Original post: Shopify Apps and the Shopify Fund

I’m happy to say that the new version of Jilt is open for business. We are still waiting for Shopify to switch our App Store listing, but the new version of Jilt can be install at the following like: https://jiltapp.com/shopify/login

Important things to know…

Since this was a complete rebuild from the ground up, we are unable to automatically transfer existing users over to the new platform. Instead, you will need to uninstall the old version, then install the new app. Please note current data will not be migrated over. It is extremely important that you uninstall the current version of Jilt before activating your new email campaigns, or else customers may receive two emails.

We now offer a 30 day trial on all our paid plans. Existing customer who were on a paid plan as of January 22nd 2012 will receive an extra two weeks (45 days total) of trial as a thank you. As always, we do offer a limited free plan. Our paid plans have changed slightly. Please review the new plans before switching over.

Existing customers can continue to use the old version of Jilt until March 31st, 2012. We will continue to support users and fix bugs until then, but no new features will be added.

We also have a new support portal. If you run into any problems, please let us know.

At the time, I really didn’t expect it to take off as it did. Jilt is currently used by hundreds of Shopify stores and is responsible for recovering nearly $200,000 in abandoned sales. Needless to say, that was validation enough to convince me that store owners needed an app like this. In October, I started building the next version of Jilt.

Here’s are a few of the features you can expect to see in the new version.

Multiple Email Campaigns.

You can now send up to 3 follow up campaigns. Sending multiple campaigns will greatly improve your chances of a recovery. Each campaign can be individually configured with different subject, content and send time

HTML Email and Personalization

We now have the ability to create HTML emails. Styling options include bold, italic, underline, text align, bullet list, font size, font colour and images. We also now include the ability to personalize the email with a customer’s first name, last name of email address.

Open Email Tracking

With support of HTML email, we can now track when an email has been opened (HTML emails only). Know which campaigns are being opened more than others.
 
Better stats

We’ve improved the statistics we collect, how we collect them and how we display them.

Campaign Scheduling

Abandoned order campaigns are queued on the spot so you can see when they are scheduled to go out, and you now have the ability to cancel any order campaigns from being sent.

These are some of the great features that will be available in the next version of Jilt, but we are not done. We have many exciting new features currently in development.

Hello everyone! I’ve been meaning to send out this newsletter a long time, but things have been extremely busy. There’s no better time than now, because I have important things I want to share with you today.

$100,000 milestone

This week marked a huge milestone for Jilt. We hit $100,000 in recovered sales since we started tracking recoveries in August. This has surpassed my expectations and I’m extremely happy with the results in the last 4 months. Congratulations to all stores and thank you for being part of this big milestone.

Most importantly, the road ahead (Jilt v2)

The main topic I wanted to discuss in this newsletter was the state of Jilt. You may have noticed there hasn’t been too many updates to Jilt in the last few months, despite the promise of exciting new features currently in development. Although I do have new features planned, the road map has changed slightly.

I’ve been listening to your many needs, ideas and suggestions. The hard decision was made to halt development on the current version, and concentrate full development efforts on a brand new version (dubbed V2) that will be much more flexible and extensible. I strongly believe this path is the right one to make Jilt into the product I first envisioned, and the one that you, as a store owner, will want to use to power your abandoned cart email campaigns.

As soon as the basics of this new verion are ready, I will launch it in private beta with a select few store owners and eventually start migrating users over. I will then be able to start rolling out the new features I’ve been promising for months. More details on V2 will be released closer to the beta launch, but I’m extremely excited with where it is headed and I hope you will be too.

Thanks!

Thanks for taking the time to read this email and for being a customer. My goal is to send out a newsletter once a month/two-months, to keep you informed. If you have any suggestions, feedback, or just want to say hello, feel free to send me an email directl at yan {at} statiklabs {dot} com.

All the best,

Yan Sarazin

As mentioned before, this new design will help integrate the new features that are currently in development. As always, I ask that you let me know if you run into any problems.

Currency Formatting.

I also pushed up a change that allows you to set how to display currency in Jilt. By default all stores are set to the United States Dollar, but you can change that in the Settings. I’ve only added a few to start, but if your currency is not displayed, please let me know and I will add it ASAP.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter or on Facebook to be the first to know about upcoming changes.

Why the re-design? I have a lot of features in development that don’t quite fit in the current layout. Before I can release those features, I had to rethink the interface.

I will be launching this new design as an optional beta sometime this week (Aug 29 – Sept 2), with a full release shortly after. I encourage everyone to give it a try and please report any issues, questions or suggestions you may have about this new interface. You will be able to activate the beta by clicking the link  in the top banner show below (once available).

Here is what the new layout looks like. Let me know what you think.

. Towards the end of the interview, Justin mentions Jilt as being one of his top two apps.

You can watch the interview below, or you can read the article here.