uStore FAQ

What is uStore

uStore is software from XMPie that is designed for web-to-print applications. With uStore, you can create and manage online stores and marketing portals.

For print service providers, uStore offers the convenience of providing an online storefront that can be open 24/7 allowing customers to order print products at their convenience.

In-plant print rooms can create a portal for their organization with features that streamline the ordering and production processes creating efficiencies and cost savings.

For corporate and enterprise customers, marketing materials, contracts and other business documents can be customized, ordered, printed and distributed securely.

Storefront vs. backoffice

uStore consists of two different web applications:

The storefront - where customers can browse, customize and purchase products.
The backoffice or uStore admin - where administrators can create stores, add products, configure the properties and prices, as well as manage orders, and run reports.

What is FreeFlow Core

FreeFlow Core is Xerox's prepress workflow software. With FreeFlow Core, you can automate your PDF prepress tasks like preflighting, imposition, and distributing the resulting file to your press.

Using FreeFlow Core to automate prepress of orders received online means that you can process a greater number of small orders more efficiently and cost effectively.

Products in uStore can be set to use one or more FreeFlow Core workflows so that when orders are received these prepress tasks are handled automatically, or an operator can determine which of the predefined workflows should be applied.

In addition to processing documents from uStore, FreeFlow Core can also be used for other inhouse jobs streamlining both online and offline prepress tasks in your print room.

What types of stores can be created

uStore includes the following store types:

Restricted store (B2B): This type of store requires visitors to log in and it is usually used to set up a storefront for a specific business or company. For example, where the products in the store can only be seen or purchased by specific users - like employees of a particular company.

A common B2B workflow could be where a company regularly orders print products from a print service provider (PSP). For example, for an insurance company, it could be a manager that logs in to the store and approves business cards’ orders that were placed by members of his team.
Public store (B2C): This type of store does not require visitors to log in to view the store and its the products, but they need to log in to check out or purchase from the store. For example, a visitor, who is new to store and has not previously ordered products from the store. The visitor would be able to browse through the product catalog and preview a calendar with his children's pictures, but would need to register to check out and purchase the product.
uStore Connect/Enterprise store: This is a special implementation of uStore that allows you to embed a store's products within a 3rd-party online store. This means that an existing online store can include dynamic or variable documents and emails from uStore, but keeps its own branding, user experience, order numbers, and payment system, among other things. Integrating uStore Connect into other e-Commerce solutions usually involves development or implementation by XMPie Professional Services or a 3rd party developer.

Each store can be branded differently for different customers or companies. Users can belong to one or more user groups that permit access to different stores.

What types of products can be sold in uStore

Static print products like annual reports, brochures, forms, reports and the like. It is possible for these to be either print-on-demand or held in inventory/warehouse. Static non-print products like stationery, promotional products and appliances can also be sold.
Dynamic print products like business cards, customized brochures, personalized booklets, and much more. In addition, dynamic non-print products like promotional products (pens, cups, shirts) with customized logos or text can also be sold.

Dynamic products are where uStore becomes most interesting because the customer can change the design of the product. In general, dynamic products can be:
- Customized - by entering or selecting values in a webpage form, or
- Personalized - by uploading a spreadsheet of data.
Dynamic XLIM documents can be edited by the administrator using the uEdit editor in the backoffice, or modified by the customer in the storefront.
Items delivered electronically, like software, installers, images, PDF documentation (either static or dynamic).
Kits of multiple items (either dynamic or static).
Labels and Packaging (3D) products like bags, boxes, tubes, bottles, jars and even customized cardboard cut out furniture. This type of product can also be used to show metalic foils and varnishes, embossing, diecuts and other 3D types of features.

3D label and package products are designed specifically for the packaging industry to help customers visualize three (3) dimensional products.
Upload and composite products - allow your customer to upload PDF, Microsoft Word or PowerPoint files for printing. This could be as simple as one uploaded file, or several: being covers and chapters in a book.

Additionally, the store administrator can create composite products that include preconfigured static or dynamic products together with the files uploaded by the customer.
Email products - if your XMPie server includes a cross media license, you will also be able to create email products, where the store administrator can create email templates that the shopper can customize, upload their email list and schedule the email to be sent out. This is great for things like monthly email newsletters or holiday messages.
Cross media products - again, if your server is licensed for cross media, both email products and dynamic products can include a website with a personalized URL. The web pages are created by the administrator as templates that can be customized by the shopper. The recipients are uploaded and the personalized URL is added to the email or dynamic print document.

XLIM vs. InDesign

XLIM is XMPie's own proprietary document composition engine, which can be purchased on request.

XLIM documents are significantly faster than InDesign documents to process, but to achieve this, there are some design constraints since XLIM will not support all the features of InDesign.

A XLIM document is created in Adobe InDesign on the desktop.

Some features that are not supported in XLIM include:

Dynamic styles.
Transparency or non-solid color fills.
Some graphic copy fitting options are not available.
Some specialty InDesign text features like All Caps, hyphenation and text wrap.
Color management with ICC profiles.
Dynamic or variable page sizes.

How to begin

This online help focuses on the procedures performed in the uStore backoffice. These procedures are used to create and manage online stores that service customers.

The administrator’s workflow includes the following procedures: