Hello folks and welcome to our May edition of the ChannelGrabber Newsletter  :)

We hope you've been enjoying the amazing weather this last month - doesn't Britain love a heatwave?!  Well despite the unaccustomed sunshine, we've continued to work our socks off to make the ChannelGrabber system and support better than ever before, so here's the lowdown of what we've been up to...

Find out about the improvements and brand new features we have been working on for you, and about our future plans for development.

We are hugely excited to announce that we have now released the first phase of development for our newest marketplace integration: Etsy.

In this first release, we have developed full support for Etsy order management in ChannelGrabber, so you can now connect ChannelGrabber to your Etsy account, and the system will automatically import your Etsy orders alongside your other marketplace and webstore orders and you can process them all together in CG - hurrah!
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Now that we have completed work on the first part of the Etsy integration to support order management, we're starting work next on product imports and stock management for Etsy too.  Message management for Etsy will follow as the final part of this development project, and we will also be building support for listing new products to Etsy as part of our listings development project too, so watch this space - you'll be seeing even more functionality for Etsy over the coming months  :)
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Not technically a new feature as such, but from the start of May we are now offering a much more in-depth and interactive on-boarding process when a new user signs up with ChannelGrabber than we were previously, to help improve the early adoption of the ChannelGrabber system for new users.

We hope that this added level of support from our Customer Success Team in those crucial first weeks will help our customers to gain value from their CG account more quickly and also reduce the likelihood of issues related to user error as they continue to use the software after they are on-boarded.

For customers on our Enterprise and Large tier subscriptions, we are also offering free consultation webinars, to ensure that you are receiving as much value as possible from your ChannelGrabber account and to make sure you are following best practices and provide training as needed as well.  If you are an Enterprise or Large level customer, and would like to take advantage of these consultations, please email customersuccess@channelgrabber.com and we'll be in touch to arrange a webinar with you  :)
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This more in-depth approach to nurturing and training our customers, means that our Technical Support Team will have more time and resources to help customers at any subscription level with genuine technical issues as well.  This is because they can dedicate time that was previously spent training new customers or troubleshooting problems related to user error, to investigating and fixing any technical issues, so all in all this should result in a better support experience for every customer, whether new or well established with ChannelGrabber  ;)
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We've nearly finished working on the HUGE next stage of the listings development project which will introduce the ability to create new products in ChannelGrabber.  Not only does this facilitate the next stage of the listings project, Multi-Channel Listings (see below), it also means that if you need to create a manual order but don't have the product in ChannelGrabber from one of your existing channels, you can create a new product in CG as needed.  The same logic applies to our Linked Products (Bundles) feature, as being able to create new products gives greater control and flexibility for stock management purposes too.
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As we wrote about in our last newsletter, we released the initial most basic version of our new listings tool for beta testing a couple of months ago now, which facilitated the creation of a new listing on eBay, Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce from an existing product that was previously imported into ChannelGrabber.  The listing suite has dominated our development schedule for a while due to the sheer scale of the project, but we're making amazing progress and it's about to get a LOT better!  

As anyone who lists on more than one channel will know, a lot of the product data needed for each channel is the same, but one big difference between them all is their category structures, meaning that you will almost always have a different set of categories and sub-categories on every channel even though the product is the same.  This is usually what makes the listing process so long and arduous!

That's why we came up with a new approach, to make the listing process easier and more efficient: category mapping!  Once we release the next phase of this project for beta testing, it will be possible to set up rules in ChannelGrabber to "map" your own categories to those of your channels, meaning you can then choose one category in the ChannelGrabber listing tool, and the system will automatically know which category that translates to on every channel that you want to list to.

What this means for you, the user, is that you're truly able to add the product data just once, then simply tick which of your channels you want to list the item to, and ChannelGrabber will do the rest using your own category rules, making listing new products to all of your channels - and therefore increasing your sales potential - easier than ever before!  Welcome to a new era of Multi-Channel Listing!  :)
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We expect both of these newest features to be ready for testing within the next couple of weeks and will email out a product announcement message when they are ready  :)
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If you have an idea for an improvement or new feature you would like to see us add to the system in the future, please do let us know, by emailing featurerequests@channelgrabber.com
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If you're asking for something that has already been requested, we will add your vote to the feature to give it higher priority, or if your idea is totally fresh, we will add a new request to our developers' board for votes and future consideration.

We almost always prioritise feature requests based on demand, so the more users that vote for a feature, the higher up the "to-do" list it will move  ;)

Can't wait to hear your thoughts!
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Here, we'll pass on any newsworthy events or changes that we've learned about the e-commerce industry that may affect our system or you, our customers, as well as news about new promotions from our partners and affiliates.
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The team at Clarity E-Commerce Translation is made up of a combination of e-commerce experts and language experts, giving you all the knowledge you need to make your expansion a success. They have a wide range of experience of marketplaces and e-commerce platforms and have the inside track on making your business successful overseas. Clarity offers the following solutions:

Why Clarity have partnered with ChannelGrabber

We want to make it as easy as possible for retailers to achieve their potential, cross-border. Clarity was built for e-commerce and they can help you with every stage of your expansion. From product translation, to marketing to customer service management. 

 
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25th May 2018 - hasn't that date crept up quickly?!  This week the new EU laws surrounding data protection come into force in the EU and UK.  

GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulations and sets out businesses' responsibilities and consumers' rights which up until now have been covered by the Data Protection Act 1998.  Any business trading in the UK and/or EU needs to ensure that their business practices do not breach these new rules, by taking into consideration things like:

Active Consent
You can no longer simply add every customer to your mailing list – they have to actively choose to be added. Without an active opt in then the customer should only receive emails related to their purchase.

Use of Data
Consumers have the right to know how their data was acquired and who it was shared with.

Right to be Forgotten
Consumers have the right to have their data erased if they request this.  Obviously some data will need to be kept for tax and accounting records, but any non-essential data would then need to be removed.

Easy Data Portability
Should you decide to switch from a service you use that stores any of your data, they should offer you an easy way to move your data to your chosen new partner, or export/back up your data.

Data Breaches
Should a company discover that their data has been accessed then in the future they have just 72 hours to report it.

Source:  Tamebay
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Since GDPR was announced, ChannelGrabber has and continues to take steps to review our current privacy policies.  The good news is that our current and existing privacy policies are already compliant with the terms set out by the Information Commissioner's Office. 

ChannelGrabber has been registered with the ICO since we were founded.  As GDPR will be regulated by the ICO, ChannelGrabber has followed their recommended step-by-step guide on becoming compliant.

For further details, we have a guide on GDPR Compliance.
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We hope you have enjoyed the May edition of our newsletter and found some useful information to help you with your online business.  

Why not also check out the blog page on our website, to keep up to date with news from us as well as even more industry insights and input from guest authors too?

As always, if you would like to discuss anything relating to your ChannelGrabber account, please feel free to contact our team using the Intercom chat system (the chat icon can be found on the lower right corner of any ChannelGrabber page) or by emailing help@channelgrabber.com
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