The Client
Located in Westmont, Illinois, InterVarsity Press (IVP) has been publishing Christian books for
more than 70 years. An extension of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, IVP is a leading
Christian publisher with a respected history providing resources that strengthen the church and
encourage individuals.
The Unfulfilled Need
The previous webstore was not integrated with the subscription management application and
did not handle multiple discount options in a single setting. IVP wanted something that was
integrated, came with a true CMS and would allow for easy site maintenance on the part of the
staff.
The Partnership
After a comprehensive search, IVP chose Advantage and their Cider eCommerce platform to be
their new solution. The evaluation team was impressed by the tight integration with Advantage
for both products and customers, the Orchard platform (and the future viability of that) on
which Cider is built, the ability to track marketing efforts and promotions and the capacity to
make changes to the site quickly and easily.
AdvantageCS and IVP partnered in a two-year project that overhauled IVP’s customer, order
entry, book catalog and rights/royalties databases, as well as revamped the existing
www.ivpress.com. The new system services a variety of customers, from trade and distributor
accounts, to direct-to-consumer sales. IVP went live on Advantage in March 2017.
“Advantage staff worked hard to solve challenges and to get our Cider site to a stable place
for go-live,” says Tricia Koning, director of information technology. “Improving the deeper
integration between Advantage and Cider is an ongoing effort that keeps evolving as we do more
with the Cider platform.”
The Result
IVP now uses Advantage to fulfill more than 7,000 products across a wide array of subjects. “We use Cider in servicing our customers, not only as a transactional platform, but also as a rich source of product and author information,” explains Tricia. “Advantage has remained committed to improving and better-utilizing Cider throughout our partnership with them.”
