By Troy Brown, Demandware Retail Practice

I'm pumped! You know why? We just finished Demandware's first ever XCHANGE workshop. Over 100 people attended including: clients, channel partners, implementation partners, LINK technology partners, our client advisory board, and of course the Demandware team. Yeah, yeah, it was a conference. Big deal you say. So what? Well, here's how I see it.

We have incredible customers and partners - awesome individuals. People, who desire to work with us and with each other collaboratively to learn, improve and drive ecommerce growth. People who are engaged. We have a COMMUNITY of like-minded individuals. Everyone has a voice. Everyone can contribute.

The networking aspect of the event was phenomenal: Merchandisers building relationships with other Merchandisers, Developers connecting with our just announced beta Developer Community and eCommerce executives sharing ideas with other ecommerce executives. I feel so fortunate to be able to work with so many people who are so tightly aligned. Why? Because EVERYONE in this community cares about the same thing: each other's success. It's a bond that enables us to transcend the occasional speed bump, process glitch, or software bug. It's a commitment that is creating profound loyalty in ALL directions. Look, I've been around the ecommerce space for a while, and this type of harmony is UNPRECEDENTED. Ok, ok, maybe I'm a bit giddy. But seriously, if you aren't a Demandware customer, how happy are you and your peers on that "other" ecommerce platform? Really.

But another reason I'm so pumped is that the CONTENT met the mark according to our event surveys. This was not a bunch of individuals taking the microphone to pontificate about conceptual ecommerce ideas. This was down and dirty, practical, hands-on, in-the-trenches, boots-on-the-ground, get-your-hands-dirty work. People went home with ideas that are impacting their business NOW. The Business Track featured great workshop sessions on how to optimize on-site search, implement Active Merchandising, improve search engine optimization, shape our roadmap, and how to really leverage our new LINK program.

The Technical Track unleashed the power of Demandware's multi-site capabilities to quickly enable international expansion or multi-brand rollouts, demonstrated how to build sites for scalability and growth, outlined how to use our mobile cartridge to launch your own mobile storefront, shared tips for ramping new developers and showcased the benefits of using automated testing tools.

The Client Advisory Board ("CAB") came together again to help Demandware executives shape the future of Demandware. We have a terrific CAB made up of engaged business leaders who are capable of thinking like a client and like a Demandware shareholder.

And thank you to our LINK partner Fluid for sponsoring the Red Sox game for XCHANGE attendees. Luckily, the Rox Sox won. Some of us, including me, even got to hang with Will Farrell!

If you missed the event, no worries. I'm sorry we had to turn some of you away. We didn't expect such an overwhelming demand. I'm just glad the fire marshal didn't show up since we filled the rooms (and then some). Want the content? As a client, log on to our XCHANGE portal and download the presentations directly. Talk to your Client Relationship Manager. Engage!

And better yet, plan ahead! We're planning a to blow it out of the water in Spring 2011 with an even bigger, better event. Bring your entire team and experience what the game-changing combination of accessible expertise, a vibrant community and empowering technology can do for you!

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!

By Adam Forrest, Demandware Product Marketing 

Demandware clients are having a tremendous Holiday season so far. Kicking off with a remarkable 79% increase in YOY revenue on Thanksgiving Day (now if I didn't see it with my own eyes I would have had a hard time believing too - but trust me it is!) Our clients are truly performing above the crowd across the board, check out the table below for the day by day breakdown of the holiday weekend resulting in a 54% increase overall in YOY revenue compared to 2008.

The good news is despite the tough economic year, ecommerce continues to be the growth engine for retailers this holiday. According to ComScore the industry saw an 11% YOY increase in revenue on Black Friday as well as a 5% YOY increase in revenue on Cyber Monday. Coremetrics also provided results on Cyber Monday and reported a nearly 14% increase in YOY revenue. Clearly our metrics are above and beyond.

We strongly believe that our clients are set up for greater success particularly for a couple reasons:

• Performance: Our platform, and hence our clients' sites, delivers with better availability and response time than any of the Top 20 Web Sites as reported by Gomez, in fact we have consistently delivered at 99.97% availability over the last 5 years and 100% during the holiday season. If your site is down, your customers can't buy - it is as simple as that.
  
  
• Merchandising: Our platform uses analytic data (i.e. conversion, return rate, sales velocity, rating) to dynamically present items to the right customers at the right time. Merchants can use this data to create new weighted scoring systems, removing the need to manually organize hundreds and hundreds of category pages and freeing up invaluable time to personally merchandise the most critical aspects of the site.
  
  
• Support: We provide our clients with the support they need to be successful. Not just technical support, but also ongoing retail support. We make sure our clients are ready for the holidays and that their site is primed for performance and purchasing.

Congratulations to our clients and best of luck for the remainder of Holiday 2009!

By Adam Forrest, Demandware Product Marketing 

Product finders, gift finders and configurators have proven to be very successful—resulting in conversion rates of 20-30% for those who engage. So why doesn't every site have one? The trouble is the time, effort and money that goes into creating the finders—that for the most part are hard coded flash object that don't account for out of stock products or seasonal turnover. You are left with an empty shell that you need to pump more time, effort and money into. That is why we were pumped to see the new completely dynamic and data driven Board Finder on the recently relaunched www.burton.com, built by the folks at Burton!

Using their internal flash skills combined with Demandware out of the box features (i.e. search refinements, price scrollers, customizable attributes) and their intimate knowledge of what makes a board good for certain people, Burton has launched an unbelievable Board Finder. Check it out and get that special someone a new board for the holidays so they can shred it when the powder returns this winter.

For those of you short on time, below are some screen shots of the finder. But if you have an extra moment, check out the real thing.

Demandware client innovations—designed, built and launched all on their own. Now that is what Demandware is all about.

By Zachary E. Cook, Demandware Interactive Marketing

As a member of the Demandware marketing team, one of the best parts of my job is being able to work with such innovative, high-growth brands every day. And while that interaction typically involves email campaigns, case studies, website content and speaking engagements, sometimes it is a little less conventional. So when a brand new Burton snowboard fully customized for Demandware came across my desk as a giveaway for Shop.org Annual Summit 2009, I had to give it a try. Unfortunately, there is no snow at Demandware headquarters so we had to get a little creative.

You see, I'm a Burton brand loyalist and have been since I purchased my very first snowboard—a 1997 Burton Floater. I now ride an aging 2001 Burton BMC, with Burton Custom bindings and Burton Moto boots and spent six years riding in the shadow of the Burton factory in Burlington, VT. So while it's great to have a brand like this on our roster, you can imagine how hard it was for me to send this off to the winner of our raffle! Congratulations to our winner and we hope to catch a few sightings of this board out on the slopes this season.

For the rest of you, I encourage you to check out the new Burton site and some of the highly stylized, highly innovative techniques it uses to sell products online. Visitors have a wealth of content at their fingertips including images, videos, music, user-generated content and of course the entire Burton catalog.

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

We are pleased to welcome the sixth member of the Jones Apparel Group family of brands to launch on the Demandware eCommerce Platform-Rachel Roy. In addition to giving shoppers access to the full range of the brand's collections, www.rachelroy.com utilizes a variety of visual and interactive tools to create a highly engaging social shopping experience. Here is a taste of some of the innovative features you'll find on their site:

Online Shopping Goes Social
Not only can you share your thoughts about all of Rachel's styles with all your friends on 175 different social networks, but you can also view her most recent Tweets and Facebook updates. Now you can shop online with your friends-wherever they are.

Everything Rachel
From documentaries, to Oprah, to store openings and trips to Africa, the Everything Rachel section offers a 360 degree view of the designer, her clothes and what goes on behind the scenes.

Grab a Hot New Look
Take the guess work out of putting together a great outfit with the help of the Rachel Rachel Roy Lookbook. From clothes to shoes and accessories, the lookbook offers a few suggestions straight from the designer for you to look your best.

Congratulations to Rachel Roy and Jones Apparel Group for launching another highly stylized, innovative site.

By Jamus Driscoll, Demandware Marketing

While putting the finishing touches on the new client section of our website, I couldn’t help but notice just how many great apparel sites are running on the Demandware eCommerce Platform. So this got me thinking about exactly what it is in our platform that makes it so appealing for apparel brands. One of the reasons that stuck out to me was that apparel brands have a set of requirements that are often difficult to reconcile in a single solution—merchandising, customization and innovation—all of which are major pieces of our platform:

• Merchandising: Whether online or in stores, merchandising is essential for apparel brands and they simply cannot and will not settle for second best. Marketers and merchandisers need to be able to control all aspects of these sites—from product and catalog data to promotions and price books to content and searchandising—at anytime, from anywhere and with Demandware’s web-based user interface they can.


• Customization: Apparel brands need the ability to express the uniqueness of their brand and a cookie-cutter solution just won’t do. From simple changes to content to more complex changes to the underlying code and architecture, Demandware’s integrated development environment (IDE) allows full customization—not just retheming a few templates.


• Innovation: With the rapid pace in which ecommerce is evolving, apparel brands need to stay on the cutting edge more than ever before. But with many in-house applications, staying on the forefront of innovation can be difficult (aka expensive and slow). Today’s apparel brands need a constant stream of new features, new functionality and performance enhancements. And they need all this delivered regularly, automatically and at no cost to them as Demandware does with our seasonal upgrades.

There are certainly some things that Demandware does not do (yes, we’re self aware) but merchandising, customization and innovation? Well, our customers are telling us we check those boxes quite emphatically.

By Jamus Driscoll, Demandware Marketing

Great news published today by Demandware partner PFSweb about the success Roots has been having on the PFSWeb end-to-end ecommerce solution. The headline says it all "Roots Experiences Incredible Online Sales Growth with PFSweb's End2End eCommerce Solution." Congratulations to everyone on the team-customer, partner, technology provider-on delivering success. If you're interested in reading the full announcement, please check it out here.

By Adam Forrest, Demandware Product Marketing

This week's conference kicked off with a great address by Patrick Byrne, CEO, Overstock.com. With the theme of "Rising Above - Not Just Surviving the Economic Storm" Patrick talked about life at Overstock, the history of his company, and how he predicted the economic downfall. You heard it right, he predicted the downfall and he has the evidence to prove it and you can read all about it at www.deepcapture.com. So besides his deep battle with Wall Street, he helped laid out some basic rules to follow on how to survive this storm. The two main take-a-ways I took from his talk:

• Control Expenses
• Outsource areas you are not GREAT at

What I find to be most interesting is that at a high level these two options would seem contradictory, but if you think about it they actually correlate very well. While controlling expenses can seem very broad and obvious to most - Patrick made it a point to talk specifically about expenses that effect your balance sheet (capital expenses, payroll, etc.). In a rough and tumble economy it is so important to conserve cash. A good way to conserve cash is to outsource technology that you are not GREAT at (hosting, infrastructure management, etc). Overall some great points, thanks Patrick.

Another great session today was in Track B and the theme was around handling and managing the web, as it continues to gain importance. The two speakers while focusing on different aspects of the web's importance drove home many good points.

Kevin Hillstrom, President, MineThatData focused mainly on asking the audience a series of multiple choice questions that focused on multichannel, social media, email campaigns and more. The questions and audience participation really helped to drive Kevin's point home that each individual business leverages the web in different ways, and that it is important to decide which is best for your company. A great example of this was when he asked about selling through last season's items - depending on if you were store based or catalog based there were two distinct answers. Catalog based companies preferred to direct market in an email showcasing the discounted products, while store-based sites preferred to create sales/outlet categories and market the site.

Lou Weiss, Chief Marketing Officer, Vitamin Shoppe the second presenter, focused on creating a united front across all channels. It was great that he was upfront and admitted that his company "got it." Meaning they understood and made it a priority to roll the direct business in with the stores to create a unified Vitamin Shoppe to their customers no matter what channel they shopped. He brought up a couple great ways to integrate the store channel with the direct channel, and the best part was that they had nothing to do with technology.

• Talk in retailer/catalog terms. Lou shared a story about how this related to Vitamin Shoppe. When he first took responsibility of the web store, he was jumping up and down about the number of products out of stock on the site - with no response or help from the organization. After spending time walking through the brick and mortar stores and realizing that when there were empty shelves in the store the CEO would say "looks like the store is going out of business." Lou took that to heart and started saying "looks like the web store is going out of business," and low and behold he received all the inventory that he could ever want. Good work Lou!
  
  
• The web <> ecommerce store. Help your direct business by talking about how power of the web as a whole - from a branding perspective to driving customers to the brick and mortar stores. For instance Lou and his team asked a simple survey for customers on the site... "What is your main purpose of visiting" and over 50% of the answers were "to locate a store." Amazing! One simple 1-question story can provide so much insight to the entire business.
  
  
• Look at results from a customer point of view not from individual sources. As a web channel we have a tendency to look at results from email performances, PPC performance, organic results, etc. Yet it is important to look at what customers actually purchased and make adjustments accordingly. For example fish oil products sold well today vs. vitamin C - start from this angle and work backwards to find the "why."
  
  

Overall these were two great areas of conversation that helped to open my eyes and think a bit outside the box.

I have only touched on two sessions of the dozens that happened at the show...stand by for more information to follow as it comes hot off the press.