Oliver + S Named Best New Ecommerce Website

Oliver + S has been named the winner of the 2013 Blades Ecommerce Award for Best New Website Feature.

Oliverands.com received this recognition at the Blades Ecommerce Awards, on March 7, 2013. Oliver + S was honored for the sleek, innovative responsive design framework powering its website. The framework allows for a seamless shopping experience across a variety of devices (computers, tablets, and smartphones) , as well as providing a streamlined and more economical way for the company to maintain its website while staying current and accessible with the ever-expanding array of consumer-driven technology.  

“Content is produced and updated only once, and then it’s available instantaneously on all devices and platforms that our customers choose to use,” said Todd Gibson, managing partner of Liesl + Co., parent of the Oliver + S brand. “This has resulted in significantly lower development and maintenance costs for us than if we had developed a separate mobile-only version of the site, and it allows our customers to interact with us equally well on whatever device they choose to use.”

The website also boasts another clever feature, “dress the paper dolls,” an interactive application that allows shoppers to dress paper doll images in a variety of Oliver + S outfits, the sewing patterns for which are for sale on the site. “Our branding and packaging is heavily reliant on our paper doll illustrations,” said Gibson, “and we wanted to convey this imagery and the fun of playing with the paper dolls on the website.”

The inaugural Blades Ecommerce Awards, sponsored by PayPal and Miva Merchant, was held in conjunction with MivaCon 2013, Miva Merchant’s 13^th annual user conference, at The Hyatt Regency in La Jolla, California.

About Oliver + S:

Oliver + S is a line of quality sewing patterns and fabrics for children’s clothing, designed and developed by the company’s founder, fashion designer Liesl Gibson. The company’s parent corporation, Liesl + Co., also produces Lisette, a line of sewing patterns and fabrics for women’s clothing, as well as Straight Stitch Society, a collection of patterns for gifts and accessories. For more information about Oliver + S, please visit http://oliverands.com/.

Available Now! January 2013 issue

Minimum Wage Increases on January 1, 2013

With the new year, comes changes to the minimum wage requirements across the United States. The federal minimum wages remains at $7.25, but if the state’s or city’s minimum wage is higher, then the the higher rate must be paid. The following states have increased their minimum wage :

• Arizona $7.65 to $7.80
• California: San Francisco $10.24 to $10.55
• Florida $7.67 to $7.79
• Missouri $7.25 to $7.35
• Montana $7.65 to $7.80
• Ohio $7.70 to $7.85
• Oregon $8.80 to $8.95
• New Mexico: Albuquerque $7.50 to $8.50
• Rhode Island $7.40 to $7.75
• Vermont $8.46 to $8.60
• Washington $9.04 to $9.19

Are You Ready for the Holidays?

The folks at Monetate have compiled facts and figures into this information-packed graphic. Did you realize that 81% of shoppers will look for deals on Cyber Monday rather than shopping for those same items in-store?  With more than $35 billion in holiday sales last year, the stats are worth looking at in order to brainstorm your own ways to get a piece of the holiday (spending) pie.

Click on infographic to see it larger.

Infographic courtesy of Monetate.

Link Round-up

Making the blog rounds, I found some posts for you to check out:

• Video tutorial on using gravatars on your blog. Don’t know what they are? That’s an even better reason to watch it!
• Info on how to customize the About tab on your Facebook business page.
• OMGSEO’s quick look at starting a social media campaign
• Plus a few email marketing tips as you get ready to launch for the holiday season.