Hubs latest release has two components, a set for buyers on Hub and a set for sellers. This post focuses on features for sellers. If youre a buyer take a look here.
Keeping stock information up to date, priced correctly and in front of potential customers is time consuming work. Hub started with a retail pricing model. Based on seller feedback Hub now features market pricing starting with automated C-Market prices that will help reduce the number of places you need to go to provide answers to customers on a daily basis. There is a LOT more. Here are some highlights:
- Completely redesigned bulk import/entry via spreadsheet (including updating over time)
- A new interface for buyers focused entirely on quickly finding coffees & ordering samples
- Simplified and speedier toolset for creating and managing shops
- Dynamic premium pricing automatically linked to daily C-market prices
- Price requesting workflows from the coffee details page, plus optional pricing per coffee
Lets get to the details.
A new Hub homepage!
Hubs homepage has been updated to highlight new coffees and Sample Ordering.
There is more detailed information about new features for buyers here. Key benefits of the new release include a focus on finding coffees that brings the latest coffees right onto the homepage and highlights the browse coffees button over the previous search functionality. This means customers can get straight to the business at hand as soon as they hit Hub. Likewise Sample Ordering is also front and center now which makes sense as this is where most transactions begin.
A completely new way to add coffees quickly, easily and reliably - its really a game changer
Adding single or multiple coffees in Hub has been radically redesigned to be faster, simpler and to leverage any existing information you already use in your business.
Bulk importing has been a hot topic since Hub was introduced. This latest release has dramatically improved the entire process of adding coffees to Hub. Adding coffees and updating them is MUCH faster. If youve struggled in the past with adding single coffees or multiple coffees - this feature has been built for you.
If you have existing spreadsheets with your offerings (and we know you do) you can use them in most cases thanks to mapping - well get into that in a minute. All common Excel file formats (XSL, XLSX, XLSM, XLSB, ODS) as well as CSV are supported. Do you work from a standard report from an internal system? If that system can report into any of these formats (and most can) then you can also import from there. Its awesome.
Pull your existing spreadsheet or reports directly into Hub. Setup a simple import map once and then watch as everything automatically updates with every import that follows.
So how does it work? It all comes down to mapping. Mapping is one time process where you take one spreadsheet and identify whats in it. This creates a table which ensures information ends up in the correct place. If youve ever pulled contacts into your phone from your computer or vice versa, you have used mapping. With Hub you simply import your spreadsheet and then Hub presents you with a list of options of what it thinks could match up. You simply confirm to Hub that for example Coffee Name on your spreadsheet equals Name on Hub and youre good to go. The first time you do this can take a few minutes as there are over 20 available fields, less if you have a simple spreadsheet. But the great news is, once you have done this it works every time you import that spreadsheet, offer sheet or report. Even better news, Hub recognizes coffees you have already imported and simply updates the things that have changed. This means updating stock is a breeze simple import your latest numbers and its updated. Another feature - you can set predefined things like base units, package unit, etc. and apply it to all new coffees. A small detail, but also a major time saver. Finally, if you have multiple stores, locations, warehouses or reports that you pull this information from, no worries, you can create as many maps as you need and reuse all of them.
Managing coffees across Hub is a lot simpler
The new management interface is fast, more intuitive and less cluttered making creating and running shops even easier.
As part of a larger drive within Cropster to simplify and unify the way our products look and work we have made a number of updates to Hubs tools for sellers to make setting up and maintaining shops even easier. Youll notice less cluttered screens, clearer navigation and a general easiness to using the day to day tools in Hub in this release. In the latest release things like Manage Coffees are now first and foremost and take you directly to simpler screens where you can get to the take at hand. Auction functionality is useful when people need it, but other times it can create confusion. As a result, Auctions are now turned off by default. They are still there when you need them, you simply have to turn them on the admin panel. Similarly, we have moved quick links to more prominent positions when people need them. We know people like how they speed up certain tasks but they could be a bit too subtle. In the latest release they are more pronounced and take you directly to the task at hand. Another time saver for larger shops - you can now select more than 80 coffees (across multiple pages) so you can select all your coffees for certain actions! Finally based on feedback from multiple shop owners we have made cupping scores optional to simplify the creation and editing of both single and multiple coffees. We understand why people have asked for this. But we add one caveat here - we know from analysis that buyers review cupping scores as they look around Hub. ;-)
Handling large stocks is simple with filtering and the ability to select all your coffees even if they extend across multiple pages.
Dynamic pricing, C-Market prices equals better pricing information and less math
With dynamic pricing you can tie prices of individual or all your coffees to C-Market prices. They will be automatically updated daily.
Check the C-Market prices, check stock purchase prices, determine the vector, determine the premium based on volume, add then multiply. If this sounds familiar, youre probably in the green coffee business. Regardless of how you determine prices, many people perform a variation of this process daily. We have now built it directly into Hub! The result is that you can opt into a dynamic pricing for coffees on Cropster Hub based on the current Coffee C Future. This base price will be updated daily at 03:00 a.m. and automatically updates all coffees you have setup for dynamic pricing. Sellers can custom premiums per coffee against this base price. Even more exciting, it supports multiple currencies using custom exchange rates for all shops.
Price on request
Price requesting means sellers can request more information for buyers prior to pricing. If sellers opt to start with a sample, they are kept up to date with pricing status.
Sellers can now decide whether or not they want to present prices on Cropster Hub on a per coffee basis. Currently users must be logged in to see prices on Hub. In this latest release if a seller needs more information prior to pricing they can now opt for price requesting. With this option, when a buyer gets to the detail screen on any coffee they can simply request a price. If they opt to ask for a sample prior to a price request, they will be presented with the normal process and informed about the pricing processes for that coffee.
A year ago Hub started with a small community of buyers and sellers and a couple of hundred coffees. Today new sellers are being added every week and new coffees daily. Hub is a premiere destination for buyers and sellers across the world introducing innovations like warehouse filtering, shareable offer sheets and seamless sample handling. This latest version of Hub is all about reducing this work so you can focus on whats important. Selling coffee. We think youll enjoy it. In the meantime, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions regarding Hub please let us know! Were always working to make it even better.
