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Technical Go-Live: We are at this critical point of our project! Thousands of test scenarios are running to stress test the system and ensure functionality before launching the site to accept orders. This stage also includes all back-end NetSuite commissioning to manage order flow and support the back-office processes. We're also conducting acceptance testing.
What did we do to get to this point? In addition to building the e-commerce platform and functionality, we created from scratch back-office services for pricing, logistics, sales tax administration, banking, customer service, category management, order processing and product fulfillment, freight programs, phone system upgrades, plus a whole lot more!
What's next? As we power through our technical go-live, we'll iron out any wrinkles and prepare for our soft launch in approximately two weeks.
Soft Launch: We'll be live! During our soft launch, the site is ready for transactions. What makes it a soft launch is that we won't actively be driving traffic to the site through marketing campaigns, but testing our site with a manageable amount of orders. For about six weeks, we'll be focused on monitoring, evaluating, and improving the site. During this phase, we'll be ensuring that our support functions are ready as orders are placed to Culitrade. We'll be staffing and training for user support and issue management, building system health maintenance and operational monitoring plans, and preparing for the next phase.
Our soft launch includes Culitrade Closeouts, a clearinghouse destination for dealers' returned items, overstocks, and discontinued items. Transactions on Culitrade Closeouts will pave the way for bringing up our dealer marketplace selling platform, Phase 2 of our site.
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