Gifts & Gadgets Sector Development

[GeorgeGaz]

Gifts & Gadgets Sector Development

Launching in BETA today is the new technology that has been created by ShopWindow to revolutionise affiliate sites covering the Gift and Gadget sectors.
Many of us have seen the “Gift Finder” elements that merchants use to help consumers refine to find the perfect gift for their person of choice and this is something ShopWindow believe that affiliates should have the opportunity to benefit from.

What is the Gift Finder?
Well, after a few weeks of strenuous development the team have launched the Gift Finder module for use across your affiliate sites. This tool allows you to place a customisable Gift Finder on your site that boasts a number of refining options to allow consumers to find the desired gift. Some of the key merchants across the Affiliate Window network have signed up to partner this release and have kindly altered their datafeeds by adding an extra element to allow the functional success of this tool.
The consumers will be offered the chance to refine by “Recipient”, “Occasion”, “Personality” and “Price” and as each option is selected the product display will update presenting relevant items right away. The refine by options will always lead to at least one product being displayed so that the consumer will never see an empty set or a “No Products Found” error message and so they will always have a journey through to the merchant site.

Benefits
• Offers product comparison spanning a variety of merchants
• Variety of templates on offer
• Allows you to customise its appearance so that it integrates seamlessly into your site
• Offers an alternative route to sale
• Offers unique refine by options tailored just to this sector

How do I get my hands on this Gift Finder?
The Gift Finder module is available in your affiliate account within the Content Widgets interface. Navigate to Content Widgets, create a new widget and then click on the Gift Finder tab. You will then see the three templates that have been created for launch. Once you have chosen the desired template you can then edit the templates appearance through a variety of customisation options.
Now that you have a customised Gift Finder module you simply take the single line of JavaScript code and place this on your site and “voila!” you have your very own Gift Finder.

There is also a Client Version soon to be available via the ProductServe API for those of you that have a full ShopWindow integration. The possibilities here are endless and if you have your own ShopWindow installed then you can create a vertical site similar to this – Gifts, Gadgets & Toys (http://giftsgadgetstoys.shopwindow.com/).

Carousel Widget BETA
As well as the new Gift Finder modules being released we also have a new Carousel Widget available in your affiliate account. This functions by choosing a set of products which will then rotate around each other offering a new route to sale for a user with an interactive twist. This too can be seen as a demo here (http://giftsgadgetstoys.shopwindow.com). To make use of this widget you will again have to navigate to the Content Widgets interface within your affiliate account.

Managed Widgets
A new set of Managed Widgets have also been released to couple this launch. They are all centered around this particular sector and will help boost the content that your site offers for the Christmas period:
• Top Ten Gifts
• Top Ten Gadgets
• Top Ten Toys
• Top Ten Boys Toys
• Top Ten Girls Toys

For more information regarding Managed Widgets please see here (http://www.affiliatewindow.com/newsletter/affiliates/20081106.php).

For more information surrounding this vertical development or how to begin, please do not hesitate to contact ShopWindow.

[Confuscius]

There is also a Client Version available via the ProductServe API for those of you that have a full ShopWindow integration. The possibilities here are endless and if you have your own ShopWindow installed then you can create a vertical site similar to this – Gifts, Gadgets & Toys.

Release notes? Methodologies? Api variables? Return limits? Access? Templates?

Paul

[Amoochi]

Release notes? Methodologies? Api variables? Return limits? Access? Templates?

Paul

What he said.

[authcode]

Cool. I tried to implement something like this when SW launched using a product database and my own tags but not only was it time consuming I found the products I was tagging disappeared from the feed quicker than I could replace them! That was a while ago though and I don't think the product churn is quite as high now.

Anyway, I look forward to using this when I finally get around to upgrading my site to V2 after Christmas but can you tell us:

Is the refine by data included in the regular SW feed or is this a totally seperate data feed?

[GeorgeGaz]

Hello,

Firstly, my sincerest apologies surrounding this. It seems that I was a little hasty when posting originally. This data is to be launched in the API once a final test has been done. The widget aspects are all live now.

Authcode, this data will be available in a variety of the merchant feeds within ShopWindow. It is not a new datafeed.

Regards

[sabian1982]

I need to implement a similar page to the one shown at http://giftsgadgetstoys.shopwindow.com/ in relation to a client request.

How or what files do i go about editing to adjust specifically the gifts and gadgets page? Currently the site shows the same design on all category pages.

Feedback please.

Edit: I have now installed the ProductServe API from http://www.affiliatewindow.com/affiliates/webservices/productserve_service.php however have got a server error of:

You HAVE to select the appropriate api (AW/PS)

Am i correct in thinking this API is required to achieve the above mentioned Gift page requirement?

Please advise.

[GeorgeGaz]

Hello,

If you take a look at the content widgets area of your affiliate account you will find the necessary widgets needed to create a site like the one you have linked to.
In regards to the API error, you need the PS (ProductServe) API.

Regards

[sabian1982]

So based on that, i realise that i need to use widgets to create the elements on the page, however what do i need to do in order to change the design on the gadget specific category page? I take it its the additional module/api that is needed to do this?

[Andy]

that carousel widget is a good idea, I wonder who came up with that....

[Mat-Moo]

Hi

Is the giftsgadgetstoys done with gadgets only? Or is that using the API (Currently updating apache to include soap on my server). I'm currently redeveloping at http://test.emailremind.co.uk (Looking at the Gift ideas) at the moment, and trying to figure out the best way to move forward. I'm also looking at intergrating an Amazon store instead, becasue I like the fact that people stay on my site and can search for/find more.

Your widget for gift searching though is really nice (I'd of preffered age-range to personality though) which is why I'm looking into this further.

[sabian1982]

There is also a Client Version soon to be available via the ProductServe API for those of you that have a full ShopWindow integration. The possibilities here are endless and if you have your own ShopWindow installed then you can create a vertical site similar to this – Gifts, Gadgets & Toys (http://giftsgadgetstoys.shopwindow.com/).

Where is this PS API for adding a standalone category page? and how do you add it to the standard installation?