Meet Plate Commerce

In close cooperation with Creative Agency Mandelo, the first webshop on the Plate platform was launched this week. Developing webshops on Plate was on our roadmap for a long time. When in the early 2020's we were asked to build Israelwinkel.nl on Plate, we prepared the platform for e-commerce. This article will give you a first introduction to Plate Commerce.

Functionalities Plate e-Commerce

Plate Commerce is a stand-alone application that integrates with the Plate CMS by means of a connector. Both applications are part of the Plate Platform. Thanks to the integration, products or product changes are directly visible in your webshop and you can use both the rich product catalogue of Plate Commerce, as well as the powerful Plate CMS.

The combination of Plate Commerce and Plate CMS offers the following webshop features:

Search (type as you find icm error and exact)
Dynamic filters
User account
Reviews (beta)
Discount structures, bulk, bulk over category, discounted
Coupons
Tags on labels (new, discount, etc)
All CMS functions of Plate
Ideal, invoicing, Mollie
Product options / -combinations
Logic around different rules on shipping
Work order workflow with API and webhooks
Upselling, add additional products such as wrapping service, greeting card
Email-templates
Google, Instagram and Facebook shopping

A detailed explanation of the various features is given below

Searching

For a webshop, conversion is the most important KPI. Visitors must be able to find a product quickly. Plate Commerce has a unique combination of exact and predictive searching. So you can set the system to correct a typo. Example: if a visitor of a bedding webshop types 'duvet', the product 'duvet' will be visible because that is probably what people search for.

In addition, Plate Commerce offers the possibility to search exactly on SKUs and articles. For this you do not want an auto-correction to take place. If you search on '12445' you want to find that article and not '44521', because it happens to contain the same numbers. So in one search function, you can call and define both variants.

Dynamic filters

You can link products in the webshop to filters. These filters can be selection filters, but also likert-scale filters, so that you can quickly filter on products within a certain price range, for example.

Another variant is multiselect. By offering different filters you ensure a streamlined product selection which contributes to a faster conversion.

Discount structures

What is a web shop without the ability to offer discounts. Plate Commerce allows you to offer the following discounts.

From - for price

The simplest discount is this markdown. You fill in the price reduction next to the original price and the website shows that a product now costs, for example, 4.95 instead of the original 7.00.

Quantity discounts

Plate Commerce offers the possibility to define quantity discounts. That is, 1 product costs 3,50 while 2 products together cost 5,00. The discount is directly visible and is applied automatically.

Volume discount across product groups

It is possible to determine a quantity discount for a product group. An example could be: 2 duvets for 60 euros, while 1 duvet costs 40 euros. You offer the duvets only in several sizes and so you could choose 1 duvet of 160 by 220 and one of 140 by 200.

The same could apply to a spice mix, for example. You want visitors to be able to buy 3 jars for 5 euros. Thanks to quantity discounts for product groups, they have the freedom to choose 3 different products but still make use of the bundle discount.

Coupons

In Plate Commerce you create coupon codes that visitors can redeem during the checkout process.

Product combinaties en -variaties

Plate Commerce offers the possibility to deal with product variations in different ways. Within one product you can have several variants, with their own stock and price. An example is a bracelet that you offer in size S and M but also in Gold and Silver. All together these are 4 different products with their own stock and price.

Op de webshop is dit product in het overzicht 1 product, maar op de productpagina heb je de keuze om te zien wat de opties zijn. Plate Commerce laat direct de impact op prijs en voorraad zien.

On the web shop this product is 1 product in the overview, but on the product page you can see what the options are. Plate Commerce immediately shows the impact on price and stock.

Productcombinatie webshop Plate Commerce

All Plate CMS functionalities

The combination of Plate CMS and Plate Commerce is a very powerful one. We have not simply built Plate Commerce into the CMS, or the CMS into Commerce. They are two different applications that were both built with a view to specific ease of use. It ensures that in Plate Commerce you can manage your products very easily and make use of all the functionalities mentioned above. In addition, you manage your website with Plate CMS as you are used to. Drag and drop, create visual elements, copy pages and sections, versioning, and more. View all Plate functionalities.

Payments

We have extensive payment options in Plate Commerce. Choose to pay by invoice, through IDEAL / Mollie, Belgian market or connect your own payment provider through the API and webhooks of Plate.

Logic around shipping / costs

Make unique rules for shipping and costs in your web shop. For example, for Israelwinkel.nl there is a rule that when an order exceeds 50 euros, no shipping costs are calculated, except when the order consists of only wine; then this threshold is 120 euros.

In addition, one can choose to ship or pick up the order. Pick up is free, shipping is free or paid according to the amount and type of products. In Plate Commerce these rules can be determined and you can be flexible with your business model within the webshop.

Workorderflow

A web shop aims to automate a complex process and therefore it is important to be able to convert the order confirmation into a work order or packing list in for example the ERP system or order processing program. By using the API and webhooks of Plate Platform and Plate Commerce you can, after completing the transaction, place both the invoice and order in the ERP system to trigger a workflow: maximum automation.

Upselling

Within Plate Commerce you can easily realise cross- and upselling by showing related products or by offering a wrapping service or a greeting card in the checkout. This provides added value in personalisation and extra turnover.

Email templates

Plate commerce offers customizable email templates with triggers. An obvious example is the order confirmation that you can style completely with your own content. But you can also send an automatic e-mail if a visitor has placed products in the shopping cart, but has not paid yet. The email function in Plate Commerce provides a personal shopping experience and increases conversion.

Google, Instagram and Facebook shopping

Do you also want to sell your products on Instagram, Facebook and Google? Plate Commerce offers you the possibility to quickly go to other platforms to get even more visitors to your website.

By using schema.org, you can also benefit from the innovations of Google Shopping.

Accounts for resellers / hybrid

Do you have offline shops or resellers next to your webshop? These resellers can get a nice spot on the webshop and the local stock per location can be seen on the webshop. In the near future, these resellers will also be able to create their own profile on the webshop and share specific reseller information here without having direct access to the CMS of the webshop or website. This feature will be available later this year.

Plate Commerce for you?

We hope you got a good picture of the extensive possibilities of webshops with Plate. Plate Commerce is a mature, scalable and fast web shop platform and an affordable alternative to Magento. Do you have any questions about Plate Commerce? Feel free to send us a message or ask your question via the chat.

Plate Commerce is currently available exclusively for premium partners of Plate. Are you not a partners of Plate yet and do you want to create the most beautiful custom webshops on Plate in 2021? Then sign up now and get notified when you can get started with Plate commerce.