Release Notes January 2022

NextChapter eCommerce -

The NextChapter eCommerce Platform is continuously updated and innovated. This includes both major and minor improvements. In these Release Notes of January 2022, we have listed a number of important improvements for you. So you can stay informed and maybe have them implemented on your webshop(s).

In addition to the delivery of features and integrations, we are constantly working on various product developments with longer lead times. Examples of this are the continued development of APIs, PIM and OMS. You will be informed about this in upcoming release notes. So keep an eye on our blog, LinkedIn page and newsletter. Would you like to know more about the current release notes or their implementation on your webshop(s) and channels? Please contact us.

The Release Notes of January 2022 concern:

  1. E-commerce platform
    1.1. NextChapter core
    1.2. Pagespeed
    1.3. E-commerce features

  2. Integrations with systems, platforms and services

  3. PIM

  4. Bugs

1) E-commerce platform

1.1. NextChapter core

Performance
Over the past few months NextChapter eCommerce has experienced a significant growth in the platform. The number of transactions has increased rapidly, as well as the amount of data in the platform. At the same time, many of our customers have been extra busy because of Black Friday, Christmas, Sale and the lockdown. The past few months have been a good ‘stress test’ for the NextChapter Platform. The good news is, that the platform has proven itself stable and robust yet again and all transactions, payments, shipments, etc. were handled smoothly.
At the same time, this stress test revealed some bottlenecks within the platform, which we immediately investigated, solved and improved. You may have noticed that processing your changes sometimes took a little longer than usual. After our technical updates, the time it takes to make your changes visible is highly minimized and it’s as fast as you were used to (or even faster). We also did important updates in the processes that generate feeds and indexes.
Of course we keep a close eye on all these core processes. Every day.

Security
In december 2021 werd werden systemen wereldwijd getroffen door een belangrijk lek in Apache Log4J software. Deze software wordt wereldwijd gebruikt in heel veel systemen. NextChapter maakt nauwelijks gebruik van systemen die aan deze software zijn gerelateerd, maar desondanks hebben we de situatie nauwlettend gevolgd. Het wereldwijde lek heeft op NextChapter geen impact gehad.


1.2. Pagespeed

Pagespeed is one of our priorities in 2022. We have released a first set of technical updates to positively influence pagespeed factors like First Contentful Paint (FCP), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

Here you’ll read about some of the improvements we recently made. We will continue to focus on pagespeed improvements.

  • Improvements in lazy loading underlying technique;

  • Lazy loading of many images like slider- and theme images, overlay- and brand images, images in footer and even images that show in the filters (e.g. color images);

  • Improvements related to CSS and Javascript;

  • Improvements in layout shift;

  • Update in social media icons regarding lazy loading;

  • Improvements in size of product images. We now process lighter images to the smaller types of screens. In the meantime, your webshop visitors will not notice anything different but this will improve pagespeed.

More pagespeed updates will follow in the upcoming release notes.


1.3. E-commerce features

Automatic SEO-filling for products
We can now automate filling out the Page Title + Meta Description for products, based on predefined rules. For example once or twice a month. This way, you can make your SEO content more unique and it can be a huge time saver, because existing and new products will always contain SEO information automatically.

Alt text images
Automatically show alt text behind sliders and overlays images.

Extension of IP look-up feature
The IP look-up is an extra module in the NextChapter Platform which enables visitors in particular countries to immediately land on the correct country webshop, or on the correct language in a multilangual webshop. We did improvements in this multilangual functionality.

301-redirects Cross Domain
You can now upload and manage 301-redirects cross domain (from webshop A to webshop B).

Billink + Klarna
NextChapter webshops using Buckaroo can now offer afterpay methods Billink and/or Klarna to their customers.

Shipments Y/N for non-direct payments
Webshop orders are made via direct payment (eg. iDeal) or indirect payment (eg. bank transfer). Normally, only orders that actually have been paid, can be processed for fulfillment. If so, a shipment is created.
In most webshops the direct and indirect payments are handled via the PSP platform, which informs the NextChapter Platform centrally on the actual payment status of all webshops orders. However, some webshops prefer to manage the bank transfer directly through their own bank account (outside of the PSP). For these cases, we developed additional functionality in NextChapter OMS to select paid orders manually for being processed for fulfillment.

Update PostNL service
Due to changes at PostNL we updated the integration with PostNL regarding shipments to Belgium. Because of the NextChapter SAAS core you automatically benefit from this update.

Custom text in order confirmation
You can now manage a custom text in order confirmations when an order includes a product option.

UTM-variables Gentle Reminder
Manage your own UTM-variables in the Gentle Reminder email.

External link from My Account page
In “My Account” we’ve added an extra option to add a link to an internal page or external website.

Placeholders
The placeholders we show in your backoffice, which you can use to check correct images sizes, cannot be overwritten or deleted anymore. This information is now always available in the backoffice.

2) New integrations with systems, platforms and services

  • New integration with carrier software Parcel Pro

  • New integration with ERP Becosoft

  • Dynamic delivery times are available in the Channable product feed

  • Extension of Adchieve product feed

3) PIM

  • PIM has a new feature to search within product groups and properties.

  • Search within product filters: Sometimes filters contain many values, which makes it difficult to filter. You can now search within the filters, to easily make your selection of products.

  • Improvements in performance when you export a huge set of product data to your webshop(s).

  • History of all export types is now visible in the export tab.

  • Improvements have been made in the look & feel of lister pages.

Bugs

Issues and bugs in the platform are always directly fixed by us. Therefore the NextChapter Platform is completely bug free.

Contact

Do you have any questions about the Release Notes of January 2022 or their implementation on your webshop(s) and channels? Let us know. Check our previous Release Notes here.

NextChapter eCommerce
E-commerce Platform. Powerful multichannel & multivendor solutions for unlimited growth.