The SuiteCommerce Blog Extension is one of many provided by Netsuite. These additional features add functionality and can genuinely enhance your eCommerce website.
Today, we are focusing exclusively on the SuiteCommerce Blog Extension.
Intro to the SuiteCommerce Blog
The SuiteCommerce Blog feature lets you create blog posts and categorize them using the Site Management Tools. You can add images and rich text, include post previews, and determine the categories for the blog list. You can find all the technical aspects of the SuiteCommerce blog extension, by clicking on this link!
How does it work?
To start with, you need SuiteCommerce or SCA enabled in your account. Next, you need to install the bundle, and you should create a blog category in the backend. There are two content types: the blog post and the blog list.
Here is a small demo of how it works. We start at the site management tool. And because the blog works on a CMS, it’s easy for everyone to use!
The first thing you need to do is create a main landing page for your blog. Then you need to create a specific landing page for the post content. As you can see, you can easily drag-and-drop the blog list area to the CMS.
Here is where you select on which blog category you’re going to source the post on your blog. You can have several categories listed on one blog page. Right now, there are no posts, so nothing is showing yet. Below you can see the blog list landing page and the blog post landing page.
Creating a blog post.
To start creating a blog post, you first need to set all the information specific to the post, such as title, main image, and author. Tip: You can drag-and-drop images from your computer!
For the body of the blog post, you can use the built-in editor, which has all the same features as any standard editor. Or, if you prefer to edit with HTML, you can do that too!
Last but not least, in the Blog Preview section, you will need to enter the post’s name, a brief description and a text for the clickable button.
Are there any catches?
As with any pre-built extension, there are some advantages and disadvantages. But it very much depends on the needs of each individual user. Let’s see the pros and cons.
You can’t edit the structure or add fields in the extension because it’s a NetSuite Extension; we can’t work on the script. We can only work on the templates or styling of the extension.
If we want to add more fields, we would need to create our own blog extension. So if we want to change or adjust multiple things, we can use NetSuite’s extension as a base and work around it.
One last thing: please bear in mind that until now, there’s no option to grant blog access to someone who is not an administrator. The specific role of Blog Manager does not yet exist, but we’re positive that it’s only a matter of time!
SuiteCommerce Extensions make everything easier for merchants. So if in addition to the Blog you’re looking for more out-of-the-box solutions, check out the chart below (and click on it for more info) showing some of NetSuite’s folder native extensions applicable for SCA Aconcagua and later versions. Just a little heads up: there are a lot more than those pictured below.
I encourage you to try and have fun with this feature. If you have any questions or want to learn more about the SuiteCommerce blog extension, send us a message!
