Retailers Show Progress in mCommerce, Social Sharing, and Promotions

CrossView, Inc., a cross-channel commerce solutions and services provider, has released the results of its 2012 Cross-Channel Readiness survey that looked at retailers across a variety of categories, gauging improvements and declines in enabling customers to shop in-store, online, in call centers, and via mobile phones with a consistent brand experience.

This year’s study showed improvement in several key areas from last year, particularly in mobile commerce, social sharing and consistency in marketing promotions.

In an analysis of four touchpoints— online, in-store, call center and mobile—retailers could score up to 280 points, and those surveyed had a combined average of 177 points, with Best Buy achieving a perfect score. Other findings highlighted in a detailed report on the survey include:

• 92 percent of retailers enabled social sharing in their Web stores – up from 88 percent in 2011. 
• 79 percent of retailers offered the same marketing promotion across all touchpoints in 2012 – up from 65 percent in 2011.
• 72 percent of retailers offered ratings and reviews in their Web stores – a 39 percent rise year over year.

The most pronounced move was in the area of mobile commerce. In 2011, only 12 percent of retailers offered shoppers a mobile application for smartphones. This jumped to 56 percent in 2012.

"This year’s survey shows a steady beat of progress," said Mark Fodor, chief executive officer, CrossView.  "While the needle didn’t move terribly far, it registers in the right direction in a few key areas. What’s clear to us in our work with leading brands is that no touchpoint is viewed as a separate entity by consumers – each is an extension of the same brand. So, consistency is critical, fitting hand in glove with an effective cross-channel strategy."

Each retailer was evaluated via a mystery shopping approach. A variety of criteria were used, including consistency of pricing and promotions, access to customer profile information, merchandising, and, to the extent possible, overall parity of experience between touchpoints.

About CrossView 
CrossView is a provider of cross-channel commerce solutions and services that enable a personalized shopping experience with multi-platform solutions and services that unify the Web, stores, call centers, mobile devices, and other channels on a single, flexible platform.

Thanx Media Partners To Resell Google Commerce Search

Thanx Media, an enterprise solutions company that focuses on providing integrated solutions for B2B and B2C online retailers, has announced a partnership with Google in which Thanx Media will be a Google Enterprise Authorized Reseller of Google Commerce Search (GCS), Google’s site search and merchandising technology, with an emphasis on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).  

With hundreds of customers and over 50 combined years of searchandising experience, Thanx Media has extensive experience in selling, managing, and servicing current and future GCS customers.  Through their Managed Google Commerce Site Search, Thanx Media will provide an individualized evaluation, rapid implementation, and a dedicated support team to ensure long-term success with GCS.

Tailored to the User 
Thanx Media’s SMB Google Commerce Search solution will support tailoring the current GCS technology to the individual customer’s size and needs, making the solution available to companies who might not be able to justify Google Commerce Search’s traditional model (given the merchant's catalog size and number of yearly queries).

For instance, a company that has roughly 25,000 SKUs indexed and generates about one million queries a year knows they need the search power Google provides, but couldn’t justify it given the traditional model's pricing structure.  Thanx Media’s SMB Google Commerce Search solution will provide these customers with a more affordable packaging of the Google technology and related services.

Says Matt Eichner, Google’s General Manager of Enterprise Search, "Google is excited to announce this partnership with Thanx Media. Thanx has a great reputation, offering compelling solutions to medium-sized retailers that we feel will be enhanced with our state-of-the-art commerce searchandising cloud technology.  We believe Thanx Media has the talent to make larger customers successful, and we look forward to working with Thanx and its many customers to increase their eCommerce site sales."

GoECart Certified For FedEx Compatible Solutions Program

GoECart, a leading provider of fully integrated on-demand eCommerce solutions, today announced it has completed the FedEx Compatible Solutions Program (CSP) certification for its all-in-one eCommerce suite, GoECart 360, allowing merchants to manage their FedEx shipments seamlessly from within the GoECart software suite.

The new certification eliminates the need for retailers to manually exchange data among separate order management, logistics tracking, shipping, and customer service systems. Plus, it gives merchants the ability to quickly retrieve real-time rates and transit times, fulfill sales orders, print shipping labels and track shipments—all from within the GoECart 360 web interface. They can also reduce time to print FedEx approved shipping labels and manifest forms, and a reduce the risk of shipping errors.

Fully Integrated SaaS Solution
GoECart 360 is a fully integrated SaaS solution that combines an advanced eCommerce platform with multi-channel order and inventory management (for retail, call center, and Web sales) and CRM functionality. The eCommerce suite also automates selling on the leading comparison shopping engines and online marketplaces, such as Amazon and eBay.

CSP Details
Through the new FedEx web services integration and certification, available immediately, GoECart merchants can use all of the popular FedEx services, including:

• FedEx Express® domestic services including FedEx Priority Overnight®, FedEx 2Day®, FedEx Standard Overnight®, and FedEx Express Saver®
• FedEx Ground Domestic Home Delivery and FedEx Ground International
• FedEx Standard Packaging Types, Customer Packaging
• FedEx Special services and residential delivery
• FedEx SmartPost (Large Shipper, Small Shipper and Returns)
• Printing of FedEx approved shipping labels

“FedEx CSP certification really is a boon for merchants who desire to use a single commerce platform to manage their entire online business from order to cash. Our expanded partnership with FedEx will further enable GoECart merchants to easily and confidently manage their order fulfillment, shipping and logistics operations without any additional 3rd party shipping software or integration,” said Manish Chowdhary, GoECart CEO.

GoECart’s engineering team worked closely with the FedEx CSP team to ensure that GoECart 360 fully integrates with all supported FedEx features.

“GoECart’s native integration with FedEx has made us more efficient,” said Rick Davis, CEO of RollerWarehouse.com. Previously, we were using separate desktop software from FedEx. However, this had to be integrated with our Dydacomp Mail Order Manager— and this was in addition to our ecommerce platform. GoECart 360 has helped us streamline our business and shipping processes from multiple systems down to one.”

Jagged Peak Posts Net Gain for 2nd Quarter

Jagged Peak, Inc., a provider of enterprise-class eCommerce solutions and supply chain services, has announced financial results for the second quarter. Net revenues for the 26-week period ended June 29, 2012 increased 21% to approximately $16.8 million, compared to approximately $13.8 million for the same period last year. Jagged Peak realized a profit from continuing operations before provision for income taxes of approximately $339.8 thousand for the 26-week period.

The increase in revenue primarily resulted from continued expansion of services to existing customers, the addition of new customers, and increased sales from Canadian operations.

Tampa, FL-based Jagged Peak is an eCommerce solutions provider with software and services that enhance the scalability, flexibility and profitability of multi-channel online businesses. Its cornerstone technology is EDGE---an enterprise-class eCommerce platform that includes a full-featured eCommerce Platform (ECP) and robust Order Management System (OMS) as well as a Warehouse Management System (WMS) and Transportation Management System (TMS). These platform elements can be deployed alone or together through a license or SaaS delivery model to form an end-to-end, Web-based software suite that integrates the entire order life cycle with visibility across business units, distribution channels and trading partners---all while allowing the client to have complete control of their online brand.

Combining its technology with a comprehensive array of eMarketing, customer support, and IT professional services along with “anytime, anywhere” order fulfillment through its FlexNet warehouse network, Jagged Peak offers a holistic approach to eCommerce. Jagged Peak’s blue chip client roster includes Nestlé Nespresso, United Health Care, LVMH, RG Barry, Tag Heuer, and Pier 1 Imports.

Commerce Guys Partner with PayLeap for Drupal Commerce Kickstart

Commerce Guys, open source eCommerce specialists working with Drupal Commerce, have created an alliance with PayLeap Gateway Solutions, a secure online payment processing company, to deliver a secure, intuitive end-to-end merchant solution for Commerce Kickstart application users.

PayLeap’s dynamic, secure payment platform will provide advanced online fraud prevention, end-to-end encryption, tokenization and secure vault storage with cost-effective payment processing for Commerce Guys’ online merchants based in the Unites States and Canada.

All setups include a virtual terminal for face-to-face or hand-keyed transactions, with support of credit, debit, check/ACH and gift card transactions bundled in a single account. Merchants with Website stores and physical store locations can use PayLeap’s single transaction management and reporting platform for both online payment and card present transactions.

“PayLeap was the right partner for our new program because of their superb technology and easy-to-use interface,” said Mike O’Connor, president of Commerce Guys North America. “Their commitment to customer usability, product functionality and merchant support are critical to delivering the powerful eCommerce solutions our customers desire.”

“PayLeap is excited about having been selected to partner with Commerce Guys to provide a seamless, integrated online payment solution to their customers,” said Scott Miller, CEO of PayLeap. “They are making breakthroughs with Drupal and it’s a perfect fit for what we’re able to deliver."

Dydacomp, CommerceV3 Announce Expansion of Partnership

Dydacomp, a provider of business technology platforms for small and mid-sized eCommerce and multichannel merchants, has announced it will expand its strategic partnership with CommerceV3 (CV3), a dedicated eCommerce platform provider for multi-channel merchants, through tighter integration between the companies’ solutions.

The partnership, first announced in February, allows eCommerce merchants to more easily enhance and expand their operations by using CV3 to capture and convert online sales, while relying on Dydacomp’s Multichannel Order Manager (M.O.M.) to control back office functionalities.

The expanded partnership adds greater efficiencies in moving data between the Dydacomp and CV3 systems by leveraging the M.OM. V8 API. Mutual clients will be able to more seamlessly sync and manage inventory, order processing, fulfillment and shipping.

“Dydacomp’s partnership strategy involves selecting best-in-class solutions that enable us to create a variety of comprehensive offerings that will help our customers grow their businesses,” said Fred Lizza, CEO of Dydacomp. “Through this expanded strategic partnership with CV3, users can more closely couple CV3’s commerce management solution with M.O.M.”

“Our partnership with Dydacomp has been very successful, and we're looking forward to continuing our relationship,” said Blake Ellis, CEO and founding partner of CommerceV3. "Dydacomp is a true leader in the eCommerce market, and its solutions complement and enhance CommerceV3’s. Our customers will benefit significantly from the cost savings and increased efficiencies enabled by our expanded partnership."

The integration provides CV3 users with a PCI-compliant solution that can import orders, handle point-of-purchase or telephone orders, automate order workflow, track and manage products and inventory data as well as track, organize, and access customer information for improved levels of service.