OrderDynamics to Exhibit & Speak at eTail Canada 2013

In late April and early May, OrderDynamics will be exhibiting at the 2013 edition of eTail Canada for a third consecutive year.  The conference, which is also in its third year, will be held April 29 – May 1 in Toronto, Canada and promises to be the best event to date. 

The agenda that the eTail team have assembled touches on a range of hot-button ecommerce and retail-related priorities for Canadian merchants and features a strong panel of leading retailers such as Aldo, Roots Canada, The Source, and Laura Canada.  Top analysts from Forrester Research and ForeSee will also be presenting at the event, which will certainly bring additional value and insight for conference attendees.

Rounding out an impressive list of speakers is OrderDynamics President Michael Turcsanyi.  Michael will be hosting a roundtable focused on the evolving consumer needs impacting Canadian multi-channel retailers.  His session will outline trends and changes that have happened in online retailing, and how ecommerce has become the lynchpin that holds cross-channel shopping experiences and customer service together.  Here are details surrounding this session:

The Trends, Successes, and Evolving Consumer Needs Across The Canadian Multi-Channel Retail Landscape: How Ecommerce Plays a Vital Role In Enabling Best of Breed Shopping Experiences and Outstanding Customer Service
When: April 29, 2013
Time: 11:40am; Track 1
Speaker: Michael Turcsanyi, President at OrderDynamics

In addition, we're proud to announce that Tammy Nyman, OrderDynamics VP of Operations and Account Services, will be eTail Canada's Chairperson on day two of the conference (Tuesday April 30).  She'll be host and moderator of several roundtables including "Focusing on Multi-Channel Execution To Meet Customer Expectations and Capture Cross-Channel Sales" and "Strategic Growth Within The Multi-Channel Organization".

Finally, OrderDynamics will be hosting an eCommerce cocktail reception on Tuesday April 30 at the King Street Social bar found within the Hyatt Regency from 5-8pm.  If you are interested please contact us to reserve your table.

To meet our team and learn more about why OrderDynamics is Canada's leading commerce platform provider, drop by booth # 9 (in front of the exhibition hall main doors). We look forward to meeting you at eTail Canada!

Full event details:

eTail Canada 2013
Venue: Hyatt Regency Hotel (on King St.)
When: April 29 - May 1
City: Toronto, ON
Registration Info: https://secure.wbresearch.com/SRS2k.dll/ChooseRegistration (registration code: ETCA13ODYNAMICS)
Conference Website: www.etailca.com
OrderDynamics Booth: 9

The Shoe Company Re-Launches on OrderDynamics!

OrderDynamics® would like to congratulate The Shoe Company on their re-launch of TheShoeCompany.com on the OrderDynamics On-Demand eCommerce Platform.

The popular Canadian shoe and apparel retailer based out of Toronto currently operates 65 retail outlets throughout Canada, and has offered trendy dress, casual and sport shoes and accessories to Canadians since 1992. The Shoe Company has established a resilient reputation of offering one of the widest selections of footwear, including comfort brands such as Clarks, Florsheim, and Ecco, as well as high-fashion brands like BCBG, Jessica Simpson, and Michael Kors, and is known for exceptional customer service.

The Brand New TheShoeCompany.com Home Page

Improved Site Search

TheShoeCompany.com seeks to mirror an excellent in-store shopping experience in their online store so as to boost consumer confidence in shopping online. The new site features a frontend redesign with simplified navigation via browse by Brand and Category options, as well as filtered search options based on size, width, price and colour. 

TheShoeCompany.com's Improved Search Navigation

Product pages showcase high-resolution images with product zoom for a realistic view of merchandise, and detailed product descriptions and promotional information (such as markdown rate) so shoppers are optimally educated in their purchase decisions. Pages are also enhanced with social sharing buttons, and shoppers can view You May Also Like, and read and offer Ratings and Reviews right on the product page.

TheShoeCompany.com's new Product Pages

Leading Fulfillment Capabilities

In addition to improved shopability, TheShoeCompany.com offers several value-add fulfillment features that contribute to a streamlined and satisfying shopping experience. With powerful OrderDynamics backend integrations, TheShoeCompany.com is able to keep the customer fully educated at every step of the fulfillment process, providing email notifications of order confirmation, and order shipped status. Orders can be fulfilled in-store, and multi-item orders are able to be partially shipped, providing unique tracking numbers for each package. Customers can opt to have their order(s) delivered right to their front door at standard shipping rates (or free shipping on orders over $70), or they can pick up items in-store for free.  TheShoeCompany.com has also coined its return policy as Easy Returns, allowing for refunds in-store or via UPS shipment, with reimbursement on shipping charges on damaged items.

Enhanced Store Locator

Supporting their move toward an omni-channel commerce model, TheShoeCompany.com has implemented an improved Store Locator. The new locator is integrated with Google Maps to search via postal code or province and city to display nearby store locations, address and hours of operation. This enhanced feature encourages unified cross-channel shopping, removing the separation between online and offline sales where a customer may view an item online but would prefer to try the shoe on in-store, and subsequently offers the flexibility to purchase either immediately in-store, or online when they’re ready.

TheShoeCompany.com Store Locator

OrderDynamics Monthly Google Updates Report – March 2013

Riding on the coattails of a slow January, Google Search and Analytics saw very few updates in the short month of February. Google Adwords, however, was very active, offering new features and upgrades to the platform.

Google Search

There was no Google Panda Algorithm Update in February, likely as a result of Panda’s first update of the year taking place late in January. Matt Cutts of Google reported that the next update will take place early-mid March, which is comparatively early compared to previous months and may be compensatory for February.

On February 25, however, Google Finance was updated to include stock information in search results from additional markets including the Chicago Board of Exchange, Singapore, Korea and Tel Aviv, Israel.

Google Analytics

On February 13, Google Analytics announced on the Analytics blog Multi Currency eCommerce Support in Analytics. With the implementation of the Multi Currency tracking code, International users can now view all Analytics data in local and global currency – a move that will certainly bolster growing international eCommerce.

A day later, Google announced the Mobile Apps Analytics Platform, wherein the Google Analytics platform was rebuilt to accommodate full mobile apps metrics measurement.  The platform allows for  automated crash measurement so that data is automatically sent to Analytics each time the app crashes, and displays stability trends (i.e. how often the app crashes and after how long) across both iOS and Android platforms, as well as details on the device used. Users can also identify their cost each time their mobile app crashes, and the effects of server timeouts when apps are loading.

For Google Analytics accounts with multiple users, account administrators will now be able to view Change History to their reporting according to each user.  Change History displays up to 180 days in arrears on changes to Users, Accounts, Properties, Profiles, Goals and Filters.

Google Adwords

Enhanced Campaigns were introduced on February 6 on the Google Adwords platform. The feature enables easy customization of ads so that different ones can be displayed based on the time of day, device type that it is being viewed on, and where the person who’s viewing it is. Previously, users would have had to create multiple ad campaigns for such specific ad implementation.

Improvements to the Search Funnel were deployed on February 13 that would enable a Search Funnel column to be appended to reports.  With the addition of the Search Funnel column to these reports, users can easily identify keywords that best assist conversions and the budget you should allocate to bidding for them. The tool also distinguishes which keywords are underperforming and should be replaced, so that all campaigns are well optimized for conversions.

On February 14, Google Adwords announced that Adwords Express would be manageable through My Client Center, a platform that enables account managers to oversee multiple Adwords accounts in one spot. The platform caters to large advertising agents.

Google Adwords also announced on February 26 that the Double Click Digital Marketing Platform would be integrated with Adwords to create, test and manage video and mobile ads. Within the Double Click Digital Marketing Platform, features such as the Double Click Bid Manager and Double Click Ad Exchange enable marketers to easily and dynamically view a full stock of video content and bid on them in real-time, and then manage ad campaigns using the video content in Google Adwords. Double Click for Advertisors then provides a tracking tag to be implemented in all ads to monitor and measure ad effectiveness. This concept equips advertisers to keep pace with the growing video ad trend, as seen on Youtube, content streaming websites and within mobile apps.

Dx3 Canada 2013 - Recap of the Show!

OrderDynamics is back from our first Canadian retail conference of the year, Dx3 Canada 2013. For the second year in a row, Dx3 Canada created an excellent arena to learn about all things digital, including advertising, marketing and retailing.

The OrderDynamics team!

Dx3 Canada presented a very apparent and distinct focus on digital marketing, with a great roster of sessions and vendors aiming to showcase various trends and technologies that help boost brand visibility and engagement. Alternatively, OrderDynamics saw the presence of these types of vendors as an opportunity to highlight how the development of new digital media and marketing practices and technologies drives retail, in terms of digital and at times in-store.

The evolution of digital retail was evident at Dx3 Canada this year in the shift from traditional online retail to discussions on omni-channel commerce as a way to unify all retail operations. Notably, at Dx3 Canada’s inaugural conference last year, OrderDynamics presented a speaking panel of industry experts and current clients aiming to educate on how to enter eCommerce for the first time.

Sam Barnes (left) speaking with Michael Turcsanyi (right)

 This year, however, the OrderDynamics presentation featured Sam Barnes, Director of eCommerce at Laura Canada, who spearheaded the project of resonating over 80 years of brick-and-mortar operations for the Canadian women’s clothing retailer in an equally profitable and satisfying online shopping experience on the OrderDynamics Platform. In his session titled ‘5 Things You Need to Know About eCommerce’, Sam discussed how Laura Canada identified the need for an ecommerce website and to meld their on- and offline shopping channels and operations to provide a great level of service and convenience to its customers.

David Labistour, CEO of Mountain Equipment Co-op at Dx3 Canada

Mountain Equipment Co-op CEO, David Labistour’s Keynote Address – one of the highlights from last week’s conference – also brilliantly defined the shift in retail to a consumers’ market, wherein the consumers’ adoption of new technology has driven the need for retail evolution and adaptation otherwise retailers with ultimately perish.  David stated that customer loyalty is far overshadowed by price and convenience, and as such retailers must offer solutions to accommodate this, such as Mountain Equipment Co-op’s strategies to sell bicycles to support urbanization, or limiting full inventory display to the website so that only locally popular items are offered in brick-and-mortar locations. Even brand ownership is left to consumers via social media. Conversely, David also touched on the need to be objective with the types of technology adopted, stating that new technologies should support a business’ original strategy in order to justify integrating it into operations, or else they may be compromising a unique brand identity that keeps their customers coming back – a notion backed by the Harvard Business Review’s ‘Big Bang Disruption’.

Sam Barnes, Director of eCommerce at Laura Canada

OrderDynamics is excited to see how the digital retail environment continues to progress, and how it will set the tone for next year’s Dx3 Canada conference. We also look forward to engaging post-show with all the partners, leads and clients we were able to speak to. We’d like to extend a special thank you to Sam Barnes at Laura Canada for his excellent presentation with OrderDynamics.

Some of the OrderDynamics team at Dx3 Canada

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