wpWax Year In Review 2022

Russia invaded Ukraine, Monkeys got human cells, Argentina Lifted Fifa World Cup after 36 Years, and the Football World lost a legend, all in one frame of the year, 2022. 

Oh, what a year we have left behind, haven’t we?

The year 2022 has been a rollercoaster ride with its ups and downs, and WPWax is proud to present the Year In Review. This review encapsulates the most significant events and happenings in the world of wpWax, a concern of SovWare, providing a comprehensive overview of the progress and advancements made in the past 12 months.

From updates on the latest WordPress releases to insights on the growth of the WordPress community, the WPWax Year In Review 2022 is a worth-read for all WordPress enthusiasts and professionals. Get ready to reflect on the year that was and look ahead to the exciting possibilities of what’s to come in the wpWax world.

So, without any more fusses and feathers, let’s dive deep into the juicy part.

Our Overall Growth in Percent 

In 2022, wpWax grabbed almost a 96.24% surplus in revenue, compared to the year 2021. So, guess how auspicious the previous year was! It’s truly great for the company.

Directorist, the Winner of Monster’s Award 2022 

wpWax has been honored to be nominated for its flagship product Directorist for Monster’s Award 2022 in the “The Best  Dynamic WordPress Plugins” category. It was an incredible opportunity for the company to gain recognition among the most innovative companies in the industry. And, the good news is – finally, Directorist became the winner in the above-mentioned category. As this article was posted on the 10th of January 2023, they declared the result on the 9th of January 2023. Directory won the Monster’s Award 2022 in the category of The Best  Dynamic WordPress Plugins.

Best Value Software Award 2022 Winner 

We are thrilled to announce that Directorist won the Best Value Software Award for 2022. Our mission to provide high-quality products at affordable prices has paid off in recognition from industry peers and customers alike. We understand the value of our customers’ hard work, so it was a priority for us to make sure our software met their expectations with features that exceeded both price points and functionality. We look forward to continuing our work toward creating a better experience for everyone who uses our software solutions.

How We Have Passed the Days with Our Product Developments, Marketing, & Customer Supports in 2022 

The days were amazing and there is no doubt. We passed those days with hard work, fun, and a lot more excitement. Below are examples of how we passed the days back in 2022.

Improvements on Directorist, our flagship product

2022 was a pretty run-of-the-mill year for Software industries, albeit with lots of solid success stories for wpWax. For example, we made many changes and upgrades in our flagship product, Directorist. From optimization to bringing extensions, all in between them, are in the frame below.                                                                                                      

1. Directorist optimization

We brought an improvement in Directorist loading speed and now users can reduce page loading time and super fast directory performance in temperaments like

• Asset
• Icon
• Image
• Query

2. Directorist instant search

This feature allows the users to search any listings without experiencing a page loading scenario. Thus, users can save time while searching their required listings.

3. Rent booking system

This is a simple yet powerful feature for rental needs and it especially focuses on hotel directories. Hence, users can get benefits out of this feature.

4. Booking WooComerce payment

Earlier users could execute booking payments using the Direcorist checkout page but in 2022 we developed another feature where users can move with payment using the WooCommerce checkout page. If a user doesn’t want to use the Directorist checkout system, then he/she can easily move on to the WooCommerce checkout page.

5. Booking dashboard payment

Booking dashboard payment allows users to pay at their optimal time. If they want to pay later, no problem, all things are listed on the dashboard for further action.

6. GamiPress integration

Directorist GamiPress Integration is an intuitive, user-friendly, and reliable solution that renders a solid integration between Directorist and GamiPress.

7. Job manager

Directorist-Job Manager is something that seamlessly fulfills someone’s every single wish to place job listings on his/her directory website.

8. Digital marketplace

Digital Marketplace extension connects Directorist with WooCommerce. This extension is useful for a user who wants to create a marketplace and earn a commission on every listing sold.

9. Few more niched themes

In 2022, we launched 5 niche-based WordPress themes including a free theme called Best Listing in the WordPress repository. 

• dJobs- designed to create job directory websites. 
• dHotels- Mapped out to make hotel directory websites
• dClassified- The best-classified ads WordPress theme for classified listing business
• dCar- Car directory WordPress theme 
• Best Listing– A free WordPress directory theme to build any directory website

10. Listing search based on zip code radius

This is an amazing feature with which visitors can search and find nearby business listings based on zip code. And, this feature was introduced in the middle of 2022. 

11. Improve security

For any software, security is an issue. In the modern age, hackers are tremendously smart & dangerous and they can easily put software under bad malfunction. With that keeping in mind, our team of experts did everything needed to improve the level of security so that hackers can do nothing with Directorist. 

12. WPML integration

This extension lets you make your directory website multilingual in the best way possible from one language to another one.

Marketing activities through different channels 

• 60+ articles published for Directorist.com
• 100+ articles for wpWax.com 
• 1000+ social media posts through different platforms 
• Collaboration with well-known companies like WPExplorer
• Products promotion with famous Youtube influencers like MAK 
• Running a live campaign with a famous Facebook influencer named Albert Tan 

Blazing-fast customer supports from support heroes

• 10000+ tickets solved 
• 15000+ replies to the customer queries
• Helped 3000+ customers
• Achieved more than 85% customer happiness score 
• Earned 150+ 5-star ratings

Improvements in the other products

• Legal Pages service cookies blocking system
• Post Grid, Slider, and Carousel Ultimate Elementor support
• Logo Showcase Ultimate Elementor support
• Product Carousel Slider and Grid Ultimate Elementor support
• Post Grid, Slider, and Carousel Ultimate Gutenberg block support
• Logo Showcase Gutenberg block support
• Product Carousel Slider and Grid Ultimate Gutenberg block support

Launching HelpGent, a revolutionary tool for video, audio, text messaging, and screen sharing

What an amazing last quarter of 2022 was for wpWax! With hope and glory, wpWax, a concern of SovWare launched a revolutionary tool named HelpGent for video, audio, and text messaging with room for screen-sharing opportunity. This WordPress plugin helps its users to communicate with their audience asynchronously. We started the first marketing of the product in December with the offer of a significant amount of discount when the holiday season was going on. Still, users can purchase it with an amazing markdown under the Exclusive Early Bird LTD Offer.

We Sponsored a Local Cricket Tournament

We were the proud sponsor of a local cricket tournament consisting of 30+ teams. Though the tournament was local, it was fully professional and exciting. We were happy to sponsor this type of tournament. In the future, we have plans to hand out this type of tournament more and more.

Started to Work on a Non-Profit Project

In the middle of the year, Team wpWax started to develop the holy Quran app with amazing and valued features with the help of AI technology. In the next February, we’re going to launch the 1st phase of the app with a lot of advanced dynamic features and we’re super excited to contribute to the project. 

The aim of the project is pretty much straightforward, to make the app friendly as much as possible to its audience. The most exciting thing is that we are going to bring the touch of AI into this app to improve user experiences and ultimately release it like a built-in Kindle device.

Recreational Activities: Tonic for Mental & Physical Health 

Letting the World know, we aren’t limited to our jobs only rather we do many recreational activities. And, last year was no exception to that. Here are the recreational things we did in 2022. 

1. Refreshment kicked off boredom with an annual tour 

For many of us, a yearly tour is a perfect way to break away from the monotony of everyday life and experience something new. The annual tour to Cox’s Bazar which was packed full of adventure and excitement for everyone from Team wpWax involved kicked off our boredom from day-to-day working hours. Whether it’s a weekend getaway in the countryside, a full-fledged vacation on an exotic beach, or just hours spent exploring the hustle and bustle of city streets was nothing less than fabulous. The activity plan for this event included stops at the Resort, sightseeing excursions, cultural activities, Kayaking, enjoying the WC final on the big screen, and plenty of time for relaxation out there near the sea beach.

2. Arranging an intra-cricket tournament under the banner of SPL( SovWare Premier League)

In the first quarter of 2022, We arranged an intra-cricket tour called SPL and there were 3 teams consisting of 9 players each team, A team named SovWare Raptors led by the CEO, 2nd team called SovWare Lions led by the COO, and the 3rd team named SovWare Strikers led by the CTO. 
We played a round-robin tournament in our home ground (Near Pangaon Port, Dhaka). The tournament was simple yet tremendously exciting. All three teams were brimmed with battle-scarred players. However, the universal rule of nature is that only one will be the winner. Therefore, the winner was SovWare Strikers while SovWare Lions became the runner-up. Overall, the final was a neck-and-neck battle between two finalists.

3. Playing an unofficial match with weDevs

In April of 2022, we arranged an unofficial match with weDevs. In fact, it was our last off-site gathering with an unofficial match with them, which turned out to be an amazing experience.

4. Inauguration of a fitness center for keeping body & mind sound enough 

The inauguration of a fitness center was an exciting opportunity to provide a comprehensive approach to health and wellness. In 2022, SovWare set up a fitness center to help its employees stay active, exercise regularly, and develop improved strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, and overall fitness.

5. Table tennis tournament

We not only played outdoor games but also went with indoor games last year. We arranged a table tennis tournament and almost all the members of SovWare (All weren’t seasoned though)  participated in the tournament. 

Honestly speaking, our table tennis tournament was a huge success! Everyone had a great time playing and socializing. We made sure to secure enough venues so that the tournament could go on without any problems with space constraints. In addition, we ensured that equipment was available for all players, including paddles and balls. All in all, it was an amazing event, and we enjoyed having everyone together to enjoy this classic competitive game. And, a member from Plugin Team came out to be the winner and the runner-up was from Frontend Team.

6. Brought a foosball table to spur up the employees’ level of interest

During the annual tour to Cox’s, SovWare authorities noticed that the team members were busy playing foosball in the compound of the resort where we took a day of stay. This thing grabbed the authority’s mind and getting back to the office, the Admin officer, brought a foosball table so that all the team members could get happy and play with lots of contentment. And, with this amazing game, team members can learn to promote team building and boost productivity.

Other Things We Did Back in 2022 

Apart from the things we mentioned above, here are the other activities that made our 2022 more memorable.

Team leads tour 

It’s no doubt that Team leads are the pillars of wpWax. They have to shoulder lots of stress on the way to their journey. Maintaining & controlling team members, making a solid plan, etc are the things they have to do to bring wpWax to a whole next level. Hence, their happiness and satisfaction matter a lot. 

With that keeping in mind, wpWax arranged a special tour of an eco-resort called Jalalpur Eco Resort in the rural area of Kishoreganj District. Enjoying natural beauty, walking down the muddy streets, drinking pure date juice, spending the night gossiping, and many more amazing things took place on the tour.

Taking solid plans to set up offices abroad 

We have already taken a number of fruitful steps to bring our company into the international gallery like setting up offices in different countries. And, everything is going well as planned. Addressing it, we will give surprises to the community in the coming days.

Arranged a book reading competition 

In the 2nd quarter of the year, Team wpWax took an initiative to build a habit of reading books among the team members. Almost the majority of the team members participated in the competition and the top five scorers from the participants were nicely awarded precious accolades.

Worked for flood victims

Last year, we got an opportunity to help some of the victims of the devastating flood. We built homes for those who became homeless during the flood. Apart from these, we helped them financially to meet their must-have needs. We are happy to be part of this initiative towards rejuvenating flood victims which made a difference in people’s lives even if it was only a little bit!

What We Couldn’t Achieve in 2022

In our organization, setting ambitious goals and achieving many of them has been part of our mindset and commitment to excellence. However, due to some internal issues and the worldwide recession, some of our 2022 targets could not be met, despite all the efforts we have made. We forwent marketing, recruitment, and office expansion plans entirely, which, in turn, hindered our growth ambitions for 2022. 

With a narrower focus on core products and services in this continued period of uncertainty, we did not manage to fully achieve market penetration as we had planned. Going forward though, we remain committed to bringing about positive changes for our organization that help us reach

Optimization issue on Directorist

Our primary target was to optimize Directorist and all its extensions. We achieved 70% of it for Directorist and 30% for the extensions. There is still plenty of room for improvement which we target to achieve within the first quarter of 2023.

Unable to release all themes as planned

We successfully released 5 out of 7 themes in 2022. The remaining two will be released in January 2023. However, we were supposed to release all themes we targeted in the year but we couldn’t due to some unavoidable issues.

Incomplete extensions

Due to the overwhelming demand for features that were not on our roadmaps, we were unable to complete developing the Schema Markup and Advanced Review systems. We adopt a customer-centric development approach, prioritizing tasks in accordance with user requirements.

Delay to launch HelpGent

Our original plan was to launch HelpGent in the second quarter and turn it into a reliable solution by 2022. However, the project got delayed and was introduced with limited features. In the 2nd quarter of 2023, we plan to enrich HelpGent with quality features for a better user experience.

Issues with features of Legal Pages

Our new year campaign turned out to be a success and we received some amazing feedback for the Legal Pages plugin. We were unable to complete the development of the feature to embed legal pages on non-wp sites along with CalOPPA, and GAPP templates.

Discontinued HRM

An exciting custom HRM tool to manage employees and boost productivity was in the works for a while but was discontinued due to some complexities which we further didn’t resolve.

Unable to launch Mobile app

In the days of 2022, we wanted to launch a mobile app which we couldn’t do due to some unavoidable issues. But, in the future, we will work on it.

Looking Forward to 2023 with The Things Bigger 

The year 2023 will be the year that fills our bucket with the things we left unfinished back in 2022. With the best effort, we will do the things right below.

New WordPress product releases

We always try our best to bring our company to an incredible height, therefore, we excavate opportunities. With that keeping in mind, we aim to release some exciting products like WordPress plugins and themes.

Design Improvements on our all products

In 2023, we will pay deep concentration on updating the designs of all listings layouts, single listing layouts, and search listings and these things are one of the noteworthy goals of 2023.

UX Improvements on the products

We have already begun working to enhance the overall user experience. We want to give users the best directory experience possible while minimizing the steps required to complete a task.

Bring more integrations

We will be focusing more on integrations, especially the page builders. Also, we will excavate more options so that we can provide our users with a smoother user experience.

Hire more support heroes

To improve the support system, we will be adding more customer service representatives( both day & night shifts) and developing a customer portal for managing tickets to ensure a better support system.

Themes optimization

2023 will end the struggle of directory theme complexities as we are going to work on optimizing the themes to a whole different level with better and improved temperaments.

More extensions releases

In this year, we will mainly focus on optimizing and making Directorist more user-friendly. Hence, we will pitch out a few extensions in 2023 to make the whole thing easier for our users.

Development in HelpGent

In 2023, we aim to make HelpGent a solid replacement for contact forms by introducing custom fields, multiple steps, and more. Not only that, our vision is to transform HelpGent into an asynchronous communication tool with live notifications and support agent management. Moreover, we will add a host of useful features to it so that users can get the most out of it.

Polishing Legal Pages

We are planning to hire a certified attorney to verify and update all the legal templates along with developing features so you can use the templates on non-wp sites. Thus, avoiding legal issues will be a breeze.

Bolster collaboration with other companies

We are looking forward to raising our collaboration opportunities with top companies so you get more value by purchasing wpWax products. It’s not just the product you will get but external values as well!

Increase the volume of team members

Being nostalgic about the days we started our journey with a big aspiration back in 2017, we got scared with the days of uncertainty, challenges, and many things but couldn’t stop the journey. And, we can realize we have been getting bigger and bigger. We are growing with success, breaking challenges and all oddities. 

Hence, we need a solid team with an energetic, well-mannered, and seasoned workforce. And, the same reason is why we plan to increase the volume of our team members in the days to come.

End Lines

The wpWax Year In Review 2022 has highlighted the progress, growth, and impact of wpWax on the world of WordPress in the past year. The journey has been full of challenges, but the team wpWax has risen to each and everyone, continuing to push the boundaries of what is possible.

As we look ahead to the future, we can be sure that wpWax will reach the forefront of innovation, providing endless opportunities for growth, creativity, and success. With the continued support of its vibrant and dedicated circle, there’s no limit to what wpWax can achieve. Thank you for joining us on this retrospective journey and here’s to an even brighter future for wpWax.