'Net Features : omnichannel

Retailer Caters to Teen Audience With Relevant Mobile Offerings

Amberly Dressler — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:30:00 GMT

Aeropostale customers are tech savvy and want to engage with their favorite brands on their smartphones, or in-store with tablet kiosks.

Understanding what its fashion-forward teen audience wants, Aeropostale released a new mobile app that will provide a better and more engaging customer experience across channels. Aeropostale incorporated into the new mobile app, powered by mobile and multi-channel technology platform Usablenet, more ways to engage with the brand: including access to branded video content, the opportunity to scan products in-store to receive enhanced product descriptions and customer reviews and a mobile-style guide (pictured) that enables shoppers to build their own outfits right on their smartphones.

In addition, Aeropostale also expanded its in-store iPad kiosk offering to a number of stores nationwide later this year.

Aeropostale commitment to mobile technology to engage the customer has paid divendends. The following data demonstrates the success Aeropostale has achieved on the channel since partnering with Usablenet:

- Mobile Web traffic represents roughly 36 percent of overall Web traffic to Aeropostale.com, up from less than 10 percent two years ago

- Mobile Web traffic to Aeropostale.com has grown by a total of 167 percent over the last year

- Mobile revenues have grown from 2 percent of the business when Aeropostale launched mobile commerce in June 2010 to over 13 percent today

Brooks Brothers Personalizes Shopping Experience

Amberly Dressler — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:43:00 GMT

In 1818, Brooks Brothers became the first ready-to-wear fashion emporium in America with the opening of its initial store. Nearly 200 years later, the iconic retailer continues to transform its business to meet the changing needs of consumers across channels.

Its new e-commerce site, brooksbrothers.com, was launched on the Demandware Commerce platform and will be tightly integrated into new merchandising and store systems. Brooks Brothers will also use Demandware for international expansion.

"Over the past two centuries, many things have changed, but Brooks Brothers' commitment to innovation and a superior brand experience has not wavered," said Ken Seiff, EVP, direct and omni-channel at Brooks Brothers. "We want to serve our customers in the most exceptional ways regardless of which channel they choose to engage with us. This means knowing their preferences and providing a personalized shopping experience at all times."

On the retailer's home page, for example, there is a "May We Recommend" section that features products "carefully curated and personally selected for you." Brooks Brothers uses a pre-built integration from Demandware's LINK Technology Partner, MyBuys for the recommendation engine (see below). MyBuys offers cross-channel personalization for retail.

New Partnership Powers Omni-Channel Commerce

Allison Howen — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 17:00:00 GMT

Storeplacer users now have access to payment processing technology provider SecureNet’s full payment functionality and will be able to quickly process credit card transactions thanks to a new partnership between the two companies.

With the Storeplacer omni-channel commerce platform, developers can create online shopping experiences across multiple platforms, including Web, mobile, social, TV and point-of-sale. Moreover, by leveraging SecureNet Payment System’s Instant Boarding Solution, Storeplacer users will be able to set up a new merchant account and begin accepting payments without the inconvenience of upfront underwriting. This means that merchants will be able to start generating revenue while also having the flexibility to choose their preferred method of accepting payments.

“Empowering immediate revenue generation and saving developers valuable time is a major advantage,” said Jason Lobel, Storeplacer CEO. “The integration aligns two forward-thinking, flexible technologies that enable speed to market and unparalleled agility, which are crucial in the ever-changing world of online retail. Until now, the barrier for enabling commerce across many touchpoints seamlessly was high.”

Storeplacer offers cloud-based tools for building commerce applications, managing product catalogs, storing images, as well as establishing shipping, tax and payment rules. The company’s APIs, interactive documentation and code samples allow users to embed product content and create shopping experiences across multiple channels. Now developers and Storeplacer merchants have the ability to leverage SecureNet’s easy-to-integrate API in order to enable shopping across any digital channel from a single integrated platform.

“As consumers continually evolve and find new places to shop, it is important to stay a step ahead and empower merchants and developers with better, more relevant payment options across emerging channels,” said Brent Warrington, SecureNet CEO. “We are very excited about this partnership with Storeplacer and the opportunity to expand our world-class payment technology offerings across Web, mobile and social commerce channels. The capabilities of our technology, together with our commerce experience, are a winning combination that we believe will breed a successful long-term partnership.”

Roll Out the Red Carpet for Digital Divas

Amberly Dressler — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 16:30:00 GMT

Digital divas are a small group of consumers with significant purchasing power - both online and in-person.

That's according to the University of Arizona and Demandware's results from a recent survey of 7,000 consumers across the U.S., U.K., France and Germany that uncovered this valuable consumer segment. The analysis revealed that Digital Divas demand a streamlined omnichannel experience, as they visit an average of 3.4 different channels during their shopping journey at physical retail stores (70 percent) and retailer websites (51 percent). Additionally, this consumer group is twice more likely to use mobile devices while shopping in stores than non-divas.

“Retailers can’t ignore exponential value that Digital Divas represent,” said Rob Garf, Vice President of Product and Solutions Marketing at Demandware. “To address their needs, it is imperative that retailers establish a digital backbone to enable seamless and consistent experiences for these digitally savvy consumers.”

For more information, check out the interesting infographic below, download the full "Who Are Digital Divas and Should Retailers Care?" report, register for the Webinar to be held in February and/or attend the Global Retailing Conference in April.

13 E-Commerce Trends for 2013

Administrator — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 19:05:00 GMT

By Mark Simpson, Founder and President, Maxymiser

2013 is here and it's slated to be the biggest e-commerce year in history.

Consumers will demand more from the digital properties they visit and businesses will race to not only provide a streamlined user experience, but also one that is personalized and intuitive. To ensure your enterprise gets its piece of the digital pie, prepare it for these 13 e-commerce trends for 2013.

Trend 1: Personalization for Everyone

Personalization is nothing new, but its widespread popularity is thanks to easily available complex technology. Whether personalization is simple (based on one or two collected insights) or complex (based on multiple insights processed by detailed formulas and algorithms), consumers are going to see sites that increasingly reflect their interests,wants and needs—and have little patience for sites that don’t.

Trend 2: Personalization Moves Beyond Retail

Major industries like finance, travel and media will lead the charge, but also expect businesses in other industries, such as gaming and charity, to take advantage of personalization solutions to offer more custom experiences.

Trend 3: Share More; Browse and Buy Better

Consumers will begin to see the data they share online—age, geography, life stage, social profile information (e.g., married vs. single) put to use in offering them a more relevant shopping experience. The result? No more wading through irrelevant offers or products to get to what matters to you.

Trend 4: Personalization in Real Time

Sure, past site visits and stored information will always be important, but don’t you want to give customers content and offers that are relevant to their current visit? With real-time personalization, online retailers will ensure they are creating an even more timely and custom shopping experience.

Trend 5: Loyalty Will Be Rewarded

Loyalty programs aren’t just for frequent flyers anymore. They’ll become an important part of the ecommerce lifecycle as businesses across industries (retail, finance, etc.) launch loyalty programs—and integrate data into comprehensive customer profiles—to offer the next level of personalization and service.

Trend 6: Mobile Grows Up

In 2013, anentirely different mobile game will emerge as mobile pulls up alongside—and even threatens to pass—the traditional web experience. It’s no longer enough to just ensure that your site functions properly on mobile devices, or that you have an app presence. As consumers adapt to living their lives from their mobile phones and tablets, they’ll expect platform-specific offerings that offer a better shopping experience, geo-specific content, special offers, and other elements that complement and enhance life on the go.

Trend 7: Getting It Right on Every Device

Apple might still lead the smartphone charge, but they aren’t the only player in town—and you shouldn’t assume that your consumers are all on the same device. Responsive design will be a must have for mobile sites, ensuring your site is designed for optimal viewing no matter what mobile or tablet device is being used. Gone are the days of resizing, scrolling, and otherwise struggling to view a site depending on the size of your computer or device screen.

Trend 8: The Same Consumer, Many Channels

PCs rule the workday, tablets are used in the evening and phones are always there. Whether its online or offline, on a mobile device or PC, marketing and offerings must be fully integrated with an on-the-go user in mind. From the introduction of mobile devices and tablets in store as a way for consumers to browse and engage to the mapping of online and offline shopping profiles, the two worlds are colliding—and overlapping.

Trend 9: Seamless Experiences Across All Channels

Consumers will expect a completely seamless shopping experience no matter where they are—at their desktops, on their smartphones and tablets, or on social pages and sites. Thankfully, with emerging tools and technologies, it’s now easier to integrate CRM and multichannel data across all brand touch points.

Trend 10: Big Data Done Better

The phenomenon of ‘Big Data’—while overhyped to some—will actually be a very powerful trend if companies can harness its power and use it wisely. Brands that measure, analyze and directly translate this knowledge into improved decision-making and customer experiences will improve business performance. In the coming year, expect to see more brands getting a handle on this to offer customersmore targeted offers across all channels, in real-time.

Trend 11: Big Data—A Consumer’s Best Friend

2013 will see the end of big data as something to be feared. Instead, consumers will feel the benefits of a more personalized, customized online experience that saves them time, introduces them to new products, and helps them shop better for themselves and their loved ones.

Trend 12: Social Media Comes in from the Cold

Probably one of the most important channels we’ll see come of age is social media. For too long, marketers have treated social media as an island from the rest oftheir strategy—and failed to capitalize on its connection to selling. Going forward, we’ll see more brands using social data to personalize experiences on the website, as well as applying testing and personalization to their own Facebook pages.

Trend 13: B2B As the New B2C

When it comes to testing and personalization, consumer-facing businesses aren’t the only ones catching on. B2B companies—and their customers—are consumers that crave a great online experience to. More and more B2B sites will use testing and personalization to create well-optimized and targeted sites based on user behaviors.

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About the Author: A career-long evangelist of online businesses, Mark is the commercial founder of Maxymiser and introduced its revolutionary Conversion Management platform to the market in 2006. Prior to Maxymiser, Mark headed up online marketing and business development for Travelport, focusing in particular on the acquisition and integration of ebookers, Octopus Travel, Hotel Club and RatesToGo. Latterly Mark headed-up the Business Development, Search and PPC teams for Travelport. Mark was previously part of the team that launched Hitwise in the UK market.

Finish Line Commits to Omnichannel Race

Amberly Dressler — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:30:00 GMT

With more than 640 stores across 47 states and an online presence to match, Finish Line is not only one of the largest mall-based specialty retailers in the United States, but also one of the most aggressive in terms of its omnichannel growth initiatives.

It was these initiatives that drove the company to move from legacy in-house managed software to Demandware’s cloud-based solution, announcing today that it has launched new e-commerce and mobile commerce sites on Demandware Commerce platform. With this platform, Finish Line can provide consumers a highly branded, personalized and consistent experience across channels.

“Our goal is to transform our business, not just maintain it,” said Chris Ladd, executive vice president and chief digital officer for Finish Line. “We want to drive innovation and propel the business. Demandware reduces operational complexity and puts the power in the hands of our users to create world-class brand experiences. It provides customers a better and faster online experience, rather than having technology get in the way. With Demandware’s business model, we’re mutually incentivized by success. We have a true partnership, and over the long-term, it’s much more valuable that the standard vendor/client relationship.”

The new finishline.com features an eye-catching new design and enhanced user experience, including:

The ability to buy online and pick up at a Finish Line store location
Real-time product inventory information that provides accurate availability updates
A mobile shopping site that leverages responsive Web design to optimally display on devices
Seamless integration of Finish Line’s Winner’s Circle loyalty program into the shopping cart to let consumers view their points balance at checkout
Enhanced brand landing pages showcase brand-specific content, such as products, offers, promotions, videos and blog posts
Streamlined navigation and search functionality helps consumers locate products more quickly and efficiently
Flash sales provide exclusive access to new, high-demand merchandise

“Finish Line is a true market leader with a compelling vision for omnichannel commerce,” said Tom Ebling, CEO of Demandware. “With Demandware as its digital commerce backbone, Finish Line is able to move faster in a world of continually evolving consumer behavior. We look forward to a long partnership, driven by our mutual commitment to success and retail innovation.”