Contact: Laura Baker, Marketing Manager, Sheridan Books, Inc. laura.baker@sheridan.com

Chelsea, MI – The Boston based American Meteorological Society (AMS) contracted Sheridan to establish a direct to consumer sales site that would simplify the sales of printed and electronic content as well as general merchandise to AMS members and customers. While there was an existing eCommerce platform in place, AMS was looking to replace it with a solution that would offer an enhanced shopping experience, expanded fulfillment features, and improved stability.

“We wanted to offer our customers discounts, suggestions for similar products they search for, the ability to connect and comment via reviews, and more shipping options” commented Sarah Jane Shangraw, AMS Books Managing Editor.

Using the Sheridan Connect platform as the foundation, Sheridan was able to meet those requirements and also integrate several robust new features to enhance the AMS eCommerce experience. To simplify access to the eCommerce portion of the site, Sheridan created a membership authentication component that allows AMS customers to login to the store using their existing AMS credentials. With the new tiered pricing option, AMS can offer different price points for the same item and customers, once logged in, will see pricing appropriate for their membership level (e.g. member, non‐member, or student). Behind the scenes, AMS administrators now can quickly and easily import bulk orders using the order import process, while the automated warehouse fulfillment feature integrates with their warehouse to ship and update orders as well as maintain inventory levels. To more fully integrate the online ordering process for the association, Sheridan Connect functionality was expanded to support the sale of custom products such as general merchandise and apparel. Finally, the new AMS sales platform created by Sheridan was branded to match the existing AMS website, given a custom domain name, and integrated directly with their current credit card processing system.

Brian Nordyke, Electronic Publishing Specialist for Sheridan Books, remarked “While each feature is exciting on its own, combining all the features into one direct to consumer sales platform provides AMS with a powerful outlet to sell content and products to their membership.”

About American Meteorological Society
Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society (AMS) promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related sciences, technologies, applications, and services. Headquartered in Boston, with a second office in Washington DC, AMS has a membership of 14,000 professionals, researchers, scientists, educators, students, and weather enthusiasts. AMS publishes eleven atmospheric, oceanic and hydrologic journals, both in print and online, to provide its mission of promoting and disseminating the most advanced scientific research, representing the latest information on global water, weather, and climate. AMS also publishes more than 2,000 trade books and textbooks, provides the latest scientific research through a series of Capitol Hill briefings, and offers a variety of education programs for educators at the K‐12, undergraduate and graduate level. www.ametsoc.org

About Sheridan
Sheridan is a leading provider of print, publishing services and technology solutions to publishers, associations, university presses, and catalogers. Comprised of Sheridan Books Inc., The Sheridan Press, Dartmouth Printing Company, and Dartmouth Journal Services, each company within The Sheridan Group has a market specialty that supports scholarly books, journals, magazines, or catalogs. www.sheridan.com.

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