by Andy Carlson

At DilSe.IT, we take pride in creating innovative processes and technologies that add value for Ace Hardware store owners, managers, and associates.

Now that Zebra handheld devices are becoming ubiquitous in most Ace stores, retailers are finding many innovative ways to use them.  We’ve been helping our DilSe.IT clients setup email delivery to their handheld devices to provide an alert when an Acehardware.com order is received.  The Ace commitment is to validate stock and respond to the customer’s order within 15 minutes.  This means store associates must literally jump-on each order as soon as it is received.  The Zebra device can be configured to display a pop-up alert and sound an alert chime each time an order is received making you much more responsive.  Remember, the customer browsing in your store hasn’t spent any money with you yet until they run through point-of-sale, but the on-line customer has already entered their credit card information and paid for their order – responding to those orders is equally as important as serving the customer who’s in the store.

Here’s the process…

1. On your email server, create an email address orders@yourcompany.com
2. In AceNet set this email address as your alerts email for Acehardware.com orders
3. On your Zebra device, open the Settings app
4. Tap Passwords and Accounts
5. Under Accounts For, tap Add Account
6. Tap the type of account you want to add
7. Follow the on-screen instructions
8. Once the orders@ account has been added, open the Gmail app
9. In the top left, tap Menu
10. Tap Settings
11. Select your account
12. Tap Notifications and select a notification level
13. Tap Inbox Notifications
14. Choose your notification settings, including sounds

The same process can be used to configure employees’ personal devices to receive orders@ emails if you wish to do so.  However, since associates are constantly using the Zebras in their daily job, setting up these order alerts on your Zebra devices is a great way to improve your responsiveness.

From the Desk of Andy Carlson, 17 Year Ace Store Owner. Andy Carlson opened his original Ace Hardware store in 2006 after a twenty-year corporate career in technology.  After closing his store in September 2022, Andy joined forces with Paresh Rana to help expand DilSe.IT.  Andy has 17 years of Ace technology expertise including Epicor, Mango, Margin Master, PCI compliance, Benjamin Moore, the Ace Retailer app, Zebras and more. For more information, please email us at DeskOfAndy@DilSe.IT