They say necessity is the mother of invention—we couldn't agree more. First the need for more power and innovation in the hands of online merchandisers led to the birth of Demandware...and now this. We've recognized the need for a resource to help guide you through the often troubling waters of ecommerce and hope that the eCommerce Innovations Blog can lend a hand on your way to the top.
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By Adam Forrest
Congratulations to Columbia Sportswear who launched their recent mobile commerce experience using the Demandware eCommerce Platform. Columbia Sportswear's customers are active, enthusiatic, and brand loyalists who want information about Columbia products at all times.
Using Demandware Mobile, Columbia has been able to easily replicate the same product assortment that is available on their ecommerce site as well as including robust product information such as reviews through Bazaarvoice and even the ability to lookup nearby stores that sell Columbia products using your smartphones GPS through an integration with Where2GetIt. Enabling a great multi-channel experience for the customer and retailer!
"The launch of Columbia's mobile portal is another way Columbia is bringing innovation to outdoor consumers," said Paul Zaengle, senior director, Ecommerce, Columbia Sportswear Company. "The use of mobile devices to access the Internet is growing dramatically and branded websites are the No. 1 way that consumers research products. We are thrilled to offer a rich, mobile experience for consumers to access our brand, whether they're shopping at one of our retail partner's stores, at our company-owned stores, at home or on the go."
Congratulations again to the team at Columbia...you guys are truly doing your customers proud.
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By Jamus Driscoll
Every once in a while (okay, great long while) something lands in your inbox that makes you, well, smile. Such it was today when Google kicked me an alert about an article that ran today in Clickz on the mashup between Facebook and NineWest. Using a slick product by Demandware partner Fluid, the Nine West facebook app pushes/pulls content from their ecommerce site, and promotes it as a "Lookbook" to loyal fans. Fans can browse new looks and add to bag, all within FB. Really cool. Social commerce.
According to Clickz, "The initiative comes on the heels of Jones Apparel brand Rachel Roy's successful one-day test on Feb. 9. The fashion designer brand offered a slew of Facebook-exclusive, limited-edition products that sold out in roughly six hours [my emphasis added]. During the 24-hour period, Rachel Roy increased its Facebook numbers by 38 percent - from around 8,800 "fans" to more than 12,100."
What's particularly great about this from our perspective is that Jones Apparel Group (parent company to Nine West) and Fluid were able to do all of this themselves, no back'ing and forth'ing between the platform, the vendor and the customers. The power was totally in their hands...and as a result, a totally cool surprise just landed in my inbox.
Congratulations to Jones and Fluid! You made my day.
As Mobile Internet Devices Outsell Computers In 2009
Thanks to the folks at Practical Commerce we know that for the entire year of 2009 Mobile Internet Devices outsold computers. According to the article, 450 million Mobile Internet Devices were sold compared to 306 million computers. Now while the amount of commerce currently completed via mobile is neglegible the steep adoption curve is right around the corner...are you ready?
Consumers are smart, savvy, and more technologically advanced than ever before. They are constantly using the mobile phone as an extension of everyday life. Forget dialing 411 phone numbers or addresses, forget needing to go home to compare prices on your computer, and forget having to rely on Consumer Reports for recommendations. All of this information is at the fingertips of consumers, and whether they will transact today, tomorrow, or in the future; if you are not prepared for the battle, you may have already lost.
Make sure your site is ready for mobile commerce. Pick the medium that best fits your company - whether it is through a WAP site, mobile optimized site, or native application - put your best foot forward or risk your competitor taking your consumer.
What a refreshing look from an industry analyst. Sally McKenzie's blog post this morning "A Lesson From Dad: Why Your E-commerce Platform Search Isn't Just About Software" brings back simplicity and a long-lens view for approaching an ecommerce platform selection. As she points out, "issues change" and while it is very important for the platform to meet your requirements to make you successful, you cannot afford to overlook the ability of the vendor to work with you in a partnership. At a minimum, most platform decisions result in a three year partnership.
To add another point to Sally's blog, it is important to make sure that there is a cultural fit with the vendor - because a selection process is more than just the presales aspect and it is more than just a feature list on an RFP. It is absolutely necessary to do your homework on the vendor, in fact we encourage folks who are evaluating us to conduct backdoor references beyond the three that they request from us. It is the clients that are in your shoes and have been working with us for days, months, and years that have the real story to tell. And that is something that cannot be explained in an RFP. We highly encourage checking backdoor references for all vendors - it is worth it.
Just recently, Brian Walker of Forrester, also wrote a blog post called "Frustrated with the eCommerce technology selection process? Tell us about it!" where he and Forrester are collecting feedback about the selection process and how we can collectively make it better. It is great to see multiple industry experts actively making sure that retailers are truly selecting the best platform - cheers to you both!
By Jamus Driscoll, Demandware Marketing
In the course of working with our clients, Demandware is regularly asked for its perspective on best practices in user experience. As part of our business model, where we goal ourselves on helping our clients grow revenue, we gladly provide them, most often in the course of the implementation and post-launch support. But CPO Commerce has taken it a step further, and actually provided content to their customers highlighting how the user experience has been improved. What's better, each featured enhancement comes with a bold "Tell us what you think!" button to gather actually, honest-to-goodness customer feedback.
What's better, CPO then explains each enhancement in detail...
And then added a bold "Tell us what you think!" button to gather actually, honest-to-goodness customer feedback.
Kudos to the team at CPO!
By Scott Todaro, Demandware Product Strategy
Demandware sponsored an event in Orange County last week with the So Cal Action Sports Network and it was dynamic! More than 800 people came to network and listen to Seth Godin discuss his latest book, Linchpin. I was fortunate enough to be there. Having seen Godin present before, I felt this was his most personal outpouring. There were a few things that struck me the most:
Godin is a master at establishing a direct and personal rapport with the audience. Although he and I have never met, I felt he was speaking directly to me just as if we were engaged in a face-to-face conversation.
The presentation was really great and seemed to be focused on the evolution of change—if you are part of a system that can be broken into pieces then the pieces can be replaced. To be irreplaceable is to be a part of the art of the bigger picture—a receptionist is not just a receptionist when she is the first representation of a company and makes the guest feel welcomed.
Godin's message is a cornerstone of the Demandware eCommerce Platform. Things eventually evolve and you can either ride the wave of evolution or get left behind-and if you are left behind, you can easily be replaced. We see this with all the outdated, legacy solutions we are replacing today because these companies cannot (or will not) change. From the beginning, we recognized the need to create an open, flexible solution that offers and facilitates innovation at a rapid pace.
Net, net—Godin was brilliant and left the audience with some deep concepts to ponder. Thanks to the So Cal Action Sports Network for inviting us to be part of this fabulous event.
By Sue Chapman, Demandware Merchandising Practice Leader
Site search optimization is a critical factor in online retail success and an immediate source of competitive advantage for those merchants that do it well. Unfortunately, there is significantly more focus today on improving site navigation and not enough on site search. Addressing the problem requires that online retailers know what their customers are searching for, yet fewer than 15% of online retailers we speak with look at their search results more than once per month.
Shoppers that search know what they want - they convert at a higher rate, buy more products and spend more per order than those that navigate. Improving the online shopping experience should start at the search box because it's the quickest, most efficient way to help shoppers find what they are looking for. The only thing that stops searchers or ‘surgical shoppers' from spending money on your site is getting lost in a "No Result" experience.
As a member of Demandware's Retail Practice team, my goal is to provide actionable recommendations based on best practice analysis and industry assessment. We are in the process of building a "best practices" engine to summarize a lot of what we know and periodically publish it in the form of a whitepaper. This paper details a program and methodology called Turning "No Results" into Sales. It will show you how you can turn your current "No Result" search experience into "shopportunities" for your customers and increase sales and profits for you. It provides a methodology, best practices and tools for translating "No Result" search terms into incremental sales by:
By Shaun White, Demandware Retail Practice
SEO is a combination of strategy and tactics and art and science. It requires ongoing attention at multiple levels of an online retail business. It's often misunderstood and as a result, frequently under-utilized. But once you understand the fundamental elements that go into optimizing a site for organic search, it's not nearly so perplexing. And when it's managed and implemented correctly, it delivers constant results in return.
As a member of Demandware's Retail Practice team, my goal is to provide actionable recommendations based on best practice analysis and industry assessment. We are in the process of building a "best practices" engine to summarize a lot of what we know and periodically publish it in the form of a whitepaper. Here is my first piece—"Optimizing Your Online Retail Site for Organic Search". This paper highlights the untapped opportunity missed by organizations regarding organic search, the must do and don't do list of SEO, and 5 strategist considerations and organization must focus on regarding its SEO approach. The paper will also focus on the tactics and tools to use to analyze an organization's current site and then create an actionable plan.
By Kristyn Levine, Demandware Retail Practice
In the world of online retail, no place defines the difference between success and failure more than checkout. Recent industry reports put shopping cart abandonment rates at anywhere from 20 to 50%. In too many cases, cart checkout processes take too long, require too many clicks and involve too many requests for non-essential information. Shoppers get distracted, impatient and distressed. They lose interest, leave the site, or simply take a detour to shop and research at another online store. The result is a huge lost revenue opportunity.
Online customers abandon their shopping carts for lots of different reasons. Not all of them are in the merchant's control, but many are. With competition for new and existing customers as intense as ever, online retailers need to optimize their checkout processes to ensure they are doing everything they can to capitalize on existing opportunities by converting shoppers into customers and keeping customers coming back to their sites.
As a member of Demandware's Retail Practice team, my goal is to provide actionable recommendations based on best practice analysis and industry assessment. We are in the process of building a "best practices" engine to summarize a lot of what we know and periodically publish it in the form of a whitepaper. Here is my first piece - "Optimizing Online Checkout: 20 Practical Ways to Reduce Cart Abandonment and Increase Online Profits". This paper highlights some of the most common checkout mistakes today, what online retailers can do to address them and provides examples of best practices in action. It also looks at some of the other factors that influence shopping cart conversion and how they might impact your own performance. I hope you find it valuable - and most importantly actionable.
In a recent Shop.org survey, The State of Retailing Online 2009: Merchandising Report, conducted by Forrester Research, 79% of retailers said they plan to focus heavily on improving customers' checkout experience in 2010. The best practices and recommendations in this paper are a good start. They can be implemented one at a time, or many at once, but they all can help you increase shopper conversion rates and increase profitability. I encourage you to download this paper and evaluate your site against these 20 best practices and get started today!
By Adam Forrest, Demandware Product Marketing
Last week, Demandware hosted an evening of cocktails for NYC ecommerce executives at the Barneys New York Penthouse. High above the hustle and bustle of Madison Avenue, above floors and floors of handbags, shoes, and must-have designers gathered ecommerce executives from the greater NY area. Everyone gathered for some industry chatter, delicious appetizers, thirst quenching cocktails, and of course story time by the one, the only...Simon Doonan, creative director of Barneys New York.
We promised Simon we would not reveal too much of what he shared, but let's just say that we learned what Simon "the First Elf" Doonan was up to all year in helping the Obamas celebrate their first Christmas at the White House. Unfortunately if you missed the event, you will have to wait until Simon's coffee table book about his adventure arrives sometime in the distant future.
Thank you again to all those who attended. It was a night full of great company, stories, and ideas!
Special thank you to Simon, Larry, Jordan, Heather, and the rest of the team at Barneys for helping us with yet another amazing event!
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