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.

On-Demand eCommerce: Kitchen Stuff Plus Re-Launches Popular Retail Site on OrderDynamics

Toronto, ON -- OrderDynamics announces another successful website migration to their On-Demand eCommerce Platform with Kitchen Stuff Plus. The popular Toronto-based retailer underwent a complete website redesign and ecommerce technology re-launch, designed to support their in-store experience and accelerate web sales. The new www.kitchenstuffplus.com website offers a fun and easy way to shop for thousands kitchen and housewares products.

"We’re very pleased with the new website and the position we’re in with the OrderDynamics platform" explains John Thompson, Director of IT at Kitchen Stuff Plus. "We now have the ability to quickly and easily innovate in areas of the site that will help us service more customers” continues Thompson. The new eStore features the latest frontend and backend eCommerce tools and best practices such as Guided Navigation, Quick View, Promotions, Advanced Merchandising, Recommendations, One-page Checkout, Content Personalization, Rich Imaging, Social Integration, and more. In addition, the new kitchenstuffplus.com provides tools to support their 10 locations in the greater Toronto area.

"The Kitchen Stuff Plus project has been very exciting and we’re thrilled with how the website has turned out” says Michael Turcsanyi, President of OrderDynamics. "We look forward to helping the Kitchen Stuff Plus team leverage our toolset to grow their online channel for many years to come”.

About Kitchen Stuff Plus

Kitchen Stuff Plus is a privately-owned, leading Canadian housewares and home decor retailer that has been voted one of Toronto's best places to shop again and again. Customers enjoy incredible savings every day, an ever-changing selection of quality brand name merchandise, and exceptional service. Founded in 1987 with the belief that customers deserve the best brands at the best prices, the company operates stores in the Greater Toronto Area, including urban locations, superstores and clearance outlet. With a carefully selected assortment, eye for quality and commitment to offering great value, Kitchen Stuff Plus makes it easy and affordable for savvy customers to experience their passion for cooking, eating and entertaining.

Kitchenstuffplus.com Launches with OrderDynamics!

Congratulations to Kitchenstuffplus.com on their launch with OrderDynamics! The Kitchen Stuff Plus website utilizes the most current ecommerce features to provide a user-friendly experience that stimulates higher traffic to drive conversion and sales. As a reputable Canadian retailer, Kitchen Stuff Plus carries an extensive offering of cookware and bakeware, cutlery and silverware, housewares, home décor and small kitchen appliances, organized into a chic online catalog.


With OrderDynamics, Kitchenstuffplus.com elegantly presents products with the ability to easily view product features and reviews, compare to retail pricing, and explore related and recommended items. The WishList and easy, secure online checkout complete a great user experience!

OrderDynamics in Internet Retailer Magazine June: People Power

OrderDynamics was featured in an article in the June 2011 edition of Internet Retailer Magazine. The article, called People Power, showcases our Client Walking on a Cloud and how they use our Call Center and CRM to empower their customer service agents to service callers better for both B2C and B2B orders.

Here is an excerpt: "To meet those expectations multichannel shoe retailer Walking On A Cloud in February 2010 implemented an e-commerce platform and order management system from OrderDynamics. The retailer operates 36 bricks-and-mortar stores in Ontario, Canada, sells online and operates a wholesale division. The system enables Walking On A Cloud's three in-house contact center agents to access information for each business unit, including being able to look up customer information, in-stock availability and tracking information, says Mark Zuckier, the retailer's president. "We want our agents to have all the tools to help consumers place an order or resolve an issue," he says."

Internet Retailer June 2011: People Power

Read the article here

Digital Magazine to this Digital magazine article here

OrderDynamics Announces Integrated Mobile Commerce Solution

OrderDynamics, Canada’s leading On-Demand eCommerce Platform provider, announces upcoming mobile commerce solution fully integrated into its eCommerce SaaS Platform and Order Management System.

With consumer sales on mobile devices set to meet or exceed levels on personal computers in the coming years, OrderDynamics announces plans to deliver a fully integrated mobile commerce solution called OrderDynamics Mobile™. OrderDynamics services high-growth online merchants with mid-sized online revenues, typically between 5 and 50 million in annual online sales. These merchants require excellent platform technology for growth and a long-term partner to help them achieve their revenue goals. The OrderDynamics on-demand eCommerce platform provides powerful frontend and backend tools that help increase conversions and order sizes while streamlining web operations.

For a mobile channel to be successful with these merchants, the mobile solution needs to unify the consumer experience between traditional website and the mobile site and utilize the same merchandising and customer service features they’ve come to expect from OrderDynamics. Moreover, merchants require total and independent control over the mobile channel with seamless integration into the OrderDynamics platform, which includes an Order Management System and a powerful CRM toolset.

The fully integrated nature of OrderDynamics Mobile™ will enable exciting consumer features like real-time inventory, pricing, personalization, promotions, one-click checkout, ratings and reviews, wish lists, cross channel account tools, and more.

In addition to robust mobile shopping features, OrderDynamics is leveraging the latest mobile technologies in the development of OrderDynamics Mobile™. “We’re in the middle of the the second major wave of mobile commerce technologies right now” Explains Steven Berkovitz, On-Demand Platform Architect at OrderDynamics. “By investing in standards-based mobile technologies and building core platform support for mobile integration, OrderDynamics Mobile ™ will be the most full featured and robust mobile commerce solution available” continues Berkovitz. OrderDynamics Mobile™ is based on HTML 5, CSS3, and Jquery mobile technologies that many industry experts believe will be the future of mobile websites.

OrderDynamics Mobile™ will launch late summer 2011 with several existing customers already signed on.

IRCE 2011 Wrap-up: OrderDynamics Says Thanks!

The OrderDynamics Team would like to thank everyone who attended Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition 2011. IRCE2011 had the most attendees and exhibitors of any previous year and offered a few new aspects to the show like the eCommerce Technology Theater. There were an overwhelming number of merchants looking to select an eCommerce platform this year after either outgrowing their current platform or looking to launch the channel for the first time. The four-day event was held in San Diego and was packed with great content, workshops, and nightlife! We look forward to IRCE 2012 in Chicago!

The first annual Avalara Rocktopia Party!, sponsored in part by OrderDynamics, was a huge success that ended off the week with a bang! We'll be posting pictures from the pary on the On-Demand eCommerce Blog.

For those of you that are considering a new platform or are planning for an ecommerce channel, please give us a call to discuss our leading On-Demand Platform technology designed to help B2C and B2B merchants grow their online sales.

Some notable companies that we thought were innovative and worth a closer look: ShopSocially, MoonToast, OPMPros, KivaSystems, and TabJuice.

We will be reaching out to all interested parties over the next two weeks. You may also contact us directly: Michael Turcsanyi solutions@orderdynamics.com.

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

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

Avarala and OrderDynamics: Rocktopia at IRCE 2011!

We're all set to rock out with Avalara and their team of sponsors for ROCKTOPIA, in San Diego June 16th, 2011 at 9 p.m. at Jolt'n Joe's in the Gas Lamp District. Stop by the OrderDynamics Booth (#121) for tickets to the event. We'll also be speaking at the Avalara Booth (#923) on Wednesday, June 15 from 12 pm to 12:30 pm and Thursday, June 16 from 12 pm to 12:30 pm. We're going to be discussing "Flipping the Switch: How to successfully change eCommerce platforms". See you there!

Congrats Walkingonacloud.com on the New Website Design!

We congratulate our client, Walkingonacloud.com on a recent redesign of their Canadian and USA eStores. After launching on OrderDynamics 1.5 years ago, Walkingonacloud.com has seen significant sales growth, so much so that it fueled a complete redesign of their website – something that was not done during the initial launch. The new design enables many of the latest ecommerce features and best practices such as Guided Navigation, Search Within, Dynamic Merchandising, Up Selling in the Buy Area, Rich Imaging, Facebook and Twitter, Mini Cart, Personalization, and more. The new design will allow Walkingonacloud to convert traffic at a higher level and increase the average order size through these out-of-box features of OrderDynamics.

Walkingonacloud.com has over 8,000 shoes and accessories from over 90 brands. Congrats!

OrderDynamics Speaks at eCommerce Camp #7: Build vs. Buy, the Future of eCommerce Platforms

What is the future of eCommerce platforms? OrderDynamics speaks on the panel at Ecommerce Camp 7, to be held in Toronto on June 6, 2011.

Ecommerce Camp is an excellent networking opportunity hosted by Chris Long, Well.ca and M Marking Inc. for both those who are familiar with the eCommerce world and those who are new to the game. Our very own Steven Berkovitz will be joining local experts from Shopify and T4G in deliberating where eCommerce is heading in the coming years and why we believe it is time to buy rather than build. This exciting debate will be moderated by a member from Sears Canada, and at the end research findings on the outlook for eCommerce will be exhibited by Google.

The event begins at 6pm at Fionn MacCool’s on 70 The Esplanade, and tickets are free! To register to attend Ecommerce Camp 7, and gain some valuable insight from its presenters, visit http://guestlistapp.com/events/57297 .