Flint Blog

Flint Technology launches GiftLab for CoutureLab

Justin Biddle — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:55:50 +0000

Flint Technology is proud to launch a new site for the CoutureLab brand – GiftLab. Developed on the Magento platform, the new site gives CoutureLab a strategic flexibility and a platform to continue their phenomenal growth.

Nyetimber’s website gets a revamp

Justin Biddle — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:47:29 +0000

Nyetimber have redesigned their website, and asked Flint Technology to implement the new site. The result is both beautiful and functional, and allows Nyetimber to add content in a managed manner, to ensure that they achieve the online visibility that their superlative brand deserves.

Flint Launches Angry Angels ecommerce for Start-rite

Justin Biddle — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 20:13:47 +0000

Flint Technology has just launched a new branded mini-site for Start-rite Shoes. the Angry Angels brand is targeted at teenage girls, and as such needed to be distinct from the Start-rite brand. Flint Technology created a wholly independent store for Angry Angels that leveraged Start-rite’s existing eCommerce infrastructure, without compromising Angry Angels’ specific brand identity.

Commidea Payment Gateway – Version 4 is ready!

Justin Biddle — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:57:02 +0000

Flint Technology is proud to announce that our the latest Commidea Payment gateway integration, ICP XML Version 4, is now ready, and can be bought directly from our module store.

The new module includes support for:

Token based transactions
Mail Order Telephone Order (MOTO)
Back office order settlement

We are also in the process of integrating card management facilities, whioch will allow customers to “One-Click” order from our customers sites without increasing their PCI liabilities!

You can find out more about the module, and purchase it, here.

Feefo Integration Module available for download

Justin Biddle — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:42:35 +0000

Our feefo integration module is now available for download on our module store. It is available for both Enterprise and Community editions.

You can install it and have feefo integrated with your site in 5 minutes! Then you can sit back and enjoy not onlyimproved site SEO, but also improved conversion, as customers can trust your brand’s products and service!

Flint launches sites for Starfish Bay, InTune Piano Services and Little Sardines

Justin Biddle — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:32:43 +0000

At Flint Technology we have had a busy few months – and have launched sites for three new clients.

Starfish Bay are a home-ware company offering Coastal and Country style with a contemporary twist. Flint Technology built them a very simple and clean site on the Magento Community edition, that allow them to exhibit their exquisite products without the site getting in the way. Simple, elegant and operationally sound! The business is growing all the time and is storming this sector of the market.

InTune Piano Services required a simple site to support their operations in England and Spain. Flint Technology delivered a site using WordPress to manage the English and Spanish pages, and which allows InTune to manage their content and evolve their business.

Little Sardines are a childrens’ toy company, with a unique gift finder and reminder service. They required an update to their existing site, and an upgrade to their Magento infrastructure. They needed Flint to replicate their distinctive concept and child friendly ‘look and feel’ and make it flow through their online offering, and ensure that they communicated their unique service effectively to their customers.

Flint’s Feefo module is ready for Beta Launch!

Justin Biddle — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 13:37:54 +0000

Flint are proud to announce that their Feefo module is ready, as a beta launch, for customers to try out. It makes integrating to Feefo’s awesome customer reviews service as easy as it could possibly be – just install the module, pick what Feefo logos you want to appear where, and you’re good to go!

The module includes an order feed to send order details to Feefo (configurable to ensure that the review emails do not arrive before the ordered goods!), as well as inclusion of reviews on the Magento product page – which is great for SEO.

If you want to try the module out then just Get in touch!

eBay buys Magento – What are the Implications?

admonme — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:30:16 +0000

The stunning news that eBay had purchased Magento entirely (it already had a sizable shareholding) certainly sent the eCommerce wires buzzing this week, but what do we think will be the likely implications of such a move?

The purchase certainly improves the profile of the Magento platform. It represents an attempt by eBay to enhance their offering to retailers, and start to take on Amazon in this area. They now have a the beginnings of a platform that can take a retailer from ‘Mom & Pop’ to conglomerate, rather than losing retailers just as they start to become successful. Magento is likely to benefit from a wealth of smaller, but retailers, who, as they become successful need improved catalogue management, promotional and order management facilities, assuming that a seamless integration between eBay and Magento is possible.

What Might Ebay’s strategy be?

eBay is trying to compete with Amazon and Microsoft. Amazon’s Seller Central facilities have become a major channel for most retailers over the last few years. Microsoft, with their Commerce Platform, have long been strong with SME retailers, with developer agencies acting as resellers. eBay, while it has long had strength with small sellers, have struggled to shift the perception that the platform is primarily a ‘Clearance Channel’. The acquisition of Magento will give then a technology and a developer base that will help improve this perception. In addition the “Open source” nature of Magento will give it a perception of flexibility and modernity. Perhaps the greatest strength of the merger is how it will effect the aspirations of the retailers. For the first time there will be a platform that can truly take an organisation from ‘Garage Sale’ to ‘High Street Chain/Department store’ – and that is a powerful vision.

Of course there is also the obvious synergy between Magento and eBay’s payment Gateway, Paypal, which is also well integrated into Magento, and will add to capability to provide all the tools that Merchants and retailers need to evolve and scale their businesses.

What’s in store for Magento?

Pros

Increased Profile should improve platform take up, which has a positive (network) effect on the whole community
Increased investment clout that eBay brings will increase Magento’s speed of evolution and increase ‘Momentum’
eBay is a traffic generator – anything that makes seamless integration easier will help increase retailers potential traffic
Should mean easier integration with eBay – which could be useful for retailers – especially as a clearance channel

Cons

Uncertainty is always a risk
Changes in Strategic direction – It is imperative that Magento remains a solution suitable for larger retailers, otherwise it will suffer from a lack of real credibility
eBay’s perception as a clearance channel

Flint’s View

From our point of view an increase in Magento’s profile improves the value of all the technology we have developed for the platform, and should ensure that momentum remains behind the platform. Like a Tsunami, where there is momentum, then obstacles just don’t stand a chance!

Quality Matters! – Tips on Magento Development Best Practice

Justin Biddle — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:47:41 +0000

Here are a few golden rules for Magento development. They may not be news to serious techies, but they may help retailers assess potential developers to ensure that they are working with a proper best practice agency.
Don’t Hack The Core. It may provide a quick (and lazy!) way to deliver what you need but itwill come back to haunt you – normally in the form of unforeseen consequences. It will definitely cause problems if you ever want to upgrade your Magento infrastructure to the latest version. If you want to save time and money in the mid and long term then get your developers to do it right!
Use a Module. If you need to change the way that Magento works then create a module, or create a separate theme. That way you can test your changes on different installations, disable the functionality if a problem arises, and reinstall the functionality when you upgrade your platform.
Have a Staging or Development site. A place to test all your developers work, where you can see it working properly (and sign it off) before it goes live sounds like a good idea – right?! That’s why its industry Best Practice!
Manage the code base properly. Control changes and modules with proper software configuration management best practise. I know that sounds a bit geeky, but it is important that your developers have some kind of repository system, so that they can make organised and logged changes to your precious live environment.

Flint Technology launches a Magento Ecommerce site for Astley Clarke

Justin Biddle — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:20:15 +0000

Flint Technology launched a new Ecommerce site for the highly regarded online jewellers, Astley Clarke, on Tuesday 29th March 2011.

Astley Clarke’s new facilities are built on the Magento Enterprise platform. The build included a full integration to MNP’s OrderActive platform, to the Lyris email marketing platform. It also included a number of new pieces of Magento functionality including item level giftwrap and advanced guided navigation modules. These additional pieces of functionality extend the Magento Enterprise platform to the premium level of both form and function. The site also incorporates Flint’s new MNP DataFlow plugin that provides the basis of the synchronisation of information between Magento and OrderActive. It allows store owners to precisely define how information is passed between MNP and Magento and provides a turn key multi-store/currency integration solution.

Astley Clarke now have vastly improved control over their site and product content, and have the ability to use in-house technical resource alongside the facilities provided by Flint. This in-house/out-sourced hybrid solution gives Astley Clarke the flexibility and security to expand their business. Justin Biddle, Commercial Director at Flint Technology said, “The work we have put into this build brings Flint Technology’s infrastructure to the forefront of the Magento wave. We are so pleased to provide Astley Clarke with a site that is both beautiful and functional, and which allows the Astley Clarke team to develop their already magnificent brand.”