What actually happened at JTL Connect 2018? Now that we’ve already presentedsome of the highlights, here’s a comprehensive review of this year’s trade fair.
Full house
Both JTL Connect and the associated PreConnect event the evening before were sold out this year. This applied to PreConnect in record time in 2018 – the event sponsored by the Händlerbund was enthusiastically received by trade fair visitors who had arrived early. On the evening of August 30, a large number of industry insiders, retailers and exhibitors came together to make contacts and exchange ideas.
JTL-Connect itself attracted around 1,600 visitors to Düsseldorf this year, once again more than last year. By lunchtime at the latest, the highly frequented stands and the plenum of our presentations showed that we can make further adjustments to the space available for the following year. In conversations with many of the visitors, it also became clear that JTL Connect has outgrown the original idea of an in-house exhibition. People interested in eCommerce as well as retailers outside of the JTL product world and even school classes used the trade fair to gain a direct insight into Germany’s rapidly growing online business.
So for a better impression of the event, don’t miss our recap video:
The most popular stand this year was once again our warehouse management system JTL-WMS, including a live demo warehouse. This also served as the conclusion of the JTL-WMS Roadshow 2018, but it was closely followed by the JTL-Shop stand, where visitors could test out JTL-Shop 5 including the new OnPage Composer, but above all the rest of our logistics solutions. The JTL-Shipping team gave many new retailers an impression of sample packing tables in combination with JTL-Packing Bench+. At the JTL-FFN stand, many eCommerce professionals were again able to get an impression of the possibilities with fulfillment from us and our partners.
Lots of highlights
In our first short recap of the JTL keynote, we have already shown you some notable innovations – including the upcoming tech preview for JTL-Shop 5, the opening of the JTL-Fulfillment Network Beta or the RDP hosting that was released a week and a half ago (update note: RDP hosting has been replaced by JTL-Wawi Cloud; as of 08.2021). But that was by no means all. Thomas Lisson also announced the internationalization of our products. We are launching the entire product range in English. Preparations are already underway to deliver an English release of JTL-Wawi and Co. in the near future.
Speaking of JTL-Wawi: What would a JTL-Connect be without insights into innovations for our ERP? In addition to Customer 2.0 and Issue 2.0, the spotlight was also on the new JTL-WMS Mobile 2.0 app. It makes our warehouse management software even easier to use. Another logistics highlight will be the new JTL-Track&Trace shipment tracking system. We will be taking a closer look at both soon.
However, visitors were amazed at what followed: Thomas gave a preview of JTL-Wawi 1.5. Although its release is still some way off, it comes with further parts of our project 2.0. Sales order 2.0, invoice 2.0, address validation, carton management and much more were mentioned as keywords. The focus of this major release is clearly on optimizing performance.
The last big highlight for us was the announcement of JTL-POS. As the name might suggest, it is an in-house point of sale system based on Android and can therefore also be used on mobile devices. However, the most striking feature is probably the two different modes of use. JTL-POS can either be used in conjunction with JTL-Wawi or as a standalone version. The user is free to choose the hardware for the tablet, printer, scanner, display, etc., while the software can be easily obtained via Google Play.
Partner offers and promotions
The partners and exhibitors were also crowded with curious visitors. The main sponsor of the trade fair, Amazon Pay, presented its new solution for voice commerce on the main stage. During the event, our joint JTL Connect campaign is running until September 30. If you book Amazon Pay by the deadline, you can save up to €180 on hosting fees. You can find out more about the promotion here:
https://www.jtl-software.com/loesungsanbieter/amazon-pay#unternehmen
marcos software finished the new Etsy integration via unicorn2 in time for JTL Connect – just in time for the switch of former DaWanda customers to the new DIY marketplace. Solution360 announced that the easyTemplate360 is now also available free of charge in a basic version and promptly raffled off some Echo models among the visitors. Packing table expert Hüdig + Rocholz again raffled off two professional packing tables for event participants, but many other exhibitors also presented special trade fair promotions and exciting news.
Experience eCommerce
What happened away from the stands? At the speed dating event with developers, curious visitors were able to give their feedback, while many retailers used the coffee bar to network. In the evening, this was also the focus for the rest of the attendees. Over drinks and music, various groups of visitors, exhibitors and our employees mingled and chatted about business and experiences from the day.
Anyone who wasn’t able to get a ticket for the event this year didn’t have to miss out on the annual dose of online trade fair. Our video team with presenter Max conducted several interviews on site and showed these as well as live impressions of the day on our Facebook page.
And Thomas Lisson also had one last announcement about our Facebook presence itself in his keynote speech: There has been a dedicated JTL Facebook group since the event. This serves as an extension of our forum. This means that you can also find valuable content from JTL partners here (exciting workflows from Shopküche, for example), while other users are working on the first video formats for this, for example. Last weekend, we passed the first milestone of 1,000 members and are delighted about the lively participation in discussions and support among the members.
To the official JTL software group on Facebook
Conclusion
A fourth successful JTL Connect is now behind us. The visitors had many words of praise for the friendly, helpful atmosphere. For us, this was special praise, as it shows that we can also transfer our company philosophy to an event of this size.
Once again, we would like to thank all sponsors, exhibitors, the numerous partners of our JTL-WMS stand, the hard-working helpers and, above all, the visitors for a great eCommerce day. We are already looking forward to JTL-Connect 2019 – initial planning is already underway.
