'Net Features : multichannel commerce

Creating Connections for Multi-channel Retailers

Michael Garrity — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 04:50:00 GMT

On-demand e-commerce platform provider OrderDynamics wants to create connections for multi-channel retailers to help them extend the consumer experience, from retail stores to e-commerce channels, with Connected Commerce.

Connected Commerce was spurred on by the rapid adoption of mobile mediums, such as tablets and smartphones, which have greatly increased the number of potential touch points for retailers to reach out to consumers. OrderDynamics wants to ensure that the integrations of physical and virtual environments will improve the entire retail experience by focusing on various aspects of running an online retail business, including the following:

Customer information: Connected Commerce can increase a retailer’s number of repeat customers by sharing multi-channel data across in-store applications, online properties and direct marketing programs.

Merchandising: The solution can now integrate promotions and multi-channel content, and drive order values using rich media, various in-store features, promotions and loyalty programs.

Marketing: Through the unification of brand touch points and the alignment of channel-centric interactions, retailers can cultivate more meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships with customers.

Order management: In an effort to provide consumers with greater transparency (and increase customer satisfaction), OrderDynamics is now offering optimized, automated customer service tools.

Warehouse: Retailers will be able to ship packages faster, and for less money, by leveraging OrderDynamics’ distributed inventory and advanced fulfillment methods.

hybris Launches New Online Marketplace

Linc Wonham — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:30:00 GMT

Multichannel commerce software provider hybris has launched a new online marketplace designed to give merchants instant access to certified partner applications, value-add services and complementary business solutions, all optimized to work with the hybris commerce platform.

The launch of hybris Extend, the new portal-style application repository, means that customers can fine-tune and optimize their hybris solutions to increase revenue, enhance the customer experience or instigate innovative multichannel commerce and communication initiatives. Currently, hybris Extend covers applications in areas such as analytics, channels, community and social, content, fulfillment, infrastructure, marketing and communications, payments and tax, personalization, and search and navigation.

Using the hybris Extend app-style distribution portal, customers can also configure add-on solutions that best suit their needs or vertical industry, and instantly discover all the additional features and functions hybris’ partners can bring to their businesses.

“hybris Extend is an important development for our customers, partners and ourselves,” says hybris CEO Ariel Lüdi. “It offers customers direct access to pre-integrated solutions, enabling them to view and select from an array of additional applications best suited to their needs. Partners maximize the benefits of their relationship with hybris with added value beyond our partner program.”

Merchants and system integrators can search a list of recommended partners to view details of integrations and applications or common integration experience. This helps reduce project costs, cut implementation times and enhance the hybris commerce solution. In the coming months, the applications catalog will grow as hybris continues to expand its partnerships.

Recent additions to the hybris ecosystem include Bazaarvoice, dynaTrace and Jirafe. hybris Extend can be accessed online here.

Expand Your Digital Reach to Multichannel Shoppers

Linc Wonham — Tue, 22 May 2012 17:00:00 GMT

According to research conducted by Forrester Consulting, 68 percent of U.S. multichannel shoppers are more likely to purchase from brands whose products are readily available through a variety of physical and virtual touchpoints.

To help retailers achieve this goal, e-commerce solutions provider Demandware has expanded its Multichannel Commerce offering with a prescriptive framework that extends their digital commerce efforts to smartphones, tablets, in-store kiosks and other Web-enabled devices. The Multichannel Commerce solution combines Demandware’s cloud-based digital commerce platform, multichannel accelerators, pre-built integrations from Demandware LINK technology partners, education, implementation services and solution support to provide a cohesive framework for extending digital commerce capabilities to wherever and whenever multichannel consumers interact with a brand.

The expanded solution includes a set of accelerators – technology and strategy tools – that help deliver a consistent consumer experience across traditional Web, mobile, social, call center and in-store silos. Key accelerators are Open Commerce APIs to syndicate and synchronize commerce capabilities and content across channels; a mobile reference application with store locator functionality, and multichannel impact assessment tool and reference architecture for prioritizing, depicting and enabling key multichannel capabilities.

Demandware’s Multichannel Commerce solution is part of a suite of solutions that also includes Global Commerce, End-to-End Commerce, Emerging Commerce, Mobile Commerce and Web Commerce.