On changing to the new responsive system we have been told that the old system of using NSc Sync has been replaced by the new Category Picture Assignment in WSM.
We have previously uploaded the Category images through NSc Sync. This has proved an excellent way for us to keep the images up to date, as the code within the NSc Sync checks that the image uploaded is one from a product that is currently in the range and just as importantly one with an actual picture.
We have around 750 categories and around a third of our 7,500 items are discontinued every year, so keeping an eye on this will prove onerous to say the least.
Is it possible to continue to update the Category images through NSc Sync? I do not quite understand how the new system gets some of the images as some categories that have not been set within the Category Picture Assignment in WSM appear to still have images.
the expert on this is currently taking a much needed and deserved break. He should be back next week though and should have an answer for you once he has dug through his emails.
I’m afraid the short answer to your question is no. The reason why we moved that feature to the WebStore Manager was to make it easier for non-RMS retailers to change their category pictures. As you may have noticed, that feature in Sync originally targeted RMS users. As we are now offering other Point Of Sales systems such as RMH, TGS, Unify, we felt the need to accommodate everyone hence the need of a Web-based solution.
Nonetheless, we do expect the online feature to work as the old version so if you are facing any difficulty to get it to work, please let us know and we will be delighted to look into it for you.
So am I correct in saying that it is no longer possible to upload a category image against each category within the Sync? Some categories appear to have the images even though they are not populated within the WSM.
If each category has an image allocated to it (by assigning it within the WSM) then is it not possible to still upload this information via the Sync instead? It would help us enormously. Having gone down the responsive site path, we are now being forced into a position where someone needs to review all 700+ category images on a daily basis to ensure they are all still relevant to the customers.
I appreciate that some options may be amended due to interfacing with new systems, however WSM can mean a great deal of additional work that can be automated within the Sync. Nitrosell has always been a “full interface solution”, with little in the away of additional work required to populate the website from the POS database. If this was to be lost when new systems are added we would feel that this was a negative move and would be a backwards step.
If the possibility of this valuable option being reinstated could be looked at I would be grateful.
Thank you very much for your very useful feedback. As I said before, that functionality has been taken away from Sync and we greatly encourage our retailers to make use of the Web-based interface instead.
When loading the corresponding Web-based interface, by default, categories are assigned images that were previously there and if there isn’t any, the image of the first product belonging to the category will be used. This therefore explains the presence of the images for the categories which haven’t been previously populated.
When specifying the category images using the Web based interface, you don’t have to get them all at once, it is perfectly acceptable to only focus on a bunch of categories at a time.
Also, the Web-based interface is a big improvement of the corresponding feature in Sync. For instance, you can specify a custom image to be used for the category.