500, depending on the level of customization. This cost is a one-time fee. Allowing our staff to handle the responsive transition for you will ensure that everything looks great when updated.
Highlighting a few key enhancements:
New mega menu. Our mega menu replaces the previous flyout menus and allows you to show the full breadth of your selection in the main menu. Customers can find the product category they are looking for and dive into your catalog quickly and easily.
Our new catalog list view works very well on both desktop and mobile. We have also moved the “Availability” sort feature to the top so that customers can quickly see the products that you have in stock. With this update, customers can now add and remove filters very easily.
In addition to these menu and catalog enhancements, we've also updated the Store Locator page as well as added individual location pages that seamlessly pull information that you've entered in your Store Information settings. These new responsive location pages are quick and easy for you to create, allow your customers to find your store or contact you for more information, and are optimized for local search to help you improve your visibility online. It's also possible to add an advanced section to each location page, giving you the ability to highlight special events, services, and unique features for each store.
Questions? We’re very excited about the new templates and want to make sure that all of your questions are answered. While there will be a time investment required to update your website, we’re offering our services to do this for you or to walk you through the process.
Please contact us and we'll address any questions that you have.
Preview Our Responsive Templates:
No. The new responsive template environment will feed off of the same database you have in your current website (product, settings, etc.). It is simply a new way of rendering the content.
Responsive templates will be available at no additional charge to anyone using SmartEtailing software. If you would like us to help you set up your responsive template, there is a one-time $500 charge for sites to be migrated to a new template. Costs may increase depending on complexity or advanced customization. Our team will work with clients on a case by case basis to determine costs associated with advanced customization projects.
Responsive templates are much more flexible in regards to things like image sizes and page layout and, as a result, handle page layouts differently than before. Websites that made extensive use of tables or images for page layout will need some attention to make them look their best in a responsive environment. While we have made a concerted effort to make website management self-service, we do believe that many retailers will ultimately appreciate the peace of mind that can come from delegating this transition to experts.
As mentioned in our update video, we will be releasing templates to retailers throughout the spring. Eventually, responsive templates will be available to every SmartEtailing client for self-serve installation. Be aware that, while the product catalog will transfer seamlessly, non-catalog pages, headers and footers may require additional layout work because page layouts work differently in the responsive template.
Yes. We are building new WYSIWYG editors for responsive websites and designing multiple preset components that make website management easy.
Yes. We’ve worked to create a more standardized website environment to enable any qualified website developer familiar with the Bootstrap front-end development framework to customize the website templates.
Fundamentally, the best retailers and brands are shifting their websites to a responsive style so with this update, your website will be more aligned with consumers’ expectations, retail best practices, and will attract Google search traffic more effectively. If you choose to keep your website on the current template environment then your website will still function well.
No. In order to enable this more advanced functionality, we needed to construct a completely new template environment. Your website content will migrate over to the new template if you choose, but there will be modifications to the graphics and layout needed to make it function ideally.
We highly recommend you make the switch. Responsive websites are designed to work well across all devices and this template is a significant improvement over our previous mobile web experience. On average over 50% of visits to websites are from mobile devices and the responsive templates are optimized for this type of browsing.
We will provide documentation to guide you in designing pages in the new responsive environment. We will build tools into SmartEtailing to make the process intuitive.
We'd appreciate the opportunity to tell you more about the new responsive template and share details about the rollout plan so you know how this change impacts you. The details are still coming together so stay tuned for further information.