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 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 Troy Brown, Demandware Retail Practice

At the Strategy and Innovation Forum in Orlando this month, we discussed the challenges, complexities, and upside of extending your geographic brand reach and growing your ecommerce business via international expansion. Special thanks to Jim Okamura, Michael Ross, Jake Bailey and Michael Amar for their contributions!

Ellen Davis wrote a quick summary of the panel discussion here. If you are interested in international ecommerce expansion, the panel has compiled 19 white papers and information sources, over 41MB of data, that should be helpful to you (see below for link).

1. 1. Almost all global ecommerce markets are growing significantly faster than the U.S.
2. 2. The opportunity is expanding from Europe to Asia quickly as those markets mature and grow.
3. 3. International ecommerce is within reach of every retailer, even if you don't have a global brand.
4. 4. There are a wide variety of front-end and back-end operating models available to you.
5. 5. Ask a lot questions and get help.
6. 6. Start early and assume it will take longer than you think.
7. 7. Leverage in-region resources and infrastructure if you have them.
8. 8. Think through the organizational and operational implications of a "live" site before you launch.
9. 9. Find qualified legal advice to help you understand and comply with local requirements.
10. 10. It may be complex, but it can be rewarding for those who persevere.

Enjoy the Mountain of Resource:

Shop.org has created a special page for all of this information. It can be found by clicking here.

1. 1. Shop.org SI Forum International Expansion Session Slides
2. 2. Shop.org SI Forum International Expansion Session Handout (Large File)
3. 3. Demandware White Paper - Increase Your Global Reach
4. 4. CyberSource 2009 ePayment Project Guide
5. 5. CyberSource Insiders Guide to ePayment Management
6. 6. CyberSource Fraud Report
7. 7. CyberSource Global Payments White Paper
8. 8. FiftyOne Anthropologie Case Study
9. 9. FiftyOne Datasheet
10. 10. GPI White Paper - Argentina
11. 11. GPI White Paper - Brazil
12. 12. GPI White Paper - China
13. 13. GPI White Paper - France
14. 14. GPI White Paper - Germany
15. 15. GPI White Paper - India
16. 16. GPI White Paper - Japan
17. 17. GPI White Paper - UAB
18. 18. GPI White Paper - UK
19. 19. GPI White Paper - US Hispanic Market

Good luck everyone and let any of the panelists know if we can be of assistance!

By Troy Brown, Demandware Retail Practice

At the Strategy and Innovation Forum on Feb 2-4, I will be moderating a panel discussion on the topic of International Ecommerce Expansion and joined by the panelists below. Shop.org is "by the members for the members" so we thought we'd invite the shop.org community to post questions about International Ecommerce Expansion here, in advance, so we can attempt to cover them in either the panel discussion or a handout we have planned. We plan to cover these three broad topics during the panel discussion:

1. 1.   Understanding the Basics of European Expansion
   
2. 2.   Understanding Operational Complexities Across Europe
   
3. 3.   Understanding Customer Interactions Across Europe
   

So if you have questions, ask away!!!

Thanks,
Troy

How International Expansion Can Help Retailers in a Downturned Economy

• Troy Brown, Retail Practice Leader, Demandware (moderator)
• Michael Amar, Founder, AGORAD
• Jake Bailey, Director of International Business, Overstock.com
• Jim Okamura, Senior Partner, J.C Williams Group
• Michael Ross, Director, eCommera Limited
  

Are you already selling internationally? Are you considering a strategic break into the international market even in this downturned economy? Troy Brown will moderate a session with experts in globalization and international expansion that will help you understand global expansion topics including: the must-know basics, operational complexities, demand generation, and planning market entry strategies specifically in Europe and Asia. So, whether you have just launched internationally or are simply considering this strategic initiative, these experts will give you different perspectives on just how a successful expansion plan can help US retailers succeed and thrive.