As a level 1 PCI-DSS provider...They take on the technical burden of implementing best-in-class security standards, continuous monitoring and auditing; giving us piece of mind that we have done everything in our power to protect our customers.
Rochester, NY (PRWEB) May 23, 2017
Unified commerce platform provider UniteU Technologies, Inc. recently announced the launch of Lions-Pride.com, the online division of Lions Pride, a Pennsylvania retail mainstay that’s been selling licensed collegiate sportswear and memorabilia to Penn State students, alumni and fans since 1976.
After more than 40 years of operation, including many years of online sales, Lions Pride was looking for an end-to-end e-commerce platform that would provide top-of-the-line security standards across the platform, hosting environment and site operations. After extensive due diligence the team chose UniteU, and the UniteU team was able to implement the retailer’s design on the UniteU Commerce® platform—including full integration and synchronization with existing retail- and back-office systems—on an accelerated timeline of eight short weeks.
Finding an end-to-end partner was important to the Lions Pride team, as they had previously worked with a popular open-source platform that required contracting a separate integration partner for their in-store point-of-sale system, acquiring third-party plug-ins and add-ons for the platform, and then contracting a company to implement them—plus a hosting provider. With multiple technical handoffs and complexities, this created security vulnerabilities that the Lions Pride team weren’t satisfied with, and so they began looking for a provider that could provide better safeguards for customer data.
“As a level 1 PCI-DSS provider, UniteU takes care of all 12 steps of DSS security compliance for us,” said Steve Moyer, Store Manager/ Head Buyer at Lions Pride. “They take on the technical burden of implementing best-in-class security standards, and continuous monitoring and auditing. This gives us the piece-of-mind that we have done everything in our power to protect our customers.”
Besides easing security concerns, the smooth relaunch of the site also employs the latest Google recommendations for search engine optimization (SEO), responsive and mobile site best practices, and for delivering all aspects of the entire eCommerce site via HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) and SSL (Secure Socket Layer). This new standard—which UniteU fully supports—provides an added layer of encryption, data integrity and authentication across not just checkout processes, but all site pages. This provides both protection for customers, and as Google has indicated in various statements, may be rewarded with increasing biases in search-engine rankings.
The Lions Pride team was also able to yield significant productivity improvements with UniteU’s advanced order-processing workflow, and by reducing the number of technical partners and concerns that previously required their attention.
“Being able to rely on a single provider for seamless integration with our store, ongoing website updates, security and growth-consulting has really restructured things for us,” Moyer said. “Now we can focus on what is important, and that’s providing the best-possible experience for our valued alumni and customers.”
In addition to integration with Lions Pride’s point-of-sale system for synchronized inventory across in-store and online channels, Lions Pride has also been able to leverage UniteU’s integration with best-in-class e-commerce shipping provider ShipStation®. This has significantly improved Lions Pride’s fulfillment processes. Previously the retailer handled fulfillment directly through their point-of-sale, causing inefficiencies and bottlenecks in processing large volumes of orders during the busy football season. The ShipStation® integration simplifies order fulfillment, enabling it to be completed in bulk with minimal clicks and through multiple carriers. UniteU orchestrates and automates the synchronization of information across all systems, and receipts and tracking information are reconciled with the point-of-sale, making the process as hands-off as possible for the retailer.
Lions Pride has plans to continue innovating the new site, including an updated blog integration in the works that will stream content directly into the e-commerce site, to be hosted with the site natively. The team plans to use this content to inform customers with collegiate news, and to obtain the added benefit of SEO and organic Internet traffic. Additional plans are also being laid to introduce products with UniteU-supported engraving and other personalization options, allowing customers to personalize their team and college gear.
“We are very excited to have the Lions Pride team on-board, and plan to work closely with them to continue to drive the digital customer experience forward for Penn State fans, students and alumni,” said Soumen Das, CEO and Founder of UniteU.
About UniteU
UniteU® orchestrates state-of-the-art commerce experiences for mid-market retailers, brands and B2B. The Unified Commerce Data Hub™, offers flexible data mapping tools and a work-flow engine that enables the transparency of data between systems necessary to implement cross-channel features such as find in-store, buy online pickup in-store and flexible fulfillment. Achieving Unified Commerce just got simpler. Clients include all Worldwide Golf Shops properties and brands, Al’s Sporting Goods, Hickey Freeman, Hyde Park Jewelers and many more.