Multi Channel Software

Part 1: Product Management

There is a lot of hype around how easy it is to start an online venture as a small business. But what if you are a mid to large size, solid and growing business, looking for their first taste of online revenue?

It may be surprising to know that many companies have done just fine without the help of an online experience for their shoppers. Well, they have until now. The retail atmosphere has become so dependent on the digital aspect, that a company must go multi channel in order to stay alive.

The first issue to address is product management. When a retailer hires a product manager, the expectations are still fairly straight forward. The ability to develop brand strategy, manage the product development process, interpret direction, etc. However, in a multi channel retail environment, product management goes beyond that list, and includes a more thorough understanding of the customer, and how they may shop you differently online.

You are using a mix of your knowledge of the product, and your customer’s ability to find it. Optimizing your products for organic search is just as much of an art as it is a science.

The scientific approach includes using the right technology, managing a process for updates, analyzing online trends and so forth. This becomes much easier when your site is tied into your product data management software with a central database. Real time updates to the product set will become more important as your analysis of organic search traffic improves.

The artistic approach requires the product management team to apply their knowledge of the product to not only the sales floor, but the product page. Describing your products, through text blocks and meta descriptions, must be handled in a way cohesive with current online trends, and they may not always jive with the brick and mortar retail store.

As another thought on Ecommerce practices wraps up, it seems we are all starting to see a trend of agility in the most successful of online ventures.


Posted By: Dan Ratliff

For years the online shopping craze has been thought of as a “from home” experience.  You could wake up on Sunday morning, shop in your bathrobe, drink a cup of coffee and avoid all the traffic.  As technology progresses, the ability and desire to shop from multiple locations is gaining popularity.

On cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving) in 2008, 50% of online spending was done from the workplace as reported by comScore.  That is up 15% from last year.  Doing this allows shoppers to purchase items over ultra fast and very reliable connections out of view of their family members.  I prefer to assume the best in people, and commend them for waiting until a scheduled break to do their shopping.  Well done.

As an online retailer, it is important for you to understand the environments your customers are clicking around from.  Customer demographics are good, but what comes from between the lines is even more important.  A day care supply website may not be the best place for large blocks of text, assuming children may be screaming during the entire shopping experience.  This is a factor, as an online retailer, you cannot control, but can allow for in your website planning and design. 

Distractions are not the only worry for online shoppers in the new age.  With free Wi-Fi at many area restaurants and businesses, people will choose to shop while on the go.  These connections can be unreliable, unsecure and slow.  Make sure your website holds the customer information in a secure way so that they do not have to re-shop your site after a connectivity problem or a dead laptop battery.  This is also helpful in the work environment just in case the man comes by and there has to be some quick window closing.

The human element to online shopping is a dynamic and ever growing challenge for multi channel retailers.   With the right planning, a solid ecommerce platform, and the right content management tool you can keep your edge on the variables, and continue to convert.

Posted By: Dan Ratliff

Is the ecommerce shopping site (ESS) the reason for new order acquisitions or is it simply another form of order acquisition like phone, mail, and fax?  For the purpose of this discussion I am going to take the side that it is more a channel by which orders are taken.  The rise of the ESS is due to nothing more than a shopping convenience factor.  

For a director of ESS graphical design and development boasting their efforts as the source of new orders is like the phone company taking credit for new orders taken over orders received by mail in the early 70’s.  Yes, there is probably a greater risk of lost orders if the ESS functions poorly, depending on the multi channel software.  However, again that can still be compared to a call center with a poorly trained call staff. 

I find it amazing that some people place so much emphasis on ESS bells and whistles thinking those will make a difference to improve sales.  Lets be honest and realistic the only factors that make a difference in the sale once you get a shopper to your ESS, call center, or retail store is product availability, price, price, and price. 

A well functioning and easy to use site tied with good mix of product availability and price will far out perform an ESS with all the latest greatest bells and whistles.  People may use the puffy site to locate and make their product selection decision.  However, they are going to go to the ESS, call center, or retail store where they can immediately acquire it for the cheapest price.

By Tim Lanie

There was a story on CNN this morning reporting that men's apparel sales are up this year.  That was very good news to me as I have a meeting in New York next week to focus on this very niche.  A large majority of men's specialty stores do not have an ecommerce platform.  Most of them are very strong in brick and mortar and would like to dabble in ecommerce, but they have no idea where to look for a multi channel software company.  With Sigma's experience and my relationships we are positioned very well to be the ecommerce solution provider in this vertical.  

With very little upfront cost Sigma can get them started with an ecommerce store that exudes the image they want along with the tools to make them successful.  With 1 billion people now shopping online – can they afford not to migrate in this direction? 

If sales are indeed up in this segment imagine how much higher the numbers can go if they provided an additional channel for buyers to spend money! 

Posted by: Carol Smith

The evidence is mounting on behalf of online retailers about their resilience and ability to weather the current economic storm.  Business Week published a cautiously optimistic article entitled Smart Retailers Push for Online Sales - The holiday outlook is gloomy, but online retailers can react faster with discounts, free shipping, and other web promotions than stores can.  Citing surveys and metrics gathered by TNS Retail Forward, Forrester Research, and ComScore the article portrays a significant slowdown in retail this season before offering the kind of helpful strategies smart retailers are already employing:

• Up-front honesty about shipping charges
• Free shipping promotions
• Discount offers to website visitors who attempt to navigate away from the site
• Localized / regional warehousing to reduce shipping expenses

These represent some powerful, actionable ideas that small and mid-size retailers can use today, but in the long term, there are a lot more things to consider.  While shoppers won't buy without a good deal right now, they won't come back again next season without intimate customer relationship management.  That requires a solid ecommerce platform, efficient online ordering systems, and a strong order management system behind the whole experience.

If all retailers do this season is tread water to stay alive, they've missed a golden opportunity to put their businesses under the microscope and make the kind of long-term improvements that will help them through many economic crises to come.



Posted by: Jesse Kurth

OK, another acronym is usually grounds for banishment from an ecommerce solution provider, but hear me out.

Social Media Optimization or S.M.O. is a set of processes and standards for driving online awareness, revenue and corporate identity through community websites, social networking and blogging.

Not to be confused with advertising on a social networking site, social media marketing is all about creating value within the communities online.  Dumping a bunch of links on message boards is NOT social media marketing. That is spamming.

The goal with social media marketing and optimization is to add value to your products or services. By actually participating in the social sites that your consumers are frequenting, you are engaging your customers in conversational marketing. This, in turn, will help create a personality for your store.

Tried and true ecommerce platforms and social networking platforms, like blogs, My Space and Face Book are great tools to start with. However, truly reaching your audience requires a focused campaign centered around relevant and cohesive content in the social media sphere.

Micro Blogging sites like Twitter, Tumblr and Plurk are gaining popularity and allow you to make quick blasts to large groups of people.  This includes posting links when you have new content (but not too much) and posting links to other relevant blogs and articles out on the net.  These tools also offer replies and messaging so you can dialogue directly with your audience through multi channel software.

Standard and video blogging using platforms like Blogger, Vlog Central and Word Press allow you to be more detailed when crafting your post.  You can type as much as you want, add links, pictures and even videos.  Adding tags and recruiting plenty of faithful blog followers are just a couple of the steps you can take to get your blog out in the main stream.  Search engines index blogs at a much higher rate than most sites because of all the fresh content.  By hosting your own blog and updating it frequently, you can use this as another retail software solution for SEO and SEM.

Many companies have a few pieces of this puzzle in place.  Continually upgrading and updating your social media presence allows you to grow your online reputation rapidly.  An eclectic mix of ratings, reviews, comments, blogs, micro blogs, new content, and attentive product data management can help your company emerge as one with a fresh new outlook on the customer.

Posted by: Dan Ratliff