OrderDynamics Clients Enjoy 55% More Sales in 2012 Holiday Season While Far Exceeding Industry Average

JANUARY 25, 2013 – TORONTO, ON – The 2012 holiday season indicated very different purchasing behaviours than seen in previous years, with sales spiking on Cyber Monday at $1.98 billion, but tapering off thereafter, according to Adobe’s Digital Index. Despite 10 days throughout November and December that surpassed $1 billion in sales, MasterCard Spending Pulse reported that total US holiday retail sales showed a meager 0.7% growth over 2011.

In spite of lower than expected holiday sales and the fear of economic uneasiness that came with tragedies such as the Newtown Shooting and Hurricane Sandy, and the 17% of shoppers who said the Fiscal Cliff bill affected their purchase behaviour in a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, OrderDynamics clients once again generated significantly higher sales and growth rates than industry averages. In November and December 2012, the OrderDynamics platform processed 47% more orders and generated 55% more revenue over the same time in 2011, compared to comScore’s report of a 15% increase in total online sales year over year for the holiday season.

Sixty-one percent of OrderDynamics orders came from clients launched on their eCommerce platform prior to 2012, generating 27% more orders and revenue compared to last year. The remaining 39% of orders were generated by the new eCommerce sites launched in 2012, encompassing 38.8% of total holiday revenue for OrderDynamics clients in 2012.

The company credits the scalability of its cloud-based platform as a key factor in their clients’ impressive holiday growth, absorbing extreme traffic surges and order spikes throughout demanding retail seasons. In addition, OrderDynamics’ dedicated Account Managers stay abreast with industry and consumer trends, and actively work with clients to identify areas where they can leverage the broad OrderDynamics toolset to optimize eCommerce strategies and execution. This season, incentivized shopping tools and shopping cart recovery features within the OrderDynamics platform and its OD H.I.V.E™ Ecosystem - a network with more than 100 pre-built integrations of third party tools - allowed retailers to re-capture the sales and increase average order sizes.

"The OrderDynamics eCommerce platform and integrated Order Management System are cloud-based solutions which help our clients get to market faster while also taking advantage of the new features and functionality we're continuously adding," said Michael Benadiba, CEO at OrderDynamics. "As a result, our clients can focus on innovation and creating best of breed online shopping experiences to maximize sales during peak seasons."

Additional Canada and Boxing Day Trends
For Canadian retailers, the holiday season showed promising results, and stronger eCommerce growth than in the US. MasterCard’s Spending Pulse reported Canadian eCommerce spending was up 26% in December, far overshadowing the 12.6% increase seen in US online sales. Contributing to 6.6% of total retail sales for December, Canadian online shoppers showed significant growth in confidence in shopping on eCommerce websites. Total Canadian retail sales showed a 1.6% increase over December 2011.

“ECommerce in Canada is growing at a rapid rate and its pace is expected to continue over the next few years,” continued Mr. Benadiba. “Canadians are known to be extremely savvy web users, and Canadian retailers are responding to consumers by delivering sophisticated online shopping experiences and outstanding promotions. It’s a very exciting time for Canada’s retail industry,” Mr. Benadiba concluded.

OrderDynamics Monthly Google Updates Report – January 2013

After a few months of heavy changes across Google Platforms, December showed fewer changes and some useful improvements to Search, AdWords and Analytics to help improve the user experience with Google.

Google Search

Changes to Google Search in December were heavily focused on multi-language queries, and those related to simplifying travel plans.

On December 4, Google updated Knowledge Graph to support multi-language searches in Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian and Italian. This would enable queries in these languages to display same-language search results rather than that based on their search location (for example, an Italian search in Canada would yield both English and Italian results instead of just English results). Knowledge Graph was also optimized later in the month to display a Carousel with information and activities within a searched travel destination.

A day later, Google announced the redesign of Quick Answers search, which instantly displays at the top of SERPs information relevant to travel such as currency exchange rates, time difference, and the ability to check flight status by simply searching terms like “Euro exchange rate”, “time in country x” or the flight/airline number.  Later on December 19, Flight Explorer was launched to help plan vacations by displaying flight times and fares to multiple destinations on several dates, allowing users to plan extended trips across multiple stops. Flight Explorer also enables users to calculate total cost of a trip by including baggage fees, WiFi-enabled flights and price differences across seating classes; this function is available for flights to any destination that originate in Canada and the US.

The Hotel Finder feature also became more localized in France, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Italy and the UK that would display price, availability and Zagat rating.

Google tweeted on December 21 that they had rolled out the 23^rd update to Google Panda. The Update was estimated to affect 1.3% of English search queries, compared to 0.8% impact with the November Update. Some search engine optimization experts were surprised that there was an update at all in December when such changes could affect online retailers during the height of the holiday retail season.

Google Adwords

In December, Adwords introduced an additional column to the search term report that would display which keywords trigger an ad to show up when searched. This allows Adwords users to easily identify keywords that should be used to trigger their campaigns, queries that maybe irrelevant to the ad but trigger it anyway, and how counter-keywords can be used to prevent certain irrelevant terms from triggering an ad unnecessarily. 

Various updates to Double Click Search were launched on December 18:

• Offline conversions event API
• With this API, Adwords users can automatically upload conversions from in-store transactions and call centre orders, and edit conversions to account for returns, credits or fraud.
• Google Analytics website data
• This feature works with the recent Google Analytics Integration with the Adwords platform to help understand how click-throughs from search affect how customers interact with a website.
• Formula Columns
• These additional columns can be added to display customized data based on calculations preset by the Adwords user.
• Web Query
• This provides a URL that allows report data to be refreshed and downloaded to Excel so that reports do not need to be manually imported and downloaded.

Google Analytics

On December 6, Google Analytics updated Tag Manager, which was launched in October to provide built-in tag templates that automatically input the tag into a webpage’s code rather than having to copy and paste it manually. The update saw the introduction of new Vendor Tags to integrate solutions from various technology vendors for measurement in Analytics. The following Vendor Tags are currently available, with more to be added later:

• comScore Unified Digital Measurement Tag
• Turn Conversion Tracking & Data Collection Tags
• Media6Degrees Universal Tag
• Bizo Business Data Insight Tag
• Neustar Ad Advisor Tag

OrderDynamics featured in Dx3 Canada’s Guide to eCommerce in Canada

Dx3, Canada’s biggest Digital and Retail Trade Show, hosts a blog entitled the Dx3 Digest which focuses on all things pertaining to digital retailing, advertising and marketing in Canada. In a Guide to eCommerce in Canada, Dx3 is covering key tenets and best practices for setting up an eCommerce website to accommodate the growing online and multichannel retail market in Canada. For their Development Platform section they recently featured insight from OrderDynamics® President, Michael Turcsanyi.

As a basis for building an eCommerce business in Canada, the feature discusses the importance of eCommerce as Canadian retail evolves, and common misconceptions and challenges in eCommerce. Dx3 asks Michael Turcsanyi to explain the role OrderDynamics plays in the Canadian eCommerce and multichannel retail environment, and how the OrderDynamics Platform and Team address the needs of businesses entering and growing in eCommerce.

Mr. Turcsanyi explains how patience, a dynamic toolset for order management, fulfillment and marketing, and a bulletproof plan can help retailers build an online business that is equipped to keep stride with Canadian eCommerce as it continues to grow at a rapid pace.

Read the full feature here.

OrderDynamics is Heading to the NRF BIG Show 2013!

OrderDynamics® is heading to the NRF’s 102^nd Annual Convention & EXPO, better known as Retail’s BIG Show. The EXPO will take place next week, January 13-15 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City.

Last year, the BIG Show attracted over 25,500 attendees, and this year is expected to be even bigger with over 500 exhibitors and sponsors, including major companies such as Google, Walmart, Walgreens, Starbuck, Mango and many others.

 OrderDynamics is looking forward to engaging with clients, prospects and partners, as well as attending valuable speaking sessions by retail experts and professionals on mobile and digital retail, marketing and brand management, merchandising, IT, global expansion, the future of retail and more.

The Coca-Cola Happiness Lounge will be an excellent, casual networking opportunity for NRF Members, in which OrderDynamics hopes to connect and gain valuable insight from fellow attendees.

For more information on the BIG Show, visit NRF.com. Check back after the show for OrderDynamics’ Recap.

Internet Retailer on OrderDynamics and Selecting an eCommerce Platform

Internet Retailer magazine kicks off the New Year with a special feature on top priorities for e-retailers including social media and selecting the right e-commerce platform.

The January issue of Internet Retailer presents the social media formula that can yield the best sales and marketing results for e-retailers. Social media has been identified as a key factor in online marketing for some time, however, the question of how to do so effectively has still remained.  In this issue, Internet Retailer outlines the social media initiatives of the top 3 e-retailers listed in the Internet Retailer Top 500, and how they have efficiently utilized aggressive social media campaigns to generate revenue and boost traffic.

Also in the January issue is a feature on how e-retailers can ensure they select the right eCommerce platform for their business goals. One of OrderDynamics®’ newest clients, Laura Canada, was highlighted in the article, crediting OrderDynamics H.I.V.E.™ integrations as a major selling point of the SaaS-based platform. A key factor in selecting the OrderDynamics Platform - as stated by Laura Canada’s eCommerce Director, Sam Barnes – was the integration with Canada Post, enabling fulfillment capabilities such as Real-Time Rate Lookup, Real-Time Order Tracking, Ship-to-Post-Office, and Generate Return Label.

According to Mr. Barnes, OrderDynamics was the right choice because the Platform is built on functionalities and capabilities that were vital in facilitating the online customer experience Laura Canada wanted to provide, a consideration that John Kinsella of FitForCommerce says is imperative when selecting a vendor to power an online storefront. Kinsella states that while individual goals may differ, all online retailers must evaluate eCommerce platforms based on functional abilities, and vendor support and relations.  Other points to consider are whether the Platform provider addresses mobile, product content, and social media as well as whether it provides centralized multi-channel capabilities for retailers whose business is also based on a physical storefront, key items that are present in the OrderDynamics On-Demand eCommerce Platform.

Read the full article here.