Though Timber has been in Development since late 2008, we started this blog in September 2012. Whenever a new feature is released, we record it here.
Important Reminder
When processing orders, please remember to verify Student ID numbers when shipping orders out of state. Cross referencing this number is a great way to prevent fraud orders. When you find a suspected fraud order, please be sure to mark it so that it is flagged in our system for your future orders and other schools.
Timber automatically retrieves full metadata for products that you add to your site based on ISBN number. Ingram is the third party provider that we use to automatically add data like cover image, descriptions, page counts, author and more. This works great with common titles, but some of the more obscure collections were difficult to populate. We've recently added Google Books to retrieve some of the less common books' attributes and are very happy with the results. Google Books was automatically added to all Timber sites recently.
New Feature!
With the addition of Timber's Single Sign on Feature, staff and students can use their existing login to edit course selections or purchase items from the website. Find out more:
Expediting a Process: New Timber Feature
We have added a scan-able barcode to quickly process Timber orders to the Booklog mail order queue. That will save some serious time during RUSH. Interested in adding this to your site? Contact us.
We recently completed an add-on feature that allows your customers to give feedback about products on your Timber site. The review add-on has monitoring tools for verifying reviews before publishing, allowing bookstores to address potential issues before a review is published. If you are interested in adding this feature to your store, please contact us.
A new feature was recently added to Timber that allows customers to upload text and images to orders for custom imprint projects. Store administrators create a product, such as a shirt that can be customized. Timber collects text and image inputs from the customer to provide at checkout.
In a November Timber update, we rolled out a fraud-detection system that will proactively look for fraud -- and place those orders into a "Fraud" Order Status. Fraud orders will not be automatically imported into Booklog.
You will receive an additional email notification for these orders, and if you find that they are from legitimate customers, you can still change their Order Status so that they will be imported to Booklog.
SSO – 'Single Sign On' can now be added to Timber sites. Once a Timber site user is logged into your Schools’ Network, they will automatically be logged-in to your Timber site.
On checkout, student data can automatically be entered, including email and Student ID numbers.
When a student returns to the site to check on an order, they will not be prompted to login again.
Timber Adopt is a new platform for managing College Faculty Adoptions. Find out more and sign up here: https://www.bookstorewebsoftware.com/adopt
We have been hard at work adding features to Timber. Check out the latest!
1. Importing Tracking number from BL / multiple numbers for shipments
2. Payware collateral collection
3. Sending-out FA alert
4. Thumbnails in search results
5. Term ignore list (for terms you don't want on /college)
6. Integration with MercuryPay
7. Ingram Data Integration
8. Ingram Search integration
Whether you are a new Timber user, have additional staff to train - or just want to brush up on an area - the tutorials are a great resource! Check it out: https://www.bookstorewebsoftware.com/video-training
This new Timber feature allows your customers to paste in a list of ISBNs and access the buyback pricing directly from Booklog. Contact us to have it turned on for your site!
For stores that require a student signature when picking up materials, this new report will give you a printable list of (not already picked-up) orders where the order Delivery Method was "In-Store Pickup".
During the next Timber update cycle, (this happens to each site about once per quarter), your visitors will be able to search for, and then add-to-cart, any title in Ingram's inventory. This includes millions and millions of different ISBNs.
When viewing Website orders, there is now a Fraud Prevention Panel to give you more insight about order legitimacy.
When you report potentially fraudulent orders to Timber - we safeguard your site and all of our Timber customers from future orders placed by the same individuals.
Timber will now integrate with your school's registration system to provide a simultaneous add-to-cart for all registration materials.
Students use the school's registration system to access their Class Schedule. On that page, Timber creates a link back to the Bookstore site that adds all of the classes to the student's profile. Students can then add all the adopted materials to cart, or be more selective about which ones they'd like to buy.
Timber has switched image acquisition from Amazon over to Ingram. Ingram offers superior image and description look up. All product data is now loaded via Ingram including cover, description, author, etc. without having to do any of the data input manually.
For customers who use Payware, students can now checkout using their Student ID (usually, financial aid account) and the chekcout page will also collect their credit card information and authorize $1 to use for collateral.
When users search for an item on your Timber site, they are now shown a thumnail image with the accompanying text information. Visual results help the user find what they are looking for faster.
If you need a remote Adopted Materials-Lookup in your College's Registration area, please contact us so that we can help you set it up.
This new tool will provide a lookup-link next to each course that your students register for. It will query your Timber site for the latest list of adopted products for that course.
We are very excited about this feature! Timber has always allowed you to upload images right to your products -- but for Item Sets, there has never been any interactivity when customers changed from the "Red Item" to the "Blue Item".
If you upload images to your Item-Sets that with filenames that include their corresponding color, your Website will now update the image accordingly.
Here are a few sample filenames, to give you an idea of how this feature works:
- red-polo.jpg
- 837696-green.jpg
- sweatshirt-blue.png
In the Item Maintenance area of Booklog, if you check the checkbox for "Core" inventory -- a product will appear on the Website regardless of its quantity-on-hand.
The previous itteration of this feature required you to temporarily increase the quantity-on-hand above zero, before the Website would find "Core" inventory items.
For Timber users that have Booklog's CMM enabled, you can now see the Course Notes and Section ID number, when using the Textbook Lookup.
Timber's original coupon feature worked -- from the customer's standpoint. But, when you imported the sale to Booklog, the allocation of the coupon's discount value, was incorrect.
We updated the Timber coupon feature so that the value is now allocated properly once the sale is imported.
For Timber users can now more easily add roles to their Customers' user-accounts -- that will grant discounts on purchases.
Multiple roles (assigned via a checkbox) can be added to your customers' accounts, and can be set to expire on a give date. If you would like, we can also update your site so that customers can purchase a "Memberhip" product, and immediately have access to discounting conveyed by their membership.
A slight functional enhancement has been made to how we handle Item Sets (Master/Sub-SKU items). When only a single item remains in a set, the drop-down selector will now be hidden.
This saves customers from needing to select the only available option in the drop-down list, prior to adding-to-cart.
Timber now offers a seamless integration with Verba!
With this Timber feature, your students can:
The integration requires that you have an existing account with Verba, please contact them for more information about getting started.
We have increased the number of images assignable to each product. Previously you could upload one image per product -- Timber now supports an unlimited number of product images.
Additionally, uploaded images will automatically be available via thumbnails, that have full-size pop-up images.
For a live example please click here:
http://www.pacificabookstore.com/categories/apparel/womens-tops
Since the begininng of Timber, order information has always flowed just one direction: from the Website into Timber.
This sometimes caused confusion, because orders can change in Booklog (substitutions, additions, or deletions), but the order data on the Website would not reflect those changes.
With this new update, order changes (Inventory Items, Shipping, Status, and Tax) will all be reflected on Webstore Orders. This will help eliminate confusion from your customers, and streamline how your staff completes their Webstore Orders.
In order to facilitate the most accurate display of (Booklog's) rental inventory, we created a new block of configuration options, to help you fine-tune product availability:
If you would like these new features enabled on your site, please contact us, and we will get them added for you.
