PMG Pushes for 5-day Postal Delivery

According to DM News, John Potter, postmaster general and CEO of the US Postal Service, used the open session of the November 13 USPS Board of Governors meeting to press again for structural reform of the agency, insisting that real reform must reduce the number of delivery days from six to five per week. Click HERE for more details.

National Semi's WEBENCH Visualizer

On her Outside Innovation blog, Patty Seybold of The Patricia Seybold Group, author of Customers.com and The Customer Revolution, has a good look at National Semiconductor’s New WEBENCH® Visualizer that allows B2B customers to use his Website and tools to design, specify, simulate, and test complete circuitry, which they can then purchase either as a complete priced-out Bill of Materials from dozens of partners or purchase an evaluation board that is built same day and shipped overnight.


"What interests me about National Semiconductor's WEBENCH Visualizer," says Patty, "is:

1. It's a tool that enables customers to create better designs and to make better design decisions.

2. It's a tool that helps engineers (National's customers) do their jobs and helps them make trade-offs based on the criteria that matter most to their customers (electronics manufacturers like Nokia, Apple, and others).

3. It uses a variety of visualization techniques to let customers work the way their minds work (spreadsheets, dials, graphical bubble chart, circuit diagrams, parts and price lists, waveforms) all in one interactive dashboard.

4. It is interactive and iterative with real-time feedback. As I change my mind or try something different, I see the results.

5. Behind the scenes, there's a lot of data and number crunching going on to provide results that are optimized for my changing criteria.

6. There's an entire customer-centric ecosystem of suppliers, distributors and other partners integrated into this dashboard. Over 100 suppliers' products are integrated into one simple dashboard for customers to use to create their designs and their multi-supplier bills of materials.

7. Customers can share their designs with their customers and engage with them in experimenting with different trade-offs.

8. It's a powerful tool that is provided free of charge to customers because National Semiconductor has learned that the easier they make it for customers to design their products, the more of their business they get."

For more screenshots and details, click to Patty's Blog.

Off The Wall Supports Facebook eCommerce

According to Internet Retailing, US digital agency Resource Interactive has launched Off the Wall, an "ecommerce experience" for brands and their fans on Facebook, allowing Facebook users to purchase products directly from a brand or user stream without leaving the Facebook "wall"environment.

Says a company spokesperson, "several of the agency’s Fortune 100 clients have signed on to implement brand-specific versions of Off the Wall in the 2009 holiday season."

With Off the Wall, brands and retailers can post an item for purchase as a status update to their Facebook page. In turn, fans can purchase the product directly from their live feed, news feed or the brand’s wall. They can also share the status update with their friends and its eCommerce functionality is maintained wherever it appears in Facebook.

"It makes sense from the perspective of both the brand and the fan," says Dan Shust, director of emerging media at Resource Interactive’s research and development lab. "It gives brands an opportunity to reward their fans with privileged shopping access to hot items or time-sensitive deals. It also addresses the on-demand consumer’s desire to engage in and share relevant brand experiences without leaving their social networking environment."

Off the Wall features include a fully customizable look and feel, a complete in-wall checkout process (product details, customer information and shipping options), eCommerce platform independence, a PCI-compliant hosted environment, and a "performance-based compensation model."

"Not only is enabling Facebook users to shop from the feed without leaving the experience ground-breaking in itself, but the sheer network effect is also worth considering," adds Shust . "The average Facebook user has 130 friends. If a brand with 100,000 fans published an Off the Wall eCommerce update, it's merely one click away from being shared with 13 million Facebook users. Imagine the possibilities for the holiday season and beyond."

Shop4Sport on 3EX eComm Platform

Multichannel sports retailer Shop4Sport has gone live on the 3EX.NET eCommerce Software platform.

IBM Beefs Up Support for Mobile Commerce

According to InformationWeek, IBM has introduced software that it says will allow consumers to shop online through mobile devices more easily while letting retailers reach customers more effectively.

The software, the Mobile Store component of WebSphere Commerce 7, includes social networking features and hooks that retailers can use to add personalized messages and offers to individual consumers.

"New sales channels and points of interaction now define and fragment consumers' retail journey, forcing companies to change the way they market, build relationships, and deliver brand value," said Beth Smith, IBM's vice president for its WebSphere brand, in a statement.

The application provides an eCommerce front-end for online merchants that lets them provide consumers with advanced features like side-by-side product comparisons, real-time inventory updates, and store finders on their mobile devices. It also links to back-end services such as IBM's WebSphere Application server and DB2 database.

Retailers can use the software to deliver targeted text messages or e-mails to shoppers or reach them through Facebook or other social networking sites.

"WebSphere Commerce is designed to help retailers around the world execute marketing campaigns and build rich customer relationships that span sales channels and interaction models," said Smith.

According to IBM, the new software underscores IBM's commitment to the mobile space. In June, the company announced a five-year, $100 million research initiative aimed at improving mobile services and capabilities for businesses and consumers worldwide.

USPS Discounts for Small Parcel Shippers

In January the US Postal Service will be offering several new products aimed at small–package shippers, including cubic volume-based pricing for large-volume commercial Priority Mail shippers and a Priority Mail half-pound price, based on distance, in the Commercial Plus pricing category.

As reported in the Multichannel Merchant, the USPS’s half-pound option will likely capture a lot of new interest, according to Gerard Hempstead, president of Hempstead Consulting and a former vice president for DHL, “because an awful lot of 1-lb. shipments moving today weigh far less than 1 lb.”

And the Postal Service’s cubic volume-based pricing means customers who ship small dense, space-efficient packages will receive a financial incentive through a new, tiered pricing option. Hempstead says this new offering is the opposite of what the commercial carriers do, which is charge the higher of the actual weight or the cubic weight (L x W x H / 194). “The USPS is sharing its productivity improvement with incentive based lower pricing.”

The USPS purchases containers on the FedEx network and it operates its own surface transportation network that has excess capacity on the trucks, Hempstead explains. As a result, the more weight USPS can get into a cubic foot, the lower its costs are going to be to transport and the better yield it will have.

The Postal Service is also offering a Priority Mail Flat Rate padded envelope just for Commercial Plus shippers. The 9-1/2” x 12-1/2” envelope is specially designed for jewelry, electronics and other delicate goods.

A complete listing of 2010 prices is available HERE. The new prices and product innovations are pending Postal Regulatory Commission review.

Vodat, Broadvision Have Shopping Cart Incentive Solution

Vodat International, a leading communications solution provider to the UK retail sector, has announced an exclusive partnership with BroadVision USA for hosting and supporting the eMerchandising shopping cart incentives Software-as-a-Service solution in the UK.

eMerchandising is a real-time, context-aware incentive solution that works independently from the eCommerce Website and makes it easy to set up incentives, promotions, cross-selling, product recommendations, bundles, offers, companion deals and shipping discounts.

The incentives are pushed to the customer with contextual messages appearing at key moments during the online shopping process and in the shopping cart. eMerchandising can increase an e-commerce retailer’s average order value (AOV) by up to 40%, and reduce shopping cart abandonment rates.

How does it work?

eMerchandising is a hosted software solution which pulls information from an eCommerce Website’s database. It’s a form-based tool and does not require any technical expertise, allowing eCommerce websites to create buying incentives in real-time. Product Managers can control eCommerce Website promotions directly, or create an individual price based on the customer’s real-time behavior and product choice.

Most eCommerce platforms offer limited functionality for creating and deploying complex comparisons, product bundling and incentives. eMerchandising manages complex rules across thousands of SKU’s for upselling and cross-selling offers. It purportedly delivers higher conversion rates and strengthens online customer relationships.

In addition, Vodat’s PCI-DSS-compliant payment portal gateway can authorize and provide settlement of all card transactions from in-store sales, eCommerce, mail order and telesales.

SATMAP Call Routing System Reduces Costs 7%

JoAnna Brandi, customer loyalty specialist, has found and recently begun representing a product for call centers that can increase customer satisfaction by almost one standard deviation point on a five point scale.

This product is the next generation of call center routing, as it uses "neural networking" to match the call center rep and customer based on over 100 psychographic and demographic factors of the caller (such as age, gender, income level, geographic location and education) to send the call to the next BEST rep, not the next available rep.

SATMAP, as the product is known, is returning an increase of between 15 - 22% in conversion rates for clients, typically decreasing cost for call handling by 7% and keeping customers and employees happier for the largest financial institutions, telecoms and hospitality firms. The product has quietly been installed since 2007 in over 25,000 seats at 20+ customers.

This artificial intelligence product has 24 patents and learns from each and every interaction to return business intelligence back to the company. There is no capital investment involved and it can be up and running in 30 days (on a hosted or on-premises basis). There is a 60 Day risk-free guarantee and they work on a share of the upstream revenue. All results are measurable and auditable.

Here's the catch - it only works in call centers that have over 200 seats and are in a B2C environment. If you want to hear more about how some smart companies are suceeding with this product, contact JoAnna at 561-279-0027 or e-mail joanna@customercarecoach.com

Burberry Launches Social Media Site

On Monday, Burberry introduced a social networking site, artofthetrench.com, to encourage people to share their own trench coat stories with an interface that combines the best of Twitter and Facebook -- boasting a fetching array of classy photos by world-famous photographer Scott Schuman ("The Sartorialist") plus a great soundtrack by The Kooks.

It is the latest step by CEO Angela Ahrendts and her creative director, Christopher Bailey, to build on the brand’s British heritage and trademark plaid with a more modern twist, according to The New York Times.

"It’s our differentiator," Ms. Ahrendts said, although she adds, "It’s not so different from what competitors do. Maybe one was born from shoes and another from luggage; we come from a coat. It’s our job to keep that category hot and cool and relevant for all ages."

Luxury goods companies have generally failed to figure out how to sell their wares online. Indeed, many have shunned the Web as a place for bargain hunters to search for knock-offs or counterfeits.

“The biggest thing that keeps me up at night is how can we continue to evolve this organization in order to stay ahead of the curve,” Ms. Ahrendts said during an interview with a NY Times reporter at company's new global HQ in London last month. “My job is to always look two to three years ahead and look round the corner and see what’s coming.”

With this new "social media" site, she is doing just that!

After a roughly 8 percent decline this year, the $226 billion global market for luxury goods is expected to grow again next year as younger consumers and working women replace retiring baby boomers as the dominant consumer group, according to consulting firm Bain & Company. That’s one of the main reasons Burberry is now focusing on the Internet. Ms. Ahrendts said she gets a lot of inspiration from her three children, who spend time surfing the Web and buy most of their clothes online.

Ms. Ahrendts said she is proud that Burberry has more than 699,000 Facebook fans. The company, founded as a maker of outdoor wear in 1856 by the British draper’s apprentice, Thomas Burberry, is also attracting customers via Twitter and Youtube.

According to The New York Times, Ms. Ahrendts recently revived a 108-year old company trademark of an equestrian knight carrying a flag with the words Prorsum — Latin for forward. The image now features prominently in the headquarters’ glass-walled entrance hall.

Forward indeed! The company is reportedly in talks with a licensing partner to add a make-up and beauty range next year, and is planning to offer more men’s accessories, such as bags and scarves.

ChannelAdvisor Posts Strong 3Q, Intros New Amazon Solution

ChannelAdvisor, the Morrisville, NC, solution provider that helps merchants sell on eBay, Amazon, Overstock.com, etc., as well as paid search and comparison shopping sites, has announced strong third-quarter results with $2.6 million in bookings and 229 new customer additions.

New customers are driving this growth by signing on for multiple three-commerce channel solutions to maximize their revenue potential. These customers include Foot Shop Limited, Green Cartridge Company Europe BV, Solaris Sport S.L.R. and Tory Burch.

"While our third quarter brought us continued growth across all channels, there was significant escalation among apparel, consumer electronics and media, which are in many cases necessities for consumers," said Scot Wingo, ChannelAdvisor CEO. "Whether shopping for essentials or luxuries, more than ever we are seeing consumers using comparison shopping sites and bargain hunting across multiple websites, leading our customers to embrace a multi-channel selling approach to maximize visibility."

The third quarter also saw the release of ChannelAdvisor's next-generation Amazon solution. The solution has reportedly been well-received due to its ability to provide online retailers control over the Amazon sales channel with actionable information, eliminating the need for online retailers to involve their IT department in every minor change.

"Within one week of implementing ChannelAdvisor’s new Amazon solution our sales increased 34 percent," said Steve McCarty, president of Ultimate Paintball. "We're anticipating continued growth and a successful holiday season with ChannelAdvisor support of the Fulfillment by Amazon program."

Highlights of the next-generation Amazon solution include:

• Product Match technology that discovers which Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) to select for products based on the listing’s title, price, sales rank, whether or not Amazon is a competitor and more – folding all the variables needed to make a decision into a sleek, simple-to-use interface
• Categorizer technology that offers intelligent recommendations and dynamically populates Amazon’s complex item classification keyword requirements, categorizing each product as accurately as possible and saving hours of manual data entry
• A revised dashboard that, for the first time, presents a simple, dynamic, birds-eye view of the status of listings to ensure that all products are live and that all listings are fully optimized for maximum visibility and sales
• Full integration with the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program to create, track and modify products, shipments and orders, which are then fulfilled by Amazon’s shipping service

Additional third-quarter product updates include the following:

• Comparison Shopping
  o Full support for Bing Shopping Cashback, including transaction reports
• Paid Search
  o Advanced network targeting for Google campaigns
  o Negative keyword support for Google ad groups
  o Bing Search Cashback support including transaction reports
• Rich Image
  o URL-based commands to easily resize and apply filters such as image quality, sharpen and contrast
  o Watermarking and dynamic text overlaying for merchandising
  o Automated cropping for image files
  o Ability to summarize workflow actions into a single URL-based command
• RichCatalog
  o New message panel allowing images text and external links to be inserted anywhere in the book; the text and links are used to display instructions, highlighted products, vendor offers and sign-up fields

Nordstrom's Website Goes International

Nordstrom has introduced international shopping on its Website, enabling customers to buy merchandise online in foreign currencies and ship to 30 countries.

Available currencies include the euro, British pound, Canadian dollar and Czech koruna.

The new feature is designed to make it easier for customers abroad to shop on Nordstrom's Web site, as well customers in the United States to send merchandise overseas, Jamie Nordstrom, president of Nordstrom Direct, said in a statement.

The retailer said it worked with FiftyOne Global Ecommerce to introduce the feature.

Google Releases Dev Tools as Open Source

[From PCWorld] Google has decided to release as open source several of its key application development tools, hoping that they will prove useful for external programmers to build faster Web applications.

Google has used the tools in some of its most popular Web applications, including Gmail, Google Docs and Google Maps, said Amit Agarwal, a Google product manager. "By enabling and allowing developers to use the very same tools that Google uses, we hope that they can not only build rich applications but also make the Web really, really fast," says Agarwal. "That's our primary motive in getting these tools outside to the global community."

The tools include Closure Compiler, which streamlines, optimizes and consolidates Javascript code to make it run faster and more efficiently, increasing the chances that the application will perform well even for users with slow connections.

Google is also releasing Closure Library, a Javascript library that contains a set of standard application services and components that run across different browsers, and Closure Templates, designed to automate the dynamic creation of HTML. The templates can be used within Javascript in client machines or in Java on servers.

Google Launches Commerce Search

[From LA Times/Technology] Google has launched Google Commerce Search as a service designed to help make the Web sites of large online retailers easier to search.

Google says the service, which costs $50,000 and up each year, will improve user experience and boost sales. Says Nitin Mangtani, a lead product manager at Google. "If it takes shoppers eight to 10 seconds to search for something, and they can't find it easily, they leave the Web site."

The main selling points are that everything that has made Google a dominant company (vast computing resources, algorithms that provide right results, and even the ability to fix your typos and find what you're looking for) will help people navigate clunky retail Websites that cause a major stumbling block to sales. (Of course, if the check-out process is equally clunky, the merchant is even more likely to loose the sale!)

Also, according to Forrester Research, page load speed is crucial to keeping shoppers on your site. Two seconds is how long a typical online shopper waits for a retailer's site to load before getting frustrated and bailing out....

PCI Superstar Dead of Heart Attack

From Evan Schuman, editor of StoreFront BackTalk: "We’re heartbroken to have to report to our readers that our esteemed PCI Columnist, David Taylor, passed away on Tuesday from a sudden heart attack. A private memorial service is being held in New York and Dave’s family is asking for donations to the American Heart Association.

"Dave spent much of his time running the PCI Knowledge Base, which he launched after a distinguished career as a Gartner analyst. I personally had the pleasure of working with Dave on many projects, panels and podcasts and found his keen observations and sense of humor to be most rare. He called his shots honestly but went out of his way to be kind. Dave’s column was an instant hit with subscribers, as it gave him a forum for his observations and for his wry take on life. We’ll miss him without limit and the industry has lost one of its brightest voices."

Amazon Launches PayPhrase

From WebProNews: Amazon.com has introduced "PayPhrase," a new shortcut for making purchases at the online retailer and other websites.

PayPhrase works by allowing users to choose their own phrase along with a PIN and then set up their shipping information, which is stored at Amazon.

Amazon customers can use PayPhrase to make purchases at any websites that offers Checkout by Amazon, such as DNKY, Patagonia, Buy.com and J&R Electronics.

Amazon says PayPhrase shortens the online shopping process by not requiring customers to share sensitive payment information with multiple websites. Customers can type their PayPhrase into a button on the product page, and click to preview the total cost of the order, including shipping and tax.

Customers can skip steps such as "Add to cart," "Proceed to checkout," by using their PayPhrase information.

"PayPhrase solves the headache of trying to keep track of all the different usernames and passwords people use to shop on various sites across the web. With PayPhrase all you need is one phrase and one PIN to pay online," said Matt Williams, General Manager, Amazon PayPhrase (Matt's PayPhrase is "good to go").

"We think customers will enjoy the simplicity that Amazon PayPhrase offers, and we hope they'll have some fun choosing their own personal phrases," says Williams.

Merchants can accept PayPhrase orders by using Checkout by Amazon, which automatically supports PayPhrase. Parents can use PayPhrase to set up an online allowance for their kids and approve each order via e-mail, mobile phone or text alerts.