When designing and building this web store it was the nature of the products being sold that presented the most challenges. See, selling oils, vinegars, and spices by weight and volume in different containers, or in no containers at all, over the internet is not something most shopping carts and out-of-the-box solutions can handle. This niche market requires something unique, something custom, a solution that can help customers to find the products they want and purchase them in an easy, intuitive, and attractive manor. We are confident that this is that solution.

For us building the web store for Crescendo meant re-imagining the shopping experience. We researched, and white boarded, and thought hard to come up with ways to reproduce the natural and effective shopping experience you get from walking into a Crescendo store and here is what we came up with:

1. Visual: walking into a Crescendo location you are immediately treated to a feast for the eyes, oaken barrels, spices you can see and smell, and a soft and inviting Mediterranean colour scheme. For the web store we matched this by using super high resolution and high contrast images of the base ingredients to really make the different varieties of oils and vinegars “pop”, we had macro photos taken of all the herbs and spices so you could see them as if you were there, and finally we took the mediterranean colour scheme and expanded it with warm and appealing background images.
2. Selection Process: when you are buying an oil or vinegar in a Crescendo shop you first select your liquid, then you are able to select from a wide variety of containers. Your container selection determines the amount of liquid you purchase as well as adding a decorative quality to the purchase. For the web store we built an intuitive system that guides you through this very same process of first selecting a liquid and then selecting the desired container, all the while keeping you apprised of the final price and amount of product being ordered.
3. Information: when you are in a Crescendo shop you will never be overwhelmed by information, but you also will never leave without knowing all of the important information about your product, how to care for it, and how to use it. This same philosphy was applied to the website through the subtle use of info buttons for the products description, origin, acidity and other important information, the FAQ page for answers to common questions, and the Recipes section for all sorts of amazing ways to use Crescendo products to make amazing meals.

So by identifying these, and other, essential features of shopping Crescendo and ensuring they were preserved in the web store we at Rev Software hope that customers find their experience online as pleasant as their experience in store. Well maybe not quite since we can’t offer samples online .

This website and the accompanying web store is our largest and most important web development to date. It is our opportunity to showcase what we are capable of. We encourage all of our readers, and anyone who enjoys amazing food products and fantastic service to head over to Crescendo Canada’s Web Store.

I only hope people enjoy shopping Crescendo online as much as we enjoyed building it. I would also like to extend a very big thank you to Elvira and Daniel of Crescendo Retail for providing our small company the opportunity to create this website.

The Crescendo Canada website was commissioned by local Revelstoke proprietors Daniel and Elvira Brunner and will be the home of not only the Revelstoke franchise, but of all future Crescendo franchises across Canada. The Crescendo project  presented many unique challenges that had to be overcome and we hope you will agree that the end result is as beautiful as it is functional.

The Crescendo Canada by Rev Software Ltd.

I am very excited to be working with Daniel and Elvira on this project and am proud to announce the completion of the first phase. The website features a fully custom content management system that is allowing Elvira to edit, create, and update the websites content as often as she has time. Check in often to see the new recipes, or to find out the latest news & events.

Be sure to check back in June when we release the second phase of the project, which will include both French and English, as well as a full e-commerce store, allowing loyal Crescendo customers to order their favorite products from anywhere, anytime.

Why should your business care?

1. With more than 43 million units sold the iPhone is one of the best selling mobile platform in history, giving applications developed on iPhone the largest market of potential customers;
2. Revelstoke is a tourist destination and more and more people are making their choices based on their mobile phone. Already many consumers use apps like Yelp to help you choose a restaurant based on customer reviews, Google maps to locate businesses by type and category close to their location, apps like Order Pizza that allow you to order (yes I said order) pizza straight from your phone… etc.
3. The iPhone/iPad platform can open an entirely new market for your business as well as providing an excellent avenue to engage your existing customers.

It’s simple, people want access to information wherever they are and making your company accessible via the iPhone platform is just another great way to reach out to your customers.

So call, click, or Skype us and find out how we can turn your great ideas into the next big iPhone/iPad app.

Thanks to a new strategic partnership Rev Software is now positioned better than ever to help you tackle business problems of all shapes and sizes. Adding 12 new Python / Django developers, a new team of 4 Ruby on Rails developers and a team of dedicated PHP programmers. The new team is composed of educated and experienced developers hand picked for their skill and reputation in the industry.

The addition of these developers through our partnership means two amazing things to our customers.

1. We can now offer even more competitive pricing on our smaller projects and quicker turn around times for development;
2. Rev Software is now able to take on projects of a size and scale previously not possible within Revelstoke, allowing our larger clients the option to get their project done locally with the care and attention that only another local business can provide.

With this new partnership Rev Software now becomes Revelstoke’s largest and most experienced software and web design company, so give us a call and find out what we can do for your business.

Overall I must say I was very impressed with the work done by the Kimberly based marketing firm that was hired by the Hoteliers. The brand looks clean, modern, and the slogans are catchy and appealing. I am very excited with the re-branding and I am hopeful that the community will rally behind this move to modernize and promote Revelstoke as more than just a “pee break” between Banff and Kelowna. The campaign portrayed Revelstoke as more than just a resort community, or a historical railway community, it showed that Revelstoke is a truly magnificent and inspiring place to live and visit no matter what the season. Kudos to Thom Tischik for a great presentation.

All in all it was an excellent event, I met lots of interesting local entrepreneurs and had a chance to witness the unveiling of something that is no doubt destined to change this community, hopefully for the better.

Looking forward to the next “Business After Hours”

It didn’t take long after speaking with Frank and Lisa Fik, the owners of the Alpenrose B&B, about their desires for a new website that I decided that this project was not going to be just another brochure site. No this site needed to be flexible, fast, and most of all it needed to be easy and intuitive for Frank and Lisa to update, edit, and manage all of the sites content. What this site really needed was a tailor made solution.

Enter Django, a Python based web framework that emphasizes re-usability and “pluggability” of components, rapid development, and the principle of DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself). For a little background, the Python programming  language has been around since the late 1980’s, and Django has been around since 2005. When combined you get the strict, efficient, platform independent of Python with a fully functional web framework.

Using Django Rev Software was able to meld Frank and Lisa’s vision of an easy to use fully self maintained website with the sleek modern design created in regular html by Rev Software’s newest designer. The website features a blog, availability calendar, multiple web forms, Flickr and Google Maps integration, multiple layers of available customizations, and more.

Now enough about the website, lets talk about the Alpenrose. This Bed and Breakfast is truly breath taking, from the brilliant Christmas light display on it’s snow covered exterior to the beautiful warmth and tasty home baking inside. The location is just moments away from the ski hill, the breakfast menu is fantastic, and the hosts are warm and welcoming. If you are travelling from out of town you need look no further than the Alpenrose B&B.

http://www.alpenroserevelstoke.com

1. Online Advertising – This year online advertising dollars surpassed that of TV advertising in the US. Advertising follows consumers, and consumers are rapidly transitioning from dead or dying media sources like newspapers, TV, and radio to the web. If you want your business to take advantage of this you had better get yourself a website, because you can’t click on an online ad that takes you to a brick and mortar store. Want to advertise on Revelstoke’s hottest new media property, The Current ? Not gonna happen without a website.
2. Expand Your Audience – There is absolutely no cheaper, easier way for your business to reach a new market and attract a ton of new visitors to your store. For the price of a single fancy display unit you can reach out to literally millions of potential new customers for your products.
3. Affordable – Startup costs for a beautiful website are under $2000 and maintaining the site is under $300 a year. When you compare that with rent and upkeep for your meat world location you will be wondering why you didn’t get a website earlier.
4. Maintain Your Own Site – Web technology has changed a lot since the early days, the websites we build today are completely updated and operated by business owners and staff just like you. With little to no technical knowledge you can update and maintain your own website (for free) using custom tailored content management systems like Wordpress, Joomla, or Drupal.
5. Your Customers Expect it – Anyone under 30 these days just expects you to have a website. They don’t have a phone book, and they don’t want one, they already make many of their purchases online, and they would rather read reviews online than go to a store and ask for an opinion. If you don’t have a website, they might not even know you exist. I read a tweet (A micro-blog post on the Twitter social network site) the other day by a 30 something that said, and I quote, “I don’t care if you’re a plumber, if you don’t have a website I won’t use you”

I hope you find this list useful, as always I would love to hear your feedback and suggestions.

It has been a flurry of activity at Rev Software since the announcement that we would be designing the website for Revelstoke’s new (and only) online newspaper, The Revelstoke Current. In just over one week we were able to create the current out of a modified theme based on the Wordpress content management system and we had it up and running with time to spare for the July 1st launch date.

Thanks to the Wordpress system installed by Rev Software the website is easily managed by David through an intuitive WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) system allowing David to spend his time doing what he does best, writing and reporting the news. No fuss, no muss this is just another example of how in a short amount of time you can have a website created by Rev Software that you can maintain and update yourself.

Having a daily, professional, online newspaper is something I, as a fellow Revelstokian, am very excited about. David is an excellent reporter, and a driven man who is committed to the community and to his beliefs. So I encourage all of you to head over to The Current and check out the latest news.

Some of you might want to know how I managed to get a Kindle DX, since I live in Canada and only have Canadian credit cards and addresses and the answer is really quite simple. I have an Amazon.com account and there is a gas station just across the US border that allows deliveries and holds them for Canadians, so I used my Canadian credit card with Canadian billing address and had the Kindle shipped to the gas station, simple as that.

Now without further adieu, the un-boxing:

Kindle DX Fresh off the Greyhound

Once Upon a Time

Interior Packaging

Kindle, Meet Canada

Shiny New

The Kindle DX is Even Thinner than I Expected

Wall Plug and USB Combined... Genius

Booting up the Kindle

Welcome to Kindle

Now since I have only had the device for several hours I really can’t comment a great deal on all of the aspects of the device or any particulars to using it in Canada. So far I can only say the obvious, the whispernet does not work so you need to do all of your transfers through your PC, this really makes a daily newspaper probably more hassle than its worth, but doesn’t bother me one bit for my books. As I get more familiar with the Kindle DX I will be sure and update this post and/or answer any questions people have.

For more generic Kindle DX information you can visit the Kindle DX page at Amazon.com

First impressions: nice packaging, super slick, thin, light, attractive, and most importantly, incredibly crisp readable text with no noticeable eye strain. I look forward to getting to know my new Kindle DX.

Side Note: The kindle was entirely packaged with recyclable material and packaging was not excessive either, so kudos to Amazon for their apparent environmental conscience.

Kindle DX provides users with free 3G wireless network support, native PDF support, a larger, 9.7 inches,  textbook friendly screen with 16 shades of gray, smart auto-rotating screen, and a price tag of $489.

This new offering by Amazon ups the ante in the EReader marketplace and finally provides me with the features I require to make the purchase make sense. I will be ordering mine soon and if all goes as planned I will never buy another dead tree reference book again.

Let me know if you think that Amazon’s latest offering is enough for you to give up paper books?