The IC development team has been actively developing new features and addressing bug fixes since our last release less than a month ago. Here's a sneak peek at what you can expect next week; the exact release date will be announced later this week.

New Features:

A quick update on the status of the migration and IndieCommerce 2.0. 

Over 200 stores are live on IndieCommerce 2.0 and over 100 stores are in the migration pipeline. 

One of the major issues slowing down the migration is bookstores not responding to repeated inquiries about moving forward with their migration process. If stores are unable to respond to our initiation of their migration, or unable to continue moving their migration forward in a reasonably timely manner, they will be moved to the back of the queue so we can keep moving to migrate other stores.

More Customer Support and More Developers Join the IndieCommerce Team
The additional funds that were recently approved by the ABA board to expedite the migration to IndieCommerce 2.0 have resulted in:

• Two new customer support representatives. Say hello to Yunis Simon and Peter Bentivegna. Their primary tasks are all related to assisting stores with their migration scheduling and moving stores as quickly as possible through the migration process.
   
• We now have a total of eight developers working on core 2.0 features as well as site migrations. We are seeing a tremendous increase in the amount of code being produced for advanced features which has allowed us to address the migration requirements of larger stores that need these on their IC 2.0 websites.

A few other migration related items for you…

On Thursday May 23rd the ABA Board met, voted, and approved an additional 1.1 million in funding for IndieCommerce (IC) after the 2024 Annual Meeting. This funding will accelerate the migration process for stores that are currently on the legacy 1.0 platform to the new IC 2.0. 

Google Analytics for Independent Bookstores
As online sales have become a more significant source of revenue for independent bookstores, understanding what is actually happening on your website has become more important than ever. You may already be familiar with the basics of running an ecommerce website, but leveraging advanced tools like Google Analytics 4 (GA4) can be a game-changer providing deep insights into your website's performance, helping you make informed decisions to boost sales and traffic or even figure out what's happening when something is going wrong.

In early April we asked stores already live on IndieCommerce 2.0 to participate in a survey about their experience with their new website. We sent survey invites to every bookstore that is currently hosted on IndieCommerce 2.0 and 25.2% of those stores have completed the survey so far.
 

Recent Bookstore ECommerce Sales Trends

Consumer sentiment about buying online from their local bookstore radically shifted post COVID. We are still feeling the ramifications of what occurred over the past four years. Some major points to consider are:
 

IndieCommerce 2.0 Update

April 4, 2024

Like most major construction projects, IndieCommerce 2.0 has had its fair share of delays. We know that has been frustrating for stores not just eager to transition to the new platform but desperately needing to modernize their website, ensure they are competitive, serve their customers needs, and optimize their online sales.

The ABA team working on this project are unwavering in this commitment and the project continues to be a top priority for ABA. 

The ABA Board has approved an additional $300K to help expedite as many store site migrations by the end of the year as possible.

If any of your questions are not addressed in this FAQ, please contact [email protected]

IC 2.0 Migration FAQ

IC 2.0 Migration Steps

Best Practices for store to follow to keep their site accessible