Introduction - The Social Commerce Hub
The Internet is all about connectivity, and regardless of how well you are doing, you could always be doing better. Affino’s mantra has always been one of self-sufficiency, productivity and empowerment, yet we at Comrz realize that there will always likely be more people milling around Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn than any Affino Community sites. Also, no matter how well your Affino store is run, there will always be more potential customers already browsing on Amazon, Google Base and eBay. So what if you could have the best of both worlds? Have an amazing fully-fledged, independent website that you run yourself, but also make use of all the leading websites and technologies that already pervade the webisphere.
Affino already utilises a number of 3rd party technologies like media embedding, content delivery and various - now industry-standard tools and utilities, but the next phase of development will focus even more on drawing customers in from existing larger social communities (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) - this phase is largely complete now. Next comes the store integration - whereby Affino stores will be able to automatically distribute products through to Amazon marketplace, Google Base and eBay.
We will also be looking to integrate more closely with Google Analytics and Advertising, both by tighter integration with key Webmaster utilites,and Google AdSense, as well as Google’s DoubleClick.
There are many more services and technologies covered as highlighted below:
Content
The core of Affino’s content integration revolves around incoming and outgoing feeds (Syndication and Aggregation). These can be RSS or Atom feeds, and Affino does not just take in straight content feeds, it filters and transforms the source content to provide fully targeted content - utilising various content, user and Topic filters. On the above diagram we also see Content Subs (Subscriptions) which you might expect to be listed under Promotion, along with Notifications and Newsletters. All these are content delivery tools, as well as promotional tools and could sit under either category.
In addition to Feeds and Subs, Affino seamlessly integrates with Google Maps for embedded content maps - as utilised on Venue, Service or Job listings to give geographical reference to essential location-based content.
Finally, Affino makes extensive use of Content delivery networks to improve website access speeds and reliability.
Key Content Delivery Technologies:
- RSS / Atom Syndication and Aggregation
- Content Subs
- Newsletters and Notifications
- Content Delivery Networks; examples of which include:
Store / Retail
In the main, Affino’s Store integrations have traditionally been with Payment Gateways, as can be seen by the signficant number of payment providers already covered. With the launch of the Affino eCommerce Webservice API, things have moved on dramatically this year, allowing Affino to easily integrate with ERP, accountancy, inventory and product catalogue systems.
Over the coming weeks we will be integrating Affino directly into key ecommerce leaders for seamless, automated product distribution.
Key Retail Technologies:
- Affino eCommerce Webservice API
- Payment Gateways; including:
- Product Catalogues Delivery; WILL* include:
* NOTE * - under development
Media
Affino’s main integration is with the video providers and most of the key social video platforms are supported and fully integrated into the Affino Media Library / Media Editor / Digital Asset Management System. Affino also integrates with Amazon for product artwork (Music / Album Artwork), SlideShare for presentations (flashified PowerPoint Presentations) and with Apple iTunes for presenting Podcasts.
Key Media Delivery Technologies:
Promotion
The very nature of promotion means that Affino closely integrates with 3rd parties for social bookmarkers and ad serving. Affino also provides extensive newsletter and other email updates which are compatible with all the leading email clients. Other aspects such as RSS feeds and Social Integration act as key promotion tools.
Key Promotional Technologies:
- Ad Servers; including
- Social Bookmarkers
- Content Subs
- Newsletters and Notifications
* NOTE * - any Ad Server can be connected by way of a script currently; Comrz is looking to integrate Google’s ad serving technologies even more closely in the near future
Community
Affino does two way synchronisation with the leading social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook. Currently Affino is being developed to seamlessly integrate with LinkedIn as well.
Key Community Technologies (Social Media):
* NOTE * - under development
Analysis
The biggest integration projects being undertaken right now are being done between Affino and the Google Trifecta. These developments will greatly improve Affino’s integration with other 3rd party analytics tools. Since Google is the market leader we’ve focused on integrating with its key analytics products as a priority.
Key Analysis Technologies:
* NOTE * - under development
