iQliving Selects OrderDynamics to Power their Online Storefront and Enhance its Multi-Channel Experience

JULY 31, 2012 – TORONTO, ON – OrderDynamics™, Canada’s leading on-demand commerce platform provider, today announced that iQliving, a Canadian specialty housewares retailer, has selected OrderDynamics to power its online storefront and enhance its multi-channel retail strategy.

The Toronto-based retailer sells more than 5,000 different product lines including bath, kitchen, and storage within their 3,500 square foot flagship store, and has built a strong customer base due to their attention to detail and exceptional customer service.  

iQliving opted to replace their legacy eCommerce solution after determining their online storefront didn’t match the premium experience, quality, or detail of its in-store counterpart.  After a rigorous selection process, iQliving selected OrderDynamics due to their experience in providing eCommerce solutions capable of integrating with in-store point of sale systems and existing offline loyalty programs.

With OrderDynamics, iQliving now has the ability to deliver an exceptional end-to-end online shopping experience with advanced online marketing and merchandising functionality, a fully integrated order management system, and OD Endpoint™ - a solution specifically designed by OrderDynamics for warehouse and pick-pack-and-ship fulfillment scenarios.

“It’s important for iQliving to incorporate the best elements of our in-store experience in our online store as we continue to grow that part of our business.  OrderDynamics enables us to create true multi-channel strategies and initiatives to better serve our customers,” said Vince Menchella, CEO at iQliving.  “OrderDynamics experience connecting online and offline channels, as well as their passion for eCommerce made it clear they are ideal partners for iQliving. They’ll help give us a distinct competitive advantage,” he added.

“iQliving recognizes the opportunity that exists today in the Canadian online marketplace and are aggressively pursuing growth with cutting edge tactics and advanced technology,” said Michael Turcsanyi, President at OrderDynamics.  “We look forward to working with the iQliving team to help them achieve their goals.”

Walking on a Cloud Increases Social Media Fanbase by 70% through OrderDynamics H.I.V.E. Partner ShopSocially

JULY 24, 2012 – TORONTO, ON – OrderDynamics™ Corporation, Canada’s leading on-demand commerce provider, today announced that Highly Integrated Virtual Environment (H.I.V.E™) technology partner ShopSocially, a social media platform that improves engagement, decision and conversion between consumers and retailers, recently helped multi-channel retailer Walking on a Cloud increase their overall social media fanbase by more than 70% over the course of two weeks.

H.I.V.E is a network of pre-built integrations between leading web and eCommerce technologies and the OrderDynamics On-Demand Commerce platform.  By proactively building H.I.V.E integrations into its commerce platform architecture, OrderDynamics significantly reduces the complexities and costs involved for retailers looking to leverage best of breed third party tools.  ShopSocially, and hundreds of other leading solutions, are available to all OrderDynamics Clients to leverage through seamless and easy implementation.

ShopSocially uses pre- and post-purchase incentivized sharing to stimulate social media exposure and build customer databases.  The social media tool allows online shoppers to either share a brand on Facebook prior to a purchase, or share just-purchased items for entry into contests, or to receive discounts on future purchases, helping brands drive web traffic, increase revenue and optimize exposure.

With ShopSocially, Walking on a Cloud ran several campaigns, including unique Canada Day and Independence Day promotions highlighted through their weekly email newsletter offering 20% off all products for the day.  Walking on a Cloud’s impressive results included:

•    Growing their social media fanbase by more than 70% in under two weeks
•    47.8% of email recipients used their coupon code from “Liking” the Walking on a Cloud Facebook page
•    More than 250 Facebook “Likes” in the campaign’s first 48 hours
•    More than 13,200 total social media impressions
•    An average acquisition of at least 35 new “Fans” per day since launching the campaigns

“Growing our online fanbase has been a big priority for us over the past few months,” said Mark Zuckier, President of Walking on a Cloud’s eCommerce division.  “We’ve tried several strategies in the past, but nothing has generated the kind of results ShopSocially has for us.  Having the pre-built integration into the OrderDynamics platform made turning on ShopSocially fast and extremely seamless.  We need this kind of flexibility to keep pace with our evolving customers,” he added.

“It’s always exciting to see how our third party integrations can truly help our clients.  We pride ourselves in offering pre-built integrations with the best technologies available to help our clients deliver incredible online experiences,” said Michael Benadiba, CEO at OrderDynamics.  “I am extremely pleased to see the online growth Walking on a Cloud has achieved in such a short amount of time.  I am also confident that ShopSocially can help many more of our clients too,” he concluded

Google to Transition from Google Product Search to Google Shopping – What This Means for Retailers

On May 31, Google announced that the free ride on Google Product Search would soon be over. Over the course of Summer 2012, they will be rolling out small changes to Google Product Search, and the way products are displayed in SERPs to eventually complete the transition to Google Shopping through the Fall.

How it Works

Google Shopping will essentially be an amalgamation of current Google Product Listings and Google Product Search results, and will appear in SERPs similar to the way Google Product Listings presently do. The items that show up just above or to the side of organic listings will come from only from online merchants who pay to be there; campaigns will be set up through AdWords, however rather than bidding on specific keywords, eretailers will instead bid on the maximum cost per click or action they are willing to incur.  In addition, eretailers who pay to show up in Google Shopping results can also enlist in the Google Trusted Websites program with which they will be able to have badges shown in their Google Shopping results indicating their status. However, payment alone is not the key to success with Google Shopping.

Google asserts that the transition aims to provide a better user experience. As such, their hope is that merchants who choose to pay for their inclusion into Google Shopping results will understand that this means they need to feature quality content, and up-to-date content and pricing to prove that their listing should be shown. With only limited space in the proposed Google Shopping area in SERPs, just because a retailer pays, doesn’t mean their ad will show up – the information must be relevant

What it Does

The new Google Shopping results will aim to make it easier to access more content in one space, building on the previous Search Plus Your World changes to Google Search. The tool will be able to identify broad terms and present sub-categories, should they be necessary, as well as additional filters to further narrow results.  Product listings will also feature Buying Guides in a pop-up tab, providing information for high-level product research on features and benefits without having to leave the Google Shopping arena.

What It Means for Online Retailers

As mentioned above, just because a retailer chooses to pay for inclusion into Google Shopping listings, it doesn’t mean they are guaranteed to be displayed. Also worth mentioning is this payment has no effect on organic search listings – rank won’t decrease by not paying, but it won’t increase with payment either. Google has increasingly been emphasizing the importance of quality content and its disapproval of spamming, notably with the Google Penguin algorithm. This means not only will retailers need to incur the extra cost for inclusion, but they will also need to step up their efforts in regards to producing content that will be useful to searchers.  An argument by Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land contends that Google Shopping is counter-productive with its additional emphasis in content because many retailers may be willing to make the transition to Google Shopping without ever having that money help them. With content being a blatant necessity for Google rank anyway, it may make sense to bypass the financial investment and focus whole-heartedly on SEO alone.

Alternatively, those who are accustomed to the current Google Product Search and Google Product Listing models may not be ready to let go of the type of SERP exposure they yield from these services, and will be entirely willing to pay. Google has taken this into account by stating on their blog incentives to encourage retailers to enlist in Google Shopping:

•  Retailers currently utilizing Google Product Listing ads, and those who enlist in them prior to August 15 will be granted a monthly 10% credit on their total spend until year end.

• Retailers who currently upload products through the Merchant Centre to Google Product Search will receive a $100 credit toward setting up an AdWords account to begin their Google Shopping initiatives, needing only fill out a form with Google prior to August 15.

Google Shopping will be in full effect through Fall 2012, officially phasing out Google Product Search, merging Google Product Listing, and taking on the Google Shopping name.

The Emerging Importance of Order Management in eCommerce

In the last few years there has been a dramatic shift in the requirements retailers have when building eCommerce projects (both re-platforming or first time online projects). Order management and fulfillment, are rapidly becoming two of the most critical pieces in these projects, largely because of how shopping and retail landscapes are evolving.

At OrderDynamics™, we're experiencing this first hand with Clients and prospects on a daily basis. Prominent eCommerce analysts are also observing this shift. So when did this transition start? While there's no exact date, the short answer is it's been happening for some time now as eCommerce and online retailing continue to mature.

Retail is in the beginning stages of reinventing itself. Of course, this reinvention is directly in line with today's consumer who purchases goods out of convenience or targeted marketing efforts, rather than "channel loyalty". That's a concept OrderDynamics™ refers to as "Connected Commerce".

Forrester Research's Brian Walker recently outlined what retailers need to address as part of the evolving retail landscape (and subsequent "channel merge"):

• Manage orders across a diverse set of customer touchpoints
• Enable inventory visibility across all  retail channels
• Support a growing variety of payment types and tiered fraud screening
• Support customer service scenarios more effectively

While these capabilities are vital for the long term success of online retailing, there are several other factors to consider, too.

Consumers are paying for more order transparency
We've seen significant increases in conversion rates across numerous verticals (apparel in particular) when providing better frontend clarity into actual stock availability and fulfillment ETAs before ordering. Repeat shopping has also increased (in cases where multi-item orders need multi-location fulfillment) because of superior customer service through detailed, line-item level order status information at every step in the order lifecycle.

Stock availability display rules need to account for cross-channel inventory and fulfillment business rules to enable more specific and trustworthy messaging to the consumers. Having intelligent transactional email messaging and order tracking is critical. Consumers are likely to cancel their order due to confusion and/or lack of trust if they see blanket statements about their order status.

With enhanced Order Management System (OMS) support within an eCommerce platform (ECP), many of these OMS capabilities should be wired into the frontend of a website within My Account, Shopping Cart, Checkout, Product Catalog sections, etc.

Tighter merchant control with payment capture
In complex, multi-location fulfillment location scenarios (or in back order scenarios), there has been a growing desire to tightly control payment processing steps in relationship with fulfillment policies. The days of "full authorization" and "full capture" at time of shipping doesn't work well in these instances. Merchants want to deploy OMS workflows and invoicing policies that align with distributed inventory availability. Some supply chain systems can be the "brain" to determine what SKUs will be shipping from where based on inventory policies. In many cases the OMS needs to support the ability to invoice, capture funds, and ship individual shipments.

Roll up cross channel orders to the frontend
Providing a single view into the customer's order history, preferences, and loyalty has become a burning desire for many multi-channel merchants. They want to send orders from either their retail ERP, catalog system, or call centers to their ECP so the marketing and merchandising team(s) can leverage that data on their websites. This would allow the consumer to see their entire account history with the merchant. This is driving OMS support to easily receive orders from other sources into the ECP/OMS, while also forcing ECP/OMS systems to natively support linking external systems into order work flows. Stored value databases like in-house gift cards or loyalty programs need to be intelligently and reliably plugged in to the ECP/OMS so that these kinds of features can be leveraged.

To learn more about order management and its growing importance in online retail, download the new whitepaper, "5 Organizational Steps to Plan for Connected Commerce".

How Retailers Are Using Social Media - Facebook

Facebook has come a long way since it launched in 2004, for college students only. Now, the social network, which seems omnipresent featuring pages on any subject imaginable, is a fruitful business tool and integral to the marketing efforts of many retailers around the world. 

Facebook remains the most popular social network with 845 million active users, 47% of which earn on average $50,000-$99,999 per year. Also taking note that on average, each user visits the site 40 times per month, around 23 minutes per visit, and more than half of total Facebook users are women, it suffices to say that Facebook holds great opportunities for retailers.  By presenting a brand to Facebook users in an inherently social setting where they can interact and share favourite products and brands with friends, retailers target Facebook users in a relaxed state, where they are likely to be more receptive to new products introduced to them, especially by friends. 

The interesting thing about marketing and selling through Facebook as opposed to traditional television advertisements is that it’s much cheaper and much less-intrusive, though its highly casual nature makes people much more receptive to it.  Facebook’s core features provide several ways for retailers to reach out to potential customers, with the focal purpose seeming to lie heavily on building relationships with them, where in Britain alone people spend on average a half hour longer per day on Facebook than they do watching television, and 73% of the British prefer to be browsing Facebook than watching television. Some big name retailers have done a great job of capitalizing on Facebook’s primary features to introduce their brand, promote new products, and stimulate purchase behaviour:

Starbucks – Starbucks hosts a regularly updated Facebook page that shares information on current company initiatives, new product releases, and promotions. What is novel about Starbucks’ Facebook page is the Starbucks Card app, featured in a mini tab. By swapping basic information with the app, Facebook users are able to manage their Starbucks Card and Rewards – basic and boring, right? The app also accesses the birthdays of a user’s Facebook friends, and sorts them into a sub-group so that a user can easily send a fun Starbucks eGift Card. Of course, all other friends can also be sent eCards by removing the birthday filter.

Old Spice – With a revamp of the Old Spice brand featuring “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” came a shift from Old Spice being the cologne and after-shave dad uses, to the cologne and after shave every girl wants her man to use. The outcome was a quirky, obscure ad campaign that started on television and percolated to all things Old Spice, including their Facebook page. Old Spice utilizes a Facebook store tab that links to the respective page on Old Spice eCommerce site. The interesting thing about this Facebook store, however, is that there is no trace of after-shave or cologne being sold in it. Rather, it features paraphernalia building on the new, highly popular theme including t-shirts, flasks, belts, beer sleeves and hats boasting clever phrases, allowing men to not only smell like an Old Spice man, but dress like one, too.

Stila – Stila Cosmetics utilizes the Facebook to its advantage by regularly running contests wherein a Facebook user must interact with the Stila Facebok page in order to enter. Subscribers to the Stila e-newsletters will receive information about Stila contests, wherein they must click through the email to the Stila’s Facebook page. Once there, the Facebook user must then ‘Like’ Stila to be able to access the entry form.  In the example below of a past email contest, Stila redirects recipients to post their review of their favourite Stila product on Facebook in order to enter the contest.

Smashbox – The Smashbox Facebook page focuses on building relationships between Smashbox products and the Facebook users that Like them. Instead of selling products, or promoting them in an overtly commercial way, Smashbox presents its followers with fun activities to interact with the brand. Currently on the Smashbox’s Facebook account are pages entitled “Click, You’re It!” wherein users can use their favourite photos to create a custom magazine layout, and “Star in your own Smashbox video!” with the present theme being a review on Smashbox’s new BB Cream.  An interesting extension to the video activity was that Smashbox partnered with a popular fashion blogger who held a complementary contest to win $300 worth of Smashbox Cosmetics by creating a video on Smashbox’s Facebook page, then Tweeting it to her, thereafter. 

C&A – A fascinating take on using Facebook to drive sales comes from European retailer C&A, who use Facebook to help their brick-and-mortar stores, rather than their eCommerce site. C&A synched their Facebook page in real-time with counters displaying each item’s Facebook Likes on the hangers of merchandise in their Brazil locations. This allowed shoppers to see which items were most popular globally. The assumption is that the more popular an item appears to be, the more likely shoppers are to try it on, and subsequently buy.

To learn more about social media tactics leading online retailers are using to engage consumers and drive additional revenue, download the new whitepaper, "20 Social Media Tactics for Online Retailers".

 

How Retailers Are Using Social Media - Blogs and Communities

In 2011, Google presented a figurative game changer which rendered social sharing and networks much more powerful than previously thought; the game changer was the Google Panda algorithm update. The Update leads to a greater emphasis on the content available on websites to be shared via social networks, therefore affecting Google Search Rank.

Blogging and forum posting have become a popular way to expand the amount of content eRetailers can provide to the public, instead of limiting themselves to basic descriptions on product pages, and small posts on Facebook or Twitter.  eRetailers are able to utilize blogs and forums in either a branded or non-branded sense to create extended copy that builds on product descriptions to provide further product information; offers tips, tricks and how-to’s for whatever type of product is being sold; provide product reviews and comparisons; and stimulate conversation with frequent readers on a variety of topics pertaining to the brand. 

Within the written copy that can be presented by blogs and forums lies a more technical benefit: SEO. The more recent Google Penguin update places less emphasis on backlinks as per traditional SEO, which resulted in online businesses submitting their websites to hundreds of low-quality directories, and more on the content that is being linked. Google’s Quality Guidelines assert that a link must explicitly provide value to the reader, not just to a search engine algorithm. Copywriting creates the opportunity to utilize targeted, long-tail keywords and phrases that are important to a brand or product as anchor text that links back to relevant pages on a brand’s website.  This helps build a relationship between a brand and certain keywords and phrases so that when they are searched, Google will know they are relevant to the brand, therefore placing the brand higher in search results. As Penguin also states that brand sites should have links from different types of sites, a blog or forum site can offer variety from other social sites.

In a recent blog post regarding the Google Penguin update, Siv Rauv writes about the necessity for a diverse anchor text profile, utilizing long-tail phrases and brand/product names in addition to exact match keywords – which are actually weighed less.  Siv also states that anchor text should link to several types of sites, including other blogs, forums, social media, ecommerce and press sites to indicate a ‘natural link profile’. What does this all mean? Here are a few retailers who operate great blogs, as an example of where to start, and how to grow:

• The mBlog by Macy’s is a veritable oasis of information. It is carefully segmented by subject to offer tips, tricks and trends on fashion, home essentials, recipes, men’s products and more, while in the process linking to suggested products on the Macy’s eCommerce site. Readers can subscribe to the mBlog via RSS Feed, Facebook and Twitter, and the blog is updated daily - sometimes several times per day – maintaining share of mind.


• The Williams-Sonoma blog titled the Blender is a mouth-watering blog, to say the least, primarily offering basic and more creative recipes from gnocchi to soup to biscotti. Similar to the mBlog, it suggests products featured at Williams-Sonoma, but as more of a casual mention than an overt suggestion. The blog also features a list of other suggested blogs, recommended Facebook pages, a Twitter Feed, and videos, which creates link heaven.


• Urban Outfitters hosts an intricate blog called the UO Blog, which posts not only about the fashion offered online and in-store, but about the overall culture that specific trends represent. The UO Blog features reviews and downloads for new music, videos and books; fashion tips such as dealing with ‘helmet hair’; posters and photos on current Urban Outfitters sales, events and internal projects; and information on Urban Outfitters favourite artists, clothiers, musicians and more. With all of these features includes a lot of detailed copy filled with keywords, internal and outbound links.


• The Vera Wang blog – titled Vera Unveiled – offers a whimsical look into Vera’s world, opening up her sketchbook, the ideas behind the designs, press releases on Vera and her collections, posts by guest editors, fashions that can be found in stores, and features on weddings whose brides wore a Vera dress on their special day. Vera Unveiled is updated anywhere from 20 to 60+ times per month, boasting vast amount of content.


• Roots simply entitles its blog as Our Blog. Our Blog is a detailed look into the Roots culture, featuring internal projects and missions, events supporting better living and social causes, do it yourself projects involving Roots items, and all things Canadian. Also found in Our Blog is news regarding pop-up stores, collection releases and sales, information to help chose the right product for various uses and occasions, while supplying many other channels to discover Roots including a Twitter Feed, Flickr account, Facebook updates, YouTube videos and more.


• OrderDynamics Client American Diabetes Association hosts an official blog labelled Diabetes Stops Here. The blog presents results from scientific studies, interviews, events at which the American Diabetes Associations will be, and tips for managing food and drink at social gatherings for those living with diabetes.  There is an immense amount of topics covered in the blog, and posts allow reader comments to stimulate discussion. 

To learn more about social media tactics leading online retailers are using to engage consumers and drive additional revenue, download the new whitepaper, "20 Social Media Tactics for Online Retailers".

Nutrasource.com Completes Multi-Site Launch with OrderDynamics On-Demand Commerce Platform

JUNE 24, 2012 – TORONTO, ON – OrderDynamics™ Corporation, Canada's leading on-demand commerce platform provider, today announced the launch of Nutrasource.com, a premier online health and wellness destination, on the OrderDynamics Commerce Platform. The newly re-launched Nutrasource.com creates a dynamic customer experience through displaying pricing comparisons, in-depth product descriptions and indications, and detailed ingredient listings. The new site also allows shoppers to share their favorite health products and recent purchases through various social media outlets such Facebook, Twitter, and more.

The new Nutrasource.com features intricate Guided Navigation and Breadcrumb trails that 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. In addition to the primary Nutrasource.com site, Nutrasource operates three other niche transactional micro-sites and a mobile commerce site, all of which are managed through the OrderDynamics On-Demand Commerce Platform.

Equipped with the most innovative eCommerce tools, Nutrasource.com delivers a premium online shopping experience, in addition to featuring a comprehensive repertoire of vitamins, supplements, detox, nutrition and personal care products. “These are big steps for us,” said Ashoka Ganesan, managing director overseeing Nutrasource. “The new platform is going to be an integral part of growing our business.”

Michael Turcsanyi, President at OrderDynamics, added “It’s a sophisticated site built on current eCommerce best practices that will deliver a great experience for customers, and significant growth for Nutrasource. We’re thrilled Nutrasource selected our On-Demand Commerce Platform to help drive substantial growth.”

OrderDynamics Announces Connected Commerce: A Multi-Channel Alignment Solution for Retailers

June 15, 2012 – TORONTO, ON – OrderDynamics™ Corporation, Canada's leading on-demand commerce platform provider, today announced “Connected Commerce”, an innovative new way for multi-channel retailers to extend experiences from retail stores to eCommerce channels through the OrderDynamics eCommerce platform and its ability to seamlessly integrate into all consumer interaction points of a retail operation.

Connected Commerce reflects a shift in the retail marketplace that requires merchants to extend consistent messaging and experiences to consumers across any and all touch points.  The explosive adoption of mobile and tablet mediums in recent years has created additional online touch points for retailers to use when communicating with consumers. 

“It is becoming increasingly difficult for retailers to promote a cohesive message to consumers in today’s retail world,” said Michael Turcsanyi, President at OrderDynamics. “We designed Connected Commerce to unify the shopping experience for merchants and consumers by allowing for deep two-way integration between the OrderDynamics eCommerce platform and Order Management System, and all other retail systems such as CRM, ERP, Warehouse Management Systems, and Merchandising toolsets,” said Turcsanyi. 

A recent example of Connected Commerce by OrderDynamics is Kitchen Stuff Plus, a multi-channel retailer of houseware products, who has been able to improve customer service and transform their business. “Kitchen Stuff Plus now has the ability to quickly and easily innovate in areas of our website that will help us service more customers. Being able to check individual store inventory for specific products has helped improve overall sales and drive additional traffic within our stores,” said John Thompson, Director of IT at Kitchen Stuff Plus.

In today’s retail world merchants have an incredible amount of information that can be leveraged to effectively market to consumers across multiple mediums while also providing a much improved shopping experience. Significant integrations between physical and virtual retail environments allows for the following improvements:

• Customer: Increase repeat business and enhance customer experiences through sharing multi-channel data across in-store applications, online properties, and direct marketing programs.
• Merchandising: Create seamless integrations of promotions and multi-channel content, and drive order values through rich media, latest in-store features, dynamic promotions, and integrated loyalty programs.
• Marketing: Cultivate meaningful relationships with consumers by unifying brand touch points and aligning channel-centric interactions.
• Order Management: Optimize and automate customer service tools to provide greater transparency with customers.
• Warehouse: Ship packages faster and at a lower cost by leveraging distributed inventory and advanced fulfillment tactics. Quickly deploy pick-pack-and-ship facilities using integrated fulfillment technology.

“Consumers don’t differentiate shopping channels like businesses do. Today and tomorrow’s consumer expects a unified experience throughout the buying process, regardless of what medium they use,” said Turcsanyi. “The retailers who can align their business to fit these needs have a tremendous opportunity to grow in the coming years. We’re proud to offer a solution that enables retailers to synch processes, technologies, and strategies,” Turcsanyi concluded.

Internet Retailer: Get Ready For Success with OrderDynamics

Internet Retailer's June magazine is arguably the biggest single issue of the year. The 144-page issue is jam packed with content in anticipation of the annual Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE).

One of the major theme's of the June issue is growth - growth within the eCommerce industry in general and more specifically in pureplay retailer online sales compared with multi-channel retailer online sales. Internet Retailer describes evolving consumer behaviors and how digitally connected they are becoming as the top challenges multi-channel retailers are facing. The article confirms what other reports have been suggesting for some time: Multi-channel retailers are experiencing significant difficulty connecting with consumers across various physical and digital mediums.

This month's Spotlight article features an in-depth interview with OrderDynamics President Michael Turcsanyi called "Get Ready For Success". The interview discusses today's evolving consumer and OrderDynamics Connected Commerce vision for multi-channel retailers looking to create a seamless experience across any/all channels and touch points to help grow sales and improve shopping experiences.

Read the full article and interview in Internet Retailer.

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The June issue of Internet Retailer also features a great article about the Shopping Cart and its evolution in the eCommerce industry over the last few years. This article documents Laura Canada, an OrderDynamics Client, and their plan to enter eCommerce later this year with the launch of an extremely sophisticated eCommerce website (on the OrderDynamics On-Demand eCommerce Platform) in order to compete with other retail brands that are already established in the online marketplace.

Read about Laura's climb into eCommerce here.

Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition 2012 - Recap of the Show!

Wow! What a whirlwind trip for the OrderDynamics team last week in Chicago. We're still catching our collective breath from another amazing Internet Retailer Conference! Before discussing highlights of the show, we'd like to extend a huge thank you to everyone we met and who took the time to stop by our booth at IRCE 2012! Whether it was for company updates, first time meetings, eCommerce platform demo's, or Win The Wheels stickers, we appreciate your time and getting the opportunity to meet you.

What was unique about last week - outside of IRCE hitting new attendance records with more than 8,600 attendees - was exhibiting at the Retail Council of Canada Store Conference on June 4th and 5th in Toronto prior to arriving at IRCE. Michael Turcsanyi, OrderDynamics President, even moderated a "Getting eCommerce Right The First Time" panel at that event! (Click here to read our recap of this Retail Conference.)

Every year these Internet Retailer shows have a certain trend and this year one of those trends was B2B eCommerce. We met with hundreds of retailers and manufacturers (a lot of appliance and commercial manufacturers, too) looking to either enter eCommerce with a B2B-only strategy or typical B2C retailers looking to maximize online sales by starting a new B2B-focused site. In either case it's clear the B2B eCommerce marketplace is an emerging opportunity for many retailers and manufacturers. Our B2B eCommerce experience and B2B functionality within our On-Demand Platform really resonated with B2B-focused attendees.

Another trend we noticed from IRCE 2012 was more retailers than ever before looking to re-platform and launch prior to the 2012 holidays. This year featured an overwhelming number of retailers who are looking to substantially improve their eCommerce presence and ability to merchandise site traffic via their eCommerce platform. Needless to say it's going to be a busy summer for retailers and vendors preparing for Fall and early Winter launches.

Also, no IRCE experience is complete without attending and making mention of Avarala's second annual Rocktopia Party. This year the networking party was held at Buddy Guy's Legends (right in the heart of downtown Chicago) and even featured a live band. We’d like to thank Avalara for being fantastic Partners, booth neighbors, and party hosts. Speaking of booths, here’s Avalara's tropical IRCE booth:

We're already looking forward to IRCE 2013 which will also be in Chicago June 4-7, 2013 at McCormick Place. But until then, you can catch us at the 2012 Shop.org Annual Summit in Denver in September. For more info on Shop.org, click here.

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

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 newly re-lauched website at www.orderdynamics.com to learn more about our On-Demand eCommerce Platform and Connected Commerce vision.

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