Frequently asked questions

Aphix PocketShop is a mobile application that is designed to work on your Android or iOS mobile phone. It is a B2B sales app designed to help your customers sell smarter. It is designed with a simple interface that allows your customers access their product catalogue, place orders and manage their accounts in an efficient and timely way. 

It complements WebShop, which is another of Aphix’s suite of eCommerce products. It does not have the same feature set as WebShop since it is designed to complement it; for example, it is currently not possible to filter products by brand in PocketShop.

Once you have set up the Aphix Digital Platform, it is straightforward to roll out a PocketShop with your branding.

Aphix PocketShop operates either online or offline.

Aphix SalesRep is a SaaS product

Aphix SalesRep is a SaaS product. This means that support, regular feature updates and security monitoring are all included so that no customer is left behind on older, insecure software and you can concentrate on your core business function. Or you can opt for some additional professional services to help you with your migration and roll-out.

PocketShop is designed to help you Sell Smarter. This means that your customers can review or place orders wherever or whenever they wish to. Its key features are:

Account management: Prices and products can be managed from your central ERP and updated in PocketShop in real time.

Seamless login: Because customers can use the same login credentials as WebShop, they have automatic access to their order history, transactions, favourites and WebShop shopping cart without making any changes.

Centralised product catalogue: The product catalogue is centrally managed in the Management Interface, meaning that PocketShop uses the same category structure as the one set up for WebShop.

Order management: Customers have options around how to search for and place orders. Within PocketShop, it is possible to search by recently ordered products, by browsing the category tree, by using products marked as Favourites or by using the search facility.

Order processing: Your shopping cart is saved on your smartphone, so you can start an order at one time and finish it some time later. Two payment options are supported:

• pay by credit using a PO to place an order

• pay by credit card using a PCI compliant payment gateway. Currently, SagePay is the only payment gateway that is supported.

Branding: PocketShop can be tailored to reflect your company and brand. During set up, you can specify the colour scheme for banners, logos, app icon and app title. Some branding items can be changed in Management Interface, while others (such as the colour scheme) can not.

Click here for a list of features that are contained in Aphix PocketShop.

Aphix PocketShop is an app that you can download from Android play store or iTunes store. It consists of a top bar and a main content body and provides you with a number of menu options that allow you to place orders, view transaction and order history and more while you are on the go.

A detailed description of its screen layout is found here.

General smartphone specifications

Specific brand specifications

We test Aphix PocketShop on the latest version of the operating system (either iOS or Android) as listed. 

As a guide, for general app compliance:

• Android supports this list of specific devices¹

• Apple supports this list of specific devices¹

 However, please contact us to discuss further prior to purchasing any devices.

¹ Links to an external site. Aphix has no control over their contents.

Yes, you can. You make these changes through your Aphix Management Interface. Any changes you make are effective immediately in PocketShop. Here's how!

Use Pages, our content management system, in Aphix Management Interface to update or add news articles. The How do I share company news with my customers? article gives you a step by step guide on how to share your exciting company news.

Aphix needs to make some in-house changes to PocketShop to update your “Contact us” screens.

Contact us, and we will explain the process and the additional charges that may apply to complete this task.

Aphix needs to make some in-house changes to PocketShop to update your icon, colours and splash screen.

Contact us, and we will explain the process and the additional charges that may apply to complete this task.

The Aphix Digital Platform is connected to your ERP through a set of web services, which are deployed on the same server as your ERP. Aphix PocketShop is an additional product that is built on top of the Aphix Digital Platform. Consequently, Aphix PocketShop takes advantage of the existing integration between Aphix Digital Platform and your ERP.

It can integrate with the following ERP systems:

• Intact vLine, xLine and Intact iQ

• SAP Business One

• Sage 200 

When online, prices are obtained in real-time from your ERP. 

You customers can re-calculate prices if they modify the cart as they create their order.

Once your customer checkouts their order, PocketShop re-calculates the totals, and includes shipping charges as required. The order is automatically placed in your ERP, which reduces duplication of work and transcription errors. To discover exactly where each data element goes in your ERP, please read our feature guide on sales order processing in Aphix PocketShop.

When you log in, your product prices are transferred from your ERP to PocketShop. This means that a local copy of your pricing is maintained within PocketShop, allowing your customers to create orders when they are offline.

However, your customers cannot place an order unless they are online, and the latest prices are obtained prior to placing the order in your ERP for processing.

Typically, your category structure is the same as that you have set up for WebShop. This means that it can be centrally managed in the Management Interface, and changes made there to the structure are reflected in both PocketShop and WebShop.

The contents of your PocketShop product catalogue may not be fully synchronised with the contents of your WebShop catalogue. Each time you log in to PocketShop, a copy of your product catalogue is obtained from your ERP and uploaded to your mobile phone. So whether WebShop and PocketShop product catalogues are synchronised is dependent on how often you update the contents of your product catalogue in your ERP and how often you logout and log back into PocketShop.

Product information and price calculations are carried out in real-time during order checkout process.

Typically, you have the same product categories as those you have in WebShop. There are some design limitations on what can be displayed in PocketShop. While the content of your catalogue is identical to that in WebShop, it may not be displayed in the same way. The following limits apply:

1. The maximum level of nested categories for products to be listed in is 9.

2. Sub-categories are accessible when in a category product listing.

3. The main sidebar contains a list of expandable categories with a nesting level of 3.

4. All product listings have pagination controls when the count exceeds 25.

5. Navigating to a category brings up a listing of products.

6. Product listings contain both products and products with options / variants.

7. All product listings are filtered when a customer is assigned a restricted set of products.

When you enter a search term in PocketShop’s search bar, results are found based on product name, product code (SKU) and keywords.

For each product, the product name, product code, up to four images, a description, stock level and the price. For products with variants (such as shoes in different sizes and/or colours), there is a drop-down box with the options available. Each option can have up to four additional images per option. Stock levels are not displayed for each product option.

Product details for a sample product is shown.

You must be online to checkout an order and for that order to be placed in your ERP.

When you checkout, Aphix PocketShop performs a real-time price calculation on the items in your cart.

After you place your order, it is inserted in real-time into your ERP with a default status. All line items are submitted.

Whether you wish to collect or have your order delivered is recorded, with the delivery date defaulting to the next available day or a date selected by the customer. The delivery address comes from the address entered during checkout. The billing address defaults to the customer’s billing address in your ERP.

The customer PO reference maps onto the customer's PO in your ERP. Order notes are mapped into an appropriate notes field in your ERP.

Stock levels are displayed as part of the product's details. They are retrieved from your ERP when you initially log into PocketShop, and are re-checked prior to placing an order.

Yes, you can be. When you place your order (checkout), Aphix PocketShop performs a a real time price calculation for the products in your cart. The most recent prices, any additional taxes (VAT) and shipping charges are included so you know both the net and gross price of your order before you place it.

There are a number of options around setting delivery dates for placed orders. The following options are available:

• Delivery date is calculated using ERP rules as either the next available delivery date or following a set of rules applied in real-time during checkout. 

• The customer can select a delivery date that suits them

• Suggested delivery dates can be generated based on a set of rules that you specify (for example, restrict to working days only) during your PocketShop app build.

Yes, you can. During your PocketShop build, you can specify a list of stores that your customers can select their orders.

Your customers can enter a delivery address as part of the checkout process.

We support two different shipping charge options:

• flat rate charge, which is calculated based on the cart value for the entire order and the delivery’s destination

• shipping unit charge, which is calculated based on a cart value range and a shipping rule that is associated with a specific product or group of products.

Typically, both these charge options are set up and managed within the Aphix Management Interface. Once your shipping charges are set up in PocketShop, the shipping charge will be automatically calculated when you check-out.

Currently, SagePay is the only payment gateway that is supported for credit and debit card payments in PocketShop.

When you place an order online, you need to pay for it. A payment gateway is a way of transferring the money that you owe for your order from your account to the merchant’s account.

The SagePay payment gateway that is integrated with Aphix PocketShop is a safe, secure way of using credit or debit cards to pay for your order. It is PCI DSS¹ compliant, which means that is meets industry standards for data security.

¹ PCI DSS → Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards

No, your card details are never stored in Aphix PocketShop. The details are captured within a SagePay form and are processed by SagePay.

To view your account details, select My Account from the drop-down menu.

The account details that are displayed are your name, address, email address and phone number. Your credit status and balance are also displayed.

When your customer initially logs in, recent orders are downloaded and stored locally within PocketShop. The information that is stored are the order number, order date and the net amount of each recent order. The order history comes from orders that that customer has placed on any Aphix platforms and on your ERP. For example, if the customer's most recent orders were placed on WebShop, then that order history data is retrieved and displayed.

If your customer is online when they select this option, the latest recent order data is retrieved from your ERP; otherwise, the previously downloaded copy is displayed.

To browse the product catalogue, select Categories from the drop-down menu. Your category structure is the same as that you have set up for WebShop. This means that it can be centrally managed in the Management Interface, and changes made there are reflected in both PocketShop and WebShop.

We recommend that your customers stay logged into PocketShop. We'd suggest that when they are finished using it, they simply close the app. This keeps them logged in, with the following benefits:

• It is quicker for them to place another order the next time they need to - just open the app and get clicking!

• Their shopping cart contains any products that you have added prior to closing PocketShop

• They don’t have to spend time downloading the full product catalogue and pricing information each time you open your app. Instead, this data is automatically synced during the periodic sync or immediately if a change is made in Aphix Management Interface