It’s been just over two weeks now: our 5th JTL Connect. On August 30, 2019, the anniversary edition bidders, exhibitors and partners a whole day dedicated to eCommerce – with a great atmosphere and numerous highlights included. What were they? Read for yourself:
More visitors, more exhibition space, more listings
Once again, JTL Connect 2019 kicked off with our PreConnect on the evening before the trade fair. The get-together sponsored by the Händlerbund is all about informal networking in a convivial beer garden atmosphere. The Düsseldorf Volksgarten once again provided the perfect backdrop for the event in perfect summer weather, which was once again sold out within a few hours.
Tickets for the actual day of the fair were similarly sought after. And we are pleased to announce that we exceeded last year’s visitor counter numbers: This time, more than 1600 of you visited JTL Connect. We had the foresight to include a larger exhibition area in our planning, so you were able to enjoy an extra 300 square meters of space. Almost 80 companies presented their products and services from the areas of marketplaces, payment, logistics, internationalization and marketing, among others.
A video review of JTL Connect
You think pictures say more than a thousand words? Then don’t miss our recap video, in which you can watch many of the highlights again:
Lots of news from JTL
The keynote speech by Managing Director Thomas Lisson, which most trade fair visitors eagerly await all year, kicks off the trade fair day. This is where he reveals the big secrets of our development and gives a foretaste of what products JTL will be working on in the coming months. This time too. But on the occasion of the Connect anniversary, Thomas fired off a veritable firework display of news from JTL:
JTL-POS
One of the most important topics was our new point of sale system JTL-POS, which entered the open beta phase in June and with which we are taking a huge step towards omni-channel retail.
In the coming months, you can expect not only a release of the stable version of the software, but also a new operating mode: JTL-POS CloudConnected. We will also successively connect more payment partners in the near future and present you with new hardware bundles in the JTL-Store. More information will follow.
Visitors were also able to get a taste of how external hardware components can be connected at the XXL stand of JTL-POS. Here it was all about testing and trying things out. A separate demo store invited visitors to get to know the POS system in productive operation. Selected sponsors had contributed high-quality products that visitors could choose from the large shelves of the JTL-POS-Shop free of charge. So it’s no wonder that the stand area was one of the biggest visitor magnets at JTL Connect this year.
We would like to thank Wolkenseifen, SlowCoffee and Asia-In once again for generously providing their products.
JTL-FFN
Thomas had another big announcement to make about the JTL-Fulfillment Network. Those who follow our blog closely will have seen that he has already kept his promise from the day of the trade fair: Shortly after JTL Connect, the completely redesigned version of the network went into open beta. JTL-FFN 2.0 comes with newly designed search and filter functions, optimized shipping method mapping, improvements to Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime and the ability to connect to third-party ERP systems via the Rest API. Sound interesting? Register now for our JTL-Fulfillment Network:
JTL-SCX
In his keynote, Thomas also revealed our next major project for the first time: JTL-SCX, the so-called Sales Channel Extension, which will soon allow numerous online marketplaces to be docked to JTL-Wawi via an interface, giving you a single comparison of all connected marketplaces. We plan to start the pilot phase for real.de in Q4 2019 and will of course keep you informed about all innovations.
JTL-Wawi
What would Thomas’ keynote speech at the anniversary edition of JTL Connect be without news about the heart of our product range? The new DATEV interface for a direct upload of your tax-relevant data, which is available to you from JTL-Wawi version 1.5, should certainly be emphasized here. The planned integration of a production module into our ERP is also a novelty, with which you can map individual, series and mass production.
So that we can align our development as closely as possible to your practical experience, we are currently still looking for companies with a production facility that use JTL-Wawi.
Would you like to actively participate in the development of our future production module? Get in touch at: info@jtl-software.com
Product Owner Manuel Pietzsch also reveals what other news the Wawi cosmos has in store for you in detail in his video interview on the subject:
Voucher Cloud
Still in the planning stage, but exciting nonetheless: we are currently working on a cross-channel voucher management system under the working title Voucher Cloud. An online portal will give you an overview of all active, used and expired vouchers. An initial test phase is planned for Q1 or Q2 2020.
JTL-Shop 5
We already provided you with some information about JTL-Shop 5 before JTL-Connect, but Thomas went one better in his keynote: With the start of Public Beta 3, a major update phase begins for JTL-Shop. We are continuing to work on the new NOVA template, the OnPage Composer and continue to optimize the front and back end in order to launch the release candidate in Q4. We plan to release the stable version in Q1 2020.
JTL-BI
There was also news about our business intelligence solution JTL-BI, which many visitors have been eagerly awaiting since the last Partner Convention. We are already feeding our system with real data from a major alpha tester, which we are incorporating one-to-one into our development. JTL-BI will be available for you later from JTL-Wawi version 1.6. You will find out shortly when this will be the case.
JTL-Repricer (Update: expires on 30.09.2022)
As we have completely redeveloped our JTL repricer with a dedicated team, Thomas naturally had a lot to report here too: First and foremost, the deeper integration into JTL-Wawi, which gives you a detailed insight into the repricing history, for example. In addition, our price adjustment tool has a new and very fair pricing, which many of you should be pleased about.
Roadmap
Do you want to stay up to date with our products? Then we can recommend our latest project, which Thomas also presented in his keynote speech: Our roadmap went online shortly before the trade fair.
We present new products clearly and transparently in short teaser texts during the concept, development and beta phase and provide an insight into the development status via percentages.
Thomas keynote in video
Would you like to watch Thomas’ keynote in its entirety? Then please click here:
The JTL-WMS demo warehouse - once again a crowd favorite
As already mentioned, the large JTL-POS demo stand was one of the highlights of this year’s Connect. But the WMS demo warehouse was also clearly one of the visitor favorites. As in previous years, visitors stormed the area to get to know our warehouse management software up close and gain hands-on experience. And what better way to do that than with bulging shelves of merchandise waiting to be picked, packed and shipped?
While putting together their own trade fair goodie package, interested visitors were able to see for themselves how JTL-WMS creates efficient and intuitive processes for shipping and storing goods.
We would also like to thank the following sponsors who have once again helped us to fill our warehouse shelves with great items:
Hüdig + Rocholz, ICO Innovative Computer, gewe LagerTec Lagersysteme, RHEWA-WAAGENFABRIK, Packsize, PARCEL.ONE, GPIO Solutions, ads-tec Industrial IT, Klebeshop24, RedZilla, Asia-In, Fitness Kaufhaus, ab-in-die-BOX.de.
And what else was there?Of course, we also peppered the trade fair day with a number of other delicacies. For example, our food truck mile, which was used for the first time this year and took our visitors on a culinary tour of different countries around the world during the lunch break.
We also kept you up to date during the trade fair via Facebook videos and talked to many exciting partners and exhibitors for you. A competition to win an exclusive trade fair bag with high-quality prizes rounded off our social media listing.
Would you like to watch the video interviews again? This way please:
And the after-show party with its barbecue buffet, cocktail stand, DJ and live band also provided a worthy setting for the 5th anniversary edition of our JTL Connect, which once again did not end until the early hours of the following morning.
We can look back with satisfaction on a successful JTL Connect, the 5th edition of which also marked a real milestone for us as a company. Of course, we were all the more pleased to see many familiar faces again and to receive feedback in our visitor survey that our trade fair is a fixed date in the annual calendar for many of you.
However, we can only realize such an event with the help of numerous sponsors, whom we would like to take this opportunity to thank. We would also like to thank our exhibitors, the many helpers and, last but not least, you, our visitors, who have all contributed to creating an unforgettable atmosphere.
We look forward to a repeat next year – again with lots of highlights. We promise!
