Seasons Greetings and Happy Holidays from OrderDynamics in 2011!

It has been a great year, and the OrderDynamics team would like to extend our appreciation to all of our Clients, Partners and Vendors for their support and the wonderful opportunities we’ve had together in 2011.

This year was a year of exceptional growth for OrderDynamics and our clients. Our Platform Team launched exciting and cutting edge platform features to deliver power frontend and backend tools designed help grow B2C and B2B revenues. Our Project Team planned and launched over 15 new websites while our Account Services Team helped optimize current client’s websites and execute on their annual strategic plans.

With the release of our Highly Integrated Virtual Ecosystem, or H.I.V.E™, OrderDynamics continued integrations with numerous companies including ShopRunner, Commission Junction, PepperJam, ShopBot, Channel Advisor, and many others, providing services that fuse together to offer a streamlined and cost-effective way for our clients to leverage leading 3^rd party tools with the OrderDynamics Platform.

One of our biggest announcements this year was the release of OrderDynamics Mobile™. Our mCommerce platform is feature-rich and standards-based, allowing merchants to seamlessly integrate across eCommerce and mCommerce channels on any touch enabled device – giving them greater ability to drive revenue and satisfy their mobile customers.

For the second year in a row, OrderDynamics is obtaining FitforCommerce verification, and it will be valid through to the end of 2012. This program is an important part of how OrderDynamics helps our Clients grow by ensuring our platform meets the latest industry standards.

The success of this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday long weekend was a pleasant surprise for OrderDynamics and the eCommerce community. OrderDynamics processed 93% more orders over the same weekend last year and many OrderDynamics clients saw sales double and triple. The On-Demand nature of OrderDynamics platform proved to be our greatest strength during this record-breaking weekend for online sales, allowing our clients to easily accommodate extreme spikes in traffic and orders.

We look forward to continuing to service our clients with the most innovative trends in 2012, and building on the success of 2011. From our family to yours, Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for the New Year!

Recorders.com Servicing More Customers since Re-Launching with OrderDynamics

Toronto, ON – The leading supplier of digital voice recorders and accessories, Recorders.com, recently re-launched their award-winning eCommerce website on the OrderDynamics On-Demand eCommerce platform.

OrderDynamics announces another successful website migration to their On-Demand eCommerce Platform with Recorders.com. The new B2C and B2B website was completely redesigned and re-launched on the OrderDynamics platform, enabling exciting new features designed to convert and service more customers. The new Recorders.com website provides the most comprehensive source for digital voice recorders, software, and accessories with integrated customer service tools that allow Recorders to deliver their award-winning support in real-time. In just 5 months, Recorders.com has seen dramatic improvements including:

· 33% Total Visits Growth

· 5% Revenue Growth

· 46% Organic Visitor Growth

"We are very pleased with the new website and the OrderDynamics platform which has put us in an industry-leading position. We are elite partners with our suppliers and OrderDynamics enables a single database for backend platform automation." explains Krish Michaels, CEO of Recorders.com. "By leveraging the latest eCommerce best practices and proactive service from OrderDynamics, Recorders.com is servicing more shoppers and delivering superior customer service tools over our competition. We’ve become a one-stop shop for support, customer service and training for an enhanced, streamlined customer experience," continues Michaels. In addition to the customer service tools, the new Recorders.com has seen significant organic search placement increases using out-of-box tools within OrderDynamics. The new eStore also leverages latest features like multi-select guided navigation, SEO, Promotions, Complex Pricing, Merchandising, Recommendations, Product Personalization, Content Personalization, Rich Imaging, Product Reviews, and more. In addition, Recorders.com provides industry specific shopping tools, like unique short description by industry, and integrated customer support tickets in the shopper’s My Account section using OrderDynamics Case Management system.

"The Recorders.com project was a huge success and we’re excited about enabling their revenue growth for years to come” says Michael Turcsanyi, President of OrderDynamics. "We congratulate the Recorders team on the launch and look forward to future phases".

About Recorders.com

Recorders.com is the leading supplier of digital dictation equipment in the United States. For over 10 years, Recorders.com has been in the dictation, transcription, and voice recognition industry and was established to help an ever growing Mobile Society communicate information quickly and easily. Recorders ships same business day on most orders and products are inventoried in 7 warehouses across the United States to ensure Quick Shipments.

OrderDynamics to Exhibit at the Dx3 Canada 2012

Canada’s leading On-Demand eCommerce Platform Provider, OrderDynamics Corporation, is an official sponsor and exhibitor at this year’s Dx3 Canada Trade Show.

OrderDynamics will be part of Canada’s Digital Superstore at Dx3 Canada’s 2012 Trade Show. Known as the Canadian Trade Show, Dx3 Canada will be taking over the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on January 25 and 26, 2012, to showcase exhibitors from the advertising, marketing and retailing industries.

Along with 34 other established companies, OrderDynamics invites the public to learn how to grow a business using the diverse digital tools being presented. Along with company exhibits, Dx3 Canada’s repertoire of workshops is designed to educate visitors in a variety of areas including SEO, Social Media Operations, and Mobile Marketing, among others.

For a dynamic, interactive experience, visitors can also explore various ‘zones’ presented by Dx3 Canada’s Trade Show sponsors: Moneris Small Business Zone, Facebook U, IAB Canada Spotlight Theatre, MobileZone and Incubator Zone. Expanding on networking opportunities, Say:Media will be hosting a party at the Steam Whistle Brewery at 5pm on the evening of January 25, offering exhibitors and visitors a fun end to the first day of the show.

Canada is in a great position to get more involved in eCommerce. In the past year, OrderDynamics has seen huge growth in the need for Canadian retailers to add or improve their eCommerce channel. With the overwhelming success of 2011 Black Friday through Cyber Monday, where OrderDynamics processed 93% more orders over the same weekend last year, Canadian retailers need to get equipped to reap the same benefits next year. Recent Canadian eCommerce successes such as Henry’s Camera, Kitchen Stuff Plus and Walking on a Cloud saw sales double and triple, indicating that the US Thanksgiving shopping weekend will continue to be lucrative for Canadian eCommerce.

OrderDynamics makes a great addition to the Dx3 Canada Trade Show with a diverse portfolio of digital services consistent with current eCommerce trends. At booth 318, visitors can learn about OrderDynamics’ on-demand eCommerce SaaS Platform which includes backend and frontend operations equipped with services for Order Management, Dynamic Merchandising including SEO, and Online Marketing, along with a plethora of others. With the recent release of the OrderDynamics Mobile Commerce Platform, visitors can also learn about seamless integration of mobile and eCommerce platforms to cater to multi-store merchants.

As an official sponsor of the Dx3 Canada Trade Show, OrderDynamics hopes to connect with growing Canadian retailers in need of adding or improving a dynamic eCommerce platform. The Show will also be a great opportunity to network with Canadian digital agencies to partner with on future eCommerce projects. “Canada needs a digital trade show,” says Michael Turcsanyi, president of OrderDynamics. “We are excited that Dx3 has put forth a major event that will be beneficial to digital industries in Canada”.

The Dx3 Canada 2012 Trade Show promises to be exciting and educating, and admission is free! For more information, visit www.dx3canada.com, or for speaking opportunities, email oliver@dx3canada.com. Also visit us at www.orderdynamics.com to learn more about what to expect from the OrderDynamics booth, #318.

Avalara Announces Strategic Partnership with OrderDynamics Corporation

AvaTax for OrderDynamics now available for OrderDynamics customers

Toronto, ON – December 9, 2011 – Avalara (www.avalara.com), the leading provider of fully automated, up-to-date sales and use tax compliance solutions, announced today a strategic partnership with OrderDynamics Corporation, leading provider of On-Demand eCommerce solutions.

AvaTax for OrderDynamics is an easy-to-use sales tax calculation and filing solution that integrates with OrderDynamics to eliminate the hassle of tax compliance processes and reduce the risk of business audits. The web-based service delivers instantaneous sales tax calculations using a centrally-managed, highly accurate calculation engine leveraging up-to-date sales tax rates, rules and jurisdiction boundaries. Coupled with automated filing, remittance and exemption certificate management, AvaTax for OrderDynamics provides unprecedented sales tax functionality to boost business productivity while minimizing audit risk.

"At OrderDynamics, we constantly seek new and better ways to provide our clients with meaningful tools to run every aspect of their online business” says Michael Benadiba, CEO of OrderDynamics Corporation. “Through this integration with Avalara, our clients will be able to easily manage and remain up-to-date with increasingly complicated tax regulations.”

“AvaTax is the industry standard for automated sales tax solutions and we are proud to add OrderDynamics Corporation to the list of leading providers who have chosen to incorporate our service into their offerings,” said Scott McFarlane, CEO and co-founder of Avalara. “OrderDynamics customers now have the ability to focus on their core business without worrying about spending additional time and resources on calculating and remitting sales tax.”

For more information about AvaTax for OrderDynamics, please visit,
www.avalara.com/e-commerce/orderdynamics

About OrderDynamics Corporation

OrderDynamics Corporation is a privately owned eCommerce platform service provider for high-growth B2C and B2B businesses. The success of OrderDynamics is highly attributed to its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) eCommerce model and Dynamic Merchandising concepts which provide superior control and help drive revenue. The OrderDynamics solution caters to multi-channel retail, manufacturing, business-to-business, and complex online retail. OrderDynamics officially launched its On-Demand eCommerce Platform in 2006 after 2 years of research and development.

About Avalara
Headquartered in Bainbridge Island, WA, Avalara is the recognized leader in web-based sales tax solutions, and is transforming the sales and use tax compliance process for businesses of all sizes. Avalara’s AvaTax family of products provides end-to-end compliance solutions and is regarded as the fastest, easiest, most accurate and affordable way for companies to address their statutory tax requirements. Avalara is the industry's most trusted provider of sales and use tax automation solutions and is one of America’s fastest growing companies earning recognitions such as Microsoft’s SaaS Partner of the Year for 2010. For more information, please visit www.avalara.com.

To set up an interview with executive Scott McFarlane please contact Yvonne Lunceford, Marketing Manager at Avalara, at 206-826-4900 x1149, or email yvonne.lunceford@avalara.com.

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Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2011 Report

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Mark a Huge Start for the 2011 Holiday Shopping Season

Toronto, ON - OrderDynamics merchants saw a significant impact on sales with the onset of the US Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend. Trends indicated that many consumers began their shopping on Thanksgiving Day despite brick and mortar retail outlets being closed, leading to a 39% increase in online sales over Thanksgiving 2010. As reported by InternetRetailer.com, Thanksgiving Day web revenue grossed upwards of $550 million – a sure sign that many consumers are starting Christmas shopping earlier given the right promotion.

This year’s Black Friday also showed big numbers for eCommerce. While overall Black Friday sales were up 6.6%, online revenue boasted a growth of 24.3% over last year. Even daily deal site LivingSocial.com reported sales of almost 150,000 purchases. Many OrderDynamics e-retailers saw sales double, with some even tripling average daily numbers and saw strong sales perpetuate throughout the weekend. “We processed 93% more orders for Black Friday through Cyber Monday this year,” reports Michael Turcsanyi, President of OrderDynamics. “Overall, OrderDynamics merchants pulled in 140% more revenue over the same weekend last year. It’s very exciting to see that kind of growth.”

The greatest success was Cyber Monday, grossing the highest online sales in history at $1.25 billion. Though not entirely unexpected, e-retailers’ overall sales were up 33% from last year’s Cyber Monday. This year, the concept of offering large discounts the first Monday day after the US Thanksgiving was more heavily adopted in Canada, which likely contributed to the extra push. Canadian OrderDynamics merchants such as Henry’s Camera reported similar success to US counterparts, making Cyber Monday even more lucrative than Black Friday for OrderDynamics e-tailers.

Of course, several online retailers suffered a less than fruitful holiday weekend. Several site outages and performance issues lead to inconvenient downtime and lost revenue. Most notably, VictoriasSecret.com experienced an 80-minute interruption on Black Friday, while increased traffic to Ann Inc’s AnnTaylor.com triggered a Cyber Monday outage. American Eagle Outfitters’ site, ae.com, saw a total of 8 hours of downtime throughout the entire weekend, and a 350% spike in traffic caused difficulties for PayPal as well. Now notorious for frequent site outages, Target.com had several loading errors allowing pages to only be partially viewed. Catchpoint Systems Inc. put together a list of sites with the most performance issues over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Along with high profits, the Thanksgiving weekend offers lessons to be learned. The Conference Board Consumer Research Centre index reported on research findings that consumers have been viewing the current economic climate more positively lately, which through increased spending can continue to trend upwards. This, coupled with excellent online promotions encouraged an earlier start to the holiday shopping season. Online and mobile retailers should aim to prepare themselves for next year in a number of ways: offer promotions earlier, and make sure consumers are well aware of them with strong email campaigns; use ‘Thanksgiving Day-Only’ sales to intrigue those who may consider waiting until Black Friday. Thanksgiving weekend has proven to be far too profitable to risk site outages, and as such sites and mobile apps should be tweaked and tested to accommodate promotions and sustain higher than normal traffic.

To combat possible performance problems and to ensure the best shopping experience for the end consumer, the OrderDynamics SaaS platform enables extreme scalability under high order volumes. Using proprietary order processing technology that enables high rates of order capture, and the ability to elastically expand their cloud infrastructure, OrderDynamics helps ensure smooth running even for the most unexpected shopping surges. “We maintain significant on-demand capacity in our SaaS infrastructure to protect merchants against inevitable spikes” says Steven Berkovitz, Co-Founder and On-Demand Platform Architect. “In addition, we operate a single version of our software, allowing us to make performance enhancements to our core platform which immediately benefits all of our clients without needing to make costly customizations”. One of the main reasons for changing ecommerce platforms is due to instability and reliability problems of the existing website.

The start of the 2011 holiday shopping season proved to also be a great opportunity for mobile retailers. Thanksgiving Day showed the largest proportion of mobile sales at 11.09%, followed by 9.8% of online sales on Black Friday, and 6.6% on Cyber Monday. With a greater selection of advanced mobile devices, it is not surprising that purchases on smartphones greatly exceeded 2010 statistics.

OrderDynamics Enters CIX 2011 Contest for Hottest Innovative Companies

For the second year in a row, OrderDynamics has entered Canada’s Hottest Innovative Companies contest put on by the Canadian Innovation Exchange (CIX), a must-attend conference for over 400 of the principal players in the innovation economy.

Every year CIX conducts an exhaustive search for the most innovative ideas, products, services and companies in the country. An expert panel of respected innovation leaders will select 20 companies to take the stage and showcase their business live. The CIX Top 20 serves as an elite index of the very best in the Canadian innovation ecosystem and connects the key players driving technology-based innovation with fresh new businesses to keep the wheels of commerce and innovation turning.

Taking place in Toronto on December 1, 2011, at MaRS Discovery District. Register here: www.canadianinnovationexchange.com.

OrderDynamics to Exhibit at IRWD 2012

OrderDynamics has once again signed up to exhibit at the Internet Retailer Web Design and Usability Conference in Orlando, Florida. Taking place February 13-15, IRWD 2012 will focus on Designing Websites that Stand Out from the Crowd.

Attendees will be able to take advantage of 27 conference sessions hosted by eCommerce experts, covering current topics such as homepage, product page, shopping cart and multi-platform design, along with best practices for branding and boosting conversion. Boasting 46 expert speakers, the learning opportunities are endless.

As one of 50 exhibitors, OrderDynamics will showcase our On-Demand eCommerce SaaS Platform, as well as our recently launched Mobile Commerce Platform. We look forward to offering helpful insight on how to re-platform and design a website with a unique frontend experience supported by innovative backend operations. Visit us at booth 314 for some great conversation and networking!

IRWD 2012 will take place at the Omni Orlando Resort, and is offering Early-Bird discounts for those who register by December 31, 2011. For further details on how you can attend, visit http://irwd.internetretailer.com/2012/agenda/ .

OrderDynamics Announces Level 1 PCI Compliant Solutions with Hosted PCI Integration

OrderDynamics, Canada’s leading On-Demand eCommerce Platform provider delivers Clients 100% continuous Level 1 PCI compliant solutions by integrating Hosted PCI with its eCommerce SaaS Platform.

With increased pressure on Retailers to become Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant, OrderDynamics announces the ability to deliver Level 1 PCI compliant solutions, the highest possible rating for eCommerce Service Providers. PCI-DSS is a multifaceted security standard that includes intensive merchant requirements for security management, policies, procedures, network architecture, software design and other critical protective measures centered on protecting credit card data.

This new core platform integration with Hosted PCI combines their powerful Payment Vault Tokenization technology with the OrderDynamics On-Demand eCommerce Platform. Retailers can now enjoy worry-free PCI compliance without compromising front-end flexibility, or backend integration options.

Through the utilization of Hosted PCI Tokenization, OrderDynamics merchants still benefit from critical features such as Re-ordering, Auto-Shipping, Credit Card Wallet, Call Center, Returns, and Order Management. OrderDynamics merchants will also benefit from 100% credit card breach indemnity as no sensitive card holder data ever enters the merchants environment.

OrderDynamics has also integrated the Hosted PCI Call Center IVR (Integrated Voice Response) system, removing the need for merchant call center staff from having to take credit card numbers over the phone, a necessity when running high volume eCommerce websites. With the Hosted PCI Call Center IVR enabled, shoppers are able to enter their credit card data into their telephone which returns a token to the call center agent who in turn enters the token into the OrderDynamics call center checkout page when processing telephone sales and service requests.

“By integrating Hosted PCI into our core platform payment stack and call center, OrderDynamics can deliver solutions that meet the highest level of PCI compliance without the traditional costs Retailers face” explains Michael Benadiba, CEO of OrderDynamics. “In our experience, many merchants need all the help they can get in the area of PCI compliance and we believe this solution does just that” Continues Benadiba.

“The seamlessness of the integration being offered with the OrderDynamics platform gives merchants a quick and easy way to achieve PCI compliance, no matter what level of processing requirements they’re held to” says Saurabh Soman, Co-Founder of Hosted PCI. “This solution not only saves the merchant money through expediting the compliance process, but also significantly reduces merchant costs to maintain compliance each year” Continues Soman.

OrderDynamics completed the integration as part of their Q2 platform release.

About Hosted PCI

Hosted PCI was founded in 2009 to deliver cloud based PCI compliance to the enterprise. In March 2010 Hosted PCI launched its first service for e-commerce merchants: Hosted PCI Checkout Express Edition.  This service allows e-commerce merchants, for the first time, to have full control of their checkout pages while maintaining 100% PCI DSS Compliance. The heart of the HPCI system is the Payment Vault Tokenization module. Each HostedPCI solution is completely integrated with the payment vault allowing tokens to be seamlessly used between e-commerce, order management, call center and CRM applications. Hosted PCI also launched the Call Center Edition which allows multi-channel merchants to completely protect their calls centers from credit card theft while creating a straight forward path true PCI DSS compliance for the call center.

OrderDynamics Delivers Content that Sells through Agility CMS Integration

Toronto, ON - OrderDynamics and Agility CMS have recently partnered to deliver enterprise content management solutions for content rich eCommerce websites. The solution is designed to solve common content management limitations experienced by enterprises, publishers, and media websites that continue to ask for tight integration between their eCommerce platform and their Content Management System (CMS). When these systems are not integrated, the merchant is limited in their ability to create “content that sells”, unable to leverage important merchandising features of their ecommerce platform when publishing content.

Agility CMS is a flexible and highly customizable content management platform for enterprises and currently powers impressive websites such as Oprah Winfrey Network, Shoppers Drug Mart, World Fishing Network, and Cineplex. Agility CMS deploys as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and has robust features such as articles, blogs, forums, videos, approval workflows, template management, content syndication, social media, user generated content, and more. By integrating the two presentation technologies, merchants now have the ability to tie eCommerce content directly to the content published within Agility CMS.

“There are many online merchants that have significant content requirements that go way beyond the scope of a typical retail website” explains Michael Turcsanyi, President of OrderDynamics. “These merchants need seamless delivery of all content and want to harness the merchandising and selling power of their eCommerce platform on their content pages”. Continues Turcsanyi. Since Agility CMS content is hosted on the OrderDynamics on-demand eCommerce platform, these content pages can utilize powerful Dynamic Merchandising features such as product linking, dynamic product display, pricing, related items, ratings and reviews, recommendations, and more. This saves the merchant time and ties the otherwise static content directly into the selling process.

“The solution that we’ve delivered together is truly a best-of-both-worlds scenario for the merchant” says Michael Assad, CEO of Agility CMS. “There are a lot of synergies between Agility and OrderDynamics which has made this an exciting partnership”. Continues Assad. The two providers began initial partnership talks in 2010 and have already delivered the solution with two clients and have another project in progress.

About Agility

Agility is a cloud-based content management system for managing internally produced and user generated content across web, mobile and social media. Agility is designed to be easy for developers, editors, designers and marketers. It integrates with best-of-breed solutions for video management, ad serving, search, analytics, email marketing and more. Their Perfect Fit Guarantee ensures that you will be satisfied with your CMS implementation, or the license fees are free. You can implement Agility internally, or work with their implementation partners. Agility powers sites for Uncle Ben’s, Campbells, Subaru, Whiskas, Cineplex, CTV and Shoppers Drug Mart.

OrderDynamics to Exhibit with Dx3 Canada

OrderDynamics will be part of Canada’s Digital Superstore at Dx3 Canada’s 2012 Trade Show. Known as the Canadian Trade Show, Dx3 Canada will be taking over the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on January 25 and 26, 2012, to showcase exhibitors from the advertising, marketing and retailing industries.

We invite you to visit us and 34 other established companies, and learn how to grow your business using the diverse digital tools being presented to you. Along with company exhibits, Dx3 Canada’s repertoire of workshops is designed to educate visitors in a variety of areas including SEO, Social Media Operations, and Mobile Marketing, among others.

For a dynamic, interactive experience, visitors can also explore various ‘zones’ presented by Dx3 Canada’s Trade Show sponsors: Moneris Small Business Zone, Facebook U, IAB Canada Spotlight Theatre, MobileZone and Incubator Zone. Expanding on networking opportunities, Say:Media will be hosting a party at the Steam Whistle Brewery at 5pm on the evening of January 25, offering exhibitors and visitors a fun end to the first day of the show.

OrderDynamics makes a great addition to the Dx3 Canada Trade Show with our diverse portfolio of digital services consistent with current eCommerce trends. At our booth, visitors can learn about our on-demand eCommerce SaaS Platform which includes backend and frontend operations equipped with services for Order Management, Dynamic Merchandising including SEO, and Online Marketing, along with a plethora of others. With the recent release of our OrderDynamics Mobile Commerce Platform, we will also exhibit how we cater to multi-store merchants with seamless integration of mobile and eCommerce platforms.

Dx3 Canada promises an exciting and educating show, and admission is free! For more information, visit www.dx3canada.com.

OrderDynamics is Sponsoring Ecommerce Camp 8: Innovative Mobile Apps – Ecommerce Solutions

Ready to jump on the mobile app bandwagon? OrderDynamics Corp. is a proud sponsor of Ecommerce Camp 8 in Toronto, where experts will discuss how ecommerce solutions can take advantage of leading mobile applications.

Join the OrderDynamics team on October 17, at Fionn MacCool’s on the Esplanade for an excellent networking opportunity organized by Chris Long, Well.ca and M Marketing. Mobile consulting firm Mobile Fringe will be presenting their new Eaton Centre app, while industry experts will touch on apps by GroupOn, Brand Power, Canadian Tire and others. Ecommerce Camp 8 aims to provide great insight on how mobile apps are changing and can help companies grow their business.

The event is free to attend and open to everyone, with discussions beginning at 6pm. To register to attend Ecommerce Camp 8 visit http://guestlistapp.com/events/73137, and invite friends by Tweeting #eccTO!

Licensed vs. SaaS and Lessons in Re-Platforming

The Target website outage of 2011 has “gone viral” throughout the industry. We wanted to provide some perspective for future merchants looking to re-launch.

At the end of the day, the Target outage is something that many online merchants struggle with and was unfortunately made worse by the timing of the re-launch of their website on a new technology platform. Although it is very difficult to avoid what happened, ultimately there are a few important considerations for merchants changing platforms that I'd like to share.

1. Licensed vs. Cloud. When making a decision to take the platform technology and delivery in-house (ie. going with a licensed software and hosting it), a merchant is now accountable for uptime, performance, capacity, and security of the systems. That means the merchant needs to maintain human resources, hardware, hosting, and security audits. Most “true Cloud”, or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms provide the delivery technology along with the ecommerce software itself in order to specifically provide the optimal "quality of service" experienced by the merchant with their software. In addition to the "tech stuff", many mid-market and enterprise SaaS eCommerce Platform Providers offer aggressive Service Level Agreements (SLA) that hold them accountable for these key performance indicators. "SLAs with teeth" (as they're often referred) will incent providers to keep the site performing in top condition.

2. When re-launching a website, large or small, it is important to understand that there is going to be a laundry list of small things that need to be address after the site goes live. Since it is impossible to fully replicate "real world traffic" (no matter how much money you throw at the project as with Target I'm sure the budget was significant for this project), and as a result it is impossible to fully understand what the real load on the system will be. So let this be a lesson to other merchants to use simple tactics to avoid crushing the website and annoying shoppers on the first day.

Tactic 1: Soft Launch -delay the national advertising campaign by a week or two so you can see how the system is performing.

Tactic 2: Phase the Launch -start with core functionality than phase in new categories, products, and features as you understand how the system is performing.

Tactic 3: Monitor and React Quickly -build dashboards that allow top products and pages to quickly alert the merchant’s IT team of load issues.

In summary, it is impossible to avoid bumps and bruises when re-launching an eCommerce website. As someone who re-launches 8-12 websites per year, I can say that these projects are significantly complex and the team is often under immense pressure from management and often given unrealistic timelines. However, merchants of all shapes and sizes should understand the critical difference between "owning and operating" ecommerce software vs. the new age of "cloud/SaaS" eCommerce platform providers. And finally, by taking simple steps during a re-launch a merchant can reduce the risk of an outage and keep shoppers spending money on their website.

Nutrasource.com Launches Their New Site with OrderDynamics!

OrderDynamics is pleased to announce the launch of Nutrasource.com. Equipped with the most innovative eCommerce tools, Nutrasource.com features a comprehensive repertoire of vitamins, supplements, detox, nutrition and personal care products. Nutrasource.com offers a dynamic customer experience that is highly informative through displaying price comparisons, in-depth product descriptions and indications, and detailed ingredient listings while allowing shoppers to share their favorite items via various social media outlets. Their intricate Guided Navigation and Breadcrumb trails enable quick and efficient browsing based on brands, product types, health conditions, goals, top sellers, new arrivals and several other segments. Nutrasource.com accepts secure payments through PayPal, Google and Amazon Checkouts, and all major credit cards, and extends a 20% discount on first purchases. The Autoship feature and free shipping on all orders over $49 contribute to an online experience that meets their 100% Satisfaction Guarantee on all health and wellness products.

Visit Nutrasource.com to check out special offers on a reputable brands, and make them Your Source For Healthy Living!

Cascio Interstate Music Re-Launches with OrderDynamics!

OrderDynamics would like to congratulate Cascio Interstate Music on the re-launch of www.interstatemusic.com. Interstatemusic.com is a premium online resource for over 60,000 musical instruments and accessories, organized with an excellent Guided Navigation system for easy searching and viewing of products.

The Wisconsin-based etailer is a haven for percussion, string, and brass and woodwind instruments, as well as a terrific source for audio accessories including books and DVDs. Pages are efficiently structured to display Breadcrumb Trails so as to not be overwhelmed while browsing, allowing visitors to easily traverse Interstatemusic.com’s extensive product offering. Product pages are equipped with detailed product overviews, customer reviews, warranty details and recommended products to ensure customers are thoroughly informed in their purchase decisions, while Wish List, Live Chat and Contests provide a fun and interactive shopping experience. Interstatemusic.com’s secure, single-page checkout, along with their current promotion of free shipping in the US on most orders over $99 add to excellent and exciting usability.

Visit www.interstatemusic.com to find your favorite instrument, or discover a new way to express yourself!

The 10 Do’s and Don’ts for B2B Blog Posts

1. Do think about fit and finish. No one wants to waste time on something that is boring or difficult to read.

Include an efficient title; your blog post title should include the following:

· Who/what the post is about

· Why the subject is being written about

· What the reader can hope to gain from reading the post

Employ good formatting with posts that are a few short paragraphs, and use bullets and numbers to neatly organize ideas. Use images for exciting presentation – they also have good SEO value with ALT tags.

2. Don’t sound like an advertisement. Though you are ultimately trying to gain exposure to your product/service/company, readers don’t want to feel like they are being sold something when they are merely seeking information. Avoid a heavy promotional vibe with content that serves to educate the reader.

3. Do make reasonable use of in-text links. Using in-text links shows search engine crawlers that the keyword used as the hyperlink is among the most important in your post. Determine a few related keywords to focus on in each post that will link back to specific web pages on your site. Ideally, aim for no more than one link per every 100 words, otherwise you risk having your post branded as spam.

4. Don’t Plagiarize. Content scraping is a black-hat practice in SEO; while you may not be using entire articles, search engine crawlers can identify similar information between web pages, remember where it ‘originated’, then determine your ranking based on that. However, more importantly, readers can identify having seen something before and if they feel you’ve just stripped someone else’s information, they can discredit you. Sourcing is just a good practice.

5. Do determine who is meant to read your article, and stick to it. Your customer base is grouped into segments and you can’t expect to effectively appeal to all of them – doing so makes your content broad and uninformative. Decide based on what you’re writing which market segment and demographic will read your post, and then write in a manner that will grab and hold their attention, and no one else’s.

6. Don’t overshare opinions, and be conscious of what opinion you’re sharing. Simply put, if you’ve plastered an unbridled opinion throughout your post and the reader doesn’t agree, you’ve lost them and cut your traffic considerably. Content needs to reflect the opinions of your organization, which helps hold onto traffic that is relevant and filter out that which isn’t.

7. Do include a call-to-action, and measure it. Stimulate conversation. Ask readers to sign up for a mailing list. Offer promotions or contest for readers to enter. Solicit feedback. Offer a bookmark option. Figure out a way to have the reader interact with you and build some sort of rapport with your brand/what you’re writing about – it will keep them coming back. Then, employ the use of a tracking tool so you can understand if these calls-to-action are helpful.

8. Don’t forget about social media and syndication. Make the option available to Tweet and share your content on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. More importantly, ensure you are leveraging all your resources to put your content on the wire. It’s good for you, why wouldn’t you?

9. Do ensure you know what you’re talking about, and follow up regularly. You are the greatest resource for information on your company/brand/products, however if your content stretches your comfort level, make sure you’re at least knowledgeable enough about your blog content that you could carry a conversation on the topic. If your post consists of generic information that could be found anywhere, readers won’t use you as a resource. Further, if they ask you something and you don’t know enough to answer, this will also discredit you as a resource.

10. Don’t forget to proofread. The easiest way to lose readers and search engine ranking is to post an article laden with spelling and grammatical errors. You appear incompetent, unknowledgeable and careless. All your hard work and content research could end up in vain with a single error – always, always be sure to employ your best writing skills.