Internet Retailer: 2012 Top 1000 Vendor Leaders

Internet Retailer's September magazine includes a special in depth feature on the technology its Top 1000 retailers (IR500 and IR Second 500) are using.  With many retailers and senior retail executives already  looking ahead to 2013 as far as strategy and planning go, in addition to Shop.org's Annual Summit earlier this month, the timing of this article in no mystery.

One of the key messages in this feature is the amount of vendor consolidation that's happened in the last few years across the eCommerce and retail industries.  Vendor stability and their ability to continuously deliver on all aspects of an agreement play a huge role in technology selections.  It makes sense - many retailers today are cautiously vetting vendors to learn about long term company strategies and direction.  Retailers want to know that the vendor and solution they select today will be the same vendor and solution in one, two, and several years in the future.  Retailers put such heavy investments into technology and solution providers and need to ensure they’re selecting the best partner for short and long term success.

Another key point in this article is the growth of Software-as-a-Service-based solutions for leading online retailers.  This article sheds light onto multi-tenant SaaS-based eCommerce platforms and the benefits that come with on-demand solutions.  OrderDynamics client Aleva Stores is featured in this article and discusses how the OrderDynamics on-demand eCommerce platform enables scalability and growth for their 10 retail websites.

An important consideration for retailers evaluating SaaS vendors, as raised by Derek Gaskins, CEO of Aleva Stores, is ability of the platform to be integrated into other best-of-bread tools. With an open-source or licensed software platforms, retailers are free to custom develop any and all integrations they choose by paying a third party developer or having developers on-staff.  With SaaS platforms, the retailer must rely on the vendor’s technology integration plan.  Many retailers have been put in tough situations with their SaaS platforms in which delays in adding third party support or huge upfront fees are often required.

OrderDynamics solved this problem through our Highly Integrated Virtual Ecosystem™ (H.I.V.E). OD H.I.V.E™ is a vast collection of pre-built integrations to leading third party technologies across marketing, social media, payment, and fulfillment.  Clients like Aleva Stores are able to benefit from drastically reduced or eliminated integration fees, and an improved time-to-market deployment over open-source and licensed eCommerce platforms.

Read the full article on InternetRetailer.com.

OrderDynamics Monthly Google Updates Report - September 2012

August was a busy month for Google. With updates to Panda, PageRank, Analytics and AdWords, many businesses saw shifts in search engine rank and search results. Here’s what was changed, how it affected businesses, and what these changes mean moving forward.

Google Search & Panda 3.9.1
Google tweeted on August 23 about the Panda 3.9.1 update, stating “Panda data refresh this past Monday. ~1% of queries noticeably affected”.  Effectively, this meant the refresh was deployed on August 20, less than a month after the Panda 3.9 refresh on July 24. Google has not made any additional comments to elaborate on exactly what the refresh was meant to address.

On August 10, Google announced on their Inside Search Blog the implementation of a new ‘signal’ to indicate when copyrighted information is being violated. The signal has been nicknamed in the online community the ‘Emanuel Update’ after Ari Emanuel of William Morris Endeavour asserted earlier this year that Google has the ability to filter copyrighted content from search results, the same way it does with child pornography. Emanuel stated, “stealing is a bad thing, and child pornography is a bad thing”. The new signal sends copyright removal notices to Google when it suspects copyright infringement; the more notifications Google receives regarding any given website, the lower that site will rank in search results. However, this is the most Google can do to websites suspected of copyright violations; they cannot de-index sites that are repeatedly accused of copyright violations unless a copyright holder actually approaches and asks them to. Those de-indexed can submit counter-notices thereafter to petition to be re-indexed. This is the first Google update pertaining to copyright management in two years.

An unannounced change to Google Search Results has also been fueling conversation in the online community: 7-result SERPS. Search Engine Land saw the following results when Googling themselves:

The image also indicates that websites which Google deems most relevant to a search query has the ability to overshadow all other results by showcasing sub-results within the top-ranking website.

Google PageRank
Google PageRank underwent the third of its quarterly updates on August 2. PageRank is based on a weighted scale from 1-10 based on the number of backlinks a website has. These backlinks are counted by Google as recommendations to a reference point – the more recommendations a website has, the higher their PageRank. However, if backlinks only go to the homepage of a website, the value is null and the recommendation is void.  As such, PageRank relies heavily on links to as many webpages on a site as possible, as well as internal linking. Google did not make any official announcements on the update, however many businesses observed big changes in their PageRank consistent with Google’s 3-month update timing as seen in the past.

Blog interaction has been credited in the past to increasing PageRank. Commenting on, and sharing blog posts, submitting blogs to directories, SEO optimization and internal linking of blog posts,  and blog sitemap refreshes and resubmissions are among the easiest way to boost PageRank.

Google Analytics
Google announced on their Analytics Blog on August 11 that they would be changing how sessions are calculated in Google Analytics. Previously any of the following would end a session:

• After 30 minutes elapse between page views
• The end of the day
• The user closes their web browser

The change affects only the last stipulation. In order to better handle emerging multichannel functions within businesses, a session will now end when the traffic source code changes – meaning if a user first clicked link A to get to a website, left, and then came back via link B, then there would be two separate sessions. That said, if a user clicked link A, left, and then came back after a very short time via link A again, it would be counted as one session. This effectively changes how Bounce Rate is calculated within Google Analytics, as a quick departure from a webpage could be deemed a legitimate session if the user revisited the page soon enough.

Google introduced Google Analytics Report Automation on August 23 – an integration that allows for easy export of analytics data to Google Docs, Sites or Spreadsheets using Google Apps Script, but specifically refers to the custom API implemented in Spreadsheets that allows dashboards to be updated automatically. The Apps Script means that no coding is required on the part of the user to create the reports they want.

Google Analytics also saw the introduction of the segmentation tool, Shortcuts, on August 29.  The tool allows users to configure data preferences and filter settings into a shortcut on the Analytics Dashboard, which then acts as a one-click means of accessing refined data they frequently use. Shortcuts greatly simplifies and cuts the time needed to refine by the type of keywords used to search and access a website, traffic source codes, region and more.

Google AdWords
On the Inside AdWords blog on August 28, Google announced the refinement of geo-targeting options within AdWords for Canada, the US, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, India, Ireland, Romania, Sweden, Taiwan and Vietnam. The update allows for more specific local targeting with ZIP Code Targeting for the US, and Postal Code Targeting for Canada, as well as city-level targeting for the other countries. Location extensions can also be set up to target specific areas within a city. For example, if when targeting Toronto a user wants to specifically focus on the Scarborough area – location extension allows for that. In the US, AdWords campaigns and reports can also be tailored based on preferences yielded from TV audience data.

Google also wrote on the Inside AdWords blog on August 7 about an update to the AdWords Editor. The update was meant to support the transition from Google Merchant Centre to Google Shopping, enabling users to learn to manage Product Listing Ads the way they will be able to in Google Shopping, such as choosing ad placement based on bid amounts (since Google Shopping will require users to pay/bid for ad space).

OrderDynamics to Exhibit at the Retail Council of Canada's Retail West Conference!

The 2012 Retail West conference is right around the corner!  The conference, which is being run by the Retail Council of Canada (RCC) for the first time, is a one-day event happening next Thursday in Vancouver, and we're proud to be an exhibiting vendor at another RCC event this year.

The conference is set to focus on key Canadian retail topics like retail's future direction and how retailers can further engage customers.  Ecommerce will also be a heavy focus as Canadian retailers continue to align online and offline sales channels.  In addition, global retailers like Aritzia, Running Room, and OrderDynamics client JYSK are scheduled to speak at the conference.

Join OrderDynamics at Retail West at booth #4 to learn more about Canada's leading eCommerce platform and Connected Commerce, our multi-channel retail solution that enables seamless consumer experiences across all online and offline channels.  The conference will be held at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver, BC on September 27th, 2012.

For more information about the 2012 Retail West conference, visit: http://www.retailwest.ca

2012 Shop.org Annual Summit - Recap of the Show!

Earlier this week the National Retail Federation hosted the 2012 Shop.org Annual Summit in Denver, Colorado. OrderDynamics would like to thank everyone who stopped by our booth and met with our team, and of course, the NRF for putting together such a great three-day event. (We’re still processing much of the data and thought leadership generated from the Conference!)

The Conference, the biggest in its history with more than 4,400 attendees, signaled two things. First and foremost, Shop.org was the final U.S. Conference OrderDyanmics will exhibit at this year, and more importantly, that the first wave of eCommerce is completely over.

The biggest theme of this years’ Shop.org was the integration of online commerce with traditional retail channels. Terms like “Omni-Commerce”, “Agile Commerce”, or our very own “Connected Commerce” were everywhere from the exhibition hall to the keynote presentations. Nearly every retailer we spoke to was focused on bridging channels and centralizing retail operations around web initiatives. To us, this really speaks to the evolution happening within eCommerce. The first wave of eCommerce was about figuring out how to sell online (technologies, staff/talent, strategies, partners, etc…) and how to be profitable doing so. The next wave of eCommerce will be about creating best-in-class online and offline experiences by offering the same merchandise, products, promotions, prices and experiences across all channels. It goes without saying that this wave is already well underway.

For many, including us, one of the highlights of the Shop.org was seeing Jamie Nordstrom’s keynote presentation. His honest and insightful recount of Nordstrom’s approach made it clear that innovation in customer service is the key to their continued growth and dominance. In fact, according to Mr. Nordstrom, they’ll be irrelevant if they don’t continue to innovate how they approach customer service. Their commitment to testing new ways to engage and satisfy their customers is impressive and refreshing. Mr. Nordstrom and his team have fostered an environment that “celebrates mistakes” and spends an incredible amount of time understanding reasons why ideas and tactics didn’t work. According to Mr. Nordstrom, the most difficult part of becoming a true multi-channel retailer was merging their retail store and catalog (online) teams. He did suggest technology integrations were costly investments, but emphasized properly aligning the organization was where the “heavy lifting” occurred. There’s so much that could be said about Mr. Nordstrom’s keynote and the insight he offered (and we could go on and on), but one particular quote still stands out as a key message to his presentation: “Nordstrom can't focus on making decisions that benefit one store and not another. In the end, all stores are part of the same company and the customer doesn’t care about which store gets the credit for a sale”.

Another big theme from Shop.org was order management, and the movement to having it integrated within an eCommerce platform. In some cases order management might have been a longer term priority for retailers, while for others, it’s a tool they didn’t need before but now require due to significant growth. While the notion of an end-to-end platform is hardly new, it’s clear enabling improved customer experiences and faster fulfillment will be significantly easier using an eCommerce platform that features an integrated order management system. For retailers who are re-platforming or soon plan to, selecting an eCommerce platform with built-in order management would be a highly strategic investment and would provide a significant advantage over competitors.

One final thought about Shop.org: The Conference was a clear reminder how far the eCommerce industry has come, and yet, how much work lies ahead for retailers (and vendors) in order to catch up with consumers and their expectations. As Chris Ladd from The Finish Line said during an Omni-Channel roundtable session on day three of Shop.org, “It’s up to the digital guys to bridge online and offline channels”. One sentiment that echoed to us throughout the Conference was how the control has shifted from retailers to consumers. Retail was once about what merchants offered consumers, and subsequently what consumers chose to purchase from those offerings. Now retail has evolved to merchants reacting to consumers and their needs and wants, and adapting to new technologies which can be used to improve and connected consumer experiences across multiple channels.

Now that Shop.org has ended, we will be reaching out to all interested parties in the coming few weeks. You may also contact us directly: solutions@orderdynamics.com.

In the meantime, we invite you to visit our website at www.orderdynamics.com to learn more about our On-Demand Commerce Platform.

Sincerely,
The OrderDynamics Team
1 (866) 559-8123