Onlines Sales are sales that are primarily created using external customer facing systems such
as Internet commerce. These systems create sales and can transfer details to Fieldpine for stock picking
and dispatch, or simply to record sales for reporting purposes.
There are two main types of online sales:
- Static Sales. Sales where everything is processed and the complete sale details are sent
to Fieldpine. These sales may or may not be fully complete, but do not have specific realtime
requirements. Most sales from eCommerce sites are processed as static sales
- Realtime Sales. These are sales where during the sale process the external customer/website must
connect direct to trading systems to verify availability, reserve items or any checks that would mean
the sale cannot complete without contacting the POS directly. Most takeaway food and drink orders
are processed as realtime sales.
The main technical requirement is to generate a sale object/packet (XML, JSON, email, etc) and load this
packet into the POS system. For static sales these can be processed in batch or delayed, for realtime sales
these packets must be loaded immediately. The packets sent to load sales are rich and have many possible
attributes
Static sales are processed by transfering the information to the POS encoded in a suitable form.
Realtime sales are an extension to static sales. You are advised to understand the operation of static
sales first and then read about the extensions to realtime sales
POS Commands (Windows)
POS Lanes will communicate to external servers to fetch sales and supply information requested. Only active
trading lanes can be enabled, and service mode is not permittable
To enable a lane for Online Sales
- Ensure the field sales.externalid is present in the database.
- Setting OnlineSalesEnabled has bit zero set (ie, OnlineSalesEnabled=1 )
- Setting OnlineSalesId is defined to your identification.
- Ensure TCP connectivity (outbound) to meetu4.com
Once enabled, the POS will connect to meetu4.com and request any new sale information. This is polled
by querying the retailmax.clink.onlinesales.list bucket. Any new sales found will be confirmed to meetu4
as loaded, stored to the database and submitted for teller interaction (such as advising a new online sale
has been received)
This page provides a worked example of how online coffee sales can be configured. It is more explanatory than defining the exact
technical details.
The customer visits the stores personal
web site or mobile app, which internally generates a sale packet and sends this to meetu4.com The branding and appearance
of the website is specific to the store and you build and host your own website.
meetu4.com is a public
internet webserver designed to act as an intermediary. This means apps can send to one website and
not need to change as customer store systems evolve over time.
The meetu4 website is also connected to from store trading systems. The trading lanes update
meetu4 with active details, all of which can be accessed from the customer facing website.
- Current product list available for sale
- Store status: open, closed, busy
- Staff working today, ie which barista
- Friendly messages (eg "Hot muffins will be delivered at 7 today")
