By Adam Forrest, Demandware Product Marketing 

How manufacturers can tap the awesome potential of ecommerce to drive cross-channel sales.

Another successful webinar, thanks to great content and participation from Sucharita Mulpuru, VP Research and Principle Analyst, Forrester Research and Chris Ladd, VP Global Retail, Crocs. Demandware has a knack for helping branded manufacturers sell online by not only providing a great eCommerce platform, but also providing research and data to accompany the industry. If you missed the webinar be sure to watch the recorded version or download the slides from our resource center.

Sucharita set the stage with staggering figures about the impact of manufacturer's website on the online and offline channels. The image below is one of her slides and I will do my best to walk you through it, but definitely not as eloquently as she did (for that you will have to watch the recorded version here.) Here we go...follow the dotted lines below. Of the entire US Population of 300 million people, 59% have shopped online (far left bar), that 59% or 177 million people spend $150 billion annually online excluding travel as Forrester Research reports. And now it starts to get more interesting, of the $150 billion spent online, 45% or $67.5 billion is spent on manufacturers' direct to consumer ecommerce sites or influenced by manufacturers' websites online. Interestingly enough the percentage of people who actually shop manufacturers' websites (38% or 67.2 million people) does not correlate with the amount of revenue spent - making it very easy to see that these shoppers while fewer are more loyal and spend more on branded goods. And further research has shown that these manufacturer websites influences a total of $200 billion in revenue, and as Sucharita put it that's "no small chump change."

This is just one of a deck of 30 amazing slides Sucharita discussed....spend the time to view the entire webinar, it is worth it.

As if this market data was not enough, we had the luxury of having Chris Ladd, VP Global Retail, Crocs speak next to give some real world advice from one branded manufacturer to another. Chris walked through a list of "10 tips" to help guide others to ecommerce success. Crocs, a Demandware customer, is operating 23 international websites and is actively expanding into the Asia market as we speak. But before they were able to have so much success, Chris and his team at Crocs followed these "Ten Tips."

1. Create a good sales plan and role for the site/store.
2. Find an Executive Sponsor.
3. Build a robust consumer database; capture at all touch points.
4. Educate people on the advantages of growing your eCommerce business.
5. Product is King. Treat your website like another store.
6. Find ways to partner with your wholesale & distributor partners.
7. Consider outsourcing certain components of the eCommerce business.
8. Create your own marketing budget.
9. Consider going global.
10. Establish a pricing & promotions committee.

Each of Chris' points had a plethora of information supporting it and great anecdotes from his experience at Crocs, Titleist, and Reebok. I would highly encourage everyone to listen to the full webinar to here all the details provided.

Thank you again to Sucharita, Chris, and all those who attended yesterday...we look forward to seeing you all again real soon.

By Zachary E. Cook, Demandware Interactive Marketing

While everyone else is mourning the end of summer, we know that cooler days and longer nights means it's time to head out to Las Vegas for Shop.org Annual Summit 2009! This year we are more excited than usual since we have so much to share-both in terms of company news and great giveaways in our booth-so here are your top five reasons to stop by booth 707 at the show:

5) Meet the Family
Learn about our latest partnerships with some of the world's biggest brands-including Crocs, Columbia, Rachel Roy, s.Oliver, Liz Claiborne, Frederick's of Hollywood, Anne Klein and many more. As a bonus, we will have a lot of these clients hanging out at our booth throughout the show, why not stop by and hear what they have to say about working with Demandware? They know better than anyone.

4) Fill Your Schwag Bag
No offense to those who would rather a key chain or some other forgettable chotchkie, but we're pretty sure that free Crocs will be high on every retailer's list. So swing by our booth, kick off those uncomfortable wing-tips and slip on a pair of comfy, custom Crocs-you deserve it. And while you're at it, enter our drawing for a custom Burton snowboard-just in time for our Winter '10 release.

3) Kick the Tires
Whether you're a seasoned ecommerce veteran or a brand looking to dive in for the first time, this event is the perfect opportunity to get a hands-on, in-person demo of our industry leading on-demand ecommerce platform. Stop by our eCommerce Studio to learn how our on-demand ecommerce platform can help your online business grow.

2) Join the ecommerce (r)evolution
Full-featured ecommerce platform. Integrated development environment that enables full customization. None of the technology burden and IT capital investment required with in-house applications. That's an ecommerce (r)evolution. Stop by to learn what this could mean for your business.

1) Get Ready for Winter
With summer in our rearview mirror, its time to start getting ready for the launch of our newest release, Demandware Winter '10. In addition to 55 new features and enhancements, Demandware Winter '10 gives merchants access to a full-featured, customizable mobile storefront designed to optimize the speed of transactions made through a mobile phone.

Bonus: A Demandware for Every Retailer
Different strokes for different folks, we hear ya. Some people want all the control. We can do that. Some people want to outsource everything. We do that too. Others want to be guided to launch quickly. Yup, that too. Some even want to see the servers blinking away in their office. We've got you covered. Swing by to learn more about how our new delivery options can be tailored to fit your brand's needs.

By Jamus Driscoll, Demandware Marketing

Congratulations to Crocs on the re-launch of its US site on the Demandware eCommerce Platform, www.crocs.com - the first of many to be rolled out over the coming months. The new site looks amazing and is loaded with new features that improve the online experience for the millions of Crocs fans out there. A few noteworthy new features:

• Search: by size, style, color and price
• Multiple Product Views: top, front, side, back and zoom
• Enhanced Shopping Cart Functionality: including the addition of a mini-cart
• Email a Friend and Wish List: for dropping those not-so-subtle hints!

We're very excited to share this news and hope you'll check out the new site. And if you're looking for a new pair of Crocs, you can take advantage of Free Shipping during the month of July.

We look forward to new Crocs sites popping up across the globe very shortly!